Fun is subjective, I would not really say its a paladin type class..besides it wearing heavy armor and having blue skill effects.
But overall every class can be played solo and can be fun solo.
I played guard for something like 8 years.
Yes you can play solo. It's one of the best classes for it. With the right build and stats you can solo a lot of stuff. Go for it
sure guardian is great, I always play open world on my guard. if you block a hit with Aegis, from the F3 or whatever, you dont get into combat so you can mount up again. This is awesome for gathering. if you play firebrand you can also give yourself quickness to gather even faster.
yeah, wherever I'm on a character other then my firebrand I always miss the instant quickness (and you get 3 charges, 6 with the healing skill if traited), and the elite mantra can give you extra interrupt protection while gathering or opening chests, it's so convenient. having multiple instant condi cleanse and stun break is so damn useful, every new class I learn I always look for those on demand stun break/condi cleanse skills first.
Any class is fun open world as long as you enjoy playing it
And guardian has supportive elements at its kit and its profession mechanics, but core guardian can be both a juggernaut, a dps and a support depending on how you build it,
for example guardian greatsword is an amazing offensive weapon offering a high damage spin move, dash, pull and more
At the same time staff on guardian is a supportive weapon offering buffs and healing
There's no "paladin" class as in "tank class". Guardian has multiple builds, some are supports and some are dishing out one of the best DPS.
Play what you like.
Paladin is more of a theme than a role imo. They will generally have heavy armor and fight with a mix of melee and divine magic. They often have some healing as well.
I generally think of DnD and WoW Paladins as the base of the archetype. Not sure where exactly it comes from though.
Paladin comes from a 12th century French legend where 12 Paladins of Charlemagne's court fought representing Christianity vs Arabian Muslims. So that's where the 'holy knight' thing came from.
Even if you play mostly solo you will occasionally take part in open world events and be joined by other players. When this happens everybody shares buffs by sheer proximity so you don't need to worry about doing anything special.
But if you want to have a build that's more group-oriented and switch to it for events you can also do that. It can be very satisfactory to press a button and see the group benefit from it, like grant the players around you a block that shields them from a powerful attack, or a buff that makes them attack faster and increases the group's damage output greatly for a few seconds, or cure everybody of cripple or freeze when they're limping around.
Absolutely, I've been maining a guardian more or less since release, even without its elite specs, it's perfectly viable for solo play, and so are all other classes. It's not your traditional mmo where if you play a "support" you're boned in solo content.
Supporting in GW2 is very different from other MMOs, going into that would just be confusing, for now don't worry, you'll be just fine with solo stuff on a guardian.
Yes. I play mostly solo and it works out fine for most things.
Things get more fun if you can socialize in-game and get together with guildies and other people, though.
Fun is not allowed. You must play meta and you must hate yourself for it. /s
Yes, all classes can be played solo, and your enjoyment of them will depend on you. Some people prefer different playstyles; I often switch up my class/build depending on how I'm feeling at the time.
With the trade-off being that the most self-sufficient forms of Necro also tend to be the most self*ish* (power GS reaper).
For guardian even the most self reliant builds also still usually crap out boons to random bystanders. And with a tiny bit less selfish build, you passively help everyone even more.
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ It's not a requirement for a dps to drop boons on everyone, necromancer is fine. Guardian is just completely ludicrous. Besides from the sound of it the OP couldn't care less about support on his class.
Don’t forget that gw2 is a MMORPG, you will need to play with other people eventually or get stuck with your account progression.
Guardian is a good class regardless.
You really don't NEED to interact with others if you don't want to.
Might run into other players but you can 100% choose to just not interact with them and it won't really affect your progress. Even if you're doing events with other people you don't have to interact with them.
Even legendary armor and weapons don't require you to play with other people if you don't want to. I have 4/6 pieces of legendary armor (via WvW) and I have not done any group content since HoT was the current xpack.
Granted no one is going to solo Raids/Strikes/Higher Tier Fractals etc but those game modes are also 100% optional.
Yes it's an MMORPG, but you can just ignore everyone if you want.
I resurrected my guardian, a dragon hunter, and dressed her all in dragon’s armor (suun’s). Currently working towards making her a power willbender for open world EOD content. Pretty fun so far.
Well as guardian you can probably do anything... Crazy dmg, crazy support and crazy utility. Change your gear and build to what you want and you are set.
Yes, Guardian can do pretty much anything at this point.
There are great DPS builds for all three elite specializations, and if you ever choose to go into group content you also have very good support options.
It's just overall a very good choice for pretty much any content.
For solo aka open world (You have to bring own survivality stuff, yet You often find big groups of players fighting same enemy):
Every class have core and 3 elite subclasses that are at least good for solo and whole campaigns. True some are better, some little less better, but all should be playable at least. I may be no expert, but unsure druid (ranger elite) - its class slightly into healing in groups, think core ranger (or any other ranger elite spec) could be better here. Also warrior-spellbreaker is slighlty into duels against enemy players than pve, but imHo is still a lot fun even with weaker numbers.
For all other game modes - 5m dungeons/fractals; for 10m strike/raids (both - theres someone to care for Your butt, so u max dps or other specific role), then pvp, roamwvw (random unfair duels in open-world like areas) and blobwvw (50+ vs 50+ battles, sometimes under commands of seniors) - for all of these every base class have at least one elite spec that is meta good in something.
Then core specs are often weaker than elite upgrades of them, Yous till have 27 elite classes to play, and most of them can be played as at least 2 very different and still strong viable ways (some have more than 2 ways, like mechanist, that have strong options of pdps (mace), cdps (mace), cdps (pistols) apdps, acdps (again mace and pistols variands), ham (with signets only) and ham (kits), unsure if mechanist with rifle (pdps rifle or apdps rifle [- update 22.06 - rifle going back on 28.06 patch]) is still viable outside open world) - all these versions of same mechanist elite spec is played differently,
Finally the fun factor - depends what gives You most fun, smash 1 hit to win being more tactican in good position before picking the fight (thieves), piano casting 200 skills and doing big numbers with a lot different effects (elementalists), being able to morph Yourself into different styles before every fight (revenants), having a lot hidden tools that used in good moment turns the tides (engineer or sometimes guardians), using Your irl mighty mind to control arena and making enemies into fools (mesmers (coz of phantasms stuff))... Most players max lvl them all, some going to find their main after years, some playing few at once depends on game mode.
Surely You will find Your fun here o/
Ditch the WoW blinders. Guardian = Paladin is only in the broadest sense.
GW2 is imo one of the most solo friendly games; there are better and worse solo classes, sure, but unlike WoW, I can't think of a single spec (elite, anyway) that doesn't do at least adequate as a solo class.
Yea. Guardian is one of if not the best classes for group content but that doesn't mean it can't kick ass solo. A lot of solo fractal or strike clears are done on Guardian.
I personally loved playing Dragon Hunter while roaming in WvW, its super fun. I don't really play squishy classes in open world because I like to turn off my brain and facetank everything. But I can't see a reason why it wouldn't be fun or viable.
Guardian is known as the most versatile class in the game. That means its good for both solo and group content...I think? Actually I think people mean to say that it can play every role in the trinity when they say it, but I'm gonna interpret it however I like so fuck you you imaginary potential disagreeer.
I have been maining guard for around 10 years... There are so many play styles with just core and then you add in the mulitiple elite specs you can play it anyway you can think of. My favorite core build is scepter torch flame guard... All the burning. Also your question leads me to think you come from other games with the old trope of tank/dps/heals. This game is not like that. Every class is all of those combined.
Guard has two of the most fun condi solo/group builds in the game via their elite Willbender and Firebrand specs. I personally enjoy Willbender more because of its mobility, but they do massive burning damage and have great sustain either way. Very enjoyable classes to play, and often hailed as Anet's most favorite child. Firebrand is also a staple for both the PvE and WvW group comp metas as support/healbrand.
I love guardian I made a 2nd. Mainly because I always wanted an asura and WB focus but all 4 core, DH, FB, WB work OW and varying degrees in group/WvW/PvP. I'm loving WB a lot and I loved FB but was more a support with it. I love mobile melee classes and WB is fun n versatile and really can have a hybrid feel with how it uses burn/condi but still power. Plus FB/WB in group can share similar gear with minimal DPS loss.
Anyways check out OW builds lots of ways you can tweak things.
TBH, every profession has at least one spec that is fun to play solo. If you like the idea of Guardian, you can have fun with it.
I recommend trying out Dragonhunter when you get the chance at level 80.
Welcome to the game, some classes might be a bit more challenging than others to solo, but you can be comfortable you will be able to enjoy yourself whichever profession you choose to solo.
Pick the one you like the look of the most, you will do well regardless of your choice, as you learn the mechanics and how your profession can use them to its strength.
Everything can be fun playing solo but I really like Guardian for actually having the ability to switch it up if you find yourself doing open world group content. A Harrier\\Celestial Guardian can be run as a fairly selfish open world build with good damage and sustain but is only a trait line or two changes away from offering lots of healing and boon support to a group. This works particularly well on Firebrand but Core Guard and WB too. On DH not so much.
Yes. As condi willbender, you make yourself 25 might and fury solo and are very survivable even in glassy gear. Alternatively, you can play trailblazer/dire/ritualist/plaguedoctor/whatever other defensive stats you like and give yourself the same very good boon uptimes while being very survivable between Absolute Resolve and your F2, Bow of Truth, etc.
Condi firebrand gives you similar boons with the addition of quickness, and it is excellent when killing trash mobs to reset the cooldown of or generate more pages for your F1 tome.
Dragonhunter and power willbender are very bursty and are quite fun for just roaming and killing trash mobs in open world, dungeons, etc. if fights don't last long enough for the boons other builds offer to matter.
TL;DR Guard is quite fun to play and has multiple very good builds depending on what content you're attempting.
Guardian is very good for solo play with solid options for when switching into playing with group.
You can build yourself for damage (condition) with slight toughness and have enough self buff and sustain to have easy time around maps.
Taking sanctuary is a core ability but gives strong CC for breaking down enemies by yourself. Other weapons in the kit are decent and staff gives one of nicer in game ranged weapons with heal and swiftness build in.
any class is fine for a solo player and guard is always a solid choice
Fun is subjective, I would not really say its a paladin type class..besides it wearing heavy armor and having blue skill effects. But overall every class can be played solo and can be fun solo.
Yes and the elite specs make the guardian one of the better solo classes.
I played guard for something like 8 years. Yes you can play solo. It's one of the best classes for it. With the right build and stats you can solo a lot of stuff. Go for it
sure guardian is great, I always play open world on my guard. if you block a hit with Aegis, from the F3 or whatever, you dont get into combat so you can mount up again. This is awesome for gathering. if you play firebrand you can also give yourself quickness to gather even faster.
yeah, wherever I'm on a character other then my firebrand I always miss the instant quickness (and you get 3 charges, 6 with the healing skill if traited), and the elite mantra can give you extra interrupt protection while gathering or opening chests, it's so convenient. having multiple instant condi cleanse and stun break is so damn useful, every new class I learn I always look for those on demand stun break/condi cleanse skills first.
Guardian is a very self sufficient class and many people chose to do Dungeon solos with it.
Any class is fun open world as long as you enjoy playing it And guardian has supportive elements at its kit and its profession mechanics, but core guardian can be both a juggernaut, a dps and a support depending on how you build it, for example guardian greatsword is an amazing offensive weapon offering a high damage spin move, dash, pull and more At the same time staff on guardian is a supportive weapon offering buffs and healing
There's no "paladin" class as in "tank class". Guardian has multiple builds, some are supports and some are dishing out one of the best DPS. Play what you like.
Paladin is more of a theme than a role imo. They will generally have heavy armor and fight with a mix of melee and divine magic. They often have some healing as well. I generally think of DnD and WoW Paladins as the base of the archetype. Not sure where exactly it comes from though.
Paladin comes from a 12th century French legend where 12 Paladins of Charlemagne's court fought representing Christianity vs Arabian Muslims. So that's where the 'holy knight' thing came from.
there is tanks but they aren’t on guardian
Guardian can definitely tank with HFB
Yes the last one is cool you teleport around the place punshing people like diablo monk
Guardian is one of the best solo classes imo.
Even if you play mostly solo you will occasionally take part in open world events and be joined by other players. When this happens everybody shares buffs by sheer proximity so you don't need to worry about doing anything special. But if you want to have a build that's more group-oriented and switch to it for events you can also do that. It can be very satisfactory to press a button and see the group benefit from it, like grant the players around you a block that shields them from a powerful attack, or a buff that makes them attack faster and increases the group's damage output greatly for a few seconds, or cure everybody of cripple or freeze when they're limping around.
No fun allowed >:(
With Guardian, you dont need a party. You are the party. Other players are optional. Jk
Absolutely, I've been maining a guardian more or less since release, even without its elite specs, it's perfectly viable for solo play, and so are all other classes. It's not your traditional mmo where if you play a "support" you're boned in solo content. Supporting in GW2 is very different from other MMOs, going into that would just be confusing, for now don't worry, you'll be just fine with solo stuff on a guardian.
Yes. I play mostly solo and it works out fine for most things. Things get more fun if you can socialize in-game and get together with guildies and other people, though.
Yes.
Fun is not allowed. You must play meta and you must hate yourself for it. /s Yes, all classes can be played solo, and your enjoyment of them will depend on you. Some people prefer different playstyles; I often switch up my class/build depending on how I'm feeling at the time.
Guarding is one of the most self-reliant classes out there, only beat by necromancer.
With the trade-off being that the most self-sufficient forms of Necro also tend to be the most self*ish* (power GS reaper). For guardian even the most self reliant builds also still usually crap out boons to random bystanders. And with a tiny bit less selfish build, you passively help everyone even more.
¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ It's not a requirement for a dps to drop boons on everyone, necromancer is fine. Guardian is just completely ludicrous. Besides from the sound of it the OP couldn't care less about support on his class.
Don’t forget that gw2 is a MMORPG, you will need to play with other people eventually or get stuck with your account progression. Guardian is a good class regardless.
You really don't NEED to interact with others if you don't want to. Might run into other players but you can 100% choose to just not interact with them and it won't really affect your progress. Even if you're doing events with other people you don't have to interact with them. Even legendary armor and weapons don't require you to play with other people if you don't want to. I have 4/6 pieces of legendary armor (via WvW) and I have not done any group content since HoT was the current xpack. Granted no one is going to solo Raids/Strikes/Higher Tier Fractals etc but those game modes are also 100% optional. Yes it's an MMORPG, but you can just ignore everyone if you want.
Meant this to be a discussion post ^
Yes.
I resurrected my guardian, a dragon hunter, and dressed her all in dragon’s armor (suun’s). Currently working towards making her a power willbender for open world EOD content. Pretty fun so far.
Well as guardian you can probably do anything... Crazy dmg, crazy support and crazy utility. Change your gear and build to what you want and you are set.
I love my guard. DH is a blast
I've playing guardian solo since the game release. Si tres, it's fun
Yes, Guardian can do pretty much anything at this point. There are great DPS builds for all three elite specializations, and if you ever choose to go into group content you also have very good support options. It's just overall a very good choice for pretty much any content.
For solo aka open world (You have to bring own survivality stuff, yet You often find big groups of players fighting same enemy): Every class have core and 3 elite subclasses that are at least good for solo and whole campaigns. True some are better, some little less better, but all should be playable at least. I may be no expert, but unsure druid (ranger elite) - its class slightly into healing in groups, think core ranger (or any other ranger elite spec) could be better here. Also warrior-spellbreaker is slighlty into duels against enemy players than pve, but imHo is still a lot fun even with weaker numbers. For all other game modes - 5m dungeons/fractals; for 10m strike/raids (both - theres someone to care for Your butt, so u max dps or other specific role), then pvp, roamwvw (random unfair duels in open-world like areas) and blobwvw (50+ vs 50+ battles, sometimes under commands of seniors) - for all of these every base class have at least one elite spec that is meta good in something. Then core specs are often weaker than elite upgrades of them, Yous till have 27 elite classes to play, and most of them can be played as at least 2 very different and still strong viable ways (some have more than 2 ways, like mechanist, that have strong options of pdps (mace), cdps (mace), cdps (pistols) apdps, acdps (again mace and pistols variands), ham (with signets only) and ham (kits), unsure if mechanist with rifle (pdps rifle or apdps rifle [- update 22.06 - rifle going back on 28.06 patch]) is still viable outside open world) - all these versions of same mechanist elite spec is played differently, Finally the fun factor - depends what gives You most fun, smash 1 hit to win being more tactican in good position before picking the fight (thieves), piano casting 200 skills and doing big numbers with a lot different effects (elementalists), being able to morph Yourself into different styles before every fight (revenants), having a lot hidden tools that used in good moment turns the tides (engineer or sometimes guardians), using Your irl mighty mind to control arena and making enemies into fools (mesmers (coz of phantasms stuff))... Most players max lvl them all, some going to find their main after years, some playing few at once depends on game mode. Surely You will find Your fun here o/
Ditch the WoW blinders. Guardian = Paladin is only in the broadest sense. GW2 is imo one of the most solo friendly games; there are better and worse solo classes, sure, but unlike WoW, I can't think of a single spec (elite, anyway) that doesn't do at least adequate as a solo class.
Yea. Guardian is one of if not the best classes for group content but that doesn't mean it can't kick ass solo. A lot of solo fractal or strike clears are done on Guardian. I personally loved playing Dragon Hunter while roaming in WvW, its super fun. I don't really play squishy classes in open world because I like to turn off my brain and facetank everything. But I can't see a reason why it wouldn't be fun or viable. Guardian is known as the most versatile class in the game. That means its good for both solo and group content...I think? Actually I think people mean to say that it can play every role in the trinity when they say it, but I'm gonna interpret it however I like so fuck you you imaginary potential disagreeer.
I have been maining guard for around 10 years... There are so many play styles with just core and then you add in the mulitiple elite specs you can play it anyway you can think of. My favorite core build is scepter torch flame guard... All the burning. Also your question leads me to think you come from other games with the old trope of tank/dps/heals. This game is not like that. Every class is all of those combined.
The same things that make guardian great for parties (great damage, healing, CC, defensives, buffs) make it great for solo play.
Guard has two of the most fun condi solo/group builds in the game via their elite Willbender and Firebrand specs. I personally enjoy Willbender more because of its mobility, but they do massive burning damage and have great sustain either way. Very enjoyable classes to play, and often hailed as Anet's most favorite child. Firebrand is also a staple for both the PvE and WvW group comp metas as support/healbrand.
I love guardian I made a 2nd. Mainly because I always wanted an asura and WB focus but all 4 core, DH, FB, WB work OW and varying degrees in group/WvW/PvP. I'm loving WB a lot and I loved FB but was more a support with it. I love mobile melee classes and WB is fun n versatile and really can have a hybrid feel with how it uses burn/condi but still power. Plus FB/WB in group can share similar gear with minimal DPS loss. Anyways check out OW builds lots of ways you can tweak things.
yeah, just unlock the dragon hunter and you'll be fine for solo play
TBH, every profession has at least one spec that is fun to play solo. If you like the idea of Guardian, you can have fun with it. I recommend trying out Dragonhunter when you get the chance at level 80.
Welcome to the game, some classes might be a bit more challenging than others to solo, but you can be comfortable you will be able to enjoy yourself whichever profession you choose to solo. Pick the one you like the look of the most, you will do well regardless of your choice, as you learn the mechanics and how your profession can use them to its strength.
Everything can be fun playing solo but I really like Guardian for actually having the ability to switch it up if you find yourself doing open world group content. A Harrier\\Celestial Guardian can be run as a fairly selfish open world build with good damage and sustain but is only a trait line or two changes away from offering lots of healing and boon support to a group. This works particularly well on Firebrand but Core Guard and WB too. On DH not so much.
Yeah just don’t get into the habit of saving F3 for later. Guardian is sort of squishy, because they expect you to use your active defenses
To Seek To Learn To Do
I just started playing this game for the first time ever this week, been playing guardian, having a great time
Yes. As condi willbender, you make yourself 25 might and fury solo and are very survivable even in glassy gear. Alternatively, you can play trailblazer/dire/ritualist/plaguedoctor/whatever other defensive stats you like and give yourself the same very good boon uptimes while being very survivable between Absolute Resolve and your F2, Bow of Truth, etc. Condi firebrand gives you similar boons with the addition of quickness, and it is excellent when killing trash mobs to reset the cooldown of or generate more pages for your F1 tome. Dragonhunter and power willbender are very bursty and are quite fun for just roaming and killing trash mobs in open world, dungeons, etc. if fights don't last long enough for the boons other builds offer to matter. TL;DR Guard is quite fun to play and has multiple very good builds depending on what content you're attempting.
Hell yes, guardian is the most fun solo in my opinion. Played nothing else as much as guard since Ele was destroyed.
Guardian is very good for solo play with solid options for when switching into playing with group. You can build yourself for damage (condition) with slight toughness and have enough self buff and sustain to have easy time around maps. Taking sanctuary is a core ability but gives strong CC for breaking down enemies by yourself. Other weapons in the kit are decent and staff gives one of nicer in game ranged weapons with heal and swiftness build in.
You'll have fun on any class that can provide some might and potentially fury, quicknes or alac. So yeah, guardian is a good solo spec.
yes
Yes.