Guild Wars 2

Hello folks!

I’m about to create a new alt and I just don’t have enough information about either of these classes to determine which would be best. I was hoping that based upon the information below if you all could point me in the right direction please?

I have played both to level 19 and found that the Guardian was a ton of fun using the GS and felt like I could survive just about anything. However, in PvP and WvW, it appeared that all people had to do was just kite me around until I died. That wasn’t so much fun.

As for the Warrior, I really liked the GS/R combo. The Rifle was AMAZING in WvW! Still, I felt more like I was wearing cloth than what I would expect of a plate machine. Also, I hear lots of negativity about this class in that they aren’t wanted as tanks or DPS?

As for my background, I played a DPS Prot Pally in WoW and loved it. Being able to do damage, basic support/healing was really nice. Still, being kited got old. I also played a fury warrior using cough daggers and it was probably the most fun I ever had in an MMO. What I’m looking for is a solid “tank” with the ability to do decent DPS while not being squished after 2 seconds. Can you all please tell me what you think is best?

“What I’m looking for is a solid “tank” with the ability to do decent DPS while not being squished after 2 seconds. Can you all please tell me what you think is best?”
You just named the Guardian.
Come back when warriors have some damage with their survivability and some survivability with their damage.

Ouch Ottohi. That’s kind of rough.

He is unfortunately right, warriors are cannons made of something more fragile than glass. Pretty much every warrior ive come in contact with follows the “kill before you get killed” mindset and its the only one that works it seems.

Warriors lack a lot of sustainability (for guardian think regen, prot, aegis). Therefore lots of people go “kill or be killed” mentality. I’ve tried being tanky, I’ve tried being burst. Warrior burst is great. Our tankiness is, as odd is this seems, bursty too. We can take a lot at once (sheild block, endure pain) but can’t keep that defense sustained. You’d think if we can slap together that offensive burst and defensive burst we’d be great but we can’t, you get one or the other.
Until basic stuff like regen, protection, aegis boons come our way along with some other fixes keep to the guardian.

Ottohi.2871:

Warriors lack a lot of sustainability (for guardian think regen, prot, aegis). Therefore lots of people go “kill or be killed” mentality. I’ve tried being tanky, I’ve tried being burst. Warrior burst is great. Our tankiness is, as odd is this seems, bursty too. We can take a lot at once (sheild block, endure pain) but can’t keep that defense sustained. You’d think if we can slap together that offensive burst and defensive burst we’d be great but we can’t, you get one or the other.
Until basic stuff like regen, protection, aegis boons come our way along with some other fixes keep to the guardian.

Don’t forget our Hp pool which outgrows a warriors heals by a lot, something like 30% of our HP every 25-30secs depending on the skill.

Warriors:
20,000 health min.
8k max healing surge every 30 seconds. 40% of our health per max heal. For ‘zerkers it’s higher for tanks it’s lesser.
That’s 266h/s or 1.33% of our hp per second.

Guardians:
About 15,000
8k healing every 40 seconds. that’s 51% of their health every 40 seconds.
It’s also 200 h/s or 1.33% of their hp as well.
On top of that most warriors have a certain virtue as well as regen. Not to mention no if( ); statement on their heal.

Most of the time Guardians are used as supports. They have tons of utility and boons. They can be played as a damage dealer as well but those kind of builds are not as popular.

Warriors are usually the “I jump on you and kill you as fast as I can” kind of profession. They can support and tank as well but not as good as Guardians when it comes to tanking imo.

Warriors are currently the most popular DPS profession when it comes to PvE while Guardians are really popular supports/tanks.

You shouldn’t care too much about what other people say about their viability. Both are absolutely viable unless you play on a high tPvP level.

I leveled my guardian a couple months ago and it is better than any other class for what I want it to do. Tank and support. Heal on dodge is awesome and mace/shield will not die unless you can burst through all my HP pool at once. I run with 1k healing power (a lot dont like it but I love it) and 3k armor and 16k hp. Power and a bit of crit on the side make running mace shield unstoppable. This profession and build makes prot paladins cry.

I am currently working on my warrior. Mobility options are better and I like the weapon choices more. As far as taking a beating… not so much. But I am not looking to tank with him. I will admit and am proud to say I first saw The predator and thought it was gay…. Then I heard it shoot. Sounded like a blaster rifle from starwars and I quickly went and started to look for any armor combo that looked kind of like a clone or storm trooper. I found a set I liked and made a warrior. I cant get enough of the rifle (even with all the hate that weapon gets). It is more entertaining, for me at least, to play a rifle warrior than build my tank of a guardian and stand still getting smashed over and over again.

I would think first if weapon choice makes any difference to you. You say you like GS/R and I will say if you are anything like me you will kick yourself with a guardian when you think of pewpewing with the rifle.

Also if PvE is your interest you should remember that the content in this game doesn’t require any min/maxing. You can tank fine on either and you can deal damage fine with either.

Get this crap thread out of here. There’s not even a comparison.

AlBundy.7851:

Get this crap thread out of here. There’s not even a comparison.

Maybe that is why no one has said one or the other. Every post has been pointing out that they are different.

IMO Warrior tanks have to rely more on control abilities (weakness, stun, knock back, knock down). It’s more proactive (which makes it more fun) but I think it’s also more challenging. You also rely on high armor, which has it’s effectiveness heavily reduced if you pull to many enemies or are facing lots of condition damage.

“As for my background, I played a DPS Prot Pally in WoW and loved it. Being able to do damage, basic support/healing was really nice. Still, being kited got old. I also played a fury warrior using cough daggers and it was probably the most fun I ever had in an MMO”

you just named warrior, i also played warrior and healers and paladps so i know the feeling when you say you ENJOYED fury warrior but got bored being kited as paladin. You want to play warrior i know it, that play style is what you want rather than guardian, you want to dea damage, you want to be risky, you want the game require you a lot of skill, if you play guardian you will either quit in some point or reroll anyway, it doesnt fit your needs, in my opinion its too steady and you want to rush.

Guardian hands down. They have good damage, high healing abilities and a good way of condition removal+stability by just using the utilities. Despite their low health pool, their amazing healing abilities(one of the healing ability remove a condition every 10 sec and heal up to 80% of your hp) will cover up for it.

Unlike guardian, a warrior is more to a straight up class. You lack condition removal(unless you spec to shout build+soldier, which make you only have one build to play), most of your burst skill is nerfed, and it is easy to dodge warrior skills if you’re experienced enough.

TLDR;

Guardian can be everything, good dps/tanky/good healing abilites in one build/sets, but a warrior can only be one, as in only dps/only tanky in one build/sets.

The OP mentioned being kited around in PvP and WvW on his Guardian. How are Guardians movement and gap closing in WvW ?….and how well do their ranged weapons work ?

if you like farming for shinnies in pve, i say warrior.
for everything else. i think guardian has an easier time…
sustain > healthpools .

Grounder.7381:

if you like farming for shinnies in pve, i say warrior.
for everything else. i think guardian has an easier time…
sustain > healthpools .

Not only do they have sustain, but they have condition removal/amazing utility.

They can turn all there conditions into boons and have access to perma protection.

Daecollo.9578:

Grounder.7381:

if you like farming for shinnies in pve, i say warrior.
for everything else. i think guardian has an easier time…
sustain > healthpools .

Not only do they have sustain, but they have condition removal/amazing utility.

They can turn all there conditions into boons and have access to perma protection.

Do not forget the perma retaliation, which make getting kite is not that bad at all. OP just need to learn more about guardian, I don’t really have any hard time chasing people other than D/D ele and shadowstep thief.

let me tell you something in pve

warrior does insane damage but that’s it, no one ever thank you for doing that amount of damage
but as a guardian, it’s easy mode in every dungeon and people will love you for it.

i’ve been running ppc gear 25 30 0 0 15 for everything and change the traits to 20 0 5 30 15 for the shout heal for fotm 30+, i can do insane damage while staying alive at 38 volcano but that’s about it, if your team get wiped you can’t do anything…while guardian can stay alive easily while helping everyone in the team so they don’t get wiped

oh did i mention that to do a good amont of damage as a warrior you need learn to dodge and all that.

There is something I forgot to mention:

At least 1 Guardian is a must in high Fractals and other difficult PvE content. Especially the “shield” skills are really useful and that’s why groups expect to have at least 1 person with these skills.

If played right both can be hard to kill. Too many warriors run around with glass cannon specs and gear and then kitten that they die all the time. Im not sure what it is about the guardian class but more people tend to not build glass cannnon.

A well balanced warrior will out DPS any guardian and provide offensive boons to a group while still eating a sensible amount of damage. Guardians on the other hand bring defensive boons to the table and focus more on survivability and healing.

A good shout warrior brings atleast 6 100% uptime stacks of might to the group, 50%+ fury uptime, and 180 hp/sec party healing as well as 80% of the damage a glass cannon can do (while its still up).

I do 100% agree that having a guardian in group in higher fractals is a major bonus, even in regular dungeons they help a lot. The 2 classes work together extremely well. I play a warrior and the GF plays a guardian, this provides the backbone of any dungeon group.

In fact I think the fastest CM group I have ever had was 3 GS shout warriors, and 2 guardians, one healing, the other running a control build. I dont think I’ve seen stuff die so fast, and nobody even went close to being downed, let alone defeated.

vapor.5390:

“As for my background, I played a DPS Prot Pally in WoW and loved it. Being able to do damage, basic support/healing was really nice. Still, being kited got old. I also played a fury warrior using cough daggers and it was probably the most fun I ever had in an MMO”

you just named warrior, i also played warrior and healers and paladps so i know the feeling when you say you ENJOYED fury warrior but got bored being kited as paladin. You want to play warrior i know it, that play style is what you want rather than guardian, you want to dea damage, you want to be risky, you want the game require you a lot of skill, if you play guardian you will either quit in some point or reroll anyway, it doesnt fit your needs, in my opinion its too steady and you want to rush.

I think you’re right on when it comes to the “rush” factor. That fury warrior, while strange to play, was just a blast because of how fast the play style was. It was never dull or just limited to 2-3 buttons. I also played a destruction Warlock for about 4 years also due to the normal 10-20 second total rotation. The pally was fun for end-game and tanking but leveling was boring.

I started up a Guardian a few times now and have really struggled to get him beyond level 20. Still, they tend to be the most difficult for me to kill on my duelist Mesmer.