Dragon’s Prophet Guardian Guide

Dragon’s Prophet Guardian Guide by Trollwoot

Table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. Question and Answer
3. General Purpose
3.1. Pros and Cons
3.2. Starting Area
4. Attributes
5. Talents and Masteries
5.1. Talents
5.2. Masteries
5.3. Builds
6. Dragons
6.1. Partner Choice
6.2. Skills
7. Gameplay
7.1. Video Footage
8. Equipment
8.1. Sockets
9. Matchups

1. Introduction

Wazzzzuuuup? So you finally found the guts to ask for help, get some insight in how guardians work or improve your overall style. I’m Trollwoot the one and only. You can also call me Batman…bazinga. You might know me from some other games already or you are busy hating because i killed or tamed the quest mob you aimed for (huehuehue). My milk tastes always great and i end up on the bright side of life. (Yeah i know you are jealous now, but killing me while i sleep is not allowed, sorry). Also i’m one of these fancy founders and a Fountain of Knowledge as my rank indicates. Anyway to sum it up: I hit the lvl cap during the closed beta twice, captured all rare dragons during the early state of the beta (miasma aka onyx was low levelish back then) and had blue maxed out gear. I got plenty of knowledge about every class, but focused on the guardian (manly man play only manly classes). Otherwise this topic wouldn’t even exist. This guide is as the word implies just a golden thread. While it provides some information regarding PVE, PVP and so on it will be never more than an orientation. You have to use the facts i provide and alter them in a way that fits you. I mean you can just copy everything like a zombie, but that will work only to a certain point. After that you will start screwing up, because the way how i deal with situations might not fit you. Be warned right now: I won’t take the blame for it and if you want to QQ because you failed, then ask someone else for tissues. All you get from me is a  HA-HA i told you phrase (i got the nelson.jpg ready any time…). That said i will focus on the basics and PVE, because PVP doesn’t have such a high purpose yet. Until we got the Frontier Patch you will skirmish on the floating island which has barely any impact. You will get 4-5 achievements and then you are done. So i will provide you with a slightly altered build, some general insight and then send you on your way. I won’t bother that much with how to level and where because general guides already cover that topic (Short sum up: do all starter areas and every public event on daily basis). Much talk, less meaning. no cookies without reading! Now i even got a masculine rhyme in there and i mean it like that. Only those brave ones that read the entire topic and can answer my questions afterwards shall be rewarded with skitter cookies…

2. Question and Answer

Q: Why did you create the guide in the first place?
A: As a closed beta tester i had the pleasure to start the game in it’s unpolished state. During the course of these three month i had to figure out how the world functions on my own. Step by step. There was no one telling me if i did things right or wrong and i was paying for every mistake i did. Be it during the additional amount of time i had to invest, rerolling my character or wasting wast sums of gold paying for repairs and watching the death screen during the knock down period which were the darkest days of the game (insert melodramatic silence). Not the best feeling to tell the truth, but thats unfortunatly the way how things go during an early state of a game. Newer players shouldn’t have to go through the same process, so i created the first attempt of my guide. It also worked as a measure to see wether i was doing things right or still walk down the wrong path leading to some laughter, from the guys reading my crap. Fortunatly i was right on the important parts and had to polish the guide only slightly during the course of the next weeks leading to the present day. Also i can’t deny that it felt great to be the  pioneer writing the first guide prior to the competition which led to the flood of guides we saw on the different  forums later on.

Q: Will there be more awesome guides?
A: Never say never, but at least not in the near future because its hella time consuming. Hint: I like cookies so enough of those with calories loaded little things might change my mind or at least push me in the right direction.

Q: Are you as knowledgeable as you pretend to be?
A: It’s even more, but i don’t want to scare you off, so i limit it

Q: That sounds quite arrogant, you know that right?
A: Pants down. I’m doctor arroganto the super villian. It’s one of the reasons why you got attracted to my guide and still read it!

Q: Can i get your phonenumber?
A: Maybe, give it a try…

Q: Do i have to read the comments, or is the guide itself enough?
A: Under normal circumstances the guide provides all the information you need. However i highly encourage you to read through all pages, because i might have answered one of your questions there or provided information you were looking for.

Q: Who are those four blueish guys you feature in your guide?
A: They are the Mumboh-Jumboe formation. Humanitys biggest threat, right after Justin Bieber. Four brothers featured in several Dragon Quest games. Their names are Mum, Boh, Jum and Boe. Since they are all warriors and refer to a game which has “dragon” in its name, they seem quite fitting for my guide. Also i hope thats enough gratitude towards them, so that they don’t enslave me once they take over the world.

Q: Is there a difference between the gender?
A: Unfortunatly yes. I don’t know if its intentional or just a bug but most of the time (80%) females had slightly lower stats when i created them

Q: Is the Guardian a DPS class?
A: Yes.

Q: Everyone says im a stupid tank and that i should act as such. Do i have to?
A: No. The guardian can be played either full DPS, Hybrid or Tank only. However remember that your playstyle might limit the Partys you can join. There are still plenty people that prefer the classic roles.

Q: Can i be a healer?
A: Yes you can. Your class choice is not really the wisest for being a Healer and you would waste a lot of potential, but you could get a decent dragon with high Int and modify him with healing skills only.

Q: Can i move around and pew pew people?
A: what the…no!

Q: Thats lame. What can i do?!
A: Be Superman. Fixate your left mouse click and go afk. Come back later and collect the loot without any effort. Repeat while you “polish your banana”

Q: Is this class suited for PVP?
A: Hell yes. Right now only Oracles can step up to Guardians PVP wise. Heck the only Oracle that can beat a decent Guardian (which you will be after you read my guide) is Godrage, so unless you have to face him you are good to go

Q: Is it true that i have the highest base defense?
A: Yes. Second in scaling is the Oracle.

Q: Sword swinging sucks, but i want to wear awesome plate armor. What should i do?
A: Man up and swing a Battle Axe!

Q: What are my weaknesses?
A: NONESHUUUSH. SWITCH THE TOPIC..äh…LOOK A FLYING SKITTER…what were we talking about again? Oh right your weaknesses. You couldn’t let this one slip…damn you! Now i need some cookies and while i fetch some, read the “cons” section of the guide, cause this rustled my jimmies.

Q: Can i kite?
A: NO NO AND NO. The essential meaning of kiting is to keep the mob(s) or player you face at a certain distance. In normal terms out of MELEE Range but still close enough to hit him with RANGED attacks. Kiting is meant as a measure for light-armored classes, which additional are weak in close combat. Kiting requires constant moving, which a Guardian CAN’T. In order to use attacks you have to stand still. The reason for you being tanky is that you stand close to the mob, taking a few hits while you dish out your entire Arsenal. If you don’t get that, then leave my guide asap and either choose a different class or quit the game!

Q: Where do i get a healing dragon?
A: This question is not related to guardians per se, since everyone cares about it but the answer is everywhere and nowhere. EVERY dragon can have a healing ability after you tame it. Only the odds differ depending on the type of dragon you aim for. From highest to lowest: Glider > Flyer > Mossaurs > Ancients > Tank > Crawler > Raptor. Since you can teach some of the skills, aim for the dragons you like regardless of their category and customize them later!

Q: I got a question, but don’t want to post it in the topic because it might sound dumb. If i contact you via PM or through the other contact options, will you answer it no matter how redundant it is?
A: I certainly will, no matter how tardish it may sound. I’m professional enough to send a legitim response to whoever posts in my Guide or leaves me a message without just using facepalm.jpg as answer.

Q: Whats the ingame name you provide support on?
A: Lanceklopp as you can see in my signature.

Q: I love you and all, but seriously man when will i see some actual content, this gets hella boring…
A: Now. Grab a soda and get some patience while you do so 8(

3. General Purpose

Official Info:

Guardians are heavily armored melee combatants who command a variety of weapons. Their reckless offense includes impact attacks and vicious strikes powerful enough to dismantle any opponent. Constant exposure to battle has made them resilient and able to withstand the risks of being on the front line. Guardians wield one or two-handed weapons, with the capability to equip a shield.

As a Guardian you are the Frontline. Humanitys shield and last hope. Everyone relies on you. I know they said the same about Brandon Routh, but this time they are right! You are the only class in the game that can wear heavy armor. You either got the choice to slash your way through enemys with two-hand weapons like Great Swords, two handed Hammers and Battle axes or if you prefer to wear shields then you can equip a normal Sword, Axe or Hammer. You are never bound to your choice and can requip any time if you desire to do so. You chose an easy to play class which excels in 1v1 combat, but is still a reckonable force if outnumbered. Your greatest strength is your melee combat, that said you suck at range and for serious damage you have to close the gab just like Hulk once there are no cars or helicopters to throw left. Though thats not a big deal thanks to your skillset. Dragon Skills like taunt are best used on you, because you can hold the aggro better than anyone else. Unlike those softies crying for assistance you don’t care about your mistakes because they don’t impact you much. You are the only class that can break CC instantly, with a fairly low cooldown thus you don’t give a crap about anything that happens. Its just back up and face bashing! If you fall during battle then its over. After all your party knows that you took them with you into the dungeon out of generosity! Expecting assistance is for the weak, thats why you play the suprime class Guardian. Once you crawl through the early levels without cc you take back your rightfull place on the pride rock and turn scar into your biatch. So what are you waiting for? Get ingame and annoy everyone about how cool you are or create a guardian asap if you haven’t done it yet…

3.1. Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Capable of wearing all types of armor (cloth, leather, plate)
  • Highest base strength
  • Best defense values (pdef and mdef)
  • Most elemental affinities through masteries
  • High sustain
  • Highest Damage output over a long fighting period
  • Only class that is immune to CC for a short period
  • Can be played in every existing role
  • Most suitable class for tanking and aggro management
  • Only class that can use parry

Cons:

  • Most of the time limited to melee range
  • Action Points heavy, thus less combo chains
  • CC Chains are easy to dodge
  • Only a few ranged abilities
  • Limited AoE
  • Low initial burst
  • Has trouble to solo survival mode instances, gets barely picked for such parties
  • No self-heal

3.2. Starting Area

You will always choose Satuma (Hunak) as your starting point because the quests are easier and have more variety, the dragons look better than those raptors in Siberna (Bakra) and you got better access to events. Bakra introduces flying dragons one level earlier, but thats just a drop of water on the hot stone, so ignore it. Puresha sucks overall which means its out of the question (bad flying dragons and only one DPS). That said you can use Airships to reach the other areas and get the epic squirrel pet (explore puresha achievement).

4. Attributes

  • Strength:           32
  • Constitution:     26
  • Ferocity:            14
  • Intelligence:       28
  • Focus:                12
  • Charisma:           25
  • Dragon Affinity: 15

As you can see our highest stat is strength, wush….lucky us. Suprisingly we got compareable high intelligence to but don’t get confused. We don’t skill intelligence because not even elemental masteries scale, so the physical side of our class still claims to be the alpha. The most important stat is our strength followed by constitution because high health points always look cool. To spoiler the detailed stats and repeat myself later on: There are pretty much three ways of playing the Guardian. 1) Strength/Constitution which is the peek-a-boo style. Also this guide will be based on it, so if you still got trouble handling things after you are through the guide you might want to get Cus D’Amato with a weird ritual out of his grave and take a few lessons. We play things safe and wait for our chance. Our damage is still solid and guaranteed, thus no unnecessary risks and mistakes are less heavy. 2) Ferocity/Focus based on the brawling style. It’s highly risky but the reward is also decent. You rely on damage spikes (crits) instead of solid hits. You got literally no tolerance for mistakes because of your low hp. You either crit or evade. Fail to do either and you die. The damage is quite nice, but because of the huge letdowns of this build i won’t go much in-depth in it. Maybe i will add a section about it in the future, but right now i see not much point in it as long as the Peek-a-Boo is a valid option. To end the boxing reference  and my sport lecture the guy to ask would be Rocky Marciano in this case. 3) Last but not least and only recently considered to be a serious attempt due to the scaling would be Focus/Constitution. Your general hits (left-mouse click combo) are quite garbage, so you rely on the elemental effect of your skills and the right-click combo. Thats immensly Action Point consuming, thus you need to be hella carefull since you won’t be dealing much damage while recovering unless you got a decent enhanced weapon. I said no more boxing references, so you are pretty much…Alph. See? Thats hella lame to end with, but you forced me into it! Also to keep it more annoying i will reuse the phrase later in a similiar matter….be prepared (insert ghost like moves and noises).

Note: While Focus grants a huge chunk of defense, the penetration has barely any value in PVE due to the lack of high armor targets (there are only 3), thus it won’t have such a high impact as strength would have outside of PVP unless you play the elemental guardian and even then it is limited.

Now all Stats detailed and what they mean for us:

Strength: Increases Physical Damage and physical defense -> our
butter and bread: we are a physical damage class which is supposed to tank -> spend most of your points here

math: 21= 40 p.damage & 20 p.def, 51 = 100 p.damage & 50 p.def

Constitution: Increases Health Maximum and Health Recovery Ability -> Hp are always nice, be a meat shield and proud about it – second most important stat

math: 21 = 250hp 5hp/s (rest) 0.25/s (active), 51 = 625hp 7.5hp/s (rest) 0.68hp/s (active)

Ferocity: Increases Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit damage -> We peel for Rangers and Sorcs, we hold the aggro and let the others do their buisness, thus unlike Rangers we don’t care about crits!

math: unimportant, because we are no ranger

Intelligence: Increases magic damage and magic defense -> again unneeded – we get our mres from our gear, no need to waste points

math: unimportant because we are no sorcerer

Focus: Increases physical defense and physical percentage ability – the lvl 16 break-point would be at 1780 strength, so PVE wise forget that it exists unless you chose the elemental guardian build (gets explained later). If you are a PVP tryhard you should prefer it over strength, because the penetration is nice, but both work if you don’t want to respec later

math: 21 = 40 P.Penetration 100 P.def, 51 = 100 P.P 500 P.def

Charisma: Extend the dragon’s combat time and provide a boost to their basic attributes. Also increases dragon’s capture duration -> get a few points in here, as i will mention later (its charisma

math: 1:1

Dragon Might  = Increases magic defense and magic percentage ability -> the magic equal to focus, no need bro because our main damage is not magical

math: 21 = 40 M.Penetration 100 M.def, 51 = 100 M.P 500 M.def

I’m shortening this part down, cause i don’t want to talk much about leveling.

Once you start out put your early points into charisma (till you reach 80p), while you can tank and kill everything without increasing anything at all. That means prior to lvl 9-12. Forward from that bump them into strength until you reach level 15. If you want event dragons like Nightwing make sure you got at least 100 Charisma. By now things will get rapidly rougher so we change our Attribute rhythm. Each level you will put two points into strength and one into Constitution. Every fifth level all points into Constitution. Do that until you are maxed out. Unless you want rare dragons early theres no need to put further points into charisma. Yet if you insist on it, do as you please and get additional charisma gear for taming.

5.Talents and Masteries

5.1. Talents

These are your default talents, which do not require any mastery points and are available prior to level 25.
Q: skgrdbladeicon.jpg Sword/Blade Aura (flying blades – Gestuga tenshou like, ranged)

E: skgrdmadicon.jpg Mad Dance (3 slashes)

V: skgrddashicon.jpg Dashing Slash (gap closer, also stuns if the mastery is skilled)

R: skgrdparryicon.jpg Parry (dodge, leads to knock up if succesfull)

1: skgrdelecticon.jpg Electric Dive (gap closer with knock down)

2: skgrdslashicon.jpg Slash (first and second hit are knock downs, while the 3rd one knocks the target up and slightly away)

3: skgrdsunliticon.jpg Sunlit Chain (early game better than mad dance, lategame worse, 6 hits)

4: 2usbma9.png Shield Bash (two hits with your shield, if equipped)

5: skgrdbattleicon.jpg Battle Cry (5% more phys dmg)

6: skgrdinvinicon.jpg Invincibility (undos movement restrictions and knocks up nearby enemys)

Left-click: bashicon.jpg Bash (4 hit combo)

Right-click: skgrddesticon.jpg Destroying strike ( 3 hit combo, chargeable).

Note: During the gameplay part of the guide i will name only the default keys, to save up some time and space.

5.2. Masteries

33kd4bl.png

Our total amount of spendable points are 9100 at level 70. That said you won’t be able to skill everything. Overall there are no horrible Masteries, thus you can’t do to much wrong and take what you like even if its not perfect. Depending on your choice of gameplay i offer some suggestions in the build section. Anyway here  is the detailed info about what i think of each mastery.

Tier 1

  • Survival Instinct: Increase the damage of your left-click combos. Take it because once you run out of Action Points you will want to replenish them while still dishing out some damage
  • Enhanced Collision: We already got survival instinct, no need for the right-click combo, because it consumes AP which we want to avoid
  • Deadly Impact: We didn’t take Enhanced Collision, so no need to increase a non existing base
  • Flame Impingement: Same as above and since it’s magical (elemental) damage its even worse*
  • Warshout: Increase in DPS, viable for all builds
  • Elemental Warshout: Personally i don’t like it. Each class got their own buffs and do fine with it. No point in wasting the few points you have*
  • Shield Mastery: Essential on any tank, but viable in general for a 1h/shield dps guardian too
  • Master of two-handed weapons: if you enjoy 2h weapons, get it
  • One-handed weapon mastery: essential for all 1h/shield guardians due to the overall increase in DPS

Tier 2

  • Shield Bash: Only useable if a shield is equiped, but then its a must have – scales wih defense
  • Threatening Aura: If you rely on Sword/Blade Aura get it asap (more damage and defense)
  • SYS360000011_NAME/Infinite Blade: Two shockwaves instead of one, during PVE just spam it while you have to use it in PVP with caution. You can jump over it or dodge to the side, so keep track of the amount of rolls your enemy has done during the last minute
  • Blade Tornado: Magic damage again, not necessary since the benefit is to small*
  • Breakdown: Increase in all abilities, do want
  • SYS360000014_NAME/Bloodthirst Strike: Usable against though bosses, but its most common use is in PVP as DOT
  • Explosive Strike: Again our magic damage is poop, no need for it*
  • Meteor Strike: We don’t rely to much on the combo, wasted points
  • Purple Meteor: No, no and no.*

Tier 3

  • SYS31005531_NAME/Shield Slam: As of OBT patch 1.0.1107 fixed, thus a must have for 1h/shield guardians, also inreases the amount of hits with the shield
  • Blood Moon: More reliable bleed, PVPer would sell their soul for it
  • Flame of Blood Moon: By now you should know what i think about magic based skills*
  • SYS36000021_Name: If you like Mad Dance, you will like it even more now – with the Mastery it outshines Sunlit Chain with less AP cost
  • Berserker: DPS, more damage means more smilies
  • Spiral Attack: The skill itself is only okayish, which means no need to enhance it

Tier 4

  • Flaming Slash: Do want because it works on all 3 hits well, despite the magic damage addition
  • SYS36000025_Name: We abuse the skill in pvp, so only necessary if you tend to PVP a lot
  • SYS36000025_Name: You remember what i said about elemental skills or do i have to hit you on the back of your head?*
  • Guardian’s Flame: Must have for a PVE tank and if you struggle against sorcs in PVP
  • Multiple Sword Aura: DO WANT, if he dodges the inital blades you will get him with this (also means 5 ranged hits in PVE with 1 second effort)
  • Spiral Slash: We didn’t take Spiral Attack, so we ignore this too

Tier 5

  • Thunder Force: We rely on constant damage, not once in a while DPS spikes
  • Defense Skill: PVP must have and only there
  • Revenge: Like Rocky you hit harder back when you get angry, also stacks
  • War Grip: Its a decent mastery but only take it if you can effort the points without any trouble
  • Floating Invincibility/Cloud Body: You need the reset only in PVP

Tier 6

  • Thunder Bolt: CDR for our gap closer and knock down? DO WANT
  • Defensive Stance: PVP only, but there necessary
  • Power Slash: We don’t use the skill much, no need for enhancements
  • War Slash: Get it if you got War Grip
  • Conqueror Stance: Invincibility is a must have for PVP against staggering and crowd control

Note: You probably saw the * mark at some masteries. If not contact your eye shop, drink less of that weird tasting milk or get some sleep. Anyways thats an indication for the elemental guardians among you or those that would like to choose that path. If i had changed the text of those masteries and wrote down that it benefits you, then we would have disharmony and unnecessary confusion among those that play a more generic guardian. This way you know that masteries labeled with * are meant for you and you can ignore the text since its pretty much the version of the skill that fits you better so just read the regular physical note of it if you want to know what i think about it. It’s the best solution since you are a minority and i can’t change an entire section so that it fits the underdogs unfortunatly. Well since you play that unorthodox build you are used to getting ignored anyway lol.

5.3. Builds

1.png  Pure Tank:
So you want to be the force that never flinches no matter how much he takes, huh? Alright, as you can guess you got the highest defense among all guardians, but remember even though you excel at defense in survival mode you get still insta gibbed, thus dodge son! While we talk about defense there is a huge difference between pure tanks (sorry bro im not giving them any fancy names, since we aren’t iddly diddly does – we are scary beardy death machines! note: milk mustaches do count..) and those AoE DPSGuardians which you hate with all the anger you can muster up. Your main damage doesn’t come from those sparkling CC Skills, but from your shield. No i’m not drunk and you are not sleeping right now, so this is not a dream. The skills and masteries you are interested in all scale with your defense stats and thats why you will love them. Don’t get me wrong, you will still CC targets, but its not your butter and bread. Like every other guardian you spend Action Points like the “half as old as him” woman of a senile and old, but damn rich fool. Thus you need Survival Instinct, allowing you to do some damage with your Auto Hits. Warshout is as great as always, because it enhances your DPS. As i mentioned earlier, you are a tank so get the shield mastery, allowing you take more hits. Since you equipped a shield, your weapon mastery choice is one-handed Mastery. Shield Bash allows us to deal significant damage, without the need of a high scaling weapon, so we pick both masteries for it. Guardian’s flame allows us to tank more of those pesky magical damage based worms. Since breakdown increases all guardian skills, we can’t ditch it. Last but not least we get Defence Stance and Skill since moving around, while using up less Action Points for Parry is great.

How i would build it:

Amount of points spend – 9090

  • 5/5 Survival Instinct
  • 5/5 Shield Mastery
  • 5/5 Warshout
  • 5/5 One Handed Weapon Mastery
  • 5/5 Shield Bash
  • 3/5 Threatening Blade Aura
  • 5/5 SYS31005531_Name (Shield Slam)
  • 5/5 Flaming Slash
  • 5/5 Guardian Flame
  • 1/1 Revenge
  • 1/1 Defense Skill
  • 1/1 Defense Stance

http://www.dptome.com/DPSkillPlanner.php?code=G5055E5300050000505000110001000

Note: You can swap some of these masteries for more offensive ones leading to higher dps, but its unnecessary since dragon soul skills and the extra damage you get from the defense scaling is under normal circumstances enough.

2.png  Tanky DPS:

Honestly every damage and enhancement mastery works here since you are plain awesome. If i would list three of them, then you would complain about the others being as good as those. The general rule is: NO elemental uprades except for Flaming Flash because it works for more than one skill and Thunder Bolt, because it lowers the CD quite well. There are no elemental weapons yet, so you would have to increase your intelligence because it’s magical damage and get them all. Thats meh. Additional you should get Breakdown and Berserker. Defense Masteries are not necessary, because you slaughter everything swallowing pots like water and healing up with your dragon. In a party you won’t be the primary tank, hence you shouldn’t tank at all!

A possible build, which i could recommend:

Amount of points spend – 9070 9945

  • 5/5 Survival Instinct
  • 5/5 War Shout
  • 4/5 Shield Mastery
  • 5/5 One handed Weapon Mastery
  • 5/5 Threatening Blade Aura
  • 5/5 Breakdown  bugged, thus skilling at own risk
  • 5/5 Berserker
  • 1/1 Revenge
  • 1/5 War Grip
  • 1/5 War Slash
  • 3/5 Thunder Bolt
  • 5/5 War Termination

http://www.dptome.com/DPSkillPlanner.php?code=G4054E0500000050000100011030050

Note: the number does not consider the mastery cap and is just an indication of how much points would be necessary if you want to skill Breakdown. You need to remove some points on your own if you are freaky enough to spend on a skill thats broken for a while. My personal recommendation is taking them fromThreatening Blade Aura, since the point value is exactly the same.

3.png  Pure DPS:

The latest Patch(s) revamped two-handed weapons and improved their damage output beyond Level 43 greatly. Once you hit that point in the game, they are actually viable and you will hit for around 30%-40% harder than before, while having 0.1-0.4 Attack Speed less. That means if you run out of Action Points which you will rather fast, then you have to rely on your Auto Hits which you hopefully have gimped through Survival Instinct after reading my guide. If you didn’t do so you will a) die super fast while crying like a baby and b ) you forced your teacher – that’s me son – to facepalm hard! The general rule here is to blow everything you got off until you run out of AP. Try to get some distance between you and the enemy if you are not confident enough in your forefinger or keep hammering the left mouse button (you need the AP you accumulate so don’t even think about right clicking) while using some form of CC during those attacks once you got enough points. Also remember to shout GETSUGA TENSHOU while you use Blade Aura and it’s upgrade, because it will increase your damage as Ichigo thought you. If you don’t do it one day i will stay behind you and hit you on your occiput because you disappointed me again!
Build example:

Amount of points spend – 9010 9860

  • 3/5 Survival Instinct
  • 5/5 War Shout
  • 5/5 Master of Two Handed Weapons
  • 5/5 Sys360000011_Name (Infinite Blade Aura) or Sys360000014_Name (Bloodthirsting Strike) if you barely use Blade Aura
  • 5/5 Breakdown bugged thus skilling at own risk
  • 5/5 Blood Moon
  • 5/5 Berserker
  • 1/5 War Grip
  • 1/1 Revenge
  • 1/5 War Slash
  • 5/5 War Termination
  • 1/5 Conqueror Stance

http://www.dptome.com/DPSkillPlanner.php?code=G405050E00005150000100011000051

Note: the number does not consider the mastery cap and is just an indication of how much points would be necessary if you want to skill Breakdown. You need to remove some points on your own if you are freaky enough to spend on a skill thats broken for a while. My personal recommendation is taking them from Blood Moon, offering you additional 300 points if you swap it out completly.

4.png  PVP:

DPS skills like above, though you will use only one handed weapons and shields. No exceptions since you can’t endure hits if you are to squishy! If you still doubt me watch Rocky IV and thank me later. After that you get bleeding skills (take either those fitting your playstyle or all of them), because those kiting bastards will still feel the pain while running away from you. Must have are also Berserker, Revenge and thats important the combination of Floating Invincibility and Conquerer Stance. That allows you to reset your Buff instantly if the situation forces you to do so and then be immune to any form of CC for a while. Takes a lot of points but damn worth it because you are unstoppable, evil grining while they wish that they never slipped out of their mothers womb…literally.

How a build could look like:

Amount of points spend – 8990 9840

  • 3/5 Survival Instinct
  • 5/5 War Shout
  • 5/5 One Handed Weapon Mastery
  • 5/5 Breakdown bugged, thus skilling at own risk
  • 1/5 Sys360000011_Name (Infinite Blade Aura)
  • 5/5 Blood Moon
  • 5/5 Berserker
  • 1/5 Sys360000025_Name (Improved Charge)
  • 1/5 War Grip
  • 1/1 Revenge
  • 1/5 War Slash
  • 1/1 Defense Skill
  • 1/5 Floating Invincibility (Cloud Body)
  • 1/1 Denfense Stance
  • 5/5 War Termination
  • 1/5 Conqueror Stance

http://www.dptome.com/DPSkillPlanner.php?code=G305050A00005050010100111101041

Note: the number does not consider the mastery cap and is just an indication of how much points would be necessary if you want to skill Breakdown. You need to remove some points on your own if you are freaky enough to spend on a skill thats broken for a while. My personal recommendation is taking them from Mad Dance, offering you 4/5 Breakdown  if you swap it out completly.

Elemental Guardian:

It came up during a drunken round of poker, that one could play around with the elemental masteries and after the threat of torture i decided i could give it a try. Once we get a marriage system, you could get a hotty with a witch costume and call yourself rune knight (if you never played the game…shame on you!). Since those are “elemental” based, it’s highly recommended to spec into focus. This also means a better penetration effect on a certain boss, that usually is pretty hard to take care off with melee/physical classes. I know that it sounds confusing and you are like huh, isn’t that magic and should scale with intelligence? I assumed that too, but as you can see on page 10 (post 189) the logical issue applies and we got a scaling based on focus. Pretty much every “elemental” mastery works here but keep in mind that all of them consume AP, so while you recover it or even worse completely run out your damage will fall of significant, since all thats left after is the pure weapon damage so make sure you gear up properly before trying this build. It offers less space for mistakes, since it’s not based on brute strength and left-click combos. Do you remember the first time you read about elemental guardians in this topic? Pepperidge Farm remembers and i warned you that i would abuse the phrase (you are not tricking me into revealing the games name) again so no cheese for you!

That’s how it could look if i were nuts enough to build it:

Amount of points spend – 9020

  • 3/5 Flame Impingement
  • 4/5 Elemental Warshout
  • 5/5 Two-Handed Weapon Mastery
  • 1/5 Threatening Blade Aura
  • 5/5 Explosive Strike
  • 5/5 Purple Meteor
  • 5/5 Flame of Blood Moon
  • 5/5 Berserker
  • 5/5 Flaming Slash
  • 5/5 Flame Charge
  • 1/1 Revenge

http://www.dptome.com/DPSkillPlanner.php?code=G30D050A0EE0E0505E0000010000000

Note: It actually got confirmed that a similiar build is working, so go ahead and use it while thinking you are special. At some point you will realise though that plenty of other people thought the same and now you got depressions…duh. Not really helpfull but i had to keep the flow of red notes going…

CC Healer:

Got asked by Leonyn how to play it, so heres some insight. Be warned the guardian is not the best choice for a cc based Healer, but if you don’t want to play a Sorc then be my guest.

Masteries you would take are:

Warshout, Breakdown, Flaming Slash, Dashing Slash (non elemental), Thunder Bolt, Floating Invincibility, Conqueror Stance. Berserker and Revenge are optional. If you have points left invest them in the Blade Aura Upgrades or Blood Moon.

Your main CC is based on Thunder Leap, Slash, Dashing Slash and Buff.

The dragon Skills you need are:

Light Well, Life calling, Blood seal of life, Dragon Strength, Battle Cry, Dragon’s Blood, Shell Protection and Dragon print delay.

As you can see to be fully ready for every situation you will need at least an end content or rare dragon (due to the amount of slots) to have single and aoe heals, while pumping yourself up and increasing the cc. Alternatively you could unlock your slots and spread the skills, but a bunch of weak dragons is worse than one great one. I neither recommend it for PVP nor would i play it personally, because it turns you into a mere support during the most Raids which is hella boring.

Note: Not providing a “how it could look”, since it doesn’t rely that heavily on the masteries, as the others do and because i don’t recommend using it in the first place. Just combine the dragon skills with the elemental guardian and you got a semi healer which is by far better.

6. Dragons

6.1. Partner choice

We finally reached the part Dragon’s Prophet is known for…DRAGONS *bada-tushhh*. If you bought either the Dragon Master or Dragon Lord Pack, then you can skip “6.1.” because the Monarch Dragon will be sufficient till the mid 40s and in RuneWakers case even beyond. Just teach them some attack/healing moves and you are good to go. If you didn’t aquire one of these packs for whatever reason, then choose one of my recommendations depending on your level.

Goblin9.png

How the dragons look, skills they may have and what you can expect stats wise can be found here, in case i already tamed them while writing the guide. More may later come, so keep checking the link for updates.

Note: I could just catch all dragons on my maxed out Oracle, but that would destroy the entire purpose of this guide. The dragon section is a WIP following the gameplay of my Guardian, showing what is possible at a set time, if you follow the guide. That means it may take some time till you find the dragon you were looking for in my compendium, so feel free to look them up on some different source if you don’t have the patience to wait, till my character hits that part of the process and gets back to the point it was during CBT when i made the list you see above.

If non of those fits your desire or you want to hunt on your own, those are the starter area (Satuma) locations:

satuma-dragon-spawn.jpg

Tanks are always those things the joker stares at and whistles “why so fat?”, which fullfill the role of another tanky guardian. Mossaurs have the highest INT and are practically casters with low def. Let them never take the aggro or they will unfriend you on Facebook. Raptors are the DPS class. They work like Assassins stomping and nuking everything. You would be mad too, if you had such small arms. Gliders are the support class. Luckily they are not Navi, thus your blood pressure will stay normal, while they heal or buff you. Flyers are the overall class. They are like Krilin. Trying to be as good as everyone else, but always end up as cannon fodder, because in the long run he doesnt excel on anything. I hate you baldy midget…

6.2. Skills

Note: get only five, cause thats the amount your hotkeys can handle, unless you don’t mind setting up additional ones  for the skillbar on your right screen side.

What you should aim for:

Buffs and Defense:

  • Dragon Soul Heart: Increases caster, caster’s pet, caster’s party members’ Constitution
  • Dragon scale defense: Increases caster, caster’s pet, caster’s party members’ physical defense
  • Battle Cry: Increases caster, caster’s pet, caster’s party members’ physical damage
  • Squama protection: Increases your own def by 15% (worse than before, but still not bad)
  • Shell Protection: Increases target’s resistance phycical and magical defense by 45%

Healing:

  • Life Reflux: heals 20 hp, regenerates 8 hp each second for 15 seconds
  • Life calling: Regains full health, healing small amount of health and action for 5 seconds
  • Light Well: Releases a spring of light well, healing friendly targets within range
  • Downpour: Releases a circle of Health recovery, healing friendly targets’ Health and Action within range.

Damage:

  • Corrosive breath: Directs pet’s magic damage and player’s physical damage to all target within a circle of corrosion damage (ranged attack)
  • Blade of Protection: Deals physical damage, increases magical defense, upon casting increases casters magic defense which can be stacked to a max of 3 times
  • Icing Claw: Directs player and pet’s physical damage to target with an icing claw attack (melee attack)
  • Attack Trial: Upon physically attacking, state of damage on enemy will stack 3 times
  • Guardian’s Fury: Deals magical and physical damage, If target gets hit, caster will receive a positive effect which can be stacked to a max of 5 times. Each stack increases damage resistance by 3%. NOTE: stacks with attack trial!
  • Flying Blades: Throws flying blade to a single target, stunning target if hit (target cannot move but will be capable of spell casting) NOTE: only pvp!
  • Molten Flame: Ranged fire skill based off of pets magic and player physical damage
  • Great Dragon Blood: Ranged fire skill based off of pets magic and player Max hp  NOTE: get only one, not both!
  • Thorny barb: Causes thorny damage to target for 3 minutes NOTE: ease up those boss fights, but mainly for PVP!

Utility:

  • Taunt: Taunts target, provoking target to attack player NOTE: Use it only if you group a lot and are the primary tank
  • Substitute: Switch Positions with your dragon, comes handy in several situations
  • Dragon print delay: Draws a magic circle around your pet slowing down target within circle and inflicting damage every second while circle lasts NOTE: only PVP!

7. Gameplay

You got the choice between one-handed/shield and two-handed combat. With the current patch the difference between one-handed and two-handed weapons damage is way to small prior to level 43, which means the higher attack speed from one-handed weapons does more damage in the long run. For a two-hander to be better you would have to slay your prey with three hits, which you can’t. The gameplay is quite similiar so you will get the hang of it without my help and i don’t have to teach you how to use two handed weapons after you reach level 43, leaving you the choice of switching your weapon and playstyle, if you only care about PVE. Quite frankly i would do so. SIDENOTE: Killing with skills only and AoEing everything is faster but more risky because you got damage instead of resistance. Your dragon will either tank for you if the AI works as supposed, or do roughly 40% of your damage output and can be summoned for almost ten minutes with the points you invested into charisma if you followed my guide until now. Once you hit level 12-15 catch a flying dragon (blue chicken or whatever you want) and swap dragons. Its physical damage is slightly weaker compared to the dragons before, but it has insanely more magical damage, which you will want because you fullfill the physical role already. Max out the masteries i named and experiment a bit on your own. For actual combat use your Q as opener. If its a close range mob it will run towards you, so press E, left click, left click and 3 as  follow up. If its ranged close the gap with 1. Aim slightly over its head, to jump further during the combo. Knock him down and start the combo beginning from E. After that its shield bash and left click combos, since you skilled those. If he tries to charge a stronger attack interrupt him with 2. Press it, then left click and wait for him to come up before you finish the combo with another press of 2. This way you can get bigger mob groups down at the same time. Get a bit space between you and them if necessary, hit q drink a pot and get back in with 1. If you get knocked down, press 6 which works as knock up and frees you instantly from any form of cc. Keep track of your buffs (war cry and rampage) and repeat it as often as necessary, though usually nothing survives the first round. Well except for bosses. Usually you wont need to dodge or parry at all unless you entered survival mode. Though its quite usefull to predict their moves and evade rolling to the side or use parry if you don’t have the time or just want the knock up. PVP wise you will have to abuse Sprint/Dash and then get your regular combos in.

7.1. Video Footage

Early combos…

40+ dungeon

Some high level gameplay (be drunk while you watch it, to improve the enjoyment). Though it’s in portugease, you don’t need to understand the language to figure out what he is doing.

8. Equipment

Always aim for blue and higher (best one currently available is orange i think), equal phys and magic resistance (you don’t need anything else) – get an additional charisma set if you can afford it. The shards for it are damn expensive so probably not happening in the near future. If you invested time and gold into crafting, then take that gear instead of the random drops. Enhance your gear to at least +6. Its really easy and can’t break either. It may lose duration if it fails, but you can get it back through further enhancing or with repair hammers. Also unlock additional sockets if you got the diamonds to do so or ask a generous friend to give you his already worn gear. Make sure you you combine left over shards before you equip them. Now you little “only child” know how it feels to have siblings. Sucks right?

8.1. Sockets

Strength and Focus gems are hard to come by, which is why we skill either of them (i go for strength but as mentioned previously you can also take focus, though it doesn’t scale until endgame and has no impact on PVE) so heavily already. That said health is soooo freaking cheap even after nerfing it by 52% and what does a guardian need? Exactly health! So socket your entire gear with health dragon soul gems!

9. Matchups

The insight about matchups and how to handle them is only meant for duels and the arena. They can be helpfull for frontier battles  too, but most of the time the enemy will just try to zerg you (defeat through outnumbering rather than real tactic and skill). That means you won’t have much opportunity to make use of these tactis.

Sorcerer:

Difficulty – 2/5

Dragon  – Raptor with Shell Protection, Life Calling, Great Dragon Blood, Dragon Print Delay, Subsitute and Current  Strike

This is your dream setup. Sorcs have the lowest defense value and are highly vulnerable to any form of crowd control. They are well aware of this fact so they will try to set up some Lasers and poke you down while staying far away. Under normal circumstances that would mean he can kite you all day and got the upperhand. However thanks to our dragon we change his biggest advantage into his weakness! Don’t get in range of the lasers and tank those few Auto Hits he will get off away, because your health regeneration allows you to do so. Since you can keep this up forever he will get impatient and start using either Meteorite or Scorching Flame. Dodge it and summon your dragon. Let him charge in, it doesn’t matter if he takes damage. When he gets close to his prey use DPD as trap and instantly press substitute. The circle will keep it’s position but instead of the dragon you will be there now. The Sorc will either panic and try to run out of it or use his shield. Neither will help him because in the first case he will take damage and get slowed, which means use any CC based skill to nail him down and blow off all you got, resulting in his death. For the second case the shield it means you have to destroy it with skills like mad dance. Shouldn’t take more than 1,5 seconds. After that proceed like if he had tried to run away. Using invincibility and conqueror stance as a preventive matter in case he has enough time to stun you also helps because it means he doesn’t have the time to teleport/blink out.

Ranger:

Difficultiy –  3/5

Dragon – Either Raptor or Mossaur with the same skillset as above

This is slightly more tricky, because Ranger can kite you while moving. If its a Ranger that uses Bows, proceed like it were a Sorcerer. You can’t lose this fight. Gunblade/shield Rangers that skilled traps are bit harder to handle. These guys got some sensible defense, thus we need a different approach. Summon your dragon right at the start of the battle, but don’t let him attack yet. You need to check out first if you are fighting a scared kitten or a confident melee ranger. To do so get near his face with electric dive. He either jumps backwards or seeks the close combat. If he backs out, let your dragon follow him. Now he either tries to keep moving backwards while attacking your dragon or dodges to a sideline because his backjump is on cooldown. Either way use electriv dive or preferable dashing slash if you got the stun mastery. Well he can’t move now, so spam all yours and the dragons skills. If he survives which i doubt, repeat like before. If he was manly enough to face you in close combat use DPD and fight it out. Chain your CC and get off some Auto Hits in between, because he lost the opportunity to back out. While its highly unlikely that you made a mistake leading to his escape, let your dragon follow him, use substitute and repeat your combo.

Oracles:

Difficulty – 4/5

Dragon – Raptor with Shell Protection, Life Calling, Great Dragon Blood, Attack Trial, Guardian’s Fury, Blood Pumping and Thorny barb

While this fight doesn’t need much preparation, its also one of the hardest. Oracles got an insanely high DPS output combined with life steal. For both of you it means a fight in melee range, while the oracle has to rely on staggering. Heads up that won’t work on you. Try to hit as many (Multiple) Sword Auren (or is the plural still Aura?) as possible, before you engage in melee combat. This way you can either force him to heal prior to the actual fight or weaken him considerable. At some point he will search the combat, which means pop invincibility and conqueror stance. Also this is the moment you use Blood Pumping to increase your damage by 30% for 30 seconds (dragon 15 seconds). Time your cc well which means get some non based cc skills like sunlight chain or auto hits in between. Parry whenever you can and spam those dragon skills If he gets up try to follow him with electric dive or Dashing Slash. Sooner or later he will be forced to come back out of desperation because your (Multiple) Sword Aura (just in case, the opposite plural) and Thorny barb will peel his health down.

Guardians:

Difficulty – 5/5

Dragon – Elite Tank or Ancient with Fiery Hunting, Shell Protection, Life Calling, Great Dragon Blood, Attack Trial, Guardian’s Fury, Icing Claw, Blood Pumping, and Thorny barb

Unless you are facing a 2H Guardian (difficulty 1/5), this will be the hardest matchup. Try to avoid it as much as possible. In case of the 2H Guardian, just face bash him. He can’t take as much hits as you and will die eventually. It’s just a matter of time. In a fight between 1H Guardians it comes down to who has the better mechanics, equipment and dragon. As always we rely only on one, because fights don’t last longer anyway. This entire match is about enduring. You both got the same skills, so you know at least what you have to expect. Jokes aside, this won’t be an easy task. We will rely on debuffing and Dots unlike compared to the cloth armor matchups in which we used dirty tricks. Try to proc Fiery Hunting as much as possible, which means keep your Dragon alive. Damage over time is the biggest threat to the guardian since we can’t parry or dodge against it! Hopefully you trained your fingers well since you will spam your Dragon Soul skills. Attack Trial and Guardian’s Fury stack on each other, but don’t share the same cooldown. Abuse them as much as possible. Keep the stacks of Blade of Protection constantly up, but don’t refresh the 3rd one unless the duration lasts for mere 2-4 seconds. Use your other damage spells only if you are sure that you don’t need to heal or protect yourself in the next few seconds. Try to dodge as many of his skills as possible and use Parry only for the mighty attacks. You will need the AP to force him into conqueror stance. Once he pops it, run! Don’t get caught for five seconds and you win this fight. After these five seconds he will be only able to break one CC which means use Slash due to the fact that it provides three forms of CC forcing him to use floating invincibility, leaving him vulnerable. He will probably try to get some distance between him and you, so close the gap with electric dive and dashing slash. Through the stun he gets pinned and you unleash everything you got now! Unlike him you still got all CC  spells up, so theres no chance he will get back on his feet. You win, congratulations.

Related Articles

4 Responses

  1. Kupocygirl says:

    Will this still be helpful till now?

  2. Rayabusa says:

    Thank you, friend! Awesome guide, helped me a lot!

  3. dodger says:

    This was a nice guide…but it always depends…therefore…I like most the Pi ka boo style….Ichigo gaming….btw…thanks a lot..

  4. Maryment says:

    I’m still in the process of digesting all of your guides and am finding them invaluable in view of the rather nebulous game tutorial. Most of my efforts have been intuitive or trial and error.

    There is one skill that I’d love to know if the melee class has — I call it “stick”. I find it exhausting to try to keep facing some of these mobs who like to circle around you while fighting. Is there any way to target and stick to a mob so you can concentrate more on hitting and less on moving?

    And one other general-type question — how do you pull up the “chat” menu?

    Thanks again for all these guides.

    Maryment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *