User:Silven/Guardian

Hey, my name's Jax and I would like to illustrate to you some of my thoughts on the more advanced tactics the Guardian has to offer. *Skip to the TLDR if you don't want to read a basic introduction.* I was an avid GW1 player, C3 if that counts for anything, and pretty much any competitive game (SC2, LoL, etc) since then. I like to formulate theories and practice against good players to improve myself and become a better player. This drives me to be extremely competitive and participate in the Beta even though I didn't think I'd like it. Personal feelings for the game aside, I logged just over 30 hours of during the time the Beta was out. Most of this time was in PvP and I've already created builds and strategies against specific classes and builds that the other players have had to offer.

My (Quick) take on the Guardian

Pros

• High potential for large amounts of damage, through DPS and spiking.
• More direct forms of defending allies, ie. using protection spells to defend them rather than KDing an enemy.
• Very malleable, can trait in very different specialties and the variety of weapons can be adapted to do any task.
• Can have very high survivability.
• Very powerful solo character.

Cons

• No sustained, high-damage, range output.
• Relies a lot of skills for survivability, ie. once you pop sanctuary, if you don't pull off the perfect SoA, you can die easily (unless you spec toughness of course).
• Has barely any positioning utility skills, ie. if you're caught out of position you're more likely to be punished than say a Mesmer.

TLDR; I love the Guardian and its current set up, but it can sometimes be harder keep good positioning compared to other classes (due to its reliance on physical damage, and reliance on skills for survivability while you are on the frontline).

Advanced Tactics

Now onto the focus in this thread. I will be discussing the newer ideas that have come to me through practicing Conquest or just theory-crafting the class in general.

Weapon Swapping

Weapon swapping is essential to winning in this game. Chaining skills from your first set to your second set is extremely important, and this is where the more advanced logic comes in. - It allows you 1 or more *extra* skills on your skill bar. - Can throw your foe off balance by a different flurry of attacks. - Potential to save precious skill-slot space on your build. Generally this tactic is used to have that extra little bonus to your normal fighting style. This could be in the form of a finisher or a set-up to an attack. It's mostly used in spiking due to the fact it takes 10seconds to weapon swap again (and thus not sustained). One of the most important things to remember that it still takes time to swap weapons, so as a Guardian it's often useful to have your target snared, or knocked down, to eliminate that as a downside. Examples - Finishing a Sword-Torch chain with a GS's Whirling Wrath, keeping your foe knocked down with Hammer of Wisdom. - Using the Scepter's Chains of light to keep a foe in place for a Sword-Torch chain, or GS chain. - Using the Focus' Zealot's Flame to burn your foe, while DPSing with a GS. There are many more, feel free to post your own combo's. There can be downsides to this, it puts that weapon set on recharge, ie. Chains of light for a spike with Sword-Torch / GS, but you get spiked yourself and can't swap back to Scepter-Shield for SoA. And you may waste your second set for a single skill, an example is having GS as your second set instead of a shield set, meaning less utility.

Weapon Selection

Selecting the right weapon for the right job can mean the difference between an easy win and a nail-biting loss. Firstly, make sure your weapons and traits coincide, ie. you don't want to be spec'ing toughness and Vitality while wielding a GS. Although that was an extreme example to prove a point, I will outline the importance of traits later on. Let's have a look at the advantages of selecting the correct weapon.

• You are prepared for the situation.
  Whether you have a greatsword to drop the mesmers clones faster, or a mace to counter the big, Warrior hits.

• There is an option to switch weapons you are using while not in combat.
  Once you've seen the enemy team, you can decide what weapons you want to use *in the game*. This means you can swap to a more appropriate weapon when you see that build/class giving you trouble.

• Can throw your foe off-guard.
  If they're expecting a sword-shield/Staff Guardian and you pull out a GS, it's going to throw them off their original plan. (and in some cases they've swapped weapons to deal with you and you would have stuffed that up for them).

If you guys want a guide to each weapon, post and I'll write one up (it's a bit long is all).

Here are the major examples of when I switch weapons.

• Scepter-any Mesmers are extremely good at creating a lot of clones, while keeping at a distance with Blink. When faced against one while capping I'll switch out my offensive set (sword-torch) for a GS, this way I can destroy all the clones with high levels of AoE damage, then still have the damage and snares to kill the mesmer. Staying in sword-torch would mean I can be overwhelmed by clones.
• When playing against Warriors, I've found that maces are actually more defensive than the scepter, so when faced with this scenario, I swap out my defensive set (scepter-shield) for a mace-shield. This allows me to block a lot of their big attacks when on the defence, while still having my offensive set for damage.

If needed, I can provide many more examples, just post! =) Sometimes different maps call for different weapons. Whether one map has smaller chokes than the other, or maybe the start positions are closer, it can change your preference in weapons. Here are some of the more important examples.

• When on any map (even any introduced in the future) while you are on a cap point, always swap to your shield set (if you don't have one on, put one on). This means that, when somebody does pop up, you have the option to finish capping the point via SoA + Sanctuary.
• Staves (and GS to a lesser extent) are by far the most amazing weapon to use in the clocktower. When sitting on the window you get full AoE damage + the ability to Line of Warding the window and easily escape.
• When fighting in the Forest of Niflhel, the keep capturing can often be an extremely weird battle. A lot of players choose the back entrance to gain the high-ground, while their allies cap. With the scepter, at a certain angle you can hit enemies (your projectiles follow the ground) but cannot be shot back. This means a scepter-shield set is 100% required, because of SoA being so good at knocking enemies off the ledge.
• On Niflhel, the battles are generally more centralized compared to Kyhlo, which has more spread out bases and therefore less chance for clumping. This means that weapons such as the GS or staff can be more effective on Niflhel while Swords or Scepters are more effective on Kyhlo due to the smaller scale of combat.

Again, post if you want more information =) In this case, it's also acceptable to go against your traits if it's needed. If you trait *against* a Staff, they're still the best weapon for assaulting the clocktower. Same with traiting against a GS vs a scepter Mesmer. Due to requests I will post my opinion on the weapons here:

Main Hand Weapons

Sword – Highest DPS / Medium Spike / Low Snare / Low AoE

Great Sword – High DPS / Highest Spike / High Snare /Highest AoE

Wand – Medium DPS / Low Spike / High Snare / Medium AoE

Staff – Low DPS / Low Spike / Medium Snare / High AoE

Mace – Medium DPS / Low Spike / Low Snare / Medium AoE

Hammer – Medium DPS / High Spike / Highest Snare / High AoE

Off-Hand Weapons

Torch – Medium(Highest with Sword) DPS / Highest Spike / Low Snare / Low Utility

Focus – Medium DPS / High Spike / Low Snare / Medium Utility

Shield – Low DPS / Low Spike / Low Snare / Highest Utility

Map Tactics

Here I will outline some of the tactics I've come up with during this Beta. The different maps require different strategies to go about them. Whilst playing always remember the aim is first to 500points, not first to kill the enemy team.

General Tactics

• Always be moving to a capture point, no matter what. Even when you engage somebody, the aim is to kill them then get to the capture point. Do *not* go around looking for 1v1's, etc. Although it's always good to practice your combat (especially in the Beta) at least try to implement this basic tactic, it will improve your odds of winning and your contribution to the team.
• Try not to force 5v5's if you're on the losing team, try and side-step their forces and go for cap points.
• Holding capture points is just as important as capping them, but try not to dedicate more forces to defending than the enemy is. Generally they'll go around and capture the points you cannot defend.
• This requires your team to move in smaller groups, and sometimes forming up in the middle to defend the major objective. This means you need more self-sufficiency and to rely less on your allies.

Battle of Kyhlo

On this map there are a many small chokes with a lot of climbable terrain. Remember that some AoE skills can change the tide of battle, it's harder to kite out of smaller chokes and your spells can do more damage. That doesn't mean you should use specifically AoE spells, but they can be more effective. Some special features include:

• At least one person should always start by going left, towards their nearest cap-point. This dedicates the least resources to capping this point while the rest can concentrate on capturing the Clocktower or the other teams close cap-point.
• Use windows in the Clocktower to follow enemy movements, you don't want to get ganked on your way to a cap-point.
• The fastest way from the centre to each point is through the windows, you can also jump up buildings to get into the Clocktower without using the stairs, this is easiest from the Mansion. It also gives you a tiny choke and the highground from the broken window.
• The most common escape method, from the centre of the Clocktower, is to jump donw the stairs and immediately turn left. This prevents the enemy from easily locking on and having Line of Sight. Remember this when chasing down enemies, which gives you a small edge in finding them.
• Also you can force enemies off the edge of the Clocktower with SoA or Sanctuary. Use this to your advantage, with capping and killing enemies (extra 2k fall damage).
• While standing just above the stairs (on any cap point) you can use Sanctuary to prevent the enemy from walking up, which can give you a free cap.

Forest of Niflhel

Is a very open map, with the Keep being above the actual centre of the map. There are Bosses on either side of the map which can give a temporary buff to your allies when killed. Here are some of the features of this map:

• At the start make sure you send at least 2 people to the Left (if Blue), Right (if Red), to kill the boss and capture the point.
• When moving towards the Keep, from the sides, keep close to the wall and stay on the highground, as a Guardian you can use your scepter's autoattack to hit the enemies while staying protected from their Line of Sight attacks. While moving into position to cast spells.
• Using SoA/Sanct to block the stairs can give your team an easy free Keep capture.
• You can knock enemies off the other side of the highground with SoA/Sanct or pull them off with the GS.
• Common methods of escaping the Keep is by jumping down the hill and towards the centre of the map, this can mess with your foes' line of sight.
• Take care to not fight in the centre, it may be the quickest point between cap-points but returning enemies will almost always gank you.
• Scepter-shield/torch and a Staff set can drop a boss solo, first use orb of light, then dodge roll. Spam 1/2 on the scepter, when he gets close dodge again, when he tries to run use Chains of Light. Swap weapon when he gets close again and use Line of Warding. He should drop soon after.

Offensive Tactics

The Guardian has a lot of utility and offensive options as well as support and defence. The only weapons I feel are not very viable are the Mace and the Hammer. Both lack the raw damage/utility that the other weapons have. Over the Beta I devised some strategies and tactics that seem to be extremely strong with the Guardian.

• Pressure.
  • Sword-torch with sustained burning does the highest DPS up close, with GS a close second
  • The highest ranged damage is with the scepter, use this to sustain your DPS even when enemies are further away
  • Keeping your foe still, through KD's or snaring, via Bane Signet, Chains of Light, Hammer of Wisdom or Binding Blade, will increase your DPS by gigantic amounts.
  • Always move, never, ever stand still. Jumping and moving not only keeps you ontop of the enemy, maintaining your DPS, but avoids damage, which I will cover next.
  • Auto-running + Flashing Blade will make sure you keep ontop of your foe when you get to him, this means it's easier to catch up with them.
  • Moving to positions enemies are likely to kite to when in a larger scale battle, can mean they kite into you and your damage (like walking into a fist =) )
• Spiking. This involves saving skills to use them at an opportune time, by dealing large amounts of damage at the same time you can:
  • Force your enemy to flee
  • Force your enemy to use up utility skills
  • Force your enemy to use their heal

In turn this can force a capture or even kills.

• You can use passive skills to deal damage while you use other skills
• You can knockdown to prevent your enemy from fleeing or using heals

Some examples are:

• Spiking with sword-torch while using the torch passive to cause burning and damage and using the:
• Hammer of Wisdom (and other summons) which can hit while using other skills. HoM specifically deal over 1.2k damage which can greatly assist in spikes.
• Snaring your foe while using Whirling Wrath or Zealot's Defence to dish out huge amounts of damage.
• Smiting a foe with Chains of Light and swapping to your damage set to deal a lot of damage.

Remember, the main objectives of spiking and pressuring enemies is to force your foe to react with a long recharge skill. This means the enemy loses one of more of their utility or healing skills. Killing this foe is a bonus, not required. This:

• Means the foe has to pull out of the fight or risk death
• Cannot cap points or risks death
• Is forced to go and recharge their skills
• If you keep these advantages over your foe, you will be able to win more fights and contribute more to your team

If you guys would like more examples please ask in the comments =) Also I shall include In-built Combo's later!

Build Choices

For reference; I've displayed my take on weapon stats above. Unfortunately, the most common problem most of the people I know, with creating builds, is chosing the correct traits to match. Many people can easily see which traits work well together but can't always pick out a full set, ie. picking out 4 major traits but not being able to pick out the last 2 because they do not seem useful. With this in mind, I'm going to start off with the basics.

• Zeal

  • Increased damage
  • Increased condition duration (which increases the time you can deal bonus damage)
  • These traits attributed to this line generally deal more damage
  • Best Major Traits
    • Fiery Wrath
    • Greatsword Power
    • Spirit Weapon Mastery
    • Binding Jeapardy

  Radiance

  • Increased crit chance
  • Increased condition damage
  • These traits attributed to this line generally inrease Utility and Damage
  • Best Major Traits
    • Powerful Blades
    • Right Handed Strength
    • Radiant Fire
    • Signet Mastery
    • Searing Flames

  Valor

  • Increased armour
  • Increased crit multiplyer
  • These traits attributed to this line generally inrease Defence
  • Best Major Traits
    • Defender's Shield
    • Strength in Numbers
    • Altruistic Healing
    • Honourable Shield

  Honour

  • Increased health
  • Increased healing
  • These traits attributed to this line generally inrease Utility and Defence
  • Best Major Traits
    • Resolute Healer
    • Two-Handed Mastery

  Virtues

  • Increased boon duration
  • Decreased Virtue recharge
  • These traits attributed to this line generally inrease Utility
  • Best Major Traits
    • Judgemental
    • Consecrated Ground
    • Improved Spirit Weapon Duration
    • Elite Focus

I'm slowly working through this list to finish it so you can all read it. Here's what's left:

• Weapon selection vs specific class/map
• Map tactics
• Build choices (efficiency, effectiveness, etc)
• Defensive tactics (dodge, SoA, etc)
• Offensive tactics (spike, pressure, in-built combo's)

these are the only ones I've written down, and just need to type up, if i think of anymore I shall include them, also let me know if you want stuff such as my thoughts on each weapon or anything of the sort, tnx, bye <3