Firebrand - Support Firebrand
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Contents

Part of the current metagame.
Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great.
Focused on: Ground control, Healing, Support, Utility.
Designed for:
Overview
A support Firebrand build for WvW. Provides a large amount of Stability and great downstate control, as well as powerful healing, cleansing and boon support.
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
Brings a powerful block and boon support at the cost of CC.
Skill Variants
Heal
- viable burst heal option.
Utility
- when quickness uptime is required.
- provides more personal sustain at the cost of team support.
- AoE condition cleanse at the cost of your 1 personal defense skill.
- AoE pulsing stability.
- if projectile hate is needed
- AoE ticking healing.
Elite
- Personal defense
Specializations
- if you are the second guardian in a party.
- if running any Consecration skill.
- if regen/protection uptime isn't an issue.
Variants
Swap Virtues to Valor for more personal sustain and availability at the cost of general improvements for tomes. Recommended as a second Firebrand in a party.
- excellent passive healing bonus, preferred option if having multiple guards using Valor as does not stack.
Equipment
















Consumables
Variants
Stats
- Giver's can be an easier stat to obtain stat in place of Minstrel's but loses effective health.
- Cleric's can be used to add healing power at the cost of boon support and personal sustain.
Runes
- strongest boon support and defensive option with less healing
- strong option for GvG
- for more condition clear with stab mantra.
Sigils
It isn't recommended to drop Superior Sigil of Energy for any of the following sigils
- for boon uptime.
- when confident on 25 stack uptime.
- AoE heal on weapon/tome swaps.
- quickness access on weapon/tome swaps.
Food
- Defensive option with boon duration.
Oysters with Pesto Sauce Defensive option with healing power.
Utility
- boon duration option.
Usage
Settings
- Under General Options / User Interface check "Always show squad health bars" and "Always show party health bars". These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support. "Thick squad health bars" and "Thick party health bars" are even better for proper usage, but are up to personal preference.
- Check "Party View" mode instead of "Squad View" mode. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' boons, conditions and health, enabling a better decision-making and skill management.
General
- and both bring new skill sets which grant access to an extremely powerful boon support, healing and cleanses as well as unique buffs for your group. Knowing when to enter or to stow a tome, which tomes skills must be prioritized based on the situation and how to play while a tome is on cooldown are fundamental.
- Outside of tomes usage and in between tomes usage; Staff, Mace and Shield skills along with your Mantras and utilities, coupled with various traits will provide a consistent and strong group support.
- and make up a significant part of your group healing. Try to use your dodge rolls and
Aegis skills not only just for personal defense but also when your group requires some healing. Aegis on you that blocks an attack procs as well, enhancing your outgoing healing.
Merciful Intervention is a 1,200-range shadowstep skill which can instantly rally downed allies, giving the firebrand a great downstate control tool.
- The more outgoing healing modifiers you have, the better are your chances you have to instantly rally a fallen ally since you will be restoring a big part of his downed health.
- If an ally is about to go down and to ensure you have 10 stacks of 6th effect for the healing modifier, you can quickly pop either , or since those all give 2 boons to each ally, (5-man) then 10 boons. Not recommend to use stab mantra if it's the last charge.
- The longer you take to MI, even with several healing modifiers, your chances of instantly rally (without hand rez) are reduced, since your ally will start being cleaved and will likely have
Poison. Paying attention to your allies' health is essential so you can MI as soon as they drop.
- If your ally is about to go down and is heavily condi'ed, let him go down and then MI. If you MI preemptively there's a possibility that he has
Poison, meaning your MI will be less effective compared to a MI used to rally him. If he goes down, he loses all his conditions and goes invulnerable for a brief moment, that is the moment when you MI him.
- Don't try to be a hero and use MI on an ally if you have a great chance to die as well. It is better to only one to die, instead of two.
- MI gives plenty of AoE healing and can be used to teleport away from danger to an ally which can be a life saver. Even without an ally to jump to, the amount of healing this provides can be invaluable for your personal survival too.
"Stand Your Ground!" is an immensely strong and game changing skill. Being able to deny up to five crowd control skills for ten people makes it an indispensable skill on this build.
- SYG gives 5 stacks of
Stability for 10-man for 9s (with boon duration) with a 30 seconds cooldown. It also breaks stun for you. Position yourself to maximize the number of affected allies.
- This is your main and most important source of group stability. It is an opener, don't use it prior to an imminent or at the moment the engage happens, use it preemptively (like 3-4s before) since the stability from SYG has a considerabĺe duration and you have other skills that can upkeep stability after that as well. Thus, allies won't get caught behind by CC skills like or .
- Make sure you are looking at your party' boons often, mainly at stability.
- If you are CC'ed, don't use SYG as a stunbreak unless absolutely neccessary, use .
- If
Stability on you or allies gets corrupted it turns into
Fear which can be easily cleansed with your .
Tomes
- All tomes retain their passives after activation due to and have shorter cooldowns due to , so don't hesitate to use them if your group is pressured. It's possible to switch directly from tome to tome.
- Due to , there are 2 sources of self
Quickness in the build: entering a tome and stowing a tome. Use these brief windows to land tome #4 and #5 skills faster, to recharge depleted Mantras or to .
- You have additional quickness sources if running and/or
Quickness also enhances your healing power and toughness due to .
- Swapping out of a tome sends it on cooldown even if you didn't consume all the pages. Therefore, try to only enter a tome if you can make full use of it. Skills #4 and #5 are usually the strongest but with the longest recharge, look after using them at least twice before running out of pages whenever that's possible. You get 3 extra pages through as well.
Filler tome that's low on the priority list, won't be used much unless you are out of options: need a quick CC, need to proc Superior Sigil of Energy or have to contribute with some damage.
- Keep in mind that you will be giving free
Aegis for enemies if they convert your
Burning from the tome skills. Therefore, try to only pull this tome when it's going to be impactful somehow, like cleaving and snowball'ing on the enemy group.
- will be used for a group damage increase.
- is a 240-radius pull usable up to 900-range. It is the only CC on this tome, and a rather good one at that. As usual, CCs are mostly situational.
- On spikes, pull enemies in with
- On spikes, pull enemies in with
Tome of Resolve brings high healing and condition cleanse (converts too) as well as unique passive bonus for your party. As a support Firebrand, you will be fulling healing allies with only a few skills, and may sometimes have to camp the tome.
- All Tome 2 skills grant
Regeneration from .
- By simply existing, Tome 2 (even if it's on CD) will continously heal and regenerate endurance for your group through and .
- Upon entering Tome 2, you grant Regeneration due to and cleanse 3 conditions on nearby allies due to . It also enhances Resolve's passive effect.
Swiftness. This is a priority skill and usually the 2nd you going to use after entering the tome for an continuous AoE healing. Since it is static, try to cast it on top of the zerg or, if your commander is moving, a little ahead based on his movement.
Vigor,
Regeneration and
Swiftness on a 240-radius. Don't use this unless you need some
Vigor uptime.
- Constantly look at your party members' health and conditions. Knowing if it's better to use
- If under heavy damage pressure: ⇒
- If under heavy condition pressure: ⇒
- Constantly look at your party members' health and conditions. Knowing if it's better to use
Tome of Courage provides a very strong boon support and great access to stability, as well a unique passive bonus for your party. This tome will likely be prioritized over Tome of Resolve unless you are the second FB in the party.
- Upon entenring Tome 3 and Tome 3 skills grant
Protection due to and respectively, making this tome very effective against direct damage.
- If running Valor traitline, will make Tome 3 cooldown way shorter since you have great access to
Aegis through and traits. Also if you successfully resurrect an ally (hand rez or MI) you reduce Tome 3 cooldown by 10s due to .
Aegis,
Protection,
Retaliation,
Stability and a bonus to toughness for 5s. This one of the key skills. It grants allies several defensive boons and extra armor through toughness, enabling a better survivability for DPS classes. Try to use as the 2nd and the last tome skill or whenever committing for a push or being heavily pressured. Synergizes well with .
Resistance 3 times and is a stunbreak for you. This is your opener tome skill against condition pressure and one of strongest tools in the build. Pulsing
Resistance means that even if it gets corrupted and turned into
Immobilize the next resistance pulse will deny the immob, making it an extremely powerful ability to temporaly nulify any condition in a large area, notably helpful against negative effects like
Cripple,
Chill and
Slow. Use it to negate scourges' shades and red circles in a big area, also usable when pushing or retreating to ensure that allies caught behind receive the resistance pulse. Since it is static, try to cast it on top of the zerg or, if your commander is moving, a little ahead based on his movement.
Protection. Don't prioritize this skill. It can be placed on top of your blob, between zergs or into the enemy zerg to ensure any outgoing projectile gets reflected.
Aegis and
Taunt nearby foes. Low priority tome skill. Should only be used while on melee range, when trading sides or going through the enemy zerg and to disrupt enemies trying to manually resurrect or trying to cleave your allies. Can also be used on enemies stuck inside friendly to prevent then from dodging out or escaping.
Stability and
Protection (traited) for allies. Don't spam it mindlessly, use it to fill the stability gaps from SYG. Since it has 600-range, can be used to boon support allies behind from a safe distance.
- Always check your party' boons to be sure you are not wasting a tome page, giving a boon that is well covered or, for example, landing
- If under heavy damage pressure: ⇒
- If under heavy condition pressure: ⇒
- Always check your party' boons to be sure you are not wasting a tome page, giving a boon that is well covered or, for example, landing
Mantras
- Mantras are ammunition type skills with 3 charges, which affects up to 5 allies (4 and you) in 180-radius (around you), and in 450-range (conal) based on where you are facing.
- Given enough time Mantras will recover their charges so long as at least one charge's left, so think twice before using the final charge - that's the most powerful one, but will put the Mantra on full CD.
- You can still use Mantras while CC'ed.
- is your healing skill. It grants you great
Aegis share. If running Valor, it triggers and synergizes well with .
- should be shared with as many allies as possible. They do not receive the initial healing, but they do gain
Aegis with all its related trait benefits. The Aegis is essential do negate direct spike damage, and can be shared with downed players when you're manually reviving them in case they are being cleaved down.
- is the final charge and only heals you more.
- should be shared with as many allies as possible. They do not receive the initial healing, but they do gain
- is your on demand AoE cleansing skill.
- removes 2 conditions and grants
Regeneration. Use it whenever minor/moderate condition clear is required for you or your party. Always check if your allies have conditions on then, thus you don't waste a mantra's charge for nothing.
- is the final charge. It converts up to 5 conditions into boons, similar to
Epilogue Eternal Oasis. Only use this skill if you don't have any access to condi clear/mitigation sources ( on CD for example) and are being heavily condition pressured. Be sure you are facing the right way to ensure your allies are benefited as well.
- removes 2 conditions and grants
- is your on demand AoE stunbreak and
Stability skill. Bear in mind it has a long charge time and recharge time once depleted.
- will often be used whenever minor
Stability or a stunbreak is necessary. Recommended to use this skill (along with healing mantra) over SYG if you aren't sure if the enemy zerg is going to push, or if they are just fake pushing to burn your CDs; and when your commander is committing for small and ranged skirmishes. Can also be used as a stability filler if you don't have Tome 3 or SYG available, but is strongly discouraged. At last, will be used as a stunbreak for you and allies if you need to escape, for example, from an enemy . Stunbreaks also deny
Fear if you can't cleanse it.
- provides 5 stacks of
Stability,
Retaliation and
Swiftness for 8s (with boon duration). Similar to SYG, but 5-man only, will be mainly used for the stability output for your party whenever you lack other big stability sources, or need a stunbreak instantly, don't be afraid to use if your party really needs it. If either Tome 3 or SYG are about to go back, don't use the last charge, try to fill with aegis from mantra or weapon skills. Always check your party' stability to ensure you are not over-booning.
- will often be used whenever minor
Staff
Staff brings solid and versatile skills which can be used either offensively, as ground control and CC, or defensively, through Might share, healing and cleanses.
- shouldn't ever be prioritized unless you literally don't have any cooldowns available. It has a slow projectile speed, but will be mostly used to apply ranged pressure to aid on cleaving enemies.
- is a 1,200-range skill which pulses heals (static 240-radius) and then gives a blast finisher in the area.
- It provides an AoE healing burst that can be used to support caught allies, trying to reposition themselves, from a safe distance.
- Use it, preemptively, on top of your group to mitigate incoming damage.
- If possible and opportune, try to cast it on top of combo fields, especially on light and water fields.
- At last, can be used as an 1,200-range offensive skill if the supportive aspect isn't required.
Mace/Shield
- Use Mace/Shield to support your group and create heavy burst CC and healing. The autoattack provides very strong AoE healing.
- Rotation: Autoattack continuously throughout the fight. When bombing the enemy in Mace, use your to give an extremely high healing Regeneration plus AoE pressure. Then activate on your shield for a burst heal to allies and protection, followed by for a high damage skill and a small damage mitigation. Either when you see a downed enemy or ally, use to push back a res/stomp attempt, either double tapping for a large burst AoE heal or channeling for projectile defense.
Axe/Shield
- Use Axe/Shield for both defensive support from the shield and for offensive plays with , an AoE pull. This combos effectively with Wells and with , where you can pull enemies back inside of your group's ground pressure.
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