Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running a build some guy posted but I tweaked it slightly to suit my needs.
I’ve been for the last week trying out lot’s of diffrent builds from my own creation to the meta builds. just to see what suits my playstyle more.

And I feel the only useful build for me at least is heavy burning which kinda makes me a sad panda. because Id like to use meditaions and or it would be really cool if spirit weapons where actually useful.

I wish they would allow us to pick what stats we want exactly for the amulet, I feel all the premade one’s we have now prevent creativity.

That’s because med is mediocre when compared to Mesmers, Eles, and Rampaging Warriors.

Burning is a one trick pony that only works on players who don’t bring condi cleanses.

I agree with the amulet comment. Losing the ability to gain attributes from our trait tree hurt our class the most IMHO, and the PVP amulets don’t adequately compensate.

I’ve been using Burning in PVP since forever and it’s certainly not a one trick pony if you understand it. There is no amount of cleansing that can keep a player from burning if you use your burning sources correctly, which is why it’s powerful. That’s even more true now than it was pre-patch. I believe that burning builds have had some of the wind taken out of them.

I don’t know, I haven’t had any issues dealing with burn guardians. Probably the same reason I have yet to see any burn guardians in higher levels of competition. It’s not a coincidence.

No, that’s true. Burning on Guard is certainly not the meta I doubt you’re going to see them at higher competitive levels. In that way, I think the OP should be exploring a little more to see that burn builds aren’t the new kid in town.

I know they are not new, And I agree that they are very lacking ankitten ot surprised that they are not in higher levels of play. What im saying is for me personally as someone who just plays unranked and is newer to pvp in this game as I have been doing nothing but PVE forever. That I this build I am running seems to be the only thing im good with.

before the patch I had an amazing build I was using but it’s not vaible anymore even with all the condi cleanses I used to use I keep getting burst down fast as a bunker. Im sure that if I had an actual team to play with that knew what they where doing and I did not pug all the time I could use the meta build to it’s full potental. but I do not have the time to really get super into an spvp guild nor do I really want to dedicate that much time to this aspect of the game Im currently running burning in PVE and finding I am loving it better than zerker.

but at the same time I find my mind wandering a lot lately trying to come up with something better than this build. I fail to see how anything honestly is better I’ve played direct damage bunker and without good teamplay I fail to see the reason to use anything else.

One other thing I don’t like playing support I usually like more tankier builds that outlast opponets and have strong dps at the same time is usually my goal. I may need to just nerf my burning a bit for Valor but I am still performing much better with just pure all out burning at this time.

Dude any decent Ele / mesmer in spvp can clean your burn forever bro.

and u will basically do 0 dmg against them. So you better play power at least you could help your teammate bringing them down.

I mean, you could run burn and mediations. Radiance, Valor, Virtues. Carrion works wonders for hybrid, but you also run celestial if needed. There are a lot of options. Maybe you just need to experiment a tad more, or in different ways.

Liza.2758:

Dude any decent Ele / mesmer in spvp can clean your burn forever bro.

and u will basically do 0 dmg against them. So you better play power at least you could help your teammate bringing them down.

I’m not aware of every tool for every class but cleansing a burn every 1-2 seconds would be an interesting trick to know how to do.

Anyways, I don’t see any reason why OP can’t run a burning strategy AND whatever else. Very little is necessary to get access to burns and make them effective, though if you want to stack like a monster, then I think OP need to focus on a combination of 2 traitlines or 1 traitline + Torch/hotbar skill to get it and that might compromise some other aspect of your play.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Burn Guard is meta, but it’s certainly the most effective offensive build we have now, seeing as our direct damage builds received an overall nerf. But once burning is inevitably nerfed, we’ll be back to our traditional no-damage-bunker-only role.

Liza.2758:

Dude any decent Ele / mesmer in spvp can clean your burn forever bro.

and u will basically do 0 dmg against them. So you better play power at least you could help your teammate bringing them down.

If we get the drop on Mesmer first with JI + Zealots Flame then we’ll actually counter them. They would be forced to make a clone, waste a shatter for a cleanse, and/or force them to stealth. I’ve never really had a problem with Mesmers unless I was 1v1ing them off point.. in which case, everyone has a problem with.

Ele’s are bruiser classes who almost always ends up in your AoE attacks. They’re very easy to manage as you can practically force them out of Fire Attunement by bursting them during it with PF. Burst them right after they enter water attunement too. On that point, Never engage them with a JI burst first. Other than that, Ele’s are outplayable in tpvp group scenarios.

The biggest counter to burn guards (condi classes in general) are Necros and Shout Guardians. Necros because of their numerous condi transfers… they’re ridiculously frustrating… Shout Guardians because you’ll do significantly less damage throughout the fight to where burn guardians performance is worse than any other Power Medi build. You would have to get lucky with your cleaves and have better rotations overall, to make burn guardian work in these high comp, high risk, situations.

loool u forgot that Burn guard is not Bunker condi

you are as glass as power guard. a few cleans are enough to win.

there is no need to clean every sec …

because u can burst down a Burn guard very quick as well

I’m not going to explain Burn Guardian’s merits or argue their team comp viability with you.

I’m correcting your comment in regards to Mesmer and Ele.

Ele forces to enter Water attunement and/or Utility cleanses.
Mesmer forced to exit the heavy AoE dmg area after a failed burst and now have to make and waste a clone to cleanse condi’s

Guardians will still offer numerous AoE burns after these classes cleanse. We will not only out damage both classes, but can out sustain them if they continue to eat up the Guardian’s AoE attacks in a team fight situation.

Again, Necros and Bunker Guardians are our biggest counters for obvious reasons, rather than your “Mesmers and Eles” assumption.

the current meta is full zerk/ power thus you aint see much burning guard as team doing instagab burst
burning guard can force enemy to be on defense and on cleanse toes

sre if bunker guard or 2 eles in the enemy team he will have hard time thus he will need to rotate far or close for better results

on points its good build as it force you to stay off the point

Liza.2758:

loool u forgot that Burn guard is not Bunker condi

you are as glass as power guard. a few cleans are enough to win.

there is no need to clean every sec …

because u can burst down a Burn guard very quick as well

That doesn’t mean much; it’s too general a statement. Your statement assumes you can’t make a tanky burn guard … you can.

And there is a need to clean every few seconds; suggesting you don’t means you don’t understand all the methods and frequency that Guards can apply burning.

Again, if you have a way that Ele/Mesmer can cleanse the burning ‘forever’, we would love to hear it … otherwise try to be less flippant in your statements if you want to be taken seriously.

Liza.2758:

loool u forgot that Burn guard is not Bunker condi

you are as glass as power guard. a few cleans are enough to win.

there is no need to clean every sec …

because u can burst down a Burn guard very quick as well

This is entirely false. Guards don’t need to crit to apply any of their burns. Not a single one. There are crit % increases on burning foes, crit % increases on single-handed weapons. You could have zero precision on gear and still run a 29% crit chance, and if you’re medi (which, let’s face it, most burn guards should be for JI) you’re going to have constant fury uptime from utilities and elite. 49% crit chance with no precision on gear. You could run a mix of dire, soldier’s, and valk for ferocity and have high power, high toughness, high vit, high condition damage, and high crit damage.

I run a cele power/burn guard in PvP and I make people explode, all while being able to keep up with or even out-sustain staff eles. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had playing this class.

I run a carrion burn, and with amplifiee wrath, shelter and swapping to focus in the middle of mesmer or thief burst and they tend explode themselves. I find that idont use JI for anything other than a stunbreak. Now i don’t play ranked, so that is probably where my success comes from. This build is a definate one to two trick pony, but they are kitten good tricks.

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Radiance/valor/virtues. Zeal has too little contributions compared to virtue.

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Radiance/valor/virtues. Zeal has too little contributions compared to virtue.

You were using GS. Zealous Blade, Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Exposure, Symbolic Power? Perhaps you might be better off with sword/focus than GS, since it doesn’t do much for you here.

Pure Dire burn guards are not very effective condi classes, which is why I opt for a hybrid with just 700 condition damage and 2300 power. I still manage 3-3.5k burn ticks. With only one primary damaging condition, it’s really easy to cleanse, so I prefer Zeal for the GS CD reduction, symbol vuln, and extra damage against burning foes. Since Dire already has a lot of sustain, I would trait into damage further.

Glassier classes would benefit from Virtues a lot more, I think, although I suppose Supreme Justice makes more sense for a pure burn Guard.

Sauncho.8076:

I don’t know, I haven’t had any issues dealing with burn guardians. Probably the same reason I have yet to see any burn guardians in higher levels of competition. It’s not a coincidence.

Well….. just because no one plays it, doesn’t mean it can’t work. Even from the little fight of (i think it was Tage or Fraelina) someone using COndi guard in the WTS on ORNG with Hammer and S/F, it was absolutely devastating with the right timing when lobbed into a team fight.

Yea no one plays it, doesn’t mean it ain’t viable.
———-

And if you want something new, you should just sit down and stare really hard at your weapons and traits. You’ll figure something new out.

No for real, that’s literally what I’ve been doing.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Radiance/valor/virtues. Zeal has too little contributions compared to virtue.

You were using GS. Zealous Blade, Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Exposure, Symbolic Power? Perhaps you might be better off with sword/focus than GS, since it doesn’t do much for you here.

Pure Dire burn guards are not very effective condi classes, which is why I opt for a hybrid with just 700 condition damage and 2300 power. I still manage 3-3.5k burn ticks. With only one primary damaging condition, it’s really easy to cleanse, so I prefer Zeal for the GS CD reduction, symbol vuln, and extra damage against burning foes. Since Dire already has a lot of sustain, I would trait into damage further.

Glassier classes would benefit from Virtues a lot more, I think, although I suppose Supreme Justice makes more sense for a pure burn Guard.

The build works a lot better with sword/focus with the scepter/torch. I’ve tried it. I have just fallen madly in love with my sunrise not to use it haha. I have run into people who know how to cleanse effectively watch my second video. There’s a fight there with a really good ele who kept cleansing my burns but ultimately, all the cleanse will not help you when 2-3 stacks are built every other attack.

When built just to burn, a guard can be quite effective. Ele with diamond skin has been my one big direct counter.

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Radiance/valor/virtues. Zeal has too little contributions compared to virtue.

You were using GS. Zealous Blade, Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Exposure, Symbolic Power? Perhaps you might be better off with sword/focus than GS, since it doesn’t do much for you here.

Pure Dire burn guards are not very effective condi classes, which is why I opt for a hybrid with just 700 condition damage and 2300 power. I still manage 3-3.5k burn ticks. With only one primary damaging condition, it’s really easy to cleanse, so I prefer Zeal for the GS CD reduction, symbol vuln, and extra damage against burning foes. Since Dire already has a lot of sustain, I would trait into damage further.

Glassier classes would benefit from Virtues a lot more, I think, although I suppose Supreme Justice makes more sense for a pure burn Guard.

The build works a lot better with sword/focus with the scepter/torch. I’ve tried it. I have just fallen madly in love with my sunrise not to use it haha. I have run into people who know how to cleanse effectively watch my second video. There’s a fight there with a really good ele who kept cleansing my burns but ultimately, all the cleanse will not help you when 2-3 stacks are built every other attack.

When built just to burn, a guard can be quite effective. Ele with diamond skin has been my one big direct counter.

When fighting Diamond skin eles, stay in GS and try to land Binding blade and your Whirling Wrath. Don’t pull them after landing BB, BB will tick for damage overtime and your Whirling Wrath SHOULD do enough damage to bring them down below their 90% threshold. Then you can pull them and switch to S/T to burn them.

Dirame.8521:

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

ThePaladin.2140:

I was getting really confident with my build to make 3 good short montages of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzE45fq9X40

It was only when I hit something I couldn’t kill, a really good ele with diamond skin. My Dire pure burn guard might as well have been throwing pebbles at a Terminator.

What traits are you using there? Are you not running Valor/Zeal/Radiance?

Radiance/valor/virtues. Zeal has too little contributions compared to virtue.

You were using GS. Zealous Blade, Fiery Wrath, Symbolic Exposure, Symbolic Power? Perhaps you might be better off with sword/focus than GS, since it doesn’t do much for you here.

Pure Dire burn guards are not very effective condi classes, which is why I opt for a hybrid with just 700 condition damage and 2300 power. I still manage 3-3.5k burn ticks. With only one primary damaging condition, it’s really easy to cleanse, so I prefer Zeal for the GS CD reduction, symbol vuln, and extra damage against burning foes. Since Dire already has a lot of sustain, I would trait into damage further.

Glassier classes would benefit from Virtues a lot more, I think, although I suppose Supreme Justice makes more sense for a pure burn Guard.

The build works a lot better with sword/focus with the scepter/torch. I’ve tried it. I have just fallen madly in love with my sunrise not to use it haha. I have run into people who know how to cleanse effectively watch my second video. There’s a fight there with a really good ele who kept cleansing my burns but ultimately, all the cleanse will not help you when 2-3 stacks are built every other attack.

When built just to burn, a guard can be quite effective. Ele with diamond skin has been my one big direct counter.

When fighting Diamond skin eles, stay in GS and try to land Binding blade and your Whirling Wrath. Don’t pull them after landing BB, BB will tick for damage overtime and your Whirling Wrath SHOULD do enough damage to bring them down below their 90% threshold. Then you can pull them and switch to S/T to burn them.

Any ele who actually knows how to play will kite the guardian the moment he gets on gs.

GS dmg doesn’t compare to Ele’s fire attunement damage, you’ll lose that battle. That’s the only time the Ele will engage the guardian when he’s in GS.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to counterplay the DS Ele. Your best bet is to ww + bb or Zealot’s Fire x2 with crit effects… and JI/PU the moment he’s under 10%… but the ele will still heal up the moment he’s below that threshhold. There’s no way to counter them effectively.

Saiyan.1704:

Any ele who actually knows how to play will kite the guardian the momen the gets on gs.

GS dmg doesn’t compare to Ele’s fire attunement damage, you’ll lose that battle. That’s the only time the Ele will engage the guardian when he’s in GS.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to counterplay the DS Ele. Your best bet is to ww + bb or Zealot’s Fire x2 with crit effects… and JI/PU the moment he’s under 10%… but the ele will still heal up the moment he’s below that threshhold. There’s no way to counter them effectively.

I dunno, I’ve had decent success against them on a burn build with the Sword autoattack and Air/Fire sigils. You only need to do 1,725 damage to a Cele Ele with 17,245 HP to put them below 90%. A Cele build has 2448 armor normally and 2598 when traited for extra armor while attuned to Earth, and the Sword auto chain can deal more damage than 1,725 damage to them in one cycle even without landing any critical hits (500-600 non-crit damage on the first two hits, 900-1100 total on the third). When you’re actually landing crits and proccing sigils, even their Protection and healing won’t keep you from hitting that damage threshold, and as soon as they dip below it, you can start applying burns.

If they heal above 90%, just autoattack them again. If they kite, Flashing Blade, Leap of Faith, and JI give you up to 8 leaps/teleports every 40 seconds to sustain pressure, and you’ve still got ZD, ZF, and your utilities when you need them to make a push (just pace your burn application so you don’t lose all of your stacks to a single cleanse). Smite Condition is also a great tool for keeping DS Eles in line, since it provides Fury and healing for you every 16 seconds along with an extra chunk of damage for them to deal with.

DS Eles aren’t my favorite things to fight, but I also don’t feel much pressure to disengage if I face off with one. I guess I could just be fighting some bad Eles, but I don’t think that only pro Eles are capable of maintaining protection, applying CC, and healing when they go below 90%. Eles are one big reason I enjoy running a moderate amount of power-based damage even on Carrion builds: if they’re DS, pressure ‘em with autos and crit procs, and if they’re Stone Heart, let the burns do the work instead.

I haven’t even entered WvW and theory crafted gear so.. i have no idea how that differs from TPvP! From tpvp experience, DS are hands down unkillable.

I will say that Eles have the biggest skill gaps in the game now, next to Thieves. There are more “decent” Ele players than there are “pro” ones and the difference between the two are very noticeable.

Saiyan.1704:

I haven’t even entered WvW and theory crafted gear so.. i have no idea how that differs from TPvP! From tpvp experience, DS are hands down unkillable.

I will say that Eles have the biggest skill gaps in the game now, next to Thieves. There are more “decent” Ele players than there are “pro” ones and the difference between the two are very noticeable.

I was talking with PvP numbers and gear, hence the very specific armor/HP values (in WvW, it could be anything because of mix-and-match gear). I still haven’t had major issues with them besides them being somewhat slower kills than other professions, but I think that the burn build most people are running currently is more heavily hard-countered by Eles than the one I use. Inner Fire is awful against DS Eles, as is the Radiant Power minor, so you lose a ton of your bonus crit chance from the start and need to rely on the Fury you can get from Smiter’s Boon, JI (which you don’t want to waste), and CoP (which you also wouldn’t want to use just for Fury). Not being able to crit consistently means less access to Radiant Fire, so it’s harder to spike down their HP on demand with Torch 4, and if you’re running any crit sigils, they’re not going to be proccing, either. Having RHS with Sword for procs is a significantly better option here.

Scepter over Sword means damage from autoattacks is much less consistent because of how easily the orbs are kited, forcing you to rely on burst combos with 2,3, and 4, or slow channeled damage from 5 every 12 seconds. Purging Flames can also frequently be a dead utility against them, and it gives a huge telegraph for any type of burst you’re going to attempt. I run with Smite Condition instead, which frequently applies Fury to further solidify your crit chance, gives better sustain to help you keep up with the Ele, and can take a decent chunk out of their HP if you crit and remove burning/bleeding.

Not saying that the popular burn build is a worse build overall because of these things, but I think that DS Eles in particular counter it in a lot of ways that aren’t as problematic for other styles of burn Guardian, and the matchup doesn’t have to be so one-sided.