Guild Wars 2

I dont…
but actually does anyone have any ideas of how to kill (a half decent) guardian without getting A: my kitten handed to me by crappy burns and retal B: getting bored and leaving because of how much of a kitten they are C: unable to kill him and getting rolled by the impending zerg he called over in his kittenery. Any stories you have of killing them in a fair fight?

Fought a bunkerish Guardian when I used to roll a hammer warrior. I could keep up with him fairly well, but hammer was too slow to actually kill him before my allies came to interrupt.

Also: usually GS/Sword-Board Guardians are predictable, and you can dance to their beat quite easily.

Guardians? As a warrior, ya gotta really time it right with your attacks and approach. You gotta keep in mind that your first attack or anything that you throw at them first will always be blocked, thanks to their passive aegis. After you get rid of that, next comes your approach on taking him/her down.

When fighting a guardian, you have to really watch their movements/animation such as if they using heal skill to block. To really take down a class, you must understand the concept of them. As far as guardians go, they rely on their boons such as protection, blocks, invuls, etc. however, they have a small hp pool. Depending on their weapon choices, as far as guardian goes, their only far range weapon will be the scepter, so kiting them can be possible if you choose so. Watch their blocks, invuls, boons, etc. You may never know if they actually blowing all their utilities to take you down.

As far as knowing the class and what you are up against with, it really comes down to what build you are using versus whatever build he/she is using. According to your post, i assume it is WvW, so equipments does play a well factor in fights.

If there is anything I am missing or if there is anything you disagree with, please do add.

when you say watch his animations. how do I go about this. His channel heal (thankfully the weaker one) has invuln on cast so I can say goodbye to interrupting it, Many of his boons come from shouts which can be casted regardless of CC state. Im really just lost on how to control them considering they have so much ways to bypass it. Lets not forget us warriors have no access to poison to kitten their heals up

If he is channeling and invul, my best bet is he is using his elite. If he is using shouts and recovering from CC, he is most likely running soldier runes. Fighting a guardian, especially a tanky one by the looks of it, personally, ya gotta prolong the fight. Usually be aggressive and time your attacks.
I might be the first to say, try guardians out.

Dthoj.4832:

If he is channeling and invul, my best bet is he is using his elite. If he is using shouts and recovering from CC, he is most likely running soldier runes. Fighting a guardian, especially a tanky one by the looks of it, personally, ya gotta prolong the fight. Usually be aggressive and time your attacks.
I might be the first to say, try guardians out.

no hes using his 6 heal. block while healing, normally I telegraph after that he pops his elite and becomes invuln again.

Epic.3950:

Dthoj.4832:

If he is channeling and invul, my best bet is he is using his elite. If he is using shouts and recovering from CC, he is most likely running soldier runes. Fighting a guardian, especially a tanky one by the looks of it, personally, ya gotta prolong the fight. Usually be aggressive and time your attacks.
I might be the first to say, try guardians out.

no hes using his 6 heal. block while healing, normally I telegraph after that he pops his elite and becomes invuln again.

It depends on what build and weapons you’re using against him.
In that kind situation, if you have CC weapons, i would’ve recommended using signet of might and interrupt him in his block. And can go for the kill.

you don’t kill a bunker guardian, they kill you with retal.
hell i couldn’t even kill it with a zerker guardian, one time i just stop attacking and we both staring at each other on a point.

Delete Warrior
Make a Guardian

Fight on even ground. But seriously watch that retal, you’ll do more damage to yourself than you will to him. Kite him, time your attacks, throw weak half-hearted attacks while focussing on avoiding his. If you ever see protect and retal go down, burst him like a madman. If you never see protect go down, you’re probably not going to win no matter what you do. If he drops stability, try to CC chain him. More often than not you’re first attempt at bursting will be met with insta-heal/pulling invuln or blocks out of his arse/interrupting your burst. The odds are forever stacked against you but it can be done

The only guardians I’ve beaten have been bad ones, no one should lose with a class that good. I just ganked them with immobilisers and rapid bursting, alternating melee and ranged, doin’ da guardian dance :P

Epic.3950:

I dont…
but actually does anyone have any ideas of how to kill (a half decent) guardian without getting A: my kitten handed to me by crappy burns and retal B: getting bored and leaving because of how much of a kitten they are C: unable to kill him and getting rolled by the impending zerg he called over in his kittenery. Any stories you have of killing them in a fair fight?

Actually it is very easy but you need good build.

Try this one:

Some general rules of thumb when fighting a Guardian

#1: Try to fight them ranged if at all possible
#2: Do NOT stand in their symbols
#3: Be aware of aegis and use skills like bladetrail or autoattacks to break it and do not burn your CC on aegis
#4: Engage them fully when they don’t have a lot of boons on them (esp protection, retaliation and stability)
#5: Constantly pressure them
#6: Immediately clear any burns
#7: Never stand close to a Guardian when they are using the greatsword #2
#8: Chain CC them when possible so they are forced to blow skills

shimzor.6057:

Epic.3950:

I dont…
but actually does anyone have any ideas of how to kill (a half decent) guardian without getting A: my kitten handed to me by crappy burns and retal B: getting bored and leaving because of how much of a kitten they are C: unable to kill him and getting rolled by the impending zerg he called over in his kittenery. Any stories you have of killing them in a fair fight?

Actually it is very easy but you need good build.

Try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fEfdMa6y34

Mesmer =/= warrior. Wrong forum boss or bad link.

Common builds you’ll go against in WvW are:

0/0/10/30/30 - Clerics gear and high boon uptime. They won’t melt your face but they will outlast you.

0/x/30/x/x - Could be either a meditation or Altruistic healing build. Either way, they are more balanced relying on meditations or boons to heal themselves.

A good guardian will have gap closers such as sword#2, GS#3, Judge’s Intervention, or some form of immobilize/knockdown so using a range weapon might not be in the cards. It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle, especially for a warrior since we lack any sustain that the guardian has.

Only way (as stated above numerous times) is to control the fight. You NEED range capabilities to keep softening him up and/or HIGH mobility. Mobility is what controls the fight in your favor. If you have no mobility you simply will not win because the guardian has a few gap closers; especially if he is a med shout build.

I ALWAYS open with longbow. Soften him, try and force him to get scared and blow his elite or shouts/meditations. Soften him more, keep softening him until you want to surprise him. Key is having burst weaponry to time your burst. I then make sure aegis is down, bull charge, greatsword 100blade/whirlwind. If still up repeat by switching back to range. Pin down is key for me – if gun then make sure to have leg specialist.

killahmayne.9518:

Some general rules of thumb when fighting a Guardian

#1: Try to fight them ranged if at all possible
—Not always the easiest thing to do. You’ll have to make that judgement call when you can see what weapons they are using. GS/Sw+Fc = bad idea.

#2: Do NOT stand in their symbols
—Agreed.

#3: Be aware of aegis and use skills like bladetrail or autoattacks to break it and do not burn your CC on aegis.
—Good tactic

#4: Engage them fully when they don’t have a lot of boons on them (esp protection, retaliation and stability)
—If you use a hammer, be sure to keep an eye on their stability. Some builds have access to longer durations of this. Retaliation is still possible to be up for the whole fight so I wouldn’t worry about this but rather minimize the amount of small attacks. Protection will obviously be a big factor when timing your burst or CC.

#5: Constantly pressure them
—Do this smartly.

#6: Immediately clear any burns
—Pointless, they reapply every 5th attack. Their abilities only grant <5 seconds of burning at a time.

#7: Never stand close to a Guardian when they are using the greatsword #2
—You’ll notice a Symbol of Wrath, Binding Blade, and Whirling Wrath Combo quite frequently. Prepare your dodge to cancel it.

#8: Chain CC them when possible so they are forced to blow skills
—If they are shouts, they will have two stun breakers, renewed focus, and if they have the focus, #5 is usable while knocked down. You better have a stun or a daze available.

#9: Spec and build your runes appropriately to mitigate burn damage.
-Trait Dogged March, use Melandru or Hoelbrak runes, chow down on Lemongrass food. Their condition damage will be mitigated. Their scepter root will be immediately shrugged off.

#10: If the Guardian has a greatsword make sure you have vigor up to dodge the pull from Binding Blade.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Mesmer =/= warrior. Wrong forum boss or bad link.

Warrior cant kill Guardian (if this is about PvP, i dont care about PVE/WWW). That is more evident than “Mesmer =/= Warrior”.

shimzor.6057:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Actually it is very easy but you need good build.

Try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fEfdMa6y34

Mesmer =/= warrior. Wrong forum boss or bad link.

Warrior cant kill Guardian (if this is about PvP, i dont care about PVE/WWW). That is more evident than “Mesmer =/= Warrior”.[/quote]

I think he was making a point with that video.

My current build is meant to bring down guardians and other tanky-type professions. You can find it here. It consists of a balance between condition damage and DPS while giving you the toughness needed to stay alive long enough to bring down the guardian. Thus far there hasn’t been a single guardian I haven’t been able to take down 1v1 in tPvP or WvW. In tPvP I I simply run a berserker amulet with a rabid jewel, since there is no cavalier equivalent in the sPvP realm.

Viking Jorun.5413:

My current build is meant to bring down guardians… Thus far there hasn’t been a single guardian I haven’t been able to take down 1v1 in tPvP or WvW….

Video or it never happened.

Fenrir.5493:

shimzor.6057:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Actually it is very easy but you need good build.

Try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fEfdMa6y34

Mesmer =/= warrior. Wrong forum boss or bad link.

Warrior cant kill Guardian (if this is about PvP, i dont care about PVE/WWW). That is more evident than “Mesmer =/= Warrior”.

I think he was making a point with that video.[/quote]

I wasn’t about to watch a 21 minute video to search for a point. All I saw was the beginning of a mesmer commentary which would not provide anything solid for how a warrior kills a guardian.

killing a guardian is easy… just bring some friends. =P

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Fenrir.5493:

shimzor.6057:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Actually it is very easy but you need good build.

Try this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fEfdMa6y34

Mesmer =/= warrior. Wrong forum boss or bad link.

Warrior cant kill Guardian (if this is about PvP, i dont care about PVE/WWW). That is more evident than “Mesmer =/= Warrior”.

I think he was making a point with that video.

I wasn’t about to watch a 21 minute video to search for a point. All I saw was the beginning of a mesmer commentary which would not provide anything solid for how a warrior kills a guardian.[/quote]

To put it simple, i think his point its that he should reroll a mesmer.

I’m going to assume we’re talking about bunker guardians.

Warrior is going to have a huge disadvantage against a guardian in melee due to their never ending protection and other direct damage mitigation. Also they have great condition removal and access to stability, making them extremely difficult to pressure or CC unless you have a boon stripper on your team.

In a 1v1 situation I find that GS/rifle gives you reasonably good control, unparalleled damage and great mobility. Make sure you take leg specialist – it is mandatory for control, and allowing you to DPS effectively.

Timing your rifle butt is paramount to point assault since you can push them off their perch, maybe using a bladetrail / aimed shot / fear to keep them immo off point, potentially neutralising it. This will force them to burn cooldowns and put the fight in your favour.

Switch to rifle if they are dropping retaliation circles so you can keep laying down pressure safely.

Watch for burning and cleanse it when you can, since that is their other main form of DPS. Also keep an eye out for aegis, and auto attack it off before wasting a good ability.

Try and make them burn their stability before unleashing your main CC and burst.

If another enemy engages, use your superior mobility to make a quick escape. Taking Mobile Strikes in discipline tree is going to help you substantially.

All in all just play it smart. It’ll generally be a long fight, all depends on the skill of you and your opponent, but its definatly achievable. Until ANet makes some changes, think of warrior as a thief without stealth. Pick fights wisely.

One does not simply “kill” a guardian…

The best way to defeat one is to equip greatsword/sword+warhorn and out run him, he will never catch up to you:)

Daecollo.9578:

One does not simply “kill” a guardian…

The best way to defeat one is to equip greatsword/sword+warhorn and out run him, he will never catch up to you:)

i prefer killing a guard with my own build. Most of my encounters either I draw or kick the guardian to the floor

Well after changing around some stuff to mess around I ended up going back to my Lyssa runes setup, which is 3 pieces of knight and 3 berserker. Ate some lemongrass still because I can’t seem to frown away from it even when not specced in defense line. Use FGJ, Bulls Charge, and Balanced Stance. Specced 10/30/0/0/30. Picked up a Rifle.

The key to this build for me? Sigil of Generosity on my rifle and Sigil of Nullification on my Greatsword. I was cracking up when I was on a guardian guys. This strat really happened.

Started with basic attacks with Rifle. The bunker guardian opened up with Chains of Light and my crit hit put it on him. He rooted himself. I landed a full volley on him. He’s about 50% health already. I land one more auto attack to make sure Aegis is down and he didn’t expect me to switch to GS and charge him. I did that, landed him on his rear, and then I nullified his protection and took him out.

I have to say at first i was skeptical but 60% to give back a condition and 60% to take a boon away from someone is pretty kitten often when you’re pushing 80%+ crit.

EDIT: link to build – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARUjcOJvxOyQMxBEThi48gKYiAU9wOqj4A-jkCBYLBiCEiIBI5RhNBSQrKqIasKGYqSLqW5CwbgRrWKgIWAA-w

Everyone knows this con – little survivability. Key is to kill before you get killed honestly. And it’s easy to do it.

i’ve actually had a lot success killing guardians using a condition warrior build, once you get a few conditions on them they like to blow their cleanses immediately.

what i do is peck them a bit at range with the longbow, once you get burning or immobilize on them they panic and pop a few cleanses. guardians like to get in close, so once they do switch to your sword and whatever offhand you prefer. now you just wait a bit, they will use another cleanse to take care of the bleeding, but they might get unlucky and lose the cripple or vulnerability instead.

when they have about 12 or more stacks of bleed their small health pool will start to shrink fast, that’s when they try to run away and heal.

you can either switch back to longbow and auto attack then [pin down] or [savage leap] into [flurry]. (auto attack first before using [pin down], this clears aegis and makes sure that they are in range for the [pin down])

either way, if a guardian is at half health or less and you can catch them with flurry it is usually game over for them unless they can pop a condition cleanse. so make sure to bait it out and keep a cool head.

Guardian main role in pvp is Bunker. There is no chance to kill him without friends.

Someone also said that good shatter mesmer can kill Guardian 1v1 (thats why i posted link with shatter build)

Tyrion.4259:

Well after changing around some stuff to mess around I ended up going back to my Lyssa runes setup, which is 3 pieces of knight and 3 berserker. Ate some lemongrass still because I can’t seem to frown away from it even when not specced in defense line. Use FGJ, Bulls Charge, and Balanced Stance. Specced 10/30/0/0/30. Picked up a Rifle.

The key to this build for me? Sigil of Generosity on my rifle and Sigil of Nullification on my Greatsword. I was cracking up when I was on a guardian guys. This strat really happened.

Started with basic attacks with Rifle. The bunker guardian opened up with Chains of Light and my crit hit put it on him. He rooted himself. I landed a full volley on him. He’s about 50% health already. I land one more auto attack to make sure Aegis is down and he didn’t expect me to switch to GS and charge him. I did that, landed him on his rear, and then I nullified his protection and took him out.

I have to say at first i was skeptical but 60% to give back a condition and 60% to take a boon away from someone is pretty kitten often when you’re pushing 80%+ crit.

EDIT: link to build – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARUjcOJvxOyQMxBEThi48gKYiAU9wOqj4A-jkCBYLBiCEiIBI5RhNBSQrKqIasKGYqSLqW5CwbgRrWKgIWAA-w

Everyone knows this con – little survivability. Key is to kill before you get killed honestly. And it’s easy to do it.

Sadly, there is an internal CD on the Nullification of 10 seconds.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Tyrion.4259:

Well after changing around some stuff to mess around I ended up going back to my Lyssa runes setup, which is 3 pieces of knight and 3 berserker. Ate some lemongrass still because I can’t seem to frown away from it even when not specced in defense line. Use FGJ, Bulls Charge, and Balanced Stance. Specced 10/30/0/0/30. Picked up a Rifle.

The key to this build for me? Sigil of Generosity on my rifle and Sigil of Nullification on my Greatsword. I was cracking up when I was on a guardian guys. This strat really happened.

Started with basic attacks with Rifle. The bunker guardian opened up with Chains of Light and my crit hit put it on him. He rooted himself. I landed a full volley on him. He’s about 50% health already. I land one more auto attack to make sure Aegis is down and he didn’t expect me to switch to GS and charge him. I did that, landed him on his rear, and then I nullified his protection and took him out.

I have to say at first i was skeptical but 60% to give back a condition and 60% to take a boon away from someone is pretty kitten often when you’re pushing 80%+ crit.

EDIT: link to build – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARUjcOJvxOyQMxBEThi48gKYiAU9wOqj4A-jkCBYLBiCEiIBI5RhNBSQrKqIasKGYqSLqW5CwbgRrWKgIWAA-w

Everyone knows this con – little survivability. Key is to kill before you get killed honestly. And it’s easy to do it.

Sadly, there is an internal CD on the Nullification of 10 seconds.

Yea I noticed this too. This is why I think I am going to keep generosity on my gun and switch to bloodlust on my greatsword to stack power. I think generosity is still worth it as long as if you aren’t running dogged march, melandru/hoelbrak runes, and lemongrass because conditions bounce too fast off you to even be generous and give them back to someone else.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Viking Jorun.5413:

My current build is meant to bring down guardians… Thus far there hasn’t been a single guardian I haven’t been able to take down 1v1 in tPvP or WvW….

Video or it never happened.

You have no idea how many times I wish I was streaming then. It would end so many arguments about warrior right then and there.

Dthoj.4832:

Epic.3950:

Dthoj.4832:

If he is channeling and invul, my best bet is he is using his elite. If he is using shouts and recovering from CC, he is most likely running soldier runes. Fighting a guardian, especially a tanky one by the looks of it, personally, ya gotta prolong the fight. Usually be aggressive and time your attacks.
I might be the first to say, try guardians out.

no hes using his 6 heal. block while healing, normally I telegraph after that he pops his elite and becomes invuln again.

It depends on what build and weapons you’re using against him.
In that kind situation, if you have CC weapons, i would’ve recommended using signet of might and interrupt him in his block. And can go for the kill.

CC doesn’t interrupt blocking with signet of might..

Tyrion.4259:

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Tyrion.4259:

Well after changing around some stuff to mess around I ended up going back to my Lyssa runes setup, which is 3 pieces of knight and 3 berserker. Ate some lemongrass still because I can’t seem to frown away from it even when not specced in defense line. Use FGJ, Bulls Charge, and Balanced Stance. Specced 10/30/0/0/30. Picked up a Rifle.

The key to this build for me? Sigil of Generosity on my rifle and Sigil of Nullification on my Greatsword. I was cracking up when I was on a guardian guys. This strat really happened.

Started with basic attacks with Rifle. The bunker guardian opened up with Chains of Light and my crit hit put it on him. He rooted himself. I landed a full volley on him. He’s about 50% health already. I land one more auto attack to make sure Aegis is down and he didn’t expect me to switch to GS and charge him. I did that, landed him on his rear, and then I nullified his protection and took him out.

I have to say at first i was skeptical but 60% to give back a condition and 60% to take a boon away from someone is pretty kitten often when you’re pushing 80%+ crit.

EDIT: link to build – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARUjcOJvxOyQMxBEThi48gKYiAU9wOqj4A-jkCBYLBiCEiIBI5RhNBSQrKqIasKGYqSLqW5CwbgRrWKgIWAA-w

Everyone knows this con – little survivability. Key is to kill before you get killed honestly. And it’s easy to do it.

Sadly, there is an internal CD on the Nullification of 10 seconds.

Yea I noticed this too. This is why I think I am going to keep generosity on my gun and switch to bloodlust on my greatsword to stack power. I think generosity is still worth it as long as if you aren’t running dogged march, melandru/hoelbrak runes, and lemongrass because conditions bounce too fast off you to even be generous and give them back to someone else.

You should never use stack weapons as equipped weapons. Use the sigils on a weapon in your bag and switch it out to another weapon when your done stacking.