Guild Wars 2

Hate it more and more with a fiery passion.

I main a level 80 Guardian. Maybe I’m biased. Who knows.

But it sure seems to me like transitioning from Guardian to Warrior is trading in all of your boons, defensive abilities and ability to live long enough to even DPS is traded for more health, and very short defensive abilities that on a year long cooldown.

I don’t feel like a “kitten tank” or “brutal warrior”. I feel like a pansy thief that’s tried to wear metal armor and bigger weapons in hopes it defends him better. It doesn’t.

The only way I’ve figured to even feel remotely durable is to spec everything into defense and vitality, use a mace and shield and make shouts heal myself. Lemme tell you, that is booooooooooooooooring. It’s also still no where near as good as a Guardian who can do the same thing, be kitten near unkillable with a hammer and have 4 times the DPS.

Maybe I’m just doing it wrong. Maybe I want it to be what it isn’t; a Guardian.

I don’t know. Can anyone suggest anything that would help me with this? Something I can change to get more of a “Durable DPS” feel out of a Warrior that ISN’T boring? Because currently it feels like being durable makes them do crappy damage, unlike the Guardian.

“a pansy theif” I lold so hard well since you have played the most Oped classes why don’t you go check out the thief and the you can go see his mega op damage that kills everything while he stares at them in perma stealth

OTGBionicArm.2417:

But it sure seems to me like transitioning from Guardian to Warrior is trading in all of your boons, defensive abilities and ability to live long enough to even DPS is traded for more health, and very short defensive abilities that on a year long cooldown.

Here’s your answer. Warrior takes more skill than Guardian, fact. You have no boons carrying you when you mess up, when you mess up the only thing saving you is player skill.

DO NOT be surprised when you’re a a decent Guardian but a bad Warrior. It takes a few weeks to understand Warrior.

Schwahrheit.4203:

OTGBionicArm.2417:

But it sure seems to me like transitioning from Guardian to Warrior is trading in all of your boons, defensive abilities and ability to live long enough to even DPS is traded for more health, and very short defensive abilities that on a year long cooldown.

Here’s your answer. Warrior takes more skill than Guardian, fact. You have no boons carrying you when you mess up, when you mess up the only thing saving you is player skill.

DO NOT be surprised when you’re a a decent Guardian but a bad Warrior. It takes a few weeks to understand Warrior.

True,in all honesty i think warrior ( no matter what alot of people say,without even trying the class out..or base their opinion solely from pve ) is one of the hardest classes to master.You can’t just stand around being invulnerable for a minute or regain your hp to full every 5 seconds or have a constant retaliation or go invis whenever you like or teleport out of there when it gets too hot or put up some clones or illusions,matter a fact warrios dont have alot of anything and right now they have it the hardest in pvp.

The “pansy thief” thing is a joke. I realize they destroy things in PvP. But can they face-tank? No. That’s my problem. I hate being squishy. I like being able to plant myself there and not die.

@Schwahrheit, I’m intending to use the character for PvE, so I’ve been testing things out in PvP before hand to get a feel for it. My problem stems from what I’ve determined is just their passive healing having poor scaling. Other threads seem to think it’s bad or non-existent. My second problem is that their defensive cooldowns are too long of a cooldown for the shortness of the actual effect.

I feel like they are inherently designed to “live long enough to burst someone with 100B” and nothing more.

I have no idea why you’re having trouble in PvE when it’s so easy.. all you do is press whirlwind attack if you think you’re going to get hit at early levels. At high levels, all you need to do is get a party and go Rifle + GS and revive people with Battle Standard or Balanced Stance + Frenzy + Endure Pain if sht happens.

my best friend plays a full clerics/dwayna support guardian, he got his warrior to 80 had always intended to be a bruiser kind of hammer/rifle build, had to go 30 tactics just to have some survivability.

my build is 10/0/20/30/10 21% with a mix of zerker, valk and ptv gear.

Im not as tough as guardian but I can still do 14k 100 blades while face tanking a boss. Thats something your guardian cannot do

Seren.6850:

my best friend plays a full clerics/dwayna support guardian, he got his warrior to 80 had always intended to be a bruiser kind of hammer/rifle build, had to go 30 tactics just to have some survivability.

my build is 10/0/20/30/10 21% with a mix of zerker, valk and ptv gear.

Im not as tough as guardian but I can still do 14k 100 blades while face tanking a boss. Thats something your guardian cannot do

Can u post traits u used? I wanna try it out

OTGBionicArm.2417:

The only way I’ve figured to even feel remotely durable is to spec everything into defense and vitality, use a mace and shield and make shouts heal myself. Lemme tell you, that is booooooooooooooooring. It’s also still no where near as good as a Guardian who can do the same thing, be kitten near unkillable with a hammer and have 4 times the DPS.

I read some advice for a strat to help survivability on any DPS character:
-Slot Blood Sigils in your weapon
-Use +percision in your gear
-Keep your fury up
-Eat Omnomberry Ghost/Pie
-Use them multi-hit skills

Works for me. I don’t have the super gear other posters seem to have to throw down 15K+ damage but I guess my gear and strats are at least somewhat effective in PvE. Combine weakness with your life-steal and you often just nullify the foe’s damage.

Schwahrheit.4203:

Warrior takes more skill

Pfffffffffffffffffffft.

The absurdity in this is monumental.

Well personally what works for me is I went 10/30/20/10/0

Arms is important because the warrior has the ability to get a lot of Might so you benefit a lot from the crit chance. That means even though I invested into defensive traits as well, my damage output is fine.

As for gear, I’ve got a strange mix of rampagers/knight’s/carrion, but that’s for Sword and Rifle which both benefit from condi damage as well as precision and power. The traits in Arms help with that too. The Might I get from my utilities works well since it gives both power and condi damage.

If you don’t want to focus on bleeding at all and just use other weapons, I still recommend focusing on Arms and getting some Tactics and Defense.

As for gear I think any Warrior build should include some Knight’s. Toughness is very important. Mix Knight’s with whatever… Rampager’s if you want some condi damage, or just Berserker’s works too… heck, even pure Knight’s is probably good.

Anyway, point is you get enough out of Arms to get some defensive stats and still kill stuff. I only went 10 into Strength to get Berserker’s Power. Other than that, you get enough Power from your skills and gear.

As for survival, I dunno. I don’t have a Guardian to compare it to but I survive pretty well compared to other players in dungeons.

I’ve starting using an interesting build capitolizing on the Distracting Strikes trait with the mace and shield and it has made it a bit more fun to play while still being durable.
Thank you everyone who responded though

I don’t agree that warrior is “boooooooooooring”. It’s hilarious, but I think the same thing about guardian, that guardian is “booooooooring”. Cause guardian has much less mobility than warrior.

Why is that? Because guardian has blocks, self heals, and etc. So he doesn’t have to dodge as often as warrior.

Warrior’s play style is a way, way to different. You can’t play a warrior with a guardian’s style. Warrior not a guardian.

Guardian play style is more… inert, calm. The warrior’s play style is more aggressive, he has more mobility, much more. When I play the warrior, I personally feel drive, adrenaline, which I don’t fill when I play guardian. Because guardian’s play style is more… well he is not so active, he’s more calm.

With warrior you have to do much more movement than with guardian.

Don’t compare warrior to the guardian. They are not alike at all. The only thing, which they have common, is heavy armor and some weapons.

Warrior with a mace and shield, and the Guardian with a mace and shield, is a way, WAY to different. (personally for me, guardian’s shield skills are boring, comparing to warrior’s shield’s skills, but tastes’re different).

You must understand, that warrior’s support isn’t about mitigating damage, or healing your party.
Warrior’s support it is aggressive play style.
Guardian’s mace defend people through healing and block. Warrior’s mace defend through stun, which is interrupts foe, which is the same if you are using guardian’s mace block.

You after playing guardian don’t like a warrior. For me it’s other way around. After warrior I found guardian more easy to play, and boring. Not just boring, but booooooooooring.

I like how guardian looks on arts. He is sooooooo awesome on arts! But game play…. no, not for me. I’m trying to love the Guardian, because I fell in love in guardian on arts, but, can’t. I can’t explain it, I don’t feel that drive with a guardian. For me he is more inert. Shield is not as entertaining as warrior’s shield. Scepter is not as entertaining as warrior’s bow. I love bow! Even rifle have more drive than scepter. I hate stuff, really, it’s boring for me, extremely boring. Mace is not fun as warrior’s mace. And so on and etc.
The only thing I love in guardian more than in warrior, it is underwater battle. Guardian has entertaining underwater skills.
You know, even two handed weapons are not so aggressive as warrior’s two handed weapons.

I like to be supportive guy, but you know what? I can be supporting guy playing with warrior. In fact, I can be as good supportive guy as Guardian is. It’s just different methods.

My point is, maybe for you the same thing, but with warrior? Maybe you love all in guardian and you found warrior not interesting because he doesn’t have what hase guardian.

But if you want to give warrior a chance, here is my advise. Don’t play warrior as if he’s a guardian. If you want to stay alive, do more movements. Run, dodge, grant stun to your foe, cripple, and dodge, and run when it needs.
Also all warrior’s healing skills doesn’t heal as good as guardian’s. But it’s because warrior has much more health.

I can’t say that guardian is more hard to kill. You know, I think with a guardian you just can avoid to be killed more easily, then with warrior. But it doesn’t mean that warrior is easier to be killed. It’s just different methods to stay alive.
Try your warrior and remember, don’t use guardian play style on a warrior.

P.S. And warrior is not like thief at all. Yes, you have to avoid straight damage more often than guardian, but it doesn’t mean you are squishy.

And if you want to be supportive to your party, you can. When I played the warrior with my friend, I asked her: “Maybe I should be guardian? So I can defend you.”
She answered: “You do it well with your warrior.”

OTGBionicArm.2417:

I feel like they are inherently designed to “live long enough to burst someone with 100B” and nothing more.

this is your problem, despite the fact everybody running around with a GS, it is a very bad weapon overall, it is marginally good only in ZvZvZ .

there are few builds that use GS to the MAX, (SoR+bolas+frenzy +100b kill once then run away for 60 seconds) but it is a bad choice for a weapon.

check the axe/mace build , very solid build, survival, yet has high DPS (axe) and some control (mace)
there is a build somewhere here or in the guru forums.

personally I love the 10/0/30/30/0 shout build where outside dungeons I use axe/mace and longbow.

To Op I have 80 warrior and guardian and hopped between them while leveling and there was a time when I felt exactly like you did about my warrior but now i totally love my war and hardly ever play my guard at all. One thing I did was trait for regen based on adrenaline forget what it’s called and use the healing signet these two regens make you alot more survivable in pve. I run axe/ warhorn and used to use rifle or gs but recently switched to longbow and its awesome if you get used to it . Warrior is alot of fun I almost gave up on it but I’m glad I didn’t.

How on earth is warrior hard to play? to be honest I have difficulty getting into any other profession (seriously I rage quitted my Elementalist for two weeks I was so hopeless at it.) any profession that can survive a hit has it easy, but fiddle farting around avoiding every single attack is painful.

I have both guardian and a warrior, and OP, u should not expect to play the warrior like a guardian. This is all I have to say.

OTGBionicArm.2417:

The “pansy thief” thing is a joke. I realize they destroy things in PvP. But can they face-tank? No. That’s my problem. I hate being squishy. I like being able to plant myself there and not die.

@Schwahrheit, I’m intending to use the character for PvE, so I’ve been testing things out in PvP before hand to get a feel for it. My problem stems from what I’ve determined is just their passive healing having poor scaling. Other threads seem to think it’s bad or non-existent. My second problem is that their defensive cooldowns are too long of a cooldown for the shortness of the actual effect.

I feel like they are inherently designed to “live long enough to burst someone with 100B” and nothing more.

A strong offense is the best defense.

Pick your battles. Go in, explode someone, and then shield-rush out of the fight. Heal to full, weave back into the fight, explode someone, rush out of fight.

Don’t just run into an enemy group and sit there. You don’t have the luxury of twiddling your thumbs in that matter like a Guardian.

By the way, Guardian survivability is somewhat of an illusion. Most players have been conditioned to IGNORE focusing Guardians first. The current trend is to target any non-Guardian classes first like Necros and Warriors. So, because Guardians are not targeted first in group fights, they will naturally survive longer from that…on top of their already built-in survivability. Warrior’s circumstances are the complete opposite; Warriors are often the very first to be targeted by an enemy team, so the Warrior must be very strategic when it comes to bursting targets.

Also, it takes a lot more skill to play a Warrior because of team expectations. You have so much more responsibility as a Warrior that it’s not even funny.

As a Guardian, all your team expects you to do is sit in a corner somewhere. “Go bunker the middle.” And that’s all. You just sit there and you’re 100% fulfilling your team duty.

As a Warrior, you’re expected to explode enemy targets while being focused by 3 or 4 enemy players. While killing, you’re expected to survive, too. You also need to assist multiple areas of the map. Every time a teammate calls for help, you’re expected to be there instantly and help secure the point. You’re expected to take objectives like Svanir/Chieftain, Guild Lord, Trebuchet, etc. As a Warrior, clearly you can see that there is a LOT more responsibility and risks. You see a lot more Warriors fail in general because Warriors are simply burdened by higher expectations from the team. You see a lot more Guardians “succeed” because their job is inherently easier.

Also, as a Warrior in PvP, be prepared to get blamed for everything. If your Guardian teammate dies at middle, it’s all the Warrior’s fault for not being there in time. If the team loses at Legacy of the Foefire, it’s because the Warrior did not take down the gate himself and solo the Guild Lord. If the Trebuchet gets instantly repaired by an enemy Mesmer and clocktower is getting rained on by trebuchet fire, it will always be the Warrior’s fault.

The next time you see a “pro” Warrior player, you should show them respect because you now know how unrealistically difficult it is to succeed as a Warrior.

Warrior at the moment is very weak and its impossible to do one Durable DPS WARRIOR as you can with the guardian. Warrior don’t have the best things to survive: stealth, protection, blocks, when I talk about survive, I am not talking about ARMOR or Defense or HP because it is easy to get with the correct build.
The build that makes a good damage everyone can dodge, be invulnerable get a break stun or another options ( hundred blades ). Actually the one option that we have to make decent damage is RIFLE but it can be dodge veeeery ease when u see the burst animation or the voley like hundred blades.
Finally Warrior has axe off hand that is useless and some condition builds that just put bleeds while Necromancers/Elementalists/Mesmers can put a bunch of different conditions. One condition is not a good idea.
I am waiting for the god help us because nowadays warrior is just one more.

20/20/30/0/0 GS build with knights stuff – plenty beef on the table.
btw there is only GS if you want to do damage, all other weapons suck.
ill make an exception for mainhand-axe here but thats it.

if you want fancy, google “gw2 captain hammer” – not as much damage, but hell of a lot of fun and control.

zone.1073:

A strong offense is the best defense.

I disagree with that. A strong offense can be a good defense. But on all my squishy high-damage characters I always have to watch my health bar and think about what I’m fighting or I could die. Tougher scuffles in this game take too long even if you have high damage output. But the one character I have that I never really worry about dying is my warrior who has a million HP, a billion armor, and three forms of regeneration at all times. That last one at least isn’t an exaggeration.

So i used to play shout heals with axe main hand mace off hand its decent its strong survivability but the dmg is lacking. so i changed up to banner regen and i like it alot better just my opinion but heres the build. if you dont know how to work this site the hexigon in the middle of the screen will show you the traits.

http://tinyurl.com/bbt642u

the 2 traits oportunist and leg specialist go hand in hand. so everytime you blade trail you get 1 stack of fury which is increased in duration with the more mobs it hits so you can get alot very fast. the one banner is all you need for 100% regen up time i use knights gear power/percision/toughness and 3emerald jewlery’s and 2 sapphire. my dmg is not weak at all its not zerker dmg but i get 6.5k crits in ac all the time scaled up to 80 its like 14k-16k crits. anyways give it a shot its alot of fun if you dont like playing a tankier shout heals warrior.

I’d like to thank everyone for answering me, but I have to remind everyone that the intention of even playing a Warrior is for PvE dungeons for me.

I did fine in pvp by going Mace Shield, but I felt like it can’t hold up in prolonged damage from mobs like a Guardian can.

I use full Cleric everything with 6/6 water runes. My build is 0/0/25/30/15. I carry either a GS or hammer and a sword shield for the second set.

I can do banner heal/support with signet of healing, shake it off, tactics banner, endure pain, signet of rage. I have near 100% uptime on might/swift/fury from signet of rage. I heal around 350hp a second from my banner along with maybe 260 from healing signet and more from adrenal regen trait. I do strong damage and can take huts very well. If a healing aura ele is in the group I regen so much a second its ridiculous. I use this for dungeons.

I switch to shout heal for roaming PvE using the same traits and gear, so only one purchase of equipment is necessary as well as no trait respec. I just switch the banner CD and regen slots for the shout CD/heal. This build does even more damage with 8-12 stacks of might. I change tactic banner with for great justice and endure pain with on my mark. I lose some swiftness uptime but not much. I love this build.

This might tickle your fancy. I find my 80 guard cannot outperform my warrior for durability and staying power in PvE.
Edit: Or damage for that matter.

Condas.7056:

I use full Cleric everything with 6/6 water runes. My build is 0/0/25/30/15. I carry either a GS or hammer and a sword shield for the second set.

I can do banner heal/support with signet of healing, shake it off, tactics banner, endure pain, signet of rage. I have near 100% uptime on might/swift/fury from signet of rage. I heal around 350hp a second from my banner along with maybe 260 from healing signet and more from adrenal regen trait. I do strong damage and can take huts very well. If a healing aura ele is in the group I regen so much a second its ridiculous. I use this for dungeons.

I switch to shout heal for roaming PvE using the same traits and gear, so only one purchase of equipment is necessary as well as no trait respec. I just switch the banner CD and regen slots for the shout CD/heal. This build does even more damage with 8-12 stacks of might. I change tactic banner with for great justice and endure pain with on my mark. I lose some swiftness uptime but not much. I love this build.

This might tickle your fancy. I find my 80 guard cannot outperform my warrior for durability and staying power in PvE.
Edit: Or damage for that matter.

This is for PvP, right?

Full clerics in dungeons you hit for like, what, 500 damage with a GS?

How does this build fare on SE p1?

Nonlinear.9823:

Condas.7056:

I use full Cleric everything with 6/6 water runes. My build is 0/0/25/30/15. I carry either a GS or hammer and a sword shield for the second set.

I can do banner heal/support with signet of healing, shake it off, tactics banner, endure pain, signet of rage. I have near 100% uptime on might/swift/fury from signet of rage. I heal around 350hp a second from my banner along with maybe 260 from healing signet and more from adrenal regen trait. I do strong damage and can take huts very well. If a healing aura ele is in the group I regen so much a second its ridiculous. I use this for dungeons.

I switch to shout heal for roaming PvE using the same traits and gear, so only one purchase of equipment is necessary as well as no trait respec. I just switch the banner CD and regen slots for the shout CD/heal. This build does even more damage with 8-12 stacks of might. I change tactic banner with for great justice and endure pain with on my mark. I lose some swiftness uptime but not much. I love this build.

This might tickle your fancy. I find my 80 guard cannot outperform my warrior for durability and staying power in PvE.
Edit: Or damage for that matter.

This is for PvP, right?

Full clerics in dungeons you hit for like, what, 500 damage with a GS?

How does this build fare on SE p1?

I can hit for 750+ with auto attack and 100b for 10-14k especially if I am not the only person passing might around. The damage will vary based on your group, keep that in mind.. I wouldn’t use that build in PvP, you would trade blows with bunker builds till you both get bored and leave or get chewed up by a glass cannon unless they are bad. The build is stacked with power and keeps near 100% uptime on 8 or so might and fury. I have not done SE1, I did SE3 though. I felt like MVP there just like everywhere else. I never go down and can get others up with little worry.

I can’t wait for that day when Anet will introduce duels. It will be really great to see warrior vs guardian fights. Who do you think will win? Its like a blood death knight dueling an arms warrior. Hands down.

I actually love the fact that I’ve managed to stick with my guardian until now. There were a lot of moments when I wanted to switch to a warrior.

Guardian may be easier to play than a warrior but who cares? Really. I play what I like. And to be honest, I find myself unkillable in most situations with my guardian. Dont know if I can say the same about warriors.

If you hate, play something else… change your style.. seems if you need forums to tell you how to play, you’re a bit of a empty box. Change stuff up, you know – think.

Warriors are easy to play. I have an 80 warrior and an 80 ele, if you think Warrior is hard try elemental. You are constantly rotating through 4 sets of spells. THink of it as swapping out 4 different weapons in every fight and timing it so you can stack might and such. It’s a pain in the kitten. Especially finding you haven’t killed anyone because your dps blows. Or you can just bull charge, blades and kill someone lol if they run just finish them off with your rifle. Does that sound hard to you?

Gotchaz.7865:

Warriors are easy to play. I have an 80 warrior and an 80 ele, if you think Warrior is hard try elemental. You are constantly rotating through 4 sets of spells. THink of it as swapping out 4 different weapons in every fight and timing it so you can stack might and such. It’s a pain in the kitten. Especially finding you haven’t killed anyone because your dps blows. Or you can just bull charge, blades and kill someone lol if they run just finish them off with your rifle. Does that sound hard to you?

Getting sick of people saying lolbullcharge100bwin. You use a stun breaker and dodge, they just did nothing to you. That combo only works on bad players. Glass warriors are easy to juke. I always laugh when they do it to me, I shake it off and just step behind them, I don’t even have to dodge it!

This thread isn’t a Guardian vs Warrior flame war. I was asking if there was a way to play a Warrior with a more “Guardian” feel and apparently I can’t. :p

OTGBionicArm.2417:

This thread isn’t a Guardian vs Warrior flame war. I was asking if there was a way to play a Warrior with a more “Guardian” feel and apparently I can’t. :p

Lol I want to play a Warrior with a Mesmer feel. How do I do that? :P

ShaiHulud.7410:

I can’t wait for that day when Anet will introduce duels. It will be really great to see warrior vs guardian fights. Who do you think will win?

The better player will win consistently more if they keep dueling, as it should be…

Besides that, I think the duel terrain will heavily affect this. With an offensive and mobility based warrior spec I have pretty good chances to beat all guardian builds 1v1 in the open WvW but suffer much more in the cramped surroundings of sPvP and some puzzle spots. If you add a goal based feature like a small capture point then I give advantage to the guardian due to their better area control.

I love threads like this. I have a 80 Warrior, 80 Guardian, 80 Thief, and 80 Ranger.

Hands down the Warrior is better than all of them. I’m not even going to bother with this anymore, because at worse they buff the class since everyone complains about it.

Once I learned how to actually build a bunker Warrior, and found out how Precision makes for the ultimate bunker build (go learn the game if you disagree with me) I laughed at the Guardian.

If you play your timers right you can dodge (got to love vigor on crit), block, become invulnerable “Endure Pain”, and negate over 20 seconds worth of damage, while building 25 stacks of might (running into a zerg blocking), while reflecting ranged attacks back onto its attackers, among much, much more the Warrior provides you, on top of having near permanent swiftness, something classes like the Guardian lacks.

Don’t judge the Warrior because of the stupid (illusion of balance) rules in SPvP where they destroy many builds, and limit the useful builds, and prevents you from using other aspects of the game.

jkctmc.8754:

(got to love vigor on crit)

What?
There’s no sigil/rune that does this that I can find anywhere.

Search for strife’s build and steamroll through pve and deal the most ridiculous damage u have ever seen while surviving well.

Modify his build abit and survivability skyrockets with little drop in dmg.

Loads of weapons, loads of role and loads of build. Excellent class.

I have both lv 80 guardian and warrior, and they are both very different in many ways. Guardian:
-Doesn’t do much single target damage or burst damage compare to warriors.
-Guardian has a lot of way to remove condition, and keep boons up, my guardian has 4 skill that remove condition with 1 that can remove 3 condition (Virtual of resolve).
-Not so great elite. (sometime i rather trade my elite skill for regular skill)
-Not so great at range damage
-Good at help teammate reduce damage from melee and range, and keep them alive
-Group oriented
- Has more ways to apply heal compare to warriors. (medication, weapon skills, virtual, shout boons, rolling, and more)

Warrior:
- Good at both single target damage and AOE damage depend what weapon and and your trait
- Have lesser options on conditional removal compare to guardian.
- Excellent CC with hammer and sword/shield or mace/shield. (Guardians have some CC but is nothing compare to the amount of CC that warriors can have)
- Good at both melee and range.
- Good at apply stack of bleeding more than any other classes, My warriors can apply 15-20 stacks every 10 sec with my sword burst, while maintain 5-10 stacks with auto.
- Has more mobility than guardian
- Better elites. (Banner and rage are awesome)
- Better critical chance than guardian (a lot of ways to add fury buff)

Overall i enjoy both profession, I love how warriors can lock down an enemy with hammer and sword/shield and able to run in and out of the battle to deal some burst. While i like my guardian able to keep my teammate condition-free and buff them with boons while stay in the frontline fighting.

OTGBionicArm.2417:

This thread isn’t a Guardian vs Warrior flame war. I was asking if there was a way to play a Warrior with a more “Guardian” feel and apparently I can’t. :p

I told you that you can’t, several times in my post. Others told you that you can’t.
But I’ll repeat once more. If you want to play guardian style, Warrior is not for you.

The Warrior in GW2 has very much the same purpose in PvP as it did in GW1.

To be a bully.

You want to be fast, vicious, and as annoying as you can possibly be. I played warrior in GvG for years in GW1, and my goal each match was to get in the enemy team’s faces and just be a huge pain in the neck. Warriors could be fast, hit hard, and take a hit as well. In GW2, you have more tools than ever to do this with.

I think the common misconception with warrior traits and stats is this seemingly pathological need to “specialize.” No. Stop that. Versatility is your friend. The warrior is the ultimate gap-filler. You can easily trait into so many different weapons and utilize your stats to give you good durability while still hitting like a truck. Warriors can also be incredibly mobile, and are without a doubt among the best initiators in the game. Few classes can start a fight as “in-your-face-we’re-doing-this-right-now” as the warrior.

You need to be fearless and vicious. You need to think like a bully, then proceed to slap people silly.

I understand that most MMO’s handle the melee classes more like walking meatshields, but I’ve always loved the Guild Wars series for its approach to the Warrior. Sure, you can be a damage sponge. But why would you when you can be such a powerhouse with the right mindset?

You can really do whatever you please in PvE, though.

In its current state, the warrior requires much more skill and actions per minute than a Guardian. I know most people staring in from the outside think all there is to the class is bulls charge, frenzy, and hundred blades, but that is not the case. With practice, patience, and desire to better yourself, the warrior is a deadly class.

Totally agree with you Raynor, there are just too many people out there wanting to be a prot warrior from that other game. The GW/GW2 warrior is a true martial artist in every sense of the word. You have to get in, get out, get back in, and burn it down. I don’t think a lot of folks understand how proactive you have to be.

As a warrior, you don’t have many combos, and the ones you do have are very easy to counter.

The class is a very simple one, but simple doesn’t mean easy. It’s the simplicity that actually makes playing a warrior very difficult once you go beyond the basics.

Warrior meta-play revolves around the use of timing, baiting and disengaging to apply your simple mechanics despite being easily countered. This is true in pve and pvp, although pve is easier because npcs are predictable. It’s a far more active role than most expect from the class.

You can’t really sit and passively tank, that’s what guardians do. Even the most tanky of warrior specs are active, you mitigate most damage through lockdown (mace and hammer come to mind) or evasion (dodge, mobility) instead of face tanking. It shows in pve where warriors are arguably the best at “tanking” dungeon trash, but guardians are better at bosses because our lockdown is disabled due to defiance. It’s also why we can’t really bunker in pvp, half of the tools we have for it move you out of the place you’re bunkering.

Condas.7056:

Nonlinear.9823:

Condas.7056:

I use full Cleric everything with 6/6 water runes. My build is 0/0/25/30/15. I carry either a GS or hammer and a sword shield for the second set.

I can do banner heal/support with signet of healing, shake it off, tactics banner, endure pain, signet of rage. I have near 100% uptime on might/swift/fury from signet of rage. I heal around 350hp a second from my banner along with maybe 260 from healing signet and more from adrenal regen trait. I do strong damage and can take huts very well. If a healing aura ele is in the group I regen so much a second its ridiculous. I use this for dungeons.

I switch to shout heal for roaming PvE using the same traits and gear, so only one purchase of equipment is necessary as well as no trait respec. I just switch the banner CD and regen slots for the shout CD/heal. This build does even more damage with 8-12 stacks of might. I change tactic banner with for great justice and endure pain with on my mark. I lose some swiftness uptime but not much. I love this build.

This might tickle your fancy. I find my 80 guard cannot outperform my warrior for durability and staying power in PvE.
Edit: Or damage for that matter.

This is for PvP, right?

Full clerics in dungeons you hit for like, what, 500 damage with a GS?

How does this build fare on SE p1?

I can hit for 750+ with auto attack and 100b for 10-14k especially if I am not the only person passing might around. The damage will vary based on your group, keep that in mind.. I wouldn’t use that build in PvP, you would trade blows with bunker builds till you both get bored and leave or get chewed up by a glass cannon unless they are bad. The build is stacked with power and keeps near 100% uptime on 8 or so might and fury. I have not done SE1, I did SE3 though. I felt like MVP there just like everywhere else. I never go down and can get others up with little worry.

When I do SE 1 with more than 1 shout spam heal warrior DPS slows considerably, enough so that you have to deal with at least one extra set of adds while trying to dispatch the golem.

I love SE 1 because it is a real DPS check that can’t be GY zerged or beaten through attrition. SE 3 is a joke you can AFK on two “bosses” and practically AFK the one before them.

Nonlinear.9823:

Condas.7056:

Nonlinear.9823:

Condas.7056:

I use full Cleric everything with 6/6 water runes. My build is 0/0/25/30/15. I carry either a GS or hammer and a sword shield for the second set.

I can do banner heal/support with signet of healing, shake it off, tactics banner, endure pain, signet of rage. I have near 100% uptime on might/swift/fury from signet of rage. I heal around 350hp a second from my banner along with maybe 260 from healing signet and more from adrenal regen trait. I do strong damage and can take huts very well. If a healing aura ele is in the group I regen so much a second its ridiculous. I use this for dungeons.

I switch to shout heal for roaming PvE using the same traits and gear, so only one purchase of equipment is necessary as well as no trait respec. I just switch the banner CD and regen slots for the shout CD/heal. This build does even more damage with 8-12 stacks of might. I change tactic banner with for great justice and endure pain with on my mark. I lose some swiftness uptime but not much. I love this build.

This might tickle your fancy. I find my 80 guard cannot outperform my warrior for durability and staying power in PvE.
Edit: Or damage for that matter.

This is for PvP, right?

Full clerics in dungeons you hit for like, what, 500 damage with a GS?

How does this build fare on SE p1?

I can hit for 750+ with auto attack and 100b for 10-14k especially if I am not the only person passing might around. The damage will vary based on your group, keep that in mind.. I wouldn’t use that build in PvP, you would trade blows with bunker builds till you both get bored and leave or get chewed up by a glass cannon unless they are bad. The build is stacked with power and keeps near 100% uptime on 8 or so might and fury. I have not done SE1, I did SE3 though. I felt like MVP there just like everywhere else. I never go down and can get others up with little worry.

When I do SE 1 with more than 1 shout spam heal warrior DPS slows considerably, enough so that you have to deal with at least one extra set of adds while trying to dispatch the golem.

I love SE 1 because it is a real DPS check that can’t be GY zerged or beaten through attrition. SE 3 is a joke you can AFK on two “bosses” and practically AFK the one before them.

This build isn’t meant to be a dps beast, its intended to survive and sustain. It does decent damage though for a non-crit spam build. Sorry, never been to p1 as the only reason I even did 3 was to help someone, I have no interest in the instance or any of its gear.

I have done FotM up to 10 with ease (could easily go further, just have not had the interest to do so) and HotW (my dungeon of choice) is also an easy run.

Also, I would avoid multiple shout heal warriors too. No need to do that, perma prot guard would make a good running mate though. In my opinion guards and warrior have good synergy.

Braxxus.2904:

jkctmc.8754:

(got to love vigor on crit)

What?
There’s no sigil/rune that does this that I can find anywhere.

Indeed.. there is however a 5pt minor trait that gives 1s vigor on crit…. for Guardians.
I was also intrigued by the “negate 20seconds of damage”.

You should try SE1 it is a solid DPS check and beating it feels like an actual accomplishment.

In my case I think Guardians are boring. They feel so slow and clunky, with very long Cooldowns and less movement. I often find myself autoattacking because everything else in on CD and it takes ages to come off CD when I play my Guardian.

I also find myself often in ranged combat when I do dungeons. Bow is my favorite Weapon on all classes I tried.. compared to scepter … duh!

I agree that Guardians are the better tanks and better healer. Specced right they survive stuff most warriors wouldnt. Aegis alone can absorb one Instakill Swing no extra HP would mitigate. Being that squishy is a curse and a blessing.
It would be boring if you could facetank most stuff, also being in permanent danger increases your skilllevel. However I wouldnt mind if warrior would get more ways to heal themselfs.. like a minor heal when using burstskills or something.

Neandramathal.9536:

Braxxus.2904:

jkctmc.8754:

(got to love vigor on crit)

What?
There’s no sigil/rune that does this that I can find anywhere.

Indeed.. there is however a 5pt minor trait that gives 1s vigor on crit…. for Guardians.
I was also intrigued by the “negate 20seconds of damage”.

Yeah, good call…
Methinks maybe he’s just combined guardians and warriors in his mind into one class. lol

Would be pretty awesome though.

jkctmc.8754:

I love threads like this. I have a 80 Warrior, 80 Guardian, 80 Thief, and 80 Ranger.

Hands down the Warrior is better than all of them. I’m not even going to bother with this anymore, because at worse they buff the class since everyone complains about it.

Once I learned how to actually build a bunker Warrior, and found out how Precision makes for the ultimate bunker build (go learn the game if you disagree with me) I laughed at the Guardian.

If you play your timers right you can dodge (got to love vigor on crit), block, become invulnerable “Endure Pain”, and negate over 20 seconds worth of damage, while building 25 stacks of might (running into a zerg blocking), while reflecting ranged attacks back onto its attackers, among much, much more the Warrior provides you, on top of having near permanent swiftness, something classes like the Guardian lacks.

Don’t judge the Warrior because of the stupid (illusion of balance) rules in SPvP where they destroy many builds, and limit the useful builds, and prevents you from using other aspects of the game.

Can you post your build please?