Guild Wars 2

Just over 2 weeks until we can play the Firebrand and with some tweaks from Anet (cast times on tomes and cones on mantras mainly) i might come back to the guardian (my first and true love in GW2) and play some serious support in wvw and pvp.

I thought it might be a good time that we started to do some theory crafting so her is one of the builds i played in both wvw and pvp that i found to be really fun and intuitive.

This is the wvw version.

I didnt trait the tomes except the last trait for passive so hammer was a good choice to add in for blast finisher. Basically the last skill i used in the tome was always skill 4.

Traits
First frontline build i used that actually could be without valor so i went with honor/virtues//FB
Honor 221
Virtues 231
FB 223

Vigourous precision, i had about 15% crit chance in my build and that was enough to get a dependable proc. Ofc for energy sigils..

Protective Reviver as a trait is good but for an FB it might be even better. Quickness from aegis and since i also use pure of heart it means 1k healing for me and the one i am reviving.

Selfless daring, i added in healing power so each dodge roll healed for 1k. I supported those with sigil of energy.

Pure of heart. The build i used could give out 6 aegis actively and 2 aegis passively (stunned or reviving). ToC not included here so it is actually even more.

Purity of body regenerating endurance for energy sigils.

Pure of voice. Reduced cd on Retreat, allowing 100% uptime on swiftness, aegis and 1k heal on 24 s cd and removal of one condition in a 600 radius, add in quickness. I think most think this is a bad utility but it suits me and my playstyle tbh and in an supportive aegis build its mandatory.

Inspired virtues, great support trait, a bit less so with the casting time of the tomes but still solid.

Retaliatory subconscious. Aegis again

Virtue or retribution, tbh the only trait that just dont contribute, but its worth it.

I used glacial heart in the pre view and stress test but i think i will use absolute resolution when this goes live. Its mainly the blast from hammer i want and the cd of that skill has no relevance in my build.

Power of the virtues. This build has more or less 5-6 boons running so its a nice little add on.

Permeathing Wrath. Nuff said!

Weapons:
Scepter/Shield (sigil of smoldering/energy)
Hammer (sigil of corruption/energy) is for blasts and being equipped for kills, stacking sgil of corruption. Nice cc as well but no need to reduce cd.
Scepter is really good when you add quickness and the main build i played focused on quickness and mobility. I used shield for the dome and ofc the aegis on shield. This is the main damage dealer but before entering tomes i always swapped to hammer.

I didnt trait the tomes except the last trait for passive so hammer was a good choice to add in for blast finisher. Basically the last skill i used in the tome was always skill 4.
For me 5 pages are enough per use of the tomes. In and out while having quickness and stability is the way to play the tomes.

Liberators wow, quickness when using a healing skill
Swift scholar. Quickness when equipping or stowing a tome
Stalwart speed. Quickness when applying aegis or stability.
Imbued haste, increased stats while affected by quickness
Loremaster for passvive VoJ mainly, having reduced cd on tome skills is just….meh. Activate tome and during quickness cast all 5 skills and get more quickness when leaving the tome..

Utility
Mantra of solace
Mantra of lore
Retreat
Mantra of potence
Mantra of liberation

Armor/Trinkets
Trailblazers armor and a mix of apothecary, magi and trailblazers in weapons and trinkets.
I used water runes in the preview (if memory serves me) but will use rune of durability when this goes live. The low cd on the procc on those runes is just to good to not use.

Had lower stats in beta (exotic armor) but will have these stats when it goes live in my ascended gear.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAreSlsAhmhYpQwcIwPEGVEVe8Ow1DPABQEA-TliAQBjU5h/2foMKRupSwOcKASwRAwZKhAwDA4Q6Dco6PBAQAeP3z9uHwRP6P/5P/Z/8n/8n/8nlCwrdVA-w
Perma swiftness and high uptime on quickness. If i am using a preset rotation i think i can have 100% uptime so in pve its possible and in some situations in pvp/wvw as well.

This is a very nice build for my play style and its like playing the piano. There is always a button to push and if you want to micro manage your quickness its a lot of buttons to push and internal cool downs to keep in mind.

When you succeed with that its a cool setup and i imagine rather annoying after being blocked 8 times by aegis alone in a very short time frame, while healing the opponent for over 8k when he blocks,

This was my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsd8OMYIqbx2ABQu+yv+D-T1RGABtt/gu6HE4kA8o6P5pEMKlfA8EA+GQAMIIIAWr1ataIEChgUAbtTD-w

Instead of other sword I used Axe and sometimes Greatsword instead sw/focus.

Used all Mantra build.

FB traits:

2-2-2

was pretty much fun in pve, with 2-3k burning trough quickness and high dmg from power.
Healing for 82 for every boon I give.

In pvp and wvw for other hand, FB is underwhelming due to cooldowns and casting times.

Well.. since editor does not support pof specs yet.. i’ll write it down:

My point of view will be focused on condi pve style of playing. And with that i have chosen some different setup than what people might expect.

Traits:
- Zeal 2 3 3, damage increase, symbols have 33% chance to trigger burning.
- Radiance 2 2 1, increase critical strike chance. burning does more damage. trigger radiant flame skill (torch 4)
- Firebrand 1 2 2, extra condition from axe, tomes and applying quickness.

Weapons: axe/torch – scepter/shield
a/t is what makes sense, and what will be used mostly. however, i chose scepter/shield in addition that will interact with the traits and tomes. more on that in the rotation part ->

Skills:
- heal: Mantra of Solace, triggers aegis on use and charges = more burning
- utility 1: Mantra of Flame, as it says does burning damage
- utility 2: Purging Flame, heavy aoe burning, cures 3 condition. incomming condi reduced by 33%.
- utility 3: Signet of Wrath, to further increase condi damage and has some immobilize if needed.
- elite Feel my Wrath, to provide some fury and quickness, which again triggers burning

Gear:
- armor: Sinister stats + Balthazar runes (yes really)
- weapons: Sinister stats + Smoldering and geomancy sigils
- trinkets: Viper amulet, rest is Sinister

Food: Rare Veggie Pizza + Furious Tuning Crystal
At this point you have 100% burning duration and about 2k condi damage. This is why i did not go with the usual viper stuff. Yes my bleeding damage is super low. but firebrand has 2 skills only that does bleeding so i did not think its worth pushing that. Instead i focused on maximizing burn duration and condi damage from that point. Compared to the normal viper stuff, i have 200 more condi damage, 100% burn duration, 100 less power damage. 100% crit chance at all times in a raiding scenario (consider spotter, disp. banner and fury). Thats a win imo.

Rotation:
I have not worked this out entirely yet. But it basically comes down to spamming most skills off cooldown. As such purging flames, 1 or 2 charges of your mantra’s and Feel my wrath.

weapons skills wise: you want to start with scepter/shield. Begin with shield 4, scepter 2, (3 for immobilize if needed). F1 tome, use f1 tome skill 2 5x, back to scepter/shield. use shield 4 again, followed by scepter 2. (again 3 for immobilize if cc is needed). Now you swap to a/t. use torch 4 (careful for trait, it triggers it also. you want to use zealots flame. not the channeled zealots fire). axe 3, 2, torch 5. from here you kinda keep spamming your a/t skills till your tome f1 tome comes back up again. and then you repeat the process.

Awsome right? :P

Ragnarox.9601:

This was my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsd8OMYIqbx2ABQu+yv+D-T1RGABtt/gu6HE4kA8o6P5pEMKlfA8EA+GQAMIIIAWr1ataIEChgUAbtTD-w

Instead of other sword I used Axe and sometimes Greatsword instead sw/focus.

Used all Mantra build.

FB traits:

2-2-2

was pretty much fun in pve, with 2-3k burning trough quickness and high dmg from power.
Healing for 82 for every boon I give.

In pvp and wvw for other hand, FB is underwhelming due to cooldowns and casting times.

Played the exact same build (except final trait in FB) with a couple of friends (pvp) and the selfhealing can be hysterical if you can get them in the cone. Did some insane recoveries and actually got accused of cheating.

If they increase cone range at release this might be my go to build even though i feel some what happy about not being forced into valor.

GWMO.4785:

Awsome right? :P

Dont know if its awesome but it is interesting.

Why not permeathing wrath? It should improve burn stack building at single targets as well.

You build for burning and say you you dont focus on bleeding and still you traited bleeding. Why not quickness all the way so you get quickness when entering a Tome of Justice.

I think that would increase your damage even more.

The reason i focus on aegis/stability and quickness is not so much survivability as it is the dps gain i get from more stacks of burning.

Brutaly.6257:

Dont know if its awesome but it is interesting.

Why not permeathing wrath? It should improve burn stack building at single targets as well.

You build for burning and say you you dont focus on bleeding and still you traited bleeding. Why not quickness all the way so you get quickness when entering a Tome of Justice.

I think that would increase your damage even more.

The reason i focus on aegis/stability and quickness is not so much survivability as it is the dps gain i get from more stacks of burning.

Duo the grandmaster trait Quickfire. This trait triggers burning when you apply quickness, but it has a 10sec cooldown. So from my understanding, as a firebrand you want to trigger this trait as often as possible. Meaning you want to apply a lot of quickness, stability and aegis. But not necessarily 100% upkeep it.

that sounds reasonable.

Have you considered combining quickfire and permeathing wrath?
Imo permeathing wrath is a must in an effective burn build and having both of them would make it even more powerful.

And by not traiting lore master i assume you plan on not using active ToJ in situation where you wont get a certain kill for refresh of VoJ?

If you trait quick fire and permeathing wrath your rotation with torch might look slightly different as well. My impression (havent got the numbers so its pure observation) is that torch 5 is actually an increase in dps if using permeathing wrath/burn build. I believe its the same with sword 3, the number of hits trigger PW and adds dps even though the base skill dont add dps.

I am speculating here and cant back this up by numbers but intuitively i think leaving out permeathing wrath for a dps burn/build isnt optimal.

But i might be totally wrong here.

And btw if you wanted to test power build with FB, dont, f1 , 2, 3 are garbage for power builds. FB is good with all condi or hybrid builds.

The best build I found for roaming, small-scale fights and even held its own in 1v1s was similar to an spvp build that Saiyan posted about:

Valor (traited for medis)
Virtues (typical burn-guard traiting; take Permeating wrath over Indomitable Courage)
Firebrand 3, 3, 3 (Full traiting for tomes).

Heal: Mantra of Solace
Utilities: Judges Intervention, Smite condition, Mantra of Lore
Elite: Mantra of Liberation

Weapons: Axe/focus & Sword/shield.

Gear:

• Dire weapons and armor (this is what I’ll be using live due to ease of acquiring), Trailblazer trinkets.
• Sigils: Smoldering + Geomancy on axe/focus (since it procs when coming out of tomes) and Doom + Geomancy on sword/shield (for burst/cover condis after a ToJ burst).
• Runes: Balthazer, no question about it.

If I knew without a doubt that I’d be up against a build(s) that wasn’t heavy on condition damage, I changed out Mantra of Lore for Signet of Wrath or Signet of Judgement.

Focus of this build was full defensive utilities, dps on axe/focus and all the damage/burst coming from ToJ. Fully traited tomes means the burst was on a decent cooldown, and with 11 casts I could always get a minimum of 4-5 burning stacks off on a target even if they knew to sustain/cleanse/dodge while I was in ToJ.

Between the heal, elite, focus/shield, heal from medis and ToR + ToC, I generally had enough sustain to survive group-focus for a short while and did especially well vs condition-heavy builds.

Small-scale encounters and 1v1s relied on landing ToJ bursts which I had to be patient for. When I did land them, I could easily get off 14-21 stacks of burning, off of a practically instant JI combo which is far superior to anything that core burn guard or DH can pull off.

The only thing that gave this build a lot of trouble was a spellbreaker. Extremely high resistance up time on their part and no ability to strip boons on my part equated to a hard counter. CC comboes they had allowed them to land bursts on me consistently since all I had in the way of defence was blocks and 2 dodges (they have unblockables).

Brutaly.6257:

that sounds reasonable.

Have you considered combining quickfire and permeathing wrath?
Imo permeathing wrath is a must in an effective burn build and having both of them would make it even more powerful.

I did actually think about permeathing wrath. However if i look at the the traits in virtues. There is nothing much that would compliment the condition type of build other then that trait for the guardian. I personally think you will get more value from using zeal and radiance as those two have more synergy with the condi aspect of the class.

Brutaly.6257:

And by not traiting lore master i assume you plan on not using active ToJ in situation where you wont get a certain kill for refresh of VoJ?

You can actually. The minor master trait in Radiance called: Renewed Justice refreshes your F1 skill everytime you kill a foe. It has no cooldown as far as i know.

Brutaly.6257:

If you trait quick fire and permeathing wrath your rotation with torch might look slightly different as well. My impression (havent got the numbers so its pure observation) is that torch 5 is actually an increase in dps if using permeathing wrath/burn build. I believe its the same with sword 3, the number of hits trigger PW and adds dps even though the base skill dont add dps.

I am speculating here and cant back this up by numbers but intuitively i think leaving out permeathing wrath for a dps burn/build isnt optimal.

But i might be totally wrong here.

Quite possible. I also didnt get to properly test it yet. So my build craft is also theoretical. . As Anet did not allow us to try the specs in the testing facility. Was nice and fun to get our hands on it in pvp and wvw. Bu there way to many people there to do some proper testing. So that will have to wait. Going for a different setup might indeed be better in the end. The setup i presented is just my personal idea. Far from perfect. Any feedback is welcome <3

I came up with this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAs/+E1DxmhABRYMQU5fYBfQbAMtrJA-T5gAQBAa/BAcSAkYZAA

the empty weaponslot is axe, healing is mantra and last utility is the mantra that removes condis.

For the Firebrand Traitline: all the bottom traits:
1. Archivist of Whisperes: More pages= More burn, healing, stability
2. Legendary Lore: This trait is freaking awesome imo. it gives you one more stack of burning on every tome skill( for example: this increases the burning dmg on skill 2: to 11k burning). It also gives you one block everytime you use a skill of tome of courage.
3. Loremaster: beeing able to keep justices passiv is one of the biggest aspects of this build..Without it the dmg wouldn´t be nearly as high as it is.

On the first look this build seems to be pretty weird. But it really kicks kitten The “Secret” is the Rune of the Mad King if you use ur elite it will summon a couple of birds that repeatedly attack your foe ( even after he blocks, evades or stealths). Combining this with the virtues passive ( every 3rd attack a flame explosion ) this skill alone can create up to 6 stacks of burning. While the birds attack your foes ( not only one ) you are able to use some defensive skills like sanctuary, tome of courage or tome of resolve.

For Example: When i notice my health starts to go down or i´m under pressure i pop feel my rath ( usually all enemies start dodge rolling because they see birds repeatedly attackingthem), switch into tome of courage give myself stability, resistance, to tome of resolve and start healing ( u willhave quickness between the whole rotation duie to feel my wrath and and the firebrand traitline). At the same time i preassure my enemy even more with puring flames.

When it comes to attack rotations i usually try to waste the enemies condi cleanse with torch and axe then switching into tome of justice : 3-2-4-1-1-2-3-2/4 doe to the constant burning and bleeding ur enemy will die.

About sanctuary: you can also go with sth if you want ( e.g: if i see 2 necros in the enemy team i switch to sth with more condi cleanse

For references: i´m on 480.000 dmg and 400.000 healing average.

Full minstrel gear.

Mace+Shield / Staff.

Honor: 1 – 2 – 1.
Virtues: 2 – 2 – 2 (or 3; the VoC one; pretty sure that’s 3).
Firebrand: 3 – 3 – 3.

Sigils of Concentration and Renewal. Runes of Leadership.

Utilities: Shout Heal, SyG, HtL, and the final utility and elite are up for grabs still. Gotta play test.

I just like playing a guardian who, you know, GUARDS and supports. All my other 6 characters are damage dealers, and frankly, I’m bored of the same rotations…

- Sele

Rather interesting see so different builds and different weapon sets. Might be so that FB actually allows for more than one new way of playing.

GWMO.4785:

Brutaly.6257:

that sounds reasonable.

Have you considered combining quickfire and permeathing wrath?
Imo permeathing wrath is a must in an effective burn build and having both of them would make it even more powerful.

I did actually think about permeathing wrath. However if i look at the the traits in virtues. There is nothing much that would compliment the condition type of build other then that trait for the guardian. I personally think you will get more value from using zeal and radiance as those two have more synergy with the condi aspect of the class.

Brutaly.6257:

And by not traiting lore master i assume you plan on not using active ToJ in situation where you wont get a certain kill for refresh of VoJ?

You can actually. The minor master trait in Radiance called: Renewed Justice refreshes your F1 skill everytime you kill a foe. It has no cooldown as far as i know.

Brutaly.6257:

If you trait quick fire and permeathing wrath your rotation with torch might look slightly different as well. My impression (havent got the numbers so its pure observation) is that torch 5 is actually an increase in dps if using permeathing wrath/burn build. I believe its the same with sword 3, the number of hits trigger PW and adds dps even though the base skill dont add dps.

I am speculating here and cant back this up by numbers but intuitively i think leaving out permeathing wrath for a dps burn/build isnt optimal.

But i might be totally wrong here.

Quite possible. I also didnt get to properly test it yet. So my build craft is also theoretical. . As Anet did not allow us to try the specs in the testing facility. Was nice and fun to get our hands on it in pvp and wvw. Bu there way to many people there to do some proper testing. So that will have to wait. Going for a different setup might indeed be better in the end. The setup i presented is just my personal idea. Far from perfect. Any feedback is welcome <3

Not much besides permeathing wrath, to be honest it is enough. It almost doubles burn stacks on single targets and on multiple targets its much more, its aoe. The more enemies you hit the more it proccs.

My points was that you dont have to rely on renewed justice with Lore master traited since the passive will not go away even if you use the active.

There can be lots of builds but that does not mean they are effective at rated or wvw solo/group content.

Ragnarox.9601:

There can be lots of builds but that does not mean they are effective at rated or wvw solo/group content.

All true but diversity in it self is a good start and not something that has been the norm for the guardian.

Brutaly.6257:

Rather interesting see so different builds and different weapon sets. Might be so that FB actually allows for more than one new way of playing.

Yeah i think so too… with Firebrand you are no longer forced to use Meditations (THANK GOD). Shouts work very good with firebrnad, Consecrations are a viable option too, with just a LITTLE tweaking Mantras are in a very good spot aswell, and if you want you still can use that old boring meditations.

what i want to say is that you will have much more build and utility diversity.

InViictuZz.1705:

Brutaly.6257:

Rather interesting see so different builds and different weapon sets. Might be so that FB actually allows for more than one new way of playing.

Yeah i think so too… with Firebrand you are no longer forced to use Meditations (THANK GOD). Shouts work very good with firebrnad, Consecrations are a viable option too, with just a LITTLE tweaking Mantras are in a very good spot aswell, and if you want you still can use that old boring meditations.

what i want to say is that you will have much more build and utility diversity.

True, except tomes all but REQUIRE you to take Renewed Focus in their current form. So that’s at least 1 meditation on everyone’s skill bar.

Until mantras are either pbAoE (which I wouldn’t prefer) or have a range/angle similar to shield #4 (which I WOULD prefer), mantras will be useless. Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

Selendile.9106:

Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

I don’t even know that the burn mantra will be use for PvE. From what I recall it was a horribly inefficient way to apply burn.

Kerivek.5740:

Selendile.9106:

Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

I don’t even know that the burn mantra will be use for PvE. From what I recall it was a horribly inefficient way to apply burn.

Sadly, this is a fair point.

Selendile.9106:

Kerivek.5740:

Selendile.9106:

Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

I don’t even know that the burn mantra will be use for PvE. From what I recall it was a horribly inefficient way to apply burn.

Sadly, this is a fair point.

Pretty much sums up the issues with mantras, other skills do the job better.
Signet of Judgment do the burning part better, syg is better at stab, hold the line gives protection which fb almost lack…

Brutaly.6257:

Selendile.9106:

Kerivek.5740:

Selendile.9106:

Well, let me amend that: all mantras except the burn mantra for PvE condi builds will be useless.

- Sele

I don’t even know that the burn mantra will be use for PvE. From what I recall it was a horribly inefficient way to apply burn.

Sadly, this is a fair point.

Pretty much sums up the issues with mantras, other skills do the job better.
Signet of Judgment do the burning part better, syg is better at stab, hold the line gives protection which fb almost lack…

Mantra of Flame and Mantra of Truth should have been combined. Neither will be used as is. Range should also be 600 at a minimum if cone.

The 4th mantra (i.e. something like Mantra of Grace) should have been a protection boon + resistance boon version.

Imagine the new frontline guard is going to be Virtues, Honor, Firebrand. If tomes adapt well to WvW anyway.

Syktek.7912:

Imagine the new frontline guard is going to be Virtues, Honor, Firebrand. If tomes adapt well to WvW anyway.

Tried to be frontline with fb, didnt go very well…

Syktek.7912:

Imagine the new frontline guard is going to be Virtues, Honor, Firebrand. If tomes adapt well to WvW anyway.

I played virtues/honor/fb about 90% of the time in pvp/wvw and it was great fun but one thing that was impossible was frontliner in zergs

Frontline in zergs in wvw dont work. The lack of active defenses in utilities and the low mobility makes impossible to be the frontline supporter. DH is better just due to DH Resolve and the frontal blocks from courage.

For grinding/pve maps i will be pairing virtues and radiance with firebrand. Also same time i will start with celestial gear, balth runs and smoldering sigil with axe and torch for weapons. Waiingt on new stats before deciding what to go with, since a stat set with condi main, power, vit and maybe healing, sound like could be a good stat set for firebrand.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAr9fElDhRARlTwHcCtBwD8mA-TxhAABRfCAgZ/hF17ApSQTV/BNlfA8QAAA-e

Traits would be
Virtues: 1,2,1
First one is undecided for now
Absolute Resolution: my passive will always be active and i do have small bit healing from my gear, so sounded like a ok choice. Though i noticed the healing amout is so bad for FB, i am reconsidering if i should change this choice!
Permeating Wrath: yeah this trait is just to powerful not to take. axe is 2 hits per attack and alot attack are AoE, so this should be a huge damage boost.

Radiance 1,2,1
Inner Fire: Will be easy to keep up and thanks to virtues each boon is adds 1% damage, which is why i did take this over Right-Hand Strength
Renewed Justice, ToJ puts out alot of damage, so getting it back often will only help with killing.
Radiant Fire: I am running torch, and this trait just does so much for my build. First it gives me another Zealot’s Flame/Zealot’s Fire use, which actually is a good bit of damage. Already happy with it just there, but it also add 20% burn duration and faster torch skills. So much from 1 trait.
Amplified Wrath. up’s burn damage and sends out burn when blocking which ins´t a uncommon thing for a guardian to do.

Firebrand
Unrelenting Criticism: i like the bleeding and since axe hits 2 times it procs a ok amount. I hope it stays bugged and works for ALL abilities like last beta :p Though tempted to go for 3 more pages.
Legendary Lore: This was a easy choice, this more or less jsut doubles the damage output of ToJ.
Loremaster: Yeah i wanna use my tomes but do not wanna lose my passives. So this is a must have. Though always thought this should be a core guardian thing, just to make class more fun and interactive!

Short mantra stuff: Had to add this before going into skill choices. After playing around with mantras i found them to actually make firebrand a far more active playstyle, since ammo system and ok low cooldowns. Same time this bit from wiki is main reason they fit so well with axe/torch "used freely, even in the middle of other actions without interrupting them. "

Healing:
Mantra of Solace: This is maybe only mantra i will feel ok with putting on full cooldown. But the healing is ok and can be used even when doing other stuff. And each heal comes with a aegis, so a bit of burning thanks to traits.

Utility:
Judge’s Intervention: Burn, movement skill and stun break. Always love this skill and can´t stop myself from taking it. Also had alot of fun doing a burn suicide bomb attack in beta pvp. activate ToJ, use skill 5, start skill 4 and just before that cast time is done, i would teleport in and jsut aoe burn everywhere.
Mantra of Flame: i wanted some more burning on command. This fit well and again short recharge time for ammo.
Mantra of Lore: Felt build needed some on command condi removal. So added this, and a bit regen can never hurt, even if i still believe regen should be changed to stacking instead of increase duration it is now.

Elite:
Mantra of Liberation: Never really liked any of guardians elite. Here i get a 15 sec elite that stun breaks, gives Stability and Retaliation as a Cone AoE. Never felt bad using it, since cooldown on ammo was so short.

Now here is what made this build so fun for me, both in beta pvp and pve maps. Thanks to ToJ, Radiant Fire proc and mantras fast ammo recharge, you always doing something active with this build. I never really had any reason to swap to scepter, other then if there was a place where i couldn´t melee.

Honestly i think i will have great fun running around new maps with this spec, and from testing i did. Mount will only help overcome that slowness of guardian.
But i will also admit firebrand is not perfect, and could use alot of imporvement on tomes like cast time, long CD and Tome of Resolve being weak as hell(Legendary Lore doesn´t even help much. Make regen stack and Legendary Lore would be a good healing support trait to. But that needs redesign of regen, so doubt that will ever happen)

Well I think that Firebrand will do a great job of improving the current symbolic build.

Zeal 233
Honor {2 or 3 – 3 with the healing mantra I think}/{2 or 3 – 2 if your team stacks might without you}/2
Firebrand 222

Scepter+Focus / Hammer (Or Mace/Shield for 2 more sources of Aegis)

Healing Mantra / Bane Signet / Stunbreak (Stand Your Ground is good for Stability) / Wall of Reflection or Purging Flames (Depending on situation) / Feel My Wrath or Renewed Focus

In short: (PvE build)

Traits:

- Radiance 2, 2, 1 (since I’ll be focussing on burning this seems like the most logical line, next to the other two). Considered Zeal, but in the end I decided Radiance would work better for me. Renewed Justice is one of the traits that made it easier to pick Radiance.

- Virtues 1,2,1 (I love Virtues and use them a lot and I see myself using them even more with FB – yay tomes – so it was an auto include really). Absolute Resolution is an extra condi cleanse, which is always welcome. The other two were easy to pick.

- Firebrand 2 (tho I’m not sure about that one yet, liking 3 aswell), 3, 3. All in all this is the line I’m the most unsure of. Quickness may be awesome, but I also like the idea of tomes. Especially torn between Stalwart Speed and Legendary Lore. Anyone with tips?

Armor:

- 2 Ascended Trailblazer pieces (Head & Leggings)
- 4 Ascended Viper’s pieces
- Runes of the Traveler (Yes, I know it’s not the best, but since it’s for PvE I’m accepting the sacrifice for some extra movement).

Weapons:

- Axe (sigil of bursting)/Torch (sigil of earth) (both Viper’s). Using the the earth sigil only in the beginning, untill my mesmer has her own torch. Open for ideas!

- Sword (sigil of bursting)/Focus (tho Shield is also an option) (Sword is Viper’s, focus is Celestial, since it has to share the focus with my ele for now).

- Will be keeping Scepter aswell for fights where I prefer slightly more distance. Probably pairing that with shield. Both are Viper’s.

Jewelry:

- Celestial for now. It’s a safe option for now (for me).

Utilities:

- Purging Flames (burning & Condi cleanse in one)
- Mantra of Lore (tho I’ll be switching this one for another in zones with very little condi damage.
- a shout (not sure which one yet).

I just returned to the game and leveled a Guardian in preparation for Firebrand. So, caveat: I don’t have much experience with the class yet.

For PvE burnination, I’m undecided between Zeal and Virtues. I lean toward Zeal for the damage increase vs. burning enemies and the extra condi damage and power, but I’ll have to test. It’s possible that PW and the tome-enhancing minor traits in Virtues can justify that line.

Zeal: 2 – 3 – 1/3
- If Sword of Justice equipped, then 2 – 3 – 1
- If not, then 2 – 3 – 3
Radiance: 1/2 – 2 – 1
- If Axe, then 1 – 2 – 1
- If Sword, then 2 – 2 – 1
Firebrand: 1/3 – 3 – 3
- Will need more testing with Axe and Unrelenting Criticism

Main weapon set: Axe/Torch
- If the pull remains unreliable, I may have to revert to Sword/Torch.
- Second weapon set: Scepter/Shield or Scepter/Torch. Will need to test.

Heal: Shelter
- Unfortunately, this is still our best “oh Scheiße” heal, which I prefer over the click-to-maintain-health Mantra style.

Utility 1: Mantra of Flame

Utility 2: Judge’s Intervention, Purging Flame, or Sword of Justice
- Depends on circumstance and Axe pull reliability.
- JI if more mobility is needed and Axe > Sword
- SoJ if traited to burn and a ranged attack is needed.
- Otherwise, PF.

Utility 3: Signet of Wrath

Elite: Renewed Focus or “Feel My Wrath”
- Depends on if I need RF for the virtue recharge, or if I can find some way around that. Frankly, I hate how limited our elite and healing options are.

Axe/Torch & Mace/Shield Burning & Quickness Support Unbuffed; 2271 Power, 2210 condi damage, 98% crit chance, 100% burning duration. Sword in the build link is an Axe, Mantra of Solace as heal. Firebrand traits; Liberator’s Vow, Stalwart Speed & Quickfire.

Event farming build; Firebrand traits are Archivist of Whispers, Legendary Lore and Loremaster. Combined with Renewed Justice, you should be able to spam Tome of Justice all day long for massive AoE burning for tagging. Swap out the Sinister armor for Trailblazer and the farming sigils for something more suitable and it’s good for WvW too.

Arcaedus.7290:

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The best build I found for roaming, small-scale fights and even held its own in 1v1s was similar to an spvp build that Saiyan posted about:

Valor (traited for medis)
Virtues (typical burn-guard traiting; take Permeating wrath over Indomitable Courage)
Firebrand 3, 3, 3 (Full traiting for tomes).

Heal: Mantra of Solace
Utilities: Judges Intervention, Smite condition, Mantra of Lore
Elite: Mantra of Liberation

Weapons: Axe/focus & Sword/shield.

Gear:

• Dire weapons and armor (this is what I’ll be using live due to ease of acquiring), Trailblazer trinkets.
• Sigils: Smoldering + Geomancy on axe/focus (since it procs when coming out of tomes) and Doom + Geomancy on sword/shield (for burst/cover condis after a ToJ burst).
• Runes: Balthazer, no question about it.

If I knew without a doubt that I’d be up against a build(s) that wasn’t heavy on condition damage, I changed out Mantra of Lore for Signet of Wrath or Signet of Judgement.

Focus of this build was full defensive utilities, dps on axe/focus and all the damage/burst coming from ToJ. Fully traited tomes means the burst was on a decent cooldown, and with 11 casts I could always get a minimum of 4-5 burning stacks off on a target even if they knew to sustain/cleanse/dodge while I was in ToJ.

Between the heal, elite, focus/shield, heal from medis and ToR + ToC, I generally had enough sustain to survive group-focus for a short while and did especially well vs condition-heavy builds.

Small-scale encounters and 1v1s relied on landing ToJ bursts which I had to be patient for. When I did land them, I could easily get off 14-21 stacks of burning, off of a practically instant JI combo which is far superior to anything that core burn guard or DH can pull off.

The only thing that gave this build a lot of trouble was a spellbreaker. Extremely high resistance up time on their part and no ability to strip boons on my part equated to a hard counter. CC comboes they had allowed them to land bursts on me consistently since all I had in the way of defence was blocks and 2 dodges (they have unblockables).

Can’t speak for WvW but I had to kite most Spellbreaker while needing good F2#5 + medi heal rotations to top off myself. Though I won every soloQ Spellbreaker fight, I don’t feel we should ever win vs them in an open field. Maybe side points in spvp if we LoS well. Sigil of Annulment is a must vs Spellbreaker too.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Axe/Torch & Mace/Shield Burning & Quickness Support Unbuffed; 2271 Power, 2210 condi damage, 98% crit chance, 100% burning duration. Sword in the build link is an Axe, Mantra of Solace as heal. Firebrand traits; Liberator’s Vow, Stalwart Speed & Quickfire.

Event farming build; Firebrand traits are Archivist of Whispers, Legendary Lore and Loremaster. Combined with Renewed Justice, you should be able to spam Tome of Justice all day long for massive AoE burning for tagging. Swap out the Sinister armor for Trailblazer and the farming sigils for something more suitable and it’s good for WvW too.

They took Staff 1 away, made it OP and gave it back to us. Hah. Now maybe they’ll rework Staff completely since it’s worthless.

All those people defending the staff 1 nerf saying ‘our loot was too easy’ IT JUST GOT EASIER YEEEHAAAAW

Here is my revised build, been playing with only two trait lines trated in wvw and living story just to understand/practice with out the third line. So lots of honor/virtues for me atm.

I am done for launch and we will see whats coming out in form of new stat combos.
For roaming in wvw and doing content solo in living story.
Valor/radiance and ofc virtues in combination with FB. If radiance i swap smite conditions for signet of judgement. I will probably not be playing FB solo with mantras.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAsf7elsAhqhYzQwcIwPEGNE1dY3yAIPf33+B-TxhAQBOU9HA8EAEjyPCt/QHOJALS/AkUCGOgA4111FcMGjxwQIECBpA4ZaE-e
For wvw and support
Honor/virtues and FB.
Full mantra build besides i use retreat or SyG as utilitie and focus on quickness, not traiting tomes besides the final trait.
This will have perma quickness, swiftness (if i use retreat) and regen and 5-8 might at all times in combat. Dodge rolling for 1500 healing and aegis heals for close to 1300 while having 1250 in condidamage while affected by quickness. Can also trigger its own combo fields in tomes.
3*2 condi clear in utilities, 3 or 4 stunbreakers in utilities.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQNAreSlsAhqhYzQwcIwPEGVEVe8Ov1DPABQTC-TRiAQBBSfgYUi5v9HMlqKQSJYZUe0Q1K6wpAAAPBgAAHAv39u/egjP+4jP+4Ge4hHe4hLFQg70A-e
Might be sweet tbh.