Build Guide - Guardian

Introduction

It’s a beautiful day in a brand-new map. Birds are singing in the clouds of Loong Haven, flowers are blooming, everyone is kung fu fighting, and even Paladins get to train a few new moves! 

Between new water and light skills, new taunting skills (We can hear you screaming, “At long last!” ) and more ways to survive, it’s time to take up the mantle of the protector and shield your team from danger and become a Guardian.

New Important Skills

Paladins get 4 Legendary skills, 4  Epic, and 4 Rare skills when classing up. 

Guardians get a lot of tools to support their team, but more importantly, Guardians finally get some much-needed damage tools! Water Guardian finally goes ‘online’ with multiple options to pick from to reliably stack cold on the enemy, and we start seeing more Light skills added. In the long run, you will mostly benefit from your supporting options, but it’s great that we can finally ‘carry’ a bit more when helping with lower-level content. Going back to the new skills, let’s highlight some of the best ones per tier: 

• Oath of Vigil is an amazing budget option that will target the ally with the lowest HP at the start of the turn and grant them the ‘Vigil’ buff. We get to take 50% of the damage they would receive, but this damage will be reduced by a % based on the Charm ascension and level, AND for every 1% the caster's DEF exceeds the protected unit's. Get at least one copy of this; you won’t regret it. While this charm also works in Dungeons, it’s mostly a group PvP option.

• Soul Protection removes 50% of your HP at the start of the fight and converts it into a big, chunky shield. Considering Aegiswing exists, healing exists, and charms that require being shielded exist, this is an amazing addition to the Guardian’s arsenal. Oh, did we mention that you get your HP back based on the remaining shield at the end of the fight? Amazing for dungeons. 

• Iron Will is the winner of the highly contested mentions for best rare skill added this batch. What beats taunting enemies? Yes, getting less damage from taunted enemies. With more ways to apply Taunt, this is the best time to introduce such a powerful defensive option.

• To the surprise of no one, we obviously gotta talk about the other tremendously rare options. Holy Aegis grants more def while improving def-based shields, and Hamper Strike is the newest taunt option, with a 1-turn CD but no pre-cast.

Builds

Generic Dungeon Grid

• This is a more support-oriented build, aiming to keep your team alive more. If you find yourself needing more Taunting power, remove Valor Surge for Hamper Strike. If your team still dies, maybe try slotting in Iron Fortress, but it remains mostly a PvP charm, like Oath of Vigil.

• Mix and match with damage-oriented builds if you think you need some extra damage, depending on your gear, power, and stage. For example, you can replace Desperate Protection with Swirling Blade if you want more damage or Star Shattering Slash.

Water Paladin

• Our water-based build is finally more offensive, allowing us to get faster cold stacking on the enemy. This is mostly for AoE fights, but it has decent ST damage.

• As this build is more offensive, charms may be repurposed depending on the goal. Potential Rebirth gives a second chance, a highly invested Blade of Lament could provide strong lifesteal, Pursuit of Victory can still be helpful, and so on. As you get more crit from companions, gear, and everything else, Insightful Eye starts to fade away.

Support Knight

• An all-purpose support build that can work in Dragon, Chaos, and Guild Bosses. Tinker with it as you see fit, adding more survival charms or more damage. For example, if no dispel is needed, you can remove Holy Purification. Lunarwater Threads can be replaced with Seismic Tide for more consistent Cold stacking.

• Make sure you are also changing your pet to support your team. Kels (with Manifestation) is an amazing Def Down + Dispel choice, Chomusuke still works, Nyxarchon remains solid to Amplify damage, and for the Guild Boss, you can also bring Terragon if the team needs more DMG Reduction.

Secondary PvE build

• Our good old ‘Tank&Spank’ from S1. This build is actually the most flexible out there since you can remove Luminous Shield for Guardian Ring for more shielding, add Valor Surge for more damage, and so on. If you think your block is enough, you can replace Block Awareness with more offensive options like Eye for an Eye. If you just need to live a bit longer, a higher ascension Potential Rebirth can be clutch.

• If you run Pandarial, this build can change a lot. You can drop Luminous Shield for Light Sword Array and play more aggressively, but make sure to replace some of your charms to get more defense there.

Stats

Secondary Main Stats

Sub Stats

All item slots will roll a number of additional stats on them, which are chosen randomly from a universal pool. Below is roughly the order of priority to look out for on your gear; however, just because an item has great additional stats doesn’t make it the best choice. Make sure to consider the item's overall power and whether it has the optimal secondary stats as well.

Fantomon

Pets get a huge revamp in S2 with the ability to manifest them. Manifested pets gain new skills and a call ability, providing you with more options!

Additionally, Kung FuPandarial releases and shakes the meta by reducing the wind-up time of higher CD skills by quite a lot.

• Armopi : At this stage, if you are still using Armopi, it’s time to retire him in favor of Aegiswing. When materialized, he grants a shield to the owner.  

• Boaro : He remains Boaring, but when materialized, the little fella will knock back the enemy by 1 grid 

• Kels : Escaping from the honorable mentions, Kels is now an actual solid supporting choice. Dealing water damage is great when we can quickly stack our Cold on enemies and bring a 20% DEF down for 2 turns (with a 50% chance) while still being a source of dispel. Good boy

• Nyxarchon : Not a priority to dupe for Materialization, but an amazing choice for support and damage. More of a whale choice if you want to get extra damage while having reliable debuffs

• Aegiswing : Once materialized, he finally gets more wings! After beating the early fraud allegations, Aegiswing is back with a steelchair offering more Taunt sources, debuffs and less damage from taunted enemies. Your priority pet to push to Mythic as a Guardian, meaning you’ll have to buy a dupe.

• Pandarial : CD reduction at stage start, healing, and increased damage taken debuff when materialized. There’s a reason why so many people are looking forward to Panda- all hail the new meta overlord! 

•  Any other Legendary pet. They are gonna be slot 2-4 for the stats, so slap here anything you have lots of resources for for free stats.

Gems

Weapon

• Obsidian (Black): The best option due to the DMG Boost% combined with ATK%, but the gem is rarer than others, so it usually costs more on the market. Unless you’re a big spender, it’s better to just sell your Obsidians on the Market and reinvest the currency into your account, as you are more likely to use speed options in dungeons, so this remains a luxury option for chaos and damage-oriented builds.

• Amethyst (Purple): Provides Crit Rate% and Speed - Knights classes have an issue getting reliable crit rate and the speed is crucial to reapply buffs that are provided at the beginning of the turn.

• Ruby (Red): Gives a lot of ATK%, can be useful when running more offensive builds but you will usually prefer having Amethys as a general choice.

Off-hand

• Moonstone (White): The best option due to the DMG Rest% combined with DEF%, but the gem is rarer than others, so it usually costs more on the market. Compared to Obsidian gems, it’s best not to sell these and slowly increase them on the side.

• Sapphire (Blue): Second-best option when it comes to tanks, as having more def% is always important.

• Citrine (Yellow): Provides only Speed, but it’s useful to avoid being too slow in PvP or dungeons. That being said, Amber, Beryl and Obsidian can also be useful depending on the content, but are usually less important.  

Boots

• Amethyst (Purple): Provides Crit Rate% and Speed - Knights classes have an issue getting reliable crit rate and the speed is crucial to reapply buffs that are provided at the beginning of the turn.

• Citrine (Yellow): Provides only Speed, but as stated on other pieces, that’s great for Knights. In general, the speed part is the priority, so you can use the one with the highest tier to maximise your speed potential.

Armor

• Moonstone (White): The best option due to the DMG Rest% combined with DEF%, but the gem is rarer than others, so it usually costs more on the market. Compared to Obsidian gems, it’s best not to sell these and slowly increase them on the side.

• Sapphire (Blue): Second-best option when it comes to tanks, as having more def% is always important.

• Beryl (Green): Provides HP%, useful to increase your bulk but secondary to having more defense, as HP won’t influence your shields directly like DEF does.

Helm

• Sapphire (Blue): No Moonstone available in this slot makes Sapphire the best in slot here

• Citrine (Yellow): If you need more speed, Citrine remains your best bet, especially in PvP.

• Beryl (Green): Hard to find situations where this would be better, but if you have a high-tier Beryl or Amber, you could place them here to pad your Combat Power a bit for dungeons.