Guardian: heavy armour, thin health, three virtues

A guardian wears heavy armour and carries less base health than a warrior. That is a trade, not an oversight: instead of a fat bar it was given regeneration and defences it hands out to the whole group.

Use the blocks and the aegis and almost nothing gets through. Facetank instead and light armour would have felt sturdier.

The three virtues

The class mechanic is Virtues. There are three, and each runs in two modes: passively at all times, and actively when you press it.

Virtue of Justice burns your target every few attacks. Pressed, you and your allies apply burning on the next attack.

Virtue of Resolve regenerates your health. Pressed, it heals you and nearby allies.

Virtue of Courage periodically grants Aegis, which blocks one incoming hit. Pressed, it hands Aegis to everyone around you.

The logic is simple: leave them alone and they work for you; press them and the effect goes to the group while your own passive switches off for the cooldown. Playing a guardian is that decision, over and over.

The virtues, in numbers

The recharges are what turn the mechanic into a decision.

Justice is 20 seconds, Resolve is 30, Courage is 45. Press one and its passive stops working for that entire stretch while the group gets the active effect.

So Courage, the strongest of the three, is also the one you can least afford to spend carelessly. Forty-five seconds without your periodic aegis is a long time to be an ordinary character. Guardians who look unkillable are usually just people who have learned when not to press F3.

The guardian should have been fragile and came out the opposite.

One number surprises people who have played a guardian for years: the guardian’s base health is 1,645, the same tier as the elementalist and the thief. About 11,645 on your bar at level 80, against roughly 19,212 for a warrior.

The guardian is, on paper, one of the three most fragile classes in the game.

It does not feel that way for a second, and that gap is the whole design. Aegis blocks a hit outright, so the size of that hit stops mattering. Resolve ticks health back between fights. Blocks, blinds and heavy protection uptime mean the damage never lands to begin with.

Mitigation and health are not the same currency, and the guardian is the clearest lesson in that the game has. It also means the moment your defences are stripped, you are made of paper, which is a thing every guardian eventually discovers at the worst possible time.

A newcomer gets on with it, and that is no accident.

Aegis covers mistakes. Blocking one hit is exactly what you need while you are still learning a boss.

Regeneration instead of potions. Health comes back on its own, which matters when you play alone.

No demanding rotation. You press buttons at sensible moments rather than memorising a ten-skill order.

There is a cost: the core class is melee. Longbow arrives only with Dragonhunter, which means after 80 and after buying an expansion.

What it brings to a group

The guardian is the most popular support class in the game for one reason: it distributes Aegis, Stability and Quickness better than anything else, and those are what keep a group alive in fractals and strikes.

If you ever want to play in a group and be wanted there, the guardian is the shortest route.

The elite specialisations

All four rebuild Virtues.

Dragonhunter (Heart of Thorns) turns the virtues physical: instead of an effect you throw an object. It also brings traps and the longbow. This is the ranged guardian and the easiest of the four to pick up.

Firebrand (Path of Fire) converts the virtues into tomes, each with its own set of skills, and adds mantras and the axe. The strongest support in the game and the hardest of the four: instead of three buttons you have three books of five pages.

Willbender (End of Dragons) makes the virtues mobile, leaving effects in your wake, and adds the off-hand sword. This is the version for players who would rather run than hold ground.

Luminary (Visions of Eternity) adds stances and the Radiant Forge with radiant weapons.

Advice for a newcomer

Play core to 80, then take Dragonhunter if you want to shoot, or Firebrand if you are ready to study and would like invitations.

The comparison against the other eight sits in the overview.