Guardian – Frontline Support and Spellcasting

Guardians are an extension of the front-line warrior, and aim at giving the warrior addition tools on the battlefield. They gain access to several spells that use Strength as a casting attribute and deal physical damage to scale with warfare. Guardians gain access to Boons as status effects and have a handful of support skills that don’t rely on Geomancer or Hydromancer. They gain access to a new burning stats: Zealot’s Fire, dealing physical damage over time.

Skills
All Guardian skills are sold by warfare merchants. If they are not showing up, they will after a vendor refresh (every hour or upon level up.
Lizards and Undead Lizards who memorize a Virtue will also gain a Guardian version of their non-source Racial Skill. This should not conflict with mods that alter racial skills.

Virtues
A Guardian’s Virtues are their calling card on the battlefield and grant them benefits and additional skills. All virtues overwrite one another, provide a boon and unlock an active skill that will clear the virtue on use.

• Justice – Channel to gain Might and access to Blaze of Justice.
• Blaze of Justice – Deal physical damage in an area and apply Zealot’s Fire to enemies struck.
• Resolve – Channel to gain Regeneration and access to Wave of Resolution until used or another Virtue is channeled.
• Wave of Resolution – Grant allies Regeneration and Resolution.
• Courage – Channel to gain Protection and access to Armor of Courage.
• Armor of Courage – Grant allies Protection and restore some Physical & Magical Armor.

Additionally adept Guardians can use the source skill Renewed Focus to empower their Virtues and unlock different skills instead:

• Spear of Justice – Projectile that pierces enemies. Applies Vulnerability and Zealot’s Fire.
• Wings of Resolve – Leap to an area, gaining wings. When you land you apply Resolution and Regeneration.
• Shield of Courage – Rush to a location. Grant allies Protection and Stability. Damage an apply Knocked Down to enemies.

Shouts
Shouts are cheap, effective ways to grant boons to allies.

• Empower – Grant allies Might and Fury.
• Hold the Line – Grant allies Protection and Regeneration.
• Stand Your Ground – Grant allies Stability and Resolution.
• Fell My Wrath – Grant allies Quickness and Retaliation.

Weapon Skills
Guardian weapons skills have unique benefits not found in regular warriors’ toolkits. Like regular weapon skills, they scale off weapon damage and attributes making them effective even with a dagger, polearm or stave. They mostly deal damage based on weapon damage type.

• Faithful Strike –Deal damage to target and enemies nearby. Apply Regeneration to allies near your target.
• Leap of Faith – Leap to a location, dealing damage and blinding enemies.
• Zealot’s Defense – Fire 5 projectiles with your weapon and gain Protection.
• Shield of Judgement – Short Range. Project energy from your shield, dealing damage and granting allies Protection in a short, wide cone ahead of you.
• Whirling Wrath – Deal damage to enemies in melee range, and fire projectiles at every nearby enemy.
• Armored Strike – Deal damage equal to 25% of your current armor to a single target.

Symbols
Symbols are active defense zones that can be maintained by a Guardian. Each one has three charges once set and a Guardian can only maintain one at a time.

• Symbol of Justice – Allies in initial area gain Fury, damage enemies who move through it.
• Symbol of Resolve – Allies in initial area gain Regeneration, restore Magic Armor to allies who move through it.
• Symbol of Courage – Allies in initial area gain Protection, restore Physical Armor to allies who move through it.

Spells
Guardian’s spells deal physical damage, scaling from warfare, and use Strength as their casting attribute where applicable. Their spells have a variety of effects and ranges.

• Sword of Justice – Deal damage in an AoE.
• Spears of Wrath – Drop 5 spears in an area, each with their own small AoE.
• Judge’s Intervention – Teleport to an enemy and deal damage in an area.
• Merciful Intervention – Teleport to an ally and apply Regeneration to allies near you.
• Sanctuary – Create a dome that applies Stability and Regeneration to allies inside.
• Smite Ailments –Cleanse damaging status effect from a character, and deal damage to enemies nearby. Grant Fury if the target was an ally.
• Ray of Judgement – Deal damage to an enemy and apply a status. When the status ends, they take additional damage. Whenever Burning or Zealot’s Fire is applied to the enemy, the status ends and is reapplied.
• Zealot’s Flame – Give yourself an aura that applies Zealot’s Fire to you and nearby enemies. Gain access to Zealot’s Fireball.
• Zealot’s Fireball – Cleanse Zealot’s Flame from yourself. Throw a fireball that applies Zealot’s Fire.
• Receive the Light – Apply Regeneration to allies and a healing effect to enemy undead in a cone.
• Cleansing Flame – Shoot a cone of fire. Cleanse damaging status effects from and grant Retaliation to allies. Apply Zealot’s Fire to enemies.
• Cover – Apply Protection and Guardian Angel to a single target.
• Orb of Wrath – Fire a protection that explodes and shocks enemies.
• Bolt of Wrath – Fire a lightning bolt that jumps to two additional targets near your first.
• Zealot’s Wrath – Fire a beam of light that deals damage to enemies. Those without physical armor detonate in a burst of Zealot’s Fire dealing more damage and applying Zealot’s Fire to those affected.
• Shackles of Light – Deal damage, cripple and apply vulnerability a single target.

Status Effects
The Guardian brings 7 boons and 1 damaging status effect to the table that can compliment your team.

• Might – Increases damage by 10%.
• Protection – Reduces Physical, Piercing, and Elemental Damage by 10%.
• Fury – Increases critical chance by 10%.
• Retaliation – Reflects 10% of incoming damage as physical.
• Swiftness – 20% increased movement speed and +5 Initiative.
• Quickness – +1 Starting, Recovery, and Max AP.
• Stability – Immunity to Knockdown, Charm, Fear, and Cripple.
• Zealot’s Fire – A burning status that deals physical damage. Does not stack with Necrofire and overwrites burning. Resisted by physical armor, and is affected by the Torturer talent.

Suggestions and Tips:

• A lot of Guardian’s utility skills and weapon skills only require investment in warfare, and can be easily utilized by many builds.
• Melee weapon skills can be used by daggers, polearms, and staves.
• Boons are stat-independent (including regeneration), making them flat bonuses available to any build that can access the skills.
• Guardian skills do not totally replace the control functionality of Warfare skills. If you’re looking to employ crowd control as a strategy you need to pick up more than Guardian skills.
• Regeneration applies it’s Healing when first applied or reapplied. Applying it multiple times per turn can greatly improve it’s immediate potency.
• The presence of spells and resistable status effects makes caster-centric talents like Savage Sorteliege and Torturer much more useful on melee builds than normal.

As always, thanks to the folks on the Larian Discord, as well as Larian and ArenaNet for making games worth playing and working on. Icons and art from Guild Wars 2. Please see “Discussions” for bug reports and other issues.