How to keep retaliation uptime for Righteus Instincts ?

Hey guys,

I'm leveling my first Guardian, and upon reaching 80 I'm still undecided about the Elite spec, so I'll probably want to try both.Anyway, what I know for sure is that I want to go power, meaning I'll focus on a mix of Berserker and Valkyrie (for some vitality) gear.

I'm really interested in a Radiance grandmaster named Righteus Instincts, since I understand this would allow me to focus less on Precision, meaning more Vitality for survival. I believe this trait also can work well for both Elite specs..

My question is simple: What should I do to keep good Retaliation uptime? I mean, necessary traits.. skills.. maybe runes..

NOTE: My question is specific here, but feel free to also give general suggestions if desired. For example, other then Radiance, I'm not sure yet about a second trait line (Zeal for self Might, or Virtues for Permeating Wrath).

With the specialisation Virtues you gain retaliation when activating f1-f2-f3 + increased duration. You can use Runes of Leadership for boon duration.Spam f1 you get retaliation + light aura + the greatsword's symbol, it's enough in open world.In group content, another guard or a chrono should increase the duration until f1 is off

Edit: the elite skill of the firebrand specialisation give you ~5s of retaliation every 12/15 sec, but the f1 tome is a bit tormented to use with "renewed justice".

@Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:With the specialisation Virtues you gain retaliation when activating f1-f2-f3 + increased duration. You can use Runes of Leadership for boon duration.Spam f1 you get retaliation + light aura + the greatsword's symbol, it's enough in open world.In group content, another guard or a chrono should increase the duration until f1 is off

Thanks.So this automatically sets my second trait line to Virtues. I'm ok with it, since Permeating Wrath is so good (at least while leveling). In fact I'm having a blast while leveling with Sword of Justice traited from Zeal, but probably after getting an Elite spec I'll have better utilities to choose from and can put aside spirit weapons.

the retaliation guardian build really isn't a PvE build. It was designed for PvP to take advantage of your retaliation uptime and kill the enemy before your retaliation sources are all used up and wait for them to recharge in the next fight.

In PvE, the only way you can reliably keep up 100% retaliation is in a group setting.

It works good with a second guard (with same build and GS) or a chrono. You might even take Zeal instead of Virtues.In open world there are more easy (and still effective) builds rather than spamming f1 and symbol+leap finisher; that's true.

If you ran something along these lines, you'd probably see some nice results. Retal on gs4 symbol (and gs4 symbol trait proc), your heal, Stand Your Ground, and your f2+f3 virtue actives.

I've actually found this trait setup to be more effective than DH while playing solo due to the boons you can give yourself. It's especially good if you run those rage runes because those and Feel My Wrath can be enough to maintain 100% fury if you have a little bit of boon duration. (Without boon duration gear, swap Stand Your Ground for Save Yourselves to keep fury up.) Never pop your f1 active with these traits, as it's constantly generating might for you.

20k health, 2.5k armor, and only 16% less crit damage and 70 less power than a full zerk/scholar setup. When comparing both setups at 25 might + retal, the tankier one only loses ~8.5% dps but gains ~93% effective HP (armor * health). That with the extra boon uptime makes it much more viable for open world, and you'd honestly have to try really hard to die to stuff.

Thanks guys.

Since I'm going power, my idea was using a Retaliation build to reach 100% crit chance and get everything I can from Ferocity, but also without having to invest much in Precision since I just can't play Guardian without some Vitality (already tried). The goal is getting a Berserker and Valkyrie mix.

But if there are other effective power builds for open world, that's great. Any suggestion?

@cat.8975 said:If you ran something along these lines, you'd probably see some nice results. Retal on gs4 symbol (and gs4 symbol trait proc), your heal, Stand Your Ground, and your f2+f3 virtue actives.

This is more or less what I had in mind, but switching to DH or Firebrand after lvl 80.

For open world, pretty much every build is effective.

@leasm.1279 said:Hey guys,

I'm leveling my first Guardian, and upon reaching 80 I'm still undecided about the Elite spec, so I'll probably want to try both.Anyway, what I know for sure is that I want to go power, meaning I'll focus on a mix of Berserker and Valkyrie (for some vitality) gear.

I'm really interested in a Radiance grandmaster named Righteus Instincts, since I understand this would allow me to focus less on Precision, meaning more Vitality for survival. I believe this trait also can work well for both Elite specs..

My question is simple: What should I do to keep good Retaliation uptime? I mean, necessary traits.. skills.. maybe runes..

NOTE: My question is specific here, but feel free to also give general suggestions if desired. For example, other then Radiance, I'm not sure yet about a second trait line (Zeal for self Might, or Virtues for Permeating Wrath).

For a power build relying Righteous Instincts in you will use Radiance and Zeal then either FB or Virtues.

If you go virtues route, casting the virtues gives retaliation. You should use Virtue of Justice on CD. I use from virtues line, Master of Consecrations and use Hallowed Ground. Hold the Line Shout also provides 5 secs retaliation. You also should get Healer's Retribution from Radiance line.

If you go the FB route, Mantra of Liberation will be your primary source of retaliation. You can use Mantra of Solace as heal and Wrathful Spirit from Zeal line to give retaliation on Aegis when it is used. I use this build with Surging runes and bounty sigil for boon duration, in open world PvE. GS + scepter/focus. It is not the highest possible damage power build, but great in open world, and can maintain 100% retaliation duration and at least 50% quickness uptime with mantra of Mantra of Potence. Granted this is not the highest possible dps in a group setting, but in open world it is one of the highest burst damage you can do due to 100% critic + quickness.

Wrathful Spirit seems great to be abused.

Can this trait work well with Fragments of Faith, so that I could make thw build work on Dragon Hunter?

It's very easy to have 100% uptime with Firebrand, but of course, Firebrand is not the best power option.

As DH, you can go Virtues/Radiance, and use Hallowed Ground. With the Concecration trait, you can get 100% uptime with HG and the GS symbol.

I've been playing Radiant Power builds in Open World for quite a while.In my opinion, if you're just concerned about open world and leveling, you don't need to worry about 100% retaliation up-time.The VAST majority of things you fight will be dead in less than 10 seconds.All you really need is a reliable way to initiate a burst.

Virtue of Retribution gives that to you.You mention Permeating Wrath, but Virtue of Retribution is actually a much more important trait for Radiant power builds in the Virtue Tree.With Renewed Justice you'll be initiating against every mob with your F1 to guarantee burning for Radiant Power, so getting Retaliation from it as well just makes sense.

If you start with Radiance/Virtues, you can go with Zeal or Honor or Dragonhunter or Firebrand as the third depending on what weapon you want to concentrate on.

Using a 1h weapon with Right Hand Strength gives you 80% crit chance on your burst. That means you only need 20% from precision (420 precision at level 80) and that leaves you a LOT of room to replace Zerker pieces with Valkyrie. You'll end up with about 17k hp at level 80 going that route.Something like this is really fun to level with:

• Sword Focus Radiant Power You pop Focus 5, F1 and then Sword 2 to Teleport. The burst is comical. The first time I tried it against a Veteran I literally chuckled.Even better, you can use pretty much any active skills you want.

If you really care about Retaliation uptime, then as Rabbit said, GS Symbol of Wrath and Hallowed Ground is the easiest way to get there.

You can also make a Radiant Power build work with Dragonhunter Longbow to keep yourself at range, which is a good strat in some of the HoT zones where quite a few mobs have melee range CC.

Retaliation uptime is trivial if you build for it. I have one of my Guardians running something like this. Greatsword and Zeal have lots of synergy, as does Aegis with Wrathful Spirit. Either one of Shattered Aegis or Symbolic Avenger are fine, I just like the Aegis traits. Symbol of Wrath>Whirling Wrath>Leap of Faith gets you a max damage WW and grants Light Aura to further extend your retaliation uptime. Because of Radiance, you can afford to use VoJ near mob death to get the reset. VoJ grants both Retal thanks to Virtues, but also Light Aura which also adds Retaliation if you get hit. "SYG!" is always useful in any game mode, and "SY!" has high retal uptime. Traited Hallowed Ground has a bit more Retal uptime than Retaliatory Subconscious with Wrathful Spirit while having more party utility.

Its a very thematic build that, right now, seems the most fun to play even compared to many of the PoF elite specs. The balance pass that added these changes had a huge effect.