Note before using
We hope this guide will be useful to you. But 2023 is a year of class changes. Currently use this guide as a start point for your level 140 journey.
Last update: August
Class update status: Revamp U37
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Blue guardian
Introduction
Welcome, here you will find a good build for Guardian tanks, which is specifically tuned for high-end Raids/Instances. Blue Guardians got a little revamp to some of their skills and they are now pretty good tanks for all content.
Guardian tanks can mitigate sustainable damage better than any other tank, they have the best aggro control (AoE and ST), have one of the best B/P/E and have some of the best self-heals compared to other tanks.
Other information sources available
Older guide, last updated for U33 – https://lotrohq.com/blue-guardian/
Stat Goals
These goals are kept with Essence & Gear planning in mind, as to which Essences are to be prioritized over others. These goals can also be used when picking Virtues.
Tactical Mitigation > Physical Mitigation > Vitality
After Mits are capped or near capped, then Vitality essences can be used. Generally, only Tactical Mitigation essences will be needed, as Physical Mitigation gets capped with just cap-level Gear and Virtues.
Trait Trees
Early raid build for U37 provided by Ghyns Discord –https://discord.gg/hAZcHspM35
Same as red. Skipping other main traitline. Skipping blues shieldspikes and power restore. Full yellow with less aoe damage and parry buffs.

Virtues
Here are the Virtues which go along with the Stat Goals:
- Loyalty
- Fidelity
- Honour
- Tolerance
- Compassion
Legendary Items
Guardian legendary weapons. Priority upgrades viewable in video. Produced by Ghyn.
Main hand
Heraldry | Heraldry of the Sturdy Ox (Incomparable/Legendary) | Legendary |
Word of Power | Base Morale Multiplier | Legendary |
Word of Power | Incoming Damage Reduction (Physical) | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Force Taunt Duration | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Catch a Breath Cooldown & Heal | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Guardian’s Pledge Cooldown & Magnitude | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Adaptability Block & Parry Rating | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Guardian’s Ward Duration & Block Chance | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Guardian’s Ward Damage & Parry Chance | Legendary |
Word of Craft | Grand Willpower | Legendary |
Word of Craft | Grand Willpower | Legendary |
Class item
Heraldry | Heraldry of the Sturdy Ox (Incomparable/Legendary) | Legendary |
Word of Power | Incoming Damage Reduction (Tactical) | Legendary |
Word of Power | Incoming Heal Bonus | Legendary |
Word of Power | Area Effect Target Count | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Warrior’s Heart Stoic Bubble Strength | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Warrior’s Heart Duration | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Warrior’s Heart Morale Heal & Maximum | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Stamp Cooldown & Damage | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Charge Duration & Speed | Legendary |
Word of Mastery | Shield Damage | Legendary |
Word of Craft | Gundabad Word of Craft: Anger | Legendary |
Word of Craft | Gundabad Word of Craft: Anger | Incomparable |
Rotations - outdated
Here is what I do on Guardian Tank
For AoE aggro control:
- I will try to bunch up as many mobs as I can take, usually around 7 to 10. While I’m running to collect them up, I use Shield-swipe and Shield-taunt (along with Guardian’s Ward for the buff), and some Retaliations if I receive Parry responses. I don’t use War-chant unless I know it will hit all my targets, or I use it only if mobs run after someone else.
- When I have all the mobs lined up in one place, I quickly use Redirect (use a Whirling Retaliation if you don’t have it open). This allows me to absorb lots of damage and saves me from using a cooldown. I follow the Redirect with a War-chant after.
- After Redirect, I do a shield rotation, which is pretty simple, Shield-swipe – Shield-taunt – Shield-smash. If you don’t have a initial block response, use a Shield-blow first to start the shield rotation.
- After Shield rotation is done, I use another War-chant. This pretty much keeps all the mobs on you, but if your group DPS is too high and they steal some mobs, you are safe to use a Challenge now.
- Use Catch a Breath on cooldown pretty much if your morale is going down.
- Keep War-chant on cooldown also so your cooldown of Redirect and Catch a Breath gets reduced.
- If you are still receiving too much damage after Redirect expires and Catch on Breath on cooldown, you can pop one of your other cooldowns. Start with Thrill of Danger first. Then eventually proceed as needed, Juggernaut/Pledge/Warrior’s Heart. But you generally don’t need all those cooldowns for just 1 trash pack, save other cooldowns for the remaining trash packs.
- You can cut Shield-smash animations with your Stamp skill to speed up rotations a bit, but keep an eye on your power pool if you do that.
For Single-target aggro control:
- This is generally pretty easy and nothing hard. Start the fight with Fray the Edge.
- Wait around 6-7s and use Engage. Wait another few seconds, around 5s to be safe and use Fray the Edge again. You can pretty much go afk after that as far as aggro is concerned.
- Keep Redirect on cooldown for the damage absorption buff. Keep doing Shield rotations also, and War-chant on cooldown.
Fortification Buff explained:
- You get stacks of a buff called Fortification each time you use a Shield Skill.
- You can gain up to a maximum of 5 stacks of this buff, with each stack giving +2% mits (physical and tactical), and up to +10% mits maximum.
- Shield skills have a 25% chance to apply a stack of this buff.
- It is very important that you build this buff up really fast by just focusing on a Shield rotation (Shield-blow – Shield-swipe – Bash – Shield-smash) for boss fights. Faster you have a maxed Fortification buff, better your chances are to survive boss hits.
- Don’t worry too much about the Fortification buff for trash fights, you will eventually build the buff, focus on holding aggro first on all mobs, then do a Shield rotation on trash packs for the buff.
Break Ranks Buff explained:
- This is a buff you apply to your fellowship/raid if they are within a 20 meter circle with you, it applies a 40% Mastery/Damage buff for 15s, and has a cooldown of 1 minute.
- In order to proc this buff, you need to have the Fortification buff at 5 stacks, and then use a Shield-taunt.
- This Break Ranks buff can be helpful to the group if and only if you can manage to stay alive without Fortification max stacks.
- If you do end up using Break Ranks buff, then make sure to quickly build up the Fortification stacks again.
- If you want to skip Break Ranks buff and want to maintain permanent uptimes of Fortification buff, then either un-trait Break Ranks or skip using Shield-taunt in rotation and use Bash instead to open Shield-smash.
Smashing Stab CJ (Guardian’s Fellowship Maneuver) Explained:
- Guardians have a neat utility to CJ targets from Smashing Stab skill, which comes in very handy. It just requires Guards to use 2 certain skills before being able to make Smashing Stab do a CJ.
- In order to do so, you have to hit the target with a Shield-swipe (which requires a Block response).
- Next, you have to hit the target with a Retaliation (which requires a Parry response).
- It doesn’t matter which order you hit the target with those 2 skills, you can do whichever one first.
- Now that you have hit the target with both, Shield-swipe and Retaliation, you can open a CJ.
- Use Smashing Stab whenever you want now to do a CJ, there is no time limit.
Consumables
Information regarding consumables, why, which types, differences, etc.