Firebrand usage

Hi,Considering maining a firebrand. Speced in mostly condi gear (power vitality condi).

When you approach boss fights in fractals are you prioritizing dps or book 1 2 or 3?

Do you, for example, burn through book 3 then go into book 1 and normal dps rotation only using book 2 when ppl get low?

Unsure how to prioritize what a firebrand can bring.

Mainly t2 fractals.

Any advice would be great..

The majority of your burst comes from Tome of Justice. Whenever it is available and your Radiant Fire trait and Zealot's Flame are on cooldown, go into the Tome, with the following skill priority: Chapter 2 > 4 > 5 > 1. If the fight has adds that can reset your Tome's cooldown, be sure to be ready to switch to it. You can also try to drop the Tome early, just before an enemy dies, in order to benefit from the cooldown reset.

In between Tomes, prioritize on throwing Zealot's Fire whenever it is available, whether through Zealot's Flame, or from the Radiant Fire proc. Use Mantra of Flame when available, but avoid expending all the charges.

Tomes of Virtue and Courage should only be used as required, e.g. burst heals after the group takes an unfortunate hit, or dropping a large AOE resistance during the Volcanic Fractal boss add phase.

Also cause you mention power-vit-condi stats, keep in mind you want either viper's gear or grieving.No stat is going to go in vitality.

I hardly ever had a good experience running with FB despite all the utilities it would provide. If you are talking pugs, I'd recommend never leaving tome1 because the moment you swap to 2/3 to support your struggling group, morons will call you out and blame the wipe or near wipe on your "low DPS" because you were too busy healing their dying asses. People are that stupid.

FB really is better suited to WvW. If I play guard in a fractal I use DH

You should use tome 2 when people drop low on health, while tome 3 should be reserved for situations where you need stability.

You don't need vitality for dps build, and as people have mentioned you wanna go with viper gear.

But in honesty, i would rather recommend power dps guardian for fractals (core or dragonhunter)

Thanks for the feedback. Generally what I thought aside from the fact that utilizing a FB to its potential is more of a detriment on pug fractals and more of an asset in WvW.

Balls.

I kind of what to play that hybrid role in a fractal with respectable DPS but nice support sustain. Considering Druid...Ill post something about that.

Thanks,

Ah, I want to revive this post for a moment and clarify:

Im mostly running T2/T3 fractals at the moment. My current gear/spec (which aren't optimal) see nice condi pulses of 12-15k every second or so it seems. I think Im doing fair enough damage while being able to pop into book 2/3 for heals/support when needed.

I guess what Im saying is that I have yet to run into people in a group in T2/T3 that call for a meta spec/build or leave. Obviously sometimes my group gets low and Id like to heal them but on my current toon (reaper) I cant do much in that regard. Can a firebrand find usage other than dps in T2/T3 and still contribute to a fast easy clean run?

@"cesmode.4257" said:Ah, I want to revive this post for a moment and clarify:

Im mostly running T2/T3 fractals at the moment. My current gear/spec (which aren't optimal) see nice condi pulses of 12-15k every second or so it seems. I think Im doing fair enough damage while being able to pop into book 2/3 for heals/support when needed.

I guess what Im saying is that I have yet to run into people in a group in T2/T3 that call for a meta spec/build or leave. Obviously sometimes my group gets low and Id like to heal them but on my current toon (reaper) I cant do much in that regard. Can a firebrand find usage other than dps in T2/T3 and still contribute to a fast easy clean run?

If you use Full minstrel build with durability runes,Fb basically can replace druid and chrono. F2 become a powerful group healing book and F3 give endless defense boons. You can switch your utility and elite skill to keep up might/quickness/fury , group condi clean , and take power signet for cc.( compare to chrono's moa signet, it has half effect to break bar. )

When take 4 dps with you to do t4 fractal, you might have to decide which support part(boons/condi cleanse/heal/cc) you want to focus more for group. Usually you can take everything, but sometimes you might want to sacrifice cc signet for more heal or defense boon uptime.

Anyway, although everyone think only dps is "respectable", but I think why not unleash Firebrand's full support strength when you can do more than just burning/give alacrity.That way you can take as much dps class as you can with you

Ps : if you want to pair up with other support class, its better to find chrono/rev with commander build, they both can provide alacrity, good cc,and they both can deal additional damage since FB can focus on healing a bit more.

@cesmode.4257 said:I guess what Im saying is that I have yet to run into people in a group in T2/T3 that call for a meta spec/build or leave. Obviously sometimes my group gets low and Id like to heal them but on my current toon (reaper) I cant do much in that regard. Can a firebrand find usage other than dps in T2/T3 and still contribute to a fast easy clean run?

Firstly, Reaper can still provide group AOE healing support, at the cost of personal DPS. Sacrificing the Soul Reaping line for the Blood Magic trait line gives you access to a great many ways to heal and revive your team mates.

Secondly, Firebrand support, in theory, works well in Fractals. It offers a lot of flexibility of builds to suit the needs of the party composition, or to counter specific fight mechanics. For example, when paired with a Chronomancer, you can focus more on healing, Might stacking, and maintaining Perfect Inscriptions as much as possible; when paired with a Druid, you'll shift into maintaining maximum Quickness, Fury, and other boons to aid the party, with much less emphasis on healing so as to not interfere with the Druid's Celestial Force generation. At the same time, you'll have multiple means of generating Stability to counter the Brazen Gladiator in Chaos Fractal, AOE Resistance and condition cleanses for the elementals in the Volcanic Fractal, and so on.

Firebrand, and Guardian as a whole is extremely versatile in roles with all game modes. Expect to want to play more than Firebrand to see all a Guardian can do.

Condition Firebrand is great DPS, and AoE, but falls short with breakbar damage and utility when full Condition DPS built. It still works great in Fractals. Dragonhunter is better for burst, and breakbar damage though, which is great in Fractals. The Virtues with Dragonhunter are also really good. Support Firebrand can hard carry any game mode though with insane blocks, heals, and ok offensive buffs. It's worth making a second set for Dragonhunter at least.

For the Tome usage it's Tome 1 for DPS, then skills 2, 5, 4, 1, 2. When killing adds, your Tome of Justice instantly recharges, and you can AoE like crazy though. The meta build is https://snowcrows.com/raids/builds/guardian/firebrand/condition/ for Firebrand though. It's important to learn a Guardian's utilities in all game modes. In Fractals they have a lot of blocks, group Condition clear, reflects, stun breaks, stability, and retaliation. Firebrand Tomes are also great with the Tome 2 healing, and Condition cleansing, the Tome 3 skills have stun breaks, blocks, and reflects too. Also Tome 1 has a great pull with the third skill.

Don't take the meta super serious or think it matters that much. Firebrand is a great middle tier class capable of doing all game modes, it's just some prefer Dragonhunter over it. This is why I suggested both builds to see all a Guardian can offer. I'm sorry if I went on, and rambled, I just love the Guardian Profession.

Hope you have fun with the Profession.

@cesmode.4257 said:Can a firebrand find usage other than dps in T2/T3 and still contribute to a fast easy clean run?

I play support/healer FB. Its very good, but I would argue its harder to play than dps. And you need to be much more aware of your party and your own positioning.

Also, mantras are very adaptable so you can pick whichever you need depending on the party compositon. There are also multiple options for other utility skills depending on your preferred play style, party composition or boss mechanics