Let’s face it Guardians are the least played "class" in the game. Why is that?

Lack of item choices is one reason. In fact Izola is the Class vendor with the fewest recipes.

Lack of damage may be another.

Of course the largest factor is that new knights have few examples.

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I have decided to make a post about general guardian strategy and how you as the other "classes" can support your supporter.

Guardians are slow tanky players, they can hold down chokepoints, corner monsters easy and if need be unleash fairly powerful attacks.

As a guardian your task is to keep your allies safe, draw the agro of enemies by placing a magnus shot or a troika charge into their ranks get them to chase you, your teammates can use this time to prepare charge attacks or sneak by enemies. Gunners can help with this tactic and the guardian can support by creating distance with heavy sword swings.

If you can try to get the enemies to crowd around the entrance to a room while you hold them back with your sword and shield, this will allow your team to prep safely. Bombers can be great here by placing Shock/Fire/Poison haze bombs or Blast type bombs and Dark retribution to capitalize on the amassed enemies.

Guardians can quickly throw enemies into corners and hold them there, in this situation a good sword charge can prove devastating.

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Final choices for guardian defense are:

Volcanic set with excellent elemental and fire/stun resist makes for a decent FSC armor if you can get past the med attack speed decrease. Suggested UVs are Fire Normal and Elemental resist. (Shock resist makes this set more viable for Red Roarmulus)

Ironmight set with excellent Pierce and stun resist makes for a good RJP armor if you can get past the med attack speed decrease.
Suggested UVs are Normal and Elemental resist. (Any UV that resists your least favorite status does well)

Ancient Plate set provides massive normal damage resist with stun plus a nice helping of HP, this makes for a decent armor for low to mid tier tanking, provided you can handle the movement and attack speed decrease.
Suggested UVs are any MAX damage resist (provided you can get two of the same) and well as any status that bugs you.

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Final choices for Guardian offence are:

Callahan is a good, fast 2 shot pierce gun with a stun status. This is currently the favored gun. For UVs consider fiend and beast damage boost as well as ASI, if you are feeling brave or want to put in a hard first hit CTR would be good too.

The Iron Slug is an OK normal damage gun. It has a good flinch rate but this fades in large parties. For UVs consider Slime and construct so you will have a guardian gun to cover what the Callahan can't. The other UV choices should be ASI or CTR for the same reasons as the Callahan.

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The Sudaruska is a fun sword to play with, it has good knockback, and normal damage output. The charge attack is good for opening fights, devastating narrow corridors, and shutting down turrets. With the reliable charge knockback you are safe to use it at any angle.

The Triglav is somewhat different than the Suda, just enough to warrant a slightly different play style. Since it can inflict freeze on the combo end it is safer not to attack the enemy head on, rather, attack at enough of an angle so that they aren't frozen and aimed at you. The charge can be used like the Suda but keep in mind the little rule about frozen enemies.

UVs for these two should definitely have ASI to counter the armor’s decrease followed by a damage boost against a slow monster family and perhaps CTR.

Divine avenger is a normal/elemental sword with a slightly faster swing than the Troika lines. Its charge attack is very different, your character takes a step back, and swings; this swing releases 3 phantom blades that fly out in a cone shape knocking back enemies and dealing good damage. If this charge is released with you back to the wall the phantom blades will break on the wall and only your swing will do damage.

Gran Faust is a normal/shadow sword that swings as fast as the DA (the speed bar lies). Its charge attack is much like the DA but instead it releases one, the charge attack also has a chance to curse the user. This charge suffers the same flaw as the DA’s. The combo end also has the curse chance but it is rather low.

For these swords ASI is priority, while the DA gains more from CTR the GF does not due to the self-curse chance. The UVs for DA should be construct or undead boost with ASI and CTR. GF should have gremlin and slime coupled with ASI.