I'll guard you. Let them come through ME first! - Guardian discussion thread.

[Deleted]

So I wanted to make a Guardian discussion thread, mainly because every other profession got on, and i'm pretty sure there are people here who will go with the Guardian profession. I want to 'pimp' this thread out more than the other profession threads, because Guardians are awesome! I searched through the forum but couldn't find a Guardian discussion thread only.

I will ask my question, so scroll down a little bit.

So I will explain a little bit what the Guardian is about. To them who want's to understand a little bit about Guardians.



The Guardian is a friend caring profession, which means you help other friendly players a lot with your skills and abilites. The Guardian controls the ground, which means they put symbols, wards and lines on the ground which enemies can't cross, or causes conditions, dealing damage to the enemies. The Guardian's special ability is that they got three virtues, which is assigned for F1, F2 and F3. Each virtue provides a passive effect to the Guardian.

Virtue of Courge gives the Guardian a shield that blocks next attack every 30 seconds.

Virtue of Justice makes the next 5th attack to cause burning condition on enemies.

Virtue of Resolve gives passive health regeneration.

These Virtues can be activated and gives the friendly players around you it's benefits, and to you too of course. But they will be deactived for some time as a passive effect for you.

The weapons that the Guardian can use are-...

• Main-Hand

Sword
Mace
Scepter

• Off-Hand

Shield
Torch
Focus

• Two-Handed

Greatsword
Hammer
Staff

• Aquatic

Spear
Trident

I won't go into detail about what skills the different weapons get. However, if you want to read more about the Guardian you can visit these websites.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-gam...ions/guardian/
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guardian

So my questions are-...

What weapon combinations will you go with mainly?
Even if the Guardian is a protective profession, how much will you actually care about helping others? Using your virtues to give it to your allies?

[Blznsmri]

Sword 'n Board and Greatsword.

I love me some mobility.

[Deleted]

Sword 'n Board and Greatsword.

I love me some mobility.

That's what I was thinking about. Sword and Shield, with a Greatsword as second weapon swap. Otherwise I take Scepter and Torch as second swap.

[Blznsmri]

I also like the Hammer as well, I don't care for wands and staves really, I just want to be in their faces laying down the hurt.

[Koshun]

I didn't know Guardians couldn't use axes :O Looks like I'll be rolling with Greatsword and Sword/shield.

[Deleted]

I also like the Hammer as well, I don't care for wands and staves really, I just want to be in their faces laying down the hurt.

I mainly wanted scepter because it's nice to be able to go ranged and shoot some magical blue fire balls on my enemies, as some boss encounters you will have to be ranged to attack them, however, there will probably be environmental weapons, such as rocks and whatnot.

PvP will be pretty fun as well, standing on rooftops and shoot ranged fire balls on enemy players!

[Blznsmri]

I mainly wanted scepter because it's nice to be able to go ranged and shoot some magical blue fire balls on my enemies, as some boss encounters you will have to be ranged to attack them, however, there will probably be environmental weapons, such as rocks and whatnot.

PvP will be pretty fun as well, standing on rooftops and shoot ranged fire balls on enemy players!

My main's going to be a ranger for all that shooty stuff. I just feel weird having heavy armor and not being up close and personal.

[Searsha]

I am now torn between Necromancer and Guardian... Ugh. As other have echoed, I would most likely go Greatsword/Sword and Board.

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/...itch=2f339b133

Although I feel like the build might be too heavy on wards with Wall of Deflection, Sanctuary, and then the shield abilities. Perhaps I am underestimating their capabilities–maybe there is no such thing as too many wards. This build is also highly mobile.

[BlairPhoenix]

Going Mace/Shield and I think Staff, though not positive on the second weapon yet. I know their isn't 'tanks' in GW2, but I still love the idea of just being a defensive beast and Mace/Shield seems the best way to go about that.

[Dilbon]

If I play a guardian, I'm probably using staff and hammer. Or who knows, but the idea of a staff wielding guardian is interesting.

[Loaf Lord]

I just hope the guardians damage as a whole isn't neglected for the sake of fitting the "supportive" profession". That's my biggest worry with the profession.

[Imnick]

I was thinking mace/shield and hammer would be pretty cool

[Blznsmri]

I just hope the guardians damage as a whole isn't neglected for the sake of fitting the "supportive" profession". That's my biggest worry with the profession.

Check this out.

[Deleted]

Here's a 2 part video about a Guardian going around killing random stuff.

[Loaf Lord]

Even if the Guardian is a protective profession, how much will you actually care about helping others? Using your virtues to give it to your allies?

If I do go guardian, I'll be as offensive as possible, following the saying "the best defense is a good offense". I'll provide the support for my allies, but I'm not going out of my way to completely protect them. I'll drop a ring of warding, it'll be their decision to take advantage of it or not. I'm very anal with buffs, so they'll always be getting them from me. I'll probably save my virtues for me unless giving it to another player changes the outcome of the battle significantly enough.

[SinRaven]

I personally love the look of Guardian (and purposely haven’t looked at many other classes since I’m terrible for class jumping, even while playing)

With regards to weapon use I love a bit of sword and board but the main draw to me for Guardian is the fact you can switch out to caster weapons and sling some magic around should you get board of beating things in the face. The real bonus is you get all this, and wear heavy armour! (love heavy armour models)

Helping others also sounds highly appealing to me. I feel that Guardian may really be able to turn some battles with a good use of protective wall or reflective bubble. Definitely excited about trying these things out in events etc and seeing how useful they really are.

[zcks]

Thing I love the most about the professions in GW2 is that talents/traits only make up about half of the abilities you have access to & weapons make up the rest, meaning you have a great deal more customization then what you would with games like WOW.

That means with say a guardian you can create a truly custom weapon, trait & ability build that favors the play style you want. If you want to be geared traited & set up for offensive play then it's possible & you wont lack needed abilities needed for the job chosen unlike for instance in WOW where you would have a ret paladin expected to be an off healer in PVP because he/she lacks the tools to be an effective offensive melee.


As for the Guardian model IE a heavy armor user that also uses holy magic for offense or defense, I have loved the idea since I was a kid playing table top D&D. If anyone can pull off the design & balance of it it's Arena.net

As for what build I'll use, weapon set one will definitely be a 2 handed weapon (great sword for PVP & hammer for PVE) weapon set 2 will probably be a 1 handed mace + focus for PVE & then a IDK what for PVP.


BTW you should probably note above that if the person so chooses they can play extremely offensively as a guardian while applying passive boons like regeneration to their allies.

[omlech]

It entirely depends on what I want to focus on. I already made up an entire build for Cross Profession Combo focus:

So in total the Guardian can create 4 initiator fields and has 6 skills that can finish initiator fields.

From what I can see if you're really into making a CPC heavy build for a Guardian, you'll want to run Mace + Shield or Mace + Focus depending on if you want to go with more defense/defense or defense/condition. Mace + Shield will let you make 2 initiators, Mace + Focus will let you make 1 initiator and 1 finisher. Your second weapon will want to be the Greatsword as you have 2 initiators and 3 finishers on it.

If you run M + S & GS then you can make all 4 initiator fields and 4 finishers, M + F + GS would be 3 initiators and 5 finishers.

So that's all just one class comboing off of itself, not taking into account any other classes.

Then you run something like 30 pts into Honor, 30 into Valor, and 10 into Virtues for your traits:

Honor -

Minor

Protective Reviver You and your ally gain aegis when you revive them
Pure of Heart Aegis heals on removal
Might of the Virtuous Any Aegis you apply gives might when it is removed

Major

Writ of Persistence Your symbols last longer
Two-Handed Mastery Your two handed weapons recharge 25% faster
Writ of the Merciful All symbols give Regeneration

Valor -

Minor

Valorous Protection You gain protection when your health reaches 50%
Might of the Protector You gain might when you block attacks
Retributive Armor 10% of Toughness is given as a bonus to Precision

Major

Altruistic Healing You are healed whenever you apply a boon to allies
Monk's Focus You are healed when you use a meditation
Meditation Mastery Your meditations recharge 20% faster

Virtues -

Minor

Resolute Increase the duration of Resolve

Major

Meditative Revival All virtues recharge instantly when you revive an ally

Ok now the tool I'd use for builds is very out of date so I'll just lay out my heal/utility/elite skills.

Heal

Healing Breeze
Heal yourself and allies with a healing breeze. Stacks with Regeneration.

Utilities

Contemplation of Purity
Remove all conditions from yourself and turn them into boons.

Renewed Focus
Recharge all virtues instantly.

"Stand Your Ground!"
Grant Stability to yourself and allies.

Elite

Tome of Courage

Locks you in place but grants you powerful support spells.


Virtues:

Virtue of Justice
Burn foes with your every fifth attack. Activate: Nearby allies set foes on fire with their next attacks.

Virtue of Courage
Every 30 seconds you gain an Aegis that blocks the next attack. Activate: Grant Aegis to nearby allies.

Virtue of Resolve
Regenerate health. Activate: Remove conditions and regenerate nearby allies.

This doesn't take into account armor set mods, weapon mods, or jewelery mods either. This is ONE BUILD that I came up with based on maximizing cross profession combos. The depth is this game is far, FAR deeper than most people realize. Not even taking into account the player actually playing well and not just spamming skills. This build focuses on being very boon & heal heavy with shortened cooldowns for Virtues and Greatsword skills so you can use finishers more often.

[Loaf Lord]

I also hope they give us flexible choices for our personal story as a guardian. I really dislike feeling like a pious, white knight cliche. I want to be a bad ass who doesn't afraid of anything, the guy who's constantly insulting his foes as he's fighting. Instead of "Don't make me kill you!" it'll be "WHEN CAN I KILL YOU?!"

[Larynx]

So, Eiserne, what was that about patience again?