Hi all. First post, but I’ve been lurking in the forums since beta. I’ve played around different builds and I’m in the point of trying to experiment other builds. There seems to be a lack of zeal builds, hence I started this thread. As mentioned in other threads, Zeal is pretty lackluster trait line compared to Valor or Honor. Some of the traits doesn’t even make sense or pretty much useless (I’m looking at you zeal adept minor trait). I also agree that the zeal trait line doesn’t synergize well with the weapons it buffs, my point being scepter and focus buff traits. Its here, but the the minor traits will be useless since both weapons don’t even have symbols. “But you can still ue adept minor trait”. Yea, still useless if you’re sniping your foe from a distance. Anyway, zeal may be bad, but with the correct set up, zeal can be pretty interesting. Somewhat gimmicky, but interesting (at least for me). Before I start, a little disclaimer: I’m no guardian master. I only do PvE and dungeons(I haven’t even done all of them). No WvW experiece, nor PvP experience. So everything I put here is based on PvE content that I’ve played. I just wanted to share what I have for those who are interested and probably get some input from the readers as well. Also, this is not an optimal build, more like an alternative “for fun” build. Tweak it to your heart’s content.
Before the builds (yes, there will be multiple builds that I will post all focusing on heavy traited Zeal), a little zeal trait discussion. As mentioned in the wiki, Zeal is basically a symbol heavy traitline. The master and grandmaster minor traits boost your symbols and your damage capability by giving more damage to symbols and dishing out vulnerability. Investing heavily in zeal means Symbol boost, more power, and more condition duration. That’s why that scepter and focus trait in zeal seems out of place as these weapons don’t even have symbols at all. Your increase condition duration benefits you in 2 ways: longer burn and longer vulnerability (who says burn is the only condition guardians can dish out?). Add might to that and you should dish out pretty good damage, not just you but your whole team as well. If you won’t be using symbols, then I would suggest not putting too much into Zeal. But that doesn’t mean you should stay away from it. There are some traits that are good but does not involve symbols like the 10% dmg for opponents on fire.
Below is the build I’m using now:
Zeal: 30 – I(blinding jeopardy), II(Feiry wrath), V(shattered aegis)
Honor: 30 – III, VII, IX(2 handed mastery)
Virtues: 10 – I(Unscathe contender)
Weapon: Berserk Hammer superior sigil of peril/Soldier staff superior sigil of choice (I’m actually using foefire’s power and AC staff with default sigil, lol)
Armor: all COF berserk armor with rune of baelfire.
Why? Because I’m a cheap kitten… and
- More power
- More burn duration = more use of 10% increase in damage
- 5% chance of vigor proc on hit on top of your adept minor honor trait on crit! Yes please!(unkitten th have same cooldown)
- Fire Nova!!! (honestly, I haven’t noticed this proc-ing…)
- This is easy to get with minimum effort. I’m settling on this for now as I blew all my gold in making that foefire’s power (kitten you charged lodestones! But I do not regret it)
Trinkets: all crafted exotic ruby berserk, except for backpiece which I used cavalier (Pow/Tou/Crit dmg). I’m gunning for more damage hence berserk.