Guild Wars 2

I ran full Cleric’s for the longest time and then just recently switched over to Soldier’s. Full Cleric’s makes you heal a bit more, but even with Toughness you can get bursted really easily without Protection rolling. With all that said, I really don’t miss the extra Healing Power with the switch. Cleric’s is definitely good for starting out.

With all that said, I prefer to get the majority of my healing power from Superior Sigil of Life. That way you can pick up non-Healing Power pieces if you need an item that gives Vitality and Toughness. Again, this is your own preference – if you can manage with a just-under-14k health pool, go for it. I couldn’t so I made the switch.

While mesmers do have stronger control over enemies in some situations, and while it does help to give the OP more perspective on the subject of professions that can tank, I don’t really see why listing that was necessary when he stated he was decided on two specific professions.

A tank can be defined in many different ways, but the general idea of tanking is to survive and to protect. As long as you’re not looking for the traditional MMO-style tanking, either of those two classes work. With that said, I’m only versed in one of those, that being a Guardian. Keep in mind I am not saying that one class is superior to the other because I only know how one performs… and also keep in mind there are many different ways to build your character.

My guardian is built heavily on support. I have tried two main builds – one that had heavy Cleric’s gear (Power/Toughness/Healing Power) and one that I recently switched to that used Soldier’s gear (Power/Toughness/Vitality). The guardian has dozens of supporting abilities ranging from having access to tons of buffs, notably Protection, Might, Retaliation, and the amazing and irreplaceable Aegis; to various healing abilities and ways to provide healing through offense and defense; to great utility with some form of CC, buffing, or restoration on all of our weapons.

Currently, my character is designed to provide boons to my party that last very long while being very difficult to kill. With the right food I can hit 90% boon duration which makes a lot of my buffs last longer than the cooldown. After about two more item replacements that I’m too lazy to make, my Guardian will peak 20k HP, which is very good considering our innate defenses and low base HP.

In dungeons, my main weapon is the staff and I opt for either a hammer for CC if we don’t need a meatshield or I take a main hand and offhand if I really need to tank it out. I personally favor mace + focus if I am the only one who can take a hit in the party because it gives me a ton of opportunities to defend and mitigate damage. We have, in my opinion, one of the best non-elite skills in the game in Wall of Reflection which bounces back a lot of harmful projectiles done by mobs throughout the game and end up nuking the offender for tons of damage. We also have different shouts that grant different buffs and even remove conditions from allies. We even have longer cooldown abilities that will completely protect you and any allies in the area if that’s what you opt for.

Speaking of, guardian fields are great at supporting their friends because our fields are generally Light or Fire. That means if ranged characters fire their projectiles through your Wall of Reflection, they automatically cleanse themselves of conditions. The way I’m specced, I can activate my Virtue of Resolve to remove three conditions from everyone it hits, but there are a ton of different ways to accomplish this since the guardian class is not one-dimensional. We have different elite skills to use, one which makes you invulnerable while recharging virtues and one which gives you a ton of DPS for a short amount of time with different skills. The one I default to as a supporting guardian is Tome of Courage, which gives me a baseline 20 seconds to cast different abilities to heal and buff, including a huge channel which fully heals your party if you can get it off.

Of course, as a support guardian with this build, my DPS is pretty low. With self-buffed Might from my staff, I am only hitting over 1k if I crit, and my crit is so low it generally doesn’t happen. This does make soloing mobs in endgame zones longer than other DPS specced classes, maybe 50% or so depending. Don’t forget that you can never gimp your character to the point of having to restart since changing gear (if you can afford it and are willing to grind for it, like I did) will give you a different character.

I know that post was all over the place, but I decided to give you a quick look into how my guardian plays to get an idea what you’d get if you built and specialized a certain way. Again, you can do it in so many different ways – there’s a build in the Guardian forums that basically lets you heal and buff while doing strong DPS and being very hearty, and that may suit you better! The class is most definitely rewarding if you’re looking for a frontline fighter, but I advise you get some more insight on warriors before you make your decision.