The Elden Ring Nightreign community is completely divided on how good The Guardian is. Depending on who you ask, he's either the absolute bottom of the barrel or sits comfortably in the top three.
The Guardian is the bird-headed tank class in Nightreign. I think the discourse surrounding his usefulness ultimately comes down to how well you can play the role without getting the urge to run in and start whacking things. As one player puts it, "Guardian is the best character when used in the right hands."
Another redditor writes, "If I waste my stamina attacking, I won't have enough left to block anything." This is an archetype that requires patience and teamwork. With the right relics, you can use The Guardian to aggro enemies and simply block all their attacks while your teammates go to town on them. "Big bird doesn’t get the respect he deserves," writes another.
If your friends die, The Guardian's ultimate will send them flying into the sky before they crash back down, dealing area of effect damage to foes and simultaneously reviving your team. It's the kind of ability you don't think about until you really need it, then you'll wish you had it on your side.
All that being said, no one wants to rely on their teammates sucking for their own character to be useful. And you could argue that it's better to simply deal more damage to bosses than it is to distract them, so I can see why the community is so split on this.
One player likes to use the Jellyfish Greatshield two-handed thanks to the strength bonus and its scaling. They claim it makes it better than any halberd, The Guardian's weapon of choice, so maybe give that a go if you're struggling to get utility out of the character.
People are beating the game using just bare fists, though, so clearly The Guardian has to be at least somewhat good.
Check out our own Elden Ring Nightreign tier list if you want an idea of which class to try out next.
