Guild Wars 2

Disclaimer: I don’t spend a huge amount of time on the Guardian forums so maybe something like this has been posted before. However I did not take this concept from any other Burn Guard build.

Recently I had been growing bored with Meditation Guard and wanted to try something different. I thought that I haven’t seen a ton of Burn Guards around and decided to aim for that. It took a ton of trial and error but I finally ended up with this:

Amplified Flames

The issue I had always seen with Burn Guards before was keeping the burning up consistently against classes with high condi removal. That can still be an issue but if you learn to spread your burns out even Necros, Eles, and Warriors won’t have enough removal to deal with your flames.

I like to start out with Scepter/Focus out because it’s a ranged weapon and its initial combo can force a lot of countermeasures early into the fight. The general combo is as follows:

Chains of Light -> Ray of Judgement -> Smite

Or if you are pro and can predict where they’re going you can go with Smite first. Due to Focus master Chains and Ray have the same CD which is really useful. Smite hits so many times that it can trigger Virtue of Justice multiple times, and with all the + duration it actually lasts 2 seconds for each passive pop.

After the blinds have wore off pop your Shield of Wrath. When they hit this they are applying burn to themselves via Defender’s Flame. This trait required sacrificing Fury on your Meditation use but really goes a long way to keeping the burn on. Your blocks also give you might which means your burn tics can exceed 900.

Your next combo is obvious which is why you start with Scepter first. While your shield is still up Swap to GS and go:

Binding Blade -> Judge’s Intervention halfway through the animation -> Pull -> Purging Flames -> Whirling Wrath -> Leap of Faith

This is where you have to use your knowledge of what build they’re using. If they’re using a more condi heavy build you may want to wait to do this combo until you actually have conditions on you to make the most out of Purging Flames. When you do use it, the combination of the fire field and Whirling Wrath will apply a TON of burn duration and the Leap will give you a Fire Shield, making any more hits you take apply burning.

If your opponent appears to have a lot of condi removal try to bait out as much of it as you can before using the big combo. beware of Warrior’s Berserker Stance although because so few guards run such high damage burns they generally wait too long before activating. If they’re removal is outstripping your duration between your big GS combo don’t be afraid to pop your Virtue of Justice which is an 8 second burn. Towards the end of close fights I find myself using all virtues, poping Renewed Focus and then using Justice again just to insure they have no time to recover.

Against foes with High regen your poison on swap will help a great deal. Also, with it + burning that means you can easily do 1,000+ a tic. Against builds wit low condi removal, this build will just rip through them. I’ve been running an imperfect version of this in WvW with +40% duration food and it makes it even more devastating to your average Thief pack. They tend to not bring much removal and as a result when they all get pulled into Purging Flames and find themselves with 15 seconds of burn they’ll all stealth and appear dead a few feet away. If you hate Thieves then you’ll LOVE this build. Even if you miss them with your blocks they end up killing themselves. Currently I only have access to applied Fortitude in WvW (only like rank 151) but with them I have around 21k HP. Sadly there’s no Carrion Ascended gear so I tend to settle for Rabid.

This build is pretty similar to your standard Meditation Guard but I find the sustain to be higher due to HP and much better against classes with high amounts of evades. I’m not sure this is the optimal setup yet so if you have any suggestions please let me know.

If you want mega burn application, have a look at “Runes Of The Guardian” – applies burn everytime you block an attack, which stacks with “Defenders Flame”, can switch scepter to mace as well for some extra sustain, and another block.

Snorcha.7586:

If you want mega burn application, have a look at “Runes Of The Guardian” – applies burn everytime you block an attack, which stacks with “Defenders Flame”, can switch scepter to mace as well for some extra sustain, and another block.

The issue with this is you end up sacrificing a TON of duration in addition to taking toughness and healing power stats in a build focused around dealing damage. I can see Runes of the Fire or Flame Legion may be viable replacements but I still find having that 2 second burn on the passive proc is important, especially considering that Smite is 16 hits if you can get them to stand in most of it.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Snorcha.7586:

If you want mega burn application, have a look at “Runes Of The Guardian” – applies burn everytime you block an attack, which stacks with “Defenders Flame”, can switch scepter to mace as well for some extra sustain, and another block.

The issue with this is you end up sacrificing a TON of duration in addition to taking toughness and healing power stats in a build focused around dealing damage. I can see Runes of the Fire or Flame Legion may be viable replacements but I still find having that 2 second burn on the passive proc is important, especially considering that Smite is 16 hits if you can get them to stand in most of it.

My main problem when playing a burn guard was the fact we have no cover conditions, so re-application was more important then duration, but I can see this build working well, will give it a shot

Snorcha.7586:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Snorcha.7586:

If you want mega burn application, have a look at “Runes Of The Guardian” – applies burn everytime you block an attack, which stacks with “Defenders Flame”, can switch scepter to mace as well for some extra sustain, and another block.

The issue with this is you end up sacrificing a TON of duration in addition to taking toughness and healing power stats in a build focused around dealing damage. I can see Runes of the Fire or Flame Legion may be viable replacements but I still find having that 2 second burn on the passive proc is important, especially considering that Smite is 16 hits if you can get them to stand in most of it.

My main problem when playing a burn guard was the fact we have no cover conditions, so re-application was more important then duration, but I can see this build working well, will give it a shot

I think you’ll find it pretty enjoyable. Forgot to mention, when you have them in the Purging Flames circle use your GS symbol because that applies Vulnerability on top of the Burning and Poison so it can get in the way of some removal. The blind can also count as a cover in some situations although you should always endeavor to make sure the Leap is available to combo because that shield is useful.

Switch Contemplation of Purity for Smite Condition lower CD and good dmg, replace Master of Consecrations with Blind Exposure for more damage and a good access to vulnerability. I would recommend Sc/F-Sw/To Greatsword is sometimes slow but the retaliation and Blinding Blade is good depending on foe

Short and constant application of burn is the way to go. I’ve been trying to have a burn guardian with Supreme Justice and Amplified Wrath but the sustain is to wonder until I can make it work as well as Meditations.

Burning Guardians are certainly viable because people don’t know how to fight them. I play a FULL GLASS condition damage guardian and I sit on about 2600 condition damage. I basically can only 1v1 with it as it’s not designed whatsoever to take on multiple opponents and it has awful survivability. But it’s fun as hell.

Benjamin.8237:

Burning Guardians are certainly viable because people don’t know how to fight them. I play a FULL GLASS condition damage guardian and I sit on about 2600 condition damage. I basically can only 1v1 with it as it’s not designed whatsoever to take on multiple opponents and it has awful survivability. But it’s fun as hell.

This version is less glass but because it has power it’s less vulnerable to DS Eles and anyone else with high condi removal. The Vitality is also really nice.