Is guardian for me?

[MadMagnum]

<p>Ex-WoW convert.</p><p>I was a MT and warrior and I'm a "tharg smash!" kinda guy.  I'm looking through the the forums for the "new dudes" guide to fighter class and havin a bit o trouble.  Definitly don't wanna do pally/shadow.  Monk/Bruider is interesting.  However it looks like Beserker/Guardian in the proper "choice"</p><p>Can you guys give me a bit of the flavor for the playstyle of the guardian (specifically versus a beserker)?  Having been a WoW warrior (non-fury) i'm not worried about insane dps, but I do love to questioning the parentage of dragon and then laugh as their blows glance off.....</p><p>Also how populated is the class--does everyone and thier sister have a tank?</p>

[Wilin]

<p>There are alot of things that could influence the decision. PvE or PvP or both? Raid MT or Group tank or solo or some combination? OT rather than MT?</p><p>But in general, berserkers do a bit more damage than guardians especially on multiple mob fights but give up a few defensive abilities that the guardian has. There's a stigma that raid MTs will be guardians because of the extra defensives. But, there are alot of non-guardians that are MTing.</p><p>Other than that, they are very similar TBH. They can both be good or evil so there's nothing there to sway the decision.</p><p>If your goal is to MT on raids, most raiding guilds already have established tanks so jobs can be scarce since you can't raid at all without a tank, but there is always some turnover and usually some new guilds coming up that need good tanks. But there are alot of tanks out there that want those jobs too.</p><p>More often new tanks can get into raids when an OT is needed. And that's a good place to be since it allows you to learn how to tank without having to do it all the time. Raid tanking is very different from group tanking and you have to learn somewhere. But, the OT position can get even more crowded because more classes usually compete for the position.</p><p>No matter what you end up with, remember that you can switch between guard/zerk at any time for a cost. So, you might want to start as a zerker and switch to guard once you get into the raiding levels just because zerker is a little easier to level up.</p><p>My best advice is to find a guild that is willing to take you in, teach you, and give you an opportunity to do whatever it is that you're after.</p>

[MadMagnum]

<p>Thx for the response.</p><p>I'll probably spend a lot of time solo just cause I'm new to the game.  PvE only</p><p>I love tanking, but seing as how i'm a couple years behind, i don't see myself raid tanking (I'd love to do it, but as you say, most groups have theirs picked out).</p><p>i don't know how the PuG scene goes, but I love doing instances as well.  I'm just having trouble seeing the subtle (or not subtle) difference between a guardian and berserker.</p>

[Xalmat]

<cite>MadMagnum wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>Thx for the response.</p><p>I'll probably spend a lot of time solo just cause I'm new to the game.  PvE only</p></blockquote>If you're going to spend a lot of time solo, I would recommend a Berserker over a Guardian. Berserkers pull more DPS, and therefore have a somewhat easier time soloing (since things die faster).And later if you decide you'd rather have the higher defense, instead of the higher DPS, it's relatively painless to later switch from a Zerker to a Guardian.

[Anfauglith]

Guardians have a bit more ways to get less damages than bersekers do, on single target both will do around the same dps (with little advantage to bers but really nothing much), and bers can do really huge amount of dps against groups of mobs but it's at the cost of deffence so they will not do it if tanking hard mobs.Overall I'd say guards protect a bit more their groups while bersekers allow them to do a bit more damage. As long as it's not for raids, but work really great in any situations and aa paths will do more difference than the class itself.I'd say if, on the long term, you wanna plan to be a raid MT, guardian can't be a wrong choice. If you plan to be OT on the long term, besr is good.When you get in age to raid (max lvl) finding a guild where you can go isn't too hard if you're a good player and show motivation have good equipement. There's always some guilds looking for more good players...just need to look for them. Of course if you only aim for the top guilds of your server it will take a bit more time...I can't stress out enough how important knowing your class is...aswell as knowing generals about other classes. So I'd advise you to choose the class you wanna end with right away...and only change if you realized you were wrong. While it's true it's a bit faster to lvl as a zerker, guardians get pretty close to them solo now depending on the aas you take. Reseting aas later is not only less costy...but mostly you don't have to relearn your class.

[Splor]

Guards = Easy mode, plain and simple. If you want to [Removed for Content] the game just play one and get your AA's up.If you wanted to rate all the tanks heres how it would goSurvivability / DPS / UtilityGuard10/8/8Berzerker8/9/7Paly9/7/10SK7/8/6Monk7/9/7Bruiser6/10/1Add the numbers up as you please, theres a god awful imbalance as far as the tank classes go. I play a bruiser(betrayed from monk), SK(betrayed from paly), and guard.The bruiser is awesome fun and can teach you about being careful, as well as how to be reckless <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />. At end game, you can tank any instance or dungeon, but it will be a cold day in hell before you ever tank a T8 raid, let alone be allowed to join one as dps/off tank or as such.Monks have a lot of versatility and are almost in the bruisers DPS realm, a lot better choice atm if you want to go the brawler route. They also have some of the best buffs in the game, making them decent for utility, and have decent tools for survivability.Guards are to berzerkers as monks are to bruisers. They're almost in the same realm of dps, but have far superior survivability/utility.Granted, this is all with good AA choices taken into account.

[Vlahkmaak]

<cite>Splorch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Guards = Easy mode, plain and simple. If you want to [I cannot control my vocabulary] the game just play one and get your AA's up.If you wanted to rate all the tanks heres how it would goSurvivability / DPS / UtilityGuard10/8/8Berzerker8/9/7Paly9/7/10SK7/8/6Monk7/9/7Bruiser6/10/1Add the numbers up as you please, theres a god awful imbalance as far as the tank classes go. I play a bruiser(betrayed from monk), SK(betrayed from paly), and guard.The bruiser is awesome fun and can teach you about being careful, as well as how to be reckless <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />. At end game, you can tank any instance or dungeon, but it will be a cold day in hell before you ever tank a T8 raid, let alone be allowed to join one as dps/off tank or as such.Monks have a lot of versatility and are almost in the bruisers DPS realm, a lot better choice atm if you want to go the brawler route. They also have some of the best buffs in the game, making them decent for utility, and have decent tools for survivability.Guards are to berzerkers as monks are to bruisers. They're almost in the same realm of dps, but have far superior survivability/utility.Granted, this is all with good AA choices taken into account.</blockquote>You are quite wrong - my bruiser can go places, do things, and farm names solo: A guardian cannot do this.  Also, bruisers CAN dps easy on raids.  A lot easier than a guardian.  I am unsure as to why you think guardians are easy mode.  They are the LOWEST dps of any tank class.  You really under rated bruisers and monks.  I am unsure as to what server you play on but for a real quick education in tanking - come join a pvp server as a solo guardian and see how much easy mode you are not.

[yzyh]

<cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote><cite>Splorch wrote:</cite><blockquote>Guards = Easy mode, plain and simple. If you want to [I cannot control my vocabulary] the game just play one and get your AA's up.If you wanted to rate all the tanks heres how it would goSurvivability / DPS / UtilityGuard10/8/8Berzerker8/9/7Paly9/7/10SK7/8/6Monk7/9/7Bruiser6/10/1Add the numbers up as you please, theres a god awful imbalance as far as the tank classes go. I play a bruiser(betrayed from monk), SK(betrayed from paly), and guard.The bruiser is awesome fun and can teach you about being careful, as well as how to be reckless <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />. At end game, you can tank any instance or dungeon, but it will be a cold day in hell before you ever tank a T8 raid, let alone be allowed to join one as dps/off tank or as such.Monks have a lot of versatility and are almost in the bruisers DPS realm, a lot better choice atm if you want to go the brawler route. They also have some of the best buffs in the game, making them decent for utility, and have decent tools for survivability.Guards are to berzerkers as monks are to bruisers. They're almost in the same realm of dps, but have far superior survivability/utility.Granted, this is all with good AA choices taken into account.</blockquote>You are quite wrong - my bruiser can go places, do things, and farm names solo: A guardian cannot do this.  Also, bruisers CAN dps easy on raids.  A lot easier than a guardian.  I am unsure as to why you think guardians are easy mode.  They are the LOWEST dps of any tank class.  You really under rated bruisers and monks.  I am unsure as to what server you play on but for a real quick education in tanking - come join a pvp server as a solo guardian and see how much easy mode you are not.</blockquote><p>even if Ur bruiser would eat alive a guardian it still wouldn,t change the fact that guardia are the easy mod tank. They don't have to work hard to keep aggro and they are the best at "beeing hit without beeing a mana spone"</p><p>Alo bruisers are not DPS in raid. Your middle DPS at best (behind the 6scout class, behind lock/ wizard) thats put you pretty low on the DPS class and you bring no utility. Their is 24spot on a raid for 24class making the bruiser easely replaced since your not pure DPS but have no utility. Monk at least bring nice utility.</p><p>Sure bruiser are ubber soloer, nice tank in group but don't fool yourself. Your useless to a raid force. Well not totaly useless but you could be replacer with something else that could had more to the raid.</p>

[Wilin]

<cite>Vlahkmaak@Venekor wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>A lot easier than a guardian.  I am unsure as to why you think guardians are easy mode.  <b>They are the LOWEST dps of any tank class.</b> </p></blockquote>You may want to check your data on that again...

[Raahl]

<p>If you are choosing between a zerker and a guardian and you are mostly going to solo or single group. </p><p>Beserker all the way.   Their DPS is superior, guardians only catch up when they've gotten a good number of AA points.</p><p>Later on down the road, if you decide to become a raid MT, a zerker will work well.  But if you absolutely feel the need, you can still betray to Guardian.</p>