Guild Wars 2

So I WvW a lot.

T2, Fort Aspenwood, lots of roaming, sometimes zerging, occasional dueling.

I’m quite comfortable with my build now, feeling I have the perfect balance of survivability and direct damage. I’m very confident in 1v1’s, rarely losing to anyone be it thieves, mesmers, warriors, etc.

The one class I am struggling with however, is guardians. I can usually fight them to a stalemate, or I will lose due to pure exhaustion after evading and dodge rolling for 10 minutes solid.

I feel my build is very damage heavy so I am surprised that they are able to survive so easily.

I don’t understand the guard class very well but two things I do notice are that 1. they block a lot of my attacks, and 2. they heal often, and for a lot of hp.

A thief friend of mine spoke about boon stripping, but I know this is something rangers can’t do.

My question is, what are you supposed to do against well played guardians, if there is anything you can do?

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k58.u1ac.k6a.0.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

Edit: corrected build link

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

Ugh, this made me cringe.

Furajir.3815:

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

Ugh, this made me cringe.

Thanks for the feedback man, I’m sure you’re a legend.

You play on FA, so I’m not sure if I should help you or not…….

you could improve your build leaps and bounds by taking the 5 points out of NM and putting it into skirmishing for Moment of Clarity. Gives you a 2 sec stun on GS and SB, plus a big buff to you and your pets next attack.

Also, if you like mauling folks with your GS you should drop the zerker trinkets. Replace them with stats that will get your armor closer to 3k. Cavaliers or Knights would be best.

Guardians have a passive aegis buff, so use an auto attack or something like that to strip that before you try and burst. Also, use stability or stay at range to avoid the knockdowns many of them run with.

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

T2, Fort Aspenwood, lots of roaming, sometimes zerging, occasional dueling.

I’m quite comfortable with my build now, feeling I have the perfect balance of survivability and direct damage. I’m very confident in 1v1’s, rarely losing to anyone be it thieves, mesmers, warriors, etc.

The one class I am struggling with however, is guardians. I can usually fight them to a stalemate, or I will lose due to pure exhaustion after evading and dodge rolling for 10 minutes solid.

I feel my build is very damage heavy so I am surprised that they are able to survive so easily.

I don’t understand the guard class very well but two things I do notice are that 1. they block a lot of my attacks, and 2. they heal often, and for a lot of hp.

A thief friend of mine spoke about boon stripping, but I know this is something rangers can’t do.

My question is, what are you supposed to do against well played guardians, if there is anything you can do?

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

You’re a power build, against a class with lots of Retal/Protection and probably Toughness.

Its going to be rough for you.

jewishjoyride.4693:

You play on FA, so I’m not sure if I should help you or not…….

you could improve your build leaps and bounds by taking the 5 points out of NM and putting it into skirmishing for Moment of Clarity. Gives you a 2 sec stun on GS and SB, plus a big buff to you and your pets next attack.

Also, if you like mauling folks with your GS you should drop the zerker trinkets. Replace them with stats that will get your armor closer to 3k. Cavaliers or Knights would be best.

Guardians have a passive aegis buff, so use an auto attack or something like that to strip that before you try and burst. Also, use stability or stay at range to avoid the knockdowns many of them run with.

Thanks man, that is actually an outdated build link I had bookmarked, I did move those points for moment of clarity about a week ago and I’m loving it. Especially Hilt bash+Maul. Why drop the zerker trinkets for maul though? That doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve been trying to work in more power/crit damage to make the most of it?

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

T2, Fort Aspenwood, lots of roaming, sometimes zerging, occasional dueling.

I’m quite comfortable with my build now, feeling I have the perfect balance of survivability and direct damage. I’m very confident in 1v1’s, rarely losing to anyone be it thieves, mesmers, warriors, etc.

The one class I am struggling with however, is guardians. I can usually fight them to a stalemate, or I will lose due to pure exhaustion after evading and dodge rolling for 10 minutes solid.

I feel my build is very damage heavy so I am surprised that they are able to survive so easily.

I don’t understand the guard class very well but two things I do notice are that 1. they block a lot of my attacks, and 2. they heal often, and for a lot of hp.

A thief friend of mine spoke about boon stripping, but I know this is something rangers can’t do.

My question is, what are you supposed to do against well played guardians, if there is anything you can do?

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

You’re a power build, against a class with lots of Retal/Protection and probably Toughness.

Its going to be rough for you.

I’m actually not struggling to stay alive, I’m struggling to take them down. Closest I came was running Hyena and Wolf for tripple knockdown but that was during a duel and not something I want to run while roaming.

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If they’re not doing enough damage to kill you, then they’re full on Bunker, which goes to the Protection/Toughness part which counters Power Builds.

usually they can do enough damage with Retal+their bunker damage to cause troubles, but if you’re living then you’re doing ok.

you’re still probably not going to be able to kill them easily if they’re bunker though.

Could maybe try Marsh Drake in your setup for its Poison, but not sure what you really can do to fight a Bunker like that with that setup.

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

Conditions and survivability. Whether it’s mads amount of healing power or high toughness and moderate healing power. You just have to outlast them.

Sigil of nullification

So there is a boon stripping sigil! Maybe that is the answer.

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

What this bro said.

Oh and Winters Bite, dont forget that

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

What this bro said.

That’s ok, I couldn’t make the condition builds work for me but as long as I know that I’m happy.

Thanks guys.

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

What this bro said.

That’s ok, I couldn’t make the condition builds work for me but as long as I know that I’m happy.

Thanks guys.

I run power too man, just gotta know its limits.

Chopps.5047:

Sigil of nullification

This won’t let you beat a Guardian, this goes off once every 10 seconds, and only removes 1 boon

Xsorus.2507:

Chopps.5047:

Sigil of nullification

This won’t let you beat a Guardian, this goes off once every 10 seconds, and only removes 1 boon

Alright that’s good to know.

I was dueling this bunker guard today, I’m running a power/crit based BM spec and it was kitten near impossible really you probably need to be condition based although I did get him low several times and it was always when I managed to keep poison on him for a little longer during burst, I had problems with my stupid snowleopard also wich refused to execute fast petswap F2 for the chill, the idiot cat was jumping all over the place exept for the guard to the point I renamed him “crosseyed” and I blame him for all the troubles.

We got interupted 4-5 times when dueling never reaching an end however I’m confident he would have dropped dead from exhaustion at his keyboard sooner or later, victolly!

Meh, a lot of people run generosity/purity and it has a similar proc rate. Versus a guardian it’s pretty good to rip off protection. If I use that sigil, I put it on axe and it seems to work fine. To be honest, I’d run SoR and take nullification over sigil of generosity. I could be wrong, but fights with guardians tend to drag out so that proc rate isn’t too bad if it gets two or three rips in a fight. Are there better sigils? Yeah probably but it’s fun, is pretty decent, and with that price you can’t really beat it. Generosity is 6 gold whereas nullification is, what, 10 silver? But, yeah, it’s not like a requirement to fight guardian. There’s tons of ways to build and you can use tons of sigils to win.

Since you have 30 points in skirmishing, try switching to the trap traits and using a few traps when you meet these bunkers. I’m not sure how well it will work since you’re using a power build but i think Sol used to use something like that.

I rolled a Ranger a few days back and have been sPVPing to try to get the hang of a bunker traps/BM build, and so luckily I’ve been on the other side of the equation with Guardians. The build just seems to counter them well.

Anyway, one thing I try my best to do (against anyone really, but particularly Guardians and other bunker Rangers) is to keep as close to 100% uptime Poison on them as possible. This nerfs their healing by a really nice chunk, so those Guardians that just keep healing will have some of the wind taken out of their sails. If you’re not wanting to trade off the Zerker build that’s fine, I think if you try to keep some Poison on the Guardians it may make a pretty big difference. Like someone said above, Marsh Drakes will work well for this and alternate with Poison Volley.

well timed poison as stated above will help and as a ranger you have access to loads

that and interrupting at the right moment.. to cause mini cooldowns are 2 basic things that will swing the fight

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

What this bro said.

Not sure about the BM Bunker though (however, I’m newbish to the build so I maybe wrong there). If the Guardian is smart, he’ll take out your pet and there went half your damage.

However, as people have stated, your two best weapons against a bunker Guardian is conditions and poison. Even then, a lot of Guardians will run with condition removal. Luckily for you though, a lot of those go on CD.

I main a Guardian btw. I have about 3 condition removals available to me. Two of them are on demand, which one removes 3 conditions at once, and one that is a passive timer based.

1. if he got a gs, dont fight him on melee range
2. try to kite him to get so many stacks of bleed you can
3. good timed poison
4. beware of retaliation, if you spam to much with your sb auto hit you can get problems with the incoming dmg
5. maybe swap pets before the fight starts, marsch drake for extra posion and nice pressure and maybe a spider.

Rangers have weak burst damage, Guardians have a ton of survivability. Best thing you can do is avoid them, unless you have someone helping you, or change your build to inflict more condition damage.

Guardians are typically the easiest class to take down as a ranger, even if they are pure bunker. Just be aware that you must always try to keep your range from them and avoid at all costs giving them the chance to hide behind a wall of reflection/shield bubble skills/spirit shield by using traps [Edit: and pets]. I prefer to keep fire trap on me mostly for general purpose, quick cool down and it is very useful against melee classes. Also you are pretty much traited for zerg surfing, with low toughness/healing power and high attack power/critical damage + chance, you have no chance to survive solo fights for long. Now check this out, you can fight guardians for a lengthy period for two reasons: 1. rangers are guardian’s bane, that’s pretty much a fact if you are skilled enough; just like skilled mesmers are every rangers death…. 2. the guardians you have been fighting are in WvW and most likely will go for a very tanky/low damage spec. Very rarely have I fought a guardian in WvW that will run around without a tanky build and that one I remember dying to due to having too much of a tanky build. I switched to a toughness/condition build, now guardians are a thing of the past.

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

T2, Fort Aspenwood, lots of roaming, sometimes zerging, occasional dueling.

I’m quite comfortable with my build now, feeling I have the perfect balance of survivability and direct damage. I’m very confident in 1v1’s, rarely losing to anyone be it thieves, mesmers, warriors, etc.

The one class I am struggling with however, is guardians. I can usually fight them to a stalemate, or I will lose due to pure exhaustion after evading and dodge rolling for 10 minutes solid.

I feel my build is very damage heavy so I am surprised that they are able to survive so easily.

I don’t understand the guard class very well but two things I do notice are that 1. they block a lot of my attacks, and 2. they heal often, and for a lot of hp.

A thief friend of mine spoke about boon stripping, but I know this is something rangers can’t do.

My question is, what are you supposed to do against well played guardians, if there is anything you can do?

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

You’re a power build, against a class with lots of Retal/Protection and probably Toughness.

Its going to be rough for you.

This is a true as it gets. Power built rangers can’t beat most guardians. Traps on the other hand, nearly guarantee a victory.

Guardians swiftness and lack gap closers (for the most part), so disengage and start over if you are in a tight spot. They really shouldn’t be able to do much to catch up if you turn around and swoop away unless they saved judge’s intervention for just that.

Indoles.1467:

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

T2, Fort Aspenwood, lots of roaming, sometimes zerging, occasional dueling.

I’m quite comfortable with my build now, feeling I have the perfect balance of survivability and direct damage. I’m very confident in 1v1’s, rarely losing to anyone be it thieves, mesmers, warriors, etc.

The one class I am struggling with however, is guardians. I can usually fight them to a stalemate, or I will lose due to pure exhaustion after evading and dodge rolling for 10 minutes solid.

I feel my build is very damage heavy so I am surprised that they are able to survive so easily.

I don’t understand the guard class very well but two things I do notice are that 1. they block a lot of my attacks, and 2. they heal often, and for a lot of hp.

A thief friend of mine spoke about boon stripping, but I know this is something rangers can’t do.

My question is, what are you supposed to do against well played guardians, if there is anything you can do?

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

You’re a power build, against a class with lots of Retal/Protection and probably Toughness.

Its going to be rough for you.

This is a true as it gets. Power built rangers can’t beat most guardians. Traps on the other hand, nearly guarantee a victory.

Guardians swiftness and lack gap closers (for the most part), so disengage and start over if you are in a tight spot. They really shouldn’t be able to do much to catch up if you turn around and swoop away unless they saved judge’s intervention for just that.

I would like to point out it’s only the ones specced as supertankers that are hard to kill in a power spec atleast in my experience but they don’t really pose any threat to you either atleast not from my experience of them, the dps ones are scarier to me cause they can nuke pretty good and you don’t really expect them to but then again they also die pretty fast.

Guardians have been very hard for me to kill in the past. Since I have been experimenting with the axe they have gotten a bit easier though. Chill on axe 3 plus chill on one of my pets I have found gives me a couple of windows to bring them down when timed right. I still find them very difficult, but I’ve won more fights lately than I had in the past. Chill is one of my favorite weapons at the moment…

That’s about all I can give ya, hope that plus what everyone else above says helps.

Puandro.3245:

Xsorus.2507:

Sube Dai.8496:

Puandro.3245:

If the guardian is giving you problems with your build its prob because they are tanky and their onky weakness is condis. If your trap spec you can win otherwise its impossible if they are any good.

Well that’s what I was starting to think. So a good guard can be almost impossible to kill?

If you’re condition based, either Trap or BM Bunker, you’ll eat them alive.

Power Based, its going to be almost impossible

What this bro said.

What these bros said.

I agree with guardians being really hard to fight in general.
This is a friend of mine’s build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V8;4RFk40L3wFkv263RGV40E3VH;49-TT-2;345A289;1L-k0-RF519cV19cVa-kE;0H0-cYqdxVoW-2F3B_S5150Ds0V;5cV19FV13;9;9;9;9;0k0;3VD-6h

Look at those stats! O_0

Not to mention: He cannot be CC’d, conditions mean nothing to him, he can trap you in his circle of death right after pulling you with his greatsword #5, he heals crazy fast — rarely falls below 85% — especially when allies are near, hits like a bear, takes hits like a shield, and can summon his hounds.

Sube Dai.8496:

Furajir.3815:

Sube Dai.8496:

So I WvW a lot.

Build is here:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.3|5.1g.h17|1.1g.h17|1c.71f.1c.71f.1k.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f.1c.71f|2s.0.2s.0.211.0.211.0.2s.0.2s.0|k68.p10.k6a.5.0|2e.7|4i.4q.4r.4w.55|e

Ugh, this made me cringe.

Thanks for the feedback man, I’m sure you’re a legend.

Typical ultrapro “You’re bad” argument. Disregard his feedback.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Was giving Faux’s condition bunker build another go yesterday and managed to kill a few Guards, so I think the consensus of a power build simply not being capable is correct.