15 replies to this topic

[sinbinner69]

A friend talked me into trying GW2 and now I'm hooked. I think the game has great promise, but I'm finding it frustrating too. I've tried many of the classes, but always have returned to my guardian which is now lvl 80. I've searched throughout the internet and tried many of the flavor of the day guardian builds only to be even more frustrated and even more broke with no success. The GS builds are pretty straight forward and I haven't had any problem with that, but I've found many times when being in melee range is a death sentence. I've tried staff and i've tried scepter, but they never seem to reach the damage level people claim. Is there anyway for a guardian to achieve doable range dps or is this class hopelessly stuck in melee range forever?

[Bender222]

learn to dodge. Guardian is really all about melee. Scepter really isnt that good. Go altruistic healing with empowering might for more staying power.

[Captain Bulldozer]

I agree with Bender222.  Guardian is not really intended to be a long range class, but an up front supportive melee class.  If ranged fighting is your thing, I recommend Ranger or Engineer.  (ranger being able to solo faceroll most of PvE outside of dungeons... engineer requiring slightly more skill to play)

[Thaddeuz]

You have to understand a key concept of this game. Melee will always have more dps that range.

In melee you have more risk so your reward must be higher or there is just no reason to play a melee at all. The key of being a good Guardian or Warrior is to learn how to play in melee for extended period of time even against hard hitting mobs. You gonna still have to use ranged weapons in some occasion, but as you become better, these occasion will be less and less present. If you want to learn how to play your guardian in melee the best way i found was by doing fractal in higher level. When you reach level 25-30 you either gonna have give up or you gonna have learned how to play way better you profession. There is several ways, but this is where i learned how to play my guardian. By the time i reached level 30 i doubled my damage and halved my defense while dying way less often than before.

But i still keep my Specter for these OMG moments when you need some second so your CD end and you can get back in melee range.

[Vihar]

If you could be more specific about what activities you are referring to, it would probably help....PVE, WvW, sPVP.

  I can state pretty well, though...that if you are looking for good ranged DPS with a guardian, you are not going to find it, unless you count the Elite skills.

  Also, a guardian's survivability is actually low unless you use traits and skills for that...they have a very low HP pool. So...what will happen is, if you build all DPS....you will be much more squishy than other players.

   For a guardian, the answer to most problems is using boons and combo fields properly.

[Myugen]

I tend to go shouts and buffs. Even in WvW you can run in, pull some up close with gs, do a jump or a little something, then run out, spam all your buffs, cleanse with virtue any cripple, and you should be fine. Just remember, you aren't a tank in WvW, you're a beefy little burger.

Scepter is god awful for ranged dps. Not sure where on the forums I read people saying "OMG L337 SCEPTAR DPS" but um, not sure what scepter they're using.

[sinbinner69]

Thanks for all the replies and all the good advice. I've come to see that going from melee to range in a fight is more about getting out of trouble and heal up and back in the fight than actually doing any kind of dps as a guardian. So is GS/staff the only real option as a guardian or can we use Hammer/staff? Also now that I'm 80 what is the best way to go about getting the exotic gear and weapons I need? Are there dungeons I should try to run over and over? To put it in simple form, once a player hits 80 what should they be doing? My friends have spoken of fractuals and dungeons, but not sure which ones I should be trying to do and the gear to get. The same goes for WvW, I don't want to waste all my time and money doing things the wrong way like I have up to this point.

[zosek]

I would suggest you to try out strife's or guardian of lyssa build. They offer pretty good dmg (lyssa's better i think) with good team support and ability to take few hits.
Right now i'm playing with hammer/staff combo because i just love the 20%cooldown on 2h weapons, but in fractals when the ranged dmg is needed, i go with scepter (dredge or asura fractal). But as people above me said, this game is designed so that the closer you are to the enemy, the more dmg you will deal, why, because you are willing to risk "your own life" to get the other one killed. And yes, you will need to learn how to dodge (properly, not just when you have your endurance full) and when to activate your courage and other skills that grant you aegis.
All things aside, you will have to play the game for some time in the more "high end" part of it to get used to it. Then it will all come naturally.

[Myugen]

sinbinner69, on 11 February 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

I've come to see that going from melee to range in a fight is more about getting out of trouble and heal up and back in the fight than actually doing any kind of dps as a guardian.

So is GS/staff the only real option as a guardian or can we use Hammer/staff? Also now that I'm 80 what is the best way to go about getting the exotic gear and weapons I need? Are there dungeons I should try to run over and over?

To put it in simple form, once a player hits 80 what should they be doing? My friends have spoken of fractuals and dungeons, but not sure which ones I should be trying to do and the gear to get. The same goes for WvW, I don't want to waste all my time and money doing things the wrong way like I have up to this point.

Pretty much, guardians I tend to feel are the pushers in big battles, or the tanks in small ones. You dish out decent damage with incredibly high survivability.

I hated the staff. I actually quit my guardian for a while because of it. Shield+scepter works fine because of the chains and knockbacks. Hammer is insanely good with scepter+shield for point defending in Spvp.

Once a player hits 80, decide what stats you want, and go to the respective dungeon, takes only a week or so to fully gear up. Fractals are also good for ectos and rares in case you eventually want to start crafting high level gear. WvW well...is getting a revamp soon, so not much can be said about it's current state, except that it's fun

[dawdler]

sinbinner69, on 11 February 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

So is GS/staff the only real option as a guardian or can we use Hammer/staff?

There's no such thing as an "only real option" in GW2.

Its simple: You need ALL the weapons. ALL OF THEM. Everything you can equip. There are situations where you want each individual thing, but most of all you'll probably get bored with them sometimes.

At the moment I use gs/hammer, but I have already have a sheild, mace, staff and sword in backpack (and its a fresh 80). Just need to get a decent scepter and torch.

Edited by dawdler, 11 February 2013 - 10:11 PM.

[Segnal]

Im playing similiar build to Healway, with GS/Scepter&Shield and using them in most situations. Providing enough support in tougher battles with scepter&shield and some decent dps on trash or more stationary boss battles. You should carry all of weapons with you. This is guardian power, amazing versatility, he can adapt to every situation, with any build, by just swaping weapons and some utilities. This is the real power of this class, amazing adaptability to every circumstances at every place.

[GuanglaiKangyi]

Are you guys stupid?  Scepter is crazy high DPS.  If he builds for glass cannon scepter he will hit harder than most of the "tank" guardian builds that rely on AH and won't even have any problems surviving since he'll be hitting from 1200 range.  Just use the standard 1H trait spreads (10/30/10/20/0 or 10/30/30/0/0) and build for full berserker armor and you'll be fine.

The only downside to scepter is that you won't get max hits for Smite on smaller mobs (since it's hitbox dependent, like a smaller Meteor Shower), but you'll still do okay damage.

[Segnal]

Yeah, its firing like a machine gun, It´ll be ridiculous if scepter hits for 5k each orb. In pvp is scepter easily dodgeable, especially on small group combats. But I think in zergs you can make a big mess with scepter.

Edited by Segnal, 12 February 2013 - 08:38 AM.

[heatrr]

Segnal, on 12 February 2013 - 08:31 AM, said:

But I think in zergs you can make a big mess with scepter.

One could likewise assert the following:

"But I think in zergs you can make a big mess with GS."
"But I think in zergs you can make a big mess with Hammer."
"But I think in zergs you can make a big mess with Mace and Shield/Focus."
Etc.

Scepter has it uses but it is not the godly "crazy high" DPS weapon some are making it out to be.

Edited by heatrr, 12 February 2013 - 01:38 PM.

[Thaddeuz]

Guanglaikangyi is talking about his build which focus on 1H weapons like sword and specter. In high level fractal this is really not bad. I'm stuck in range more and more as i go higher in level. Because pass level 60, pretty much everything can one shot you. I still go in melee but way less and i don't bother with these sigil (stack on kill) i go don't way to often.

But still, you will always do more dmg in melee with a Greatsword than in range with a specter. This is my personal point of view but i got each weapons and each have their utilities.

- Greatsword : My first weapons and my DPS/AOE.
- Specter/Focus : My secondary weapon set. Good ranged single target for certain situation where is need to be in range or when i need to recuperate before returning in melee. I used to take Specter/Shield, but the focus got a 3 attack block that you can use while moving (incredibly life saving while you can still DPS, and its a blast finisher and its instant cast)
- Shield : I really only use that in the Harpies fractal and in SPvP for node protection.
- Staff : Its a really nice weapons and it would be always with me if i could have 3 weapon set, but in more difficult content i really need the 1200 range of my specter and the block of my focus. Now i'm soo used to my specter/focus that i never use the staff, i should use it more when i do other dungeon.
- Hammer : Skills 3, 4 and 5 make the Hammer a special weapons. Talk about movement control.
- Sword : I'm a fan, but only in SPvP. Telepot right in front of your enemies and bash the hell out of them.
- Mace : Really not a fan. Less DPS, more defensive skills. I prefer going in range for 10 second that use only a little of regen, protection or a shield while doing poor dps. But some like it.
- Torch : Its the only weapon i don't carry around. Good DPS, but when i need dps i use my greatsword. It don't give me something that i can do with another weapons. Especially since i'm really not a condition damage.

sinbinner69, on 11 February 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

T Also now that I'm 80 what is the best way to go about getting the exotic gear and weapons I need? Are there dungeons I should try to run over and over? To put it in simple form, once a player hits 80 what should they be doing?

Figure out what you want for stats. Berserker's give you full DPS, Knight give you normal DPS with toughness for defense, Soldier give you poor DPS with good defense (toughness and vitality). Other option exist like Valkyrie or Cavalier. Try to mix them together to get that stats you need and that you feel comfortable with. After that the best way is to do Dungeon. For Berserker gear do CoF path 1 and 2, for Soldier gear do AC path 1, 2 and 3 and for Knight do SE path 1 and 3. This is the fastest way to get your gear. (Except if you already have a shit load of karma and you don't really plan on using it)

[TastySlop]

The greatsword is king when you want to cleave/AoE symbol a bunch of mobs, but against a single, very large target, scepter is the highest guardian dps weapon when properly traited (mainly right-hand strength.) However, scepter damage drops off sharply with each "miss" of smite. The full 15 hits of smite represents over half of the potential dps of the scepter. A scepter doing a full 15 hits of smite to a single target will be putting out 20-25% more dps than a greatsword, while doing only 5 smite hits will be putting out 20-25% less dps than a greatsword. It is still a great ranged weapon in either case.