Guardian / New Player

I am brand new to this game, played it when it released got to level 14 and quit.

Just getting back into the game, I am looking for generic beginner's advice about being a Tank in this game. Best gear / skills / runes etc.

on a side note, if your guild is recruiting and active plus willing to help teach newer players. I'd like the chance to speak to some of you.

-JBrawr

There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

@"ArmageddonAsh.6430" said:There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

thanks for the reply, but that is disheartening. I like having clear defined roles, not saying that each profession can't have multiple roles but also be able to focus specifically on one. Thanks!

@JBonnie.2893 said:

@"ArmageddonAsh.6430" said:There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

There are more defined support roles, There really isnt any need for Tanks, outside of raids and even then i think its still not really a tank as such. You can focus on Damage, Condi, Support and such but i dont really think tank is needed, you can build "tank" which i guess would be more bunker but again outside of Raids this kinda build would be pointless.

I am guessing you are PvE? Bunkers of a sort have a role in PvP/WvW but in PvE, its kinda wasted in my opinion. The content is too easy for you to really need to be bunker/tank.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@JBonnie.2893 said:

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

Makes sense, and I like both PVE and PVP but was hoping to fill a Tankier role in PVE which apparently isn't really a thing bummer

@JBonnie.2893 said:

@"ArmageddonAsh.6430" said:There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

There are (some) roles, like support (offensive buffs mainly), healer and dps. Tanking only matters in high end pve (i.e. raids, and a couple of fractal challenge modes), but as a tank in this game, your job is to kite the boss. But even those are not clearly defined roles, but a result of certain specialisations, so the support and healer role are dominated exclusively by chronomancer and druid respectively, and chronomancer doubles as the tank.

So, you won't have any success trying to play as a tank. And despite what the class description says and what one would assume the guardian class is about, guardian plays exclusively as dps.

Notice that this is about pve only, the competitive game modes are vastly different. There, guardian is one of the better supports, and in pvp in particular, with the firebrand specialisation, they play as a supportive healer.

Good support and bunker builds exist.

Especially for guardian, Druid, Chronomancer/Mirage, scrapper, elementalist.

I’d also say generally that tank “builds” don’t exist but some builds can be played extremely survivable if you know how to use them properly.

As for gear, you will want to purchase whatever you need from trading post. Maybe get a new set at levels 10, 20, 40, 60 and 80. If you do a power build add vitality until you are comfortable hp wise then pile on power/precision/ferocity.

Now that’s if you stick to PvE. I can give different advice for pvp (which is based on stat “amulets” rather than gear and treats everyone as level 80).

@JBonnie.2893 said:

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@JBonnie.2893 said:

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:There is no real "tank"Depending on what you plan on doing, just run what you like and have fun.

Honestly, if you are looking for the tanking experience, you either raid or you go WvW. Frontliners in WvW need tanky builds in order to survive the clash of Zerg vs Zerg. That isn't essentially tanking, you are just running around with the group in tanky gear, and your job is to push into enemy formations.

I used to tank in WoW back in the day but Cata was such a disappointment for me that I ended up quitting.

@JBonnie.2893 said:I am brand new to this game, played it when it released got to level 14 and quit.

Just getting back into the game, I am looking for generic beginner's advice about being a Tank in this game. Best gear / skills / runes etc.

on a side note, if your guild is recruiting and active plus willing to help teach newer players. I'd like the chance to speak to some of you.

-JBrawr

for some one that plays a wvw frontline bunker for 5 years, this is what i have to tell you:

~There is no tanks, every one can 2 sec bursted, or almost 1 shoted against players that have hight crit on certain builds~

Gimmick builds have arorund 30k to 60k dps... all that matter is damage and spam, if u get a hit form a player with high crit u will die easilly.This is a game with no skill... just build to be carried with damage 90% of the time and group size on wvw, learn your gimmick rotation, stay out of range of the other group since its a aoe spam game where players dont need to know what and who they are hitting, its a mess by just observing.

This isa dead and awfull pvp game(gw2 its know to be awfull game to pvp due how unskilled the gameplay is), if ur only for pve, just play anything even full zerker guardian with hammer cant tank, just dodge some certain skills that will 1 shot you even if u would play a no dam age build with lot of vitatlity, and toughness is useless most of the time.

Recomended class: Firebrand with celestial gear,its what it is used on wvw i assume it will behave well on pve as well. (i dont pve so others might have better recommendation or changes to the firebrand in pve)