Guardian - Radiant Hammer

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

Focused on: Strike damage and Control

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 hammer Guardian build which takes advantage of various crit chance boosts to run and focuses mainly on landing Glacial Blows.

Skill Bar

Hammer

Sword/Focus

Utility

Skill Variants

Utility

• "Advance!" over Smite Condition - with this you gain reliable Swiftness access and even a new source of Aegis which could be used either defensively as an instant block or offensively to fuel Unscathed Contender. The price is the loss of some cleansing, healing and Fury access. Another benefit of "Advance!" is that you get to drop Rune of Lynx for something better, like Rune of Infiltration or Rune of Scholar.

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Equipment

Hammer

Sigil

Sigil

Sword

Focus

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Relics

• Relic of the Wayfinder - a different kind of mobility boost that allows you to replace your current rune with Rune of Infiltration. With this setup your burst damage is going to be a bit weaker but your consistency outside of Sigil of Intelligence windows will go up thanks to the improved crit chance. You trade 10% bonus damage with a ~50% uptime for ~11% higher crit chance baseline. This is less popular than the current version though as the build's main goal is to hit the biggest possible Glacial Blows.

Usage

General

• Valkyrie amulet doesn't provide any critical hit chance, that's where the boons and traits come in: Radiant Power adds 10% against burning foes, Fury adds the usual 20% and Resolution will further increase it by 40% thanks to Righteous Instincts. Always try to maintain Retaliation, 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 Smite Condition, Litany of Wrath, Virtue of Resolve and Light field combos to manage your condition levels. Only resort to Contemplation of Purity and Renewed Focus if these no longer suffice.

Hammer

• Hammer provides various different CCs namely immobilize, launch and a ward, making it possible to decap enemy points.

• The auto attack chain is rather slow but ends with a powerful symbol which applies Protection.

• Spam Glacial Blow pretty much on CD. Combo it with symbols as often as possible for AoE condition removal. This should be the first skill you use after swapping to this weapon in order to get the Sigil of Intelligence proc, unless you really need to CC someone.

• Zealot's Embrace is rather self-explanatory, use it to root people into important skills (most notably Glacial Blow and Zealot's Defense) or to keep them off the capture point a bit longer.
  • Keep in mind that this is a projectile and can be reflected or negated accordingly.

• Banish works on downed bodies which can be useful for disrupting rez attempts or just knocking enemies off-point to bleed them out (thus delaying their respawn) while you capture the objective.
  • Banishing resets the CD of Glacial Blow, allowing you to do back-to-back bursts and even causes your next Glacial Blow to teleport after your target when used.

• Ring of Warding is a powerful area denial skill which can also be used to trap people inside it, even from range (with Judge's Intervention, but you have to cast it early or else the ring will stay behind). Enemies knocked back with Banish won't leave the field so you could also use it to control the distance of the knockback.

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. If you have Sigil of Agility on this set, always try to use it after swapping weapons to get the most out of it (except if you need to cleave a downed body, then use the quickness to auto attack).

• 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.

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. Glacial Blow - start casting it from range.
5. Judge's Intervention to teleport to the target right before MB finishes its animation.
6. Virtue of Justice (to gain Resolution from Virtue of Resolution) should be used just before Glacial Blow lands.

Combo tools

• Contribute to the Swiftness and Stealth stacking attempts of your team by using Glacial Blow and Shield of Wrath in their combo fields if they're offering any before a fight.

Top Streamers

• Twitch: NotoriousNaru

Related Builds

• Radiant Greatsword