Used to play sponge Reaper and now need to learn Firebrand

I played a long time with Reaper, and one of my trait lines was Blood Magic, so let's say I'm quite used to face tanking and not dying at all.

But now my alt is a Firebrand, and even after getting a lot in defensive gear I still feel sometimes I'm made of glass comparing to the Reaper. My full armor set is Soldier, my weapons are Carrion, and my trinkets are a mix of Carrion+Rampager (for some crit chance). So I have 17k health and 2500 armor, which I believe is the most defensive I can get without losing too much dps.

My trait lines are pretty offensive indeed (Zeal+Virtues+Firebrand), but I'd like to avoid changing to a defensive line since I know I'll lose a lot of damage. My utilities are Mantra of Solace, Mantra of Liberation, Sword of Justice (for lots of burn and vulnerability), Bow of Truth (for the heal), and one extra slot I'm still trying out (Mantra of Potence for now, for on-demand might).

I feel I can deal a lot of damage even with defensive gear, but my problem is that Firebrand needs to be at close range to unleash F1, and not having shroud is scary when you see your health dropping fast, specially against those snipers with huge aggro range in PoF zones. When at low health, I usually try to move away and burn all my Tome of Resolve heals, but that takes time, and when soloing this only prolongs the fight.

TL;DR:Of course I need to learn to dodge more as Firebrand, but any suggestions for utilities that can help my survivability? How good is Mantra of Truth for the blind (seems the range is too low)? Shield of the Avenger for the weakness? Sanctuary? Also, I'm quite satisfied with my offensive traits combo (Loremaster + Permeating Wrath + Zealous Scepter), but how effective are lines such as Honor/Valor for survivability?

I'm not sure virtues is going to provide you enough bang for your buck offensively unless your going a condi build. If your going a power build then I'd recommend radiance (for ferocity/retal traits) or honor/valor.

Honor is excellent survivability but generally only with some healing gear otherwise it's heals won't benefit too much.

Valor can offer good survivability even without healing gear though you would need to replace some of your utilities with meditations to make use of the heals.

For more specific advice on what armor to use/trait lines. It will help to know what activities you want to do with your guardian. Just open world events? WvW? sPvP? Etc as recommendations will vary greatly on that.

As a long time Necro player who recently switched to FB as well, I went with the complete glass route at ~11k HP and it's working pretty well for me.To a point, I would even argue defensive stats might be a trap here. Your biggest strength is bursting enemies down with the incredible high damage burns while protecting yourself with dodges and mainly constant aegis application.You can also use Tome of Courage to start hard fights with quite a bit of stab and Protection. You also have a plethora of projectile defense, should that be the thing troubling you.You really just can't play Firebrand like Reaper, where taking hits head on is your only option.Guardian has so many defensive tools, so aside from missing a huge burst with aeagis/dodge which can instantly kill you or come close to it, I would argue glass FB is almost as durable as Reaper, while providing much more damage, boon- and mechanical support.But it definitely has to be played differently and you have to work for that defense.

I would also recommend picking the Radiance Line (instead of virtues) to burst enemies down quicker and giving Mantra of Lore a chance if you are having trouble with conditions.

The most important thing though: Learn to use Mantra of Solace not as a heal, but before you get hit to avoid damage in the first place, especially for big attacks which definitely will do more damage than the 1000 something heal you will get after the fact plus some potential CC/condi application of the attack.

If you are still having trouble staying alive, especially to ranged attacks, think about getting a shield for more Aegis and Protection and the projectile defense + heal, which also pushes back for breakbar damage. So Axe/shield for grouping mobs, breaking breakbars and clutch defense, and Scepter/Torch for your damage rotation.

It's pretty counterintuitive that Necro as a cloth class has no option but to face tank all damage, while a plate covered Guardian is all about avoiding it, but once you figure out your tools to not get hit in the first place you shouldn't even need all that health and armor.Keep in mind the longer the fight the more damage slips through your aegis/dodging cracks, so I would say give full DPS a shot.

@Asum.4960 said:If you are still having trouble staying alive, especially to ranged attacks, think about getting a shield for more Aegis and Protection and the projectile defense + heal, which also pushes back for breakbar damage. So Axe/shield for grouping mobs, breaking breakbars and clutch defense, and Scepter/Torch for your damage rotation.

Funny you say that, because that's exactly what I'm using now: Axe+Shield and Scepter+Torch. And I'm enjoying this setup quite a bit. I'll also try Radiance instead of Vitues as you say, since Virtues is indeed overpowered against packed enemies, but I understand Radiance is stronger overall for burning.

I'm using Mantra of Solace as heal, and learning to get the most from aegis, but now taking a look at Litany of Wrath made me think about it... In theory that 25% leech can be really powerful while unleashing Tome of Justice, and this way I could dps and heal at the same time, which is the main issue with Tome of Resolve while playing solo. Will have to try that..

@Thereon.5219 said:Valor can offer good survivability even without healing gear though you would need to replace some of your utilities with meditations to make use of the heals.

That grandmaster trait seems really good. Will try it with some meditations. Too bad replacing Radiance/Virtues is a huge dps loss, but I understand I can't have my cake and eat it too :)

While Virtues with Permeating Wrath is nice, especially with Loremaster, keep in mind that you have your Tome of Justice for massive AoE Burns, and Zeal/Radiance/FB is considerably more damage against single targets.Radiant Fire procs, increased crit chance with Right-Hand Strength and Amplified Wrath in Radiance and Fiery Wrath, Kindled Zeal and Symbolic Avenger in Zeal are pretty massive damage boosts.

While I personally love Mantra of Solace and utilising active defenses after playing Necro for years, if you want to keep your large healthpool and focus less on active defenses, I would definitely give other heal skills a shot.Although I would be careful about trying to turn your Guardian into a Reaper and how effective that might be. Your biggest strength are your active defenses and the big advantage over Necros. Also something to keep in mind if you plan on doing group content like fractals is the fact that you share that Aegis with your entire team with good positioning with skills like Mantra of Solace.

So at this point it really comes down to which content you are planning to tackle.

Hey guys. Thanks for the tips.

I'm playing now with Zeal+Radiance, and sometimes I change to Zeal+Valor. Radiance is way too good indeed, especially reseting Tome of Justice. And the best thing about Radiance is that all traits make sense and are useful.

Valor decreases my dps quite a bit, and the traits are weird, but that grandmaster that allows meditations to heal is a huge defensive boost. With Valor I can simply walk to a pack and unleash all Tome of Justice while healing from meditations.