Firebrand - Support Firebrand

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: Healing, Boon support and Crowd control

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Hard

This build was last updated on September 25, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

A support Firebrand build for WvW. Provides a large amount of Stability and boon support.

Skill Bar

Staff

Mace/Shield

Utility

Weapon Variants

• Axe provides excellent CC but at a short range
  • Recommended for smaller numbers
• Staff ⇒ Spear
  • Good if you need condition clear or Resistance
    • Generally Spear works well with Tempest/Scrapper healer in party and Staff is always better otherwise

Skill Variants

• Mantra of Potence for Quickness
• Sanctuary for CC
• Mantra of Lore if extra cleanse is needed
• Signet of Mercy for smaller numbers

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Pure of Heart with Spear

Variants

• Archivist of Whispers

Equipment

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Minstrel

Chest
Minstrel

Hands
Minstrel

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Minstrel

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Staff
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Mace
Minstrel

Shield
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relic

• Relic of the Flock

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Transference
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Frenzy

Usage

Quick Guide

• Firebrand supports its group by maintaining critical boons, particularly Stability
• Keep Stability on your group for each push by spreading out your cooldowns

Stability Skills

• "Stand Your Ground!"
• Tome of Courage with Indomitable Courage
• Hallowed Ground
• Mantra of Liberation

• Watch for caught allies and use your reactive tools such as Mantra of Liberation, Tome of Resolve + Absolute Resolve, or Epilogue Eternal Oasis to save them
• Keep up Resistance for your party by using Tome of Courage ⇒ Chapter 2 Daring Challenge and Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand as often as possible
• Give your party Quickness for spikes with Mantra of Solace + Liberator's Vow
• Keep Might, Protection, and Swiftness on your party

Important Boon Skills

• Empower
• Protector's Strike
• Shield of Judgment
• Symbol of Swiftness

• CC enemies on your groups spikes

CC Skills

• Tome of Courage ⇒ Chapter 2 Daring Challenge
• Line of Warding
• Tome of Justice ⇒ Chapter 3 Heated Rebuke
• Shield of Absorption

General

• Focus on using your pages for your highest value skills: Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand, Epilogue Eternal Oasis, and Chapter 2 Daring Challenge
  • Chapter 3 Heated Rebuke and can sometimes be worth the pages
• Avoid using the final charge of Mantra of Solace

Surviving

• This build has high passive defense
• This build has no mobility skill access
• This build has high active defense

Defensive Skill List

• Stunbreak
  • Mantra of Liberation
  • "Stand Your Ground!"
  • Tome of Courage ⇒ Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand
• Condition Clear
  • Tome of Resolve + Absolute Resolve
  • Tome of Resolve ⇒ Chapter 2 Radiant Recovery
  • Tome of Resolve ⇒ Epilogue Eternal Oasis
• Aegis
  • Protector's Strike
  • Shield of Judgment
  • Mantra of Solace
• Healing
  • Empower - if you have time to finish cast
  • Holy Strike
  • Shield of Absorption - only if the knockback isn’t disruptive

• While your active defenses are strong, they are ideally saved for your group and not used selfishly

Priorities

High

• Stability
• Stunbreaking aliies
• Signet of Mercy - if applicable

Moderate

• Boon support
• CC

Low

• Condition clear
• Healing

Detailed Explanations

Stability

• Use your Stability skills in the following priority order:

Stability priority

1. "Stand Your Ground!"
2. Tome of Courage + Indomitable Courage
3. Hallowed Ground
4. Mantra of Liberation
5. Tome of Courage ⇒ Epilogue Unbroken Lines

• Apply Stability before allies get caught by enemy CC
  • Enemy CC is most likely to land when they spike your group, your group is moving through theirs, or your group is moving away from theirs
    • It is better to use your Stability too early than too late
• Spread your Stability application as much as you can without letting allies get caught by CC
  • Avoid overlapping multiple Stability sources on your party, both your own and other players
• Tome of Courage + Indomitable Courage is on cooldown and will not activate when the red Dormant Courage buff is on your buff bar
• The final charge of Mantra of Liberation is very powerful, but should be conserved for use when all other Stability are expended
• Tome of Courage ⇒ Epilogue Unbroken Lines is your last resort for Stability due to the high page cost
• When using Stability skills without pulsing application (everything other than Hallowed Ground) cover the application by applying other boons immediately after the cast
  • Mantra of Solace and Tome of Justice + Inspired Virtue are ideal for this because they are instant, but any boon application is worth doing
  • This is done because boon strips (which are the most common type of boon removal) always work on a first in, last out priority
    • This means boon strips will always remove the most recently applied boons first
    • Boon corrupts remove a random boon which this technique can still mitigate by ensuring you have as many unique boons as possible

Stunbreaking

• Mantra of Liberation is your group stunbreak, use its charges very carefully - the cooldown is too long to waste them
• Allies are most likely to be CCed at the same times they need Stability or while they are the focus target.
• Turn your camera, make use of a “Look Behind” keybind and listen to voice communications to pay attention to caught allies.
• Additional support will often be needed after stunbreaking. Follow up Mantra of Liberation with Mantra of Solace for general protection or one of your Condition Clear skills if the player is stuck via soft CC
  • Clicking on players you're trying to save will make it easier to see what support they need

Signet of Mercy

Signet of Mercy

• Watch for low allied health bars to enable precasting (Using the skill before an ally is downed so that it finishes casting on them as soon as they do go down)
• Give yourself quickness with Mantra of Solace before beginning the cast
• Cover the cast with Stability ("Stand Your Ground!" or Mantra of Liberation only - the others are too slow)
• Make sure to communicate over voice comms. Broadcast that you are beginning, casting and finishing the rez, include the name of the person being rezzed if possible.
• If another player with a higher priority calls they are rezzing at the same time, cancel the rez (“Stow Weapon” keybind or Escape button while in a Tome skill) and communicate the fact you are cancelling.

Boon Support

Non-Stability Boons Per Skill

• Mantra of Solace - Aegis + Swiftness (Relic of Febe) + Quickness (Liberator's Vow)
• Swiftness
  • Symbol of Swiftness
• Protection + Aegis
  • Protector's Strike
  • Shield of Judgment
  • Tome of Courage + Inspired Virtue
• Might
  • Tome of Justice + Inspired Virtue
  • Empower
• Resistance
  • All CC skills via Stoic Demeanor
  • Tome of Courage ⇒ Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand
• Quickness
  • All Stability skills via Stalwart Speed
• Regeneration
  • Symbol of Faith
  • Tome of Resolve + Inspired Virtue

• Defensive boons like Protection, Resistance or Aegis should be prioritized when your group is on the defensive
  • Use Chapter 2 Daring Challenge and Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand off cooldown to keep high Resistance uptime
    • Make sure to only use these skills if you'll hit an enemy with Chapter 2 Daring Challenge and your group will stand in at least a few ticks of Chapter 4 Stalwart Stand
• Offensive boons like Might and Quickness should be prioritized when your group is on the offensive
  • Especially as your group spikes, try to always use a charge of Mantra of Solace
  • Empower has a long cast time, so use it before your group is about to push
  • Blast Fire fields before fights start with your group with Holy Strike
• Use Symbol of Swiftness to keep Swiftness on your party whenever you have downtime

CC

CC Skill List

• Tome of Courage ⇒ Chapter 2 Daring Challenge - AoE Taunt
• Line of Warding - AoE Line
• Sanctuary - AoE Knockback (optional)
• Tome of Justice ⇒ Chapter 3 Heated Rebuke - AoE Pull
• Shield of Absorption - Aoe Knockback

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike such as Wells (Well of Corruption)
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive enemies are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups move defensively while your group is pushing
  • Do not use your Knockback CC at the normal time, instead use it while your group is on the defensive or before your group pushes in
• All of your CC skills proc Stoic Demeanor if they hit an enemy without Stability
  • As long as it hits an enemy Chapter 2 Daring Challenge will proc Stoic Demeanor even if the enemy has Stability
• The position of Line of Warding can be changed by turning your character during the cast time before it finishes
• Since the page cost of Tome of Justice ⇒ Chapter 3 Heated Rebuke is high it should be saved for your most important group spikes such as Wells

Condition clear

Condition Clear Skill Priority

1. Tome of Resolve + Absolute Resolve
2. Tome of Resolve ⇒ Epilogue Eternal Oasis
3. Tome of Resolve ⇒ Chapter 2 Radiant Recovery
4. Holy Strike - Light field Blast finisher

• You have limited condition clear compared to other supports, focus on using yours when allies have Immobilize
  • Allies are very likely to get Immobilize at the same times they need Stability or Mantra of Liberation
• Tome of Resolve + Absolute Resolve is on cooldown and will not activate when the red Dormant Resolve buff is on your buff bar

Healing

Healing Skill List

• Empower
• Holy Strike
• Shield of Absorption (only if the knockback isn’t disruptive)
• Dodge (Selfless Daring)
• Regeneration
  • Symbol of Faith
  • Tome of Resolve + Inspired Virtue

• Most of Firebrand's healing output happens incidentally while doing other things
• The heal on Empower is substantial, but heavily backloaded to the final tick
  • Prioritize using Empower for Might, but if you have a chance to full channel it while your group is staying in place during a clash with the enemy then doing so is almost always worth it

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.
• Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars
  • Thick squad health bars can be used too as a matter of personal preference, but is not recommended for large numbers
• Under Squad Options uncheck View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' boons, conditions and health, enabling a better decision-making and skill management.