Guild Wars 2

I’ve been contemplating a new build design for my guardian as of late to give my Guardian some extra “Umpf” while fighting with my friends. Diving heavily into the Radiance and Virtues trait lines I think I’ve found something that might prove viable. I would also like to note that this isn’t really a solo build, I’ve sacrificed a good amount of Toughness and Vitality for greater damage output. (Also sorry in advance if I’m just figuring out something that has already been found, I suppose this will just be my take on it).

The Traits:
10- Power: Fiery Wrath (minor)
30- Radiance: Signet Mastery (minor), and Searing Flame (major), Right-Hand Strength (master)
5- Valor
25- Virtues: Vengeful (minor), and Absolute Resolve (major)

The Weapons: I’ve been using with this is a Sword/Torch and GS combo. With Shaman/ Carrion stats. I also been trying this with a Scepter/Focus and Sword/Torch for some ranged damage.

The Armor: I’m currently using Carrion armor with Runes of the Flame Legion on them. Knight’s and Valkyrie armor has been recommended here as well, also I think Runes of the Forge may be a good substitute here as well.

Utility Skills: Signet of Resolve (6), “Save Your Selves!” (7), Contemplation of Purity (8), and Signet of Judgement (9). Elite Skill: Renewed Focus.

The theory is this: while partying with friends/guild/or whoever in a condition heavy environment we would use “Save Your Selves” to draw conditions from our party members; then once we have the conditions on us we’d use Contemplation of Purity to then turn those conditions into boons. With our 25 points into Virtues we gain more damage for each boon on us. And with our torches/burning skills our points into Radiance give us more condition damage, coupled with the traits I’ve chosen to deal further damage to enemies suffering from burning and other conditions. Skill 9 I feel is up to the player’s tastes (along with the Elite skill). I’ve chose the Signet of Judgement for a little extra Toughness.

This is my first go at creating my own build and trying to share it with others. If I’ve left out any important information please let me know. Also I’m looking for some more Guardians to help me try out this build. So any help/info would be greatly appreciated! Also please let me know what you think, any suggestions or revisions are welcomed!

-Edited: Removed 5 points from Honor and put them into Radiance to gain Right-Hand Strength. Added Flame Legion runes as a good option for armor. Lots of trait changes: Added Signet Mastery and Searing Flames in Radiance; added Absolute Resolve in Virtues. Switch Elite Skill to Renewed Focus. Switched Shelter for Signet of Resolve for more synergy with Signet Mastery. Changed to Runes of the Flame Legion; added more armor varieties for build compatibility.

MajorShock.4023:

I’ve been contemplating a new build design for my guardian as of late to give my Guardian some extra “Umpf” while fighting with my friends. Diving heavily into the Radiance and Virtues trait lines I think I’ve found something that might prove viable. I would also like to note that this isn’t really a solo build, I’ve sacrificed a good amount of Toughness and Vitality for greater damage output. (Also sorry in advance if I’m just figuring out something that has already been found, I suppose this will just be my take on it).

For traits I’ve gone:
10- Power: Fiery Wrath minor trait
25- Radiance: Shimmering Defense (minor), and Radiant Fire (major)
5- Valor
5- Honor
25- Virtues: Vengeful (minor), and Retaliatory Subconscious (major)

The weapons I’ve been using with this is a Sword/Torch and GS combo. With Shaman/ Carrion stats.

I’m also using Carrion armor with Runes of the Forge on them.

For the Utility Skills are as follows: Shelter (6), “Save Your Selves!” (7) Contemplation of Purity (8) and Signet of Judgement (9). Elite Skill I’ve been using is Tome of Wrath, but really use whatever you like here.

The theory is this: while partying with friends/guild/ or whoever in a condition heavy environment we would use Save Your Selves to draw conditions from our party members; then once we have the conditions on us we’d use Contemplation of Purity to then turn those conditions into boons. With our 25 points into Virtues we gain more damage for each boon on us. And with our torches/burning skills our points into Radiance give us more condition damage, coupled with the traits I’ve chosen to deal further damage to enemies suffering from burning and other conditions. Skill 9 I feel is up to the player’s tastes (along with the Elite skill). I’ve chose the Signet of Judgement for a little extra Toughness.

This is my first go at creating my own build and trying to share it with others. If I’ve left out any important information please let me know. Also I’m looking for some more Guardians to help me try out this build. So any help/info would be greatly appreciated! Also please let me know what you think, any suggestions or revisions are welcomed!

I’d like to see this in action. I’ve been through so many builds and spent so much gold and karma on gear, I’m afraid to respec traits anymore.

What weapons are you using? Because if you’re using one-handed weapons, it might be interesting to drop 5 points out of Valor or Honor for Right-Hand Strength.

Also, is Carrion (that’s Condition Damage, right?) the right option? I’m generally not in favor of condition builds, since we only apply one, and I have a bias in favor of critical chance.
As last Utility, it might be nice to have something that frequently grants boons, so you get more damage out of it.

I’d like to see this in action. I’ve been through so many builds and spent so much gold and karma on gear, I’m afraid to respec traits anymore.

Ah, the joys of PvP :-)

Ynna.8769:

What weapons are you using? Because if you’re using one-handed weapons, it might be interesting to drop 5 points out of Valor or Honor for Right-Hand Strength.

Also, is Carrion (that’s Condition Damage, right?) the right option? I’m generally not in favor of condition builds, since we only apply one, and I have a bias in favor of critical chance.
As last Utility, it might be nice to have something that frequently grants boons, so you get more damage out of it.

The weapons I’m using are sword/torch and GS, Right-Hand Strength is a good choice. That hadn’t occurred to me. The 5 in Valor were fairly through away points for the vigor but the 15% dmg for one-handed would definitely welcomed. As for Carrion, I don’t know if it is the right choice or not, but it seemed to fit the bill. This is something new that I’ve created and it does need more polishing for sure, if you have any recommendations on which to use feel free to suggest it.

The overall problem with guardians is that burning stacks in duration. This means if there is more than one guardian, each guardian’s burning is basically queued.

You could also use Runes of Lyssa and Renewed Focus to remove the conditions and turn them to boons.

Or a combo of condition shortening runes, foods and consumables.

MajorShock.4023:

The weapons I’m using are sword/torch and GS, Right-Hand Strength is a good choice. That hadn’t occurred to me. The 5 in Valor were fairly through away points for the vigor but the 15% damage for one-handed would definitely welcomed.

It’s not damage, but crit-chance, but whatever.
I’d sooner drop the 5 points in Valor. Right-Hand Strength synergizes well with Vigorous Precision, which works well with Power of the Virtuous.

Was unaware of the issue with burning, I’m usually the only Guardian when I party up with my friends but glad it was brought to my attention.

I would agree with Ynna’s suggestions about RHS and changing your gear – I’d suggest either the Knight’s, Soldier’s, or Valkyrie’s gear for PvE (Knight’s if you want to focus on crits, Soldier’s if you want more staying power, Valk’s if you have a decent base crit rate and want more damage than Soldier’s, at the cost of armor). Also, your traits could use a little tweaking – Shimmering Defense and Retaliatory Subconscious are both weak traits in general. I might suggest switching your heal from Shelter to Signet of Resolve and then taking Signet Mastery as your first Radiance Trait, but if you’re really attached to Shelter, you could either go SM for SoJ or Searing Flames for the occasional boon removal. Radiant Fire might also not be optimal, since Torch cooldowns are pretty short as is, and you could probably get more use out of Powerful Blades, which can stack with the 10% boost your Torch and Virtue of Justice should be allowing you to keep up. In place of Retaliatory Subconscious, take Absolute Resolve – the passive healing boost will slightly improve your durability, and the cleanse will give you something to fall back on when CoP is on cooldown.

One other option, if you find you aren’t fond of RHS – move the 5 points from Valor into Honor or vice-versa, and pick up either Shout or Meditation cooldown reduction. Then, swap SoJ for a second utility of the appropriate type. This should improve the efficiency of your combo and bring some synergy to your build in general. Best of luck with it!

Thanks for the feedback! I’ve taken quite of few of the suggestions to heart and have modified the build as such. I’ve tried some dungeons and a bit of PvP with this build and so far the signs are promising thanks for the help!