Guild Wars 2

But what about Shelter? At first blush, Shelter seems strangely below par. With a mere ten second cooldown advantage over Signet of Resolve (or a paltry two seconds, with Improved Signets), Shelter heals for half Signet’s health return. Why would you ever use it? The answer is in mitigation. Shelter gives you a two second block, during which any and every attack aimed at you is blocked. Depending on how well you time your Shelter, you could be saving yourself a great deal of damage. Therefore, in terms of raw numbers, Signet of Resolve is superior to Shelter. But if your build and playstyle emphasizes blocks, you’ll get a lot of mileage out of Shelter, provided you use it at the right opportunity.

And finally, we have Healing Breeze. At Signet of Resolve’s base cooldown, Healing Breeze returns less health to you, with the added payoff of returning health to all allies in a cone in front of you. Depending on your build and your party dynamic, Healing Breeze might be your Heal of choice. Use it to top off the health of nearby allies and keep your momentum going.

Remember, you can—and should—change your skills on the fly. If you’re playing solo and just leveling, Signet of Resolve is probably the way to go. But if you’re about to run headfirst into a group event, then why not switch to Healing Breeze? If you’re anticipating a lot of damage, or facing several opponents, or using a Block build, consider switching in to Shelter as necessary.

Guardian Utilities: The Accidental Red Herring

If you’re new to Guild Wars and a veteran of MMORPGs, Guardian Utilities will almost certainly throw you a curve. Nearly every new player—myself included—tend to assume that Utilities are where the heart of our support lies. Utilities should provide the heals, the shields, the condition removal or the boons necessary for us to fulfill our support role. Right?

Well, no.

You see, utilities all have pretty long cooldowns across the board. Even if you wanted to, you can’t use utilities indiscriminately, or constantly. Utilities are trump cards. They’re powerful abilities available every one or two—maybe even three or four—significant encounters. The key to mastering Utilities lies within two basic principles:

• The Principle of Timing: Which says “Utilities are easy to use, and easy to waste.” It’s tempting to use a utility when the opportunity presents itself. It’s tempting to rush into a group of enemies and drop Hallowed Ground, just because. Don’t. Don’t do it. Timing dictates the efficacy of a utility, and a well-timed utility can and will turn the tide of a battle, while a poorly timed, wasted utility becomes swept into the numerical white-noise of the battle. The difference between a well-timed Wall of Reflection and a poorly timed Wall of Reflection is victory and defeat. Smart use of “Hold the Line!” takes that ability deeper and further than ad-hoc spam.

• The Principle of Adaptation: Which says, “Utilities that sit in your skill bar for too long grow stale.” Don’t leave your Utility slots filled with the same skills for ten levels. Outside of combat, when a utility is not on cooldown, you can switch it in and out of your skill bar instantly. Plan on running solo across a field of dangerous enemies? Switch one of your abilities with “Retreat!” Are you entering a zone with enemies that spread conditions? Then you’ll want to swap in Smite Conditions, Signet of Resolve and perhaps Purging Flames. Are you fighting Burn-immune destroyers? (How I hate them!) Get rid of Judge’s Intervention and Purging Flames, and get something else—maybe “Hold the Line!” Soloing? Need some help pressuring an enemy down? Pick up one or two Spirit Weapons. Utility skills are like clothes. Keep them fresh and change them often. Otherwise, well…I don’t know. Play something ugly and smelly like a Warrior.

So the reason I call Utilities an accidental ‘red herring,’ is because they tend to fool new players into assuming that these are the core abilities of your class. They’re not. Let me repeat that.

Utilities are not the core of your support.

Hang on. I need to shout this one from the mountain tops.

Utilities are not the core of your support. The core of your support is YOU. Support is defined by the aggregate of your utilities, your traits, your weapons, and most importantly, your playstyle!

Anyone who tells you differently is either mistaken or some kind of pernicious curmudgeon who wants you to feel bad because you’re not a dedicated healer. Are you going to let people like that run your life? Snaff did. And now he’s dead.

(Okay, that was kind of mean. I’m sorry.)

Interesting Synergies

• Scepter/Sword: Smite adds some much needed AoE potential to a sword build. Having Smite on your enemies before switching to sword racks up a lot of damage and Burning from Virtue of Justice, fast. Immobilize and Flashing Blade adds a great deal of battlefield control. However, pairing Scepter with Sword depends fundamentally on what you pair Sword with. Smite + Sword/Torch is just obscene amounts of damage. Scepter + Sword/Focus is versatile at any range.

• Scepter + Focus: Two ray attacks mean Scepter and Focus let you play well at range, while Shield of Wrath will let you close distance. In fact, if you create a Shield of Wrath setup where it detonates just as you’re closing distance with enemies, that’s an ideal time to switch to a melee weapon and go to town. Scepter+Focus is a strong weapon-switch option for moving from range to melee. Shield of Wrath has another synergy with Smite, if you take Defender’s Flame. Spread lots of burning through Block, then drop Smite for more damage and Virtue of Justice triggers.

• Scepter + Shield: A mid-range combination for protecting the midline from projectiles and applying Protection from behind. Also works as a solid choice for switching to a defensive melee weapon when closing distance. Begin attacking by range while you close distance, apply Shield of Judgement, then switch weapons. If you find yourself at range again, switch back to Scepter to keep attacking and have access to Shield of Absorption for additional mitigation.

• Scepter + Torch: A melee setup. Smite, Zealot’s Flame and Cleansing Flame is a huge amount of damage provided your enemies are relatively close together. Switch to it after closing distance with a melee weapon to finish off enemies, or switch to a defensive melee weapon for mitigation and cleanup.

Offhand Weapons

Your off-hand weapons don’t work in exactly the same was as main-hand or two hand weapons. Most of them, with the possible exception of torch, include long cooldown abilities. What off-hand weapons actually do is let you augment your main-hand weapons. I’ve covered main-hand/off-hand synergies above, but to reiterate briefly:

Focus

Focus is a bit of an odd-ball. It provides a pretty huge amount of mitigation through Ray of Judgement—provides a Blind along with reliable condition removal—and Shield of Wrath. For the most part, Focus works well with any weapon you’d like to use in melee. Blind is essentially a free block, and Shield of Wrath comes with an additional three blocks. This makes Focus a strong weapon for a defensive setup. But it can also deal solid damage. A detonated Shield of Wrath hits especially hard.

Shield

Shield provides more passive defense than Focus. With the right traits, and Shield’s inherent stats, you’ll stack more toughness on yourself. Where Shield differs from Focus, and distinguishes itself, is group synergy. Shield protects more allies than Focus. Shield of Judgement applies Protection to allies in its cone, and Shield of Absorption is potentially very powerful. Used at the right time, it completely nullifies all ranged attacks, and can be detonated early for a modest area heal. It’s a free Combo Field: Light to boot, providing potential for conditional removal and retaliation.

Torch

Torch. Set yourself on fire, and then set your enemies on fire, and then take their stuff from their charred corpses. Why settle for anything else? Torch spreads burning quickly through Zealot’s Flame, which doubles as a high damage (if relatively long-cooldown) ranged attack. Cleansing Flame also hits many, many times for a lot of damage, so it’s going to trigger at least two instances of passive Virtue of Justice. Remember, however, that Cleansing Flame does NOT set enemies on fire by Burning.

Healing Powers: How, When And Why

Every class has a healing power. Guardians are no different. Our heals are a little more versatile, including a potent self-heal, a more altruistic group-heal, and a defensive heal that sacrifices some raw health regeneration for added mitigation. So, which one’s the best one? How do you know which one to pick?

The honest truth is, there isn’t a best choice. If you want to look at pure numbers, then Signet of Resolve is wonderful. It returns a massive amount of health, removes conditions while inactive, and enjoys all the benefits of Signet-related traits. You can bring this down to a 32-second cooldown if you’d like, provided you take a few traits in Radiance.

• Sword/Mace: One of my favorite combinations while leveling. Sword is versatile and provides very high single-target damage and Virtue of Justice triggers. Mace provides strong healing. Outnumbered? Use mace. Thin them out. Switch to Sword. Or use Sword to close distance and apply blind. Use the blind time to switch to mace and drop your Symbol. Their next attack misses, and you block their second attack with Protector’s Strike. What’s that? You just nullified two attacks, gave yourself Regeneration and dealt a huge counter? Yeah. This is why Mace rocks.

• Mace + Focus: Solid synergy. Focus gives a limited ranged attack while closing distance, but more importantly, it gives you a blind. With allies close to you, that’s free Regen which stacks well with Symbol. The blind will mitigate one attack, and Shield of Wrath will mitigate three more, and Protector’s Strike will mitigate a fourth.

• Mace + Shield: Classic cleric look. Actually, Mace and Shield work well. It might not seem like it at first, but Shield of Judgement and Protector’s Strike provide damage, protection, a block and a counter. Shield of Absorption is a little tricky to use. You don’t want to scatter enemies you have under control, but you do want to scatter enemies that are out of control. Use it to lay down a quick, safe heal on nearby allies or stop projectiles while closing distance.

• Mace + Torch: I don’t see much of this around, and I don’t know why, because it’s awesome. Zealot’s Flame is great for mace, because you want to have one or two enemies around you. You can handle that. And with Zealot’s Flame, you can punish them too. Zealot’s Fire is a solid long range attack, which Mace lacks. And Cleansing Flame can finish up enemies you’ve corralled and weakened through Protector’s Strike.

Scepter: Guardian Tennis Club

Ah, Scepter. The Guardian relationship with Scepter is…a lot like a shotgun wedding. You’re pretty much stuck with it. Or else. So you better learn to love it. Seriously though, Scepter’s slow projectile speed and wibbly-wobbly bubbly looking projectile aside, this is a highly effective midrange weapon (long range if you’re against more stable foes in PVE—Champions, for example) that also happens to be our only ranged weapon. And I just cannot say enough good things about Smite.

Scepter Skills:

Orb of Wrath: Slow, bright, shiny. Yeah, it’s pretty much this, except, you know, dangerous and it hurts things. Orb of Wrath’s slow projectile speed really only matters at past the ~800 range. It’s effective against stable Champions at long range, but, surprisingly, it actually does well in melee, especially when compared with….

Smite: I <3 Smite. Smite does a lot of damage. Smite does a lot of damage in a relatively small area. Smite is balanced around the fact that enemies run out of that area and stop taking damage. Smite also has a small cooldown? So what makes smite so awesome? Use it in melee. Melee enemies aren’t going to run away from you despite being kitten-slapped a dozen times by the Gods. It’ll turn the melee vicinity into a death zone. Seriously, try leveling with Smite. Just try the first 10 levels. You’ll be shocked to see how fast things die.

Chains of Light: In order to understand Chains of Light, you need to think about it as a bridge between Scepter and whatever other weapon you’re using. Sure, Chains of Light is nice to stop an enemy and then drop a Smite on them, but it’s even nicer when you’re using Scepter to attack from range and want to keep something locked down while you enter melee. The Vulnerability is small, but significant, and stacks well with Vulnerability from other allies. And, as always, feel free to use Immobilize as a means of mitigation—keep an enemy OFF your teammate.

Why The Scepter Is Awesome

• Long range attack that goes through enemies. Reliable up to mid-range and strong at full-range in PVE.
• Smite. Smite makes every melee scenario so much better. Smite is free damage on a short cooldown. Smite works with nearly every weapon.
• Learning to move between melee and midrange is a staple of good Guardian play. Chains of Light gives you a reliable snare option and added control.
• Did I mention Smite?
• You get to work on developing a really sweet backhand.
• Play tennis with Zhaitan. Seriously. I don’t think another class can really compete with that.

Interesting Synergies

• Staff/Mace: A very defensive combination. Mace benefits from being able to corrall and control enemies, which staff provides. Taken together, Mace and Staff provide the gamut of team support. Mace’s symbols, auto-attack chains and Protector’s Strike protect allies from multiple opponents at close range, while Staff functions well at close to mid range, providing additional healing as well as boons. Staff/Mace lets a Guardian play defense at every range.

• Staff/Scepter: In terms of abilities, Staff and Scepter tend not to mesh together in obvious ways. Scepter benefits from 600-800 range, but works fine at closer ranges. What Scepter and Staff together do is allow you to play a more mid-range Guardian, working not from the front lines but not staying in the back either. Smite works well for keeping damage going while you apply Empower on your allies. Combine Line of Warding with Chains of Light and Smite to split apart and damage enemies.

• Staff/Sword: Depending on how you play it, and your off-hand, Staff and Sword can cover a broad range of strategies. Sword is a versatile weapon with good mitigation through Blind and high single-target damage capacity. If you play an aggressive Sword/Torch setup, Staff lets you move between ranges, applying Empower and fighting from midrange while you wait for a good opportunity to step in with sword. A more defensive Sword usually requires pressure from Zealot’s Defense plus Blind application, and staying at range. Staff gives you things to do while Sword’s abilities come off cooldown.

Mace: Hammer’s Healier Little Brother

Mace, like Hammer, is a slow, steady, powerful weapon. Unlike Hammer, it’s highly defensive, built for attrition, blocks and counters. Swinging a mace could help you get through fights that might otherwise leave you plastered to the ground in a big, bloody, vaguely Guardian-shaped mess. Seriously, Mace saves lives.

Mace Skills:

True Strike/Pure Strike/Faithful Strike: A relatively slow attack chain that ends in a big uppercut and a small heal. The heal might not seem like much, but with a decent amount of +Healing, a steady attack chain, and additional healing, defense and mitigation from your other abilities, it serves its purpose in the aggregate defensive strategy that is Mace.

Symbol of Faith: I love this attack. A little on the slow side, but it punches a damaging symbol of the ground that grants Regeneration to all allies, including yourself. This, along with Faithful Strike, keeps a small but steady stream of mitigation to any allies that crowd around you like the shining, mace wielding, face bashing beacon of defense that you are. A fast recharge makes it a dependable and useful Combo Field as well. Free Retaliation and Condition removal for everyone!

Protector’s Strike: This is what I love about Mace. Every single attack skill works well together. Symbol of Faith and Faithful Strike keep up mitigation through heals, and Protector’s Strike gives you an area block followed by a big counter. If nothing hits you, free Protection for all nearby allies. You can move while you use Protector’s Strike, and any ally inside its radius should be guarded by your block. By the way, the counter attack? Hits everyone around you like a sucker punch square in the jaw. It hurts.

Why the Mace is awesome

• Self-sustaining synergy. All three abilities work great together in some kind of sturdy, unbreakable kittentail of mitigation.
• Fifteen seconds is a small cooldown for what is essentially an area block coupled with a big AoE damage.
• Low cooldown Symbol.
• Mixes steady, strong damage with excellent mitigation, and allows for active defense of a vulnerable party member.
• Nearby allies will flock to you for heals and boons, making you popular and loved! By everyone!
• Except your enemies.
• Cause they’ll be dead.

Interesting Synergies

• 180 Radius on Symbol of Faith is a bit small, but if you go into the Honor line, you can make the Symbol about 50% bigger and stack additional heals. Really nice for an eight-second ability.

• Mace/Scepter: Oh God. Smite. Smite is so good with Mace. Pull enemies with Orb of Wrath. Smite when they get close. Immediately switch to Mace and use Protector’s Strike to block and counter their first attack for huge damage. Plus, without Mace’s movement options, Orb of Wrath’s range comes in real handy.

Why the Greatsword is Awesome:

• An aggressive weapon set that also provides good support.
• Free Might!
• Three whole combo finishers. Seriously. Three!
• Potent at close range.
• Solid choice for leveling. Dispose of multiple enemies quickly.

Interesting Synergies

• Greatsword/Staff: Apply Empower and Symbol of Swiftness, then close distance with the Sword. Staff gives you a potent mid-range support option, letting you function across several ranges with Greatsword in tow. Dropping Symbol of Swiftness in the middle of a fight, and then leaping into it, has a certain satisfaction.

• Greatsword/Mace: Mace is the defensive version of Greatsword. Greatsword allows you to attack several enemies effectively at close range. Mace lets you defend against several enemies effectively at close range. Switching to Mace gives you good defensive options while staying at an ideal Greatsword range. A good Protector’s Strike is a great time to switch to Greatsword and turn momentum.

• Greatsword/Scepter: Smite at melee. I can’t emphasize how effective this is. Smite, switch, Symbol, Whirling Wrath. Frontloaded close-range area damage, plus a decent ranged option if necessary.

• Greatsword/Sword: More synergy than you’d expect. Two blinds means the possibility of keeping a single enemy’s attacks nullified more consistently. Two distance closers means greater mobility. Sword lets you open hard with some powerful, single target attacks, especially when coupled with Torch. Switch to Greatsword to clean up.

Staff: There’s A Gandalf Reference Here Somewhere. I’m not going to make it though.

Don’t mistake Staff for a dedicated healer weapon. Staff is versatile and comes with powerful support abilities, and every Guardian should keep a good staff in their inventory, regardless of your build, spec or playstyle. The Staff provides strong mid-range support and functions best when you’re with allies, but not necessarily in the thick of the fray. Use it to grant Empower and drop a Symbol in anticipation of a big fight, or roll back to the midline, use Empower, then switch back to a more aggressive weapon. Line of Warding may be the single most powerful ability available to Guardians.

Staff Skills:

Wave of Wrath: Rainbow power! Wave of Wrath hits all enemies at 600 range across a very wide arc. Per-hit damage is middle-of-the-road, but the wide range makes up for it. Use this ability to tag multiple opponents in dynamic group events. Use this ability to lay damage on swarms of enemies. Use this ability with a good amount of crit and Empowering Might (Honor VIII) to grant several stacks of Might to all your allies—constantly. Use this ability with Renewed Justice (Radiance 15) to keep Virtue of Justice constantly recharging.

Orb of Light: Moves relatively slow, but has a fast cooldown. In tightly packed areas or with enemies up against walls, Orb of Light can add a lot of damage—fast. Detonate it for a modest heal to all allies in radius. See what I mean about benefitting from fighting in tightly packed areas, or having allies around?

Symbol of Swiftness: Grant a speed boost to any ally that steps in its radius, in addition to being a nice Combo Field. This symbol actually works in interesting ways. The Swiftness lasts eight seconds, and it activates the full duration per pulse (i.e, once a second). So every time an ally runs through Symbol of Swiftness, they should get a full eight seconds of extra speed. Run back through it to refresh. With traits that improve Symbols and reduce cooldowns on Staff abilities, expect to see this symbol in every fight.

Empower: Don’t let the long channel time dissuade you. Use this from the midline to give your front line a very powerful (12 stacks) Might boost and a strong heal. Use it in anticipation/preparation for a fight before switching to an aggressive weapon like Greatsword. Use it with Altruistic Healer to give you lots of health back. The cooldown is sufficiently low that, especially with a trait, you could use it in every significant encounter. This is one big reason to have Staff in your pack at all times.

Line of Warding: Hello, coolest and most versatile ability in the entire Guardian line. Line of Warding creates a line in front of you that no enemy can cross. At all. For a whole five seconds. Use it to block off entire corridors. Use it to force enemies to run around objects or use it to split enemies apart. Use it to block or create choke points. Use it while screaming “You shall not pass!” …kittenit. I made the reference, didn’t I? sigh

Why the Staff is Awesome

• Wide attack arc that tags multiple enemies. That’s a lot of Virtue of Justice triggers!
• Useful support skills that synergize well with any weapon, useful in any situation.
• Line of Warding
• Powerful ranged symbol, readily available.
• High Might stacking, synergizes well with Altruistic Healing and any content in which you have allies around you.

Ring of Warding: One of two wards the Guardian gets. This is an amazingly versatile ability, and one of the few abilities that can force an enemy to stay on you. I don’t actually recommend this, by the way. Forcing an enemy to hit you is about the worst way to mitigate damage. Instead, consider using it as a cage. Lock an enemy in—you’re free to run out, but they’re not. Also, it’s not terribly wide, but you can use it to lock up choke points.

Why The Hammer is Awesome:

• Free symbol in an auto-attack chain. Seriously, free symbol!
• High damage. Hammer’s damage is unsteady and tends to come slow, but when it hits, it hits hard.
• Mighty Blow is amazing. Seriously, this ability is beautiful. Short cooldown. High damage. Area effect. Small leap. And on top of all that? It’s a combo finisher! Do it right after Symbol of Protection to grant Retaliation on everyone.
• Good Control: Zealot’s Embrace, Banish and Ring of Warding let you control movement. Keep enemies locked in place or send them flying.

Interesting Synergies:

• Any Combo Field. Hammer has access to one of our few combo finishers, and it’s on a very short cooldown. Any weapon with a combo field works well with Hammer. Any utility that creates a Combo Field works well with Hammer. Purging Flames is particularly useful: Combo Field Fire, free condition removal, free area damage. Sounds exactly like what Hammer could use.

• Hammer/Greatsword: Twice the symbols and finishers. Extra control. Hammer and Greatsword together can deal a lot of close area damage quickly, and have enough control to keep enemies together. Two combo finishers and fields mean added group support.

• Hammer/Staff: Two wards. Hammer can work as a finisher for Symbol of Swiftness. Empower works well as a pre-Hammer setup.

• Hammer/Scepter: Decent ranged option. An extra immobilize and a long range, albeit slow, projectile give you options at any range. The beauty of Scepter, though? Smite. Use smite in melee, switch to Hammer and immediately lay down your attack chain + Mighty Blow. The area damage is just tremendous. Then, as a cherry on top, use Banish, chase, start the process all over again.

• Hammer/Sword: Sword’s teleport is a great distance closer. Use it to jump in, and switch to Hammer. The extra blind should keep you safe from the first attack.

Greatsword: Or, A Lesson In Inspiring Warrior Jealousy

Another highly versatile two-hander, faster than Hammer and a bit more well-rounded, Greatsword is a popular everyman’s weapon, useful in leveling, general PVE, and even support. Greatsword is reasonably fast, at least compared to Hammer, and provides Might in your attack chain. It’s designed for fighting multiple enemies, comes with a combo field, three combo finishers, a distance closer and control.

Greatsword Skills:

Strike/Vengeful Strike/Wrathful Strike: A solid, wide-sweeping attack chain. This chain grants you three seconds of Might at the end of it. For every enemy you strike, you’ll stack another Might. The duration is static, but the intensity grows with every enemy you hit. Three seconds is coincidentally about long enough for another chain, meaning constant Greatsword auto-attack = constant Might.

Symbol of Wrath: The damage is strong and racks up the longer an enemy stays inside the Symbol’s borders. It also provides retaliation, but not for long, so it’s useful to use just before an enemy strikes you. To top it off, it’s a Combo Field. Use it with Whirling Wrath, as detailed below.

Whirling Wrath: Best used when facing multiple enemies, which is exactly what Greatsword is designed to do. Whirling Wrath will trigger Cleansing Bolts off Symbol of Wrath, granting condition removal to nearby allies. It also hits hard, though the damage is variable, and tends to be more reliable when you have more than one enemy beside you. The closer you are to enemies, the more Whirling Wrath’s projectiles will hit.

Leap of Faith: The cooldown is a little long to use this indiscriminately. It is, however, a good distance closer coupled with good mitigation due to the Blind effect. Don’t use it purely for damage, but use it to jump into a group, or leap to an enemy charging at an ally. It’s a Leap finisher—not, in fact, all that great from Symbol of Wrath (your Retaliation might not do much if your enemy is blinded—it has to actually hit you to trigger Retaliation), but the Leap is worth keeping in mind.

Binding Blade: Control and an interrupt. Binding Blade does modest damage and produces a leash on the enemy. Use the Pull ability to interrupt them and immediately drag them on to you. The distance—a medium 600—takes a little getting used to, but this is a useful way to either corrall enemies, punish them for running away from you or create setups for Whirling Wrath. This is a Whirl finisher.

Binding Blade also has a significant DoT component. It isn’t a bad idea to allow the DoT to deal some damage before Pulling.

Why are Combo Fields so useful? Simple: Any ally can activate them. The more allies you have performing Combo Finishers inside your Combo Field, the more Combos you create. Here’s a quick list of our available Combo Fields:

Combo Field: Light plus …
… Combo Finisher: Blast = Area Retaliation
… Combo Finisher: Leap = Retaliation
… Combo Finisher: Projectile = Remove Condition
… Combo Finisher: Whirl = Cleansing Bolts

Combo Field: Fire plus …
… Combo Finisher: Blast = Area Might
… Combo Finisher: Leap = Fire Armor
… Combo Finisher: Projectile = Burning
… Combo Finisher: Whirl = Burning Bolts

This seems like a lot to take in, and it is, but you’ll get used to it the more you play.

Understanding Weapons

Guardians have access to the following weapons:

• Two Handed
  • Hammer
  • Greatsword
  • Staff

• Main-Hand Only
  • Sword
  • Scepter
  • Mace

• Off-Hand Only
  • Focus
  • Shield
  • Torch

• Underwater
  • Spear
  • Trident

Every weapon you equip grants you a different set of abilities that provides you with a different set of tactics. Two-Handed and Underwater weapons grant you a grand total of five attack skills. Main-Hand weapons grant you three, and Off-Hand weapons grant you two. You can combine Main Hand and Off-Hand weapons in any way you like.

Before I get into the specifics of weapons, I want to make a few things clear:

1) Every weapon is viable. There is no such thing as an inviable weapon. I’m actually not a fan of the way “inviable” gets thrown around as a word—if you see someone on the forums or in the game complaining about how Hammer or Mace or Greatsword is inviable in such-and-such situation, they’re just whining. Trust me. Now, there is such a thing as a weapon being more useful in one situation and less useful in another. That is important to remember. If you want to deal big spike damage, swinging a scepter is probably not your best option, for example. And if you want range, swinging a mace is probably not your best option. But Scepter sure is.

2) Keep a good copy of every single weapon in your inventory. Seriously. Just because you can switch between two weapons in combat doesn’t mean you should only ever rely on two weapons. You are a Guardian. You have access to an entire range of weapons. Keep all of them, and learn two switch weapon sets when you’re anticipating their use. I’ll talk more about this later, but I want this idea percolating in your minds for a while.

3) You are not defined by your weapon. You are not limited by your weapon. While it’s true that certain Traits do encourage the use of certain weapons, remember that Traits are not at all permanent. Look, just because you have a Trait that gives you +15% Crit with a one handed weapon doesn’t mean you can never ever use a staff or a hammer. Be flexible.

Hammer: Because I May Be A Guardian, But I Can Still Bash Your Face In

Ah, the Hammer. Big. Slow. Ponderous. The hammer is actually surprisingly versatile for something that looks like it was designed for a single ultraviolent purpose. The Hammer is a slow weapon partly because it has a built in symbol in its attack chain. Yes. That’s right. Every three attacks, Hammer creates a big Symbol of Protection on the ground that gives you and all your friends Protection for a little while. It also hits like a truck, if you could swing a truck with both hands.

Hammer Skills:

Hammer Swing/Hammer Bash/Symbol of Protection – This is your auto-attack. The first two swings come out at an average speed, but the last swing is very slow. Time it right and it’ll hit hard and create a Symbol of Protection on the ground, dealing additional damage to enemies and protecting allies. Oh, and it doubles as a Combo Field: Light

Mighty Blow: Learn to love it. Mighty Blow is just straight damage. With Mighty Blow, timing is everything. It hits hard and fast, so use it just after a Symbol of Protection to lay on a sudden spike of damage. Remember that it’s a Combo Finisher too, so use it to activate any combo fields.

Zealot’s Embrace: A long range immobilize. Use it to help close distance or control fleeing enemies. Use it to keep enemies from chasing your less armored allies.

Banish: I can’t get over how much fun this attack is. Despite the relatively long cooldown, Banish deals a modest amount of damage and sends an enemy flying. Use it to interrupt enemy skills, and keep them controlled—an enemy flying through the air and struggling to get back up is an enemy that isn’t attacking. Send enemies off cliffs. Keep them off your allies.

As for Conditions, we spread Burning like nobody’s business. But that’s about all we have. Guardians do have some strong Blind abilities, one or two Immobilizations and access to limited Vulnerability. But our most common condition is by far Burning.

Okay. So what about Symbols?

So, Symbols are a mechanic peculiar to Guardians. A Symbol is an area we create on the ground that damages enemies and provides a boon to allies in its radius. Later on I’ll discuss traits that improve Symbols, but for now, here’s a list of all our symbols:

• Symbol of Faith: Mace – Deals damage to enemies and grants regeneration to allies.
• Symbol of Judgement: Downed State – Heal Allies, Damage Enemies.
• Symbol of Protection: Hammer – Damage enemies and grant Protection to allies.
• Symbol of Swiftness: Staff – Damage enemies, grant Swiftness to allies.
• Symbol of Wrath: Greatsword – Damage enemies and causes Burning. Grant Retaliation to allies.

And how about Virtues?

Guardians have access to three Virtues, which are our Profession skills. Virtues come in two flavors: Passive and Active. As long as you don’t activate a Virtue, it’s in Passive mode, and gives you a small boost of some sort. When you activate the Virtue, you lose the Passive bonus and get the Active bonus. The Passive bonus returns once your Virtue is off cooldown.

Think of Virtues like signets that you always have. They give you small, constant bonuses when not in use, and if you activate them, they grant bigger bonuses to your entire team. Here’s a quick overview:

• Virtue of Justice: Passive – Every fifth attack burns the enemy for one second. Active: All nearby allies deal 5 seconds of burning on their next attack.

How to use it: Leave it on, for the most part. Virtue of Justice essentially makes your fifth strike deal more damage. A strike is defined as any time you hit your enemy. So any weapon or skill that has multiple, fast strikes is going to activate Passive Virtue of Justice more frequently, right? I’ll cover Justice synergy more thoroughly when I get to specific weapons, but the rule of thumb is: The faster your weapon attacks, the more damage you get out of this Virtue.

Activate Virtue of Justice when you have several allies around you. Every nearby ally’s next attack will set the enemy on fire for five seconds. So if it’s five of you attacking one champion, that’s 25 seconds of burning. Not too shabby.

Virtue of Justice comes off cooldown pretty quickly, so feel free to use it liberally if you have allies around you.

• Virtue of Resolve: Passive – Regenerate Health. Active: Heal yourself and nearby allies.

How to use it: Leave it on. You won’t notice it, but it’s there to help you. Virtue of Resolve grants you a small amount of health back every three seconds, but it does add up over the course of a battle.

Because of the long cooldown, activating Virtue of Resolve just to heal yourself is not recommended except in a pinch. Use it when you need to spread a modest heal to your nearby allies. It’s strong enough to save them if they’re starting to get low.

• Virtue of Courage: Passive – Grants Aegis every 40 seconds. Activate: Grant Aegis to yourself and nearby allies.

How to use it: Again, leave it on. The cooldown on this is way too long to justify using it except in particular situations. Courage gives you a free Aegis every 40 seconds. That’s a free block every 40 seconds. Every 40 seconds, you’ll totally negate one attack. Activating it gives Virtue immediately to every ally around you. It can be a great lifesaver if you’re expecting nearby allies to take a big amount of damage, or if you just want to give them some mitigation in anticipation of a lot of damage.

Either way, rule of thumb: Leave it on. Use Courage if you desperately, absolutely need to block something NOW. Otherwise, save it for when you’ve got allies around you who are under attack.

Hang on. What about Combos? Guardians have all these Combo Fields…

We sure do. So, Combos are one of the underrated mechanics of GW2 at the time of writing this guide. People tend to glaze over it, or ignore its efficacy when discussing an ability. I honestly cannot understand why—Combos are wonderful. Combos add so much to a Guardian’s group dynamic. But how do they work?

Combos are pretty simple in theory. A combo is created by a Combo Field + Combo Finisher. Every Combo Field has a particular type. The type of Combo Field you create determines the effects of the Combo Finisher. Let’s take Hammer for example.

Hammer has Symbol of Protection, which is also a Combo Field: Light. You can tell it’s a Combo Field by the bright, shining borders. Hammer also has Mighty Blow, which is a Combo Finisher. If you perform Mighty Blow (Combo Finisher) inside Symbol of Protection (Combo Field), you produce a Combo effect.

• Versatility: Guardian playstyle changes dramatically with weapon choice. Depending on our weapon choice, we could be playing aggressively and focusing on high damage and spreading Burning. Or we could be playing defensively and focusing on blocking and guarding our allies. Every single weapon choice is viable, but every single weapon choices changes the way we play. A warrior, for example, is going to be aggressive and smash faces in whether they’re wielding mace, axe, sword or hammer. With Guardians, it’s not so simple. Each of our weapons opens up a different set of tactics. If you’re going to play a Guardian seriously, expect to use every weapon at your disposal.

• Active Defense: Regardless of your style of play, your Guardian—any Guardian, in fact—will always have defensive abilities available to them. Defensive abilities are defined as abilities that mitigate damage, remove conditions, protect allies, apply boons and provide healing.

That’s Guardian in a nutshell. This is what a Guardian is not:

• …Pure Support: No Guardian build will ever have you sitting in the mid/back line dropping boons and heals. Ever. If you’re doing this, you’re wasting half of your available resources. Every class is expected to be aggressive, and Guardians are no different. Remember, the best kind of support is a dead enemy, so if you’re not busy dropping shields or using Healing Breeze, you need to be bringing the pain to your enemies.

• …Pure Damage: No Guardian trait line or weapon combination (with the possible exception of Sword/Torch, and even then) or Utility combination will ever eliminate the support component of your profession. You will never be able to focus purely and entirely on damage—or rather, you’d have to try very hard to do that.

• …Versatile at range: I’ll talk about this more when I get to weapons. But at the moment, Guardians do not have many options when it comes to range. Our only ranged weapon is Scepter, and possibly Staff at about mid-range. Scepter is a strong, reliable weapon, but because it’s our only ranged weapon, you’ll need to get used to keeping one in your pack. You don’t have to use it all the time, but there will be situations that necessitate staying at range.

• …A paladin: This is actually important to understand. While the Guardian’s abilities seem inspired by Paladin-esque concepts of justice, valor and holiness, the Guardian is not a paladin. There is no Guardian order. The Guardians do not serve a Deity any more than any other profession might. And while we may seem thematically similar to them, we are not Holy/Prot/Ret paladins for anyone coming from WoW. There is no tank spec. There is no healer spec. There is no DPS spec.

There is only you, your allies at your back, and your enemies before you. That’s the role of the Guardian.

The Fundamentals of Being A Guardian: Boons/Conditions, Symbols, Virtues

What are boons?

Boons are effects that improve your allies’ abilities somehow. Different Guardian abilities activate different boons. If you want to be literate in Guardian abilities, learn what the boons do. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Boons that improve damage:
  • Fury: 20% higher chance to crit
  • Might: Attacks deal more damage
  • Retaliation: Enemies who strike you take some damage in return

• Boons that mitigate damage:
  • Aegis: Block (take no damage from) the next attack. Regardless of how strong an attack is, if you block it, it has zero effect on you.
  • Regeneration: Gradually return health per second
  • Protection: Take 33% less damage from attacks.

• Boons that improve performance:
  • Stability: You can’t be knocked down, pushed back, launched, stunned, dazed or feared.
  • Swiftness: Move 33% faster
  • Vigor: Endurance regenerates twice as fast.

What Are Conditions?

Conditions are the opposite of boons. Conditions debilitate, weaken, harm or otherwise reduce your enemies’ ability to fight you. Here’s a quick rundown of all the conditions:

• Conditions that deal damage:
  • Bleeding: Deals damage per second.
  • Burning: Deals damage per second. We do a LOT of this. Learn to love the Burn.
  • Confusion: Enemy takes damage when they use a skill.
  • Poison: Deals damage per second and reduces healing.

• Conditions that weaken the enemy:
  • Blind: The enemy’s next attack is an automatic miss. Think of this as a free block.
  • Chilled: Reduce movement speed by 66%. Skills recharge slower.
  • Crippled: Reduce movement speed by 50%
  • Fear: Enemies run away.
  • Immobilize: Prevent all movement.
  • Vulnerability: Enemy takes 1% more damage per stack.
  • Weakness: Half of your attacks deal low (glancing) damage. Endurance regenerates slowly.

Guardians have access to nearly every boon. Might, Retaliation, Aegis and Regeneration are probably your most common, but you have easy access to Vigor and Stability too. Fury is a bit harder to come by.

Hello everyone,

This is my first attempt at a comprehensive and approachable guide for beginners (and curious veterans) to the Guardian class. Guild Wars 2 is a brand new game, and the meta-game is still in its infancy. Many of us are struggling to understand the principles of this game while shedding ourselves of the pre-conceived expectations cultivated by years of playing WoW. There is no trinity, no concept of DPS, no tank-and-spank, no backline healbotting and no “pure support role,” and so we’re all in one way or another learning to play all over again.

This guide will attempt to accomplish the following:

• Introduce new players to the mechanics of the class
• Talk about the fundamentals of every weapon option
• Offer an overview of the utilities
• Discuss trait synergies and the philosophy behind creating a build
• Encourage experimentation and promote some of GW2’s new mechanics
• Debunk myths, misconceptions and misinformation that’s been floating around

This guide will not do any of the following:

• Teach you how to be a healbot
• Teach you how to be a tank
• Teach you how to be DPS
• Tell you exactly how to play
• Teach you PVP (It’s just not the aim of this guide, nothing against PVP at all)
• Cover advanced or high-level concepts including deep theorycraft

So, here we go!

It’s ANet’s Fault: A Compendium on Complaining On The Forums
Inviable: Why This Class Is Broken And Why You Should Reroll
Schadenfreude: Slaughtering Necromancers And Feeling Good About it
The Light And How to Swing It: By Uther Pendragon

Guardian 101 – A Guide For Beginners

“Blade with whom I have lived, blade with whom I now die: serve right and justice one last time; seek one last heart of evil; still one last life of pain. Cut well, old friend. Then, farewell.”

Good Reasons To Play A Guardian:

• You want to play an aggressive, armored class that can support your allies while bringing the hurt on your enemies.
• You want a good mix of magic and melee, and a class that combines armor and weaponry with flashy spell effects.
• You’re a pyromaniac and like the thought of engulfing your enemies in blue flame.
• You’re a pyromaniac and like the thought of engulfing yourself in blue flame.
• You think bows and rifles are for sissies.
• You want to be just like Logan Thackeray—good, because we have an ability for that. It’s called “RETREAT!”. Seriously, it’s a Shout.

Bad Reasons To Play A Guardian:

• You want to play a passive healer.
• You want to soak up damage like a meatshield.
• You hate dodging.
• You’re a masochistic thief that wants to play the profession that just broke your back in sPVP. Yeah, I went there.
• You’re expecting Hammer of Justice and Divine Shield all over again.
• You read somewhere on the forums that Guardians are totally OP Easymode OMG.
• You think Countess Anise has a thing for Guardians. Seriously, give up. You’ve got no chance.
• Queen Jennah on the other hand…

The Guardian is a defensive soldier. A heavily armored combatant whose playstyle focuses on contending with enemies while supporting one’s allies with robust boon application, heals and shields. Guardians are remarkably versatile, capable of adhering to a broad range of playstyles—spreading conditions, dealing sudden bursts of damage, being an immovable wall—but a few basic principles define the core of every Guardian’s playstyle:

• Force Multipliers: Guardians are designed to be good at this. We can routinely and sustainably improve our allies. Our Virtues allow us to sacrifice personal benefits for powerful boons applies to all nearby allies. Our symbols, shouts, meditations, consecrations and traits let us strengthen our allies while going toe to toe with our enemies.

• Close to Mid Range: Guardians do have limited long range options, but nearly all of our action is going to happen on the front line. We are built for the frontline. If you are not engaging your enemy, if you are not swinging your weapon, if you are not dodging out of blows and smashing something pointy and/or smashy in your enemy’s face, you’re doing something wrong.

Table of Contents

1) Introduction
2) Boons and Conditions
3) Symbols
4) Virtues
5) Combos
6) Weapon Overview
7) Hammer
8) Greatsword
9) Staff
10) Mace
11) Sword
12) Scepter
13) Offhands
14) Healing Overview
15) Utilities Overview
16) Consecrations
17) Meditations
18) Shouts
19) Signets
20) Spirit Weapons
21) Elites
22) Traits Overview
23) Making A Build
24) FAQs

Change Log

12/19/12 – Minor description changes in accordance with recent patch notes.
11/5/12 – Changed description of Renewed Focus to reflect recent changes.
9/21/12 – Added mention of the DoT component of Binding Blade. Thanks Aseyhe.2948!
9/16/12 – Added section on Sword
9/16/12 – Began first round of corrections and small edits.
9/15/12 – First draft of the guide completed and posted.
9/15/12 – Finished Table of Contents.

External Link Here – Thank you LamaFc