Guard is the most awesome defensive skill in the game... when it decides to actually work.
If your group gets hit with spike flail, you need to quit the game. Who cares if it blocks a move you should never be hit by. It only negates the first hit of a ws attack. The rest of the hits are just reduced damage like a regular guard.

Being able to finish casting(shield, parry, evasion), or completely negating damage on moves that you should actually be getting hit by (parry, evasion)

Is way better than anything guard has to offer.

The only thing guard was ever good for was ballista, where it actually procced often when I had it capped, but nobody does that anymore.