Guardian - Radiant Greatsword

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Overview

A Guardian build for open world. This build deals extremely high burst damage and has excellent defensive skills allowing it to stay alive.

Skill Bar

GreatswordHealingUtilityElite

Sword/Focus

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

- 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

- grants more retaliation for boss fights where you can't proc much.
- more crowd control.
- if you need condition cleanse.
- if you need to reflect projectiles.
- alternative projectile defense option.
- long-lasting swiftness while running.

Elite Skills

- more damage.

Specializations

Build Code

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Variants

- if running or .

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.

6x

Superior Rune of the Scholar

Optimal Damage Variant

The Optimal Damage Variant is the best damage gear for this build. It's overkill in most cases and is only recommended for players that prefer the glass cannon playstyle.

6x

Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

18x

Mighty +5 Agony Infusion

Marauder/Valkyrie Variant

For a tankier option you can run the Marauder Variant. You will lose some damage but gain a moderate boost to health. This variant is recommended for most Open World players.

6x

Superior Rune of the Flame Legion

18x

Mighty +5 Agony Infusion

Gear Variants

You can check our Guide on Gear Variants to find good alternatives for this build! Open World Gear Variants Summary

Consumables

Food

Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions.
- Use for general farming.
- Use for when you need to max out magic find.
- more sustain (requires crit chance)
Anything - Any food is better than none, but you should prioritize the food above before using any other food.

Utility

,
,
- general farming
- good damage option with +karma

Usage

Damage

Your main damage skills are , , , , , and . 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 , , , and
- resets off every kill thanks to .
- In long fights where you can't reset you can consider bringing and traiting .
If you want more stacks of might; Consider using instead of . Choosing Either of them will not cost you any loss of damage.
Try to fight enemies in your symbols to get the stacking damage buff from .
If using , try not to get hit (ง ͠° ͟ل͜ ͡°)ง

Defense

is a powerful defensive skill.
, , and blind enemies.
, and can be used against projectiles.
Activating gives aegis, protection, retaliation, stability, and a stun break.
You can run for more active defense.
is a 3-second invulnerability skill that also refreshes and .
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 to heal yourself for each enemy you hit.
When at extremely low health, activate , then use for an immense amount of self-healing.
You can activate for an emergency heal and condition cleanse.
For a big condition cleanse, use while in a light field.

Crowd Control

¾
25
Binding Blade
Throw 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

¾
Pull
Pull your foes to you.
Leash Range: 600
Range: 600
(as a last resort)