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Guardian - Core Condition

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core

Difficulty:
Easy

This build was last updated on January 19, 2026 and is up to date for the December 09, 2025 patch.

Overview

A basic core guardian build focused on condition damage. This build has good damage and strong defensive capabilities. Uniquely, a large amount of guardian's condition damage does not come from the skills themselves, but by triggering Virtue of Justice by striking enemies multiple times, making fast hitting weapons the best option.


Skill Bar

Sword/Torch
Greatsword
Utility

Weapon Variants

  • Scepter Scepter - strong ranged DPS
  • Mainhand Pistol Mainhand Pistol - good ranged DPS. Requires Secrets of the Obscure.
  • Offhand Pistol Offhand Pistol - decent offhand; do not replace torch. Requires Secrets of the Obscure.
  • Staff Staff - long-ranged option that is good for meta farming.
  • Axe Axe - very strong mainhand with CC. Requires Secrets of the Obscure.

Skill Variants

  • Hammer of Wisdom - cc
  • Wall of Reflection - projectile hate
  • Judge's Intervention - teleport and damage
  • Hallowed Ground - long-duration stability
  • Sanctuary - high CC against champions and projectile hate
  • Renewed Focus - strong defensive tool


Template Code

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Specializations


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.

Viper DPS Equipment

This variant uses equipment similar to existing Condi DPS Firebrand raid builds, making it an easy gearing option for general PVE.

Head
Viper
Shoulders
Viper
Chest
Viper
Hands
Viper
Legs
Viper
Feet
Viper
Backpiece
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Accessory
Viper
Amulet
Viper
Ring
Viper
Ring
Viper
Sword
Viper
Torch
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Greatsword
Viper
x
Viper
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic

If you are gearing this character from zero, start with exotic quality gear. Search the trading post for "Viper's Abomination" weapons. Viper exotic armor is very expensive, so we recommend a budget alternative called Carrion (search the trading post for "Shiro" armor) until you can get Viper gear such as by farming Bladed armor or by acquiring ascended armor. Upgrade to Viper and ascended as you progress. See also: Guide:How to Gear a Character.

Free To Play Equipment

The following equipment is available to Free To Play players. It is not quite as powerful as the variants above, but holds its own even in instanced content.

Head
Carrion
Shoulders
Carrion
Chest
Carrion
Hands
Carrion
Legs
Carrion
Feet
Carrion
Backpiece
Carrion
Accessory
Carrion
Accessory
Carrion
Amulet
Carrion
Ring
Carrion
Ring
Carrion
Sword
Carrion
Torch
Carrion
Sigil
Sigil
Greatsword
Carrion
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


Relic


Consumables

Budget consumables are acceptable for use in open world.

DPS

  • Prioritize Flatbread Ascended food.
  • /
  • /

Defense

Farming

  • Prioritize Flatbread Ascended food.
  • /
  • (and variants)


Usage

Damage

Your damage comes from a combination of power damage from your weapons and Burning Burning damage from Virtue of Justice, which is empowered by several traits like Permeating Wrath.

Swap between Greatsword and Scepter/Torch for damage. You should open most fights on Greatsword if you can and, once its cooldowns are spent, swap to scepter/torch for better sustained damage.

Scepter Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Symbol of Punishment
  3. Sword of Justice (or other spirit weapon)
  4. Zealot's Flame
  5. Cleansing Flame
  6. Chains of Light
  7. Fill with auto-attacks

Sword Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Zealot's Flame
  3. Sword of Justice
  4. Zealot's Defense
  5. Symbol of Blades
  6. Fill with auto-attacks

Greatsword Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Symbol of Wrath
  3. Whirling Wrath
  4. Sword of Justice
  5. Leap of Faith
  6. Fill with auto-attacks


Your Virtue of Justice passive makes up a significant amount of your damage through Burning Burning. Use "Feel My Wrath!" off cooldown for Fury and Quickness uptime.

If you are about to kill a mob, activate Virtue of Justice for a large DPS increase, so long as you have Radiance Radiance traited it will be recharged due to Renewed Justice.


Defense

  • Litany of Wrath is a massive heal.
  • Virtue of Courage / "Advance!" provide an on-demand block
  • Shield of Wrath (focus) is a series of blocks
  • Virtue of Justice is an area blind but will reduce your DPS drastically if you don't quickly reset it.
  • Virtue of Resolve removes conditions and provides a small amount of healing.
Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Guardian_-_Core_Condition&oldid=24672"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Onlywrin gave this build 5 stars • August 2021
When it comes to Core builds this is unquestionably the strongest option. It's cheap to gear and outputs very high DPS for a core build. It's also quite versatile.
5 stars
Jack Armstrong gave this build 5 stars • February 2021
Loving this build--finally my Guardian is what I always wanted it to be but it never quite was. Guardian was the first profession I tried, and I've really wanted to like it, but it always ended up being too squishy for me--sure, it has a lot of defensive tricks, but if you don't play it perfectly, you're dead. No more. Though a Condi build, this one plays just like the Power builds, even using the same weapons. I often like to switch to the Zealous Blade trait and run Greatsword / Sword / Torch. Even in full Dire gear (which I can recommend), the initial burst is surprisingly close to that of the glass cannon Power builds, but now there's a strong follow-up burst of burning damage, and with 23k health 3k armor, it ain't no glass cannon. It's super cool that it's also a core build with cheap gear, runes, and sigils in the Trading Post. You can swap the Virtues trait line for Dragonhunter 3-1-1 (or whatever traits you prefer) for a decent Condi DH. You lose the damage boost and cleave of the Permeating Wrath trait, but gain some of it back with fixed traits Defender's Dogma and Pure of Sight, in addition to modified Virtues and access to traps and a trait that boosts run speed. Because of the speed boost, I often do this for farming, some dailies, etc. Switching Virtues to Firebrand 2-2-3 gives you essentially the Solo Firebrand build, though with different gear and utility skills. Seems like it could be fun to play around with variat

Comments

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