Guild Wars 2

This is a build for PvE that focuses on two things: keeping groups of mobs burning and cycling through an attack rotation that maximises the benefits this brings.

Many builds take Fiery Wrath and just take it as a given that everything will be burning when you attack it. In reality, I’ve rarely found this to be the case except vs bosses; VoJ typically has around 25-50% burning uptime, and only vs a single target. Because this build can maintain AoE perma-burning, the damage (particularly AoE) is more consistent, without having to rely on a handy elementalist or engineer nearby.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.3|1.1g.h1b|9.1g.h2.f.1g.h1b|1g.71j.1g.71j.1g.71j.1g.71j.1g.71j.1g.71j|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|k27.p67.0.k28.5|39.7|d.18.19.15.1i|e

A typical rotation goes as follows:

1. Leap of Faith to open
2. Whirling Wrath
3. Swap to Mace/Torch, Symbol of Faith then Zealot’s Flame while SoF is activating.
4. Cleansing Flame
5. SoF again when it comes off cooldown, ZF when it comes off cooldown, then swap back to GS and go back to 1.

After the initial rotation, each weapon swap will have a few seconds where you can either auto-attack or use other skills as you see fit. Of course the main benefit of perma-burning is the 20% damage boost, but with you should be able to maintain ~10 stacks of Might by yourself, which will add ~500DPS from the burning damage itself. You should be able to maintain ~10 stacks of AoE vulnerability as well if you remember to activate VoJ before mobs drop.

The posted build uses full berserker, but of course you can swap in a few pieces of more defensive gear for a little more survivability if you want. I recommend swapping in maybe a Valkyrie amulet and Knight’s helm, legs or rings (keep Exquisite Ruby jewels though). Alternative rune sets include boon duration runes or runes of the Wurm.

Feedback welcome

Decent stats but your condition cleaning is pitiful. Also, use Shelter instead of Dwayna. All you have to do is block one or two attacks to make Shelter heal for more, and you can use it proactively to block heavy boss hits. I’d also chuck the Divinity runes for something more worthwhile. Soldier would drop your DPS but increase survivability on account of the shouts, or you could go with something that’ll increase your damage output more meaningfully like 5 Citadel 1 Ruby, Pack, Eagle, etc.

He said it’s a PvE build, he doesn’t need condition cleanse.

Also, don’t use Cleansing Flame, the DPS on it sucks. It’s purely a condition cleanse for allies, since it doesn’t affect you.

HE might not, but whatever party he carries will.

Yeah, generally I treat the third utility slot as flexible. If clearing one condition every 20s isn’t enough, Purging Flames or CoP can do the job. In general though, I think Smite Condition does just fine for cleansing that pesky Immobilize or large bleed stack.

Also GK, does the DPS of Cleansing Flame really suck compared to the mace auto? Usually I use mace auto for more sustain against harder hitting mobs, but its cleave is terrible so I figured Cleansing Flame would be stronger at clearing trash. Again, this is only vs mace auto while waiting for swap.

It’s REALLY bad. I’m not near the game right now but it’s something abysmal like half or less of your autoattack damage. Even without cleaving on the last hit, you’re always better auto attacking than using it.

mace auto actually does a LOT of damage. iirc, from experience, more than Torch 5. Torch 5 really doesn’t add a whole lot of DPS, especially taking into account the cast duration. however, it’s decent for proccing burning, cleansing on your allies. but of course, for the multi hit nature of the skill, you must watch out for retal (though again, PvE). if anything, it’s cool to watch. ; ))

you can always toss zealot’s fire right before flame is up if you want some extra “burst”. though of course, this increases the CD time. so if your aim is to maintain burning uptime, then don’t worry about this.

i’m almost tempted to have you take out 5 points in virtues and smack it in radiance and pick up right hand strength. your mace / torch attacks will do a lot more damage. on a similar build (actually yours might have even more DPS), i’ve seen 2k, 3k, close to 4K auto attack chains on the mace (mob and situation depending).

don’t forget to use Protector’s Strike for massive AoE damage as well. though since mobs attack kind of slow in PvE, do anticipate it and only pop it right before they are about to hit you, so you don’t waste time / the CD.