Radiance the best for DH in WvW Roaming?

I'm not a guardian main, but enjoy roaming in WvW occasionally on a DH.I run the standard Marauders with Valor, Virtues and DH traitlines.However a big problem I faced was that I don't seem to be doing enough burst damage to take out sustain builds like Weavers and Druids who are heavy on boons and can heal back frequently. It felt like I needed more spike damage.

Recently I heard that the best line to take isn't Valor, but Radiance which gives a lot more damage.I've seen a couple of vids on youtube with DH using Radiance too. They were able to crit for around 7K on Trueshot which didn't seem reachable on my valor DH.

Any thoughts on the Radiance vs Valor line is much appreciated!

First off, true shot can easily hit 15k+ when setup right. I run a burn guard hybrid and never take Radi line. I prefer zeal as it gives me access to tons of might stacks, +10% against burning foes and my symbols do a fair amount more dmg. My setup is more for 1vX or group fighting rather than 1v1.

Losing the valor line will make you significantly less durable. So keep that in mind.

Radiance will definitely boost your output. I run it as a roamer with the bottom 3 selected: Healer's Retribution, Retribution and Righteous Instincts. Your heal skill will pop retaliation then and boost your crit by 50%. Keep some other skills in your bar that drop retaliation just before you light someone up . Shoots your Crit chance to 90% or above. If you run the Zeal Line Wrathful Spirit is worth a look to get Retaliation for losing Aegis and Symbolic Avenger gives a 10% boost to damage in symbols and 13% toughness to power. I've even experimented with using the Dragonhunter Big Game Hunter to tag them with Spear of Justice for a 20% damage boost and Vulnerability. However, the loss of knockback with the bow might not be worth it. Depends on your location. A drop off a cliff is pretty fatal....

You don't really take valor for damage, you take it for monks focus and lesser smite condition. Same thing with virtues, both lines are needed to have a marginally capable guardian.Nice thing about FB is that you can drop virtues for it and still have access to stability without sacrificing a utility

I do not WvW but my DH build setup for sPvP now uses radiance/valor/DH. I also use big game hunter. I can hit 7k to tethered targets using Valkyrie in sPvP. Honestly, assuming you use mostly Valkyrie as well in WvW you should hit 9-10 LB 2 untethered and 12-14k on tethered targets. I can hit in that range in open world PvE.

The problem is maintaining retaliation uptime. I use save yourselves and stand your ground. Save yourselves is not ideal though. Surely a downgrade over smite.

Radiance on DH will make you hit very hard and maybe hard enough to kill those bruiser builds but you'll have a much worse 1v1 game. High damage and high sustain builds that you had trouble with on regular meditrapper will be even more problematic for you.

If you still have the gear setup for meditrapper and want to try a build without DH, I highly recommend trying DH 3,2,3 and running greatsword + sword/shield. Big Game Hunter +Zealot's Aggression gives you an enormous damage boost and while tethered, your damage matches/exceeds that of a valkyrie core guard. Meanwhile you'll have excellent sustain and decent mobility/disengage (it can even keep up with a mirage in terms of short term mobility).

You could also try this build but replace Valor the Radiance and you'd then be getting enough damage modifiers to hit those 10k+ trueshot crits which is really fun but keep in mind that a good roamer can counter-build this pretty easily.

@"Arcaedus.7290" said:Radiance on DH will make you hit very hard and maybe hard enough to kill those bruiser builds but you'll have a much worse 1v1 game. High damage and high sustain builds that you had trouble with on regular meditrapper will be even more problematic for you.

If you still have the gear setup for meditrapper and want to try a build without DH, I highly recommend trying DH 3,2,3 and running greatsword + sword/shield. Big Game Hunter +Zealot's Aggression gives you an enormous damage boost and while tethered, your damage matches/exceeds that of a valkyrie core guard. Meanwhile you'll have excellent sustain and decent mobility/disengage (it can even keep up with a mirage in terms of short term mobility).

You could also try this build but replace Valor the Radiance and you'd then be getting enough damage modifiers to hit those 10k+ trueshot crits which is really fun but keep in mind that a good roamer can counter-build this pretty easily.

By the "gear setup for meditrapper", you mean like this?