Guild Wars 2

After some testing it’s looking like Valor might be a really good line in place of Zeal with the new Meditation traits.

Valor Minors
Valorous Defense: Gain Aegis when struck below the health threshold. (50%)
Another free aegis proc is always nice. Also another stack of 2 sec burn from the block.
Courageous Return: Virtue of Courage is recharged when you revive an ally or rally.
Not amazing but not too bad either. Just remember to always use Courage before going down. Although the active is nerfed to about 40% of what it did previously currently.
Might of the Protector: Gain Might when you block attacks.
This is really strong. You should get 5 aegis’ in a fight that lasts less than 15 sec which means 10 stacks of might. Plus Shelter is probably the best heal with Valor so add another 2 stacks.

Valor Adept
Strength of the Fallen: lose a condition every 10 sec. Health degenerates 33% slower while downed.
I like this one a lot. Condition builds are very strong right now and this is good against them. But the other trait is even better imo.
Smiter’s Boon: Cast Smite Condition when you use a healing ability
This is amazing mainly due to the GM trait which causes meditations (Smite Condition) to heal and grant fury. Plus Smite Condition deals AOE damage and removes a condition.

Valor Master
Strength in Numbers: Nearby allies gain 150 toughness in combat.
I thought communal defenses was better but apparently you don’t benefit from it. You do however get toughness from this.

Valor Grandmaster
Monk’s Focus: Using a meditation skill heals you and grants fury to allies in a radius. Meditation skills have reduced recharge.
This is the reason for going Valor. This makes all of your utilities, and your healing skill (because of the Adept trait) give fury and a nice heal. Also your utilities and elite have a 20% reduced recharge.

Condimediguard Abilities
I’m still running Scepter+Torch/GS. Scepter+Torch/Sword+Focus would be really strong too I just spent a bunch of money crafting an ascended GS and I’m not going to swap it. Plus Whirling Wrath is crazy OP now.

As for utilities since you’re doing meditations just swap Purging Flames for Smite Condition. I would also recommend Shelter over Signet for this build.

Minx.7521:

Why is guardian forums as bad as thief forums? >.< I thought guardian traits were great (compared to the load thieves got). Can someone explain to me what this update did that nerfed guards so badly?

Thieves are really good too now.

Stop kittening.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

Mallis.4295:

I’m running it as condi guardian because the other two GMs kinda suck.

Seems good so far since it can trigger 4 times in a fight.

If your running condi don’t bother with zeal.

Go radiance instead, it gives allot of extra burning & can reset the torch number 4 one every 10 seconds for yet another burn & toss.

Radiance also gives a good 25-30% critical chance.

All this pairs really well with virtue traits to increase VOJ procs and make them AOE.

Them combine it with rune of flame legion for extra burn ticks and + damage to burning enemies.

Only thing zeal is really good for is symbols or a zeal, honor, valor AEGIS spam build.

I’m Zeal+Radiance+Virtues

I’m considering swapping zeal for valor and running condi mediguard though.

There’s a thread for builds man.

Working as intented.

The ability tooltip clearly doesn’t have a CDR %.

I’m running it as condi guardian because the other two GMs kinda suck.

Seems good so far since it can trigger 4 times in a fight.

Black Box.9312:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but for every buff condition Guardian is getting, classes with real condition builds are getting buffed at least twice as hard.

Yeah sure buddy.

I like what I’m reading here.
A question about gear, why not sinister over carrion?

You get 30% crit for free from the new radiance and I don’t like going full glass cannon.

Yeah this has been a thing for awhile.

It used to be that enemies would get burned/you would lose 1 condition every time you moved in to purging flames. They changed it like a year ago to be that when the skill is cast everyone in the area gets burned/3 conditions removed, and after that it only reduces incoming condition duration.

Asmodal.6489:

Wouldnt rune of the guardian be also a good addition if you Run a block centric build?
Smart blocking will hurt the Opponent Even more and maybe the rune has no ICD

If it has no ICD it could end up being very good.

Burning Duration is going to be a very important though with it now stacking intensity. Burning duration will actually do a lot instead of nothing like it does now.

The main reason is reduced condition duration. Rune of Melandru gives -25% incoming condition duration and it quite popular. Rune of resistance gives -15% incoming duration. Also it’s not uncommon for WvW players to have the -40% condition duration food on.

I’m also not entirely sure about reduced condition duration and if it applies additively or multiplicatively.

EX: You have 100% duration +33% from trait and +45% from runes. After -40% from food do you burn at 138% duration or 106.8% duration?

Dirame.8521:

I know there will be moments where someone just unloaded a ton of bleeds and other condis on you but because of his/her overzealousness, they put another stack of bleed on you making it the most recently applied condition

Have you also considered that most condi builds constantly apply their damaging condition and can’t control it? Warriors and Necro have bleed on crit. Guardian auto-burns every 3 hits. Most of the time your main damage condition is going to be the last condition applied because you constantly apply it. Removing the most recent condition would hit the damaging condition 90% of the time and make condi builds completely useless.

Just a though about the ready up. They showed a trait which said “When you block and attack, grant aegis to nearby allies” with seemingly no ICD.

So 2 guardians can go around with this and infinitely cycle Aegis.

Plus you can take the trait where Aegis does AOE damage when it breaks.

Can’t wait to abuse this for a day before they fix it.

merchantchuck.4875:

i want it reverted, I loved using it the way it was before.

If you watch the ready up they talked about it. Because burning is intensity now if someone used a multi-hit attack like Whirling Wrath you could practically 1shot them with shelter.

Hopefully the ICD is just per target.

The patch notes show all of the ways that Poison and Burning now have multiple stacks on abilities to compensate for reduced damage, but nothing about Runes and Sigils.

Are there going to be updated as well?

Linnael.1069:

Mallis.4295:

daksh.2176:

No as that would make condis really op and make direct damage not worth

Any evidence to support that?

Watch the livestream on anet’s youtube

Yeah let me watch that 6 hour long video which may or may not answer my question at all.

Windsagio.1340:

The joke to me is all these people that are filled with utter agony that someone gets a gift and they don’t.

Everyone gets it, they just take it away if you already have it.

It says it comes with the core game on the purchase page.w
When you register a serial key there’s a list of things it includes. One of those is the core game. Then it says you won’t get it because you have it.

Add a pro for Scepter. It now generates might.

Vayne.8563:

One of the big issues almost all MMOs face in gaining new people is the barriers to entry and there are a lot of them. Anet has tried to fix this by including the original game in HoT. They are including it for free, because they want people to get into the world. This drives gem sales which funds the game between expansions.

By removing even a single entry barrier, more people enter the world which is good for everyone who plays the game. Giving away the game isn’t a slap in the face to Veteran players, it’s something that’s good for veteran players. Let’s say someone buys the game from this point on. I can bring them into my guild now. They can come to my guild hall. They can become part of my family.

The other way, every time I recruit someone I have to ask if they have Heart of Thorns. If they don’t, they won’t be able to be with the guild when the game launches.

There are so many barriers to entry for new players in MMOs. New players are years behind some of us in the acquisition of gold and skins. I can easily buy a 90 gold skin from the TP if I want, for a new player, those skins will be out of reach for a much longer time, and in addition to that, many of the skins aren’t even available anymore.

All the content in Hot and all the content that will be added moving forward is for veteran players, but the decision to include the game for free benefits veteran players as well.

I don’t get why this is so hard for people to understand.

If they had said they were giving the game away to new players and still left the option to buy the standalone game that would be fine.

As it is the purchase page says that HoT comes with the base game.
When you apply the serial key it tells you that you are getting the base game, even if you’re upgrading your base game. Then it says you don’t get it because you already have it.

If they are giving the base game with HoT you shouldn’t lose out because you already have it. You should get an extra key you can give to a friend. Plus that would bring a lot of new players into the game that don’t want to spend $50 right now but still have the potential to purchase gems or HoT later. Anet is just being stupid.

daksh.2176:

No as that would make condis really op and make direct damage not worth

Any evidence to support that?

Unloveableone.6082:

FirebrandFrog.7603:

Except the Megaservers aren’t ridiculously priced and bite older players who don’t want to buy the core game twice in the butt.

Try again.

You are literally not even kittening buying it.
It just comes as a bonus for people that don’t have it.
AGAIN.
YOU
ARE
NOT
BUYING
IT

kitten

Actually you are.
I bought the expansion (and have since refunded it) and when you apply the serial key it tells you something like “You are receiving these items” with a list of things. The core game is on that list. Then it says you will not receive it since you already have it.

So they actually are taking it away because you already have it. It’s part of every serial key. Not just new players.

Will traits such as “Deal 7% increased damage to burning foes” or “Deal 20% increased damage to foes below the health threshold” or “Foes you apply bleeding to take 10% increased damage” etc affect conditions now like Vulnerability?

There are a lot of these damage amplifications, many of them triggered by conditions, but they don’t actually benefit conditions at all.

I can just see the shenanigans with 5 Guardians going around having permanent Quickness.

I think condition guardians won buffs-wise.

-Burning now stacks intensity. Condition DPS at least doubled most of the time to quadrupled in some cases.
-Justice burn AOE is now centered on foe instead of being a PBAOE. Ranged now works.
-Burning Duration is now actually good
-Vulnerability works on Burning
-Total damage of Zealot’s Fire/Judge’s Intervention/Purging flames increased ~30%
-Extra cast of Zealot’s fire on crit (15-21 ticks of burning + 700 base physical) plus torch CDR and burning duration in same trait
-Bleeding damage buffed ~15%
-Symbols Burn
-Free permanent 30% crit for nothing
-Free GS CDR
-Free Might stacks
-Free Aegis

One major question I have is will all damage amps be getting the Vulnerability treatment with their interaction with conditions?

Things like while foe has X condition they take X% more damage or
While you have X boon deal X percent more damage or
Deal X% more damage to foes under the health threshhold

There are many traits and runes like this currently that all do not work with conditions. Will this be changing? I would really like for the two “deal 7% increased damage to burning foes” to actually increase the damage of my burning.

misterdevious.6482:

They’re right, Retaliation isn’t something you consider just in terms of single-target dps numbers. People tend to think that way because on their screen they see the Retaliation damage they do… they don’t see all the Retaliation damage they caused by granting it to allies.

A thief backstabs you for 10k… you hit him for 350. A ranger Rapid Fires you for 7000… you hit him back for 3500. A soldier Engi flamethrowers you for 3k… you hit him back for more than 3k. Retaliation can do 3.5% incoming damage… 50% incoming damage… or over 100% incoming damage…

Now take all of those wildy varying damage percentages… and consider them on not only yourself, but on the allies you’ve buffed and every attack that lands on every one of them. The guy spamming AoE on your entire group could be taking 1750 per pulse from multiple pulsing attacks active at the same time. The actual damage output of a Retaliation skill/trait can be massive when the ground is covered in red-circles.

Radiant Retaliation is very punishing to certain attacks and very lenient towards others, but built right it will be something people will HATE to fight against.

The problem here is the competition. 15% burning damage and burn on block is much better considering that Carrion is the best stat for condi guardian anyways so your retaliation will already be pretty good.

Plus you want to get hit as little as possible. Dodge+Aegis+RF is a lot of time where retaliation is completely useless but burning puts in massive work.

This would only be good for supports in WvW and even then it’s still iffy considering it’s competing with the new signet trait and the new signet elite is going to be amazing in WvW. Also condi damage isn’t a great support stat.

I think this is going to come with a new way to get ascended gear.

If they keep ascended gear behind timegates and RNGgates this is complete kitten.

NumenorLord.6539:

I tried condi for some time in PvP, was not really my thing. Don’t know if the condi buff will be enough to make it viable in PvE, if so I will be happy to read your guide ^^ and contribute if I can.

It’ll definitely be viable in PvE now. The new damage output is much higher than before plus the condition cap is raised.

Looking forward to trying it on condi guardian. Probably going to end up sticking with RF. It’s just too good.

I’m going to be running this http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgIB7AJkBZQ~
Don’t like DH

Exedore.6320:

Keep in mind that even at high condition damage (over 1100), burning ticks in the new system will be doing half of what they did in the old system. In order to maintain the same damage as on live, you would need to apply double the burning. Double seems doable, but I don’t see it going much higher. There are some abilities which apply 3 stacks of burning, but those are longer cooldown.

Read the abilities section of my post.

Judge’s Intervention and Purging Flames burning overall damage increased by 30%.
Justice now burns for 2 sec instead of 1 and the overall damage has gone down by about 15%.
Zelot’s Flame damage is increased about 15%. Zealot’s Fire damage has increased 30%.

However before there was too much duration anyways. With burning stacking intensity the actual DPS you will be getting from burning is going to be much much higher. Before burning ticked for ~850 for me in most situations but now it’s going to be up around 2500 with just 2 abilities.

Also whirl finisher from greatsword 2 in fire fields is going to be absolutely disgusting.

EDIT

Oh wow I just realized the abilities section is missing. Gonna add that. I’ll put it in this post too.

II ~ Ability Changes ~ II
_____________________

Virtue of Justice, Resolve, Courage: The radius of the active portion from these abilities have been reduced from 1200 to 600.
Large radius reduction to the ally buff portion of your virtues.

Virtue of Justice recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25.
Virtue of Resolve recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 50.
Virtue of Courage recharge reduced from 90 to 75.
This balances out the lost virtue CD reduction from trait lines.

Zealot’s Flame: Increased the burning duration from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
Roughly 15% damage decrease.
Zealot’s Fire: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Roughly 30% damage increase. Also this whole skill is incredibly good with the new master trait.

Judge’s Intervention: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Same as Zealot’s Fire. 30% damage increase.

Purging Flames: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 5 seconds.
Same 30% increase.

Virtue of Justice Passive: Increased the burning duration from 1 second to 2 seconds.
Almost 15% decrease. Still intensity is going to make this crazy good.

Black Box.9312:

DrPhro.5976:

I don’t get what’s with all the symbol hate. Symbols are fine in PvE where all the action typically happens in one spot, and even in PvP the bigger symbols trait allows you to apply a bunch of on-point pressure. I could understand these complaints more if our class was ranger or mesmer, but guards like to be in the fray and fighting on or near the point, even with the zerker builds.

The idea is that people want the Guardian to be viable outside of conquest, because not everyone likes conquest and it’s a kittenty mode to base your entire class balance on.

You think a trait that gives ground targeting symbols with 900-1200 range would help this?

Saiyan.1704:

I wanted to post what Fr forums are saying as well

Google Translator

hide spoiler

“For the idea of the bout, in fact you have to see this build within a group or zerg
It is true that the burning of about 800 damage, and retaliation 300. It adds up to 1100 dmg per second (assuming that the enemy hits once per second).
BUT, it’s not 1100 damage on a single target, but 5, see as retaliation does not stop at 5 targets.
So potentially (and I emphasize the word ^^), it’s not the 1k dmg per second, but the 5-6k.”

The thread go on to say that a Burn and Retaliation build is “strange” and its effectiveness is uncertain. But people do in fact use a burn-retaliation build… even if it’s a handful of people. Again, this was gathered from the French forums.

It makes me look at Radiant Retaliation a little differently. Not the fact that Retaliation could offer huge damage in a zerg, but people actually use that build type on a burn guard.

TL;DR: People actually use Radiant Retaliation but it’s still bugged in its current itteration.

People use retaliation yes because you get a bunch of it for free in Virtues. People don’t use Radiant Retaliation since it actually does nothing and the best stat combo for burn guardians is Carrion anyways.

Time warp has 6x the CD.
Even if they can cast it twice the shout has nearly 40% better uptime plus fury.

Also the full heal thing can be paired with stability. It will be realllly good in wvw

Check out my thread about the new condition builds. It might be better than zerker.

misterdevious.6482:

My math is reduced 33% because: “In PvP and WvW, retaliation damage is reduced by 33%.” I included that part.

No, Radiant Retaliation isn’t working. My math is showing what it is “supposed” to do based on the numbers it had before it stopped working. I tested it just this week after that patch to fix the weird WvW interdimensional shennanigans (if you don’t know what that was, a lot of people missed it… but apparently some people were wandering an alternate maps where walls were down and they could hear enemies but not see them, and rangers and their pets were in different maps… seeing a pet running around without a ranger is weird. It was weird.)

One reason to take Rabid is to take on-crit Might like Sigil of Strength or Empowering Might. If you are benefitting from both the Power and the Condi then it can be good. And maybe another crit-sigil like Torment, Blight, Earth, or Incapacitation… or Blood if you want some extra sustain).

Rabid is really bad for condi guardian IMO. Carrion is probably the best. Vitality scales much better than toughness since it’s a separate survivability multiplier and you already have high base toughness as guardian. Power increases base skill damage and also scales retaliation without having to lose Amplified Wrath. Plus you get free 30% crit with the new traits anyways so on crit is viable with that. Most on crit stuff is outclassed by on weapon swap though I think.

Saiyan.1704:

We got an extra 6 trait line for further support these build types

DH is pretty bad for condi actually. Bleeding traps is incredibly lackluster because traps themselves are lackluster and it doesn’t do much else in the way of conditions.

misterdevious.6482:

Radiant Retaliation is a way that full-condi Guardians (yes, I meant to say that) like Dire/Rabid/Settler/Shaman can have a secondary source of damage other than Burning (Dragonhunters will also get access to Bleeding). It isn’t for hybrids. It actually encourages you to get as much Condi as you can because every point of Condi is worth 2 points of Power.

Anyways the trait doesn’t even work in the first place lol.

• Without Radiant Retaliation: Dire/Rabid/Settler/Shaman will do 179 retal damage.
• With Radiant Retal and 1000 Condi: 230
• With Radiant Retal and 1700 Condi: 299
• With Radiant Retal and 2300 Condi: 358 (doable with undead/food/crystals/sigil/signet)
• With Radiant Retal and 2750 Condi: 402 (12 stacks of Might from Empower and 3 stacks from either F1 boon or Empowering Might.)
• With Radiant Retal and 3000 Condi: 428 (in WvW it is common to stack 25 stacks of Might before a fight.)

How much better do you think the scaling should get?

Your math is a bit off there. Retaliation is 267 damage at 0 power investment (198+0.075*base power). The damage of retal with only base power isn’t very far behind conditions. Retaliation isn’t even a reliable damage source in the first place though and it’s competing with Amplified Wrath which is a much much better choice for a condition build.

Episcopos.5206:

mallis I have a few questions

1) When i go with a range one attack weapon i generally dont use sigils because i cant make much use of the swapping – if the enemy is in my face i won’t want to swap to the scepter, and if im stuck at a distance i won’t want to swap to the melee weapon. Won’t it be more beneficial to use other sigils?

2) the biggest challenge to the condi guard is we’re going to be very vulnerable to any other condi player because we are going to errr about when to use contemplation of purity. If we use it for a stun break we’ll be vulnerable to stuns for a huge amount of time, but if we use it for condi cleans it’ll be vice versa. Or if two rounds of either stuns or condi bursts come our way we’ll be in trouble. It might seem like Purging Flames is the answer until we realize we have to stay in the circle to get its full effect which seems very dangerous… but on the other hand we cant sacrifice our JI as that’s crucial to getting bursts off/surprising the enemy. I think purging flames has to be given up in favor of stability which seems like a huge blow. What are your thoughts?

1) I usually find it easy to close gaps between enemies with immobilize/greatsword leap/greatsword pull/judge’s intervention. You want to stay on top of your enemies. Also switching is always the best option. Scepter+Torch has more single target than GS anyways:

Instant 3 stacks of 10sec+ bleed
Instant 6 sec poison
Zealots Flame for 15 ticks of burning (+6 with flame legion) + a bunch of physical
You now have 30% crit on your enemy
Immobilize them scepter 2
Back up and Cleansing Flame
Throw Zealots Flame again as soon as you crit for another 15-21 ticks of burning + more physical

Don’t be scared of being on top of enemies. They should be scared of you.

2) I usually don’t have a huge problem with conditions using healing signet+purging flames+contemplation. I think Purging Flames is fantastic for a few reason.

-It’s a fire combo field
-It applies 15-21 ticks of AOE burning and the condi cleanse on cast. You don’t need to sit in it
-If you get to sit in it, it reduces incoming condi duration.
-It has amazing synergy with the greatsword 5. If you pull someone back in who ran out they get the burning reapplied to them. And that’s also AOE.
-If you spin on top of someone in Purging Flames they will melt instantly. Every hit of the ability applies burning while in Purging Flames, and now stacks intensity.

You can out-condition almost anyone due to the passive effect of justice. On the subject of that and CC, one of your main strengths is the amount of blocking you can do. Dodge rolls work great for CC but you also have aegis and your elite and another aegis. If you really want to take stability that’s fine I just prefer not to.

All these power/support/bunker guardian tears.
It actually does suck to see how much they messed up most of guardian.
As someone who plays all condi Guardian though it got insane buffs. Maybe even the best buffs of all classes. Overall DPS has possibly doubled or more due to intensity stacking and condi scaling on top of most skills/traits getting crazy buffs.

I’ve already determined that the next version of my main build is better without Dragonhunter.

Other classes might have better elites idk.

VII ~ Combos and Gameplay~ VII
____________________________

Condition Guardian offers some high risk-high reward (most of the time very low risk really) gameplay with strong AOE damage and conditions. For the most part you want to keep these things in mind.

Weapon swapping is key.
Weapon swaps are going to give you a lot of AOE bleed plus poison. The extra condition damage will add another few hundred DPS and the poison will impede healing. Try to use all of your abilities quickly so you can swap when it’s ready.

Use your combo fields.
The greatsword has three finishers and one combo field: light. Purging Flames is a combo field: fire. Fire Whirl projectiles will inflict extra burning to enemies they strike. Light Whirl projectiles will remove conditions from allies. Fire Leap combo will give you fire shield, which burns enemies that attack you. Light Leap combo gives you Light Shield, which applies vulnerability to enemies that attack you while giving you retaliation. For maximum effect try to whirl in both fields and then leap. For an even better combo pull enemies in using the greatsword 5 right before you whirl.

Don’t use Justice’s active, proc the passive.
Try to last as many separate hits as possible. Don’t spend too much time pressing 1 unless all of your other abilities are on cooldown, since almost all of them inflict faster hits.

Try to negate as much damage as possible
You have your dodge rolls, 3 aegis, lots of condition removal, 2 stun breaks and a 2 second invuln. If you keep landing conditions and spacing your dodge rolls out well you can last long enough for conditions to take down your opponent.

Don’t afraid of invisibility.
Pretty much all of your abilities are AOE. Just keep using them.

If you think you will be downed before you finish an execute apply as much conditions as possible
It should easily give you a huge advantage and finish them off long before you bleed out.
_______________
_______________

I hope this was informative and enjoyable. Thank you for reading.

tl;dr: Guardians burn things and do damage.

V ~ Weapons ~ V
________________
Torch is mandatory. You must use the torch. OP trait pretty much requires this. Not only do you get free AOE and targeted burns, but you also get CD reduction. Cleansing Flame is great for Justice passive procs and just straight damage too.

Scepter is my favorite mainhand with the torch. Mainly for the instant immobilize. Scepter is going to be even stronger with the ability to burn at range with the AOE Justice trait since before you would hit an enemy far away and it would just burn around you. Also the new scepter specific trait that grants Might should be fairly easy to proc 6-8 times using the scepter 2 and torch 5.

Sword and Mace are also good mainhands. I don’t use them as often but sword has high mobility and damage with projectile blocking (which may proc the burn on block), while mace has a Symbol.

For the other weapon set I recommend greatsword. Condition Guardian is great at dishing out AOE conditions from Justice’s passive and Sigil of Geomancy. The greatsword is Guardian’s best AOE weapon. It has a symbol that is also a light field, and three finishers, plus cc and very high damage. I’ll go over the greatsword a lot in the combo section.

If you want to use another 1hand mainhand focus is a great offhand. It gives very good survivability and will proc the burn on block with Shield of Wrath.

I don’t think Staff or Shield are good picks for Condition Guardian but you can try them if you want.
_______________
VI ~ Abilities~ VI
_______________

Healing Abilities
Shelter: Block attacks while healing.
Shelter can prevent a lot of damage if timed correctly. It also can proc 2 burns when blocking.
Signet of Resolve: Cure a condition from yourself every few seconds. Active: Heal yourself.
If you want more condition removal this is very good. The active heal is also the highest of all your heals.
Litany of Wrath: Heal yourself. For a brief time 25% of damage dealt is returned to you as healing
Again with the possible Vulnerability treatment. Currently this does not count conditions as damage dealt but we’ll see. This could be the best heal taking AOE into consideration.

Utility Abilities
Judge’s Intervention: Teleport to your target and burn nearby foes.
Great initiation ability that can also be used as an escape if you have a target. Also a stun break. Damage on this was buffed 30% and I wouldn’t go without it.
Purging Flames: Create a ring of fire that burns foes and cures conditions on allies.
Can never have enough condition removal. This lays down heavy fire damage and also cures conditions for 5 seconds. It’s also a fire combo field.
Contemplation of Purity: Convert the conditions you are suffering from into boons.
Not only does it remove ALL conditions from you, it also gives you boons for each one. This is crazy good in PvP. It’s also a stun break.

Other great utilities include Retreat! for mobility. Save Yourselves! for a bunch of boons and great synergy with Contemplation. Hallowed Ground and Stand Your Ground! for stability when necessary. Other skills are more niche but still useful.

Elite Ability
Renewed Focus is the best. It gives you 2 seconds of invulnerability during which your conditions will be ticking away, plus it refreshes all of your virtues for another heal/aegis. Remember that you can activate your virtues during the channel so always do since they will refresh instantly after, and the justice active is some nice extra burning without losing the passive.

Virtues Minor
Inspired Virtue: Virtues apply the following boons to allies when activated:
The same thing but with 5s durations instead of 6 1/2 which was from the boon duration from old traits.
Virtue of Retribution: Gain retaliation for 3 seconds when you activate a virtue. Retaliation you applies lasts 25% longer.
The retaliation length is new and pretty good as this trait also gives 18 seconds of retaliation per fight baseline.
Power of the Virtuous: Deal 1% extra damage for each boon you have. Virtues recharge 15% faster.
The recharge rate is new. With it Virtues have just barely lower CDs than with the old 30% reduction.

Virtues Adept
Old Retaliatory Subconscious: Gain 5 seconds of retaliation when stunned, dazed, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, launched, taunted or inflicted with fear.
New Retaliatory Subconscious: Gain 3 seconds of retaliation and 4 seconds of aegis when stunned, dazed, knocked back, pulled, knocked down, sunk, floated, launched, taunted or inflicted with fear.
Less retaliation but now with Aegis. Aegis is always good and will proc that 2 second burn from blocking an attack.

Virtues Master
Old Supreme Justice: Virtue of Justice causes burning with 3 strikes instead of 5. When activating virtue of justice, the burning duration is increased by 25%.
New Supreme Justice: Virtue of Justice causes burning with 3 strikes instead of 5. When activating virtue of justice, burning duration is increased by 1 second.
The duration is practically the same so no big change here.

Virtues Grandmaster
Old Permeating Wrath: Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around you each time it activates.
New Permeating Wrath: Virtue of Justice’s passive effect no longer only burns your target, but also burns the area around your target each time it activates.
This is HUGE. Now you can actually burn from a distance with the Justice passive. Not only that but also around your target. This is going to make Condition Guardian very very good especially in WvW and also in all other pvp.
__________________________
IV ~ Stats, Sigils and Runes ~ IV
__________________________
Stats
I think that Carrion is the best stat combo for Condition Guardian. We have high base armor and low base HP so the combination of Vitality + Condition damage is what you want. Power is also very good and makes your abilities hit very hard even though your focus is the conditions. Not to mention the new free 30% crit we get and how it will scale with that.

Sigils
Due to burning not being an intensity condition previously I used Sigil of Geomancy and Sigil of Doom for the extra conditions. With the buff to Bleeding damage I believe Sigil of Geomancy giving 3 stacks of bleed is still a mandatory take, especially since it’s AOE. Sigil of Doom is only 1 stack and as of yet nothing has been released about multiplying the stacks to keep the damage equal. It will still be very good for the healing reduction. With the potential for Rune of the Balthazar to be viable Sigil of Smoldering could be good. Also on-kill stat sigils are a pretty safe choice.

Runes
Currently Rune of the Krait is the only really good rune for Condition Guardian.

+175 Condition Damage
+45% Bleeding Duration
25% chance when stuck to cause bleeding for 10 seconds (15 second ICD)
When you use your elite skill you inflict Bleeding, Poison and Torment for 8 seconds on nearby foes.

This rune gives Condition Damage along with a large duration increase to your bleeding from Sigil of Geomancy. It also makes your elite do some nice AOE damage and healing reduction.

Now with Burning stacking intensity instead of duration the two Burning duration runes become good options. The first is Rune of Balthazar.

+175 Condition Damage
+45% Burning Duration
When you’re struck below 20% health gain quickness for 5 seconds (90 second ICD)
When you use a heal skill nearby foes are burned for 3 seconds (10 second ICD)

Lastly we have Rune of the Flame Legion.

+175 Power
+30% burning Duration
25% change to cause burning for 1 second when hit (10 second ICD)
+7% damage against Burning foes

Now this is very good assuming they give it the Vulnerability treatment and the 7% damage is applied to conditions.

III ~ Specialization Changes ~ III
__________________________

Now my old build ran 6/2/0/0/6. The new build looks like it’s going to be Zeal, Radiance and Virtues. Let’s look at the changes

Zeal Minor
Zealot’s Speed: Create a symbol of wrath when you are struck while below the health threshold.
No change here. Although very good synergy with minor 2 and 3.
Symbolic Exposure: Symbols apply 3 seconds vulnerability to foes on each hit.
Alright so here’s one of our sources of vulnerability which now ups condition damage.
Symbolic Power: Symbols have 10% increased damage and have a 33% chance to burn enemies for 1 second.
The burning is new and is very welcome.

Zeal Adept
Old Fiery Wrath: Damage against burning foes is increased by 10%.
New Fiery Wrath: Damage against burning foes is increased by 7%.
OR Zealous Scepter: While wielding a scepter, gain 10 seconds of might when your justice passive effect triggers.
Now if Fiery Wrath got the Vulnerability treatment and now increases the damage of conditions (it doesn’t now) it might still be the best choice. Zealous Scepter shouldn’t be very hard to trigger with the offhand torch and scepter 2 though and a good source of Might is very welcome.

Zeal Master
Old Zealous Blade: Attacks with your greatsword do an extra 5% damage and heal you.
New Zealous Blade: Greatsword attacks deal 5% increased damage and heal the guardian. Greatsword skills have a 20% reduced recharge.
OR Kindled Zeal: Gain condition damage based on 10% your power attribute.
Now I’m a huge fan of the greatsword and a 20% CD reduction seems too good to pass up but if you really want the extra con damage it’s there too.

Zeal Grandmaster
Old Amplified Wrath: Burning damage is increased 33%
New Symbolic Avenger: You deal more damage to enemies standing in your symbols.
RIP OP Wrath. Symbolic Avenger hopefully gets the Vulnerability treatment. The other two grandmasters are even more lackluster for Condition Guardian.

Radiance Minor
Justice is Blind: When activating virtue of justice, nearby foes are blinded for 3 seconds.
Nothing new here.
Renewed Justice: Justice is renewed when you kill a foe.
Nothing new here.
Radiant Power: Attacks against burning foes have a 10% increased chance to critically hit.
With 2 points in old Radiance we didn’t get this anyways so it’s a free 10% crit that synergizes with the OP trait.

Radiance Adept
Old Shimmering Defense: Burn nearby foes when struck below the health threshhold
OR Searing Flames: When you apply burning to a foe, remove a boon
New Inner Fire: Gain fury for 8 seconds when you strike a foe that has 3 or more stacks of burning. This effect has a 10 second cooldown.
More free crit. Free crit is good.

Radiance Master
Old Didn’t get a trait here before
New Incredibly Broken Trait: Gain zealot’s flame when you critically hit an enemy. Burning duration to enemies is increased. Torch abilities recharge 20% faster.
So yeah. Not only do you get burning duration and torch CD, you also get free Zealot’s Flame on crit, which isn’t hard with the free 30% crit you get from the minor and adept. Zealot’s Flame base applies 1 stack of AOE burning for 6 seconds and then 3 stacks for 3 seconds on a single target plus a hefty amount of base physical damage. Note that you can get this while Zealot’s Flame is on CD as shown in the specialization showcase so pop Zealot’s Flame ASAP when you switch to your Torch.

Radiance Grandmaster
Old Didn’t get a trait here before
New Amplified Wrath: Burning damage is increased by 15%. Blocking an attack burns the attacker for 2 seconds. This effect has a 1 second internal cooldown.
Well it’s back albeit nerfed. Intensity plus the number of stacks on most things makes up for it anyways. This will be good with Aegis and blocking abilities, although the ICD will hurt. Still a great trait.

I love playing Condition Guardian currently. After seeing all of the new changes, especially intensity stacking on Burning I feel that it is going to be one of the best ways to play Guardian. In this thread I’ll show the changes to the conditions and traits/specializations and the build I use for it.
____________________
____________________

Table of Contents
I – Condition Changes
II – Ability Changes
III – Specialization Changes
IV – Stats, Sigils and Runes
V – Weapons
VI – Abilities
VII – Combos and Gameplay
_____________________
I ~ Condition Changes ~ I
_____________________

All damaging conditions we can apply now stack intensity up to 1500 stacks.

Burning
-Old damage = 328 + (0.25 * Condition Damage) per second.
-New damage = 131.5 + (0.155 * Condition Damage) per second.
Overall this is a buff which will be shows later on with the skills and specializations. For this just remember old Amplified Wrath at 1200 condition damage was 835 per second and new is 365 per stack per second. This will represent all damage numbers for burning.

Bleeding
-Old damage = 42.5 + (0.05 * Condition Damage) per second.
-New damage = 26 + (0.075 * Condition Damage) per second.
This is also a buff. The breakpoint is 640 and I usually end up between 1200 and 1400 condition damage. An overall increase of something like 15% bleed. Torment has also been buffed in this fashion.

Poison
Old damage = 84 + (0.1 * Condtion Damage) per second.
New Damage = 33.5 + (0.06 * Condition Damage) per second.
This one could be a nerf. Hopefully they update Sigil of Doom and Rune of the Krait to apply 2 stacks of poison.

Vulnerability
-Now increases the damage of conditions
Very helpful considering we can apply a good amount of this with symbols and the light leap combo finisher. Hopefully many traits and runes that “increase damage” follow suit.
_____________________
II ~ Ability Changes ~ II
_____________________

Virtue of Justice, Resolve, Courage: The radius of the active portion from these abilities have been reduced from 1200 to 600.
Large radius reduction to the ally buff portion of your virtues.

Virtue of Justice recharge reduced from 30 seconds to 25.
Virtue of Resolve recharge reduced from 60 seconds to 50.
Virtue of Courage recharge reduced from 90 to 75.
This balances out the lost virtue CD reduction from trait lines.

Zealot’s Flame: Increased the burning duration from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
Roughly 15% damage decrease.
Zealot’s Fire: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Roughly 30% damage increase. Also this whole skill is incredibly good with the new master trait.

Judge’s Intervention: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 3 seconds.
Same as Zealot’s Fire. 30% damage increase.

Purging Flames: This skill now applies 3 stacks of burning for 5 seconds.
Same 30% increase.

Virtue of Justice Passive: Increased the burning duration from 1 second to 2 seconds.
Almost 15% decrease. Still intensity is going to make this crazy good.

I play Condi guardian right now which is quite strong. It’s getting huge buffs with the new traits. It uses GS and can use sword (although I prefer scepter) I’d try that.

Going to write a guide for it with the new specializations.

Didn’t realize this trait was bugged but it’s super disappointing in the first place. Most condi guardian builds have a decent amount of power anyways and this barely gives any damage since retaliation isn’t a huge source of damage.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

You’re making your veteran players pay $60 for the HoT experience while a new player gets the whole thing plus the base game veteran players already payed for for $50. This is incredibly stupid. At least add a free character slot to the $50 so we don’t have to delete a character or pay $10 to play Revenant.

They’re going to lose more money to people not buying/refunding HoT because of this crap than they are from not adding a character slot to the 50$ for veterans.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Revive them and let them get the chest. Even with their mistakes, you wouldn’t have gotten that far without them. 30% of its hp? Maw doesn’t die you probably just did 1 or 2 hits to finish the battle. If you were explaining it correctly at the right time then, they would have hear you and follow you.

I said stay here don’t go near tentacles or where they respawn. Guess how they died.

every time you kill the jade maw in a tier (1-9, 10-19, 20-29 etc) you get a chest that pops up above your minimap that has 25 tokens and an item in it. This item can be rings in 10+ that you can get more agony resist on.