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Grenrick

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re: The Guardian class

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General information on class

The guardian is one of the hardest tanks to kill, if you play them correctly. Guardians are the anchor of any group or raid of adventurers, providing leadership and protection for their allies. Combining durable armor with an impressive array of defensive skills, Guardians can remain standing after absorbing substantial amounts of physical damage from their enemies. Stone-skins and other defensive skills is the guardians bread and butter. Hard as nails but our DPS was one of the weakest of all the other tanks. Things have changed with LON coming out. Auto attack's now mean something

 

Why pick your class over another

The guardian has always been my favorite to play. I will be honest for the longest time I have been jealous of my other tank brothers and sisters. The Pally heals, the taunt/dps/heal/power button clicks of Shadow Knights, the AoE of Zerkers, and the DPS of our leather tanks. If you want a hard tank to play, play a guardian. The guardian can now finally push out some really good DPS and take multiple punches to the face with out breaking a sweat. Be warned, its not an easy task to play a guardian well.

 

AA choice and why - with screen shots 

    Link to spec for --> click Holyguardian

Warrior AA

*Must have (STR) Executioner's Anger: 10 point spent. 10% hate gain and improves taunts by 30%

*Must have (AGL) Dragoon Spin: 1 points needed to get to below abilities (AOE attack) mainly used with Reinforcement if I need to gather mobs

*Must have (AGL) Dragoon' Cyclone: 10 points is 40% AoE, a must have. Note our AoE can be converted to Flurry. When fighting raid mobs you want over 200 flurry.

(WIS) Seasoned Veteran: Multi attack. These are extra points I had left over.

(INT) Acceleration Strike: 1 points: Extra attack. Has a few other benefits, with this line you will always have an extra 25% casting speed, 25% recovery speed and 41.2 attack speed active (well at least most of the time). Keep this in mind when you are reforging. If you want to get the full benefit you would need to spend 5 points.

======Why not pick Dragoon's Reflexes and Experienced Insight?

--- Dragoon's Reflexes. I decided to drop this as I find it is not needed. More about tank defense later. I would not be against getting Dragoon Reflexes and dropping Unshakable Grip. You will get more points to spend

--- Experienced Insight. You should reforge into 100% strikethrough so getting this is a waste in my opinion. Even with adding Enhanced: Experienced Insight in the Heroic tree its not worth the points to get to this. Points are better spent elsewhere. 

 

Guardian AA

Most of the choices here are to make things last longer or to make things better so I am not going to comment on everyone. A few must haves and getting to Last Man Standing is a must have.

Enhance: Plant: You will want the effect Radius of 10 meters. Our other AoE (all but Partisan Cleave that takes a minute to come back) are very short range. You can click Reinforcement and then Plant and you should have everything on you. If not, you have 2 other AOE that you can use with Reinforcement. Helps when that mage is hanging to far back and pulls agro or a bunch of mobs are up.

Enhance: Sentry Watch: Again its a range thing. You get a Radius of 30 meters with this. Nothing like having a group death save when things are going bad and being able to reach those who are 30 meters away.

Got Your Back: AoE blocker for your other tank friends...because they are just not as tough as you are. Last 16.5 seconds and recast in 30 seconds.

*Must have Shoulder the Burden: 17% hate transfer (mini pally amends). Put this on your highest DPS'r in your group. 

*Must have Fight Through Death: Well here is our death save. With 5 points in Enhance: Unyielding Will it will last 3 minutes 48 seconds and then be down for 7 minutes 30 seconds. If you don't take this line you will die when Unyielding Will expires.

*Must have Improved Moderation: 5% hate and -25% hate to your group.

*Must have Enhanced : Reinforcement and Rally to Combat. improves duration, and allows threat proc on taunts. 26 second duration and you can recast this ability in 1 minute 4 seconds. 

*Must have Last Man Standing: 7 trigger Stone-skins.

 

Shadows AA

We do have some good stuff here, but I only spent what was needed. Only 36 points. Remember our main DPS is our auto attacks

*Must have Sneering Assault:  3 position threat Snap

*Must have Cry of the Warrior:  2 position threat Snap

*Must have Defensive Minded: You need this to get Unstoppable Wall which turns this into a stone skin ability in your Prestige line.

*Must have Sentinel Strike: A good hit

Other choices were personal preference. 

 

Heroic AA

Spirit and Body: Extra health. In general you should take everything that has extra health on it.

The second line, pot, crit... adds to your damage. 

*Must have Emboldened: 10% Damage reduction, can be up 50% of the time. With Prestige Stance line this is improved to to 13%. Total after other buffs is about 15%.

*Must have Perfect Counter: 3 trigger stone-skins. 

*Must have Unshakable Grip: 23% riposte and other good stuff.

*Must have Partisan Cleave: AoE that gives us up to 8% damage reduction if we hit 8 enemies (a little more with other buffs), and extra crit bonus. Our best AoE with a 15 meter range.

8 left over points? Attribute Prowess was just a personal choice. A better one might be Robust Bulwark as it adds health.

 

Dragon AA

Outnumbered. Increases all attributes by 23%. Only triggers when being “hit” by more then 4 mobs, but there seems to be a lot of groups in zones/raid.


 Elder Dragon  line: Its all more health or defensive stuff. The end ability is our one and only heal - Draconic Shout. I would almost say this line is a *Must have

 

*Must have Ancient Focus.  Remember all those stone-skin we have? After a stone-skin triggers, we are immune to damage for 1.1 seconds with Ancient Focus instead of 1.0 seconds. If we look at our Tower of Stone (5 trigger stone-skin) this would mean we are immune to damage for 5.5 seconds... but that's only IF we get hit 5 times in 1.1 seconds. What this means is that Tower of Stone will typically last for 5-15 seconds before it drops. If we get hit by a physical attack, it triggers. If the mobs auto attack is once ever 4 seconds (most mobs are like this) we will trigger stone-skin on the mobs first auto attack. Then 4 seconds later when it auto attacks again a 2nd stone-skin gets used, up to 4 triggers, or 16 seconds of damage immunity. This also helps with all damage reduction abilities that you get. 

*Must have Ancient Advance adds crushing damage to our 2 main taunts.

...The other abilities are personal preference, many for damage improvements

 

Prestige

 Stalwart Aura: 3 points 5% Damage reduction for 11 seconds when healed. Up about every 20 seconds

 Protecting Stance: 3 points. 3% Damage reduction when Hunker Down is up. Up above I was talking about Ancient Focus and how it helps all your beneficial abilities by 10%. Here is a great example of why you should spec for that ability. With Battle Cry and Hunker Down running you have 28.6 Damage reduction on you. PLUS you will have an additional 84,123 Mitigation.

 

Champion's Interception: up to 50% damage reduction for group (not you), up for 12 seconds. Also, with Champion's Shout the Guardian gets 4.5% damage reduction that is up all the time.

Defensive mind (Shadow line) and Defensive Bulwark *Must have will proc a stone skin when you avoid an attack.

 offers 6% damage reduction for you.. up most of the time, but it is really 6.9% damage reduction.

...Are you adding up all of this damage reduction? With out doing anything you will have 10.2 damage reduction just standing still. With everything going I am often sitting at 25-40% damage reduction just about all the time.

 

Prestige (Guardian)

 Stand firm. Short duration 34.5 damage reduction. Last for 4.6 seconds

*Must have Enhanced Vigor: Required. put 8 points in this, this will raise your health like nothing else offered.

Undeniable Power and Power from the Soul add damage. Fervor and Potency

 *Must have Weapon of the Mind and Vitality to Strength. Must have for weapon damage. If you are going melee damage/DPS this is needed.

 *Must have Vital Trigger. One of our best hits.

Stone skins

Lets talk about all the Stone-skin/you cant hurt me abilities we get first.

Block (1 trigger) (shield required)

Tower of Stone (4 triggers-5 with AA). You no longer need a shield up for this ability

Dragoon's Reflexes (21.2 seconds of 100% parry) * as noted I did not spec for this and so far is not needed but if you find yourself having issues spec for it.

Perfect Counter (3 triggers) – Always switch to duel wield weapons if up.

Last Man Standing (7 triggers) – Always switch to duel wield weapons if up.

 Stand firm: In a pinch this could save you. Only last for 4.6 seconds but reduces physical damage by 34.5%

Unyielding Will: Remember, you have this death save as well.

--The above is all on one hot bar. See below. This is also my casting order typically. Tower of Stone first (it comes back the fastest),  Last man standing, then Perfect counter if Tower of stone and Last man standing are down.  I save the above stone skins for when they are needed. Bulwark of Order, and heavy fight where I need to stay in but the rest of the raid needs to joust. Upon pull I typically start with Perfect Counter, etc.

Temp Buffs

Default Guardian ability: Battle Cry X (can have it up all the time) group 3.45% damage reduction and increase Mit of group vs physical damage by 62,572. That is not a miss type, keep this up all the time. Also can 10.4% chance to absorb physical damage. 

----I rotate between the following 4 abilities. At least one of these 4 abilities should be running.

Default Guardian ability: Guardian Sphere: 50% chance to trigger a stone-skin

 Unshakable Grip: Heroic line 23% Riposte/Parry

Default Guardian ability: Hunker Down: 13% damage reduction (more like 15%), more block chance, and increased Mitigation vs physical damage by 21,551.

Defensive Mind: 20% dodge chance and strikethrough immunity plus trigger a stone-skin on avoidance as long as you picked 

If needed Draconic Shout: 25% heal

If needed one of my stone skins or Stand firm

 

Snaps:

We have (just like all other tanks) Rescue (5 positions) Sneering Assault (3 positions).  Cry of the Warrior (2 positions) 

Default Guardian ability: Reinforcement. If you need aggro always use Reinforcement first. With Reinforcement each time you use a combat art or taunt it will trigger a threat position and it last for 26 seconds. If you hit an AoE, all mobs hit with that AoE will trigger a threat increase. Also Reinforcement comes back in 90 seconds. This means when reinforcement ends it will be available again in 64 seconds. This is providing you set enhancements like I suggested above.

Default Guardian ability:  Irresistible Force. A 9 position snap, plus the following: threat increase that goes every 1.7 seconds, and "Allows caster to hit all abilities for maximum damage". Use this snap then hit your 

We also have Recapture. Consider this a threat increase for all other tanks in your raid.

 

AoE combat arts..not many of them

Default Guardian ability: Taunting Assault (Green AoE)

Default Guardian ability:Assault,

Default Guardian ability: Plant is also a blue AoE to technically we have 4 blue AoE. They do not hit very hard (except Partisan Cleave) 

Dragoon Spin(AA)

 

 Partisan Cleave(AA)(Blue AoE). 

 

Single Target Attacks.

Here is a list of all of combat arts/abilities

http://u.eq2wire.com/spells/soe_character_spells/455266873039

We have a ton of single target attack abilities...not worth going over them, most are just fillers.

 

Group buffs.

Just use them. Not worth going over them one at a time.

 

Self Buffs

Default Guardian ability: Focused Offensive. This is one of the best things that has ever happen to a Guardian. The bad-Disables the caster's ability to AE Auto Attack. The Good- converts AE to Flurry, and .15 auto Attack Multiplier, Instantly recast any single target offensive combat art the guardian uses 50% chance. Focused Offensive 50% recast does not work on Ascension abilities

Wrath of Vel'Arek. Part of the epic line. Make sure you complete this as one of the benefits of this is a proc that triggers about 2.6 times per minute and last 12 seconds...5.75 damage. reduction

 

Use all other self buffs, not worth going over them one at a time.

 

Buffs I put on people

--Shoulder the Burden (AA): 17% hate transfer. Typically highest DPS'r in my group.

--Default Guardian ability: Moderate: Decrease hate gain by 36.2%. I do not use this anymore because if you put this one someone, the Guardian gets this "Reduces Ability Doublecast by 50%.

--Default Guardian ability: Sentinel – Proc stone-skin for one person and damage proc, if not scout or fighter. Put it on main healer.

--Default Guardian ability: Never Surrender -54% avoidance check. Healer, unless I am requesting someone's else avoidance. Note this now gives you 10 % riposte which is uncontested, us it.

 

Pre pull buffs

Battle Cry, typically Perfect Counter and Guardian Sphere and all Snacks.. see below.

IF I think its going to be a hard pull, I will put up Sentry Watch. Group death save. Note: A well timed Sentry Watch can save 3 members of your group. Be the hero and save those that need it. Not only will this save the person but it will also do a threat proc for you.

 

Oh no buttons, when things go bad.

Well, it is rare to have any “oh no” moments. Because we can cycle through our stone skins you should be safe most of the time even with a healer down. Our best “oh no” button is for our group. Sentry Watch. Just in case I do have the Overclocked Lifestone, and Bristlebanes miracle 16.5 seconds you can't kill me. For aggro control hitting Reinforcement and throw out all AoE's will get you aggro. You will also have Champion's Interception for a 50% damage reduction for your group.

 

Gear choices

DPS, DPS and DPS. Convert ability modifier if you can to DPS. You do want the following

Hate 100% *unless you are using snacks, or have other hate transfers

Reuse, Casting, Recovery, and Strikethrough 100%

AOE 205 so you can convert it to Flurry

As much DPS as you can get

Haste 200

Multi Attach 1500+

Accuracy 20+

WDB as much as you can get

Pot/Crit bonus and ability double cast as much as you can get.

 

Useful tools you use (outside of game) - including download links

DragowulfUI SpellTimer is a must have for me. With out it I could not seen when my stone skins are down. 

DarqUI

DarqUI so I know when my temp buffs are down and I need to case another one.

I also run ACT

 

 

Ascension

Well, I went with Geomancer. But I think I am an odd duck. Most do not.

 

Parse

from Pli Va Liako Vess. 4:38 minute fight. date: 03/28/20

 

Other:

Use snacks. I use the following before pull of hard mobs. all last for over 10 minutes.

Other snacks are available Link

Shar Vahl Sweetard (Crushing, Slashing, Ranged Aim and Piercing 1,204.4)

Jann Morada (Parry, Defense and Aggression 1.003.7)

Juju Hopling (2.44 base auto-attach multiplier)

Rockhopper Taffy (43.2% Hate)

Chebakia (Disruption, Subjugation, Ministration, Focus and Ordination 893.5)

Sanctum Snacks (Crit Bonus Overcap 28.8)

Other Temp:

Veilwalker's Elixir of Thorns (Damage proc)

Elixir of Fortitude (STR and STA, plus extra mitigation)

 

Old Videos of Holyguardian...I will have to update these.

http://youtu.be/CUeV3wh91SI

and

http://youtu.be/9U8QMcpYD4k

 





Last edited by Grenrick on 04/03/2020 1:00 pm; edited 16 times in total


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re: updated for BOL

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updated for BOL



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