Age of Conan Guardian Leveling Guide

by Crow post: http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=67512

Crow's No-Nonsense Guide to Guardian Leveling (v 2.0)
"Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.
-Sun Tzu "The Art of War"

Read This Disclaimer First!
Firstly, I don't claim to be the master of all things guardian. This writing is simply intended to be a general guide to leveling a Guardian; not the end-all-be-all bible of dominating as one. This guide is a result of my experiences thus far and I am writing it to provide a compiled database of answers to a lot of the questions I see here on the guardian forums. This guide also assumes that you have some basic knowledge of the guardian class, such as what most combos and abilities do. If you are looking for that type of information keep this wonderful guide here open in a separate tab for reference. With that said, lets get to it.

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Update/Change Log:
6-6-2008: The initial guide (v1.0) was completed and posted.
6-7-2008: Updated to (v1.1). Added the Advanced Tactics section as well as tweaked (v1.0) with various adjustments, grammar and spelling fixes.
6-10-2008: Updated to (v2.0). Made several adjustments and tweaks to the entire guide in response to the recent overreach nerf. Added new feats and combos as well as a template level 60 and 70 build. Added a “Gear” section under “The Basics”.
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Table of Contents:
Ctrl+f is your friend!

1. The Basics

1a. Why Sword and Shield over Polearm?
1b. Combat Theory

1b.A. Primary Combos
1b.B. Secondary Combos
1b.C. Stances
1b.D. Manuevers
1b.E. Stratagems

1c. Feats

1c.A. Juggernaut Feats
2c.B. Soldier Feats

1d. Skills
1e. Gear

2. Solo Tactics

2a. General Combat
2b. Multi-Mob Combat

3. Advanced Tactics

3a. Weapon Swapping
3b. Stance Dancing and Advanced Combat Tactics

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1. The Basics
In the beggining, God created the Sword and the Shield.

Playing a Guardian is a very fun and very rewarding experience. There's nothing like standing toe to toe with a group of mobs 4-5 levels higher than you and watching them chip away at your massive health pool hopelessly. We will be taking advantage of the fact that you are an unstoppable mountain of steel when wielding the sword and the shield and augmenting that with damage the best we can. To get started, lets cover the basics that you will need to know for leveling a guardian.

1a. Why Sword and Shield over Polearm?
There is really no contest here, for solo questing/grinding/general owning its sword and board all the way. I have played on both sides of the feat tree and I can honestly tell you it is a huge difference. The negligible loss in damage capability is more than made up for in the survivability and utility of the juggernaut tree. With the sword and shield I have found that I am able to take on multiple mobs that are upwards of (and sometimes exceeding) 5 levels higher than me; and survive with plenty of breathing room to boot. The Tempest tree just doesn't offer much in terms of survivability and will not be able to survive a clash with a group of mobs that collectively has 15 levels on you. Not only does the sword and board spec offer the best survivability and sustained damage capability, it also brings some pretty nice burst damage to the table. The only thing I can think of that a Tempest guardian has over a Juggernaut guardian (remember that this is a leveling guide) is a substantial reach advantage; but what good is that when your dead? Trust me on this one, pick up a sword and a shield and you won't be looking back at your polearm spec because the only thing you will see is a massive trail of bloodied corpses and a whole crap ton of EXP.

1b. Combat Theory
Here I will break down very generally how combat should be done as a juggernaut guardian; dividing combo usage into primary and secondary priorities as well as covering the self buffs (stances, maneuvers and stratagems). Basically you are a porcupine; a giant, menacing porcupine with the unquenchable desire to kill things.

1b.A. Primary Combos
These are combos that should be used just about every single fight.

1. Counterstrike
This is your staple ability as a Juggernaut guardian, allowing you to immediately and automatically counter the attacks of enemies struck by the combo. It is your main source of damage and should almost without question be the opening combo of every fight. Most 1v1 fights will end before the duration expires but clashes with multiple mobs may require a second application. It is important to understand that you will only counterstrike mobs that are PHYSICALLY STRUCK by the final swing of this combo, meaning just because you have the personal buff up DOES NOT mean you are counterstriking everyone who hits you.

2. Dulling Blow
This is another staple combo that should be used almost every fight following your opening counterstrike. It deals nice damage as well as noticeably reduce the amount of damage dealt by the mobs struck by it. Its effectiveness really shines in multi-mob combat where fights last much longer. We will also be powering this up through feats, making it one of your best damage and utility combos.

3. Directional Attacks
No this is not a joke. There will be plenty of times during your career where all that is needed to down a mob is to follow up a counterstrike with dulling blow and spammed directional attacks. When doing this, always attack undefended directions and keep in mind that your left attack (default 1) is your quickest directional attack. When your enemies shielding favors it, always spam it as it pumps out the most DPS.

4. Strike and Guard (Post 60 only!)
In the wake of the catastrophic nerf to overreach (6/9/08), many guardians have been left searching for a way to fill the now gaping burst damage void. Look no further my friends, “Strike and Guard” is the new Overreach (kind of). Though not nearly as powerful as its once great distant cousin was, strike and guard will be a mainstay ability for this build for the foreseeable future. Its opening strike stuns, it deals excellent damage and it buffs your survivability for a short duration after; making it the perfect replacement for the now mediocre overreach. You do have to wait quite awhile before you can get it but it will be well worth the effort by the time you do.

1b.B. Secondary Combos
These are filler combos used for damage or for other various effects that support your primary combos.

1. Brutal Enraging Strike/Overreach(or insert other damage oriented combo)
This is a basic damage combo. Its nothing too spectacular but, if need be, it can be used to pump out some extra damage when your stamina reserves are high. Generally, you will only need to use this when fighting multiple mobs.
Since “Overreach” was nerfed into the ground on 6/9/08, it is no longer a primary combo for guardian leveling. It still deals decent damage but its steep stamina cost and resulting damage debuff make it much less useful. However, it can still be used at the end of a fight for extra burst damage and it can still be used with the advanced tactics later on in the guide (just don’t expect too much from it). Until you get ‘Strike and Guard” at 60, you will still want to be using this for leveling.

2. Plexus Strike
This is great combo to use when you need to gain stamina in a pinch. Its damage is next to nothing but it will allow you to pull off a last second damage combo during a “last stand” situation. Keep in mind that you receive stamina for each target struck by the combo, so make sure to get yourself into a position where you can strike all engaged mobs when you need to use it.

3. Shield Sweep
I shouldn't have to point this out but you obviously always want to have this ability on your hot bar. It is a great knock back and can hit multiple targets. Use it to escape undesirable situations or set up attack combos (more on this in the Advanced Tactics section).

4. A second Counterstrike
Ever screwed up your counterstrike combo and then felt like a DPS-less wimp until it finished cooling down? Avoid this disaster by always keeping a second rank of counterstrike on your hot bar. Each rank is on a separate cooldown so you can quickly recover from a botched initial application with a lower rank if need be.
Side Note: As of the time of this writing it is possible to stack multiple ranks of counterstrike, meaning that you will actually deal the counterstrike damage multiple times (one strike for each rank you have active) when struck. Please note that this has "unintended effect" written all over it and it should not be relied upon as it will likely soon be changed. Feel free to utilize it until then however.

1b.C. Stances
Generally the only stance you will be using is defensive stance once it is fairly well augmented by the feats you will pick up in the soldier tree (Improved Defensive Stance and Lifesaver). Until then, just fight stance-less and use frenzy stance for the advanced tactics covered in that section.

1b.D. Maneuvers
At first you can use Unguarded Attack for the small damage boost but I think that after about level 30 the health debuff (which seems to be in excess of 10%) is just too much to justify the benefit. If your average damage per hit was 100 damage with unguarded attack, your average damage without it would be 95. So you would be trading 5 damage for around 10% of your entire health pool (aka not worth it). Ditch it and fight maneuver-less while using Enduring Defense for escaping nasty engagements and tanking packs of mobs when your trying to quickly travel through an area.

1b.E. Stratagems
Hold the Line is a clear winner here; boosting your stamina regeneration with 0 penalty as your aggro holding capabilities do not matter for soloing. 99% of most regular, grindable mobs will not be using any knockbacks, fears or stuns so no need for Intractable Mind and you will need your mobility so leave Bolster the Line for tanking situations only.

1c. Feats
You should be fighting with a sword and shield so the juggernaut tree is an obvious choice here. However, DO NOT make the mistake of counting out the soldier feats. I know it is easy to get caught up in your primary tree and shoot for those awesome sounding ability feats as fast as possible, but you will only be hurting yourself. Many of the feats in both the Tempest and the Juggernaut trees are fairly useless to you during the leveling process and should be avoided entirely. These points are much better spent in the soldier tree where you will be increasing your regeneration rates to ridiculous levels and augmenting your defensive stance and survivability. I will list out a few of the primary and secondary feats in both the juggernaut and soldier trees as well as present some progressive builds to shoot for while leveling.

1c.A. Juggernaut Feats

1. Toughness (Primary)
This a is primary feat not only because you have to choose it to go any further in the juggernaut tree, but also because it is the feat you should invest your first 5 points into and it rocks mobs faces off. Remember that your biggest advantage is your survivability and this increases both invulnerability ratings as well as natural health regeneration rate. As you probably already know, natural health regen is ALWAYS active meaning it persists in combat as well (aka rocks mobs faces off).

2. Savage Counterstrike (Primary)
I know there has been some discussion on the effectiveness of this feat but it is a direct buff to your primary damage combo and should not be passed up. It also isn't like there is some other almighty feat that passing up this one will allow you to get instead. Increasing your porcupine damage is always good so don't worry about it and keep 5 points in this one.

3. Bleeding Counterstrike (Primary)
Further augments your primary damage combo by enabling all counterstrikes to inflict a bleed on the target that deals damage over time. It is a solid damage increase and is a direct buff to your main damage combo making it a primary feat for sure. Also, this bleed effect scales as you level so its damage should never become obsolete.

4. Bleeding Dulling Blow (Primary)
This is an excellent talent that directly boosts the damage output of one of your primary combos. Dulling Blow already deals good damage (speaking in terms of guardian combos) and this feat just makes it stronger by adding a nice bleed over time effect. This strengthened version of dulling blow can really help in filling the DPS void left by the overreach nerf. Using dulling blow multiple times in fights, especially large multi-mob fights, will be common after you pick up this feat. I really can’t tell you how much I love dulling blow! Use it all the time!

5. Weapon Master (Secondary)
This is a solid feat choice; increasing your raw damage. However, it is not as important as some of the other Juggernaut feats you will want nor is it more important than ANY feat you will want in the soldier tree. Keep it on standby until you have those other things filled.

6. Battle Cry (Primary) and Ardent Battle Cry (Secondary)
This is an excellent feat that serves the same purpose as Plexus strike except it provides instant stamina and increased regeneration without the need to execute a combo. It is also on a short cooldown (40 seconds) so it can be used nearly every fight decreasing downtime as well. Once augmented with the Ardent Battle Cry feat it gives a small damage boost (5%) to all party members. You can time this augmented battle cry for use before your big damage combos like overreach to provide a small boost to their potency. The Ardent Battle Cry feat is not a necessity however, and you will want to make sure you have other primaries filled before you drop points into it.

7. Strike and Guard (Primary)
Here, ladies and gentleman, is the new love of your life. It is a two swing combo that deals excellent burst damage and gives you melee damage deflection for a short duration after. Now that we are a bit lacking in the burst damage department this ability really helps minimize that deficiency, and it actually buffs you nicely instead of debuffing you like overreach. Not to mention the fact that its initial swing stuns! The only downside to this ability is the fact that you need to be level 60 in order to put points into it. Get it ASAP but DO NOT remove points from your primaries in the soldier tree do so!

1c.B. Soldier Feats

1. Recovery (Primary)
Of course this is a primary because it is the first feat of the tree but it also rocks for the same reasons as Toughness. It provides a massive increase to natural health regeneration and is reported to give around +173.5 at level 80. This should be the feat that you invest your second set of 5 points into.

2. Iron Skin (Primary)
A straight up increase to your guardian's invulnerability ratings (and therefore survivability), this feat is yout best choice when investing the feat points needed to meet the requirement for lifesaver.

3. Stone Skin (Secondary)
No doubt a nice feat for increasing survivability, but the reason Stone Skin is a secondary is the fact that you won't want to be fighting spell casting mobs as a juggernaut guardian. In order for us to be dealing damage we need to be taking shots from melee attacks and caster mobs tend to avoid melee combat. The points are better spent in Iron Skin where they will help us take more punishment from the enemies we intend to fight.

4. Improved Defensive Stance (Primary)
Improved Defensive Stance's effect is actually rather lackluster for a 5 point investment (3% increase to invulnerabilities while in defensive stance making it a 10% total), but we need it to get to lifesaver which is what we are really after. Nevertheless, it does increase your invulnerability ratings which is always a good thing.

4. Lifesaver (Primary)
You better believe this is a primary! Once you have this feat you can start using defensive stance all the time. This feat increases natural health regen while in defensive stance (supposedly around two thirds of that which you get from recovery) and puts you up their with frickin' Wolverine on the regeneration scale (really frickin' good). In most situations, one equal level mob will not be able to out DPS your regeneration. Feel free to pull one and laugh at his/her pathetic attempt to do more than scratch your health pool every few seconds.

5. Counterstrike Stance (Secondary) and Anticipation (Secondary)
Though the general consensus (and what I've experienced) is that these two feats don't provide THAT much damage, they both further bolster your primary means of DPS by providing more return damage to your attackers. That is never a bad thing and I would recommend picking up these two feats when you get the chance.

6. Volcanic Rage (Secondary)
Have you ever said to yourself, “Well if I just had a little bit more damage, I could have taken that huge group of mobs.”? Here is the answer to that problem. Volcanic Rage is a huge damage boost (20%) for 20 seconds on a short 2 minute cooldown. It is great for extended fights with several mobs or surviving fights you normally could not have because of an insufficient kill speed. It is an excellent talent that is fairly useful for leveling purposes but you will want to spend the extra pre-requirement feat points you need for it in the Juggernaut tree for picking up strike and guard first. Leave it on standby until you have some of those other things taken care of.

For leveling purposes, you can consider all other feats secondaries. I'll leave the rest of your choices in feats up to you as you can tailor the rest of your build to your playstyle (whether that be more damage oriented,tanking oriented, etc.). Here are a a few links to some examples of what your leveling build might look like at different levels: Level 28, Level 40, Level 50, Level 60, Level 70.

1d. Skills
There are only a few skills you should focus on to help you with the leveling/grinding process and those are Bandaging, Recovery, (and to a very small degree) Fast Recovery and Fast Bandaging. You will want to continue putting points into Bandaging and Recovery for obvious reasons (minimize downtime during resting and bandaging is rumored to improve in combat regeneration as well as out of combat regeneration). You only need to place 1 point into both Fast Recovery and Fast Bandaging as that is all you need to receive a chance to double regenerate while resting (and it is still unknown whether investing more points helps much more or not). Other than these four skills, focus your points in areas that coincide with your in game goals. If you want to be a main tank you will want to invest points into taunt while PVP focused people (like myself) will want to focus more points into perception and endurance. It is also rumored that the climbing skill will be important for reaching high end instances so you should continue putting points into it as well.

1e. Gear
You really shouldn’t stress out too much about what gear your guardian is wearing but there are certainly good and bad ways to go about determining gear priority. I do not have a crazy in-depth point system for every stat (as some stats are still largely mysterious) but here are some general guidelines you may want to follow for determining what is better than what.

1. Survivability
First and foremost, you should focus on gear that has survivability increasing stats on it. This means that almost all of the defensive stats listed below are valued higher than almost all offensive stats (I say almost because there is one exception that you will find below). You will find these types of stats almost exclusively on armor and other non-offensive types of equipment. I have listed out most of the defensive stats in order of importance below:

1. Natural Health Regeneration*
2. Maximum Health*
3. Invulnerability Ratings
4. Defense Rating and Heroic Defense Rating
5. Constitution
6. Natural Stamina Regeneration
7. Maximum Stamina
8. Dexterity
9. Non-Combat Health Regeneration
10. Non-Combat Stamina Regeneration
11. Immunity (If anyone knows exactly how this works feel free to let me know.)
12. Evasion (This is your single most powerful stat for damage mitigation but it is not useful for this type of build. We actually need things to be hitting us in order to do damage so evasion sits at the bottom of this list for good reason.)

2. Offense
The number one offensive stat I would value over all others is +One-Handed (Blunt or Edged) damage. The biggest reason is that you can visually see it increase your weapons DPS on the inventory screen while strength and other stats are much more dubious. This is also the only offensive stat I would value over all defensive ones BUT the ones that have a (*) next to them on the list above. This is important because you will mostly find this stat on armor and will most likely be weighing the value of defensive stats against it. Besides this, just consider all other offensive stats “extras” and always shoot for the weapon with the most DPS. It is also worth noting that weapon itemization seems to be much better for swords (one-handed edged) and I have found much more +One-Handed Edged gear than I have +One-Handed Blunt.

2. Solo Tactics
"If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail."

Now that you have the basics covered we can jump into the tactical aspects of combat as a guardian. Here I will go over general tactics such as combo usage, combo setups, and facing for single and multi-mob pull situations.

2a. General Combat
Remember the theory here is that by taking melee damage you are dealing maximum damage yourself. Here is the basic flow of attacks for each fight:

Engage(Charge or Approach) > Counterstrike > Dulling Blow > Optional Secondary Combo > Directional Attacks > Optional Finishing Combo (such as overreach)

This is generally how every fight should look. Use a secondary combination for extra damage, utility, or for finishing at your discretion. After a few levels worth of fighting with this sword and shield build you will learn the ins and outs of combat with it. This is a general guideline to combat so I will leave the rest of the more technical tactics for you to learn for yourself.

Once your defensive stance is nicely buffed by points spent in the soldier tree, you will want to be in it for most of your time spent fighting. I say most because you will find some uses for frenzy stance below in the Advanced Tactics section. Hold the Line should also always be your active stratagem of choice and leave all maneuvers inactive.

2b. Multi-Mob Combat
You should be striving to fight multiple enemies every time you fight. As mentioned before the beauty of this build is that you can absorb massive amounts of punishment. Do not be afraid to engage multiple mobs that are several levels higher than you as the battle will probably be a walk in the park. Here are few things to remember when multiple mobs at once.

1. Facing is key!
It is obviously important for you to maintain a position where you can strike as many of the engaged mobs as possible. During clashes with multiple mobs it may not be possible for you to hit every engaged mob at the same time (especially when fighting mobs with polearms or that otherwise have a reach advantage on you). When this happens, try to reposition yourself the best you can but make sure you do not waste too much time as you will need to get that combo chain going quickly. It is much better to quickly kill one target than to let all the mobs beat on you while you run around trying to get them all grouped together. Also, try to reposition yourself quickly before you execute the final swing of a combo for a last second chance at inflicting all the mobs you are fighting with its effect.

2. Timing!
It is also very important that you time your ability usage well. You can follow the same basic combo flow shown in General Combat but you will certainly need to throw in those secondary combos. Make sure to use battle cry every time it is available and do not be afraid to use dulling blow multiple times in a fight (especially once you have it boosted by feats). You will want to pump out some extra damage so a good burst combination for these extended multi-mob fights is: (Ardent) Battle Cry (5% damage increase) > Brutal Enraging Strike (or other damage focused combo) > Overreach. Even in its nerfed form overreach is still a decent burst damage combo and Ardent Battle Cry will also help to diminish the effects of its debuff while providing a nice damage boost as well. Also, keep an eye on your counterstrike combo's remaining duration as you need to keep that baby up at all times. Do not be afraid to refresh it even if you are towards the end of a fight as you will be surprised just how much DPS it accounts for.

3. Preparation!
You do not want to rush into a fight with 4 mobs 6 levels higher than you unprepared. Though a battle like this can be won you need to make sure you are at your best before engaging. Rest to full and make sure your primary combos are not cooling down before you engage. Be sure that you are in the correct stance and that your Hold the Line stratagem is active. You may also want to wait out a healing or stamina potion cooldown if you had to use one during the last fight. In general just make sure you are at your best before engaging tough multi-mob battles.

3. Advanced Tactics
Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack.
- Sun Tzu "The Art of War"

Now that you have the basic theory and flow of combat down, lets jump into some more advanced methods of cleaving people's heads off. Here I will discuss weapon swapping, frenzy stance use, and other advanced tactics.

3a. Weapon Swapping
Even though you are not a polearm spec you still want to have a polearm in our second weapon set. The reason is that it gives you access to a second knock back; stagger, which can be invaluable at times. Stagger and shield sweep are on separate cooldowns so you will effectively have two knock backs at your disposal. The default hot key for weapon swap is Shift+R. Using this you can quickly swap between wielding your primary sword/shield and polearm. We will talk more about the benefits of weapon swapping and the second knock back later on in the following sections.

3b. Stance Dancing
As we already know defensive stance should be your primary fighting stance for all combat. However, there are times when it would be nice to receive that big damage boost from frenzy stance (mainly to boost your overreach combo's damage). Now we don't want to just go switching into frenzy stance before every overreach or strike and guard as that leaves us open to too much punishment. Here are some methods and setups you can use to boost your DPS safely when you need to.

1. Shield Sweep/Stagger > Frenzy Stance > Strike and Guard/Overreach
This is the safest way to use frenzy stance during the leveling process. A knocked down mob cannot attack you and is therefore vulnerable to a frenzy stance + [damage combo] combination while you are not susceptible to any retaliatory damage. Remember that switching stances does not interrupt any current action so you can stance change while executing a combo or knock back with out interrupting that ability. The cooldown on a stance change is 3 seconds so you should be able to execute the entire combo and return to defensive stance before the enemy is able to strike back. Try to time the stance change during the animation of your knock back so that the cooldown has passed by time the mob is getting back up (as he will not be happy, or in the best case scenario, he will be dead).

2. Expanding the Knockback > Overreach combination.
You can also expand upon the basic Knockback > Overreach combination and make it even more deadly. Throw in your (Ardent) Battle Cry for an even greater burst damage. Also, utilizing the fact that you have two knock backs you can effectively repeat the combo with a lower rank of overreach immediately following the first. Something like this:

Shield Sweep > Frenzy Stance > Overreach(Primary Rank) > Stagger > Overreach(Lower Rank).

Remember your second overreach will be under the effects of the first's damage debuff but it is still much more powerful than a stance-less or defensive stance overreach. This provides excellent burst damage for fighting difficult single target monster's (such as high level bosses). Now it is possible that in the future (just like they may do with counterstrike) separate ranks of overreach will be placed on the same cooldown (making it impossible to do this combo). However, if you put your Overwhelming Shout ability to good use, you can achieve the same effect with even better results. Something like this:

Shield Sweep > Overreach > Overwhelming Shout (create space and wait for Overreach cooldown) > Stagger > Overreach

Note that you will be using your highest rank of overreach twice in this combination and the second will not be effected by the first's damage debuff (big burst damage and no damage taken).

These expanded forms of the basic Knockback > Frenzy Stance > Overreach combination are primarily for single target combat such as high level bosses (although you can find ways to use them for multi-mob).

3. Other Frenzy Stance Uses
You will find other uses for frenzy stance but they all primarily stem from the already mentioned uses. Taking advantage of the fact that switching stances does not interrupt your current action, you can change to frenzy stance just before the last hit of a combo to receive the damage boost for it's final strike. Use this to finish mobs just as you normally would with overreach but now you can finish them sooner. You must be careful though as if you misjudge the damage you will be stuck in frenzy stance for a few seconds allowing the mob(s) to smack you with some big damage.

Until next time...
This will be the completed guide for the time being while I spend more time actually logged into the game and while I play the heck out of MGS 4. I will keep it up to date with any new information, tactics or strategies I come across but I wouldn’t expect another major update (like the adding of entirely new sections) for some time. I am still more than open to suggested changes or things you would like to see added to the guide so do not be afraid to PM me. Take care guys!

-Crow