Tirzah Bauer talks about the guardian in PvP

The ArenaNet PvP Crew after the match: Jonathan Sharp, Tirzah Bauer, John Corpening,Jon Peters, and Isaiah “Izzy” Cartwright. (photo taken from ArenaNet’s Flickr, link provided)

Q: Why did you choose the guardian over the other seven announced professions?  Did your team composition influence your decision in any way?

Tirzah: I picked the guardian because it’s a profession that I like to play. I love to protect my friends and be right in the middle of the fight, so the guardian matches my play style perfectly.

Q: I noticed you chose scepter/shield and sword/focus as your two weapon sets.  Are these your weapon sets of choice, or would you make another choice depending on a different scenario?

Tirzah: Scepter/shield is my “bread and butter” weapon set; I almost always have it equipped. I’ll swap out the second set depending on my role on the team and how I want to play.

Q: I would say that you played the guardian very defensively. Which weapon set(s) would you recommend in order to play the guardian offensively?  

Tirzah: My guardian was a hybrid of offense and defense. I wanted to make sure that I could survive a fight as well as hit hard enough to scare off any attacker, especially if it was a single player in a 1v1 situation.  Sword/scepter main-hand weapons are pretty offensive and my off-hand weapons were used for defense.  If I wanted to go purely defense, I would have gone with mace/shield and hammer weapon sets.  This weapon combination makes you irritatingly hard to kill, but it’s also very difficult to be a threat, so the enemy team will eventually beat you down. With the hybrid build, I can do a little of both depending on the situation.

In terms of pure DPS, the ideal weapon sets for guardian would be sword/torch and greatsword or staff.

Q: Did the ArenaNet PvP team decide previously that you, as a guardian, would defend the clock tower?  Do you believe the guardian is more proficient at defending capture points than taking them?  In this particular match, you stayed defending the clock tower in the middle of the map. Is this the best place for a guardian on this particular map?  

Tirzah: After playing PvP games for a while, our team decided to put me on the center capture point.  The guardian is great at holding that point because of their control skills and pure survivability. If there was an enemy team running up the stairs, I could hold them off for a few seconds with my elite skill or with a couple knockbacks, giving my team time to come to my aid before I got squished.

However, I don’t think there is a “best” place for the guardian on this particular map.  It all depends on your build and play style. I also loved going purely offensive and running around with my team taking points.

Q: On this particular match you favored Shelter as your healing skill.  Is this the best all-around healing skill for PvP or would another skill shine in a different situation?

Tirzah: Shelter is a great heal if you’re on your own. Not only is it a healing skill, but it’s also a block, so you can preemptively mitigate damage if you see it coming.  Even if you don’t need the healing, you can save yourself from a burst of damage with Shelter.

Healing Breeze is a great healing skill when you’re in a group, because it heals you as well as your friends.  Many of the healing skills are situational and there is never a “best” choice

Q: Which utility skill would you recommend when playing the guardian in a PvP environment?

Tirzah: This one is tough! The best thing about utilities is you can swap them out based on different factors.  Honestly, they’re all really good and it’s hard to pick them sometimes. Do I want to have a small army of spirit weapons or do I want to bring skills to beef up my team? Does the enemy team have a lot of conditions and should I bring condition removal?

I can say my favorite guardian utility skill is Judge’s Intervention. This skill will teleport you to your target, granting Vigor to all allies in the area of that target.  Judge’s Intervention can also teleport you to guys above or below you.  In a few PvP games, enemies tried to hit me with ranged attacks from the top of the Clock tower and I used this utility skill to teleport right in front of them, follow up with a shield knockback and send them flying off the building!

Q: In terms of set of skills, what is the most efficient method you would use in order to do burst damage and kill an enemy off?  

Tirzah: One of my favorite burst skills requires a weapon swap and multiple skills in quick succession.  Here goes! I usually start this combo out of melee range of the enemy:

• Scepter #3: Chains of Light (immobilize)
• Scepter #2: Smite
• Weapon swap to Sword/Focus
• Focus #5: Shield of Wrath (Creates a shield to block several attacks, if not destroyed it will explode and damage nearby foes)
• Sword #2 Flashing Blade: (A ground target mid-range teleport that also blinds any enemies around you) I try to teleport to behind the opponent to confuse them.
• Sword #3: Zealot’s Defense (the main damage skill)
• Shield of Wrath should explode at this point and if successful you’ve taken off a big chunk of their health!

There are other methods as well, but this one is my favorite!

Q: What profession, in your opinion, gives the guardian the most trouble in PvP and why?

Tirzah: I have problems with necromancers and fire-attuned elementalists due to the amount of conditions they create.  Guardians naturally have low health pools because they rely on so many blocks and damage mitigation abilities. I can’t block all the conditions being thrown at me, so they slowly eat away at my small health pool.  I counter this by bringing skills to purge conditions but it’s still difficult for me!

I want to express my gratitude to ArenaNet, its community managers, and especially to Tirzah for taking the time to answer these questions.  It’s nice to know the developers are as passionate about their community as they are about their game.  Last but not least, thanks for making the guardian such an awesome profession.