Guardian - Basic Guardian
The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good
Focused on: Strike damage
Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core
Overview
This is a very basic guardian build which is F2P/Core accessible and can handle most open world content.
Template Code
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Skill Bar
Greatsword
Sword/Focus
Utility
Weapon Variants
- Scepter - ranged option
- Staff - good for event farming with a group
Skill Variants
Healing Skills
- - defensive option. You can cancel the animation but keep the block by stowing your weapon during the cast. However, you won't receive any healing if you do this.
Utility Skills
- - grants more Resolution for boss fights where you can't proc much.
- - more crowd control.
- - if you need condition cleanse.
- - if you need to reflect projectiles.
- - alternative projectile defense option.
- - long-lasting swiftness while running.
Specializations
Honor
Honor can be taken for more defense at the cost of damage.
- - extreme condition cleanse
- - extra might uptime
Virtues
Virtues can be taken for more Resolution uptime and ally support at the cost of damage.
- - if taking consecrations
- - if cc is an issue
Equipment
Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.
This set uses similar gear to Build:Dragonhunter_-_Power_DPS, making it good for general PVE
Head
Berserker
Berserker
Shoulders
Berserker
Berserker
Chest
Berserker
Berserker
Hands
Berserker
Berserker
Legs
Berserker
Berserker
Feet
Berserker
Berserker
Backpiece
Berserker
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Berserker
Accessory
Berserker
Berserker
Amulet
Berserker
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Berserker
Ring
Berserker
Berserker
Greatsword
Berserker
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Berserker
Berserker
Focus
Berserker
Berserker
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
x6
Consumables
- Food
- Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
- - farming
- , - DPS
- - defense
- Utility
- (and variants) - farming
- , - dps
Usage
Damage
- Thanks to the Virtues traitline, you should be spamming as often as possible. Since it resets on kill, you can use it often for a significant damage boost.
- Your main damage skills are , , , , , and . Swap between your weapons using these skills whenever possible, and fill with autoattacks.
- Never interrupt your autoattack chain as all the damage is loaded in the last hit.
Resolution is a massive damage boost so you should try to have it up as much as possible. Your main Resolution sources are , , , and
- resets off every kill thanks to .
- In long fights where you can't reset you can consider bringing and traiting .
- If you want more stacks of might; Consider using instead of . Choosing Either of them will not cost you any loss of damage.
- Try to fight enemies in your symbols to get the stacking damage buff from .
- If using , try not to get hit
Defense
- is a powerful defensive skill.
- , , and blind enemies.
- , and can be used against projectiles.
- Activating gives aegis, protection, Resolution, stability, and a stun break.
- You can run for more active defense.
- is a 3-second invulnerability skill that also refreshes and .
- Remember to always dodge and sidestep attacks if possible. Don't get hit by anything you can move out of.
Sustain
- This build doesn't have much sustained healing, so avoiding damage is extremely important in long fights.
- Use to heal yourself for each enemy you hit.
- When at extremely low health, activate , then use for an immense amount of self-healing.
- You can activate for an emergency heal and condition cleanse.
- For a big condition cleanse, use while in a light field.
Crowd Control
- (as a last resort)
Ratings

I run this build in a mix of Marauder and Valkyrie gear with Accuracy sigils which gives me 99.54% crit self buffed, over 2700 Power, and the same hit points as a core Warrior. I use Flame Legion runes to stack damage bonuses from burning. Great fun to play, does big damage without feeling so glassy.

Amazing burst damage that melts trash mobs and pretty good sustained damage on bosses. Doesn't need a lot of defensive utilities to survive because of the inherent nature of guardian. If you feel you aren't able to survive well on this build it's probably because you're still learning to play it.


This build deals insane AoE burst damage which makes it great for farming. It can also maintain almost permanent AoE blindness when killing trash mobs and has a lot of defensive cooldowns, making it a very solid solo contender.

An good build for open world, with a lot of room for mistakes via Aegis and lots of stunbreaks for those sketchier situations. With Binding Blade and Whirling Wrath, groups of mobs are nothing more than an minor inconvenience as you'll be able to pull them together and burst them all down.
Despite the low health of Guardian, it is relatively hard to die with this build, assuming you use your active defense well, and the quick cast time virtues makes them far more reliable than tomes on firebrand or virtues on Dragonhunter.
Comments
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