Guild Wars 2

So I’ve gotten slightly bored with my current guardian build so I decided to roll around with what Anet said about guardians giving some of the most powerful burns after patch. And this is what I came up with, theorycrafting since I haven’t been able to test it yet for because of the price rise in condition armor so I’ll have to run few dungeons runs first but wanted to share this since I couldn’t find any similar builds.

First the “test build” a sort of wallet friendly version:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWl0ApcoNDxVIEERR8QlZZ0iWNCVHANwji1UA-TVjAABTqEcHVKA4BAIxBCgFNFHpuyIXgAHOCAip8zr9HG4QAwnOAa0gQIAFbBA-w

If this works out I was thinking of maybe even going for ascended armor and tweaked it a little into that direction:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWl0ApcoNDxVIEERR8QlZZ0iWNCVHANwje1PA-TVjAABTqEEgHAgEHIAd2fATVKYRTxpqrMyFIwhjAgYK/G4QAwnOAa0gQIgFbBA-w

I wonder how this might work in a roaming group, but don’t think it’s that squishy while running in a zerg either. Changing the Honor points into Valor in the ascended version is something that gives more possibilities in traits, depending on what might work best with the utilities. The Judge’s Intervention is the skill slot that I change alot depending on the situation, that particular skill rarely finds itself in my utilities and is there for comparing the burns. Since the ascended items went account bound you can easily change trinkets from your alts.

That’s…. actually a pretty interesting balance of stats. Personally, I’d reduce radiance to 1 and pick up dodge heals instead; searing flames is okay now, but dodge heals just help so much.

You’re going to have to play with your sigils to get cover conditions (maybe geomancy?) so that your burns aren’t just going to be as easily cleansed off.

Also, I’d take Master of Consecrations; there’s usually little need to ground target purging flames.

I’ve been playing with a more glassy version with Runes of Balthazar and a few extra pieces of Carrion gear for small scale wvw.

Burn ticks around 900-1k and with Supreme Justice is quite easy to keep application up provided you maintain good melee pressure ( I dislike using scepter, despite it’s potential for VoJ procs ). I’ll probably scale it back abit once I’ve had some fun and favour more sustain.

I don’t think I’d ever want to attempt a pure condi-build, but so far it looks like a really nice supplimentary damage source. It’s a shame the traits are so awkwardly placed.

Update on this: I’ve been running around with this and have been very pleased on how it has worked out, enough so that I’ve made the ascended armor for it. With both guard stacks and bloodlust I’ve managed to keep my physical damage against highly armored around 600 and on medium armors around 1100 points, according to the combat log + the 800-900 burning damage I’ve seen ticking from my foes which is applied very easily, so I haven’t felt a need for cover conditions. Not sure if that’s good or bad but I like it.

Also noticed that backstabbing thieves I’ve encountered have been doing 4k-6k stabs. Condition bombers(read: necros) have been a sort of not sure how to deal with them since I don’t have the Absolute Resolution as a panic button. But it can be changed by taking the Radiance points off. To me this works decently in both zergs and small team/solo. The Tome of Wrath is really, really awesome and has saved me many times when I’ve noticed I’m in a tough fight.

So here’s the finalized build I’ll be running until I get bored of it:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQJARWl0ApcoNDxVIEERR8Ql5Y0iWNCVHANwje1PA-TVjAABTqE0jLAAAPSBJOQA6s/AmqUwiGiROABnquiDHBAxU+xnuAa0gQIgFbBA-w

Sigil of Smoldering I believe is bugged since the April 15th patch, unless I missed the hotfix.

Also, I would run with runes of strength with battle sigils. With an easy upkeep of 15 might stacks your power and condi damage is going to better then with your current rune set.

Its a pretty nice build, I like it.

Just did a little testing and to me the Sigil of Smoldering works as intended, can clearly see the extra second from activating VoJ and Judge’s Intervention on a random poor creature in EB. The reason why I went with flame legion runes is because the burn upkeep is surprisingly easy when you get few hits in and I really suck at boon upkeep. Especially when using Empower in small fights you really have to position yourself so you won’t get interrupted or backstabbed. Also I’ve learned to love the Hydromancy sigil: Line of Warding behind enemy —> Judge’s --> weapon swap + Whirling Wrath. Chilled and they can’t really run away from it and if they dodge more often than not they hit the Line of Warding.

Mayhab might runes would work really nice, coupled with another guardian or warrior… sure why not, greatsword autoattack has that might boon aswell. But then again, in that situation they can’t really increase my burning duration and that +7% damage to burning foes is too yummy for me to change. This build is very much self-reliant and has little to offer to allies other than damage and a boon or two. Sturdy and strong just the way I like it.

Without the sigil of smoldering you will still get the extra second so there is a flaw in your test. You would need to get rid of the other burning duration sources to see it work. I think it is still bugged as reported by foofad in his pyroclasm thread that is stickied.

With Sigil of Battle and other things you can pretty much keep up 15 might with just swapping weapons and have +7% bonus damage bonus. I think you missed that part of my post. It doesn’t require work to keep those stacks up. You don’t need allies for this.

Though, I understand if you value the burning duration. It could be a wash, though I think that strength/battle combo comes out on top.

Do you have a video of where you can keep up burning on another player consistently? I haven’t seen anyone show this yet. I see people constantly say that its “easy” and they can do it, but no one has produced visible proof. All I’ve been able to do is apply large amounts of burning in spurts and then there is a period where there is no burning.

I went to the Heart of the Mists to try it on the golems there, removed all of my condition/burn increase equipment/traits and used Purging Flames since that was the only one that gave a clear difference: 5 seconds without the sigil and 6 with the sigil. And every time it ticked 5 times without and 6 times with the sigil. To me that works as intended, test it yourself maybe I missed something.

And I did not miss that part, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in what I was trying to say: Weapon swapping is so situational and I’ve met my fair share of boon stripping thieves/necros/mesmers that I’d rather take a consistent damage through semi-passive, even if it’s bit less. Afterall burning needs duration increase or it doesn’t tick.

About videos, well, never done it, don’t have any programs and I doubt my computer can handle that, it might, it might not. So if there is someone who has visual proof or can provide such, do share. I will take a look if I can somehow…

i made a video of burning ele but he died so only tick 12 times (12 seconds)
i used skills 1,2,3,4 only on the sc/t

basically as voj proc every 5 attackes which is around 4 seconds rotation you need to proc 2 mores skills so AA will just keep it burning by themselves and if you enemy cleanse you have another skill to proc it again

regarding the build
i have also tried mix power with condition dmg but i find it that only 1 heal skill wihtout meditation heal is bit hard to handle as roamer or with zerg fight

@messiah 12 seconds isn’t a fight especially against someone running away the entire time.

@Ashtaeroth maybe I was a bit harsh in my last post. Sorry If I was attacking. Our experiences are pretty different. I don’t meet boon stripping folks in WWW just pvp. So I can understand your reluctance to run might. I also rarely run into folks that run negative condi duration food. But if you are yes the increase in burning duration is important. No need for a video, the comment was more of I just want to see this in action. Messiah is the only one to really put vids out on this, and nothing against him but the videos don’t show a good representation of putting on burning constantly. I’ll check out the sigil of smoldering, you are the first guardian to say it works after testing. Other guardians who I know tested it and said otherwise.

Whaat? I’ve seen no hostility in here, people are way too sensitive these days… Anyhow, almost everyone I meet on the battlefield has either -36% or -40% condi duration foods, boon strippers (o.O) are mostly necros/mesmers that I’ve met, few rare sword/dagger thieves. But baseline is I’m not reluctant in running such might build, I just quite literally suck in controlling it. Also, I tried on the video capture but my fps drops into oblivion so sadly cannot provide such.

@Balsin what do you want me to prove exactly
1. i can put burning consistently (up to the max stacks)- i can show it on golems in the mist. but the idea is to kill your enemy fast as possible so you dont want to tick for 1 min burning
2. ppl tend to cleanse conditions but i can proc it again shortly – in the ele vid was a nice example when he downed and lose all his conditions the burning proc in the next attack right after.

and i really dont know why the ele run away and didnt use water attunement to cleanse (probably panic or noob reaction)

this is why ppl dont get this build. you can proc 1k dmg with 90% hit chance (almost any skill on your bar proc it and also blocks)

and most of my fights tend to be 10-20 seconds and they die or flee

check my other videos of me testing burning build in spvp wvw. you will see the ticks surely

thats the most intersting build I’ve seen for a very long time

Yeah the sigil of smoldering isn’t working for me after I tested it.

How did you test it? Care to share your testings? I really want to know what is bugged with it because as far as I can see it works for me. It increases the burn duration just fine, granted it’s really hard to see a difference between 1/4 and 1/2 seconds but when it hits full seconds to add the 20% from the sigil it indeed increases my burns. Also as I’ve stated above on the golems in the Heart of the Mists, you said I’ll get the extra second of burning even without the sigil, is not happening to me. What am I missing here?

Edit: I can’t find any info anywhere that would say it is bugged and how. All I’ve found, even through google, is that it’s bugged somehow and those were done 6-12 months ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Pyroclasm-The-Definitive-Guide-to-Burning/page/5#post4005636

foofad and others have confirmed its bugged here too.

This is sidetracking horribly now but I read that entire post, all five pages of it, and nowhere did I find an explanation how it is bugged. Few comments on how it doesn’t add up if used in dual weapons sword/focus for example. Also one post about the burning not showing in the tooltips of skills but the damage still ticking somewhere in there. Anyhow are you talking about +100% burn duration? Because my build is not such. Perhaps you are talking about having two of those sigil in the same weapon set? It’s been known that they do not stack, after april update it even says it in the sigils.

And I went to the pvp test golems and the sigil does exactly what it says, it increases inflicted burn duration with and without any other condition increasing equipment. I ran it as throughly as I could imagine, Sigil of Smoldering on one weapon only and switching those to see the effect. VoJ active using the orb from staff to make sure I can watch it clearly, result: I get longer duration with sigil on. Then did the same with Purging Flames, result: I get longer duration with sigil on. Then did the same with Judge’s Intervention, this is where it got a bit tricky since it triggers your passive VoJ but even when adding VoJ and removing VoJ from that, result: I get longer duration with sigil on.

How is the sigil bugged? Can you tell me how you tested it? What were the results? Do notice that I’m not trying to be aggressive here I just want to know how the sigil is bugged, that link you put only shows foofad saying it is still bugged. I however cannot find anywhere with anything that actually says how it is bugged, no evidence whatsoever. Now I can argue that the math doesn’t quite fit in for it to be exactly 20% but it could be that the durations in game only show quarters and is rounded up or down to the closest one. However the added duration is significant enough that is useful to me.

i tested and its buged

if in the tooltip its says passive voj under 2 seconds than it will only proc 1 second with or without the sigil
so you must check skills which gives longer whole duartion like JI which gives 3 seconds and with sigil it will be 3.6 so still 3 second so you can verify it either
active voj is 4 seconds so with digil its 4.8 so again you cannot verify either

only skills which burn for 5 seconds or longer you can check them

so skills which should’ve proc longer, proc the same tick so it must be buged

Alright, thanks. And here’s what’s happening to me with PvP golems: Supreme Justice trait, Soldier amulet/Flame Legion runes, greatsword(with/without sigil). I’ll ignore the VoJ passive since it’s 1 3/4 sec. Active VoJ shows for 9 sec(tics 9 times) burning with sigil and 8 sec(tics 8 times) without. Judge’s Intervention shows for 5.5 sec with sigil(tics 5 times) and 4.5 without(tics 4 times). Purging Flames shows 9 sec with sigil(tics 9 times) and 8 sec without(tics 8 times).

Changed to Runes of Adventure but kept full Zeal trait line. Active VoJ shows for 7.5 sec(tics 7 times) burning with sigil and 6.5 sec(tics 6 times) without. Judge’s Intervention shows for 4.5 sec with sigil(tics 4 times) and 4 sec without(tics 3 times only anomaly for me). Purging Flames shows 7.5 sec(tics 7 times) and 6.5 sec without(tics 6 times).

Removed Zeal trait line and used Runes of Adventure so I only have burn duration increase from the sigil. Active VoJ shows for 6 sec(tics 6 times) burning with sigil and 5 sec(tics 5 times) without. Judge’s Intervention shows for 3.5 sec with sigil(tics 3 times) and 3 sec without(tics 3 times). Purging Flames shows 6 sec(tics 6 times) and 5 sec without(tics 5 times).

Now the same thing after removing Supreme Justice: Judge’s Intervention and Purging Flames show and do the same amounts. VoJ changes to:
Flame Legion + Sigil = 7 1/4 sec/tics 7 times), without sigil 6.5 sec(tics 6 times).
Runes of Adventure + Zeal traits + Sigil = 6 sec(tics 6 times), without 5 1/4 sec(tics 5 times).
No Zeal trait line + Runes of Adventure + Sigil = 4 3/4 sec, without 4 sec. Both tic 4 times.

What am I doing wrong here, or can you see something that I cannot? Because the only thing I see getting affected is Virtue of Justice passive which I do not consider a bug in the sigil but some funky math in VoJ. Based on my tests that 20% burn duration works perfectly and is big enough to actually affect the burning itself, that’s why I took those sigils. Also in combat my opponent is more often than not running with negative condi duration foods and potentially some Melandru runes etc. So I have to push my theoretical burn duration to around 120% to have an actual effect after all the math of + and -

ok test it either
to achieve 100% condition duration in pvp you need
20% sigil
rune 45%
30% zeal trait line
20% radiant fire

passive voj tick 2 times
JI tick 6 times
so not bugged anymore

supreme justice only affect voj active duration so all other skills wont get 25% duration

What runes give you 45% burn/condition duration in spvp? Since you can use only one full runeset and not able to mix them anymore, yes? Giver weapons are not in spvp as far as I know. And I know Supreme Justice only affects VoJ both passive and active, but it increases duration of VoJ regardless that’s why I mentioned it. But are you saying now that it’s not bugged and my testing was accurate enough? If so can others confirm this into any direction and possibly share their methods and results? Just stating it’s bugged is not that helpful in my opinion…

balthazar runes give 45%