Guardian or Warrior

Hi all,I'm a returning player after a long absence of 3+ years.I'm what ppl consider as an altholic so I've always had trouble to settle with a char.But I'm going to play with a friend and I wanted to settle with a char in order to do pve and pvp, although it will be mainly sPvP and WvW .As the title says I can't decide between one.From what I've seen in videos, I enjoyed mostly core guard and dh with bow gameplay from guardian and ranged berserker , core war and Spb from warrior.I would like to have a ranged option but fun at the same time since I've always enjoyed the ranged aspect ( I know it's kinda silly stating this when I'm talking about warrior since it's a class more melee oriented ).

So here I am asking you guys for your opinions more importantly if you play any of those play styles I've stated above.

Best regards,Bullseye

@"bullseye.9573" said:Hi all,I'm a returning player after a long absence of 3+ years.I'm what ppl consider as an altholic so I've always had trouble to settle with a char.But I'm going to play with a friend and I wanted to settle with a char in order to do pve and pvp, although it will be mainly sPvP and WvW .As the title says I can't decide between one.From what I've seen in videos, I enjoyed mostly core guard and dh with bow gameplay from guardian and ranged berserker , core war and Spb from warrior.I would like to have a ranged option but fun at the same time since I've always enjoyed the ranged aspect ( I know it's kinda silly stating this when I'm talking about warrior since it's a class more melee oriented ).

So here I am asking you guys for your opinions more importantly if you play any of those play styles I've stated above.

Best regards,Bullseye

If you wanna play warrior and be competitive you must own PoF and spellbreaker specialization.Easy to play and strong profession.

If you don't have or don't wanna buy PoF you can go core guardian and it's a viable build to rank up, even easier to use than warrior.If you wanna play support and you buy PoF, the new guardian elite specialization, the firebrand is meta build as well.Guardian with bow (dragonhunter is not very viable, especially if you never played it people will flame you for playing it).

I leave you the meta builds down below so you watch the traits and decide yourself.

In core guardian you can replace hammer for greatsword.

Core guardian: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Guardian_-_Radiant_Hammer

Support guardian:https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Firebrand_-_Mantra_Bunker

Defense warrior:https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spellbreaker_-_GS/Dagger

Strength warrior:https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Spellbreaker_-_Tetherbreaker

If you plan to duo with a friend, support guardian(firebrand) plus necro (scourge) is the best duo in the game.

Guardian has more options and can teleport for some reason.

@losingcontrol.1084 I have both expansions so either specs for warrior or guardian are not a problem.Myy friend will be playing engineer or Mesmer not quite sure which spec yet.

Firebrand is more like a support from what I've seen and I was looking more to dish out damage.It's sad to hear that one of the specs that I enjoyed watching ( now dh ) are not viable...

What about ranged options for warrior ?I've seen berserker rifle/ha and was quite fun to watch due to the burst . Don't know about his survivability tho...

Rifle warr is a meme spec for trolling, but not really viable in high end PvP. Viable variants are both spellbreaker, either the no defense version (Tetherbreaker) with very high burst, cc and mobility or the classic one with defense, which is a more sustainy, defensive version.DH is somewhat on the edge of viability, it's not trash but also not an optimal build, because neither the burst is very high nor is it as survivable as the real bruiser specs. Core guard is generally more effective because of the high burst potential, either with hammer or GS.

@Falan.1839 Which one has more build diversity ?Do I have more build options has a warrior ?Is burst that important ? Or a more consistent output in order to keep pressure ?

Damn both ranged aspects of warrior and guardian are not viable, feelsbadman.Are they fun at least ?

Build diversity is either Core with GS, core with Hammer or Support Firebrand on Guard, on Warr it's Tetherbreaker (with Sword) or Standard Spellbreaker (with Dagger). Obviously you can always play your own builds, just don't expect them to be as effective. If you're mechanically good player and know how to conquest you can probably get to Plat 2 anyway on a suboptimal build, but you will still be limiting your potential.

If you absolutely want a ranged option you can pick Scepter for the second weapon set on Core guard. Maidaen for example does quite good with it. However, most guards will prefer to pick sword to have a second port, which is crucial as gapcloser or disengage tool.

Maybe holoswith/ranger if you want ranged options, their build diversity is lower, but their builds can do just about all the aspects you want.

How is Warrior berserk for pvp and pve ? I've read some threads about it but they didnt seemed so positive as i would've expected.

In terms of being a duelist ( ranged aspect aside ), which one fits best in the category ?I know spellbreaker if skilled can easily entertain 2-3 people in the node without dying.The same can be said for Guardian ?

@bullseye.9573 said:How is Warrior berserk for pvp and pve ? I've read some threads about it but they didnt seemed so positive as i would've expected.

well it gives you one of my favourite elites, Headbutt! a stun that also completely fills your adrenaline so you can instantly go into zerk mode at the start of every fight!the damage is awesome and it does have some neat traits, like one that that causes you to heal a large chunk of health instead of dying while in zerk mode.

@bullseye.9573 said:How is Warrior berserk for pvp and pve ? I've read some threads about it but they didnt seemed so positive as i would've expected.

In terms of being a duelist ( ranged aspect aside ), which one fits best in the category ?I know spellbreaker if skilled can easily entertain 2-3 people in the node without dying.The same can be said for Guardian ?

If you want to be a duelist, warrior suits your liking better. Core Guard with any weapon set is a rotating damage dealer/+1.

If you want an honest answer, berserker is terrible for PvP. It was good like 2,5 years ago but Berserk Mode got a heavy sustain nerf at one point. You used to be able to proc full Adrenal Health value(3 stacks) from a single Primal Burst but after the nerf you only proc 1 stack per burst. To be fair, the same is true for Spellbreaker but they can pull F1 and F2 back to back, and F2 itself adds considerable sustain.There are some Gunflame (rifle) builds for Berserker but you have have to be an exceptionally good player, or be playing against bad players, to pull them off successfully.

I love both classes tbh, but Guardian despite wanting to dish out damage if i ever get tired of a specific build i could always go for Support FB or more unconventional/viable build to have fun ( dh bow e.g)Warrior on the counter part, from what i've read is basicly Spb or Core , since Berserk is dead in pvp.And does warrior have any support build in pvp ? banner ? if that exists...On the other side has Bow and Rifle to joke around and have some fun.

But i'm more concerned about the fun aspect of the classes and build diversity.

So... between these two professions, which one would you likely recommend to someone who is starting out on sPvP? I have a friend who prefers to play without his brains since he's still on the 'introductory' part of sPvP.

@Isle of Stars.3049 said:So... between these two professions, which one would you likely recommend to someone who is starting out on sPvP? I have a friend who prefers to play without his brains since he's still on the 'introductory' part of sPvP.

Radiant Hammer guard is a straight-forward high damage build that has better sustain options than other high damage builds. It's easy to be effective with it. Just learn a few combos, then rinse and repeat. Good forward mobility but bad at disengaging. If the port skills are on cooldown, it has trouble with ranged classes that can maintain distance.

The standard variant of Spellbreaker requires you to make decisions based on rotations and if you make bad ones, it's easy to get locked into an unfavorable position. You don't die a whole lot if you know how to kite effectively but in a bad position/match up you can't really do much.On the other hand, the Tetherbreaker build has greater mobility which makes it easier to pull out of a bad fight, and the excessive might generation gives the build very nice damage. It lacks passive defenses though so you are more vulnerable to stunlock and burst damage.

Out of these options, I'd probably recommend Core Guard. Playing Warrior in general is slightly more advanced, and gets better once you know a bit about what you are doing.

@Isle of Stars.3049 said:So... between these two professions, which one would you likely recommend to someone who is starting out on sPvP? I have a friend who prefers to play without his brains since he's still on the 'introductory' part of sPvP.

Guard. It's overall role as teamfight and roaming damage is easier to learn.

Spellbreaker's job involves aggressing the enemy's home node, and either win the 1v1 and cap the node, cap the node mid fight, stallout the enemy's capture and most importantly to suvive being in a 1vs2 for as long as possible so your team can win outnumbered the rest of the map and successfully disengage when you can no longer survive.

Really effective spellbreaker involves knowing match ups, being skilled enough to consistently land bursts, knowing how to chain your defensive skills, some fancy footwork while playing on the node, and how to kite and use jumping puzzels. Higher barrier to entry. I would not recommend a build to a new player where the explicit purpose requires you to frequently survive at a numbers disadvantage.