Guild Wars 2

Ok, with the new condition boosts and the viability of a burn guardian. I was wondering if I could run on purely burns as my damage source and concentrate my other stats on pure defense. This is the result of that experiment. Keep in mind these are all just exotics since I wanted to wait out if Anet was going to nerf burning as a condition until I invest in ascendeds.

Not only is it viable, but it works really really well. You can find the build on the video description.

The damage is going to be quite a bit lower then a carrion/sinister/rampager mix which is already calculated to be about 10-15% lower then zerk.

There is also the problem that by relying solely on 1 condition leaves you very weak vs anyone that can intelligently cleanse conditions

@Ragnar That’s true! Key is to restack fast and reserve your restacking abilities til after they cleanse. I general idea is survival with decent damage over going all out dps at the expense of survival. I’ve been running pure zerk medi guard and I’ve been having trouble surviving thieves and everybody that runs condis. On this, I’ve been kicking butt and taking names. The good thing about it is that I can stack some fire, get disengaged by the enemy, but I’m still dealing some ticks. Guards aren’t really THAT mobile. I guess it just fits my playstyle.

You basically trade Power for Toughness. I will say that Toughness doesn’t scale all that well to begin with; I always felt it was lackluster compared to Power.

I will say that people who actually duel competitively, play very, very, differently in regards to 1v1 engagements. You will almost always lose to anyone who knows how to cleanse effectively, and keep away from your GS’s spin to win. Not to mention some Rangers (especially Mesmers) actually know to keep away from their own pet because of Permeating Wrath. That scenario is the best case scenario for any burn guardian lol!

The players you fought have no idea about this meta… they don’t even know what to do when they see a burn guardian. They’ll learn soon enough though. ‘wink’

You’re right. Greatsword isnt the best for this. I’m just in love with my sunrise. Best would be sw/f and scepter/torch. I do get bad encounters where people catch up to my burn. Right now only kiting mesmers give me a bit of trouble.

in wvw zerg fight any condi build wont work as you have shown – the only time you did burning dmg was on the down enemies
in wvw as any condi streanght it works

Running this build with Sinister/Carrion mix. It’s pretty amazing. You should give Litany of Wrath a shot. With Smiter’s Boon and Monk’s focus it gets very powerful.

http://i.imgur.com/r3MuOgT.png

run purging flames

ThePaladin.2140:

Ok, with the new condition boosts and the viability of a burn guardian. I was wondering if I could run on purely burns as my damage source and concentrate my other stats on pure defense. This is the result of that experiment. Keep in mind these are all just exotics since I wanted to wait out if Anet was going to nerf burning as a condition until I invest in ascendeds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39W4nJM-sU

Not only is it viable, but it works really really well. You can find the build on the video description.

For WvW, absolutely, its awesome. Though you may want to put in at least some carrion pieces for some power.

FYI, when roaming I like to run scepter / focus, I change my 2nd set as the mood suits me though often go sword / torch. I love burn spamming from scepter hits, its very effective.

For PvE I’d go with a sinister, carrion mix, maybe a piece or 2 of rabid if lacking in precision and want some armor.

messiah.1908:

in wvw zerg fight any condi build wont work as you have shown – the only time you did burning dmg was on the down enemies
in wvw as any condi streanght it works

Please check again. There was plenty of burning on the zerg fight even before they were down. Albeit not amazing damage but not everybody deals amazing damage in a zerg.

messiah.1908:

in wvw zerg fight any condi build wont work as you have shown – the only time you did burning dmg was on the down enemies
in wvw as any condi streanght it works

You’ll consistently apply AoE damage in a Zerg. A Zerg at that magnitude, can’t cleanse Burns every single second. Especially if your team is also applying their own conditions. Worse case scenario, you’re going to offer quite a bit of condition coverages for your team.

Those who say Condi Guardians don’t work in WvW, are looking at it from a narrow point of view. That WvW team would need a substantial amount of shout cleansing or self cleansing utilities for the burn Guardian to not reach 2k+ AoE burn stacks consistently.

Honestly, your recorded portions during the zerg fights looked really ineffective. Pumping out burn duration and staff, combined with Supreme Justice and Permeating Wrath is the way to go in zerg fights imo. IIRC, you can get something like 7s Burns on passive VoJ, which will be super spammable with the loot stick. In your first zerg fight, dropping a symbol on the stack and then auto attacking anything that was close would probably have been much more effective than JI into the group, being cc’d, and running back to regroup. A dire guardian in my mind can be at peace sitting back and back-midlining and just setting things on fire. The damage combined with forcing condition cleansed would be enough in my book to be considered useful.

@Ghotistyx

Good point. Maybe I will try the staff. I dont have one just yet, I mean I do but it’s a loot stick in the truest sense of the word (Zerker stats). I might just purchase a dire exotic one just to try it out and make an ascended if it works out well. I’ll let you guys know. I’ll be the guinea pig haha.

Burn as the sole damage source may seem weak but really it isn’t if you run with a large zerg. In zerg fights so many different conditions are applied that your burn damage will sneak through easily and deal massive damage to people if you spec for aoe burn and burn on block.

Burn on block doesn’t do well in zerg fests at all. Your 3 burn procs on Focus, a max of 3 burn procs on Shelter, will get split up amongst 20+ different people.

I’m working on something similar but not fully invested in dire. Looking forward to seeing your feedback after you test it with staff.

Saiyan.1704:

Burn on block doesn’t do well in zerg fests at all. Your 3 burn procs on Focus, a max of 3 burn procs on Shelter, will get split up amongst 20+ different people.

That’s just a minor part of the build. Most of the burn comes from traited VOJ.

DeathPanel.8362:

Saiyan.1704:

Burn on block doesn’t do well in zerg fests at all. Your 3 burn procs on Focus, a max of 3 burn procs on Shelter, will get split up amongst 20+ different people.

That’s just a minor part of the build. Most of the burn comes from traited VOJ.

You could run rune of the guardian to get that burn from block. probably no worth it though.

I wouldnt give up balthazar for burn on block runes though. It’s very situational. also I’ve been running with the staff for a bit now. It’s quite decent in zerg fights but I find myself using stand your ground for the stability. The staff delivers more than enough hits in a zerg fight to trigger VoJ burns. However, you need to wade deep into the fray to do it, this needs stability. On single target the staff attacks are too slow to stack some decent burning.

Here’s some new footage of the build in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNDzyBzUZg

As mentioned mesmers have been giving me trouble as well as really good engineers. Some of these fights I just facetanked while I apply some burns. The first one in particular.