Guardian - Radiant Greatsword Roamer

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

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: WvW Roaming

Difficulty:
Easy
This build was last updated on February 05, 2024 and is up to date for the March 19, 2024 patch.


Overview

A core Power Guardian build for WvW roaming, also usable by F2P players (although they might need some external help with the gear). Radiant Greatsword is all about pulling off massive bursts and downing enemies before your defensive cooldowns run out.


Skill Bar

Greatsword
Sword/Focus
Utility


Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

  • can be considered if you're having trouble utilizing and want to squeeze out a bit more sustain or Resolution Resolution from the build.


Equipment

Head
Marauder
Shoulders
Marauder
Chest
Marauder
Hands
Marauder
Legs
Marauder
Feet
Marauder
Backpiece
Cavalier
Accessory
Marauder
Accessory
Marauder
Amulet
Cavalier
Ring
Marauder
Ring
Marauder
Greatsword
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Marauder
Focus
Marauder
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6
Infusion
x18
Relic

Runes

Rune of Surging isn't available for F2P players, in that case something else will have to suffice:

  • - retains the passive mobility boost from Surging but the stats are worse.
  • - tanky option that still retains quite a lot of Power but the lack of movement speed boost makes the build sluggish.


Consumables

Food

  • - strong mix of sustain and damage.
  • - cheaper defensive option.
  • - active damage mitigation via more access to dodging.
    • is a cheaper version of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew and sufficient enough in most cases.
  • - non-ascended offensive option.


Utility

  • or


Usage

General

  • adds 10% crit chance against burning foes, Fury Fury adds the usual 20% and Resolution Resolution will further increase it by 25% thanks to . Always try to maintain Resolution Resolution, but don't spam all the sources at once otherwise boon removal can be too punishing.
  • When roaming with a group, try to aid allies with as traited with it can break stun and apply stability among other things.
  • is refreshed after each kill so make sure you always have it on cooldown right before a kill. Using it also applies AoE Blind Blind which can be useful for stomping or making high priority skills miss.
  • Try to burn through all of your virtues before resorting to . 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 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 Fury and healing from .


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 . Note that the projectiles can be very unreliable in anything but melee range.
  • has many uses: vertical mobility via teleportation, symbol for cleaving,Blind 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.
  • is a ranged skill with great damage over time.
  • 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

  • is the main burst skill in the build, make sure it lands - do an unexpected ranged burst with , or use it after pulling targets in with .
  • If you're swapping to GS in melee range of your opponent, makes it harder for them to build distance while makes it easier to land your burst. Hydromancy also does great damage on its own.
  • When in combat, always try to combo in a Light field such as for Light Aura 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.
  • is useful even when the target has Stability 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 Stealth Stealthed.


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

  1. If possible, have an active Aegis Aegis to gain the damage bonus from.
  2. 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. - start casting it from range.
  5. to teleport to the target right before WW starts doing damage.
  6. the moment you get into melee range in order to gain Resolution from .
  7. Optional: to get rid of conditions like Weakness or just to squeeze in a tiny bit of extra damage.


Related Builds


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 3 votes.
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4 stars
MalejJardik gave this build 4 stars • October 2023
This build is advertized as free to play, but the ascended gear it shows is not available to free to play players. You can use combination of berserker and valkyrie, or you can get ascended dragon jewelery (and only jewelery, no armor) from WvW vendor. You CANNOT buy marauder exotic from trading post, in spite of build description saying that you can - the gear is locked and you must own any expansion to be able to buy it. You can, however, be gifted that exotic gear from a player, who has access to it (for free, you have no way to repay him, you cannot send items/gold to him). I tried running this with full berserker - it is doable if you get element of surprise, but very squishy. Add to that that you have no mount and gliding and also have to be pressing F for your lootbags.
4 stars
Hanz gave this build 4 stars • September 2023
Willbender-lite, a perfectly okay F2P Guardian build but one that puts you on a timer - kill enemies before you're out of CDs. Sounds a bit scary but luckily the damage it can dish out is just as scary. Very bursty build and easy to play. Downside is that some really tanky builds can outlast you if they play it well and then you're kind of done for. SotO edit: updated the gear
4 stars
Healot Templarium gave this build 4 stars • October 2021
Using this build for like months. Doing very great in solo fights, 1v2's and even hopping in small groups of 5, doing alot of damage, leave them burnt, hop out of fights using your sword 2, judges intervention. Afterwards if they chasing you, you just spam your meditations, renewed focus, spamming ur virtues to leave (in most cases) fight safely. As a core guard i win most duels of the meta firebrands, the healing uptime is much more since you get proper use of the Monk's focus. MY CHANGES: I use Celestial stats instead of marauder, you get a sick amount of healing power, condition damage and still do okay strike damage. with this build and those stats u get like 80% precision at all times in a fight due of the fury, resolution traits that boost your precision constantly. I dont use focus, but i use shield instead, shield slam skill hits most of the time thieves who blend in their shadows, and does fine damage, and giving you aegis once again. the push and heal of shield 5 comes at the right place at many times. Thats why i use STALWART DEFENDER instead of Strength in numbers. Even as core guard like 40% of my damage doing comes from burning by using celestial stats, so i want to push this more by using the PERMEATING WRATH instead of Indomitable Courage. Using this trait change boosts ur dps like sick if u fighting 2 or more people. getting one more stunbreak and 30s aegis popup instead of 40s is not worth it in my opinion anyways. -Healot.

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