Hi I just felt like chiming in to say that...

Get that out of your system? The class is fine, just because it isn't your standard face-roll WoW class does not make it broken. You won't be missed.

Faceroll is one thing but your biggest dmg ability is a 3 second cast on a melee toon is retarded its like hey bro stand still stop kiting me so i can land this 3 second cast on you from melee range....

I am thinking this is a learning curve issue. My Guard is consistently on top of Warzone charts, and I never have any difficulty with quests. Admittedly, this class has a lot of depth, and if you attempt to choose your favorite button to press every time your global cool down comes up you simply will never succeed. Instead, you need to utilize all of the tools at your disposal.

Also, Master Strike is pimp. Admittedly, it isn't easy to use. No, in fact, it takes some skill. But if you land a full Master Strike utilizing your Leap root and Force Freeze, then they are going to feel it.

First off, extremes never help guys, the whole "class is horribly broke" and "class is fine, your the issue" don't work.

I think if you started with the JG and that's all you play, you probably wont care one bit. If you play other classes though, you'll noticed the difference. My initial class was a shadow consular. Then I played my JG.

The biggest thing I noticed was that my SC had more tools earlier in the game to deal with complex situations. I struggle for keys on my JG that aren't there in tight situations when my SC has the tools within reach.

I also notice that my JG has more downtime...when I play him in a similar pace to my SC, he dies. I son't realize that his health is so low until hes down, when in similar sitiuations my SC could just keep going. On the flip side, there's something addicting to leap...I just want to leap into everything perhaps thats my issue. but still...my SC can go full steam often with little downtime, and my JG has more.

Of course, my experience is in the 20's...If I trust what the later level guards are telling me, it smooths out later on when you get the talents to fill in. perhaps this class is a late bloomer. Which is OK...But I can empathize with those who are frustrated...in this day and age, with the financial backing that this company has, and the time they took in development, they could have balanced this class out better. the level ranges that are having the issues are critical levels.

People aren't going to play a class that's hard to level for the first 30 levels, only to finally smooth out and be EQUAL to other classes post 30. If the guard was an amazing class post 30 compared to others, that would be different. but from what I'm hearing from most forums, the catch up with the other classes at that point, and thats the big issue. You shouldn't have to wait till 30 to be equal to everyone else.

Some simple changes are all that's needed. move some of those CC options lower in the trees so their accessible, or make them baseline skills. remove that stupid cast time from the defensive tree. Make blade storm a real cone AOE...spending that much focus on a single target attack? but a cone that stunned a few non-tough mobs would work very well, and give early JG's the edge they need. Stuff like that. The stun types are acceptable...very few classes have stuns that affect anything past a strong mob. but some defensive backup could help.

we really need our tanking stance at 10, not 14....I know its a small thing, but it's just weird things like that that make the class seem unbalanced. I take a tanking class, and I don't get to tank right away? I had companions pulling threat off of me in my first Heroic. Yet my SC was tanking and holding AoE threat from level 10 up.

Yeah, I know, level 14? small fry. but yet, its these small things that are all adding up to the bigger issue for early level JG's. If my SC can tank end game as well as a JG can, then
why is the JG so unbalance early on?

You know, Guardian tanking and DPS in this game are definitely a niche of their own. It's been said before, but it's really not your average easy button tanking, but it's definitely possible. I have been main tanking since Hammer station, and in all honesty, when the party works like a party I can tank like a champ. It's my job to manage the group, and the mobs, and I like that.

I haven't felt underpowered but I haven't leveled any other classes to this point, level 25. I haven't tested DPS, and thus never expected to top the charts on DPS - but I do pretty decent DPS, and am not surprised when i'm getting bursted by an assassin or operative, because by comparison, they're squishy as hell.

Utilizing Guard in PVP and understanding my support role makes it engaging and fun, and in the end people value that as much as DPS, even more so. At 25 fighting lower level mobs, though, I can definitely see what you're talking about. Strong mobs are this point are actually taking a decent chunk of my health in most cases, not dangerously low, but so much that it'd probably be a good idea to heal before the next pull.

Keep in mind this solo play i'm talking about.

I have hit 36 with my Vigilance GRD and I gotta say, it really is growing into a hellish beast. Monstrous DPS bursts combined with interrupts and ofc, PUSH is just insane. Add to that the newly trained Saber Throw......

Thing with GRD is that it requires almost insane visual acuity. You need to be a fast keyboard jockey and a man(woman) with the visual acuity of a fencer (incidentally, I'm fencer). There are so many skill procs and CDs it's a bother while getting used to your keyboard setup around lvl 20-28ish.

After you get used to it, class becomes a blast.

PRoblem is, or a blessing from a certain point of view, not everyone can pull off these criteria.

I'm beginning to suspect that this is the reason why I've seen so many Troopers lately.

Funny thing is, Sentinels are even worse off. Least we got panic buttons that actually save our behinds.

Oh and nerdraging? SO not cool man, so not cool.

In PvP, guardian has a solid CC toolkit and nice mobility and the damage isn't so bad either. Guard is handy. I don't really have complaints there.

In PvE, I'm not convinced yet. I can't say from experience if guardian is necessarily weaker, but it definitely feels clunkier. It's tough to express precisely, but it just feels less fluid, the skills have less synergy than in other professions.

The combo points rarely limit me. Instead of other classes where you have to manage your heat and energy, I'm just watching the cooldowns of six or seven different single target attacks on my hotbar while I watch for riposte procs to hit off the GCD. And often that riposte doesn't work when I press it. Also, I can't riposte during the awkward three second melee channeled attack. And it janks around the animations.

More than other classes I just feel like I'm playing against the hotbar instead of managing a resource. That'd be my number one complaint. Number two is going through half of the game having only one AE on a 15s cooldown.

I know right? Dude I played focus up until like 25 when someone told me to try leveling as a tank, total nightmare.

To be honest I disagree with everything you said except for opportune strike, but then the fact that it's situational is the whole point of that ability, it's just a reactive. Master Strike is worthless unless you spec for it though.

Once you get dispatch everything in pvp becomes so much more simple.

Once you get a point in either Force Clap or Stasis Mastery as a Defense Guardian, Master Strike becomes a big and unavoidable nuke, unless they use their "Trinket ability," in which case you've at least gained an advantage. Add that to the fact that you can use Freezing Force to slow them down enough to get a second or two of the channel off at lower levels, it's a pretty powerful ability. I don't claim to be an expert in PVP, but I've been seeing big numbers coming off of my Master Strikes, and I'm really okay with the fact that it's a challenging ability to use correctly.