Guild Wars 2

My server is up against two stronger servers in WvW this week, so I was roaming my own borderland looking to take back some camps. I see a loan guardian, so I chase him and eventually he decides to make a stand.

The fight went on for maybe five minutes. I kept knocking his health down, but he kept getting it back up. I never really felt crazy-worried about my health (maybe I was down to 40% a couple times), but I felt like the fight might go on forever. Finally an ally joined the fight on my side and it ended quickly.

My question is – what is the right way to fight a guardian? I don’t see them a lot because I’m mostly out trying to solo camps and I mostly run into other roamers. I’m playing a phantasm build but one where I tend to shatter a lot (nothing that boosts phantasm health). I realized later in the fight that one of my goals needed to be keeping the guardian in null field long enough to take away boons, but I feel like I’m probably missing some key tactics.

If anyone wants to take on a bonus question, I’d love to get tips on fighting elementalists. Those fights go on for a long time as well.

Thx!

Errr… a “lone” guardian… not a “loan” guardian… anyway

How do you fight a guardian in a solo fight?

Thx!

Whittle him down, heal when he heals. I don’t know your build, so I can’t tell you for certain.

I usually run Phantasm at this point since I AM a solo player, which means I drop 3 Swordsman and he has to run or die (and even if he runs he might still die).

Shatter you have to time your shatters after his control. Guardians tend to have the capacity of being large bunkers, but you will eventually overcome him, especially with the minute damage of Confusion helping tick if you time your shatters well.

Remember, heal when he heals (because it’s almost always going to be the block heal) and other than that, he should be a piece of cake.

Guardians have the ability to survive forever. They constantly heal, have a high up-keep on boons, cleanse conditions and have a good portion of damage – but their health pool is one of the lowest in the game. A good phantasm or shatter burst right after his boons have wearer out can kill him pretty fast.

Some bunker guardians are almost impossible to kill unless you have high damage to counter his heals. I’m not too familiar with mesmers (have a few hundred hours on one, but not my main), but what I have learnt from playing with my thief against a guardian is to just burst him down in between his boons. Guardians are good at keeping a high pressure on you, so the longer the fight lasts the more it moves in his favor.

Null field or arcane thievery his protection, and he’ll drop like a fly.

As Archer said, arcane thievery is great for dealing with guardians. Most guardians will have lots of boons on them. If you can steal protection and/or some large might stacks, you can easily shift the battle in your favor. Gaining 10+ seconds of protection from a guardian means they’ve just lost a kittenunk of defense and you’ve gained a big chunk of it. The difference gives you the ability to more effectively put offensive pressure on your foe and gain the upper hand.

Try letting the phantasms attack the guardian a couple times then move in for the shatter, straight after interrupt his heal and go in with blurred frenzy, might not finish him off depending on mes/guard build but he’ll be very low.

Moa him after his heal.

Atm with these traints and the balance made by anet is close to impossible to kill a pro guardian with most builds !

I am not sure if the Illusionary Disenchanter is fixed since I havent used it in a while but it is very useful in eating boons away.

You can also try getting a weapon set with the sigil that removes boons on crit.

its simple if u have enough sword clones up. they strip boons fast. and btw what kind of gear u use? my soldier/bers gear ourdmg bunker heal
same with elementalist, just strip boons. and avoud knocks

Most of the time you want boon strip on shatter, Disenchanter or Null Field is also great. Against DPS Guards try to keep high mobility and save your dodges for their Hammer Immob and the GS pull.

Thx for all the pointers – I learn a lot on these forums