Rohan - HUMAN Guide

A Detailed Guide to the Guardian Class

A lot of the other class forums seem to have guides for classes, so I feel like it's about time we have one dedicated thread to the Guardian class. I know a lot about the class as I have played both a strength build and a dexterity build both with very good gears. I also have witnessed first hand the strengths and weaknesses of both builds as I PvP a lot =)

**These views are just my opinions and are based on my personal experiences. As always, your opinions are welcome should you decide to share them.**

Alright, on to the good stuff:

Base Stats
Strength Build: Most people follow a 3:1 strength to vit build. This is a good starting point as you will do pretty decent damage with decent gears as well as have the HP boost to survive while grinding. However, as a strength build you still need to accommodate for dex in your build so that you can hit mobs every hit without missing. Personally, I stayed with base dex all the way up until level 60 where I was able to use four Wings of Solemn Death (15 strength, vit, dex). I made up for my lack of dex by utilizing level 1 Invoke (20% boost) and dex accessories. If you are not a member of the Exchange Market, I suggest still using dex accessories so that if you ever do get your hands on a Wings of Solemn Death, you do not have too much dex (unless you wish to have it that way, I know many Guardians who do).

Dex Build: This build is often referred to as a cash-user's build as it is incredibly gear-dependent. I don't suggest using a full dex build, but instead a 3:1, 4:2, 6:2 dex to vit stat distribution. Many people just put in 1 or even 0 points of vit per level in order to maximize their critical hit damage, but remember this: you will be a crit-based build and should have little problems taking down players as high above you as 5-10 levels depending on your level and weapon.

Hybrid Build: This is the most powerful build for a Guardian there is but it's very gear-dependent. Without the proper weapons and armor, you will be squishy (lose more pdef than you think you would from the strength/vit you lose per level) and an easy target to take out and if you don't have the proper weapons then you won't be taking advantage of what the hybrid build offers -- steady base hits with devastating crits. The majority of your stat points should still be going into strength, with a point or so going into dex every level. 2:1:1 strength-dex-vit or 3:1 strength-dex is the preferred build here. Unless you are very experienced, I suggest the 2:1:1 simply because as a new player it is hard to survive without any vitality at all...especially if you don't use EM or have high level mains where you can farm the necessary boss drops.

Skills
The base Human skill tree looks vastly different for both builds. Starting with the absolute minimum, these are what they should look like:

Strength Knight:
5 Imbue
1 Taunt
5 Rising Might
5 Sharpen Blade
1 Invoke

Dex Knight:
5 Imbue
1 Taunt
5 Protection
1 Psychic Crash
5 Crash Above
1 Sharpen Blade
5 Invoke
5 Bless Shield
5 Charge

Psychic Crash and Crash Above are HIGHLY recommended as even towards end game you end up having a pretty ridiculous amount of free points...I just suggest getting this as every Dex Guardian IMO should have this possible 3rd stun. You don't have to level it right away in order to save points for the Guardian tree (mainly because you use a lot of points on the Knight tree as it is), but it's definitely a must-have by end game IMO.

Hybrid Knight:
5 Imbue
1 Taunt
5 Rising Might
5 Sharpen Blade
5 Invoke

The only difference between a Hybrid build and a Strength build on the first tree is Invoke. It's a must-max for the Hybrid build, while the Strength build doesn't really utilize it at all.

Now, as a strength build myself, I highly suggest putting 5 points into Sharpen Blade. When you turn 50 and get Sword Mastery, these are amazing buffs to have on that help greatly with PvP against players close to your level (not to mention PvE, too). I have said this so many times before, but weapon damage is one of the most underrated things in this game. Many players try to be 'cheap' and save points for the more flashy skills like Order Swing and Crazy Standing...but with this bare minimum build you will have plenty of points to max all of the necessary skills on the Guardian tree as soon as they become available.

Why not Protection? If you really do want this buff, go for it...but it doesn't prove to be very useful until you are wearing Ka'el or Edwin armors. IMO those 5 points are better spent elsewhere altogether as a strength Guardian, as I just get the Defenders/dex Guardians to buff me with it if I need it. It is a nice buff to have to be nice to the people in your party (puller, mage, healer), but it's still not very useful until later on in the game.

On to the Guardian tree...

Strength Guardian:
5 Sword Mastery
1 Taunt Roar
5 Rush
5 War Cry
5 Crazy Strength
1 Final Crash
5 Crazy Standing
1 Blue Drain
5 Order Swing
5 Heavy Weapon
5 Crit Aura
1 Roha's Blessing
5 Knight Symbol
5 Stone Skin

Skills that should be maxed as you get them: Rush, Crazy Strength, Crazy Standing, Order Swing

Dex Guardian:
5 Physical Blow
1 Taunt Roar
5 Rush
5 War Cry
1 Crazy Strength
1 Final Crash
5 Crazy Standing
1 Blue Drain
5 Order Swing
5 Heavy Weapon
5 Crit Aura
1 Roha's Blessing
5 Stone Skin

Skills that should be maxed as you get them: Physical Blow, Rush, Crazy Standing, Order Swing, Crit Aura

Hybrid Guardian:
5 Sword Mastery
5 Physical Blow
1 Taunt Roar
5 Rush
5 War Cry
5 Crazy Strength
1 Final Crash
5 Crazy Standing
1 Blue Drain
5 Order Swing
5 Heavy Weapon
5 Crit Aura
1 Roha's Blessing
5 Knight Symbol
5 Stone Skin

Skills that should be maxed as you get them: Rush, Crazy Strength, Crazy Standing, Order Swing

These are still just the basic skill builds to follow. Throughout all my time spent doing PvP, I rarely wish for a longer duration of Roha's Blessing, yet love Stone Skin being maxed due to how it lasts for the entire duration of Order Swing. If you wish to have Roha's Blessing do the same, level 3 lasts for 30 seconds. With these skill distributions, there will be plenty of points left over at level 62 and above to work on the rest of your tree to make your character fit your playing style.

Accessories
Strength: Pre-60, I suggest using dex accessories in order to make up for the lack of dex in the stat build. Post-60, four Wings of Solemn Death are the best way to go until R4 boss drops start becoming more common. On Marea, hardly anybody has them and I don't think anybody has a full set of any R4 boss drops yet. If you are not a member at all of the Exchange Market, try to keep your dex even or slightly above your level and with the other accessories you can use strength and vit.

Dex: Pre-60, use any combination of dex/vit accessories as these are the only two stats you should ever be putting points into. Post-60, I still suggest using Wings as you get an extra 60 physical defense from a full set as well as 15 dex and 15 vit on each accessory. The same applies for dex as strength -- until R4 drops become more common, Wings are the way to go. If you don't have an EM membership, dex and vit accessories will work just fine.

Hybrid: You can get away with using any accessories that add strength, dex, or vit up until level 60 where you should be using four Wings of Solemn Death. You don't have to worry about making up for your dex with accessories because you should be adding it every level or so (since that's kind of the point of a Hybrid) and you shouldn't have any problems missing.

Weapons
Strength/Hybrid: You should always try to use a Unique weapon if you can make one. If not, at least try to forge Rare weapons in order to benefit from the option stones. For the 1st and 2nd unique weapons, you should be looking for +strength, +vit, and +dex -- in that order. Starting with the 3rd unique, you should find weapons with +melee attack percentage as high as you can get it. Why not until the 3rd unique? At a low level you will not benefit as much from the melee attack bonus as you would the strength bonus since each point of strength is equal to 3 melee attack. Which option stones should you use? HP/MP leech for PvE, damage drop/attack speed/critical percentage for PvP.

Dex: All weapons (daggers) should be made with +dex or a mix of +dex and +vit and should be using 4 crit option items when forging the unique. Playing a dex build with anything but a unique critical percentage dagger is just flat out painful and I do not suggest it.

Armor
All Guardians should look for high +physical defense bonuses as a first priority. We are a melee class and will always be taking hits, so physical defense as high as you can get is ideal. Magic defense is very nice to have as well, but is not really necessary until late game (80+). By then, you can get full armor sets with great physical and magic defense from solo quests and then make them into a nice Edwin set.

Which pet should I use?
A Strength build should use either a Soft Kahto, Molly, or a Honey Bear. I'm a firm believer in the in-game pets being the best as I have found that the Hawk did not help and the Tiger is just not necessary. The only Item Mall pet that has proven useful is a Dragon, but even that isn't useful until a high level when it starts doing good damage. Personally, I use a Soft Kahto because chasing down Rangers in PvP is fun.

A Dex build can use either a Power Tiger to increase critical rate, or if you have a 15 crit dagger and level 7 Crit Aura, you can use a Honey Bear for the extra HP or a Molly to help out your survivability even more. You will still crit very often, don't worry, and the extra survivability is very nice if you choose to go that route.

Hybrid builds can use any of the above mentioned pets -- it's up to you which suits your playing style best. If you use a shield, though, a level 3 Molly is insane especially stacked with a 20% block rate.

PvP!
The essential skills to PvP are Rush, Crazy Standing, and Order Swing. There's much more to being a successful Guardian in PvP, but as you play you must learn through your own experiences how to play your character well. There is very little I can tell any Guardian to help them improve in PvP other than practice. I got plenty of advice from a fellow Guardian in my guild, but none of it was of any use to me until I was able to go PvP every day against a rival guild.

The best piece of advice I can give is to know your opponent. It's useless to go after somebody who you hit 4's on, so if you are out-matched you can simply help out in group PvP with your stuns, War Cry, and Heavy Weapon instead of being a main killer. Otherwise, just go after the people you know you can kill within a single rush...or help stack stuns on more powerful players in order to drop them with a team effort.

The most important thing to remember about your character is that this game is based around group PvP. If you are into duels, that's cool...and you can build your character that way. All I'm trying to say is don't look at a build and come up with a billion counters to it and then think it sucks..because the truth is, half of it is just theory anyway. I see people in other forums question certain aspects of builds because of the 7 million counters to a certain skill...but that's why this game IS balanced. Any build is countered and it's important to play your character to its strengths and not its weaknesses.

Shield?
For a Dex build, a shield is an absolute necessity.

For Strength/Hybrid builds, once again this depends on your playing style. If you're somebody who wants to just go full out offensive, use a dagger in your off-hand. If you want a little bit more survivability as well as the extra stun, go for the shield. It is possible to become a very good Guardian with either route, but I suggest having both a dagger and a shield in your inventory which you can use at any time.

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That about sums it up for now. I may add to this sometime in the future with more detailed information, but there are just way too many topics asking for skill/stat builds. Hopefully new Humans can find this information useful and I hope many other veterans of the class can contribute their knowledge as well. I know I did not cover hybrid builds, but that is because I have no experience playing one. I am only comfortable talking about what I have personally played so I know the little things about each class.