New to Guardian and I have a few questions.

[Tyval.3258]

Hello everyone.

Pretty new to the game so still reading and learning.I've mostly played a ranger but wanted to try guardian before committing to gearing and as luck would have it am enjoying my guardian more, so now I have to figure out which elite to gear for.

I've recently been playing around with Guardian I have DH unlocked and one trait from full unlock of firebrand.I've been saving up crafting mats to craft some ascended gear but before I do I realize I need to figure out which Elite to gear for.My gaming currently is mostly open world PvE, I would like to do some fractals probably no raiding anytime soon.

What I'm looking for.1) I really don't like be fragile so like active/passive things to help me stay alive are good. Currently on my DH i've gone for retaliation so i can put point in Vitality instead of precision. At least for now while I'm learning and such I'm okay with a bit reduced dps to stay alive if a miss a dodge etc.2) It would be nice to have an open world PvE build that I can also use for fractals (at least the early less difficult ones).3) I like having lots of buttons to push.

Some questions:I've seen some builds posted on this forum for FB but I am confused as some seem to use condition weapons, while others were GS and Scepter.
With the recent changes to conditions can a FB build do okay in open world and solo stuff? I do like support options, can FB be an okay support build as well?If I go with the flexibility of support for FB what type of gear/stats should I shoot for.

Any FB builds for PvE that give some sustain would be most welcome. When building for sustain it seems having more Vitality is good, maybe some more healing, maybe protection up often, anything else that helps with survivability that I'm missing?

Thanks for any and all tips!

T

[KeoLegend.5132]

Well i could be unrealistic and say: "Anything you make will work", or "Guardian can have good amounts of resistance"...but the truth is: Guardians aren't tanky enough. No matter how much you invest, thats because its base stats doesnt actually allow that.

For example, my DH in Full zerks has only 11k HP. My Warrior in the same gear has 20k. Thats 9k without a single different piece of equipment! So once you start adding more sustain you are cutting your damage, which just makes it sub-optimal.

Guardian's "Sustain" is based on REFLEXES. What are those? Skills that gives protection, retaliation, aegis, etc., so unfortunately its a fragile class that NEEDS its Actives/Passives in order to keep alive, unlike other classes that have such a high natural health pool.What you can do is... ADAPT. For example:

I bought HOT just because the Dragonhunter Class. I loved it! Once i started playing i noted how squishy it was, but after playing for hours and hours non-stop i kinda mastered the class enough to make my 11k DH sustain itself way more than my 20k Warrior (which i dont have half of the experience with). Practical example: Litany of Wrath + GS + Trap combos makes your DH heals like 10k/sec for 5 secs, thats a LOT! if you know how to use it at its full extent

FB is a bit more sustainable, but just a bit. Again its a matter of preference, i play better on my DH than my FB, even if i decide to go tanky like Valkrye

[CptAurellian.9537]

With FB, you can have two of these three things at a halfway decent level: damage, survivability and support. Trying to go for all three will result in being bad at everything.

For damage+survivability, use some carrion gear. FB can get to 100% burn duration without any expertise and the direct damage component is not so important that ignoring precision will hurt you overall damage a lot. The rest should be like the normal griever dps build.For support+survivability, minstrel gear with the right skills and traits will do a lot. As long as you don't have a second supporter (chrono, druid) in instanced content, you will be fine. Take care to provide 100% quickness uptime.Last but not least, seraph gear (from one of the LS3 episodes) is an option for damage+support, but you'll have no extra defense when using it.

[Tyval.3258]

Thanks for your replies.

Keo, I totally get what you are saying. I know I'm already way better than i was when I started Guardian. I initially boosted my lvl 48ish Guardian to 80 and started with Soldiers gear (I think that is what the boost gave me). Even then I felt squishier than I had expected. But over time I got better, I still am not great at using my defensive cooldowns like I should. But I've subbed out all the toughness pieces for a mix of Valkyrie and Berserker Gear now and I'm doing alright with that. My thinking is if my build has a high uptime for retalitation I can afford to sub in vit for precision some without a huge impact for my dps? I do know that for me to enjoy the game I need enough hitpoints that a missed dodge isn't always equal to death. I'm thinking maybe 14-15k might be a good amount. Also after your reply I'm thinking maybe I should just swap out to full berserker gear for a bit and see if that actually forces me to learn how to play better.

Cpt, Regarding FB, I need to read up and play more as I just unlocked it yesterday. I'll start with some exotic Carrion gear while I'm learning and then go from there.What I"m thinking is making an ascended set for the game play style I guess I'm doing the most and have exotic sets for the others. Can you recommend any good guides that outline builds/synergy/skills and general playstyle?

I've always loved support classes. Ranger was my first class to 80 (since I came back to the game). I like ranger but I like the playstyle more with Guardian and it seems I have some flexibility to be pure dps, heal some, etc. Plus FB seems to have lots of toggles/buttons which I think I will enjoy.

Thanks to both of you for your replies!

T

[CptAurellian.9537]

For the dps aspect, I guess you'll have to rely on two different sources. Lucky Noobs (https://lucky-noobs.com/condition-aufwiegler/) still have the old grieving setup, which is the more relevant one for substituting carrion gear. Snow Crows (https://snowcrows.com/raids/guardian/) have a nice description of the rotations etc., which will be helpful if you don't understand German. With regard to the support aspects, no idea whether someone has written a good guide. Maybe metabattle, dunno. Just make sure to have full quickness uptime - without that, a support FB in PvE is useless.