Tuesday, February 8, 2011

In-depth look: Guardian


The guardian is a soldier profession who excels in magical and physical combat, as well as support.

Guardian concept art.

The guardian specializes in passive boons and effects that enhance their own abilities, which can also be relinquished and dispersed amongst their allies temporarily - making them excellent in both offense and support. They also have exclusive access to three special abilities known as virtues: Courage, Justice and Resolve. These abilities provide a constant passive effect to the player, and bestow a temporary benefit to all nearby allies (including themselves) when those abilities are activated, at the cost of being disabled for a long period - much like how signet skills operate. Those virtues help to balance the guardian; for example, they have a lower base health than the warrior profession, but compensate for this with their higher health regeneration granted by Resolve. These abilities are not considered to be part of the skill bar and can be activated regardless of the weapon held.

Special skill types
  • Aegis — Guardians are adept in the use of Aegis, a removable boon that blocks the next attack. Guardians have access to this boon through the virtue of Courage.
  • Symbols — The guardian places symbols on the ground, where they inflict damage to enemies or deliver a benefit to allies. Symbols persist for a few seconds and then go away. For instance, Symbol of Faith is a hammer attack that leaves a transient symbol on the ground, giving allies the Vigor boon.
  • Spirit Weapons — The guardian can summon spirit weapons to fight at his side for a limited time. Spirit weapons cannot be attacked by enemies and can be commanded to inflict a powerful attack before disappearing. For example, Hammer of Wisdom can be summoned to fight alongside a guardian, then commanded to knock down an enemy and vanish.
  • Wards — A ward is a marked area on the ground that stops enemies from passing through while allowing allies to move freely. For example, a staff-wielding guardian can create a Line of Warding in front of him that keeps enemies from reaching the allies behind him.
Spirit weapons concept art.

 Armor
The guardian is a soldier profession and thus wears heavy armor.

Weapons
  • Two-handed
    • Hammer
    • Greatsword - For mobility and AoE damage with a little support and control.
    • Staff - A defensive weapon.
  • Main-hand
    • Mace - A defensive weapon.
    • Scepter - A ranged offensive weapon.
    • Sword
  • Off-hand
    • Focus
    • Shield - A defensive weapon.
    • Torch - An offensive weapon.
There are 12 combinations of weapon sets available for this profession. The Guardian can switch between weapon sets.

More media:

Logan Thackeray, a guardian character from Guild Wars 2







41 comments:

  1. This sounds like the class for me :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Can't wait for them to release a new class. Guardian didn't impress me much...reminds me of a pally.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Man that shield looks beautiful, the game is slowly interesting me but still I need more race selection than just the basics.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm not really a fan of close combat.

    ReplyDelete
  5. my jesus game looks great so far big upgrade from the original. it looks like i'll be making a guardian

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rather be necro but this looks pretty sick! I reallllly want this game!! :')

    ReplyDelete
  7. still havent gotten this game, but good guides for if i do.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting, although it does look a lot like your average Paladin..

    ReplyDelete
  9. Damn this actually look awesome..might have to reconsider my Ranger.

    ReplyDelete
  10. cool guide - keep it flowing :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. this blog makes me more and more interested in getting this game.

    ReplyDelete
  12. When is this coming out again? Lat i heard was Q3 2011.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice game footage there. I like that wing shaped shield he's got.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I used to play Guild Wars 1, but GW2 seems that will be awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's insane how much different this looks from the original GW. I played that for I don't even know how long, I'll have to get into this also.

    ReplyDelete
  16. It looks like a classical paladin.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I probably should start playing this game to know what's going on...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Can the guardian be compared with the warrior in WoW?
    To me this sounds pretty cool!

    ReplyDelete
  19. nice descreption as always. and a few cool pics

    ReplyDelete
  20. In my opinion necro i smuch better, but thats just me. I might give the guardian a try

    ReplyDelete
  21. I'm liking this game so far, and it gets better every time I hear about it.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This looks like a cool game. Following.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Such a magnificent game> too bad i have a wow subscription

    ReplyDelete
  24. guardian looks like an amazing class

    ReplyDelete
  25. Man, definitely going to follow you - your posts are very detailed and informative! I loved the Original Guild Wars - had over 5000hours on my monk alone! Should check out my blog and see if there is anything you like! Thanks, Giulzz.

    ReplyDelete