Guild Wars 2

So after reading over and discussing this in a few different threads on the guardian forum, along with some testing in spvp and WvW, that a straight out condition damage build for guardian is a completely waste. However a few people have mentioned and I have to agree that the damage from burning is more of an extra passive damage booster to our damage, and that maybe including it into a build that also relies on straight forward damage would be the best. So after some playing around I think I found a working build that has a fairly good amount of condition damage and also has the strong physical damage as well.

The Build: ( copy/paste into the address bar)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRAsd7flUgaDnGSOEf4Eh1DAiQ/VVIeXPgIFbIA;TwAqmMNJay2krJZTLCGEc+Ybx7jpFA

It is a standard 10/30/30/0/0 build using meditations as your healing

Sigils: Accuracy/fire for both sets, the 5% extra crit is nice since it pushes your extra one hand crit up 20% (5 from sigil, 15 from trait, this does not show on the character screen though) I use fire for the extra damage, however any of the sigils can be changed to suit your play style.

Runes: Full 6x Undead runes, minor toughness boost, HUGE condition damage boost. (183 + 5% from toughness)

Gear: Currently a mix of Knights( helm/legs/chest) gear and Soldiers (shoulders/hands/feet)gear
2x knights rings
Valkyrie amulet
Berserker earing
Ancient Karka Shell with exquisite ruby
Rabid spine guard with exquisite Beryl

Weapons:
1h sword/focus : both berserker’s
Scepter/torch: Both berserker’s

Food buffs:
Master Tuning crystal (6% toughness and 4% vit given to Condition damage)
Omnomberry pie (66% chance on crit to stealth health, +70 perc)

Rough stats (with food buffs)
Power: 1827
Perc: 1760
Tough: 1810
Vit: 1177

Attack: 2722
Condition: 766 (leads to 520 burning damage per tick without any might stacks)
Crit chance: 70 ( 50 + the 20 that does not show from trait/sigil)
Crit damage: 61
Armor: 2965
Health: 12,855 (13,369 is actual health, still not sure why the character screen shows different)

How the build works:
Essentially it works just like any 1h strength build, just with added passive damage. You can still get a good amount of burst damage between Zealot’s defense, Shield of wrath explosion, and stacked vulnerability from the blinds on Ray of Judgment and flashing blade. On the other weapon set I always suggest throwing chains of light on the enemy first, followed by a smite, then double tapping torch #4 for the throw, then finishing with cleansing flame. The reason I suggest this is because most people will burn condition removal on the immobilize, and the torch throw adds a decent amount of burning duration, also adding the burning on will up the damage of cleansing flame by 10% due to traits. Virtue of Justice should be saved for when you need a good burst of damage, since it will blind, add vulnerability, and a good length burn (which again increases your damage) However in group vs group fights feel free to use it a bit more often as it refreshes on kills and also gives your allies the burn damage as well.

Overall I am really enjoying this build as it gives me a tiny bit of range (Yes scepter auto attack is awful unless you are right ontop of the enemy, which you should be with this build) and also lets me do some damage through the passive burning even if I am not directly hitting. Between the high armor of this build, the 3 heals off of meditations utilities and the omnomberry pie it also gives a pretty good amount of survivability to the build. The key really seems to be using your burns effectively and knowing went to hold of pressing the Virtue of justice key till the right time. (The passive procs A LOT during a Smite/cleansing flame combo)

This is just the type of build I have been looking for. I just started leveling my guardian (5th character) and am really enjoying the burning and 1handed style.
How does this build compare to the standard group buff heal build, or the 2handed sword dps build?

As far as group play it has zero group synergy, and is almost completely buffless. As far as survivabilty goes compared to a group build i would say this is a very solid build. Between having 3 meditations that heal you for 1800 on use, the passive virtue of resolve healing and the healing you get from omnomberry pie you are pretty tanky. The only downside is that this build has next to no vitality but does not take very bursty damage.

For comparing to a 2h sword build is kinda hard. You could actually move the torch over with the sword and throw the 2h on instead of a scepter. (which is what i do with my non condition build) the reason I switched to scepter with this is the synergy between right hand strength and omnomberry pie. Since more hits means more crits and more healing. Also more hits means more virtue of justice procs. Meaning more burn damage and more uptime for the 10% extra damage to burning foes trait.

Would I lose too much damage from moving 10 points in Zeal to Honor for the Shouts cooldown reduction and selecting Altruistic Healing instead?

Not too much, but it would show some. (between losing 100 power and the 10% damage boost. Moving to AH is up to you, personally i cant use it with this build after the nerf to vigor on crit. The issue though is that one of the meditations is a source of burning and a gap closer, the other two are your only sources of condition removal, so switching over to shouts with AH might seriously hurt you in certain situation, and i also think the healing from meditations greatly out does what you would get fro
AH.

Sorry for the newb questions as I’m still learning about the guardian. I didn’t know AH’s heal was so low.
How do you fare in WvW 1v1 and group play?

Could Defender’s flame be viable instead of retributive armor since you have shelter and use a focus?

@striefer

1v1 play this build is very good, it has great single target damage and survivabilty. The only classes that should give you any type of issue would be the healway build in this forum due to the retaliation return blowing your face off, elementalists because of their insane mobility and occasionally p/d thieves for the same reason. However the thieves do not seem to post as much of an issue since you can keep them burning through stealth. For group play you should play what I call a sniper role. Aka you charge in and try sniping people with high damage before needing to fall back. This build is also a good line breaker assuming you have people that will charge in with you.

@blasino

Yes it can be changed out if you want. I run it because it is 4-5% added crit which helps me keep a level 70% total crit. However if you can time your shelter correctly To absorb a multi hit attack the burning can really stack up. Overall though I would say that those two traits are completely workable whichever you choose.

hey Bash great write up here! and super glad you found a build that plays up the burning dmg that Guardians are capable of. i can see this being very strong in 1v1 as well as when in a group as you can help pick out stragglers or those on low health easily. however, i did have one and that’s how this build holds up in 1vN situations? i imagine just single one out again as well, but i guess i’ve gotten used to cleaves and PBAoEs with the other Guardian weapons. sounds very promising though.

Pretty much that. The build doesn’t have much AoE to it, other than Torch #5… which is freaking awesome when you can catch a few people in. Other than that It is picking one person off at a time mostly. the nice thing is that generally you will get a few extra hits in with smite or torch or even the sword auto attack that can proc burning on the extra targets. You will find that if you can handle the 1vX battles that once you finish the first one off, the other will be decently hurting just from the passive run off from the burns. If you do see a 1vX battle coming, I do suggest possibly trying to switch to the GS if possible, as the scepter gets worse with more targets. But most of the times you wont have the ability to do so.

good to know! i’ve long since used the scepter + combo and was “caught” being stuck using it while attacking a tower and a zerg showed up. then i remembered how much fun the scepter was, heh. the sword is really awesome too but also haven’t used it in a while since i’ve been more focused on 2hers and never really specced out fully for 1h weapons. so this would be a fun alternative. and i can see the passive dmg you’d be doing to others 1vX even if you’ve been focusing on one target. the scepter and sword and they’re fast / multi-hitting does work well with VoJ passive.

There is one downside to this build that does hurt it in group fights as well, the lack of mobility. (which yes i know is an issue with all guardians) However, without any stability or swiftness buff this build is lacking in the ability, if need be, to get away. I would say in group fights that you make sure you have some decent support before fully charging in, and to be prepared to play this build as an all or nothing in group fights since the odds of getting away are somewhat slim.

i was actually thinking of that as well. heh, pretty ballsy way to play and i like it though. not saying that Guard’s aren’t good for getting away at all – am sure many of have lived through encounters and we’re here to tell ‘em. ; ))) i guess JI and sword would be your two mainstays for “getting around” but without swiftness on command, i do see your problem. hmmm, any leftover speed boosters? they only add 15% for an hour, but could still be useful? and actually, i didn’t run with a whole lot of stability in my buidls before, but i have started to use them more now (SYG, indominable courage, etc) and i have to say, it’s extremely useful.

Yeah, I ended up moving to BG to play with christos for the week and the mobility issue became very obvious. fighting in a small group against a zerg ended very badly for me a couple times when we needed to retreat, mostly because there were no mobs to hop to using ji or flashing.

I might be able to switch some skills /traits around to help a bit, considering the good buff is alot of healing, so i might be able to throw in a swiftness or stabilty.

Also i have a ton of karma atm so i might be working on a new gear set and build. Something similar to the archon build posted in these forums but a bit different, more focused on massive group might stacking through EM and blast finishers in fire fields. But may end up a little different after i play with it.

So i switched some traits/ sigils/ possible weapons around to give the build a bit more mobility. I dropped contemplation of purity and use a mix of retreat and syg to help. (preferably syg while fighting) I also found that the GS is much better suited for group combat so now if I am running with a group i go sword+torch/GS.

To help with condition removal from losing the meditation I changed my offhand and GS sigil to generosity, and also dropped retributive armor from my traits for the condition removal every 10 seconds. This gives me 2 passive removals that can trigger every 10 seconds and my on demand from smite condition every 16. Sadly i do lose some damage and healing from doing this (about 5% crit and losing a meditation. However i feel the build runs smoother and still is actually more survivable as i have constant condition removal and also so added mobility. Also with purity being on a longer CD the healing loss is barely noticable since it was only 1800 every 48 seconds.

@Bash – oops, late reply! been busy with RL. ; ))

interestingly, i’ve just picked up generosity as well for my GS to test it out. haven’t tested it in WvW yet but it’s not bad in PvE (higher level zones). but of course, that’s a completely different story. so you feel those condi removals you have are enough?

also, seeing your post on another thread i think, did you switch your build to 20/30/20/0/0? i ask because i’m curious as to different builds that don’t go max down valor, though it’s a great line since it adds both def and off (toughness and crit dmg) even if you don’t go for AH, etc.

Yeah, I have switched up my builds alot lately. I pretty much abandoned the burn aspect of the build because overall the damage was not worth it. Sticking 6x beryl jewels gave more of a damage increase than trying to go condition based ever seemed to, so I am back running a straight damage build.

As far as it goes I tried out a high crit 30/30/10/0/0 build and found the damage to be amazing. It worked great for 1v1 roaming fights, the second a group was introduced though I quickly dropped it due to dropping like a rock and any second source of damage. I then moved to the 20/30/20/0/0 build you mentioned, found the damage was about the same (a little bit less obviously) and the survivability was a bit better, however with only healing by omnomberry pie procs the build required you to be able to constantly hit, which is obviously an issue if we get kited (which happens alot.)

At the moment though I am running a 20/20/30/0/0 Build and loving it. The damage is strong though a bit more random due to lower crit, but it has good survivabilty again due to picking up monk’s focus. Sadly in the end I could not escape the 30 in valor, and trust me, like you I have been trying to do so.