Why Guardian is the 2nd best tech in the game/write-up
Saquongoat
Member Posts: 133 ★★
Now before you disagree with me, I do feel Guardian is the 2nd best tech in the game. (Behind Ghost obviously) But I do understand people's arguments for Warlock or G2099. Those two are both stellar champs. But having a Warlock at r2 as a 6* I don't see any reason to rank him up to r3 with a max sig 5* Guardian. Don't hate on me, just read this write-up. (All stats based on a 5* r5 with no suicides or anything unless otherwise stated)
Awakened Ability: (4 parts)
All right, I'll address the issue here. Guardian does need a high sig to really even be in the top 5 tech debate. This awakened ability does a TON for him, but the scaling here is terrible. (Awakened ability benefits only apply if Guardian has an armor up buff, and doesn't stack per armor up)
For energy resistance, Guardian gains +717 all the way to +8392 based on sig. Guardian's sig benefits are almost nonexistent until sig 150+. But from sig 150+, he goes from 4300 energy resistance, to a whopping 8392 energy resistance. (84%!) Kam made a lovely spreadsheet (about War machine) showing us Guardian's energy resistance here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F0QD2XpJBULY8h4yAeHXhVXK4jLnN9H1/view. In fact, Guardian has the second highest energy resistance in the game, only second to Diablo without a poison, who heals 85% of energy damage taken. But I'd rather have Guardian's for the reason of permanent uptime. Energy resistance helps against shock, incinerate, and coldsnap/frostbite debuffs AS WELL AS PASSIVES. It also applies to Electro's damage back, Domino's crit failure, and Magik's limboIn fact, lots of the time you will find Guardian healing from such debuffs. Guardians resistance application to passives makes him a great counter to emp mod. When I solo'd sop Sinister with Guardian, I had no problem from emp mod at all.
For bleed resistance, Guardian gains from +25.5% to 79.98 bleed resistance. This scales very well. And at max sig with 2 points in coagulate, Guardian has a 99.98 bleed resistance. I personally run one point in coagulate anyway, for Red mags and Omega red. And with 89.98 bleed resistance, against low-medium attack enemies, Guardian will very very rarely take bleed damage if you're running willpower. With suicides, Guardian actually heals around 6-7% from this bleed, making him very suicide friendly.
For block proficiency, Guardian gains from +535 to +2563 based on sig. This scales very well and is a very strong block proficiency. And while it's not guaranteed perfect parries, so block penetration and very high attack will mean Guardian will start taking parry damage, in content without block penetration, I haven't heard of or ran into any content where my max sig Guardian will take block damage. These 0 block damage parries help make Guardian very sustainable, and his block proficiency is very good for champions and nodes that crit through block or have block penetration such as Shang Chi and block penetration nodes.
Crit damage resistance: This ranges from +66.85 to + 314. This is more of a defensive thing. However, it helps if you ever get smacked for Guardian to not take crits as often. I don't know the percentage of this, but it is better than nothing. This is also good for champs or nodes that can crit through block.
Basic attacks: Guardian can't crit, and all attacks that would crit deal a burst of energy shock damage, which scales with critical damage rating such as masteries or synergies. (This shock burst damage counts as a shock effect for the tech cav eq node!) Additionally, all of Guardians attacks deal energy damage. No critting is great for many nodes like spiked armor, and less champs have energy resistance than physical resistance.
4th light attack in a combo: On the 4th light attack in a combo (mllll or llll), Guardian consumes 2 forcefield charges to power drain the opponent for 20% of their max power. While this isn't a good power control option due to it being at the cost of 2 force fields, it's a great last resort unaffected by aar and has definitely saved my bacon a few times.
Parrying non-contact attacks: Guardian does this. Great for Havok, Imiw, Dominos Ebony maw, Prof x, Nova, and Stealthy.
While suffering from aar: If guardian has his ability accuracy reduced for 3 or more seconds, he inflicts the opponent with a shock debuff which is unaffected by aar, dealing 345 energy damage until Guardian's ability accuracy is back above 100. This is good for extra damage against Domino, concussion debuffs, Xbones (if the shock stays), and just general aar..
Armor buff: Guardian starts with a 2100 armor buff, which if removed, returns after 14 seconds. Heavy attacks are a great way to keep armor buffs on Guardian, consuming 1 force field charge (which I'll talk about later) to give Guardian a 2100 armor buff for 15 seconds. I rarely use this, but it's great for Havok, since using the sp2 with 3+ force fields consumes an armor buff (again, more talk later).
Blocking special attacks: While under an armor buff, parrying (a well-timed block) special attacks grants Guardian a 100% perfect block chance for .5 seconds, and each perfect block grants Guardian 10% of a bar of power. Parrying special attacks is a great way to build Guardians power, and his high block proficiency at high sig causes Guardian to take very little damage if you miss a parry on a special attack. This perfect block chance is great for annoying long specials such as: Mangog's sp2, Apoc's sp1 and 2, Winter soldier's sp2, War machine's sp2, Purgatory's sp2, Bishop's sp1 and sp2, etc. If you're every worried about a special attack, bring in Guardian and just parry that bad boy! And if you thought that was already sweet, at the cost of 1 forcefield charge, Guardian can block mutant's unblockable special attacks, making him a good option for any mutant with unblockable finale, or just blocking straight up unblockable mutant specials.
Force field charges: Guardian gains charges every 12 seconds, and from his sp1 and sp3. Force fields last indefinitely up to 3 and although not stated, stack up to 99 permanently (then with 2 sp1s, you can get up to 105 charges). Past 3 charges, any charges gained unless from a sp3 last for 22 seconds. Additionally, while Guardian has an armor up buff, each force field charge grants a +15% chance to autoblock up to 75%. Against mutant champs, Guardian starts with a base 15% chance, but it still caps out at 75%. These autoblocks count as parrying a special attack, as well. Autoblocking special attacks is something that you hopefully never have to bank on, but it's a decently reliable safety net, and these autoblocks counting as parries (well timed blocks) means you'll be gaining some power as well.
Sp1: At the end of this attack (when Guardian does his awesome cherry bomb thing), Guardian gains 3 force field charges. Also, the last hit of this special inflicts a short 6 second taunt, reducing their attack rating by 40% and giving them a 70% higher chance to throw specials. This taunt is great for helping Guardian stay aggressive after a sp1 to build to a sp2 and blow them away, although I still reccomend bating a special before throwing it. Additionally, although it is stressful, you can pull off a 2 sp1 into sp2 rotation, granting you 8ish of so force fields into a sp2. One sp1 into a sp2 tends to be enough for a lot though, and isn't anywhere near as stressful.
Sp2: Get ready for a long one. This is Guardian's main damage attack, and the first hit consumes all force field charges, granting Guardian +2876 attack for the duration of this special. If Guardian has 3+ force field charges (this attack is weak as hell without 3+), he consumes 1 armor up inflicting a shock debuff dealing 5752 energy damage over 3 seconds. (This shock will deal more damage with more attack, so deals way more than that weak shock during a sp2) Also, mutant champions can't evade this attack, meaning against like a nightcrawler or lucky domino, you can mlm into a sp2 and they won't evade it, even with increased evade ability accuracy. Here are 2 painstakingly made charts (by me) over the course of 3 hours detailing Guardian's sp2 damage in terms of force field charges. In these you can see Guardian's sp2 potential, both at it's minimum (no crits) and maximum (all crits) not including the shock debuff, followed by an average sp2, and then the shock debuff's dot. Then in the last column, you can see the damage the average Guardian sp2 would deal with the shock debuff. If running suicides, I showed the damage until just before Guardian takes recoil damage, and if not, I showed total damage if letting the shock run out, since you won't take recoil. Surprisingly, recoil only hits you with one shock tick to go anyway, so you're not missing out on much there.
(with suicides)
You can see each force field charge increases minimum sp2 damage by about 5-6k per force field charge, and maximum sp2 damage by roughly 20k per charge. But on average, each charge on the sp2 will increase damage by about 14%, which is very solid to know.
(without suicides)
Here, each charge increases minimum damage by about 3k, but increases maximum damage by 7-12% or so. On average, each charge on the sp2 increases damage by about 11k.
Guardian's sp2 is a huge damage dealer and has lots of ramping potential. However, I've found his damage best in comparison to other champs in medium to long-ish fights such as miniboss aw fights and monthly cav eq bosses. I'll talk more about damage at the end of this write up.
Sp3: Gives Guardian 6 permanent charges, great for overall damage once past small health pools. With suicides, I've found 1-2 of these paired with a sp1 is enough to destory any content. (except long content such as lol or aol)
Synrergies: Guardian's best synergy is the one with himself, giving every team member except for himself +1000 block proficiency for a 5* and +1250 as a 6*. He also has a synergy with Sassy, giving Guardian 2 second shock debuffs on parries, giving him more damage, and an option for selective timestream (something Warlock has a step above Guardian if Guardian doesn't have any synergies). Guardian's best synergy however, is his synergy with White mags, giving him 3.5 second shorter force field generation. For the full list of synergies, check https://auntm.ai/champions/guardian/tier/5.
"Now Saquon," you may be wondering, "how on Earth is Guardian better than champs such as G2099 or Warlock?" I don't see too much utility Warlock has that Guardian doesn't. I just don't. Sure, Warlock inflicts bleed, coldsnap/frostbite immunity, armor break, a small heal on the sp3, passive heal blocks (which are quite niche btw), and with that some power control, thats it. Guardian is way tankier, better with suicides (since he doesn't rely on sp2 spamming for damage), a way higher damage dealer, and oh boy that energy resistance (he ends up healing coldsnap/frostbite debuffs, which Warlock is only imune to) . Compared to G2099, they're pretty different. I see G2099's usability, but I find myself using Guardian the most out of every champ in my roster.
Well that's it! Let me know what you guys think if you actually read this, because I feel this post does Guardian his due justice. @odishika123 as the forums' main Guardian guy do you agree? Also feel free to give me other champs as options for write-ups.
Sorry for any typos
-Saquon
Awakened Ability: (4 parts)
All right, I'll address the issue here. Guardian does need a high sig to really even be in the top 5 tech debate. This awakened ability does a TON for him, but the scaling here is terrible. (Awakened ability benefits only apply if Guardian has an armor up buff, and doesn't stack per armor up)For energy resistance, Guardian gains +717 all the way to +8392 based on sig. Guardian's sig benefits are almost nonexistent until sig 150+. But from sig 150+, he goes from 4300 energy resistance, to a whopping 8392 energy resistance. (84%!) Kam made a lovely spreadsheet (about War machine) showing us Guardian's energy resistance here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F0QD2XpJBULY8h4yAeHXhVXK4jLnN9H1/view. In fact, Guardian has the second highest energy resistance in the game, only second to Diablo without a poison, who heals 85% of energy damage taken. But I'd rather have Guardian's for the reason of permanent uptime. Energy resistance helps against shock, incinerate, and coldsnap/frostbite debuffs AS WELL AS PASSIVES. It also applies to Electro's damage back, Domino's crit failure, and Magik's limboIn fact, lots of the time you will find Guardian healing from such debuffs. Guardians resistance application to passives makes him a great counter to emp mod. When I solo'd sop Sinister with Guardian, I had no problem from emp mod at all.
For bleed resistance, Guardian gains from +25.5% to 79.98 bleed resistance. This scales very well. And at max sig with 2 points in coagulate, Guardian has a 99.98 bleed resistance. I personally run one point in coagulate anyway, for Red mags and Omega red. And with 89.98 bleed resistance, against low-medium attack enemies, Guardian will very very rarely take bleed damage if you're running willpower. With suicides, Guardian actually heals around 6-7% from this bleed, making him very suicide friendly.
For block proficiency, Guardian gains from +535 to +2563 based on sig. This scales very well and is a very strong block proficiency. And while it's not guaranteed perfect parries, so block penetration and very high attack will mean Guardian will start taking parry damage, in content without block penetration, I haven't heard of or ran into any content where my max sig Guardian will take block damage. These 0 block damage parries help make Guardian very sustainable, and his block proficiency is very good for champions and nodes that crit through block or have block penetration such as Shang Chi and block penetration nodes.
Crit damage resistance: This ranges from +66.85 to + 314. This is more of a defensive thing. However, it helps if you ever get smacked for Guardian to not take crits as often. I don't know the percentage of this, but it is better than nothing. This is also good for champs or nodes that can crit through block.
Basic attacks: Guardian can't crit, and all attacks that would crit deal a burst of energy shock damage, which scales with critical damage rating such as masteries or synergies. (This shock burst damage counts as a shock effect for the tech cav eq node!) Additionally, all of Guardians attacks deal energy damage. No critting is great for many nodes like spiked armor, and less champs have energy resistance than physical resistance.
4th light attack in a combo: On the 4th light attack in a combo (mllll or llll), Guardian consumes 2 forcefield charges to power drain the opponent for 20% of their max power. While this isn't a good power control option due to it being at the cost of 2 force fields, it's a great last resort unaffected by aar and has definitely saved my bacon a few times.
Parrying non-contact attacks: Guardian does this. Great for Havok, Imiw, Dominos Ebony maw, Prof x, Nova, and Stealthy.
While suffering from aar: If guardian has his ability accuracy reduced for 3 or more seconds, he inflicts the opponent with a shock debuff which is unaffected by aar, dealing 345 energy damage until Guardian's ability accuracy is back above 100. This is good for extra damage against Domino, concussion debuffs, Xbones (if the shock stays), and just general aar..
Armor buff: Guardian starts with a 2100 armor buff, which if removed, returns after 14 seconds. Heavy attacks are a great way to keep armor buffs on Guardian, consuming 1 force field charge (which I'll talk about later) to give Guardian a 2100 armor buff for 15 seconds. I rarely use this, but it's great for Havok, since using the sp2 with 3+ force fields consumes an armor buff (again, more talk later).
Blocking special attacks: While under an armor buff, parrying (a well-timed block) special attacks grants Guardian a 100% perfect block chance for .5 seconds, and each perfect block grants Guardian 10% of a bar of power. Parrying special attacks is a great way to build Guardians power, and his high block proficiency at high sig causes Guardian to take very little damage if you miss a parry on a special attack. This perfect block chance is great for annoying long specials such as: Mangog's sp2, Apoc's sp1 and 2, Winter soldier's sp2, War machine's sp2, Purgatory's sp2, Bishop's sp1 and sp2, etc. If you're every worried about a special attack, bring in Guardian and just parry that bad boy! And if you thought that was already sweet, at the cost of 1 forcefield charge, Guardian can block mutant's unblockable special attacks, making him a good option for any mutant with unblockable finale, or just blocking straight up unblockable mutant specials.
Force field charges: Guardian gains charges every 12 seconds, and from his sp1 and sp3. Force fields last indefinitely up to 3 and although not stated, stack up to 99 permanently (then with 2 sp1s, you can get up to 105 charges). Past 3 charges, any charges gained unless from a sp3 last for 22 seconds. Additionally, while Guardian has an armor up buff, each force field charge grants a +15% chance to autoblock up to 75%. Against mutant champs, Guardian starts with a base 15% chance, but it still caps out at 75%. These autoblocks count as parrying a special attack, as well. Autoblocking special attacks is something that you hopefully never have to bank on, but it's a decently reliable safety net, and these autoblocks counting as parries (well timed blocks) means you'll be gaining some power as well.
Sp1: At the end of this attack (when Guardian does his awesome cherry bomb thing), Guardian gains 3 force field charges. Also, the last hit of this special inflicts a short 6 second taunt, reducing their attack rating by 40% and giving them a 70% higher chance to throw specials. This taunt is great for helping Guardian stay aggressive after a sp1 to build to a sp2 and blow them away, although I still reccomend bating a special before throwing it. Additionally, although it is stressful, you can pull off a 2 sp1 into sp2 rotation, granting you 8ish of so force fields into a sp2. One sp1 into a sp2 tends to be enough for a lot though, and isn't anywhere near as stressful.
Sp2: Get ready for a long one. This is Guardian's main damage attack, and the first hit consumes all force field charges, granting Guardian +2876 attack for the duration of this special. If Guardian has 3+ force field charges (this attack is weak as hell without 3+), he consumes 1 armor up inflicting a shock debuff dealing 5752 energy damage over 3 seconds. (This shock will deal more damage with more attack, so deals way more than that weak shock during a sp2) Also, mutant champions can't evade this attack, meaning against like a nightcrawler or lucky domino, you can mlm into a sp2 and they won't evade it, even with increased evade ability accuracy. Here are 2 painstakingly made charts (by me) over the course of 3 hours detailing Guardian's sp2 damage in terms of force field charges. In these you can see Guardian's sp2 potential, both at it's minimum (no crits) and maximum (all crits) not including the shock debuff, followed by an average sp2, and then the shock debuff's dot. Then in the last column, you can see the damage the average Guardian sp2 would deal with the shock debuff. If running suicides, I showed the damage until just before Guardian takes recoil damage, and if not, I showed total damage if letting the shock run out, since you won't take recoil. Surprisingly, recoil only hits you with one shock tick to go anyway, so you're not missing out on much there.
(with suicides)
You can see each force field charge increases minimum sp2 damage by about 5-6k per force field charge, and maximum sp2 damage by roughly 20k per charge. But on average, each charge on the sp2 will increase damage by about 14%, which is very solid to know.
(without suicides)
Here, each charge increases minimum damage by about 3k, but increases maximum damage by 7-12% or so. On average, each charge on the sp2 increases damage by about 11k.
Guardian's sp2 is a huge damage dealer and has lots of ramping potential. However, I've found his damage best in comparison to other champs in medium to long-ish fights such as miniboss aw fights and monthly cav eq bosses. I'll talk more about damage at the end of this write up.
Sp3: Gives Guardian 6 permanent charges, great for overall damage once past small health pools. With suicides, I've found 1-2 of these paired with a sp1 is enough to destory any content. (except long content such as lol or aol)
Synrergies: Guardian's best synergy is the one with himself, giving every team member except for himself +1000 block proficiency for a 5* and +1250 as a 6*. He also has a synergy with Sassy, giving Guardian 2 second shock debuffs on parries, giving him more damage, and an option for selective timestream (something Warlock has a step above Guardian if Guardian doesn't have any synergies). Guardian's best synergy however, is his synergy with White mags, giving him 3.5 second shorter force field generation. For the full list of synergies, check https://auntm.ai/champions/guardian/tier/5.
"Now Saquon," you may be wondering, "how on Earth is Guardian better than champs such as G2099 or Warlock?" I don't see too much utility Warlock has that Guardian doesn't. I just don't. Sure, Warlock inflicts bleed, coldsnap/frostbite immunity, armor break, a small heal on the sp3, passive heal blocks (which are quite niche btw), and with that some power control, thats it. Guardian is way tankier, better with suicides (since he doesn't rely on sp2 spamming for damage), a way higher damage dealer, and oh boy that energy resistance (he ends up healing coldsnap/frostbite debuffs, which Warlock is only imune to) . Compared to G2099, they're pretty different. I see G2099's usability, but I find myself using Guardian the most out of every champ in my roster.
Well that's it! Let me know what you guys think if you actually read this, because I feel this post does Guardian his due justice. @odishika123 as the forums' main Guardian guy do you agree? Also feel free to give me other champs as options for write-ups.
Sorry for any typos
-Saquon
8
Comments
Beautiful write up bro
I agree with every point you made
I’d take warlock any day of the week
But, I’ve got a HB, Warlock and Sparky at R5. Is it worth taking Guardian up at all?
I feel like HB and Sparky get big yellow numbers as is without a huge setup to get there.
His passive heal block is one of the most useful abilities in the game. There are a ton of champs that have regen and a lot of people in AW run Willpower. As soon as he gets his virus on them, he pretty much has the fight under control. Not only are they heal blocked, they actively take damage (if he's awakened), are continuously power drained and have their offensive ability accuracy lowered by 30%.
On well-timed blocks against non-contact attacks, he not only gains the regular bonus virus charges, he also power drains the opponent. Not a lot, but enough to mess with champs like Havok, for example.
As long as he has his armor up buff, the opponent's special attacks cannot be critical. So if you slip up, he's still really tanky.
In addition to his power drain when an infected opponent has regen and on non-contact well-timed blocks, he also has power-control on both his SP1 and SP3. His ability to control a fight is, in other words, immense.
And finally, his SP2 does some nutty damage if you time it right so that you throw it while the opponent is infected. If you do, his armor breaks are applied ahead of the attack, allowing each of his strikes to hit into them for massive damage. Not game-breaking damage, but really good.
Again, I can't really compare him to Guardian since I haven't played much with the latter, but I think it's maybe fair to say that Guardian is the better 5* and Warlock is the better 6* due to their respective needs (or lack of needs) of a high sig.