Luminary - Valor Luminary

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Healing, Boon support and Crowd control

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on November 01, 2025 and is up to date for the October 28, 2025 patch.

Overview

A support Luminary build for WvW. Provides a large amount of Stability and boon support.

Skill Bar

Staff

Mace/Shield

Utility

Variants

Weapons

• Axe provides excellent CC but at a short range
  • Recommended for smaller numbers
• Staff ⇒ Spear
  • Good if you need condition clear or Resistance
    • Generally Spear works well with Tempest/Scrapper healer in party and Staff is always better otherwise due to party Might uptime

Utility

• Sanctuary for CC
• Signet of Mercy for smaller numbers

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Resplendent Weaponry - If you need more Fury/ Might

Equipment

Head
Minstrel

Shoulders
Minstrel

Chest
Minstrel

Hands
Minstrel

Legs
Minstrel

Feet
Minstrel

Backpiece
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Accessory
Minstrel

Amulet
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Ring
Minstrel

Staff
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Mace
Minstrel

Shield
Minstrel

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relic

• Relic of the Flock

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Transference
• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Frenzy

Usage

Quick Guide

• Luminary supports its group by maintaining critical boons, particularly Stability
• Keep Stability on your group for each push by spreading out your cooldowns

Stability Skills

• Radiant Courage with Indomitable Courage
• "Stand Your Ground!"
• Valorous Stance

• Use Enter Radiant Forge every 15 seconds when Luminous Staff is ready to reset your Virtue cooldowns with Illuminating Inspiration
• Keep up Resistance for your party by using with Radiant Courage
• Keep Might, Fury, Protection, and Swiftness on your party

Important Boon Skills

• Radiant Justice
• Radiant Courage
• Dazzling Hammer
• Luminous Staff
• Daring Advance
• Empower
• Protector's Strike
• Shield of Judgment
• Symbol of Swiftness
• "Advance!"

• CC enemies on your groups spikes

CC Skills

• Line of Warding
• Shield of Absorption

General

• An important part of your support output comes from using your Enter Radiant Forge skills to proc Resplendent Weaponry and Illuminating Inspiration
  • Make sure to use your Virtue skills before using any of your Forge skills to avoid wasting the cooldown reduction of Illuminating Inspiration
  • The flip skills on your Forge skills other than Restorative Glow are not generally worth casting since they don't have useful support effects and don't proc Resplendent Weaponry or Illuminating Inspiration
• You should aim to use Enter Radiant Forge every 15 seconds to use Luminous Staff off cooldown as well as any other Forge skills that are off cooldown
  • The cooldown of Enter Radiant Forge increases by 5 seconds for each Forge weapon you equip to a maximum of 15 - the same as the cooldown of Luminous Staff
  • Skip Gleaming Blade if the forced movement would be an issue

Surviving

• This build has high passive defense
• This build has low mobility skill access
• This build has high active defense

Defensive Skill List

• Stunbreak
  • "Stand Your Ground!"
  • Radiant Courage - Indomitable Courage
• Condition Clear
  • Radiant Resolve
  • Resolute Stance
  • Restorative Glow
• Aegis
  • Protector's Strike
  • Shield of Judgment
• Healing
  • Empower
  • Holy Strike
  • Shield of Absorption
  • Luminous Staff

• While your active defenses are strong, they are ideally saved for your group and not used selfishly

Priorities

High

• Stability
• Signet of Mercy - if applicable

Moderate

• Boon support
• CC

Low

• Condition clear
• Healing

Detailed Explanations

Stability

• Use your Stability skills in the following priority order:

Stability priority

1. Radiant Courage + Indomitable Courage
2. "Stand Your Ground!"
3. Valorous Stance

• Apply Stability before allies get caught by enemy CC
  • Enemy CC is most likely to land when they spike your group, your group is moving through theirs, or your group is moving away from theirs
    • It is better to use your Stability too early than too late
• Spread your Stability application as much as you can without letting allies get caught by CC
  • Avoid overlapping multiple Stability sources on your party, both your own and other players
• Prioritize Radiant Courage so that you can reset its cooldown with Enter Radiant Forge + Illuminating Inspiration
• When using Stability skills cover the application by applying other boons immediately after the cast
  • Radiant Justice is ideal for this because it is instant, but any boon application is worth doing
  • This is done because boon strips (which are the most common type of boon removal) always work on a first in, last out priority
    • This means boon strips will always remove the most recently applied boons first
    • Boon corrupts remove a random boon which this technique can still mitigate by ensuring you have as many unique boons as possible

Signet of Mercy

Signet of Mercy

• Watch for low allied health bars to enable precasting (Using the skill before an ally is downed so that it finishes casting on them as soon as they do go down)
• Give yourself quickness with Mantra of Solace before beginning the cast
• Cover the cast with Stability ("Stand Your Ground!" or Mantra of Liberation only - the others are too slow)
• Make sure to communicate over voice comms. Broadcast that you are beginning, casting and finishing the rez, include the name of the person being rezzed if possible.
• If another player with a higher priority calls they are rezzing at the same time, cancel the rez (“Stow Weapon” keybind or Escape button while in a Tome skill) and communicate the fact you are cancelling.

Boon Support

Non-Stability Boons Per Skill

• Radiant Courage - Aegis + Protection (Inspired Virtue) + Resistance
• Luminous Staff - Protection + Resolution
• Swiftness
  • Symbol of Swiftness
• "Advance!" - Swiftness + Aegis
• Protection + Aegis
  • Protector's Strike
  • Shield of Judgment
  • Radiant Courage + Inspired Virtue
• Might
  • Radiant Justice + Inspired Virtue
  • Empower
• Might + Fury
  • Dazzling Hammer
  • All Forge skills via Resplendent Weaponry
• Regeneration
  • Symbol of Faith
  • Radiant Resolve + Inspired Virtue
  • Luminous Staff

• Defensive boons like Protection, Resistance or Aegis should be prioritized when your group is on the defensive
• Offensive boons like Might and Quickness should be prioritized when your group is on the offensive
• Use Protector's Strike when your group is trading hits with the enemy group
• Use Shield of Judgment before your group engages the enemy or while your group is trading with the enemy
• Your Aegis skills should be used as frequently as possible without overlapping previous applications while Radiant Courage is on cooldown to proc Tenacious Defense

Aegis Skills

• "Advance!"
• Protector's Strike
• Shield of Judgment

• Blast Fire fields before fights start with your group with Holy Strike
• Use Symbol of Swiftness to keep Swiftness on your party whenever you have nothing else to cast
  • You can use Symbol of Swiftness ⇒ Holy Strike to blast the Light Field for Condition Clear
• Empower has a long cast time, so use it before your group is about to push or when your group is staying still to spike
  • Don't be afraid to cancel the channel of Empower if the situation changes and it becomes unsafe to continue

CC

CC Skill List

• Line of Warding - AoE Line
• Gleaming Blade - Immobilize
• Shield of Absorption - Aoe Knockback
• Sanctuary - AoE Knockback (optional)

• Use your CC when:
  • Your group calls a spike such as Wells (Well of Corruption)
  • On top of enemy downs (while alive enemies are on top of them)
  • Enemy groups move defensively while your group is pushing
  • Do not use your Knockback CC at the normal time, instead use it while your group is on the defensive or before your group pushes in
• The position of Line of Warding can be changed by turning your character during the cast time before it finishes

Condition clear

Condition Clear Skill List

• Resolute Stance
• Radiant Resolve + Absolute Resolve
• Luminous Staff ⇒ Restorative Glow
• Holy Strike - Light field Blast finisher

• You have limited condition clear compared to other supports, focus on using yours when allies have Immobilize
  • Allies are very likely to get Immobilize at the same times they need Stability

Healing

Healing Skill List

• Resolute Stance
• Empower
• Holy Strike
• Shield of Absorption (only if the knockback isn’t disruptive)
• Luminous Staff ⇒ Restorative Glow
• Dodge (Selfless Daring)
• Regeneration
  • Symbol of Faith

• The heal on Empower is substantial, but heavily backloaded to the final tick
  • Prioritize using Empower for Might, but if you have a chance to full channel it while your group is staying in place during a clash with the enemy then doing so is almost always worth it
• Since you need to use your Forge skills off cooldown don't worry too much about the healing from Luminous Staff/Restorative Glow

Settings

• Under General Options / User Interface check Always show squad health bars and Always show party health bars. These will make it much easier to keep track of who needs your support.
• Also under General Options / User Interface turn on Thick party health bars
  • Thick squad health bars can be used too as a matter of personal preference, but is not recommended for large numbers
• Under Squad Options uncheck View as a grid. This will allow you to keep track of your allies' boons, conditions and health, enabling a better decision-making and skill management.