Solo Sword and Board Guardian?

[Gudy]

My experience with HG is pretty much limited to single player HG:L so far, so I'm not quite sure what to do for a solo Guardian in HGG.

I was kinda planning a build like the following http://www.hellgateaus.net/planner/#Guardian,55,50,0,v1.0000160039000000990406000001000611,000004004440040, but I'm unsure about how viable that is. My thoughts are roughly as follows:

Spiritual Strength    6/7 because the feeds are insane
Shield Bash            3/10 because I need shield turn
Shield Turn            9/10 because  stun locking mobs is a good idea
Aura of Defense      9/10 because I want to survive
Aura of Renewal      9/10 ditto
Aura Stability          6/7  ditto
Grand Aura             4/5 because if you invest that much into auras, you might as well use them to the max, also it should help with
Challenge              6/7 come to daddy!
Denounce              1/10 because it gives a nice boost to taunt strength

But what do I do about DPS? I thought about putting one point each into Sword of Reckoning and Anchor (which should combine nicely with Challenge). But can I combine those two, i.e. can I spam SoR while being Anchored? Does Challenge work on end game mobs? And is that enough, or do I need to sacrifice some defense (which?) to put more points into offense (again, which?)

And what do I do about mobs with the Regenerating ability? My experience from HG:L is that my Guardian just plain didn't have the DPS to kill those, and neither Poisoning nor Shocking them seemed to make any difference in keeping them from Regenerating. Is that still the case in HGG?

[PeeterMcG]

I built my guardian in HGG predicated upon tanking for the the other members in my party.
As a guardian intending to run solo, why do you feel that you must invest in Challenge (and that single point in Denounce)?  If you do not have other people in your group who would benefit from the mobs being pulled into a tangled knot (and away from them), it seems that those points might be freed up for dmg output skills, unless you have a compelling reason for Challenge and Denounce that is eluding my thought process right now.

[thumper]

What Pete said... there a lot of +skill items that will give you challenge to pull in flying mobs (for example) but you could just use Heaven's Arc. If trying to run solo you may also want to look at Great Guardian (as an 'oh crap' skill) and POH to stay healthy. Hamper is also good to reduce the armor of bad guys, a few swords and shields will give you +skill on that one.

You will find, however, that solo Guardian is (no pun intended) a bit of a challenge in HGG. To get real good drops you need NM and Hell mode and Guards just don't seem to inflict the appropriate amount of DPS to move fast enough through some of the higher levels.

Don't know if Gundian is still viable (i.e., Vorpal Slashers), but you may want to look at that.

Good luck.

[Gudy]

Well, the idea - possibly not fully thought through - was to go into Anchor and then draw mobs within my rather large Aura range to myself where I can Shield Turn them to death, instead of chasing after them piecemeal.

But what to do for DPS? I'm not sure Sword of Reckoning compares favourably with Anchor when it comes to boosting damage (84% damage increase vs. 66% base damage increase, whatever that means) or damage per power (3 hits with SoR use the same amount of power as going into Anchor once). Which would point towards investing 8 points into Anchor while putting 1 point into SoR for that extra 21% damage increase when necessary.

The alternative would be Onslaught/Blessed Onslaught, but is a crit Guardian really feasible? The boost to crit chance and damage doesn't look that great, at least on paper.

You will find, however, that solo Guardian is (no pun intended) a bit of a challenge in HGG. To get real good drops you need NM and Hell mode and Guards just don't seem to inflict the appropriate amount of DPS to move fast enough through some of the higher levels.

That's what I am afraid of. I love the slower pace of the Guardian because it makes a nice contrast to the more hectic play style of the squishier high DPS classes (Marksman, Evoker, Blademaster), but it sure looks like party tanking is the only role left for what was once the iconic class of HG.

[Alternalo]

My idea for DPS: grab Empyreal Cannon+a similar weapon, fill it with +dmg mods, and nano it to at last +5. You can solo in normal with those, pull all mobs with challenge and kill them with the 5.5m field radius.