Guild Wars 2

I’m not a person for big long rants about fighting stuff, so i’ll put it shortly

meditation guardians are my #1 pain in the behind right now. Do you guys have trouble with them, and if so, what are your strategies for fighting them? It feels like I get them low, then in an instant, they’re at max health and I’m almost dead (of course the hammer variant hits like a… well.. hammer.)

FYI, this is my current build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQJATRjEq0xaJLusQ1ag9gadAUAndrhw9WUEtdBbqA-TJBBwAG3fAwlAYzTAocZAA

I know part of it is just me needing to practice dodging their skills more, but it’s no less frustrating

slight edit: and i’m open for changing my build some, btw.

The build would be pretty much fine.

You’ll have tough times killing them 1v1 at any time. There is no pattern how to deal with them, though.

Btw, you should be using Sigil of Fire and Sigil of Air on Longbow. Will help a lot

Tragic Positive.9356:

The build would be pretty much fine.

You’ll have tough times killing them 1v1 at any time. There is no pattern how to deal with them, though.

Btw, you should be using Sigil of Fire and Sigil of Air on Longbow. Will help a lot

I’ve tried it in the past but I’m not a fan. I prefer being a bit tankier, or in this case, more.. evade..y..err.. yeah.

and it’s just one of those things where i’m just at a severe disadvantage at the start? that’s a major bummer.

Replace Quickening Zephyr with Signet Of Stone. You’ll need it as an ohkitten button.

You’ll want to engage form max range, if you cant and they dont see you, LoS and send your pet in to eat Aegis. If a Mediguard starts the fight on his terms you are at a sever disadvantage. To prevent this…
*Keep look out, you’re a ranger, you should be scouting lore wise.
*Flashing blade ignores LoS, walls, ect. If you get targeted they can teleport to you from 600 range. 1200 if Judge’s Intervention follows the same rules, I believe it does but dont quote me on that.

Your damage will be mitigated by a few things.
*Heal – 30 sec CD, any MediGaurd without Shelter is already dead.
*Blacks and Blinds – You have the perfect tool to deal with this, Rapid Fire. Call me a fool for wasting my “burst” on burning active defense, but that’s the name of the MediGuard’s game. Without it they can choose die like a man or we’ll find out why Virtue Of Courage is on such a long cool down. VoC (50s) Shield of Wrath (45s) vs RF (10s)
*Meditations – Heals, You can bait these with your pets. Save the Wolf’s fear, stack immobs, easy with Dog and Mud. The average medi will have one on Resolve, one on Smite Condis, and one on Contemplation of Purity, the biggest one you want to bait.

Your wolf’s fear is a valuable CC, Entangle as well. Save them after you’ve burnt out the active defenses or if in a pinch. Activating either before Contemplation of Purity is a waste, however if a Medi is forced to use Smite Condis to break one, thats one less threat to deal with.

They have the advantage in sustain, but its very possible. Play smart, watch the blinds that you can, and dont panic.

Since it’s a pvp perspective am not sure to help a lot, but if i keep WvW in mind, i would say that you lack conditions. You have to kit a lot, to dodge symbols, teleport or just wait the end of focus’s SoW etc. Conditions will help you to keep some damage while kitting, you have no access to poison and QZ is not very useful. I could suggest something like this :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjEq0xaLL2sQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg7m4G+6BWB-TpRAwAz2fAwFAwwRAwzBBAdZgJPAAA

It keep your fury uptime, almost the same direct damage but with a lot of bleed, a good access to poison and more evades etc. You lost the range, but max range is not so useful to fight a medi guard.

Aylpse.6280:

-snip-

I’ve tried it, but in the end if I need to put up SoS it feels like I’m just delaying the inevitable, where-as QZ is a pretty decent fury provider, and a stun break, condi clear, and is useful for picking up people. (not to mention the insane cd on SoS)

and maybe it’s just me not wanting to be wasteful, but wouldn’t it be better to take out the aegis with a autoattack? my pet does a 2 second knockdown on it’s very first attack, every time.

And yeah, my current strategy comprises of getting to lure out his teleports and stuff, and immobilizing him. it… kind of works. a big problem I have is not utilizing my greatsword in this kind of fight. with relatively slow attacks it feels like 90% of my gs skills are blocked or blinded.

CC the whirls with the pet, if it’s hammer and scepter then you can kind of CC with the pet as you see fit. Keep your distance. Fighting a guard without SoS will be rough. If you don’t want to use it, fine but then you need to be proactive about dodging things like gs 5, or baiting out air/fire/glacial heart procs on your pet. You can still use gs effectively, if this happens: hilt bash → start maul → blind then cleanse the blind with an instant cast condi clear like SoR or QZ for you before the maul lands.

borya.2964:

Since it’s a pvp perspective am not sure to help a lot, but if i keep WvW in mind, i would say that you lack conditions. You have to kit a lot, to dodge symbols, teleport or just wait the end of focus’s SoW etc. Conditions will help you to keep some damage while kitting, you have no access to poison and QZ is not very useful. I could suggest something like this :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8YjEq0xaLL2sQ1iABhaVA0sGSWWJg7m4G+6BWB-TpRAwAz2fAwFAwwRAwzBBAdZgJPAAA

It keep your fury uptime, almost the same direct damage but with a lot of bleed, a good access to poison and more evades etc. You lost the range, but max range is not so useful to fight a medi guard.

I like this build and would have made something similar for sure, just using a Sigil of Doom instead of Venom and Fire instead of Agony and a Jungle Spider pet so you have a lot of sources for Poison, kills the Medi sustain. But I would probably use a Celestial Ammy with it though.

I know this is the most basic advice possible, but them running around with the shield up telegraphs them about to teleport and CC lock + explosion someone, and most zerk builds are toast without a strong reaction or prevention.

Just covering the basics here, sorry if you were already avoiding that.

Well, for the tips (even though you’ll rarely win an equal fight against a Guardian)…
Here are some

Pay close attention to their Aegis. Always – Always open with an AutoAttack. Players tend to start with 3 or 4. Against guardians, never do that.

Also try to watch for their Defensive cooldowns. During those, turn your backs to them and gain some distance. They have absolutely nothing to do while being immortal (they have to channel).

Hmmh… If they are Zerky – expect their blind and port. At that time, use Lightning Reflexes immediately. It will not only give you the distance again, it will negate the burst and remove your blindness.

Other tips are pretty much situational. These are common.

Oh, one other thing. When you see their 3hit block pop up – don’t hesitate to use Rapid Fire. It’s the best solution. It will negate the least damage possible (1 tick of RF is less than 1 autoattack)