Guardian - Radiant Greatsword
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Note: Please note that builds will default to plain icons, these may not be as accurate. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Contents
Overview
- A Guardian build for running around in open world. This build deals extremely high burst damage and has excellent defensive skills allowing it to stay alive.
Skill Bar
Weapon Variants
- Your second weapon set is fairly flexible. Sword/Focus is suggested because it provides a good mix of defense, AoE damage, and mobility. Depending on what you need, you can run Hammer (crowd control), Scepter (ranged and high damage on bosses), and/or Shield (crowd control and projectile defense).
- You can carry a Staff for tagging mobs in open world farming.
Skill Variants
- Healing Skills
Shelter - defensive option. You can cancel the animation but keep the block by stowing your weapon during the cast. However, you won't receive any healing if you do this.
- Utility Skills
Hallowed Ground - grants more retaliation for boss fights where you can't proc 
Renewed Justice much.
Hammer of Wisdom - more crowd control.
Smite Condition - if you need condition cleanse.
Wall of Reflection - if you need to reflect projectiles.
Shield of the Avenger - alternative projectile defense option.
"Retreat!" - long-lasting swiftness while running.
- Elite Skills
"Feel My Wrath!" - more damage.
Specializations
Variants
Master of Consecrations - if running Hallowed Ground or Wall of Reflection.
Honor Variant
- When soloing extremely dangerous enemies such as Heart of Thorns hero challenges or Queen's Gauntlet bosses, it's sometimes worth running Honor instead of Virtues. This is a significant damage loss but allows you to dodge more often.
Equipment
- Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.
Standard Equipment
- The Standard Variant uses similar gear to the Dragonhunter - Power DPS build for fractals and raids. This makes it a good general-purpose gear set and is the gear that most players should aim for.
6xSuperior Rune of the Flame Legion
Optimal Equipment
- The Optimal Variant is the best possible gear for this build. It's overkill in most cases, and you should only get it if you have spare gold or you don’t care about fractals and raids.
- Variants
- provides high sustain at the cost of damage.
Marauder/Valkyrie Variant
- For a tankier alternative, you can run this mix of Marauder and Valkyrie stats. You lose about 8% of your damage (significantly more if you drop retaliation) but have almost 70% increased health.
Consumables
- If you're having trouble you can use the following consumables:
- Food
- or
Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup
Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash SoupNourishment (1 h):
+100 Power+70 Ferocity+10% Experience from KillsConsumablefor more damage.
Dragon's Breath Bun
Dragon's Breath BunNourishment (20 m):+200 power for 30s after killing an enemy+70 Ferocity+10% Experience from KillsConsumable - for more dodges.
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat StewNourishment (30 m):100% chance to gain might when you dodge.+40% to your Endurance refill rate.+10 Experience from killsConsumable 
Scoop of Mintberry Swirl Ice Cream for more healing.
- Utility
Potent Superior Sharpening Stone
Potent Superior Sharpening StoneNourishment (1 h):
Gain power equal to 3% of your precisionGain power equal to 6% of your ferocity+10 Experience from killsConsumable
Usage
Damage
- Your main damage skills are
Symbol of Wrath, 
Whirling Wrath, 
Zealot's Defense, 
Ray of Judgment, 
Symbol of Blades, and 
Sword of Justice. Swap between your weapons using these skills whenever possible, and fill with autoattacks.
- Never interrupt your autoattack chain as all the damage is loaded in the last hit.
Retaliation is a massive damage boost so you should try to have it up as much as possible. Your main retaliation sources are 
Virtue of Justice, Symbol of Wrath, 
Healer's Retribution, and 
"Stand Your Ground!"
- Virtue of Justice resets off every kill thanks to Renewed Justice.
- In long fights where you can't reset Virtue of Justice you can consider bringing Hallowed Ground and traiting Master of Consecrations.
- Fight enemies in your symbols to get the damage buff from
Symbolic Avenger. - If using
Unscathed Contender, try not to get hit (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง
Defense
Shield of Wrath is a powerful defensive skill.- Virtue of Justice,
Leap of Faith, and Symbol of Blades blind enemies. - Zealot's Defense, Wall of Reflection and Shield of the Avenger can be used against projectiles.
- Activating
Virtue of Courage gives aegis, protection, retaliation, stability, and a stun break. - You can run Shelter for more active defense.
Renewed Focus is a 3-second invulnerability skill that also refreshes 
Virtue of Resolve and Virtue of Courage.- Remember to always dodge and sidestep attacks if possible. Don't get hit by anything you can move out of.
Sustain
- This build doesn't have much sustained healing unless you have , so avoiding damage is extremely important in long fights.
- Use Whirling Wrath in the light field from your symbols to cleanse conditions.
- You can activate Virtue of Resolve for an emergency heal and condition cleanse.
Crowd Control
Binding Blade¾
25
Binding BladeThrow blades at your foes, causing damage over time. Bound foes can be pulled to you. The effect ends when a foe moves out of range.
Damage: 369
Number of Targets: 5
Maximum Blade Duration: 10 seconds
Maximum Leash Range: 600
Combo Finisher: Whirl
Pull¾PullPull your foes to you.Leash Range: 600
Range: 600- Hammer of Wisdom
Bane Signet (as a last resort)
Amazing burst damage that melts trash mobs and pretty good sustained damage on bosses. Doesn't need a lot of defensive utilities to survive because of the inherent nature of guardian. If you feel you aren't able to survive well on this build it's probably because you're still learning to play it.