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Guardian - Core Condition

The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Condition damage

Designed for: Open World, Open World General and Open World Core

Difficulty:
TBD
This build was last updated on February 27, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A basic and accessible core guardian build that possesses high DPS and excellent survivability. The Dire Dire variant of this build is easily accessible to all core players and costs very little gold to gear.


Skill Bar

Scepter/Torch
Sword
Utility


Weapon Variants

  • Greatsword - very high burst if using power-heavy variants
  • Staff - long-ranged option that is good for meta farming.


Skill Variants

  • Hammer of Wisdom - cc
  • Wall of Reflection - projectile hate
  • Judge's Intervention - teleport and damage
  • Hallowed Ground - long-duration stability
  • Sanctuary - high CC against champions and projectile hate
  • Renewed Focus - strong defensive tool


Template Code

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Specializations


Equipment

Ascended gear and stat infusions are not required; you can use exotic gear with the same stats.

Head
Dire
Shoulders
Dire
Chest
Dire
Hands
Dire
Legs
Dire
Feet
Dire
Backpiece
Dire
Accessory
Dire
Accessory
Dire
Amulet
Dire
Ring
Dire
Ring
Dire
Scepter
Dire
Torch
Dire
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Dire
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
x6


The same gear as Raid Firebrand can also be used here.


Variant Equipment

  • 24px Traiblazer - extremely strong defensive gearset; this set is very expensive and niche, and is not recommended for someone new to the build
  • Sinister Sinister, Dire Dire, Carrion Carrion - F2P / Budget Gear options. If using these, change Sigil of Superior Sigil of Geomancy and Sigil of Superior Sigil of Torment to Sigil of Superior Sigil of Smoldering.
  • Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy - defensive option


Consumables

Event Farming

Food
  • Any ascended food is superior to any other food you could use. Steak for power, flatbread for conditions. Budget versions of these foods exist and are acceptable.
  • - farming
  • - DPS
  • - defense
Utility
  • (and variants) - farming
  • , - dps
  • - dps if using gear with high toughness


Usage

Damage

Swap between Greatsword and Scepter/Torch for damage. You should open most fights on Greatsword if you can and once its cooldowns are spent, swap to scepter/torch for better sustained damage.

Scepter Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Symbol of Punishment
  3. Sword of Justice (or other spirit weapon)
  4. Zealot's Flame
  5. Cleansing Flame
  6. Chains of Light

Greatsword Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Symbol of Wrath
  3. Whirling Wrath
  4. Sword of Justice
  5. Leap of Faith
  6. Fill with auto-attacks

Sword Priority:

  1. Purging Flames
  2. Zealot's Flame
  3. Sword of Justice
  4. Zealot's Defense
  5. Symbol of Blades

Your Virtue of Justice passive will also make up a significant amount of your damage through Burning Burning. Use "Feel My Wrath!" off cooldown for Fury and Quickness uptime.

If you are about to kill a mob, activate Virtue of Justice for a large DPS increase, so long as you have Radiance traited.


Defense

  • Litany of Wrath is a massive heal.
  • Virtue of Courage / "Retreat!" provide an on-demand block
  • Shield of Wrath (focus) is a series of blocks
  • Virtue of Justice is an area blind but will reduce your DPS drastically if you don't quickly reset it.
  • Virtue of Resolve removes conditions and provides a small amount of healing.


Video Examples

Cele Guard vs Champion Mark I Golem

Retrieved from "https://metabattle.com/wiki/index.php?title=Build:Guardian_-_Core_Condition&oldid=9409"


Ratings

This build has a rating of 5 stars based on 2 votes.
Log in or register to rate this build.
5 stars
Onlywrin gave this build 5 stars • August 2021
When it comes to Core builds this is unquestionably the strongest option. It's cheap to gear and outputs very high DPS for a core build. It's also quite versatile.
5 stars
Jack Armstrong gave this build 5 stars • February 2021
Loving this build--finally my Guardian is what I always wanted it to be but it never quite was. Guardian was the first profession I tried, and I've really wanted to like it, but it always ended up being too squishy for me--sure, it has a lot of defensive tricks, but if you don't play it perfectly, you're dead. No more. Though a Condi build, this one plays just like the Power builds, even using the same weapons. I often like to switch to the Zealous Blade trait and run Greatsword / Sword / Torch. Even in full Dire gear (which I can recommend), the initial burst is surprisingly close to that of the glass cannon Power builds, but now there's a strong follow-up burst of burning damage, and with 23k health 3k armor, it ain't no glass cannon. It's super cool that it's also a core build with cheap gear, runes, and sigils in the Trading Post. You can swap the Virtues trait line for Dragonhunter 3-1-1 (or whatever traits you prefer) for a decent Condi DH. You lose the damage boost and cleave of the Permeating Wrath trait, but gain some of it back with fixed traits Defender's Dogma and Pure of Sight, in addition to modified Virtues and access to traps and a trait that boosts run speed. Because of the speed boost, I often do this for farming, some dailies, etc. Switching Virtues to Firebrand 2-2-3 gives you essentially the Solo Firebrand build, though with different gear and utility skills. Seems like it could be fun to play around with variat

Comments

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