November 06, 2020

Guardian Class Updates

Verification Class Updates

Our verification classes -- Guardian, DragonLord, Star Captain, and Defender -- are unlocked by AQWorlds heroes who have also upgraded in one of our 2D, single-player games. They've been asking for years for their exclusive classes to get updates... and now the time has come!

• Guardian Class: available to verified AdventureQuest Guardians
• DragonLord Class: available to verified DragonFable DragonLords
• StarCaptain Class: available to verified MechQuest StarCaptains
• Defender Class: available to all of the above

Each week in November, we'll release another verification class update. And first up... the AdventureQuest Guardian Class update is here! Read on for update details: what is changing, how to get your own, and the new balance details.

Guardian Class Overview

The Guardian class in AdventureQuest Worlds takes inspiration from the gameplay of AdventureQuest. Heroes who are familiar with the world of Lore in that game may feel right at home when using Guardian in this game.

In AQWorlds, Guardian plays as a very powerful glass cannon, dealing incredible amounts of damage, but being unable to take very much itself. Having many skills with their own costs of use, and not a high amount of healing means that Guardian won’t be able to properly play to its full potential by itself. However, if you find a few companions and guests to help buff and heal you, you’ll be able to really unlock your full power.

How to Unlock the Class

If you are a Guardian in AdventureQuest:

1. Log into the Account Manager site at account.aq.com
2. Access the 'Unlock Verify Shops' menu in the Account Manager
3. Verify your AdventureQuest account
4. Log back into AQWorlds and /join tower
5. All verified Guardians can purchase the original Guardian Class. If you are level 40, you can purchase the updated class from Wyrm for 0 ACs.

If you are NOT a Guardian in AdventureQuest:

1. Create an account at www.Battleon.com (if you don't have one yet) 
2. Upgrade it to become an AdventureQuest Guardian on this page
3. Follow steps 1-4 above

Before there was AQWorlds, there was... AdventureQuest

 The AdventureQuest of today has been continually refined over the years by a dedicated and passionate team of developers, and consists of many, many adventures to be had. From learning about creation worldlore, to stopping world-scale threats, to treading the territory of the Avatars and finding your ultimate destiny as the protagonist, AdventureQuest features a diverse and epic series of stories to be experienced.

AQ is a very strategic turn based combat game, where players can complete challenging quests for epic sets of gear, build a character however they wish, and take on powerful bosses in saga finales. If you haven’t explore the original world of Lore yet, or haven't logged in for a while, begin your adventure at battleon.com! 

Guardian Class Update Details

Recommended enhancements: Fighter, Lucky.

Becoming a Guardian of Battleon means that you have access to the power of the Guardian armaments, and you can invoke the awesome power of the Guardian Dragon. If you train enough, you could be granted access to the UltraGuardian plate, forged through the combined efforts of Yulgar and Adder.

Mana Regen: Guardians regain a small amount of mana every turn, regaining 6 mana with every auto attack.

Skill Breakdown

Guardian Strike
Rank needed: 1 / Auto Attack
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: Physical
Range: Medium
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Strike your opponent with your Guardian Blade, dealing high damage and imbuing your weapon with a defensive element, granting you the essence of Earth, Ice, Water, or Light for 4 seconds. Additionally, gain 1 stack of Guardian Spirit, which stacks to 20 and lasts 8 seconds.

The Guardian class possesses an extremely strong but slow autoattack, dealing twice the damage of many classes’, but also having twice the cooldown. In addition, using the skill will generate an elemental aura on yourself, which, on its own, will do nothing, but can be combined with your other skills to turn into powerful buffs and effects to boost your performance. Finally, Guardian also possesses the ability to generate stacks of Guardian Spirit, which are used to greatly empower your final skill.

Elementize Weapon

Rank needed: 1
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: Physical
Range: Medium
Mana Cost: 6
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Swing precisely at your opponent with your Guardian Blade, dealing high damage that cannot be avoided, but cannot crit, imbuing your weapon with an offensive element, granting you the essence of Fire, Energy, Wind, or Darkness for 4 seconds. Additionally, gain 1 stack of Guardian Spirit.

The second skill of Guardian has an almost identical function to the autoattack- with the difference that you now have a mana cost attached, but it will generate elemental auras that turn into more offensive buffs, instead of defensive ones. You can think of this as a second, guaranteed source of damage, as it cannot be avoided, but cannot crit, but does more damage than the autoattack at base in compensation for it. Both skills having medium range will help you resist losing damage to monsters being dragged around the room, as this is a class that enjoys party settings.

Imbue Armor

Rank needed: 2
Target: Friendly
Max Targets: 7
Type: Physical
Range: Infinite
Mana Cost: 25
Cooldown: 4 seconds

Invoke a spell, healing you and 6 allies for a small, noncrit amount while transforming your elements into buffs for yourself. Gain 1 stack of Guardian Spirit per target healed. 

Earth: 20s HoT 
Ice: -30% Phys, Mag, and DoT damage taken for 20s
Water: 3s Mana Heal
Light: +25% Phys and Mag damage for 10s
Fire: +15% damage and Crit Chance for 10s
Energy: +40% Crit Chance and Hit Chance for 3s
Wind: +15% Haste for 10s
Darkness: -25% DoT damage taken, +25% DoT damage dealt for 15s

This is your “heal” skill on Guardian. Despite having a seven target AoE heal, the healed amount is very low. Instead, its primary function is to convert all of the elemental auras that you have held into buffs on yourself (it will NOT buff your party), which gives you an incredible boost in performance. As well, returning one stack of Guardian Spirit per target healed means that you’ll be able to generate Guardian Spirit faster when with others, as opposed to playing alone.

Invoke Essence Orb

Rank needed: 3
Target: Self
Max Targets: 1
Type: Magical 
Range: Infinite
Mana Cost: 0
Cooldown: 1 seconds

Invoke the Essence Orb, trading your blood for power. Gain 25 mana and 1 stack of Guardian Spirit.

This skill functions as a simple trade of HP for mana and Guardian Spirit, just serving to accelerate your resource generation, and has the special property of ignoring all secondary stats when doing damage. It will cost about the same amount as you can heal per heal, so you’ll have to get more creative to maintain your HP, instead of just spamming your skills continuously. It’s said that you can substitute marinara sauce for blood, but unfortunately, we’re all out of marinara sauce.

Call Guardian Dragon

Rank needed: 5
Target: Enemy
Max Targets: 1
Type: Magical
Range: Medium
Mana Cost: 0
Cooldown: 6 seconds

Call upon the awesome power of the Guardian Dragon to raze the battlefield, dealing incredible damage based on your stacks of Guardian Spirit. The flames leave a burning epicenter, applying Scorching, a heavy DoT that stacks to 3 and lasts 10 seconds, and Ashen, increasing incoming damage by 25%, to both your target and yourself for 10 seconds.

This skill serves as your proper “nuke” on Guardian. Being one of the single most powerful skills in the game, this deals an unbelievable amount of damage if you’re fully stacked on Guardian Spirit, and in some cases can outright finish off your opponent instantly. The skill has a heavy cost of use, though, burning both your target AND you for a very significant amount of health, which means that you’ll have to use it sparingly, and with some forethought involved. Having the DoT stack means that you can control the amount of punishment you take by frequency of use, but you’ll likely have to avoid spamming it if you’re by yourself.

Passives

Fully-Offensive Lean
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive

Your class has an offensive lean. Your attacks deal +25% damage. However, you take +25% damage from attacks.

Grimweld’s Blessing 
Rank needed: 4
Type: Passive

Your Guardian training grants you +250% Endurance

Ultraguardian!!!
Rank needed: 10
Type: Passive

Your Mastercrafted armor grants you an additional 5% haste.

Your passives on Guardian aim to enhance your performance within your niche, exemplifying your berserker-like nature in combat. Your increase in health will help you balance your HP costs with your healing income, and give you more time to react in case things go wrong. However- don’t be fooled, Guardian is by no means a tanky class.

Conclusion

Guardian plays like the embodiment of a true glass cannon:

• It has difficulty keeping its health full alone, but really has room to stretch its legs and obliterate targets if you have some support from friends.
• Because its Mana costs closely mirror its mana generation per cycle, you’ll have to constantly use your Essence Orb skill to stay in cycle. 
• Health costs are almost equivalent to the health you gain from healing, so you’ll have to find another way to compensate for the excess monster damage you’re taking.

This class is deceptively hard to master despite its simple-seeming rotations, and you may find that prioritizing certain auras over others will lead to a more efficient path to victory than simply spamming.

Advice to maximize your Guardian Class:

Time your Guardian Dragon skill together with the correct auras to drastically improve your performance against the cost that it will take.

Manage a steady generation of resources to counteract the cost of using your offensive skills. (This is where the gameplay for the class lies.)

Unlike many classes in AdventureQuest Worlds, Guardian Class was designed to be most effective in a group.

As you find group members to assist you with your resources, you’ll find that you really gain room to lean into your high damage skills and high cost skills, allowing you to gain power on a scale not immediately apparent.

Receive more healing and defence to stack your Call Guardian Dragon burn and you'll see some incredible dps.

Receiving more haste closes the gap between your buff durations and allows you to gain Guardian Spirit faster for a more constant damage output. (But don’t rest on your laurels, or you may end up burning yourself to death!)

Learn to balance your resources properly and remaining patient will lead you to some incredible results.

Stay adaptable and know how to change your playstyle depending on your other party members will also help optimize your power. (However, don’t get overconfident in your abilities or you may just end up losing everything in a fight!)

PS: there are another two easter egg auras on the skills that GREATLY empower you. How you trigger them is up to you to discover... perhaps they require something else from AdventureQuest?