Guardian Fighter - Tanking Like a Rockstar

***The following is a guide created by Rockstardom. Ghost Rebellion takes no credit for the following content. Some images did not carry over properly and were too small to use otherwise. Original can be found here***

Hello friends, and fellow Guardian Fighters, I’m “Rockstardom”

this guide will cover less heard fundamentals and tactics. With this build and tactics described, you will be getting punched in the face with the best of them, while providing substantial damage bonus to throw your teams Damage through the roof. My focus towards play style and build is the fact that I play solo most of the time, in which i hold together random groups with little to no communication. so this guide is PuG friendly unlike most, and ohh the joy of running planned dungeons, making great teammates become phenomenal. no you wont get high on leader boards for anything, nothing at all. but what you will be doing is keeping your teammates alive, and empowering them to deal over 200% Damage output to make those dungeons runs happen and fast.

need incentive on why GFs matter?

https:///youtu.be/byxOtixA0vE

have yet to see this Feat completed without a guardian fighter on XBOX, dont actualy know if any group has done this without seldom and I both involved.

I hope you enjoy the read in my guide to “Tanking like a Rockstar”

Tactics and Knowledge

Tactics and Knowledge of your abilities are much more important than any build and definitely any gear score. so here is some basics i follow.

Know Your Enemy

In PVE enemies attack slow, often times the hardest hitting attacks have 2-3 second charge time. as for regular enemies you will notice burst damage of numbers, then nothing for about a second. that is your window to take action. in most instances you will typically have time for 1 Encounter or Action then shield up again. but this may vary, its your job to learn these windows with practice.

Scorpions in ELoL are a great place to take notice of this, you can consistently stand next to them and move when they attack

Positioning

there are 3 forms of positioning with GFs, stacking enemies together, your position keeping teammates in front of your shield, and Combat Advantage

Enemies- Melle people run to you, so gain agro and they are drawn to you like a magnet, Rangers however dont move unless they are out of range. Running to a ranger type enemy is often suggested so you can have more enemies stacked, meaning your DPS can hit more targets at ounce.

Shield- your shield blocks incoming damage at about a 45 Degree angle in front of you, so a majority teammates with KV on them and enemies should be kept in that shield zone.

Combat Advantage- A 2 way street here, you want to attack enemies at a different angle than your allies are, this will proc combat advantage for them boosting overall DPS. Enemies can also gain Combat Advantage on you by hitting you from more than 1 side moving backwards with shield up will typically stall them from keeping that advantage.

Action Point Gain

We have 2 main types of Action Point gain to charge our Daily in this build Encounters, and taking Damage through our shield. note we do not get much Action Point gain while immune since we lack the ability to take damage. An Into the Freyfollowed by Enforced Threat near the end of our damage immunity period sets us up for an amazing start to throw our shield up and sometimes capping our Daily instantly.

Also At-Wills to a much smaller degree, when shield is up and we stab, we gain AP regardless if we hit anything. bug?

Consumables

With most of the game being DPS Tanking Consumables like fortification potions(1000 Defense), Caprese (5500HP 3% Deflect Chance), come cheap and plentiful,under 100 AD per, often times ppl post stacks at big undercuts to that as well. great items to have on hand. 10k and your set for a month.

Stone of Health is nice, but don’t overuse i if you get your hands on some,I am still using my freebies from only using at clutch moments to turn a lose into a win. if your rich spam these and raise zen price please. =P

Blue Dragon Glyphs are my ideal Overloads ATM, more survive abilty and more dmg bonus for team all in one. reds are my 2nd pick for Armor Pen

Bread and Butter Basics

Shield (Stamina/Gauge)

your shield is your biggest tool. it will negate a Large percentage (80%) of damage from enemies. this damage is applied separately from your own Damage Resistance. your shield is only effective in the direction you face it. you will still be just as vulnerable from behind and our sides.

your shield will also make you immune to Stuns,Dazes,Freezing and severely reduce distance you move things like dragon wing gusts. those only remaining true, if your shield is facing the center of a red AoE or in case of the more raceway red areas, facing the enemy. basically you have to shield up towards the damage.

While shield is up you still have 2 At-Wills Shield Bash, to regenerate Stamina while guarding, and a Stabbing attacking that deals Moderate damage, the stabbing action does cause you to lung a bit forward, IF you are not targeting an enemy and or too far from an enemy.

From Feat distrabution alone you will not need any stamina gain, shield talent is a bonus until you can get enhanced Mark Bonus from offhand.

Side note to shield, it can cancel encounter and daily animations but still proc the skills if done right, just something for you to play with, it can also stop your ability and not activate it.

Threat

Threat is the “Anger” an enemy has towards you or an ally and having the most threat decides who that monster is attacking. damage and healing generate threat point for point. except for you, your marks will boost the amount of threat from your attacks quite well, meaning you have to dish out some damage to hold their attention, but you obviously wont be out damaging anyone to do so.

maintaining threat will be your job, keeping things mad and at your attention. (to an extent will discuss below)

Marks and Mark Focus

—Both Marks keep Combat advantage up on enemies aslong as thier active—

Mark Focus (Now  referenced as Hard Mark) only comes from hitting your class skill (RB). Visually this is a solid red X with a bigger outlined X around it.Our Hard Mark increases damage received by 20% (25% with Enhanced Mark). Hard Mark will not be removed if you are hit without a shield up. It will be removed however after a period of roughly 15sec and drop off completely. We can only have 1 Hard Mark at a time. You have greatly increased threat attacking this target.

Mark (Now referenced to as Soft Mark) This is applied by Enforced Threat, Threatening Rush, and changing your Hard Mark, leaving old Mark Focus left with soft mark. Soft Marks increase damage received by 6%. Soft Marks will be removed from enemies if they attack you with your shield down, or while your shields up, and they attack you from the side, or behind.

Feats and Paragon

Swordmaster

Great synergies to go immune, allowing you to tank anything and do some really clutch moves to maintain control in a fight.Steel Defence will be your 6 seconds get things back on track move. works well stacking AP and Recovery. WMS will let your spread Debuffs like the plague, and Proc At-Will Damage boosts from behind your shield to keep agro locked down.

I choose top notch survivability for everyone around, in certain groups itll be OverPowering, but thats fine because your healer can go full debuffs and amplify damage like crazy mixed with our buffs.

First Powers, i would recommend Rank 4 unlocks in this order

Tide of Iron>Into the Frey>Enforced Threat>Steel Defence>Fighters Recovery>Villains Menace> then up to you

Powers

This section will cover Encounters, At Wills, Dailys, and Passives

At Wills

Weapon Masters Strike

this at will i have slotted for dungeons until i reach select harder bosses in which i swap for tide of Iron. Increase your at-will damage by 30% from triggers while hitting a target twice. each swing will proc weapon enchants and debuffs abilities to several targets at ounce. your damage while shielded is also boosted, meaning greatly increased threat gain. After the first strike you can put shield up and 2nd hit will still go through. (running with geared groups, its more practical to keep Tide of Iron slotted)

Tide of Iron

Single target attack, debuffs target increasing the damage an enemy takes by 20%. you will also gain moderate Guard/Stamina back. recommended for bosses with high health pools, and debuffing heavier single target enemies.

Cleave

A fast paced attack. raw damage here with speed, quickly allows debuffs to a small cone in front of you. WMS should be used before hand to maximize threat gain on smaller groups of targets.

Also i keep this slotted on right trigger because WMS and Tide of Iron, even if you fully release trigger before dropping shield, can and will get you stuck in their animations. So this keeps clean transitions.

Encounters

Knights Valor (KV)

KV will protect your party at long distances, that uses you to block 50% damage an Ally would have taken. So you and ally split damage evenly. the biggest thing to know about KV is that when this damage happens you are attacked in a straight line from your teammate getting hit to you. Keeping your shield between you and teammates in red AoEs  is vital. as well as other strong attacks that do not show red.  you will also gain some threat from enemies that hit your teammates.

Best i can tell higher ranks of this still do nothing from reading online and personal testing, Cryptics has never addressed this fixed in any patch notes either, make it your last rank 4 skill

Enforced Threat

this will apply soft marks resetting agro on you and boosting it by 10% followed up by damage boosting your threat significantly. Great source of AP Gain as well, pre-buff with ITF for better damage. you’ll see this last in my typical combo, allowing for debuff procs, healing (If fighters recovery was used) , and Agroing everything into your shield for AP.

Into The Frey

Boost all teammates damage in your GROUP by 100% your Damage Resistance for 8 seconds. your parties Action Point Gain will increase during this time, and everyone’s run speed. Your primary use here is to boost damage of teammates, and your AP gain. Ideally yes you want a high up time using it back to back. however tactics and knowledge my friends. holding back a few seconds for team to get to a target can be much more effective. or if you know your about to pop Daily save it and activate right after to charge up your daily quickly.

Damage bonus and Recharge time is factor in at activation, so if your using a companion, waiting a fe seconds into combat for higher damage boost and lower CD can be very beneficial.

Temporary DR such as Negation, Steel defence, Villians menace, Iron Warrior, do not count towards increasing this buff. Buffs that effect your Defense directly, do increase buff damage. basicaly, if it goes on your character sheet when it procs, it effects ITF. Defense is the most viable way to increase this.

Iron Warrior

Great when your still in lower end gear. casting time is noticeable so plan for this. buff last 8 seconds fully ranked up. Boost Threat gain like crazy, and your Damage Resistance by 30%. you will also regain stamina very quickly. Replace with ITFwhen you have overcome gear strains.

Commanding Strike

Just mentioning for Heroic Encounters and Tiamat. to Clarify tooltip it sets a target to take flat damage from you each time ANYBODY attacks the target you hit. so in Tiamat your hitting it 25 times in a full group to help contribute damage.

Dailys

Villians Menace

Great for use when you have a healer. it takes a second to activate so ensure you have time to activate. +20% DR, and increased damage.  you are Immune to controlling effects for duration. great synergy with Steel Defence(+10%DR from Artifact Offhand) letting you dominate with CC, damage Immunity. leaving you boosted +30% DR between your dailys.)

Fighters Recovery

You will gain % health based off damage you deal. another reason for WMS allowing you to deal more damage thus healing more when your shields up. Fastest to activate, so safest way to enter Immune. i do like have the DooHickey equiped for guarteed little AoE ready since his is only time i use it. Doohickey damage is modified by all buffs and debuffs. this also makes the Doohickey a great canidate to test damage modifiers.

Passives

Shield Talent

Consumes Guard slower by 5% per rank, total 20%. great to help ensure you have your shield up when you don’t have ways of restoring Stamina/Guard gauge

Steel Defense

Makes you immune to damage for upto 6 seconds when maxed. a cornerstone of the build here. Villians menace you will be immune to anything and everything the game can throw at you. allowing you to completely regain control of a battle or lay down every debuff and buff you have, at no harm to yourself.

With our Artifact Offhand we will roll this and get a bonus +10% DR for  5 Seconds after Damage Immune ends

Enhanced Mark

Increases Threat on Hard Mark by loads, but irrelevant until you dont need extra DR from Steel Defense, ounce you decide you can go without that DR use the as Offhand perk to get +5% dmg debuff to main targets. Stamina gain during normal rotation and protector tree will keep you topped off, shield talent was a easy mode crutch upto this point.

Exchange with Shield Talent if Offhand is specced for Enhanced Mark.

Weapon and Armor Enchants

Negation

Absolutely amazing boosting DR 1-3% each time you are attacked. Individual stacks drop every 7 seconds, so no refreshing to max stacks. This is pretty pricey if i do say so myself, great whens gear lower but not ever required. After your gears average this is Overkill really and most likely if something is gonna kill you this probably isn’t enough to change that ounce your familar with GF.

Soulforge

Gives you a 2nd chance. Activating Fighters recovery on revive is an excellent way to recover, if you were shielding before your death then your daily should be ready. 2nd to this is dealing damage fast, if you have a damaging artifact use it. I use symbol of Earth and typical jump to full HP.

Plaguefire

Absolutely BiS at Pure for Tanks and especially this build all at-wills and encounters proc stacks up to 3 all procs reset debuff timer. Each strike from WMS procs this on enemies, and so does Enforced Threat. at “45%” defense reduction the actual increased damage debuff is 9%, at pure and full stacks Enemies will hit 9% Softer.

As a tank you will be hitting “Primary” heavy targets often keepng this procced.

Terror

this would be my second choice. it can not be refreshed unless debuff has worn off an enem already, meaning unstable up times. trade off there is that it procs every hit, which is also nice. when applied it has been play tested to debuff incoming and outging damage by 4% at 40% defence power debuff.

Source: http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/1208707/plague-fire-vs-terror

Playstyle

This build I focus on Damage reduction to me and Allies. Running KV if you reduce damage your allies are taking, you effectively reduce damage you receive. I also Idolize Defense, great for survive ability but this will allow us to boost teammates damage much further with Into The Frey.

The second part i focus on is hand out Debuffs to enemies constantly, and boost your teams damage. if a Guardian Fighter is Buffing and Debuffing correctly, the damage boosts you provide will out weigh having a 4th DPS significantly. not to mention you are keeping fights contained, and allies alive ;

you can expect to boost teams DPS close to 150% or more on average with low end gear, VS. single targets

Typical  Dungeon Trash Load Out

At-Wills: Cleave, Weapon Master Strike, (Tide of Iron on short Dungeons, or high dps teams)

Encounters: Into the Frey, Enforced Threat, Knights Valor

Passives: Shield Talent, Steel Defence

Ensure KV is on before starting a pull, if you have impatient DPS you will have to throw shield up so they do not kill you before you get their. don’t get stressed, they cant say anything if they are jumping around impatiently.

Start your pull with ITF then shield up, walking towards enemy allow enemies to get 1-2 hit in and then ET then and fall back to shield.

Position your self early into a fight have enemies and allies in a cone in front of you, so KV and enemies are damaging into your Shield.

our Daily should be at, or nearing full now. you want to pop Fighters Recovery> WMS 2x > ITF (boosting dmg/AP)> ET> take a step back and Guard, thus starting the cycle over. Attack heavier targets with behind your shield to keep them debuffed and Agroed. use shield slam if Stamina is needed.

Debuff Breakdown of what just happened. you went Immune with Daily. WMS (2 hits) boosts your At-Wills 30%, put 4 stacks of Iron Guard (-20%dmg output) 3 Stacks of Plague Fire (+9% dmg) to several targets. ITF boosts you and party’s damage and AP Gain. Enforced Threat reapplys your debuffs before you fall back netting some AP. Forced all targets to attack you, so shield immediately after. Between ITF and Shield AP boost from feats, you

Hard Mark Targets early with large health pools to help burn them quicker

Typical Boss Dungeon Loadout

AtWills: Cleave, Tide of Iron

Encounters: Into the Frey, Enforced Threat, Knights Valor

Passives: Steel Defense, Shield Talent

I keep Enforced Theat on so that i can gain AP and HP from using it far away (30′) from an enemy safely.

You will for the most part want to keep bosses attention, be aware some companions hard agro enemies for a few seconds and can effect this, spend time stacking debuffs while a companion has agro and Hard Mark to snatch it back when their agro drops.

Stacking up times of buffs and debuffs are vital, but so is staying alive so that everyone else stays up. find a balance for your current gear setup and if in doubt play it safe.Surviving battles is primary task, secondary is buffing your allies. finishing a fight a few seconds later is always better than restarting because you got carried away with buffs. A lot of heavy hits happen during boss fights, if you are not actively using Tide of Iron, Enforced threat, ITF, or Marking, you need to throw shield up and do your best to keep Allies and boss in a cone in front of you.

ounce you begin using a bonding companion, i like to hold ITF intially until i reach 3 stacks, our 4k Defense from boon will be procced by then too. I also use Heart of Black Dragon to Proc additional defense. start them fights strong for best results. Paired with Recovery i stack on Portal Hound, my first 2 ITF are back to back and extremely potent.

Approximate  single target dmg increase at 110% DR is 212% dmg output from your DPSers. this is what i reached when i made this video

https:///youtu.be/byxOtixA0vE

so at 212% we use a 3.12 mutiplier (+1 to account for base damage.)

so 3 dps deal same 100k in these conditions, mitigation looks like this 300,000 x 3.12 = 936,000

finished Lostmauth before he could fly away, total legit team. note speed of HP dropping, ITF active 0:18-:27 and compare to speed outside of the active time. we did also have a DC buffing to be fair.

Solo Play

At-Wills: Tide of Iron, Weapon master Strike,

Encounters: ITF, Enfored Threat, (Anvil or Lunging strike for movement)

Dailys: Villians Menace Mainly

I try to do big pulls, whether its Heroics or Quests and just buff my self up with Daily, ITF and go Nuts on big groups of Trash with WMS. you want to Hard Mark bigger targets early to allow for shortest fights possible. if you are going up against a big pack and there are healers, you want them dead asap! make use of Anvil on them and big targets. most of your damage will come from at wills, use WMS for big groups, and when down to a couple big enemies, ensure buffs from Tide of iron, ITF, WMS, Hard mark are up, then put shield up and use Right Trigger for damage. try to only use Anvil of Doomwhen empowered by ITF atleast, preferably on a target hard marked and hit recently by Tide of Iron too.

we dont have too much base damage, so the name of the game is damage multipliers, and to be actively hitting as many targets as you can.

Race and Stats

Halfing

for new, or low geared alts i recommend Halfing for his 3% Deflect chance (1200pts worth of stats) which gives you good milage.

Ability Points allocation go Con, Dex across the board.

I rolled Con/Dex as my bonus +2 pts for abilities. lands me at base ability rolls at STR:13 CON:18+2 Dex:13+2 high Con for HP of course, and gotta have that Deflect from dexterity thrown in. Dex gives Resistance Ignored crucial for holding agro. adds loads of survive ability with this race. this race and stats is great while gearing up, but after getting a big health pool and raw defence stacked, having the deflect doesnt give you much milage anymore since your already taking such little damage. (detailed Explanation in Advance Section)

http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/gf?b=2zwj:wf275e:9kvs:74fs6,1ui3j05:1000000:15u2xu1:1uu0u00&h=0&p=smr

Although many people have disproved me i can assure you that Mohawks give a hidden stat boost of +5% Deflect Chance. they are aero dynamic and enemies get distracted wishing they had one.

Human

Ounce you are experienced this is the End Game choice, geared and don’t need deflect as much, i recommend Human,

Ability Points allocation go Con, Str across the board.

we are gonna take advantage of Defense boost, and his extra feats and turn them into damage for more healing and Threat. same base roll with just Con +2. stack STR and CON. this route we will be maximizing our survive ability to do Tier 1s without a healer. Gaining much more damage for self sustained tanking and speed runs. at this point i recommend a Portal hound companion as well, with at least Greater Bonding Stones. will explain more below. we will be using a companion to maximize our defense allowing for some amazing damage boosts for team, and capping us out at 80% DR, taking the least amount of damage possible. (DR boost for ITF can go over 80%)

http://nwcalc.com/index.html#/gf?b=2zwj:zb0olt:9mbv:748jc,1ui3m05:1000000:15u2xu1:1uu5000&h=1&p=smr

Key Offensive Tank Stats

-Recovery: 200pts=1% Recharge Speed Increase 400pts= 1% Action Point gain

Important to stack for Chaining Steel Defense, and being able to use ITF and ET more often. you want this in all offensive slots unless you truly feel you need to hit harder, then go for a Dark or 2 for Armor Pen.

-Armor Penetration: 100pts=1% RI

this is vital to holding threat, you have to deal damage. i will not discuss it here but know statistically it is literally 10 times more potent than power, 40% RI is plenty for us and will keep Agro in check. your damage also factors into how much health you can receive from Fighters Recovery.

Key Defensive Stats

Deflect: 400pts=1% Deflect Chance

Should not be stacked from defence enchant slots, stack this on gear,jewelry, and armor, as a choice over regen.

Hit Points-you will want about 120k HP as a starting goal, picking up defense and recovery as a secondary. if you are ever feeling squishy from your playstyle, this is the stat you get the most milage out of from over stacking.

Defence: 400pts= 1%DR

We want to boost our ITF damage bonus, so we want increase this where viable. it will contribute to staying over DR Cap as well

Lifesteal: 400pts =1%

aiming for about 10% or close, not a high priority, but passive heals can be amazing.

This stat is for when we go without healers, so consider it a luxury  stat for when your overgeared.

Regeneration: 400ptss=1% increased healing

Utterly useless evade at all costs! it is a straight point Sink. I am bummed its splattered over all our end game gear.

Gear Setup

The Auction house is your best friend here! never equip an item on your tank that doesn’t help you reach your goal. go over your current gear and and search for rings necklaces and belts using the search filter to find items with stats you need. I would suggest search 70 Rare with HP and defence stats, with defense slots to add Radiant (HP) or more Azure (Defense) depending on your needs . if you don’t have your Alliance Gear yet, search for armor too this way. be wary to make sure you get stats you want/need and aim for defense slots. The Auction house lets you seek specific stats, Utilize this!

the following are for best survive ability pieces, as your progress and get comfortable, you should keep your HP above 120k, and funnel stat points into defence and recovery via sacrificing hp from things such as rings, sometimes picking up a raid piece for its recovery, while dropping a ward piece. basicaly saying lose 2% deflect, gain 2k HP and 800 Recovery 600 ArP, if your survivabilty is in check can be a very good trade.

stat priority

120k HP> 40% Resistense Ignored> Defense> Recovery>Deflect>regeneration

first too are important to making you capable to doing your job, Defense and Recovery aid you to go over the top at doing your job.

there are simply too many gear configurations and exceptions if you dont have certain stats met yet. i will list my end game gear in an update soon. best way to know your character is too look at stats and trim the fat for points that arent really helping you and finding a way to convert them to stats you could use more of.

Neck:: Greater Lathander’s Cloak>Alliance Ward >AH

Waist::Greater Belt of Constitution>Alliance ward>AH

Elemental Artifact Equipment

Elemental Fire Long Sword

At-Will Boost:: Tide of Iron, Bonus Stamina Gain

Elemental fire shield

Steel Defense if you need DR bonus

Enhanced Mark to maximize debuffs

stat boost: AP Gain

again keep in mind “Special Stats” give virtualy no bonus after 800-900, so a good secondary if needed is Combat advantage or increased heals.

Leveling Artifact Equipment

I recommend leveling them 1 rank up at a time (Green>blue>Purple) together.

Normal Artifacts

I currently use Heart of Black dragon as active Artifact, damage for healing, and procs defense before i use ITF.

Heart of Black Dragon:: 1000 Recovery, 1000 Armor Pen, 600 Action Gain

Sigil of the Guardian:: 1000 Defense, 1000 Deflect, 600 AoE Resist

Waters of El’Hazard::  1000 Defense, 1000 Recovery, 600 Regeneration

Heart of White Dragon:: 4000 HP, 1000 Defense, 600 AoE Resist

Watch your special stats like “AoE Resist, Control Resist” they hit a sharp curve and don’t give much after 800ish points giving back practically nothing, I learned the hard way. but if ya need the other stats it could be worth it.

End Game Stats now im looking to change Sigil of the Guardian Fighter for Lathanders Eye. Defense,Lifesteal, Incoming Heal are stats. All stats benefit and Revive Allies from 80′ range will be nice, and great for next Mod as we learn new dungeons.

Companions

Ion Stone is allows easy stacking of HP for reaching end game gear

here is my Current line up

Dancing Shield – 2% Deflect (800pts worth)

Flame Sprite– 1.5% AP Gain (600 Recovery Pts worth)

Slyph- +50% Control Resist (to good to be true? nope)

Chicken- when hit for more than 25% of your HP, attacker receives -10% outgoing damage

Portal Hound- 300 Deflect (summoned Companion)

Ioun Stone of Allure is a solid choice to start with before using a non-augment companion.

Tip:: Icon slot- Search Cleric, Offhand, Rare, level 70, recovery, deflect

stat only active bonuses are garbage, remember to look at things in %s EX: Priestess of Sune 300 Deflect (0.75%) at purple, Dancing Shield 2% Deflect (800pts)

Boons

Sharander:

Dark Fey Warder: 400 Defense

Fey Elusiveness: 400 Deflect

Elven Haste: +3% AP Gain or 1600HP, depends on needs.

Elven Tranquility: Regen 20,000 HP ,  (60 Sec CD)

Elven Resolve: Regen Stamina +10% in combat (not needed to drop shield talent)

Dread Ring: easiest boons to unlock FYI

Reliquary Keeper’s Strength: 250 Power and Movement

Evoker’s Thirst: 400 Life Steal

Illusion Shimmer: +3% Deflect Chance (1200 Deflect)

Enraged Regrowth: chance to heal 20,000 HP when hit, Procs 4000 Defense for 10 Seconds after. (80sec CD)

Endless Consumption: chance to recieve 3x Heal from Lifesteal.

Ice Wind Dale

Encroaching Tactics: 400 Combat Advantage, if your squishy take AoE Resist. but know that after you get T2 Gear and Rank 8s, you will be pushing through the DR Cap Regularly with a Companion.

Appreciation of Warmth: +400 Incoming Healing, (4% if your not over 800pts)

Rapid Thaw: 400 Recovery

Avalanche: Get hit 20 times,you deal 15,000 dmg around you.

Tyranny of Dragons::

Dragons Claw: 1600HP

Dragon Shadow: 400 Deflect

Dragon Defense: 400 Defense

Dragon Greed: 400 Lifesteal

5th boons: last tier of boons i recommend last 3 points in this order, Revival, Thirst, Thirst

Class Synergies

Healers

Devotion Paladins– Best for consistent healing and damage mitigation

–Limited range on healing as you have to be in their circles, but they heal crazy fast

— Because our KV splits damage they are healing 2x as fast over all

–Long up time of their daily that negates 50% of incoming damage.

–Aura of wisdom increases recharge speed, takes about 2 seconds off ITF

Devoted Clerics– Clutch Heals and some pretty nice Debuffs to increase run speeds

–Our major damage mitigation allows for them to drop heals infavor of strong buffs, best healer to have.

–Astral Seal takes of a flat damage amount off attacks, with KV sometimes neither of you take damage

–Commonly they will have gift of Faith, so if you drop below a set amount of HP you get insta healed by a large amount

–“Haste Clerics” will have you popping Dailies left and right by increasing your current AP by a % with each heal over time.

–They have a passive to increase AC and Deflect Chance

Personal Stats

Standing Idle far from any ones buffs i am at.

and here i am at 3 Companion stacks, fortification potion, Caprese, blue dragon glyph procced, and Heart of black dragon buff. ideal start up before first ITF on big bosses. (dont have thayan 4000 defense here cause i was at a test dummy)

Conclusion

This is the closure of my Basics guide, the best tactic a Guardian Fighter has is a keen eye, watch enemy movements. Watch how often they attack, knowing when you will have time to pop Powers freely. Guardians are the rulers of controlling fights, boosting damage and clear speeds. we honestly need more guardians out there, so i hope to see some new bruised beaten and bloody faces out there!

*Advanced Section*

This section Under Construction rough drafting it for now, and gathering information and testing from friends. I will be undoubtedly be revamping this guide, seeking to make it easier to follow, and understand.

Thank your xRGxRelentless, Grimlock, Boatman, and CactusJackter for all your help!

Non-Augment Companion

Ounce you can achieve 120k HP without an Loun stone,only at this point you will be able to effectively use a companion. Non Augment Companions do not transfer HP to you at all, so don’t bother putting any HP on them.After Testing several Companions i have settled on a Portal Hound for his fast attacks, and Defense Runestones, and defense core stat.  Bonding stones stack, proc and stay active 20seconds, then CD for 10sec after that. short fights you will be 3 stacks entire time, longer fights you will stay and 2 for the most part and occasion go up and down to 1 and 3. Only start this endeavor if you can afford 3 Greater bonding stones to start of with. he has all Defence Rune stones slots so we get lot of boosts towards ITF and our own personal survival.

Human Feat effects all Defense coming from companion

ounce you can survive without a companion, all upgrades to enchants need to be on companion stones, and then Azures. forget your IL, you get over 100% of stats you put on companion. so you get more this way.

There is currently a bug i dont quite understand that allows higher procing of companions Gift. It is nice, but in no way effects that this is our only way get more defense stacked for ITF. Ounce they fix it, it will not effect this build.

Rune stones- 3xRank 12 Bonding stones

Tooltips are bugged, stats transfer at 80% and 95% for rank 11 and 12s respectively.

Equipment- ring and belt I searched AH for , level 70 Defense, ArP, with Defense Slots. 311 Stats each. Necklace i chose Personalized Recovery because its only way to get a defense slot on a necklace.

Ounce you reach rank 12s i reccomend switching to all Personalized recovery. The recovery is only effective at bigger rates.and mid stacks you can exspect a 2second cool down reduction to ITF (for me this means no downtime between buffs)

Using my Fortification Potions, Blue Dragon Glyphs and help of Companion (3 stack bonding) i can boost my DR upto 110%, letting my teammates melt targets, while also you are receiving substantial damage reduction and Action Point gain for the duration. and at 3 stacks, my recovery allows 8-9 Seconds CD on ITF, so i can seemlessly run it during those stacks.

Damage Resistance Breakdown

It has come to my attention a lot of people dont understand what DR cap is, due to the slang people use with it

I dont like the term DR Cap as it is misleading, when people say DR cap for PVE, what they. Mean is that after buffs, stacking defense, whatever, you will take 20% damage. Thats a barrier set to avoid people negating all damage from DR alone.

The exception there for us is that our shield negates a seperate 80% reduction. So shield down, we will take a minimum of 20% of an enemies initial damage. A hit that goes through our shield will hit a minimum of 4% (80% of 80%)

Deflect is also calculated after our intial DR. so with no shield, minimum 10%, with sield minimum 2% damage taken.

So my proc DR from defense can and does go over 80% to boost ITF dmg bonus extremely high.

2 other ways around the “DR Cap” is a Paladins Shield of Faith that acts as another layer of damage reduction (50%), a Clerics Astrals seal which negates a flat number off of damage after all other calculations can negate damage down to zero.

now all thats from simply damage we got hit by, one thing i do in my build is lower power and strength of enemies before it is calcuated towards my DR. EX. Iron Guard capstone reduces dmg monsters deal by 20% (4 stacks) so if an enemy was gonna deal base damage of 100k, they will now hit 80k, and then register 80% reduction from my DR. same goes for me using Plague Fire. and chicken companion.

Deflect Breakdown

You probably notice i picked different stats and race for bigenners, and end gamers, this was because of the need for deflect at lower HP and DR. will try to keep this short. keep in mind end game, hitting “DR Cap” is normal

New Player 35% DR

100,000 dmg recieved, you take 65k, if you deflect you take 32.5k less damage

End Gamer 80% DR

100,000 dmg recieved, you take 20k damage, if you deflect you take 10k less damage.

so basically ounce you get your DR Bolstered high, deflecting an attack has a significantly weaker effect. so minimizing deflect late game will allow you to stack higher recovery, defense, Armor Pen, whatever stats you need

Gear Selection

FYI: their are no good Personalized rings for Tanks, saves us money, but kinda sad we miss out on stats.Dragon Flight Ward, and Elven Ward is BiS Ring for my Guide.

another one to look out for is Eleven Ward Armor, breaking things into percents here.

Elemental Alliance Chest gives : 17.7K HP, 12%RI, 3%DR, 2% Deflect Chance.

Eleven Ward Armor is 19K HP 4.2% dmg bonus 3%DR  2% Increased heals

you sacrifice alot and degrade yourself by picking this up. I always convert stats into percents to see what i am really gaining and losing, not just lookin at big numbers. remember ArP is extremely potent for us upto 40% RI

Oddly Elven Ward Helmet has high Regen, but when upgraded to Elemental, gets totaly revamped stats to Recovery, defense, deflection. With all this said BiS Armor goes as followed, keep in mind i completely ignore Item Level, i look directly on benefits of upgrading via stat allocations.

Gear you will have to actually look at your stats and trim fat balancing and maxing out Recovery, Defense, HP