Guardian Fighter

crypticnotion

I have a question for the people who are suppose to bring balance to this game. Why is the guard function tied to stamina even if your not in a fight the shield function lasts about 13 sec .....if you are not in a fight. This is his MAIN ability , his greatest strength and greatest weakness. Rogues can cloak all day, shields on CW all day unless someone is hitting on it they are not tied to stamina....shield on Guardian should be no different. If you can't beat the guard down it should not come down because a few seconds of having your guard up. Damage on the shield should be the only thing linked to the stamina. everything seems to be stacked against the GF and in favor of everything else. The only way a GF is a real threat is if what he is fighting is poorly equipped or lower level. In light of that I think the GF is in need of some serious balance limit the cloak and shields to a few seconds as well as any other abilities the classes have, tie all the abilities to stamina and let everyone feel the pain. All or none works for me.

qutsemnie

GFs have infinite stamina while fighting if that is what they want. But they have to be fighting and not CCd or kiting.

hedgebet

Well TR dodge uses stamina. Their stealth is a tab feature (like your mark). The TR stealth lasts 6 seconds or so and is reduced when both attacking and taking damage -- is that really what you want for gf shield?

jumpingmorks

As mentioned, TR's can stealth okay if they build their character that way same with GF's. If stamina is important to you, go Protector if you are poorly equipped, pick the 4th tier feat that gives 10% slower stamina drain and if needed use Shield Slam to keep your stamina up while in a fight. You can use Shield Slam by using you secondary At-Will while your shield is up and each attack increases your stamina by 5%.

dsn1118

GF is the biggest and baddest class out there if you build properly.You can kill people without giving others a chance to run or kill you.You can hold your shield indefinetly up in PVE.But both of them require certain builds and playstyle

kemi1984

As above posters said. Properly build GF can hold his shield and take hits like a boss (well at least from the frontal cone. Get hit from behind - yeah baby! - and you're splatted like an ugly frog!).

There are number of feats/boons that will help you with making the shield a real wall.
Also do remember that keeping the wall alive means you have to use abilities that will replenish your stamina.

All in all I think that making the shield gauge tied with our stamina was a good thing.

crypticnotion

No one answered the question WHY would your stamina be drained by holding up your shield, and taking NO damage it is absurd. Every other character can be useful without being max stat.......I have had the guardian for longer than any of the other characters and it is the best equipped....I have tried dozens of setups all of them top rated of course they all have them maxed out...:) Lets just pretend I don't have a 1K in real money to spend on a guardian to make it work like that. Does that mean it is just a money sink or worthless your choice. I have 5 characters my most advanced is the Guardian and it is the weakest the most easily killed in PVE. He is slow, low damage which means takes way to long to kill things, when he is blocking he can't activate any dailies, I can go on for hours with what he can't do what he sucks at. being hit on while blocking you have a few seconds to tank then you drop your shield and are history real quick.....oh yea the shield bash will just about offset the rate that the stamina depletes without being hit on. SO if it is so GREAT should be no problem to post a build that works without max stats. I would prefer something that can swat flies.

crypticnotion

kemi1984 said:

All in all I think that making the shield gauge tied with our stamina was a good thing.

So having a quickly depleting shield when not taking damage is a plus huh? I what way? Why would that be beneficial? What purpose would or could that serve other than weaken the defense? I am glad that few who respond have the money to spend to make the Guardian work. REAL world most can't max stat a half dozen characters or more. For that matter even one with anything but time and hard work.

crypticnotion

Just for information The guardian in question is LVL 70 2.1k gear, 9.3k power, 6k defense, 4 purple artifacts, and three purple artifact equipment. the setup I use is the best I have ever had before and it was rated 94 by many people. It is a pve setup I don't pvp for the reason it stinks in this game. Max stat teams verse noobs most the time. Sick to say the least. They should force match and balance the two teams by taking some of the max stats from one side and put them on the other and BALANCE it out. But that is another subject.

grimah

I don't get it, in protector spec you never have guard problems.

I'm conqueror right now, and I don't have guard issues. If you want more guard put on shield talent 4/4 with the offhand feature, and you'll have no problem holding up your shield.

If you don't want to use that, and prefer more damage, then don't use it. You have to pick and choose what you want.

dsn1118

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crypticnotion said:

Just for information The guardian in question is LVL 70 2.1k gear, 9.3k power, 6k defense, 4 purple artifacts, and three purple artifact equipment. the setup I use is the best I have ever had before and it was rated 94 by many people. It is a pve setup I don't pvp for the reason it stinks in this game. Max stat teams verse noobs most the time. Sick to say the least. They should force match and balance the two teams by taking some of the max stats from one side and put them on the other and BALANCE it out. But that is another subject.

I dont know what is your abiliy score but this build is a joke for a PVE-build GF.All you can do is run to some mobs use yourself as a distraction while other 3k+ friends of yours burn the mobs.Actually these stats is more suitable for PVP:)
Because survavibility is your first job in group required PVE runs.You have to survive at any cost in group runs even if that means you do less damage than healer-specced DCs.Your next job is managing aggro.You have to be the one that every mob runs to you after 1-2 secs(There are certain feats and skills which can help you with this but again they arent DPS firendly).At last learn which skills have extra futures.Enforced threat(stamina recovery),Into the fray(DPS buff to everybody.I heard some people thinks this is speed buff LMAO),Aggravating Strike(Aggro),Shield Slam(Stamina Recovery),Guarded Assault+Fighter's recovery(Instant Heal)

I dont like to tell people how they should play but I can certainly say that there is no direct corralation between GFs gear and its stamina bar unless you use +STR belt. You can hold up your shield nearly indefinetely in PVE.All you have to do stand in front of the mobs and spam Shield Slam to them.Slot Shield Talent if Shield Slam isnot enough by itself


By the way Tank build GFs do better damage then any other class there is.I am 2.9K GF and have nearly 45% DR so my party gets 45% damage buff with Into the Fray and that means our party do damage like there is another dpser in the team and even more because and I know there are GFs with 60% damage buff.That means nearly 2 dpser in the team

crypticnotion

I will keep this brief since the update when they went to lvl 70 I have had issues with the guard .....well more than that have been pissed off about how much they jerked everyone around that was already at lvl 60 I don't want to get into that a lot. But I have had the issue with the guard and was sure they screwed that around too. I deleted and reinstalled the whole game and no change, I checked all the settings several times and was no change to anything. I done a respec today and set everything back just like it was and it works. Not sure why a reinstall would not fix it and a respec would but it is working again. I can hold up my shield and it don't drain my stamina in 10 sec. So I am semi happy at anyrate I can tank again.

klangeddin

grimah said:

I don't get it, in protector spec you never have guard problems

That's not true, I'm full protector and even if I shield Slam all the time eventually my guard runs out. And I also have the Weapon Artifact that should add stamina to it. (Not sure if it's working properly though).
To replenish it you have to drop your guard, even if for a few seconds, and use Iron Warrior, Enforced Threat, Tide of Iron or Into the Fray to help get it up as fast as possible (Iron Warrior being the best for this, but it leaves you very vulnerable for a couple of seconds).
And keep in mind you're not always allowed to stand still in one place and shield slam all the time, if enemies surround you in droves, you have to adjust your position or you're toast. During the adjustment your guard will keep on going down and eventually Shield Slam won't even manage to delay the inevitable for long enough.

This is not a problem when facing one or two enemies since there's plenty of opportunities to lower shield and replenish stamina with encounter abilities. But when you're facing lots of hard-hitting enemies at once, it can become a problem, especially if there's no healer to keep you up.

dsn1118

klangeddin said:

grimah said:

I don't get it, in protector spec you never have guard problems

That's not true, I'm full protector and even if I shield Slam all the time eventually my guard runs out. And I also have the Weapon Artifact that should add stamina to it. (Not sure if it's working properly though).
To replenish it you have to drop your guard, even if for a few seconds, and use Iron Warrior, Enforced Threat, Tide of Iron or Into the Fray to help get it up as fast as possible (Iron Warrior being the best for this, but it leaves you very vulnerable for a couple of seconds).
And keep in mind you're not always allowed to stand still in one place and shield slam all the time, if enemies surround you in droves, you have to adjust your position or you're toast. During the adjustment your guard will keep on going down and eventually Shield Slam won't even manage to delay the inevitable for long enough.

This is not a problem when facing one or two enemies since there's plenty of opportunities to lower shield and replenish stamina with encounter abilities. But when you're facing lots of hard-hitting enemies at once, it can become a problem, especially if there's no healer to keep you up.

It seems you are bugged like the previous poster maybe you should try respeccing your character in Preview server.You can respec your real character if that works in preview

venomous10

crypticnotion said:

No one answered the question WHY would your stamina be drained by holding up your shield

Cuz big shields are heavy! But srsly if u have Shield Talent (class feature) and Enforced Threat (encounter that recharges your stamina) + Into the Fray (encounter that recharges stamina) u should be able to block until the encounters come off cooldown. Then u just cast those 2 encounters again and block for another 15-ish secs. If ur block depletes through those encounters then you are probably bugged. GFs PvE dmg is def bottom tier but with Mark, Enforced Threat/Into the Fray and your at-will debuff (Tide of Iron typically) your group support is def top tier.

p.s. Steel Defense is a must-have too, with blocking so much your dailys should be up every 15-25 seconds (in combat- while being hit) guaranteed even with 0 gear since the ap gain is dependent on the dmg you take. Steel Defense gives u the immunity to cast your 2 stamina recharger encounters. So essentially the only time u are kill-able is when you are casting your daily.

ryoshinette

That would be true, if shield absorbs 100% of dmg.
It doesn't, it blocks 80%. And SE avoid it from time to time. So shield won't protect you forever.
Stamina is not a problem.

kemi1984

The only reason I see is that your acc/char or whatever is bugged.

As @grimah wrote you shouldn't have any issues with guard if you're using encounters/at wills that feeds it's gauge.
I'm like 2,6k so not near to BIS. IL doesn't matter anyway when it comes to guard. This is just a bit easier to take a hit to use that encounter to bring your guard up. But still I never loose my guard as a Protector, seriously...I'm sure it's almost always at max.

It's a standard build, no rocket science. I can post it here after I'm at home if it helps.

kemi1984

Oh and only to add to it. You're a tank - sure, but that doesn't mean you should just put your shield up and wait for the punishment.

You do have controllers for a reason yes? the only situation when you should constantly guard is when you're soloing the dungeon .

Swordmaster's Steel Defense should and will give you few seconds of damage immunity so you have the time to pop this Iron Warrior (VERY long casting speed). I would rather go for ITF or ET as they're much faster to pull off.

fatguns

So that people would think, not stand in one place and spam it.

crypticnotion

Fact is not having the guard issues anymore Can take a pounding from the front and not lose shield, but the flanking b.s. the npcs do anymore is @#$@ if there are three npcs one will be flanking and it will always be a hard hitter. They have so screwed the game up it is not even funny. Lag in Dread Ring is unbearable. At lvl 70 a very large amount of the content for Icewind Dale and Well of Dragons cannot be soloed and my character is far more advanced than most the people I see. I never see the people doing the dragons when they are up anymore in WOD. Mobs of 10 to 20 people run around IWD doing the 5 man heroics to get black ice and groups have to form up to do Biggrin...... They are losing me more all the time on this b.s. and although there is potential in Strongholds they have made it a joke because they have tried to turn it into a year or so to get it where it is worth having......and that is if people grind away at it regularly. I see less in this game every day to keep me interested. Bugs, overkill on hit points on npcs, Damage, flanking, the lvl 73 stuff is pure B.S. I can kill very small mobs depending on what they are but most will flank you and they move much quicker than a guardian can and you die a lot. The moron that thought killing everyone all the time on solo missions was fun needs seriously to be fired see if he finds that fun. Slow but steady loss of interest in a game I love is sad and does not work to their interest to make money. At a certain point it turns into bot fodder it is so mind numbing that only bots can play it and they are how you advance to a level where you can do more content. And I don't do bots so that means I will leave at that point.