These forums are hilarious

[Incantus.8549]

So I had taken a break from the game for a good 2-3 years now. Came back and decided lets play the story again so we get back into the grove of the game.

Cue the anxiety of picking a profession in a game where I kind of like all professions, it takes a lot of reading and some videos but finally I decide to give Guardian the spotlight this time. And off I go..

I got to about level 55ish and running into burn immune mobs where I really started to feel that I was just not doing that great, no matter, some fresh gear from level rewards and some changes to the 2 traitlines I had access to and things improved abit. A few levels later and I was getting downed a bit to often for the game to be truly enjoyable, so I figured I'd hit the forums...

Amazing how apparently every single profession forum thinks their profession is utter garbage and not viable. Especially amazing as I've been pretty much steamrolled by at least one person from every profession when I tried pvp and WvW recently. And looking at fractals at least in the group finder there doesnt seem to be any professions missing either?

So is this just the nature of gaming forums, that its all negatives and no positives, or is the balance so wack atm that every profession feels they're underperforming?

That out of the way, does Guardians self sustain improve later on, or am I better of looking at something like Mesmer, necro, ranger or elementalist? (The other classes dont interest me atm). I mostly run around doing solo stuff, with the occasionaly fractal/strike here and there. WvW is fun but Im in no mood to tryhard it and PvP I'll figure out in time regardless of class.

[Infinity.2876]

3 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

So is this just the nature of gaming forums, that its all negatives and no positives, or is the balance so wack atm that every profession feels they're underperforming?
 

most people think the class that they don't play is op and the class that they do play is weak (I do this too I admit), this is not necessarily true. However, there are weaker classes and stronger metas but the meta keeps switching between different classes so eventually every single class has been meta and off meta.
 

3 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

That out of the way, does Guardians self sustain improve later on, or am I better of looking at something like Mesmer, necro, ranger or elementalist?

Guardians self-sustain improves later on. however, it requires you to calculate big attacks to be blocked with aegis. (I personally have never gotten really good at it) Also remember that heal skills you use for support can still be useful to heal yourself and guardians' protection uptime is fairly good (meaning you take less damage on attacks).

 

Mesmers have good aggro manipulation and mirage is really good with hard open world content with the amount of aggro manipulation and evades it has.

 

necro has more sustain outright but has less mobility than others.

 

ranger has a pet that can tank.

 

elementalist is relatively hard to play but can run elementals for a pet and the sustain from earth element is decent.

 

Also make sure you have good gear prefixes (the armor naturally gained from leveling is weak) and if your running a glass cannon gear set maybe swap it with something that has more vitality (extra health) or toughness (reduced damage)

[Cuks.8241]

2 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

Amazing how apparently every single profession forum thinks their profession is utter garbage and not viable. Especially amazing as I've been pretty much steamrolled by at least one person from every profession when I tried pvp and WvW recently. And looking at fractals at least in the group finder there doesnt seem to be any professions missing either?

Yes, specific profession forums are pretty much reserved for qq.

In general it's really hard to get reliable information on the forums as you will get answers from a broad range of players that play different types of content. Specific game type forums (instanced pve, spvp, wvw) are better since you will get more focused answers but even there you might get conflicted or even dead wrong answers. Your best bet for good info are dedicated sites that put a lot of theory and testing behind their info. Example of such sites are snowcrows for raiding, discretize for fractals, guildjen, hardstuck. And even there you might notice discrepancies between sites.

Also keep in mind asking a question like "Is guardian good?" will not give you good answers. This game's build and gear variety has great depth and the game has different game modes that play out and require completely different approach and builds. Which means you have to be much more precise with your questions.

Generally all professions are good and you can make them all play how you want in open world. And for more competitive modes the meta changes over time. But guardian in general is a class that has good variety and has one of the best track records in all modes.

[Elldar.1647]

In addition to what others have said, it's worth mentioning that most people who enjoy and are satisfied with how their profession performs don't have a reason to go on the forums and tell you about it. They'll just keep playing and you'll likely never hear anything from them. When 99% have nothing to say and the remaining 1% have negative feedback, that's what you'll end up commonly seeing on the forums as a result.

[Dr Meta.3158]

When you don't know what you're doing, everything is overpowered. 

[Yasai.3549]

3 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

That out of the way, does Guardians self sustain improve later on, or am I better of looking at something like Mesmer, necro, ranger or elementalist? (The other classes dont interest me atm). I mostly run around doing solo stuff, with the occasionaly fractal/strike here and there. WvW is fun but Im in no mood to tryhard it and PvP I'll figure out in time regardless of class.

Necro if you really want an easy time so easy you can switch your brain off. If you really care about sustain, Necro it is. 

Every other class you listed has to somewhat manage their skills and distancing in order to survive. 

 

Regarding the other topic: 

Yes, people on the forums just complain about what they don't like about the class, disregarding the positives and strong aspects of each profession. It's kind of an expected thing, cos they think q.qing on forums will get devs to immediately give in to their demands. 

 

Most of the time out of 10 posts, only 3 or 4 are asking for legit issues to be fixed like bugs or a ruined trait interaction due to one of the random balance patches "reworking" or nerfing a skill or trait until it's unusable. 

[the krytan assassin.9235]

3 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

got to about level 55ish and running into burn immune mobs where I really started to feel that I was just not doing that great

They luckily got rid of immune to burning effects after the core game so that shouldn't be a big issue. 

 

Guardian can be geared/traiter to be absolute tanks (with lower dmge output) or be quite squishy with high dps output. There are also very good hybrids out there. 

That being said: gear, traits, runes and sigils matter alot in this game. Once you hit level 80 you get alot more room to build towards a specific playstyle & level of surviveability. If you like the Guardian as a class id definitely recommend to keep playing it. 

[Ruisenior.6342]

4 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

does Guardians self sustain improve later on, or am I better of looking at something like Mesmer, necro, ranger or elementalist?

Guardians or any melee spec are more difficult to perform with. With core guardian you will have the same problem you are having now in terms of sustain, once you unlock Firebrand or Willbender (this one is better suit for solo) you will solve this problem. But take in mind that you will keep being a melee class with a high input of pressing buttons to perform properly.

 

My suggestion is that if you want a more selfish class take a ranged spec, specially those that rely on pets (ranger/mechanist) mesmer (illusions). And for leveling ignore condition builds focus on power stats.

-Ranger: You wont have any trouble leveling up with this spec, your pet will take all the aggro and you will have tons of time to free hit your targets.  With this spec, as an example, you can take longbow/or/greatsword + axe warhorn and you will clean all core tyria with ease. Beastmastery will be my first traitline choice to unlock and with just this you will feel so powerfull. My pet choices would be the brown bear for tanking and the river/marsh drake for aoe damage. Also shouts like 'we heal as one' and 'protect me' paired with the first trait choice you will find on beastmastery 'resounding timbre' will help you alot. This spec is so good at any time (early or late game) and on all game modes, but in my opinion its specializations feel more of the same as core but with some enhancements, they dont change drastically the way you play the spec (all of them are pretty strong anyways). Example of starter build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?POwEE6MsMDWIw1Ol8qPA-e

-Necromancer: Like rangers will start strong specially if you take every minion utility skill paired with death magic and blood magic traitlines, but unlike ranger, necromancer minions fall short later on. Ill start with staff + dagger focus, this combo will grant you good burst/cleave and some sustain and life force generation (you can take warhorn if you need crowd control). Later I highly recommend you going for harbinger because it is full ranged and probably the one that has the highest sustain ingame pasively (without pressing any buton, just traiting it properly and knowing it's mechanics) with good mobility (scourge lacks this). This one is the easiest class of the pack that you like. Example starter build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PSwAYh3lFwqYTMK2IeqTeA-e

-Mesmer: Mesmers are more difficult to get used to. The main problem of them besides virtuoso is their illusion mechanic, those illusions die when you kill the target they were facing and let you exposed. Against tougher mobs this wont be a problem and illusions will take the aggro away from you (specializations like mirage/chronomancer will melt bosses). I recomend you to start with greatsword + sword focus, Greatsword will be your main weapon and sword/focus will allow you to pack groups of mobs and then burst them. I would start picking domination Traitline first, then at 45 if im not mistaken Inspiration to get some sustain and later Illusions. I would rush first mirage spec specially the staff/staff popular build. This is what a starter build would look like: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAEx3jVYT2GcklWXaA-e

 

I hope this may help, and i hope you enjoy this amazing game

Edited February 25, 2023 by Ruisenior.6342

[Gibson.4036]

Guardian is a deceptive class. It looks like a paladin, which sets up the expectation of passive damage mitigation (lots of armor in most games). But armor plays a much smaller part in GW2 than other games.

Defense is more active, and Guardian is one of the professions where this is most true. Paradoxically, some of the light armor classes have some of the easiest sustain, Mesmer and Necro.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Gibson.4036

[Mell.4873]

4 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

That out of the way, does Guardians self sustain improve later on,

Most of Guardians sustain comes from focusing on condition damage (burning). Then you can dip into boon duration or healing power if needed for a more open world build.

I also would not switch class; Guardian is a fine pick for all end game content.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Mell.4873

[Moradorin.6217]

4 hours ago, Incantus.8549 said:

So I had taken a break from the game for a good 2-3 years now. Came back and decided lets play the story again so we get back into the grove of the game.

Cue the anxiety of picking a profession in a game where I kind of like all professions, it takes a lot of reading and some videos but finally I decide to give Guardian the spotlight this time. And off I go..

I got to about level 55ish and running into burn immune mobs where I really started to feel that I was just not doing that great, no matter, some fresh gear from level rewards and some changes to the 2 traitlines I had access to and things improved abit. A few levels later and I was getting downed a bit to often for the game to be truly enjoyable, so I figured I'd hit the forums...

Amazing how apparently every single profession forum thinks their profession is utter garbage and not viable. Especially amazing as I've been pretty much steamrolled by at least one person from every profession when I tried pvp and WvW recently. And looking at fractals at least in the group finder there doesnt seem to be any professions missing either?

So is this just the nature of gaming forums, that its all negatives and no positives, or is the balance so wack atm that every profession feels they're underperforming?

That out of the way, does Guardians self sustain improve later on, or am I better of looking at something like Mesmer, necro, ranger or elementalist? (The other classes dont interest me atm). I mostly run around doing solo stuff, with the occasionaly fractal/strike here and there. WvW is fun but Im in no mood to tryhard it and PvP I'll figure out in time regardless of class.

IMO you sound like you should try engi and rev. Rev can be very solid solo, has good dps as power or condi while also having allot of good kit and options. It can also be qdps, alacdps, heal alac or quick, and pure dps. It has range options and allot of utility, cc, etc once you learn to play it. Same can be said of engi. Both are also very solid in wvw and easier than many in most modes.

 

Some will say rev is hard, but those people never actually spent time playing it imo. Its very simple once you learn it and what the traits and skills do. Same for engi. Both much stronger than Mesmer overall I would say and prob as strong as things like guard.

[Infusion.7149]

Guardian is a solid class in PvE. Unless you are going for world records or dealing with elitist players even DH or willbender is fine despite firebrand acting as the best spec to play in PvE for guardian in instanced content. The worst case is you run a lower damage weapon on your second weaponset such as mace mainhand, hammer (essentially permanent protection uptime), or use an offhand with sustain such as shield or focus.

What Gibson wrote is spot on. Guardian in DPS gear and traits will be more glassy but has more active defenses (block , a bit of blind on greatsword, and aegis). Guardian also happens to be one of the few classes that can fully make use of celestial gear on firebrand which is given to players at level 80.

If you just want to facetank things in full DPS gear (berserker) you are probably better off with scrapper engineer (5% DPS to barrier), revenant (dance of death on power vindicator and herald) , or spellbreaker with defense traitline or Might Makes right when solo. Reaper would be fine if you only do openworld but shroud is a liability elsewhere (namely due to soul eater which is 4% DPS to healing) so in nearly all cases scrapper is superior. Thieves can use Invigorating Precision (4-6% conversion of DPS to healing) as well but without a staff on daredevil the cleave is not that great; soulbeast has Predator's cunning and untamed has Restorative Strikes for 5% healing from DPS. The core game is biased towards power damage so I would not say any condi spec such as mirage is a good pick except for bosses that do not phase. Of all these options the only one available below level 80 is revenant, core warrior would probably opt for strength, discipline, defense unless in a group where applying might to other people heals you via tactics.

[Dr Meta.3158]

On 2/25/2023 at 12:22 PM, Yasai.3549 said:

Necro if you really want an easy time so easy you can switch your brain off. If you really care about sustain, Necro it is. 

Every other class you listed has to somewhat manage their skills and distancing in order to survive. 

 

Regarding the other topic: 

Yes, people on the forums just complain about what they don't like about the class, disregarding the positives and strong aspects of each profession. It's kind of an expected thing, cos they think q.qing on forums will get devs to immediately give in to their demands. 

 

Most of the time out of 10 posts, only 3 or 4 are asking for legit issues to be fixed like bugs or a ruined trait interaction due to one of the random balance patches "reworking" or nerfing a skill or trait until it's unusable. 

You can copy a Lord Hizen build and turn your brain off on every class.

[Xenesis.6389]

On 2/25/2023 at 8:22 AM, Incantus.8549 said:

Amazing how apparently every single profession forum thinks their profession is utter garbage and not viable. Especially amazing as I've been pretty much steamrolled by at least one person from every profession when I tried pvp and WvW recently. And looking at fractals at least in the group finder there doesnt seem to be any professions missing either?

Level to max to unlock all your skills and traits, including elite specializations if you want to play those, they tend to be different than their cores.

Then get proper gear, did you think running around in a level 55/80 with green gear is going to compete with level 80's with exotic ascended in wvw? It makes a world of difference at max level with proper builds.

Oh and forums are always going to be overly negative, it's the only place where everyone can go to voice problems/feedback with the game, with very little dev feedback. There's obviously some classes that get a lot of dev attention and some don't. End of the day, pick the class that's fun for you, look up builds on youtube and metabattle to start, worry about the complaints after you've gotten to max and put in some time into the class.

[captrowdy.9561]

Just like any video game this forum is full of negative sad people. I just come here for laughs. I don’t take anything Seriously and infact do the opposite of what is suggested here sometimes.