Guardian - Radiant Greatsword (PvP)

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

Focused on: Direct damage

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on June 26, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A PvP greatsword Guardian build which takes advantage of the crit chance buffs of the Radiance specialization to deliver massive bursts.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Sword/Focus

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• Smite Condition over "Advance!" - with this you gain extra healing, cleansing and a new source of Fury. This could make it easier to drop the cleansing trait on Virtues for extra damage from Inspiring Virtue. They price is the loss of Swiftness access and some Aegis which could've been used either defensively as an instant block or offensively to fuel Unscathed Contender. Another benefit of "Advance!" is that you get to drop Rune of Lynx / Relic of the Wayfinder for something better, so Smite Condition might force you to sacrifice either your rune or relic slot for a mobility option.

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Specializations

Variants

• Take Absolute Resolve if you need more condi cleansing.

Equipment

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Focus

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Amulets

• - makes the build a bit more forgiving to play by giving you more HP. Take Rune of Infiltration. Your overall damage will be slightly lower due to not hitting the crit cap anymore, but you still get plenty of crit chance from traits and boons to compensate.

Usage

General

• Radiant Power adds 10% crit chance against burning foes, Fury adds the usual 20% and Resolution will further increase it by 40% thanks to Righteous Instincts. Always try to maintain Resolution, but don't spam all the sources at once otherwise boon removal can be too punishing.

• Try to aid allies with Virtue of Courage as traited with Indomitable Courage it can break stun and apply stability among other things.

• Virtue of Justice is refreshed after each kill so make sure you always have it on cooldown right before a kill. Using it also applies AoE Blind which can be useful for stomping or making high priority skills miss.

• Try to burn through all of your virtues before resorting to Renewed Focus. RF is a great skill to use if you're being focues by the enemy team and you don't have any CDs left. Just keep in mind that this skill makes you lose capture point contribution for its duration.
  • Your virtues that aren't on CD can be (and should be) activated while channeling this elite.
  • Don't blow Virtue of Resolve until the last moment of the channel. Let it heal you as much as possible.

• Every utility skill is a meditation, therefore can be used both defensively and offensively thanks to the Fury and healing from Monk's Focus.

• Redemption turns Virtue of Courage into a second healing skill.

• Use Litany of Wrath and Virtue of Resolve to manage your condition levels. Only resort to Contemplation of Purity and Renewed Focus if these no longer suffice.

Sword/Focus

• This is the defensive set of the build, but still has some hard hitting skills.

• The main source of burst damage here comes from Zealot's Defense. Note that the projectiles can be very unreliable in anything but melee range.

• Symbol of Blades has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving, Blind to make an important skill miss, or a combo field which can be used for AoE cleansing by executing a blast finisher in it.

• Ray of Judgment is a ranged skill with great damage over time.

• Shield of Wrath is both an excellent defensive and offensive skill (more about that below). As far as defense goes, this can be used to block important attacks even while stunned. Always try to use it in a symbol (a Light field) for AoE condition cleansing.

Greatsword

• Whirling Wrath is the main burst skill in the build, make sure it lands - do an unexpected ranged burst with Judge's Intervention, or use it after pulling targets in with Binding Blade.

• When in combat, always try to combo Leap of Faith in a Light field such as Symbol of Wrath for Light Aura. Few things to note when using this for mobility:
  • If you're OOC (out of combat), swap weapons just before the leap finishes in order to cancel the final part of the skill which would otherwise bring you to a halt.
  • In combat this can be used for jumping away from the fight to avoid damage. To do that simply just detarget (click anywhere on your screen that's not an enemy player) before using the skill, and make sure that auto-targetting is disabled.

• Binding Blade is useful even when the target has Stability and thus cannot be pulled. The damage over time part of this skill is decent, and you could time it in a way that the target's stability runs out before binding blade does, allowing you to pull them in later. Note: the skill itself can be dodged, but once the blades are attached, you can pull targets out of any kind of evade frame! Last but not least, the blades seek out enemies even if they are Stealthed.

Main burst combo (preferably executed from a safe distance):

1. If possible, have an active Aegis to gain the damage bonus fromUnscathed Contender.
2. Shield of Wrath should be activated before the combo. Try not to get hit because you'll need it to explode for damage. Wait until only ~1 second remains of its duration then quickly proceed with the rest of the combo.
3. Weapon Swap (in combat this also triggers your sigils).
4. Whirling Wrath - start casting it from range.
5. Judge's Intervention to teleport to the target right before WW starts doing damage.
6. Virtue of Justice the moment you get into melee range in order to gain Resolution from Virtue of Resolution.
7. Optional: Smite Condition to get rid of conditions like Weakness or just to squeeze in a tiny bit of extra damage.
8. Steps 5-7 should happen before the first strike from Whirling Wrath connects to the target

Top Streamers

• Twitch: Naru

Related Builds

• Guardian - Radiant GS Roamer - WvW Roaming version of the build.

• Guardian - Radiant Hammer - a very similar build with Hammer instead of GS.