Firebrand - Looking for some help with attributes.

Hey there everyone, hope you had a good Christmas!

I've been playing GW2 very casually since around its release, and I'm finally looking to craft my first set of Ascended armor (yes, that casually) for PvE play.

On most of my characters — I'll admit it— I just run Soldier's (yes, that casually). I've tried Berserker's or other meta stats before when I would run fractals with groups that required it, and while the DPS is great the playstyle is just a little too stressful for me. I like to play GW2, well, casually — so I mostly just tank my way through encounters then switch to a ranged weapon and run around in circles if that doesn't work (I'm looking at you, Scruffy 2.0).

Anyway, after the launch of PoF I've fallen in love with Firebrand, and it's positively stumped me. It seems to rely heavily on Condition Damage (as well as power?) which is something foreign to me outside of a condi bow Warrior I tried once for a dungeon. Which brings me to my question: Which attribute combination should I lean toward for the Fireband so I can be effective with the conditions, while still retaining my more tanky, laid-back soldier's playstyle? Is this possible?

I've been reading around that Grieving is the way to go, but I'm a little uneasy not having any toughness. Would Marshal provide enough Condition Damage while the Healing Power supplements "tankiness" with a lot of recovery? I seem to remember Healing Power suffering horribly from diminishing returns or something along those lines, but I haven't brushed up on my stats lately. Should I just mix some Grieving armor with Soldier trinkets?

Any advice on how I could equip my Firebrand to play toward the specialization's strengths while still retaining a more laid-back or "easy" play experience would be very much appreciated.

Get celestial stats, you will get a bit of everything.

@"Aeolus.3615" said:Get celestial stats, you will get a bit of everything.

I would agree. If you are dead set on trading off higher damage to be more durable, Celestial is often a better choice than Soldier's. Plus it has the advantage of being usable for all sorts of builds for "casual" game playing.(note the emphasis on 'dead': longer fights lead to more opportunities to goof up)

Generally speaking, though, I'd recommend Viper for all condi builds, Zerker for all power builds, and varying that only when there's a specific role you are playing (which tends to apply to players looking for more optimized builds).

You might, however, still be interest in this post, in which Redditor knoxij offers "Forgiving Raid Builds for Nearly Top-Tier DPS". The first build is for the OP and the others are for others who might be interested in alternatives for other profs.

@knoxij wrote:These are the setups I've seen put to good use that are either much more forgiving from a survivability standpoint, or much simpler to execute (or both) than the standard meta setups.

• Firebrand with Carrion Gear
• SB Soulbeast
• Phantasm Mirage
• Power DD

@Illconceived Was Na.9781

Thanks very much for your reply, that reddit thread is helpful! I think I'll give Celestial a spin and see how I like it, and I can work on the raid builds to give me something to do afterwards.

Great. Let us know how well it works for you. Obviously mileage varies for us all, but I'm sure there are plenty of others who describe themselves as "that casual" who will be interested in your experience.