User:Masel/Builds/Firebrand

Axe + Torch Condition Firebrand

Build Rating (Subjective)

Criterion	Rating
Burst Damage	4/5
Sustained Damage	4/5
Utility Options	4/5
Survivability	3/5
Difficulty	1/5

Condition Firebrand camping Axe has a fairly straightforward rotation and is lots of fun to play in open world. It has good burst damage for a condition build, since it mainly relies on  Burning. It has lots of utility built-in, making it an excellent choice for Guardian players in instanced content and open world PvE. It can provide itself with many essential offensive boons ( Might,  Fury,  Quickness,  Stability,  Aegis,  Protection) and can share all those with allies.

Link to the DPS Build in the Editor

Playstyle + Skills

Skill Type	Skills
Tomes
Axe + Torch
Utility

Rotation Concept & Video Showcase

Careful:This build scales with the number of Boons on yourself. For guidance on setting up the training area, see my guide for it
You can find my most recent rotation showcase here.

• This build scales with allies due to allies doing damage for you via   Ashes of the Just. The solo dps is thus lower in comparison.
• The rotation concept is fairly simple: camp Axe & Torch, cast stuff on cooldown, go into   Tome of Justice and win. There's a priority list of skills and nothing really lines up, so you need to make decisions based on the relevant cooldowns.
• Then use the following skills on cooldown:

1. Slightly delay   Purging Flames, then do   Tome of Justice -->   Chapter 2: Igniting Burst -->   Epilogue: Ashes of the Just -->   Chapter 4: Scorched Aftermath. This is priority #1 over everything else.
2.   Zealot's Flame &   Zealot's Fire x2
3.   Mantra of Flame (all charges)
4.   Symbol of Vengeance
5. Fill the gaps with auto attack chains.

CC Skills for Breakbar Damage

•   Blazing Edge
•   Chapter 2: Daring Challenge
•   Chapter 3: Heated Rebuke
• You can use an offhand Pistol on the secondary bar for an additional Knockback via   Jurisdiction. This has a very low damage trade-off.
• Immobilized via  Signet of Wrath

Gear

For gear, you can freely mix pieces of Viper's and Ritualist's. Each piece of Viper's gives you a slightly higher damage output than Ritualist's (~3% damage difference for a full set), but comes at the cost of more difficult  Quickness coverage.   Power of the Virtuous Important Stats (descending in Importance):

1. 100%  Burning Duration
2. ~60% Overall Condition duration -   Radiant Fire and Superior Sigil of Smoldering provide the remaining 40% on  Burning
3. Maximize Condition Damage

• Since the vast majority of damage comes from  Burning, it is important to reach 100% condition duration on it.

Gear

Armor	Prefix	Rune
Head	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Shoulders	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Chest	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Gloves	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Legs	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Boots	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Rune of the Trapper
Trinket	Prefix
Amulet	Viper's / Ritualist's
Ring 1	Viper's / Ritualist's
Ring 2	Viper's / Ritualist's
Accessory 1	Viper's / Ritualist's
Accessory 2	Viper's / Ritualist's
Backpack	Viper's / Ritualist's
Weapon	Prefix	Sigil
Pistol (Main Hand)	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Sigil of Smoldering
Torch (Off Hand)	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Sigil of Bursting
Scepter (Main Hand)	Viper's / Ritualist's	Superior Sigil of Smoldering
Purpose	Item Type	Source
Damage	Ascended Food	Cilantro and Cured Meat Flatbread
Damage	Non-Ascended Food	Plate of Beef Rendang
Survivability	Ascended Food	Peppered Cured Meat Flatbread
Survivability	Non-Ascended Food	Oysters Gnashblade
Damage	Utility	Toxic Focusing Crystal
Survivability	Utility	Potion Of Karka Toughness
Damage	Relic	Relic of the Fractal

• For a budget variant, simply replace all armor pieces of Viper's with rare/exotic Ritualist's. This builds converts  Vitality into  Condition Damage and has low  Power damage, meaning that you do not lose substantial damage form going with Ritualist's.
• Ascended gear is always ideal, but exotic gear is fine for everything aside from higher-tier fractals.

Traits

Radiance
Virtues
Firebrand

Open World Build

You can find my most recent open world build showcase here.
Link to the Open World Build in the Editor

Increasing Survivability

For OW, it can make sense to make a build more forgiving, so that you can sustain on your own.

• The first major step to increase survivability versus bosses is to stay on Pistol. That allows you to deal damage from range so you can kite dangerous enemies instead of facetanking their damage. You will have to go into melee for   Tome of Justice periodically.
• Staying alive on condi guradian builds is made easier by   Litany of Wrath, which heals you based on your damage dealt. If you have a bunch of burning stacks on the enemy, this will keep you alive for its duration. As pointed out above, it boils down to surviving the downtimes of   Litany of Wrath.
• The gear can stay the same as for instanced content, but the more pieces of Ritualist's you have, the easier maintaining the Boons listed below becomes. Ritualist's Armor and Trinkets are cheap to buy, so you can just replace Viper's pieces with them. That will get you right between the two builds in terms of stats and provides a good allrounder setup of all kinds of PvE.
• Use the survivability food and utility item listed above for -10% damage taken and 150 Toughness.

Boon Coverage

• In order to generate  Quickness, we're using   Mantra of Potence and  Liberator's Vow. The following skills will provide  Quickness:

1.   Mantra of Potence,
2.  Liberator's Vow,
3.  Swift Scholar,
4.   "Feel My Wrath!" and
5.   Litany of Wrath.

•  Legendary Lore in  Firebrand,  Inspired Virtue in  Virtues and  Inner Fire in  Radiance help covering  Might and  Fury on yourself.
•   Tome of Courage into   Chapter 1: Unflinching Charge can provide a good uptime on  Protection, drastically reducing the amount of strike damage you take.
• You will also maintain a partial uptime on  Resolution through  Virtue of Resolution.
• Condition Firebrand has no source of  Alacrity. Therefore, using   Jade Tech Offensive Overcharge and   Jade Tech Defensive Overcharge will increase your strength in solo gameplay.
• These give for 150 additional Toughness, Vitality, Condition Damage and Power as well as all boons aside from  Stability,  Resistance and  Resolution on entering combat. They will fully cover  Alacrity and  Protection in general roaming, where you enter and exit combat frequently!

Dealing with Incoming Conditions and Control effects

•  Absolute Resolve in  Virtues removes three conditions awhenever you use   Tome of Resolve. I recommend using this in open world, as it takes care of conditions and provides decent passive healing.
•   Purging Flames cleanses conditions on each pulse, so you can try to stay inside it.
• You have a bunch of Light Fields, which you can combine with   Chapter 2: Igniting Burst for Light Aura.
•   Epilogue: Unbroken Lines applies  Stability,  Protection and  Aegis in an area, allowing you and allies you to ignore incoming Control effects.