Guild Wars 2

I love playing Condition Guardian currently. After seeing all of the new changes, especially intensity stacking on Burning I feel that it is going to be one of the best ways to play Guardian. In this thread I’ll show the changes to the conditions and traits/specializations and the build I use for it.
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Table of Contents
I – Condition Changes
II – Ability Changes
III – Specialization Changes
IV – Stats, Sigils and Runes
V – Weapons
VI – Abilities
VII – Combos and Gameplay
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I ~ Condition Changes ~ I
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All damaging conditions we can apply now stack intensity up to 1500 stacks.

Burning
-Old damage = 328 + (0.25 * Condition Damage) per second.
-New damage = 131.5 + (0.155 * Condition Damage) per second.
Overall this is a buff which will be shows later on with the skills and specializations. For this just remember old Amplified Wrath at 1200 condition damage was 835 per second and new is 365 per stack per second. This will represent all damage numbers for burning.

Bleeding
-Old damage = 42.5 + (0.05 * Condition Damage) per second.
-New damage = 26 + (0.075 * Condition Damage) per second.
This is also a buff. The breakpoint is 640 and I usually end up between 1200 and 1400 condition damage. An overall increase of something like 15% bleed. Torment has also been buffed in this fashion.

Poison
Old damage = 84 + (0.1 * Condtion Damage) per second.
New Damage = 33.5 + (0.06 * Condition Damage) per second.
This one could be a nerf. Hopefully they update Sigil of Doom and Rune of the Krait to apply 2 stacks of poison.

Vulnerability
-Now increases the damage of conditions
Very helpful considering we can apply a good amount of this with symbols and the light leap combo finisher. Hopefully many traits and runes that “increase damage” follow suit.
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II ~ Ability Changes ~ II
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Virtue of Justice, Resolve, Courage: The radius of the active portion from these abilities have been reduced from 1200 to 600.
Large radius reduction to the ally buff portion of your virtues.

Virtue of Justice recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25.
Virtue of Resolve recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 50.
Virtue of Courage recharge reduced from 90 to 75.
This balances out the lost virtue CD reduction from trait lines.

Zealot’s Flame: Increased the burning duration from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
Roughly 15% damage decrease.
Zealot’s Fire: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Roughly 30% damage increase. Also this whole skill is incredibly good with the new master trait.

Judge’s Intervention: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Same as Zealot’s Fire. 30% damage increase.

Purging Flames: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 5 seconds.
Same 30% increase.

Virtue of Justice Passive: Increased the burning duration from 1 second to 2 seconds.
Almost 15% decrease. Still intensity is going to make this crazy good.

III ~ Specialization Changes ~ III
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Now my old build ran 6/2/0/0/6. The new build looks like it’s going to be Zeal, Radiance and Virtues. Let’s look at the changes

Zeal Minor
Zealot’s Speed: Create a symbol of wrath when you are struck while below the health threshold.
No change here. Although very good synergy with minor 2 and 3.
Symbolic Exposure: Symbols apply 3 seconds vulnerability to foes on each hit.
Alright so here’s one of our sources of vulnerability which now ups condition damage.
Symbolic Power: Symbols have 10% increased damage and have a 33% chance to burn enemies for 1 second.
The burning is new and is very welcome.

Zeal Adept
Old Fiery Wrath: Damage against burning foes is increased by 10%.
New Fiery Wrath: Damage against burning foes is increased by 7%.
OR Zealous Scepter: While wielding a scepter, gain 10 seconds of might when your justice passive effect triggers.
Now if Fiery Wrath got the Vulnerability treatment and now increases the damage of conditions (it doesn’t now) it might still be the best choice. Zealous Scepter shouldn’t be very hard to trigger with the offhand torch and scepter 2 though and a good source of Might is very welcome.

Zeal Master
Old Zealous Blade: Attacks with your greatsword do an extra 5% damage and heal you.
New Zealous Blade: Greatsword attacks deal 5% increased damage and heal the guardian. Greatsword skills have a 20% reduced recharge.
OR Kindled Zeal: Gain condition damage based on 10% your power attribute.
Now I’m a huge fan of the greatsword and a 20% CD reduction seems too good to pass up but if you really want the extra con damage it’s there too.

Zeal Grandmaster
Old Amplified Wrath: Burning damage is increased 33%
New Symbolic Avenger: You deal more damage to enemies standing in your symbols.
RIP OP Wrath. Symbolic Avenger hopefully gets the Vulnerability treatment. The other two grandmasters are even more lackluster for Condition Guardian.

Radiance Minor
Justice is Blind: When activating virtue of justice, nearby foes are blinded for 3 seconds.
Nothing new here.
Renewed Justice: Justice is renewed when you kill a foe.
Nothing new here.
Radiant Power: Attacks against burning foes have a 10% increased chance to critically hit.
With 2 points in old Radiance we didn’t get this anyways so it’s a free 10% crit that synergizes with the OP trait.

Radiance Adept
Old Shimmering Defense: Burn nearby foes when struck below the health threshhold
OR Searing Flames: When you apply burning to a foe, remove a boon
New Inner Fire: Gain fury for 8 seconds when you strike a foe that has 3 or more stacks of burning. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.
More free crit. Free crit is good.

Radiance Master
Old Didn’t get a trait here before
New Incredibly Broken Trait: Gain zealot’s flame when you critically hit an enemy. Burning duration to enemies is increased. Torch abilities recharge 20% faster.
So yeah. Not only do you get burning duration and torch CD, you also get free Zealot’s Flame on crit, which isn’t hard with the free 30% crit you get from the minor and adept. Zealot’s Flame base applies 1 stack of AOE burning for 6 seconds and then 3 stacks for 3 seconds on a single target plus a hefty amount of base physical damage. Note that you can get this while Zealot’s Flame is on CD as shown in the specialization showcase so pop Zealot’s Flame ASAP when you switch to your Torch.

Radiance Grandmaster
Old Didn’t get a trait here before
New Amplified Wrath: Burning damage is increased by 15%. Blocking an attack burns the attacker for 2 seconds. This effect has a 1 second internal cooldown.
Well it’s back albeit nerfed. Intensity plus the number of stacks on most things makes up for it anyways. This will be good with Aegis and blocking abilities, although the ICD will hurt. Still a great trait.

Virtues Minor
Inspired Virtue: Virtues apply the following boons to allies when activated:
The same thing but with 5s durations instead of 6 1/2 which was from the boon duration from old traits.
Virtue of Retribution: Gain retaliation for 3 seconds when you activate a virtue. Retaliation you applies lasts 25% longer.
The retaliation length is new and pretty good as this trait also gives 18 seconds of retaliation per fight baseline.
Power of the Virtuous: Deal 1% extra damage for each boon you have. Virtues recharge 15% faster.
The recharge rate is new. With it Virtues have just barely lower CDs than with the old 30% reduction.

Virtues Adept
Old Retaliatory Subconscious: Gain 5 seconds of retaliation when stunned, dazed, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, launched, taunted or inflicted with fear.
New Retaliatory Subconscious: Gain 3 seconds of retaliation and 4 seconds of aegis when stunned, dazed, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, launched, taunted or inflicted with fear.
Less retaliation but now with Aegis. Aegis is always good and will proc that 2 second burn from blocking an attack.

Virtues Master
Old Supreme Justice: Virtue of Justice causes burning with 3 strikes instead of 5. When activating virtue of justice, the burning duration is increased by 25%.
New Supreme Justice: Virtue of Justice causes burning with 3 strikes instead of 5. When activating virtue of justice, burning duration is increased by 1 second.
The duration is practically the same so no big change here.

Virtues Grandmaster
Old Permeating Wrath: Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around you each time it activates.
New Permeating Wrath: Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around your target each time it activates.
This is HUGE. Now you can actually burn from a distance with the Justice passive. Not only that but also around your target. This is going to make Condition Guardian very very good especially in WvW and also in all other pvp.
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IV ~ Stats, Sigils and Runes ~ IV
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Stats
I think that Carrion is the best stat combo for Condition Guardian. We have high base armor and low base HP so the combination of Vitality + Condition damage is what you want. Power is also very good and makes your abilities hit very hard even though your focus is the conditions. Not to mention the new free 30% crit we get and how it will scale with that.

Sigils
Due to burning not being an intensity condition previously I used Sigil of Geomancy and Sigil of Doom for the extra conditions. With the buff to Bleeding damage I believe Sigil of Geomancy giving 3 stacks of bleed is still a mandatory take, especially since it’s AOE. Sigil of Doom is only 1 stack and as of yet nothing has been released about multiplying the stacks to keep the damage equal. It will still be very good for the healing reduction. With the potential for Rune of the Balthazar to be viable Sigil of Smoldering could be good. Also on-kill stat sigils are a pretty safe choice.

Runes
Currently Rune of the Krait is the only really good rune for Condition Guardian.

+175 Condition Damage
+45% Bleeding Duration
25% chance when stuck to cause bleeding for 10 seconds (15 second ICD)
When you use your elite skill you inflict Bleeding, Poison and Torment for 8 seconds on nearby foes.

This rune gives Condition Damage along with a large duration increase to your bleeding from Sigil of Geomancy. It also makes your elite do some nice AOE damage and healing reduction.

Now with Burning stacking intensity instead of duration the two Burning duration runes become good options. The first is Rune of Balthazar.

+175 Condition Damage
+45% Burning Duration
When you’re struck below 20% health gain quickness for 5 seconds (90 second ICD)
When you use a heal skill nearby foes are burned for 3 seconds (10 second ICD)

Lastly we have Rune of the Flame Legion.

+175 Power
+30% burning Duration
25% change to cause burning for 1 second when hit (10 second ICD)
+7% damage against Burning foes

Now this is very good assuming they give it the Vulnerability treatment and the 7% damage is applied to conditions.

V ~ Weapons ~ V
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Torch is mandatory. You must use the torch. OP trait pretty much requires this. Not only do you get free AOE and targeted burns, but you also get CD reduction. Cleansing Flame is great for Justice passive procs and just straight damage too.

Scepter is my favorite mainhand with the torch. Mainly for the instant immobilize. Scepter is going to be even stronger with the ability to burn at range with the AOE Justice trait since before you would hit an enemy far away and it would just burn around you. Also the new scepter specific trait that grants Might should be fairly easy to proc 6-8 times using the scepter 2 and torch 5.

Sword and Mace are also good mainhands. I don’t use them as often but sword has high mobility and damage with projectile blocking (which may proc the burn on block), while mace has a Symbol.

For the other weapon set I recommend greatsword. Condition Guardian is great at dishing out AOE conditions from Justice’s passive and Sigil of Geomancy. The greatsword is Guardian’s best AOE weapon. It has a symbol that is also a light field, and three finishers, plus cc and very high damage. I’ll go over the greatsword a lot in the combo section.

If you want to use another 1hand mainhand focus is a great offhand. It gives very good survivability and will proc the burn on block with Shield of Wrath.

I don’t think Staff or Shield are good picks for Condition Guardian but you can try them if you want.
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VI ~ Abilities~ VI
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Healing Abilities
Shelter: Block attacks while healing.
Shelter can prevent a lot of damage if timed correctly. It also can proc 2 burns when blocking.
Signet of Resolve: Cure a condition from yourself every few seconds. Active: Heal yourself.
If you want more condition removal this is very good. The active heal is also the highest of all your heals.
Litany of Wrath: Heal yourself. For a brief time 25% of damage dealt is returned to you as healing
Again with the possible Vulnerability treatment. Currently this does not count conditions as damage dealt but we’ll see. This could be the best heal taking AOE into consideration.

Utility Abilities
Judge’s Intervention: Teleport to your target and burn nearby foes.
Great initiation ability that can also be used as an escape if you have a target. Also a stun break. Damage on this was buffed 30% and I wouldn’t go without it.
Purging Flames: Create a ring of fire that burns foes and cures conditions on allies.
Can never have enough condition removal. This lays down heavy fire damage and also cures conditions for 5 seconds. It’s also a fire combo field.
Contemplation of Purity: Convert the conditions you are suffering from into boons.
Not only does it remove ALL conditions from you, it also gives you boons for each one. This is crazy good in PvP. It’s also a stun break.

Other great utilities include Retreat! for mobility. Save Yourselves! for a bunch of boons and great synergy with Contemplation. Hallowed Ground and Stand Your Ground! for stability when necessary. Other skills are more niche but still useful.

Elite Ability
Renewed Focus is the best. It gives you 2 seconds of invulnerability during which your conditions will be ticking away, plus it refreshes all of your virtues for another heal/aegis. Remember that you can activate your virtues during the channel so always do since they will refresh instantly after, and the justice active is some nice extra burning without losing the passive.

VII ~ Combos and Gameplay~ VII
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Condition Guardian offers some high risk-high reward (most of the time very low risk really) gameplay with strong AOE damage and conditions. For the most part you want to keep these things in mind.

Weapon swapping is key.
Weapon swaps are going to give you a lot of AOE bleed plus poison. The extra condition damage will add another few hundred DPS and the poison will impede healing. Try to use all of your abilities quickly so you can swap when it’s ready.

Use your combo fields.
The greatsword has three finishers and one combo field: light. Purging Flames is a combo field: fire. Fire Whirl projectiles will inflict extra burning to enemies they strike. Light Whirl projectiles will remove conditions from allies. Fire Leap combo will give you fire shield, which burns enemies that attack you. Light Leap combo gives you Light Shield, which applies vulnerability to enemies that attack you while giving you retaliation. For maximum effect try to whirl in both fields and then leap. For an even better combo pull enemies in using the greatsword 5 right before you whirl.

Don’t use Justice’s active, proc the passive.
Try to last as many separate hits as possible. Don’t spend too much time pressing 1 unless all of your other abilities are on cooldown, since almost all of them inflict faster hits.

Try to negate as much damage as possible
You have your dodge rolls, 3 aegis, lots of condition removal, 2 stun breaks and a 2 second invuln. If you keep landing conditions and spacing your dodge rolls out well you can last long enough for conditions to take down your opponent.

Don’t afraid of invisibility.
Pretty much all of your abilities are AOE. Just keep using them.

If you think you will be downed before you finish an execute apply as much conditions as possible
It should easily give you a huge advantage and finish them off long before you bleed out.
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I hope this was informative and enjoyable. Thank you for reading.

tl;dr: Guardians burn things and do damage.

mallis I have a few questions

1) When i go with a range one attack weapon i generally dont use sigils because i cant make much use of the swapping – if the enemy is in my face i won’t want to swap to the scepter, and if im stuck at a distance i won’t want to swap to the melee weapon. Won’t it be more beneficial to use other sigils?

2) the biggest challenge to the condi guard is we’re going to be very vulnerable to any other condi player because we are going to errr about when to use contemplation of purity. If we use it for a stun break we’ll be vulnerable to stuns for a huge amount of time, but if we use it for condi cleans it’ll be vice versa. Or if two rounds of either stuns or condi bursts come our way we’ll be in trouble. It might seem like Purging Flames is the answer until we realize we have to stay in the circle to get its full effect which seems very dangerous… but on the other hand we cant sacrifice our JI as that’s crucial to getting bursts off/surprising the enemy. I think purging flames has to be given up in favor of stability which seems like a huge blow. What are your thoughts?

I thought it was enjoyable :)

Bal runes, Fire runes and Flame Legion runes are going to be ever more popular now that Burns stack.

I’m curious if Fire Shield on Fire runes and GS+Purging combo would be viable. Two Fire Shield’s will offer extra “burn on hit” effects as well as grant might stacks.

Considering burn on blocks and might on block now has 1s ICD, it might worth it.

Episcopos.5206:

mallis I have a few questions

1) When i go with a range one attack weapon i generally dont use sigils because i cant make much use of the swapping – if the enemy is in my face i won’t want to swap to the scepter, and if im stuck at a distance i won’t want to swap to the melee weapon. Won’t it be more beneficial to use other sigils?

2) the biggest challenge to the condi guard is we’re going to be very vulnerable to any other condi player because we are going to errr about when to use contemplation of purity. If we use it for a stun break we’ll be vulnerable to stuns for a huge amount of time, but if we use it for condi cleans it’ll be vice versa. Or if two rounds of either stuns or condi bursts come our way we’ll be in trouble. It might seem like Purging Flames is the answer until we realize we have to stay in the circle to get its full effect which seems very dangerous… but on the other hand we cant sacrifice our JI as that’s crucial to getting bursts off/surprising the enemy. I think purging flames has to be given up in favor of stability which seems like a huge blow. What are your thoughts?

I see there being two different condi builds.

DH/Virtues/Radiance – DH Bow + Trap variant.
Permeating Wrath and Supreme Justice w/ Fire & Air sigils on Bow

It’ll have a lot of condi burst potential via traps but the build itself will be selfish by nature. The effectiveness (and role) will be equivalent to a Trap Survival Ranger except our Bow will offer more “support” in comparison. Air and Fire sigils means you’ll do between 1 to 3 burn stacks per auto attack (assuming crit chance is there) #winning

Virtues/Radiance/Valor – sw/tor/sc/foc/gs – Medi
The more melee sentric, heavy burn stack variant consisting of Supreme Justice/Absolute Resolution and Permeating Wrath.

Geomancy will definitely be taken on both weapon sets while other sigils will be optional – poison probably being most popular. The build itself will be fairly straight forward, offering huge burn burst potential while sacrificing team oriented utilities such as Indomitable Courage or Hammer’s Ring of Warding.
It’s whether or not the Burn burst potential is substantial enough to go with or without the very utilities that made Guardian meta to begin with.

Episcopos.5206:

mallis I have a few questions

1) When i go with a range one attack weapon i generally dont use sigils because i cant make much use of the swapping – if the enemy is in my face i won’t want to swap to the scepter, and if im stuck at a distance i won’t want to swap to the melee weapon. Won’t it be more beneficial to use other sigils?

2) the biggest challenge to the condi guard is we’re going to be very vulnerable to any other condi player because we are going to errr about when to use contemplation of purity. If we use it for a stun break we’ll be vulnerable to stuns for a huge amount of time, but if we use it for condi cleans it’ll be vice versa. Or if two rounds of either stuns or condi bursts come our way we’ll be in trouble. It might seem like Purging Flames is the answer until we realize we have to stay in the circle to get its full effect which seems very dangerous… but on the other hand we cant sacrifice our JI as that’s crucial to getting bursts off/surprising the enemy. I think purging flames has to be given up in favor of stability which seems like a huge blow. What are your thoughts?

1) I usually find it easy to close gaps between enemies with immobilize/greatsword leap/greatsword pull/judge’s intervention. You want to stay on top of your enemies. Also switching is always the best option. Scepter+Torch has more single target than GS anyways:

Instant 3 stacks of 10sec+ bleed
Instant 6 sec poison
Zealots Flame for 15 ticks of burning (+6 with flame legion) + a bunch of physical
You now have 30% crit on your enemy
Immobilize them scepter 2
Back up and Cleansing Flame
Throw Zealots Flame again as soon as you crit for another 15-21 ticks of burning + more physical

Don’t be scared of being on top of enemies. They should be scared of you.

2) I usually don’t have a huge problem with conditions using healing signet+purging flames+contemplation. I think Purging Flames is fantastic for a few reason.

-It’s a fire combo field
-It applies 15-21 ticks of AOE burning and the condi cleanse on cast. You don’t need to sit in it
-If you get to sit in it, it reduces incoming condi duration.
-It has amazing synergy with the greatsword 5. If you pull someone back in who ran out they get the burning reapplied to them. And that’s also AOE.
-If you spin on top of someone in Purging Flames they will melt instantly. Every hit of the ability applies burning while in Purging Flames, and now stacks intensity.

You can out-condition almost anyone due to the passive effect of justice. On the subject of that and CC, one of your main strengths is the amount of blocking you can do. Dodge rolls work great for CC but you also have aegis and your elite and another aegis. If you really want to take stability that’s fine I just prefer not to.

Mallis.4295:

Don’t be scared of being on top of enemies. They should be scared of you.

2) I usually don’t have a huge problem with conditions using healing signet+purging flames+contemplation. I think Purging Flames is fantastic for a few reason.

-It’s a fire combo field
-It applies 15-21 ticks of AOE burning and the condi cleanse on cast. You don’t need to sit in it
-If you get to sit in it, it reduces incoming condi duration.
-It has amazing synergy with the greatsword 5. If you pull someone back in who ran out they get the burning reapplied to them. And that’s also AOE.
-If you spin on top of someone in Purging Flames they will melt instantly. Every hit of the ability applies burning while in Purging Flames, and now stacks intensity.

Wow i wasn’t aware of these two things! definitely will keep t then.

Keep in mind that even at high condition damage (over 1100), burning ticks in the new system will be doing half of what they did in the old system. In order to maintain the same damage as on live, you would need to apply double the burning. Double seems doable, but I don’t see it going much higher. There are some abilities which apply 3 stacks of burning, but those are longer cooldown.

Exedore.6320:

Keep in mind that even at high condition damage (over 1100), burning ticks in the new system will be doing half of what they did in the old system. In order to maintain the same damage as on live, you would need to apply double the burning. Double seems doable, but I don’t see it going much higher. There are some abilities which apply 3 stacks of burning, but those are longer cooldown.

Read the abilities section of my post.

Judge’s Intervention and Purging Flames burning overall damage increased by 30%.
Justice now burns for 2 sec instead of 1 and the overall damage has gone down by about 15%.
Zelot’s Flame damage is increased about 15%. Zealot’s Fire damage has increased 30%.

However before there was too much duration anyways. With burning stacking intensity the actual DPS you will be getting from burning is going to be much much higher. Before burning ticked for ~850 for me in most situations but now it’s going to be up around 2500 with just 2 abilities.

Also whirl finisher from greatsword 2 in fire fields is going to be absolutely disgusting.

EDIT

Oh wow I just realized the abilities section is missing. Gonna add that. I’ll put it in this post too.

II ~ Ability Changes ~ II
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Virtue of Justice, Resolve, Courage: The radius of the active portion from these abilities have been reduced from 1200 to 600.
Large radius reduction to the ally buff portion of your virtues.

Virtue of Justice recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25.
Virtue of Resolve recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 50.
Virtue of Courage recharge reduced from 90 to 75.
This balances out the lost virtue CD reduction from trait lines.

Zealot’s Flame: Increased the burning duration from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
Roughly 15% damage decrease.
Zealot’s Fire: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Roughly 30% damage increase. Also this whole skill is incredibly good with the new master trait.

Judge’s Intervention: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Same as Zealot’s Fire. 30% damage increase.

Purging Flames: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 5 seconds.
Same 30% increase.

Virtue of Justice Passive: Increased the burning duration from 1 second to 2 seconds.
Almost 15% decrease. Still intensity is going to make this crazy good.

Wouldnt rune of the guardian be also a good addition if you Run a block centric build?
Smart blocking will hurt the Opponent Even more and maybe the rune has no ICD

Asmodal.6489:

Wouldnt rune of the guardian be also a good addition if you Run a block centric build?
Smart blocking will hurt the Opponent Even more and maybe the rune has no ICD

If it has no ICD it could end up being very good.

Burning Duration is going to be a very important though with it now stacking intensity. Burning duration will actually do a lot instead of nothing like it does now.

The main reason is reduced condition duration. Rune of Melandru gives -25% incoming condition duration and it quite popular. Rune of resistance gives -15% incoming duration. Also it’s not uncommon for WvW players to have the -40% condition duration food on.

I’m also not entirely sure about reduced condition duration and if it applies additively or multiplicatively.

EX: You have 100% duration +33% from trait and +45% from runes. After -40% from food do you burn at 138% duration or 106.8% duration?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but for every buff condition Guardian is getting, classes with real condition builds are getting buffed at least twice as hard.

Black Box.9312:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but for every buff condition Guardian is getting, classes with real condition builds are getting buffed at least twice as hard.

Looks At Necro Lolz, in their case nerfed twice as hard xD

Mallis.4295:

I don’t use them as often but sword has high mobility and damage with projectile blocking (which may proc the burn on block)

This is incorrect.
Sword 3 destroys projectiles, not the same as block. Shield 5 and Sanctuary absorb without blocking as well. Only skills that specifically say block, block.

good work, thanks

Torch 4 + Right-hand strength + Radiant fire + Radiant power stronk, torch 4 keeps going off cooldown almost faster than I have time to throw it (edit: WvW)

I like what I’m reading here.
A question about gear, why not sinister over carrion?

Black Box.9312:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but for every buff condition Guardian is getting, classes with real condition builds are getting buffed at least twice as hard.

Yeah sure buddy.

I like what I’m reading here.
A question about gear, why not sinister over carrion?

You get 30% crit for free from the new radiance and I don’t like going full glass cannon.

My Cele-Guardian is pretty pleased with the changes to Burning.

Same, if I can get off a full whirling wrath I can get burning ticks for over 4,000 burn damage in half carrion half celestial

After some testing it’s looking like Valor might be a really good line in place of Zeal with the new Meditation traits.

Valor Minors
Valorous Defense: Gain Aegis when struck below the health threshold. (50%)
Another free aegis proc is always nice. Also another stack of 2 sec burn from the block.
Courageous Return: Virtue of Courage is recharged when you revive an ally or rally.
Not amazing but not too bad either. Just remember to always use Courage before going down. Although the active is nerfed to about 40% of what it did previously currently.
Might of the Protector: Gain Might when you block attacks.
This is really strong. You should get 5 aegis’ in a fight that lasts less than 15 sec which means 10 stacks of might. Plus Shelter is probably the best heal with Valor so add another 2 stacks.

Valor Adept
Strength of the Fallen: lose a condition every 10 sec. Health degenerates 33% slower while downed.
I like this one a lot. Condition builds are very strong right now and this is good against them. But the other trait is even better imo.
Smiter’s Boon: Cast Smite Condition when you use a healing ability
This is amazing mainly due to the GM trait which causes meditations (Smite Condition) to heal and grant fury. Plus Smite Condition deals AOE damage and removes a condition.

Valor Master
Strength in Numbers: Nearby allies gain 150 toughness in combat.
I thought communal defenses was better but apparently you don’t benefit from it. You do however get toughness from this.

Valor Grandmaster
Monk’s Focus: Using a meditation skill heals you and grants fury to allies in a radius. Meditation skills have reduced recharge.
This is the reason for going Valor. This makes all of your utilities, and your healing skill (because of the Adept trait) give fury and a nice heal. Also your utilities and elite have a 20% reduced recharge.

Condimediguard Abilities
I’m still running Scepter+Torch/GS. Scepter+Torch/Sword+Focus would be really strong too I just spent a bunch of money crafting an ascended GS and I’m not going to swap it. Plus Whirling Wrath is crazy OP now.

As for utilities since you’re doing meditations just swap Purging Flames for Smite Condition. I would also recommend Shelter over Signet for this build.

Could you post the build/gear/sigils and runes that you are using at this moment? (Link)

Indez.1046:

Could you post the build/gear/sigils and runes that you are using at this moment? (Link)

Currently my build looks like this:
Valor 2 2 2
Radiance 1 2 1
Virtues 2 1 1
Greatsword/Scepter+Torch
Shelter, Juddge’s Intervention, Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity, Renewed Focus
Rune of Balthazar, Sigil of Geomancy, Sigil of Smoldering

Tried a few different ways to build around carrion & celestial after patch.

For a damage oriented build using physical damage & burning I found radiance, virtues & honor worked best in PVE.
Traits were Right handed strength, radiant fire, amplified wrath, master of consecrations, empowering might, pure of voice.
For weapons use either sword or mace + torch with greatsword in the off set and air + fire sigils with flame legion runes.
The utilities were shelter, purging flame, then 2 shouts with feel my wrath as the elite.

This means each voj proc will be an aoe 3 second burn and voj will proc every third hit (which is increased by fire & air procs)

So realistically its not hard to keep up 9-15 burn stacks on your main target and a good 6-8 on surrounding targets.

For WvW or Spvp I would most likely swap out honor for valor as the extra fury uptime and self healing would be needed.

In the end I found that carrion pulls ahead of celestial damage wise until you get a good deal of might stacking & precision buffs (warrior banner, ranger trait etc..) at which point carrion/rampager/sinister is too close to celestial for me to tell without vid capture of a whole fight.
This mainly due to all the ferocity on celestial that isn’t on carrion/rampager/sinister

I’ll have to try fire and air sigils. I didn’t think of the fact that they proc more voj.

Mallis.4295:

Indez.1046:

Could you post the build/gear/sigils and runes that you are using at this moment? (Link)

Currently my build looks like this:
Valor 2 2 2
Radiance 1 2 1
Virtues 2 1 1
Greatsword/Scepter+Torch
Shelter, Juddge’s Intervention, Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity, Renewed Focus
Rune of Balthazar, Sigil of Geomancy, Sigil of Smoldering

Hnnng the damage, but engi blowtorch is even nastier I’ve seen that one shot a thief almost instantly.

What set is best for hybrid guard, Carrion, Rampager or Sinister? I didnt put Dire because no power stat.

Mortar in WvW, lol

sorrychief.2563:

Mallis.4295:

Indez.1046:

Could you post the build/gear/sigils and runes that you are using at this moment? (Link)

Currently my build looks like this:
Valor 2 2 2
Radiance 1 2 1
Virtues 2 1 1
Greatsword/Scepter+Torch
Shelter, Juddge’s Intervention, Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity, Renewed Focus
Rune of Balthazar, Sigil of Geomancy, Sigil of Smoldering

I feel like you don’t really need a specific build for stacking Burning as long as you pick Virtues with Supreme Justice and Permeathing Wrath in combination with a random fast or multi-hitting weapon. Radiant Fire helps a lot but you don’t necessarily need it. I do run it, though (Radiance I, II, I, Virtues II, I, I and Honor I, III, I).

Xaylin.1860:

sorrychief.2563:

Mallis.4295:

Indez.1046:

Could you post the build/gear/sigils and runes that you are using at this moment? (Link)

Currently my build looks like this:
Valor 2 2 2
Radiance 1 2 1
Virtues 2 1 1
Greatsword/Scepter+Torch
Shelter, Juddge’s Intervention, Smite Condition, Contemplation of Purity, Renewed Focus
Rune of Balthazar, Sigil of Geomancy, Sigil of Smoldering

I feel like you don’t really need a specific build for stacking Burning as long as you pick Virtues with Supreme Justice and Permeathing Wrath in combination with a random fast or multi-hitting weapon. Radiant Fire helps a lot but you don’t necessarily need it. I do run it, though (Radiance I, II, I, Virtues II, I, I and Honor I, III, I).

Yeah I was just listing my specific build for the guy who asked what it was.

IMO Radiance + Virtues are necessary. Traits you should take 100% of the time are Supreme Justice, Permeating Wrath, and Amplified Wrath. I would also say Radiant Fire is the best by far for a burning-focused build. It brings a lot to the table with duration, Torch CD, and free Zealot’s Flame. I would probably run it even without a Torch because Zealot’s Flame still gives 2 stacks of AOE burning for free.

Well…my records lies by 11k burning damage in the mists at the golems. Theoretically, full buffed i can reach in PvE or WvW a maximum of ~ 16k !!! all in under 3 seconds.

here a short view: testet in WvW at 5 dogs, without might, with 25 malice-stacks(?) and 5 WvW-stacks
Could be easily higher at enemies with more life ^^

I am really wondering whether Sinister-stats is the way to go. I see a lot of people recommending pure zerker in “condi-build”.. however how on earth is that affecting burn damage when it clearly is not based on power, but condi dmg?

Yesterday I had a lot of fun in PvP with a funky condition build.

Weapons : Scepter/Focus, Scepter/Torch

Sigils : Battle/Geomancy, Hydromancy/Doom

Runes : Balthazar

Amulet : Carrion

Traits : http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIB1AJkBdw~

Utilities : Shelter, Purging Flames, Wall of Reflexion, Sword of Justice

Basicly, you try to be in the face of your oppononent to swap as often as you can. You also have lot of pressure from distance has you have double scepter and SoJ which follows your target.

BURN, BURN, BURN!!!! Try to not use F1 to proc max burning passive with smite. Use your blocs appropriately as they trigger a 1.5k burning to opponents! Your sword is also very OP. If someone succeed in putting you down before they burn, your sword will finish them. Rekts those ranger pets so they won’t heal.

It utterly destroys everyone 1v1 except DD ele (kitten them) and maybe other cele build with lots of condi cleanse. I didn’t found condi necro to be that much of a problem. I also often 2v1 on point with my WoR and the aoe burn.

Pros : Fun, lots of burst, see enemy run from you if you are in a 1v1 situation and if they commit and try to fight you, burn trying to escape. Some support for teamfight with Purging and WoR, as well has a break stun/stab with F3 if needed.

Cons : Lack of mobility, makes you not want to go far. You mainly stay home and when it’s cleared rotate mid . Teamfight is quite hard if the enemy team focus you and your team doesn’t peel for you (you still have lots of defense with shelter, RF, F3 and scepter 5, but you can get overwhelmed easily. kitten hammer warrior with sigil of paralization). If the enemy is smart, they will open by killing your SoJ, reducing considerably your DPS.

All around, really fun and strong build, cool to roflstomp noobs but should not be viable in a high lvl PvP game.