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:
TBD
This build was last updated on August 23, 2022 and is up to date for the March 19, 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


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

Greatsword
Sigil
Sigil
Sword
Focus
Sigil
Sigil
Rune
Amulet


Usage

General

  • Valkyrie amulet doesn't provide any critical hit chance, that's where the boons and traits come in: adds 10% against burning foes, Fury Fury adds the usual 20% and Resolution Resolution will further increase it by 40% thanks to . 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 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 .
  • 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.


Top Streamers


Related Builds

  • Radiant GS Roamer - WvW Roaming version of the build.
  • Radiant Hammer - a very similar build with hammer that fell out of use after the Glacial Heart rework.


Ratings

This build has a rating of 4 stars based on 10 votes.
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5 stars
Crixo Ace gave this build 5 stars • March 2024
Esta build es la mejor para aprender a usar guardián en pvp, muy recomendada para jugadores fanáticos del pvp que están iniciando en el hermoso mundo de guild wars 2. Si la masterizas llegaras a elos altos en pvp
3 stars
Guirssane gave this build 3 stars • January 2023
worst guardian build in the current meta, super bad above gold 3. I played this shit for like 200 games reached p1-p2 at max when i could just have played support, follow my monkey team and autowin.
5 stars
Nyac gave this build 5 stars • October 2021
Underrated. Surprisingly high skill cap.
3 stars
Hanz gave this build 3 stars • August 2021
Shadow of its former self, but it's still a playable F2P build that does well in lower ratings and remains playable in lower platinum as well.
5 stars
Yonguy gave this build 5 stars • July 2020
Great build, has a lot of damage with the combo with skill 2 of the Greatsword, and also has resistance with the virtues, and utility skills that clean up conditions and leave you invuneravel. I loved the build, I highly recommend it.
5 stars
X Zeyrox X gave this build 5 stars • April 2020
Excellent Build For F2P Players
4 stars
Shockywawe gave this build 4 stars • May 2019
Been enjoying this build for a long time, actually the first build i played as a guardian and it feels easy to use and powerful if in the right hands.
4 stars
Xenex gave this build 4 stars • April 2019
it's a very solid and fluid build that compensates the lack of mobility of the Radiant hammer. but it has its drawbacks: whirling wrath is a very slow skill and this prevents it from performing an unexpected burst, this is a very serious disadvantage especially in the high ranks (from plat2, plat 3) however it is an almost equal build of the hammer variant and if you know how to use it it can become even more effective than the Radiant hammer. for it's burst and it's mobility, 4 star rating.
5 stars
Soller gave this build 5 stars • February 2019
Top tier soloq build, I see them in every game. Has the burst needed to carry.
4 stars
Stromyisbad gave this build 4 stars • January 2019
Take sigil of energy on both sets rather than exposure on GS, since it really helps with survivability, and those extra 5 stacks of vuln don't do enough to be worth it imo. Retribution rather than Lesser Signet of Wrath 100% of the time; just time your burst for when they can't dodge it all ;) Also rune of the Scholar over lynx on smaller maps, since you have enough mobility with sword 2, GS 3, and judge's intervention. Otherwise, top tier build that outshines most in the current meta due to high burst, decent sustain, and ridiculous amounts of condi removal.

Comments

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