Guardian Core Build

 

LEGENDARY GUARDIAN CORE BUILD

Hey everyone! So, you finally decided to dive into Guild Wars 2. That’s awesome news, because you’ve just found a really cool community. Welcome!

You’ve installed the game and now you’re trying it out for free before buying any DLCs. Let’s talk about the free account first. You’ll notice 5 character slots on your screen—2 are active, and 3 are locked. Don’t worry, buying a DLC will unlock those extra slots.

Click on one of your 2 active slots to create a character. As a free player, you’ll see 8 classes to choose from. Only Revenant will be locked since it requires a DLC purchase. Today, we’ll focus on Guardian—my Legendary Core Guardian build that I’ve been using for years and recommend to all new Guardian players.

Guardian Class & Features

The Guardian class really lives up to its name. It can dish out high DPS and provide top-notch support. Once you start leveling, how you play is totally up to you:

• Burn mobs down with your fire skills,
• Smash them directly with raw power, or
• Support your team with healing and shields.

At level 80, you’ll unlock 3 specializations to customize your playstyle further. You can check out a detailed Guardian guide here.

The goal of this guide is to give you a build you can use before hitting level 80 and before unlocking your specializations. Once you hit level 80, you’ll have earned all hero points and can start unlocking specs.

Hero Points

Each spec needs 250 hero points. Tyria Core maps give 1 point per hero challenge, while HoT, PoF, EoD, and SoT DLC maps give 10 points each. Don’t worry—you can gather enough points just by exploring all maps. If you check my old characters, you’ll see I even have extra hero points saved up.

Hero points are required to unlock all aspects of your specs. Until then, we rely on a Core build to survive and deal damage.

Armor & Weapon Sets

Until level 80 (and even right after), your armor should be Exotic. Important: don’t waste gold buying exotic sets from the Trading Post! You’ll get pieces naturally from quests and map events. Using a level 80 boost will also give you a Celestial Exotic set automatically.

If you’re leveling naturally, here are the main stats to focus on:

• Power – your main source of damage
• Vitality – more HP, more survivability
• Precision – optional, improves crit chance
• Ferocity – optional, improves crit damage

Don’t worry too much about rarity; rare, exotic, or other tiers work fine. The key is to stay alive and fight mobs efficiently.

For new players, avoid fights that are too risky. Analyze the mobs first—check for veteran, champion, or elite status, and plan accordingly. Our build is for open world survival + damage.

Skill Bar Tips

Always keep two utility skills:

1. Break stun – escapes from knockdowns, pulls, immobilizes, etc.
2. Condition cleanses – removes burns, poison, slows, chills, etc.

The goal is simple: stay alive and take down mobs.

Weapon Sets

• Greatsword – main weapon for high damage
• Sword + Shield – secondary weapon for defense and support

Once you’ve gotten used to skills, you can swap Shield for Focus, but it makes you slightly squishier.

Sigils & Runes

At this stage, don’t stress too much. Just equip whatever comes your way. For details on which sigils and runes to use once you start optimizing, check this link.

I hope this guide helps! Stay safe, have fun, and see you in Tyria!