Guild Wars 2

Hey all, im just coming back after a few months and dang… a lot has changed. I dont really want to play any of my current 80s (Necro, Engi, & War) so im thinking of dusting off my Guardian!

Build Idea/Questions

The burning guardian.
The new trait Amplified Wrath looks like it has potential, Im thinking of combining it with 6x Superior Rune of Balthazar and Dire/Carrion gear for a condi build.

This would be the build:
6/6/0/0/2
Zeal: II Fiery Wrath, X Eternal Spirit, XIII Amplified Wrath.
Radiance: V Searing Flames, VII Radiant Fire, VIII A Fire Inside.
Virtues: V Improved Spirit-Weapon Duration.

Skills: Hammer of Wisdom, Sword of Justice, Judge’s Intervention, & Tome of Wrath.

I feel like this would allow me to keep burning up almost 100% on multiple targets, while still putting out good direct damage. I have no clue what weapons to use, also I feel like I might be too glassy.

I would like to use conditions and the new Amplified Wrath but im new to guardian so any help would be appreciated, thanks guys!

Is this PvE or PvP?

If you’re in a group in PvE, using Renewed Justice/activating Virtue of Justice will keep burning active on an entire group of enemies basically forever. On a single target, VoJ alone delivers 20s of burn out of 30s CD, before any increases whatsoever. That’s not even going into any other sources the party will use, which you’ll be competing for burning uptime for (including your own VoJ activation…). Most traits aimed at improving burning uptime are not much use. A Fire Inside is especially bad when there is plenty of burning to go around already.

Hammer of Wisdom deal horrendous damage, even traited, and will be hitting defiance stacks most of the time anyway.

Fiery Wrath and Radiant Power don’t affect condis, and Spirit Weapons in general will improve with power, so going full condi is putting much of their capabilities to waste.

In PvP, an enemy will just wander away when you have your spirits out should he even feel threatened, and wait till you apply all your burns and use a single cleanse to wipe it. At that point you’re basically working with nothing.

On a side note, Permeating Wrath with a staff equipped, hitting five targets per attack…you’ll keep burning active on five targets permanently with autoattack alone. It’s…not especially good, but kind of interesting nonetheless.

I agree with the spirit weapon analysis above they would probably suck, didn’t realize they scaled with power.

Is there any way to do a condi build effectively in WvW/PvP?

tattoohead.3217:

I agree with the spirit weapon analysis above they would probably suck, didn’t realize they scaled with power.

Is there any way to do a condi build effectively in WvW/PvP?

I’ve been trying and so far, zero luck. I think I logged out last night with a 6/6/2/0/0 build surrounding carrion armor and accessories. I think I peaked around 1550 condition damage using food buffs. Runs split 3/3 Balthazar and, err, drawing a blank on the other 3, sorry.

Anyway in group play I think it would be OK but my lack of armor was killing me too quickly solo roaming. I think I was around 2200 armor and 17k health. Not ideal. Every time even with a pair of Mesmers I was the first down no matter how well I played.

Tryble.6819:

Spirit Weapons in general will improve with power

Are you sure about that? I’m pretty sure spirit weapons don’t take any attributes except for condition damage, and even then that was recently changed because A Fire Inside used to be a fixed value.

They do scale with power, go into spvp and look at the tooltips with a rabid amulet, then with zerker amulet.

I’m trying this with permeating wrath and it’s great but only 1.2k condi damage even with signet -.- and hate guardians low hp. Not sure what weapon to even use, been using a hammer.

I tried a similar build myself earlier. Condi guardian is legit, man. Gimmicky as kitten but legit!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vUAQRAsf7flsApcoNDxKI8DNhkpQkOQLF/T/U9IekHAA-TkAgyCqIkRJjTGjMSZsyMEA

Put burning on spirit weapons, run purging flames and Spirit Sword. Pick Scepter and sword, both with torch offhand. Teleport in with JI. You have condi cleanse, Aoe burning and a minion. Even your healing skill burns!

Tons of burning ticks for ~950 per second. Use other sigils such a geomancy to make sure you can stack more than one condi, reapply and keep burning while playing defensively. the sword hits for 1.3K and 900 burning with me, 3K on crit. It’s insane.

Only downside is; people will hate you for playing a gimmick build and not a support build.

Aedrion.6483:

Tons of burning ticks for ~950 per second.

by your state you mention you tick for 730 dps and not 950
you need 1545 condition dmg to tick 950

messiah.1908:

Aedrion.6483:

Tons of burning ticks for ~950 per second.

by your state you mention you tick for 730 dps and not 950
you need 1545 condition dmg to tick 950

I tick 950 ish. Dunno how but I do. Maybe it’s virtue of justice active but it ticks very high Try it.

I haven’t played for like 6 months now. Are spirit weapons viable now? Or are they still dying the moment you pop them up (in dungeons)?

They’re only really sturdy enough for dungeons if you have a Hammer/Mace swap for the Prot + Regen. Take that how you will.

delete your guardian.

Charak.9761:

delete your guardian.

^this.

Conditions gameplay on guardian are not that good as looks in paper.
Any words on any one that tryed on spvp?

Aeolus.3615:

Conditions gameplay on guardian are not that good as looks in paper.
Any words on any one that tryed on spvp?

There’s two ways of going about it. Either you combine spirit weapons that burn with torch burn, VoJ burn and some burning utilities, or you go more defensive and burning + scepter dmg.

It DOES work. The 950 ticks are result of +33% burning dmg. It ticks very high and wrecks people since most of it is AoE. However, you’re sort of squishy and everybody will hate you because you bring zero party support.

I ran many games with it, including some tPvP matches. If your party forgives you being a burning guardian, then you can do some serious damage with this. People NEVER see it coming, when you get a guard burn, nobody bothers cleansing… :p

It’s decent to questionable in PvP, but I’d never use this for PvE. The actual aggregate DPS is not going to be as high as standard PvE builds. But that doesn’t actually matter in PvP, it’s not a DPS race. What matters is time on target, spikes, and pressure. This doesn’t have spikes (unless you count Spirit Weapon commanding) but it does have time on target and pressure. Two out of three is decent.

People will out-regen your burn damage

which has put guards in a bad spot, either full burst or no-dmg bunker

Who is going to be regenning 900+ DPS from burning alone, exactly?

foofad.5162:

Who is going to be regenning 900+ DPS from burning alone, exactly?

literally everyone.

Charak.9761:

foofad.5162:

Who is going to be regenning 900+ DPS from burning alone, exactly?

literally everyone.

The only people who will be able to out regen that kind of damage will have to remove it first.

Perma-stealth thieves with Condi-removal in stealth will always cleanse it and if they have heal in stealth as well it’s even worse. Thief’s Stealth heal always renders burning, bleeding and poison useless.

Good mesmers with great awareness running Mantra of Resolve will also make the build look useless but in a team fight where very few people even pay attention to what’s going on sometimes, you can really wreck face.

after playing a bit around condi guard i can say its viable build (not the spirit one)

enemies cannot out regen 900 dps but they have other means to heal and cleanse burning

thieves – will go stealth but cannot do much harm either
pu mesmer – can stealth and cleanse with mantra but cannot do much harm either
warrior if not paying attention the the symbol and aoe will run or die
necro can heal once or transfer conditions once so its wearing down game
condi ranger can wear you with poison
ele can rotate heal ability really easy
engi can be pain in the kitten

burning build is much viable in small group fight 5-20 but in larger group (blobs) or 1vX its not so notiable

Charak.9761:

foofad.5162:

Who is going to be regenning 900+ DPS from burning alone, exactly?

literally everyone.

That’s not an answer. Explain what class and build and numbers you’re specifically talking about.