Grimah's Guardian Fighter Compendium

grimah · September 2015

You want to be my GF?

If you want be a tank that charges through a dungeon, laughing at their puny attacks, have swords, claws and arrows tickle you like a child with a feather duster, then guardian fighter is not for you.

Guardian fighter despite being in full plate is quite a vunerable tank, we cannot move through hell unscathed, instead we are spartan warriors. Our shield is our life, our strikes are heavy and precise, we stand firm against the coming tide waiting for our enemy to falter.

PVP tips

I'll keep this section short, because there are many different opinions about pvp, but there are some aspects that are shared between each playstyle.

KNOW THY ENEMY
Each class needs to be handled differently. And if you are not experienced at pvp then you must fight and likely die frequently before you understand how they act, I could make an entire thread on how to deal with each class but that also comes down to my own personal build. But whatever route you decide to choose, you must learn how each class reacts and anticipate their skills and movements.

IF IN DOUBT, BLOCK.
If the enemy sees you coming, dont run in like a mindless fool. Hold up your shield or you will likely be CCed and then squished (did i mention guardians are no paladins?) approach with your shield and wait for the right time before you use your other skills.

FACE YOUR TARGET.
There is a command you can use to keep facing your target. But I won't post it here because I don't want to soil my personal integrity. Either way, you should always keep yourself and your shield facing your target. The wily TRs and HRs will try to trick you, so anticipate their actions the best you can.

YOU ARE A SPARTAN.
If you have watched 300 then you know how to fight as a guardian, you only strike when you can land a blow, and retreat to your shield when you are not.

Tanking tips

1. LEARN TO USE MARK!
This maybe hard to get used to after doing solo content when things die so quickly, but get used to using this on higher HP targets. It's a 1 second hard taunt and a -18% mitigation debuff on the target AND combat advantage , and also gives you a threat multiplier when hitting it.

2. LOVE YOUR SHIELD!
Always keep your stamina up, you should never have to drop your shield because your stamina has ran out, and only when you choose to. There are encounters to increase your stamina regen (enforced threat, iron warrior, into the fray), class features that increase your shield pool and lessen the drain (shield talent), and artifact weapon/offhand bonuses that can regen your shield. With a healthy stamina gain you can just drop your shield and let it recharge between dangerous attacks.

3. FACE YOUR TARGET!
Sounds pretty obvious, but it can be harder if you constantly spam aggravating strike (stabby stabby) because if that target moves, or teleports and you press this. it will move you forward and put you in a bad spot, without a way to get out of it. So if in doubt or you find yourself shuffling into a dragon rather than staying at its face, then use shield slam instead.

4. LEARN ATTACK PATTERNS!
Unlike a paladin tank or pre-mod6, you can't just using skills willy-nilly. You need to keep your shield up again powerful attacks or you WILL die. Depending on your HP pool or mitigation, you need to find out which enemies have lethal attacks.

5. BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS!
Don't just watch your target, your job is to handle threat of the entire party, if something is chasing your cleric, you need to disengage and use your tab ability (mark) to snatch it quickly before returning to your foe. The hard taunt of Enforced threat is perfect for these situations.

6. GO IN FIRST!
You are slow, so don't let those ADHD GWFs run ahead of you (and if they do, watch them die.). DPSers are impatient, so you need to get there first.

7. MANAGING THREAT IS YOUR PRIMARY JOB!
Keeping alive is everyone's job and not just yours, and the reason you are brought into a party in the first place is to make sure everything hits you, and not them. Guardians have many tools to keep threat, but they require your attention and timing to use them correctly.

-Your tab skill is a hard taunt but only lasts for 1 second, so if you need something to hit you and they are far away, just spam the hell out of it.
- Aggravating strike (your block stab skill) is your primary tool of aggro generation with the highest multiplier (500%). mark your target/s and stab away to keep things focused on you. Even with it's high multiplier, if you gimp yourself on damage too much, expect those high geared GWFs to pull agro from you.
- Enforced threat (encounter),has a big radius and will hard taunt up to 20 enemies. If you know something new will spawn, or theres only a few enemies nearby, save using it for when they do come. If you have it ready and there are many enemies around, use it to make sure they continue to attack you.

There are many other skills and features that will help, but those are the main ones.

7. BUFF AND DEBUFF
Into the fray is your staple group encounter. It converts your damage resistance into +% damage buff for your party, and it works for you! So each % of damage resistance is another percentage of damage. Even as a tank focused on damage dealing, you can still provide a strong buff too.
See further in the thread for more detailed information.

Tides of Iron: 18% mitigation
Mastery - Mark: 18% mitigation
Threatening Rush: 12% mitigation
Enforced Threat (Doesnt stack with other marks): 5% mitigation
Crushing Pin: 10% mitigation
Into the Fray: Guardian Fighter's damage resistance = % Damage buff for group.

grimah · September 2015

RACE

Honestly I would just suggest going with the race you like, because at the end of the day. Because when you kill something, you need to look good doing it.

But here are the most popular choices and why they are taken:
Halfing: Control resist 10% and deflect +3%, +2 DEX/STR
DragonBorn: +3% crit/power, +5% incoming healing, +2 in any two stats.
Dwarf: Knockback/Pushback 20%, +2 CON/STR
Human: +3% defense, +3 heroic feat points, +2 in one stat.

Attribute points
STR: - +1% damage +1% stamina regen (400 power, 100 stamina gain)
CON: +1% action point gain, +4% hp (1200 hp, 100 AP gain)
DEX: +1% resistance ignored, +0.5% deflect. (100 Armor pen, 200 deflect)

CON may sound good, but +4% hp is only applied to your base hp, at max level this means 1200ish hp per point, which in stat value terms is equivilant to 300 (power, crit etc).

I'll also mention INT here, as some people seem to like putting points in it. Just remember that 1 point of INT = 200 recovery, but without the AP gain. Important to take note if you want to build for efficiency.

PARAGON PATH

This is a tough choice, I have dance between the two very often. It basically comes down to these skills:

Iron vanguard

Threatening rush (at-will):
spammable gapcloser at-will, and also aoe marks, great for dragons and initiation. And also very importantly for PvE dungeon running it gives you the ability to aoe mark without having to slot enforced threat After using this, you may feel sluggish without it.

Frontline Surge (encounter):
Good in pvp as a range stun that is hard to dodge (though its not nessecary), also GF has very few aoe encounters and this is one of them

Swordmaster

Weapon master strike (at-will):
Aoe at-will with very nice range and hits twice, with cleave being worse than mediocre, this skill makes solo PvE alot faster, and aoe damage if you every find yourself not needing to block. This, or threatening rush is what makes the two paths very hard to choose, because they are both hard to live without.

Steel defense (class feature):
6 seconds immunity when using a daily at rank 4, very useful to have against super tough situations. I personally rarely use it anymore, but it has it's uses every now and again.

Steel Blitz (class feature):
This is an okayish damage feature but what makes it great is for one purpose, tiamat and commander's strike, when the commander's strike debuff is applied anyone who hits it has a chance to proc this feature for you, letting you bring your damage up to par with other dpsers, but relys on how many people are with you, hence it being only useful in tiamat or heralds.

Crescendo (daily):
Slow to finish than the iron vanguard counterpart (indomitable strength), but pvp wise its a great tool since its very difficult for the enemy to anticipate it, it has a bit of range and is a stun followed by a prone.

SPECIALISATION

Protector (debuff enemy damage).
Protector Capstone: -5% damage on enemy when you hit them. Stacks 4 times (-20% damage for the enemy)
Notable higher tier feats: -10% shield drain

Conqueror (increase personal damage).
Conqueror: +2% crit and +5% damage, when hit. Stacking 5 times (+10% crit, 25% damage)
Notable higher tier feats: Combat superiority is always on and does 5% more (15% damage total)

Tactician (generate AP faster for your party)
Gain AP for you and your party when damaged (based on % of HP lost).
Notable higher tier feats: +5% damage buff to Into the Fray

Feat Calculator

All trees are viable, just bear in mind the difference in damage of Conqueror and the other trees is quite noticable. Protector and Tactician are for group enthusiasts/specialists.

STATS

Defensive

Defense:
This is one of the most important stats to boost, since our passive DR is next to northing, stack this where you can, most easily would be from augment pet and defender companion items. More DR means more +% damage from Into The Fray (encounter), so boosting it is not only benefitting you but your buffing capability.

Hit Points:
To a certain point this is important, I would aim for healthy amount (120-130k) for current content. 145k+ if you want to survive a direct hit from Orcus (end boss of CN)

Lifesteal:
This can be very important if you want to regen health without relying on a daily, What makes this stat so good is a Class Feature called Guarded Assault. Also, if you are soloing content and you damage is reasonable you can survive just by spamming weapon master strike. If you decide to stack this, try aiming for over 10%.

Hit Points:
To a certain point this is important, i would aim for 120k for current content and you should be fine.

Deflection:
This is useful in pve, if you want to tank mobs with your face and in large numbers, not a stat you can rely on but does help once you get DR capped (which is 80%), in PvP it is very important for deflecting with fey thistle boon (sharandar), procing heals from mount bonus.

Regeneration:
This stat is bad, super bad. Stay away from it unless you have no other choice. the +healing is so minor, you can get that in other more efficient ways.

Offensive

Offensive stats are important despie what some misinformed guardians may post on the forums, offensive stats means threat, and threat is our main job, staying alive is important ofcourse but that is the job of everyone class, making yourself survive "more" makes no sense, so once you feel comfortable with your survivability it is wise to take a look at offensive stats. Even a buffer tank can contribute more damage along with buffing.

Damage focus:

Arp > Crit > Power > Recovery

Buffing focus:

Recovery > Arp > Power > Crit.

Crit becomes even more important if you decide to use the lostmauth set, but crit is great for the bleed that conqueror feat gives you, which itself can crit too.

ArP is capped at 40% for regular stuff, and 60% at bosses. Take a look at your total resistance ignored. The reason why ArP is higher in priority is because its alot cheaper to get than power (efficiency wise)

Recovery is important to reduce the cooldown of ITF, if you want to focus on group PvE.

Other Stats

Stamina Gain:
This may sound useful, but stamina gain does not work whilst you are actively holding up the shield, and takes effect when you drop your shield. This is useful in between blocking and using encounters. Great for pvp too.

Action Point Gain:
Our dailies are quite important, especially if you decide to build for daily, if you had to choose between this and stamina gain, I would be 50:50 on the decision, it depends on what you rely on more.

Control Bonus:
Only useful for PvP.

Bonus Healing Gain:
Fairly useful. Applies to all healing including your lifesteal, will be noticible if you can stack it, good for Tacticians since they want to get hit alot and need to replenish HP before going splat.

Combat Advantage Bonus:
Good. Your marks give you combat advantage and you as a GF should always be hitting things with a mark on (atleast on bosses) so its pretty much a +% damage for you.

grimah · September 2015

Powers

AT-WILL

Cleave - BAD/SITUATIONAL
Damage is not bad and is close to the Swordmaster at-will "Weapon Master Strike" but the cone of attack is alot smaller. It will be your only aoe at-will as an Iron Vanguard, but hard to trade up Crushing Surge or Threatening Rush..

Tides of Iron - SITUATIONAL (GOOD/PVP/GROUP)
For single target/boss fights this is ideal as your secondary, it applies a -18% mitigation debuff for 9 seconds. Very useful and a must have if you want to maximise your debuffing on bosses .

Crushing Surge - GOOD
The heal at the end is negligible but it does huge damage, more damage than your daily in one rotation, this will likely be the at-will that never leaves your bar.

Threatening rush (Iron Vanguard) - GOOD
Spammable gap-closer, whats not to like? It not only makes you switch targets quickly, but you can apply an AOE mark which works great in dungeons, also if you find yourself not needing to rely on enforced threat (encounter) you can free up an encounter slot without losing the ability to mark. This particular mark is a 12% debuff, and does stack with Tab version.

Weapon Master Strike (Swordmaster) - GOOD (SOLO/AOE)
This has a huge aoe radius and does decent damage, the debuff isn't bad but if you want to use it only for the debuff you are better off using tides of iron. What makes this skill good is if for solo questing aoe, or if you somehow find yourself playing as a dpser (if you are in a smaller guild). When tanking you will rarely find a use for this however.

ENCOUNTERS

Lunging strike - GOOD (PVP/GROUP/SOLO)
High damage, super long gap closer, hits more than one target (At times). This is going to be one of your most used powers especially when soloing. Great skill to have for PvP, solo, single target.

Enforced Threat - GOOD (GROUP/SOLO)
Theres only 3 encounters that do aoe damage and this is one of them, not only is it good for marking, hard taunt and hitting up to 20 mobs, it also serves as a essential aoe damage tool when doing solo content. In dungeons it is great to snapping attention of newly spawns. This mark gives a 5% mitigation debuff (does not stack with other marks).

Griffon's Wrath - BAD/SITUATIONAL
Looks good on paper, but because of its charging times it would only work well in pvp and even there it doesn't work well, it's short range, stun and long execution time makes it less than ideal. It's cooldown is not effected by recharge reductions either.

Knee Breaker - SITUATIONAL (PVP)
Does moderate damage and a long slow, like Griffon's wrath it works best in pvp but it has a short range and only procs weapon enchants/feats once on the intial strike. Try it first before investing any points.

Knight's Challenge - SITUATIONAL (PVP/BOSS)
This is great for a select few situations basically when you are fighting something that wouldn't kill you outright. Dragons, tiamat, heralds. I wouldn't suggest using it on the stronghold ones. Apart from those situations you will find it hard to find a use for it. In PvP you can use this to go full glass cannon.

Anvil of Doom - SITUATIONAL (PVP/BOSS)
Highest hitting encounter, fairly long cooldown. does double damage on targets with 40% hp or lower, good for single target fights, also has its use in pvp for finishing off enemies.

Frontline Surge (Iron Vanguard) - STITUATIONAL (SOLO/PVP)
One of the few aoe encounters, a range stun which can be useful in PvP to catch people before they can dodge. for PvE it is also handy to have when soloing, since Iron vanguards have little aoe at their disposal, there is an alternative to this later on though. (line breaker assault)

Flourish (Swordmaster) - BAD
Slow activation and execution, clunky, and less damage than some other single target encounters. I would just avoid this one. There are plenty more useful single target skills.

Into the Fray - GOOD (GROUP/PVP/SOLO)
This is what some people will use you for. It's a must have. Buffs your party with +% damage equal to your damage resistance. Increases speed, regens your shield and also gives AP gain. Also useful in PvP, for the same reasons, the speed also helps counter people trying to get behind your guard. However this only works within your group, so if you want to maximise it's effectiveness in say strongholds dragons you may want to group with only dpsers.

Devoted Cleric skills also boost this skill, Astral shield (+40%) and Hallowed Ground (+40%) the most notable ones amongst others.

Iron Warrior - SITUATIONAL
A pure tanking skill, its great for situations where you need to build maximum threat and damage resistance. it lasts 8 seconds and will let you regen stamina passively (from your +% stamina) whilst blocking. It's worth using vs very tough fights like dragonflight tanking.

Knights Valor - GOOD (GROUP)
Another staple dungeon running encounter, 50% less damage for your party at all times. Will generate enough agro to make mobs turn towards you unless your party members are focusing that target. It's the best group carry skill we have.

Bull Charge - GOOD (PVP)
Your staple PvP skill, its a must have. Short cooldown, gap closer and knockback. It's great for single target, and will also proc the -10% damage mitigation feat from tactician tree. making it very useful for single target fights. But mostly used for pvp.

Commander's Strike - SITUATIONAL
This is GOOD/GREAT for one purpose only, tiamat/heralds/dragons/demogorgon. And even then it is only good if you use it with steel blitz (swordmaster class feature) otherwise i wouldn't bother putting points in it.

Line Breaker Assault - SITUATIONAL (SOLO)
The second aoe encounter (or third if you are iron vanguard). It's a bit clunky to use, it does moderate damage (about the same as enforced threat). and gives you DR when using it. You may find yourself using this if you have low defense (to replace into the fray). What makes this skill good is that it is the highest AP generating skill, for each enemy you hit and has no target limit.

grimah · September 2015

DAILY

Villians Menace - GOOD
+damage, + mitigation, CC immunity, AOE damage AND you turn into a giant. It's our most versatile daily, if in doubt, just use this. In PvP it works wonders against certain classes, and if you feel like you are not using dailies much in dungeons, then just pop this at every opportunity, you can't go wrong with this.

Fighter's recovery - GOOD
This is your Oh Sh*t daily, if your cleric is down and everything has gone balls to the walls, then you may want to pop this. It works well in combination of certain class features, most notably Steel Defense and Guarded assault as it will heal you to full just from holding up your shield for the duration of this daily and with steel defense due to its fast activation time.

Terrifying Impact - SITUATIONAL
Hard to execute, slow cast and small aoe cone. What makes this good is because it bypasses CC immunity in pvp. It is recommended you try it first before investing in it, its a niche daily used by a handful of pvpers, and when used well it can be quite effective. In PvE it can be used to proc Crushing Pin feat on more than one target.

Supremacy of Steel - BAD
For Guardians from the past, this used to be a great skill to use, but after the damage cap, nerf and PvP whiners, this daily is pretty useless compared to the other dailies, unless you REALLY want to go pure reflect build.

Indomitable Strength (Iron Vanguard) - GOOD (PVP/SOLO)
Like it's swordmaster counterpart, it makes you look LIKE A BOSS when you use it, you treat your target like a football (or soccer ball) and punt them through the air like a ragdoll. A Knockback + prone. Mostly used in pvp but also when you need to maximise single target or when soloing.

Crescendo (Swordmaster) - GOOD (PVP/SOLO)
Don't like football? then you can go zippidy zip like an anime swordwielding teenager. it's slowly to finish than indomitable strength (so less damage over time) but what makes it good is it's range and fast activation, making it great for using in PvP.

CLASS FEATURES

Shield Talent - GOOD/SITUATIONAL
This feature will transform your flimsy twig arms into guns of steel. This has a very powerful artifact bonus (+15% stamina) and very useful if you need to hold up block indefinately. As your gear progresses you may find yourself needing this less and less. Due to skills that regen your stamina in between blocking.

Enhanced Mark - SITUATIONAL/GOOD
Nice tool if you find yourself needing to build threat without actually hitting things and essential for building threat as a non-conqueror spec. Be warned about the class artifact feature, it will only reduce the damage resistance, not mitigation.

Guarded Assault - GOOD
Great and often overlooked. One of the better class features out there, will reflect a moderate amount of damage which can be mitigated and scales with buffs (power/arp etc). The artifact feature bonus will also proc Crushing Pin (Tactician feat)

Combat Superiority - SITUATIONAL/GOOD
If you are a conqueror GF, then you will likely take this, since it will give you +15% rather than the default. As another spec, you might want to skip this in favor of Shield Warrior's Wrath

Ferocious Reaction (Iron Vanguard) - BAD
Long cooldown, moderate heal. Just bring a healer, potion or stone of health.

Steel Blitz (Swordmaster)- SITUATIONAL
Moderate damage and nothing special, it can crit and scales with debuffs/buffs. What makes this GOOD is using it with commander's strike. Whilst that debuff is on an enemy, ANYONE will proc steel blitz for you, making it truely amazing in tiamat and dragons.

Trample of the Fallen (Iron Vanguard)- SITUATIONAL/BAD
In PvE you will have to rely on your wizards to make use of this, in PvP it can be useful, but there maybe other class features you would prefer.

Steel Defense (Swordmaster)- SITUATIONAL/GOOD
Sounds great, you'll likely be using it with fighter's recovery, in most cases you won't use it but it is a must have for the final boss in CN (dungeon) and certain dragonflights.

Enduring Warrior (Iron vanguard) - BAD
Pants. Smelly dirty ones.

Steel Grace (SwordMaster) - BAD
Cant think of a situation where you would use it. Possibly pvp if you stack it with elven battle enchant. Until then, its not worth it.

Desperate Survival - BAD
It's just not worth the small increase it provides in PvE. In PvP however, once people start swarming with the new glyphs, it "may" be useful. But for now it is not.

Shield Warrior's Wrath - SITUATIONAL (PVP)
Sounds good. A +20% bonus at rank 4 with full stacks. But situational because it requires you to block. In most solo content you won't be patient enough to block, especially when you start gearing up. The time you wait to get full stacks is just not worth it, but in PvP it can be worth for full damage potential.

grimah · September 2015

FEATS AND BOONS

Most of the feats are pretty self explanatory. But there are some useful tidbits to know about each thing.

Strength Focus (Heroic Feat):
This feat functions oddly and gives more more close to 10% of your strength bonus each rank. If you maximise your strength you will likely get 1.5-2% damage boost per point.

Armor Specialisation (Heroic Feat):
Doesn't display on character sheet, but does work.

Jagged Blades (Conqueror feat):
It CAN crit and is effected by buffs/debuffs. However the damage and crit is calculated at the beginning of its strike, and new bleeds will override the old.

Tactical Superiority (Conqueror feat):
When max out, it won't show on your buff, but it will be active (you can check by re-equiping it and looking at your skill damage). It also means you only need to spend one point in combat superiority.

Iron Guard (Protector feat):
This also procs from guarded assault, so no need to rely on striking everything to proc it.

Fight On (Tactician Feat):
This actually does reduce your skills cooldown by 10% and does not work like recharge speed. (works better than recharge speed)

Crushing Pin (Tactician Feat):
Applies to: Griffon's Wrath, Terrifying Impact, Frontline Surge, Flourish, Bull Charge, Indomitable Strength and Crescendo (dailies) and Guarded assault's artifact feature. The buff is applied to the skill BEFORE it is calculated, effectively giving all these skill a +10% damage boost, as well as applying the debuff for attacks that follow.

Daunting Challenge:
Also works for the GF despite what the tooltip says.

Stand united (Tactician Feat):
Doesn't display on character sheet, but does work.

Martial Mastery (Tactician Capstone):
1. AP generated is based on percentage maximum health lost. Roughly 2% HP lost = 1% AP generated. So if you are blocking you will generate less, if you are immune e.g. steel defense you generate nothing.
2. DR does not effect on AP generated.
3. Is not effected by AP gain (the stat)
4. Works through Paladin skill: Divine Protector, as damage is registered (you see the numbers) but transferred to the paladin.

Fey Thistle (Sharandar Boon):
This damage is piercing damage, meaning it cannot be mitigated nor can it be buffed. making it quite useful in pvp.

Avalanche (Icewind Dale boon):
This is also piercing damage like fey thistle making it useful in PvP.

Baphomet's Might:
This boon has an internal cooldown of 15 seconds.

Healing/Damage Boons:
These have long cooldowns (1.5-2 minutes) this includes other boons such as rousing warmth, cold shoulder

Tactical Redeployment (PvP):
Doesnt not apply to mounts.

grimah · September 2015

Artifact sets:

Seldarine (AC):
The Bonus is not going to save you but its not entirely useless, the stats this set gives are ones that are usually quite difficult to obtain if you want to build more defensively. Lifesteal, Deflect, AC+8. Thats +4% dr for your into the fray.

Lathander (AC)
The CHA and WIS is not very useful, but the set bonus is great if your armor enchantment is soulforge. With both upgraded it can bring you back to almost full health.

Lostmauth set (AP):
This set is strong for dpser, and even with low crit it still goes along way. It also generates AP so its a win wins. If you want to up your damage or do PVP, this is a good choice.

PETS

I won't be including pets that just give you +stats, there are plenty to choose from so if you want to increase certain stats just start looking. Click Here is a complete list of active bonuses from companions.

Common mistakes

Pseudodragon:
This thing only gives you 1% stamina, you wont notice with or without it.

Blacksmith:
In PvE monsters hit you slowly, and 15% of those slow attacks is very small chance to get the full effect of this. If you want to hurt things, there are much better options.

Augment Pets

Chicken (or goat): +40% speed for 3 seconds and -10% damage debuff on attack when struck for more than 25% hp.
The bonus is nice for those sticky situations in both PvE and PVP. its very expensive right now (because it is no longer obtainable), but there is a goat was announced which has the same effect.

Bulette Pup: If you take damage of more than 25% of your Max HP in a single blow, you Heal for 25% of your Maximum Hit Points over the next 5 seconds. This effect may only occur once every 60 seconds.
This bonus is quite useful and also a very expensive pet, but what makes it very desired augment pet is the 3 defensive runestone slots.

Augment stone:
I would recommend any stone that gives atleast one defensive slot because 1 eldritch rune in that slot will give you more stats than a single bonding runestone. Check here.

Bonding Pets:
There are a number of pets you can get for procing bonding runestones. The only issue is that they are more favorable in boss fighters rahter than short encounters. If you are focused into buffing, then you will likely not benefit from it's bonuses during the first into the fray (recovery or defense).

Defensive Pets

Rust monster: 25% chance to apply 5% less damage, stacks 3 times.
Against regular mobs, you will likely only stack 1 of these debuffs on it. (Did i mention pve monsters attack slowly?) but against bosses that attack alot you can stack it quite effectively. Even at 1 stack it's still quite useful for a companion bonus.

Slyph: +50% control resist.
Nice, in all aspects of the game.

Black Ice Prospector: -5% less damage from AOE attacks
Most attacks in PvE are aoe ones, atleast the dangerous ones anyway.

Cockatrice: 10% chance to root attacker.
One of the best PVP pets, will also be useful in pve, but to a lesser degree (10% in pve is low)

Honey Badger: -10% less damage below 35% hp
Not so great in dungeon running, as you will likely die if anything hit you whilst below this threshold, but can useful in Solo or Siege PVP

Offensive Pets:

Renegade Invoker: on crit inflict 1700 aoe (at epic)
Another PVP pet, pve do not crit you enough to make this noticable. the damage is piercing and fixed. so much more useful in pvp than pve.

Death Slaad 15% chance to poisons on at-will
This thing may sound bad, due to our slow At-will use. but it also procs from guarded assault making it a great addition in group fights, the proc damage is quite high so it will contribute to alot of your damage from 8-18%.

Young Yeti: 10% chance on damage taken to increase your damage by 10% (at epic)
Probably the biggest +% damage boost you can get, in PvE it will only really be effective when fighting large groups, and still a bit RNG in PVP.

Air Archon: +5% damage when attacking enemies not at full health (at epic)
This effect will likely always been applied apart from the first hit. +5% more damage is considered good for a pet bonus.

Intellect Devourer/Blink Dog: +5% combat advantage
weaker than say the air archon, which is always up. But you will be regularly striking marked targets.

Also any of the +Crit severity pets. (Erinyes/Dancing Blade)

Weapon Enchantment

Vorpal
More damage, reasonable choice for PvP or GFs who want to put out a bit more damage, but heavily reliant on critical rate. Less effect for GFs than other classes.

Feytouched
Only worth using if you can get it to transcendant. But if you can get it at this level, it is the best enchant to have for PvP and Solo. In group it maybe less useful since you cannot reliably use encounters so often. (you will likely only be using one encounter that damages). Still a solid enchant all round.

Plaguefire
The best for the Buffer GF, it will increase the damage of your party as well as lower their damage at Pure level. In PvE monsters DO NOT have power or defense, so these apply a different debuff on PvE enemies. this results in 3% mitigation and 3% less damage at Pure level, stacking to 3 times (9% if you can't do maths). It will refresh on each hit, making it very easy to keep up. Though less effective compared to other enchants in PvP, it is not entirely useless and will dismount anyone in one hit due to the damage over time. Beware upgrading to transcendant as it does a pitiful 200ish damage.

Lightning
Oddball PvE enchant. It is good because it will agro newly spawned adds with ease, making it a bit easier to control groups of adds on initial pulls. However, you can not control what it hits. so there maybe times it will prove annoying. But still it is worth a look if you really want to be special.

Armor Enchantment

Soulforged
Plan for Failure. Gives you a second life, and another chance for those unforgiving one-shots.

Negation
Plan for success. +DR and 10% incoming healing (at pure) 10% recovery (at transcendent) means this is the best tanking enchant, providing you do not die. Loses it's usefulness if you plan to stack defense up high beyond the DR cap though not useless, as 10% recovery and healing will still make it worthwhile.

Elven Battle
With the new PvP drain glyphs, it may become the new thing to use. however losing negation in favor of this will hurt our low DR rating.

Briatwine
I'm putting this here not because its good. But because its TERRIBLE. Alot of GFs will try to use this to fullfill their reflect build fantasy, but the damage is calculated AFTER you take the hit meaning it will only ever do good damage if you get hit really hard. Avoid at all costs.

ravenan · September 2015

I would say that for pve GF the most important stats are defence and recovery. Inteligence is also very important main stat for pve GF. Your goal is to maintain ITF without gaps, and to spam ET and choosen daily. So action point gain and cooldown decrease is super important. You didnt mention yet that with Protection OP, Tactic is working and its the best posible combo for support in party. The ap gain is better that with DC.

Everything else is more or less nicly put. Exept 1 thing, i still use steal defence it helps with positioning for ET spam, and SoS with OP protector/KV combo is still preaty silly and fun to use.

grimah · September 2015

Thanks for the suggestions. I won't mention the OP group thing, not because its not useful. But its a very specific thing, same reason why i didn't go into detail about how to fight each class in pvp. OP and GF combo is crazy good I admit, with the divine protector reflect bounce damage. But these kinda discussions go very deep into specific things. But it's good you mentioned it because more players should know that the OP + GF combo is a viable one (abeit an overpowered easy mode one).

But i will add something onto recovery, as I admit i overlooked that completely. (my own build leans more to PVP)

kemi1984 · September 2015

I'm sticking to my Protector build till I can do my job as a tank and still able to do solo content by just sweeping to DPS gear on the character + the augment (yay LOL set!)

But yet again! I'm tempted to go back to my beloved Conq

Your guide did not make my decision easier

whymushroom · September 2015

Good to see so much information being shared! I hope this will give a boost to the GF community.

I first read it as a general approach to the GF, but I think some decisions or 'ratings' you made choosing powers, pets, passives, and others items, are made towards a PVP approach. As I am not a PVP player, I have a lot the learn here!

Thanks for putting in all the effort writing this.

grimah · September 2015

I take both aspects into consideration, since i build for both sides of the game. So I do try to be fair in judging skills for both parties.

There is room for discussion though, I don't think tactician tree is totally bad. specing up to united is a viable alternative to 15 in conqueror for jagged blades or 15 in protector for deflection.

whymushroom · September 2015

grimah said:
Armor Enchantment
Soulforged
Plan for Failure. Gives you a second life, and another chance to redeem your past mistakes. Use this for a safety net, something that alot of GFs prefer due to the unforgiving one shots of some bosses.

For PvE, I disagree here. In combination with the Lathander's set, the Soulforged is by far the best Armor Enchantment in the game! This is especially strong when you're facing those one-shotting mobs. This way you can survive damage that extends your HP pool.

Two random examples:

Example 1

Spoiler:

[23:06] Your Soulforged Armor gives 7274 (6075) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 100 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Your Lathander's Rebirth gives 48582 (40360) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Sorceress gives 0 (3635) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Sorceress gives 0 (3541) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Your Elven Tranquility gives 24074 (20000) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1354 (1125) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 50 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Sorceress deals 620 (3503) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Seasoned Officer deals 4762 (8817) Physical Damage to you with Sweep.
[23:06] Deathpledged deals 3119 (5775) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:06] Deathpledged deals 2343 (4338) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:06] Your Forge Fire deals 882 Fire Damage to Seasoned Officer.
[23:06] Your Forge Fire deals 2500 Fire Damage to Seasoned Officer.
[23:06] Your Health Steal gives 3009 (2500) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Your Forge Fire deals 686 Fire Damage to Deathpledged.
[23:06] Deathpledged deals 3023 (5596) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:06] Deathpledged deals 3703 (6856) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:06] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1354 (1125) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Your Augmented Thayan Bastion deals 3498 Necrotic Damage to Deathpledged.
[23:06] Your Augmented Thayan Bastion deals 3498 Necrotic Damage to Deathpledged.
[23:06] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 101 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Your Enraged Regrowth gives 6019 (5000) Hit points to you.
[23:06] Sorceress deals 738 (3498) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:06] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1354 (1125) Hit points to you.

Base HP: 97.8k
Soul Res + Lathander = 55.9k HP > 57% HP instantly
Soul HoT + Boons = 34k > 35% over 3 seconds
TOTAL: 92% HP back in 3 seconds

Example 2

Spoiler:

[23:56] Your Soulforged Armor gives 7274 (6075) Hit Points to you.
[23:56] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 100 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Sorceress gives 0 (2910) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Your Lathander's Rebirth gives 55603 (46432) Hit Points to you.
[23:56] Sorceress gives 0 (2848) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1365 (1125) Hit Points to you.
[23:56] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 98 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Sorceress deals 742 (2807) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Your Forge Fire gives 0 Fire Damage to Sorceress's Earth Hex.
[23:56] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1365 (1125) Hit Points to you.
[23:56] Sorceress's Earth Hex deals 101 Action Points to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Sorceress deals 564 (2819) Fire Damage to you with Hexed Earth.
[23:56] Your Elven Tranquility gives 24264 (20000) Hit Points to you.
[23:56] Your Augmented Thayan Bastion deals 5036 Necrotic Damage to Seasoned Officer.
[23:56] Deathpledged deals 366 (5036) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:56] Your Forge Fire deals 504 Fire Damage to Deathpledged.
[23:56] Deathpledged deals 556 (6140) Physical Damage to you with Bone Claws.
[23:56] Your Soulforged Armor gives 1365 (1125) Hit Points to you.

Base HP: 106k
Soul Res + Lathander = 62.9k HP > 59% HP instantly
Soul HoT + Boons = 28.4k > 27% over 3 seconds
TOTAL: 86% HP back in 3 seconds

grimah · September 2015

what you posted is pretty much what i wrote. Its personal preference. soulforge gives you a second chance, negation lets you hit/get close to the 80% DR cap (and 10% bonus healing)

And what if you don't want to use the lathander set and want more damage? its all depends on the player.

whymushroom · September 2015

Sorry, I read that wrong (non-native). I thought you meant the enchant being failure.

Keep up with the good work here. Although I might need to read twice, it's interesting to see the GF from another perspective.

dfnce · September 2015

Awesome and refreshing post, it is good to have you on GF side, grimah.

>Fight On (Tactician Feat):
>This actually does reduce your skills by 10% and does not work like recharge speed.

Its is pity that a feat which worked well some time ago .... meh

grimah · September 2015

dfnce said:
Awesome and refreshing post, it is good to have you on GF side, grimah.

>Fight On (Tactician Feat):
>This actually does reduce your skills by 10% and does not work like recharge speed.

Its is pity that a feat which worked well some time ago .... meh

I meant this as a good thing

recharge speed doesn't give you a 10% cooldown reduction, but instead lets it come off cooldown 10% faster (which is not the same)

forceage · September 2015

Thanks grimah for this compedium its very useful
[quote\]Stand united (Tactician Feat):
Doesn't display on character sheet, but does work.[/quote]
doesnt look it work on aoe attack

oliboyph · September 2015

grimah said:

-Your tab skill is a hard taunt but only lasts for 1 second, so if you need something to hit you and they are far away, just spam the hell out of it.

You can spam mark to increase threat on a target?

grimah · September 2015

oliboyph said:

You can spam mark to increase threat on a target?

No, it doesn't. But since its a hard taunt if you keep spamming it even if it's being attacked, the target will move towards you.

danaswanson · October 2015

Greetings grimah,

I wanted to thank you for all the work you put into writing your guides. I used to get frustrated reading the forums since everyone had an opinion and disagreed what was the best way to go about tweaking your Guardian Fighter. After reading several posts on the newsgroup I just gave up and stuck to what I always used for powers.

You explain these differences in option (on the newsgroup) by writing what powers are good in what circumstance.

Thank You!

Dana

kieranmtorn · October 2015

TY. As someone who as benefited from your Wizards Guide when I was first starting out, and now for making more sense of feat/skill interactions for Guardian Fighter (I try to play each class, and GF has been a challenge getting functional).

jobsalotofwork · December 2015

Hey grimahs what are your thoughts on Fire, water or twisted for an arti weapons?

grimah · December 2015

sorry i havent been playing this module so i can't really say.

At a glance, I would say water for pvp and generally good if you lack any self healing (lifesteal) or you play turtle mode.

Twisted is overall a safe choice you get 8% of a mixture of damage or defense, depending on what procs it. its 9000+ free stat, so yea its really nice. power and defense is both good stuff.

However for end-game defensive/buff build if you are built to already hit the 80% DR cap, then this will likely be useless.

for any balanced tank, bruiser style GF twisted is best for pve imo.

eion311 · December 2015

Was it discovered if Negation was adding to ITF? I've had a perfect one for awhile now and being at 74% DR before the stacks begin, it doesn't seem to do much for me other then make me look pretty. Figure I'll go back to soulforge as when I do go down it drives me nuts I have to wait for someone to rez me.

kemi1984 · December 2015

It was discussed and tested few time. Negation DR stacks do not contribute to your ITF buff.
Apart from adding to your personal DR, and making you look like a walking light bulb, it does not make our ITF stronger.

I still like it for the visuals (*wink*) frankly, I'm a huge Negation fan from beta

oliboyph · December 2015

Only DR from defense stats, AC, and feats will be calculated into ITF buff. DR from negation, bull charge, lunging strike, or other buffs do not add to ITF.

zachwho · December 2015

How are you getting 74% DR passively? That seems really high for a GF

eion311 · December 2015

SH boons are a huge chunk. I'm a tact GF, when I hit ITF while in groups npcs health bars melt.

zachwho · December 2015

Sh boons, gotcha. Do you use an augment companion or a summoned one?

eion311 · December 2015

My augment companion is usually my summoned active companion.

innovating · December 2015

One noob question only! If I make a mistake in feats or skills is there a way to change them?

Grimah's Guardian Fighter Compendium

You want to be my GF?

Contents

PVP tips

Tanking tips

Comments

RACE

PARAGON PATH

Iron vanguard

Swordmaster

SPECIALISATION

STATS

Defensive

Offensive

Other Stats

Powers

AT-WILL

ENCOUNTERS

DAILY

CLASS FEATURES

FEATS AND BOONS

Artifact sets:

PETS

Common mistakes

Augment Pets

Defensive Pets

Offensive Pets:

Weapon Enchantment

Armor Enchantment

Armor Enchantment