Guild Wars 2

Holy cow is the combo powerful, especially when paired with mace+focus on the other set. I never really bothered, always played defensively before.

Sword/torch is a bad combo since all you get is a bit of burning. Cleansing Flames doesn’t actually do any more damage than the sword auto, in fact, it does less.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Sword/torch is a bad combo since all you get is a bit of burning. Cleansing Flames doesn’t actually do any more damage than the sword auto, in fact, it does less.

Meh, If the OP enjoys that particular play-style, why crap in his cereal? Anet made it possible for a reason.

I use the scepter/torch as a second set myself, but I leveled to 80 with the sword/torch as my 2nd weap set. I think its fun.

@Guanglai

I find that with torch I have two benefits. On torch 4 you can get about 2 burn ticks and still throw it for good damage. On torch 5 the power comes in that if you line up properly you can hit multiple enemies with the entire burn for good group damage.

Personally, I’ll probably switch to sword and board at some point, but this is the first time I’ve played around with a torch since probably level 10 (I’m 74 now). Mace+Focus is my staple second set, usually paired with a Greatsword, but I’m having fun changing it up a bit. Also, a bit of burning may not be OP, but it pairs well with my setup, and I get 10% additional damage on burning foes (Zeal 10 point).

2 blinding skills provide a great deal of defense if timed right, specially if you are in the Radiance Tree, where VoJ also blinds.
Only problem with Blind is that champions are pretty much immune to it (10% effectiveness).

I’d understand if they simply never missed with certain important attacks that you are meant to evade, and reduced blind effectiveness to 20% instead, requiring you to time blinding skills.

Torch is only good if paired with Mace. Sword+Torch feels like an idort build. A full blast of 5 deals more or less the same damage over time as 1.

I played with those combos for a long time and loved it. Paired with empowering might and high crit chance, it’s great

NO wonder this class is so messed up …. you all have no clue wtf you’re doing. Torch is one of our best weapons period I do 10k with my torch and remove condition while doing so idk maybe you guys have a BIC lighter equipped? I only speak of PvP because and PvE comment is not relevant since it’s so simple in this game.

Yeah, I’ve had great success with the crit rate on torch, plus the fact that it hits everything in a line even outside melee, seems to have about 600 range. I’m sitting on 37% crit right now.

As for pairing mace+torch, I’m not a fan of the combo. Mace+focus is my big defensive combo with block/counter on 3, blind and heal on 4, and shield bubble on 5, plus the healing. I think sword is better paired with torch or shield.

I use Mace/Torch to great effect. Symbol build for the abuse of mace #2 and plenty of burn improving traits. Add in the blinding and vulnerability and stuff falls over dead with little effort.

StugLyfe.2134:

NO wonder this class is so messed up …. you all have no clue wtf you’re doing. Torch is one of our best weapons period I do 10k with my torch and remove condition while doing so idk maybe you guys have a BIC lighter equipped? I only speak of PvP because and PvE comment is not relevant since it’s so simple in this game.

I think you’re the one who has no idea what he’s doing.

Sword/Torch is a bad combo for the following reasons:

1) Zealot’s Flame is decent but you get a lot of burn already from the sword just from passive justice. Auto-attack chain is 5 hits and comes out fast and ZD is 8. Since burn only stacks in intensity, you’re getting reduced benefit from the burn since you’re already burning 1/3rd of the time anyway.

2) Cleansing Flames does large total damage but is extremely slow. In the amount of time it takes to do a full Cleansing Flames you can actually get MORE damage out of the auto-attack. In fact, the only 1H weapon where Cleansing Flames beats the auto-attack in damage is the scepter. I personally tested this. It’s true. Don’t argue with it.

3) Cleansing Flames does not remove conditions from yourself, only allies.

As such, the only purpose of the move outside of a scepter/torch removal of conditions from allies, or as a poor man’s AOE if you have no other option (and you do). I suggest you test these things before you make broad generalizations about them.

I also do not recommend using Mace/Focus since the regen application overlaps between Symbol of Faith and Ray of Judgment. Also, Shield of Wrath prevents the counter from Protector’s Strike from triggering, so you lose a lot of damage and only gain a few seconds of protection. This is more debatable of a combination than sword/focus but one way or another it’s not optimal.

For sword, I recommend using focus offhand. It’s the most damage-oriented of the offhands due to the burst potential from Shield of Wrath.

Sword + Torch is the fastest hitting weapon combo for the guardian, so it’s great for crit builds. Reasonably, all the sword/torch skills are in Radiance. Put some sigils of strength on there with some Virtues spec and watch as you stack all the way to 25 on mobs or even bosses. You could also go get Empowering Might and a staff to be a party might stacker who also jumps around a lot for no reason.

I run a crit/burn kind of build with the talent to do an extra 10% dmg to burning targets and I always swap between GS, sword torch and GS, scepter torch. The dps and utility is just awesome. Talented and gemmed right, plus the teleport burn meditation it’s sweet. Also the scepter+torch is such a great combo! If you land a full combo, (chains on scepter 3, scepter 2 and then your torch 5) everything dies. If not port in and G2 2 what ever is left.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

StugLyfe.2134:

NO wonder this class is so messed up …. you all have no clue wtf you’re doing. Torch is one of our best weapons period I do 10k with my torch and remove condition while doing so idk maybe you guys have a BIC lighter equipped? I only speak of PvP because and PvE comment is not relevant since it’s so simple in this game.

I think you’re the one who has no idea what he’s doing.

Sword/Torch is a bad combo for the following reasons:

1) Zealot’s Flame is decent but you get a lot of burn already from the sword just from passive justice. Auto-attack chain is 5 hits and comes out fast and ZD is 8. Since burn only stacks in intensity, you’re getting reduced benefit from the burn since you’re already burning 1/3rd of the time anyway.

2) Cleansing Flames does large total damage but is extremely slow. In the amount of time it takes to do a full Cleansing Flames you can actually get MORE damage out of the auto-attack. In fact, the only 1H weapon where Cleansing Flames beats the auto-attack in damage is the scepter. I personally tested this. It’s true. Don’t argue with it.

3) Cleansing Flames does not remove conditions from yourself, only allies.

As such, the only purpose of the move outside of a scepter/torch removal of conditions from allies, or as a poor man’s AOE if you have no other option (and you do). I suggest you test these things before you make broad generalizations about them.

I also do not recommend using Mace/Focus since the regen application overlaps between Symbol of Faith and Ray of Judgment. Also, Shield of Wrath prevents the counter from Protector’s Strike from triggering, so you lose a lot of damage and only gain a few seconds of protection. This is more debatable of a combination than sword/focus but one way or another it’s not optimal.

For sword, I recommend using focus offhand. It’s the most damage-oriented of the offhands due to the burst potential from Shield of Wrath.

You are talking about pve this is a pvp thread and if you’re not then you must be terrible because everything in your post is off.

This thread is actually in relation to PvE. I don’t really PvP at all.

i did some dps testing of auto attacks mainly but stacking things like symbols in aswell.

Just auto attacking the sword isnt much different then anyother melee weapon for dps and its 3rd skill in the chain has a better aoe and two extra hits to proc effects on. Id take that over the GS anyday tbh but im a warrior player and that spvp isle golems are a very static test so thats my 2cents on that anyhow.

Guanglai Kangyi

I also do not recommend using Mace/Focus since the regen application overlaps between Symbol of Faith and Ray of Judgment.

Unless you’re using Altruistic Healing, that’s not a bad thing, the duration still stacks.

Guanglai Kangyi

Also, Shield of Wrath prevents the counter from Protector’s Strike from triggering, so you lose a lot of damage and only gain a few seconds of protection.

Nope, Protector’s Strike is still triggered when Shield of Wrath is up. I do it all the time.

Cleansing Flame has a longer range then sword #1. It lets you tag more mobs with the AOE. It is much better then sword #1 because you can strafe and tag a bunch of mobs with it. The only other real option for 1-handed AOE is mace #2 with the larger symbols trait. (Mace #3 isn’t reliable for tagging)

Sword/Torch is strong because you can maintain 100% uptime on burning which allows you to get the full potential out of Fiery Wrath. Scepter/Torch is probably stronger if the target will stand in the middle of your smite for the whole duration.

BTW, you can’t test DPS on the golems because they die too fast.

What kind of builds are you using with sword/torch?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNgf5elYgKCHHSNEfIFRuAbGEEhVFi31DISxGC;TgAA2CnoqxUjoGbNuak1A

I used something very similar to this. Or at least this is what I would use, knowing what I know now.

When I leveled my guardian, it was probably 85% sword/torch + greatsword. Hard to say whether it’s glass-cannonny because I didn’t really care about gears: just grabbed whatever dropped. Didn’t really have a problem with mobs in PvE.

Basically, the build is really stupid and simple: take justice is blind and renewed justice. Use Save yourselves and whatever other utilities you like. First, round up your enemies, either by running around or pulling with greatsword, VoJ for blind, symbol of wrath, jump, whirl, switch to Sword and torch, flash blind, start a fire, and then strafe around your burning cluster and breath fire. You can then do either dodge out and do zealot’s defense on something that’s almost dead, or just run around and autoattack for a couple of seconds, and usually VoJ is ready to use again, and weapon switching has come off cooldown for you to blind again. Mobs are not hard anyway, but this allowed me to get through them much faster than other methods. Champions and bosses are harder since they are essentially immune to blind, and killing them is usually not about doing damage fast, but being able to avoid damage altogether. I also hated the dredge…. gosh I hate them.

Now I am in WvW, and never use that combo anymore. I am honestly not too sure how useful the torch is in WvW, but it’s great and wonderful time for all in PvE! Except those that are on fire.