The Plaquedoctor Firebrand - Hybrid for group play

The Plaquedoctor Firebrand Build

Hi, I need more feedback on this viable build. Have been using this for the past 2 weeks especially in Fractals. Not recommended for raids. Open World is too easy to walk through with this build.All in all, it felt really good but I need more experience Guardians in this forum to share their input.

Hello, to be quite honest, I haven't gone far into the new content to unlock the Plague Doctor stats -- but I've read it's a lot of work to get that started so kudos to you friend! There are varying opinions regarding trying to fulfill a middle spot in terms of group play. Most groups would prefer focus on specific roles when it comes to team composition -- you either do Damage or you do Support (Boons or Healing)

Not in the position to say if this is really the rule of thumb because I am a staunch supporter of Hybrid roles. Personally, I figured it gives range to the experience and really explores the capabilities of a certain class. I think the Hybrid role is really something I find quite possible with the Guardian since its core mechanic is really designed towards team support. (I mean against my other level 80 characters: a Mesmer and a Thief. I know a Mesmer can be beefier than a Guardian in certain set-ups but I see it more about really controlling the enemies and really dishing out damage)

I'm getting too talkative here. Plain and simple I think its an interesting idea -- maybe challenging in some content aspects since it's not a singular role. And as long as you accept the fact that other classes / builds may out-condition you, or out-heal you -- I think this is alright. There will always be talk of Min / Max performance but the best performance is the one that you enjoy playing. I am excited to unlock that stat line for my own Guardian. To be honest, I actually tinkered with Shaman's Set to practice this type of set-up.

If you like to read on some talk about plague doctor set, this is what I picked up, during my own experiments: link

Comments on the Traits:

• Wouldn't get Unrelenting Criticism over Archivist of Whispers for Group Play. Much of the Damage of a condition Firebrand is coming from Tome of Justice. I would rather have more pages to dish out ToJ #4 and #5 in a group than have personal source of bleeds. Chances are, in group somebody else can stack Bleeding better. (Running solo, I think the Trait is fine)

• Radiance line is incredibly flexible -- the changes that it has gone through while I was away are astonishing to say the least. I do like playing around with Radiance with all bottom traits spec'd out. Looking at your set-up there are no specified Stats for the Weapons, meaning I could bump up Power and Ferocity with it to improve base Physical damage when switching to Mace. BUT the set-up you have is effective provided you are able to maximize those sweet blocks.

• I would probably put in Mighty Infusions into the Gear given the Base Build is already covering Condition Damage. Or Healing infusions to increase your healing further.

@"Axxo.7430" said:The Plaquedoctor Firebrand Build

Hi, I need more feedback on this viable build. Have been using this for the past 2 weeks especially in Fractals. Not recommended for raids. Open World is too easy to walk through with this build.All in all, it felt really good but I need more experience Guardians in this forum to share their input.

It just seems like 26k health is an excessive allocation of a stat that could be better put to use elsewhere, like Power. Maybe a mix of Plaguedoctor & Harrier?

Better off ruining grieving or vipers and getting your boon duration from other sources.

My conclusion running it was: pretty good but we always have a druid anyway (fotm cm) so the heals don't help. So I swapped to a mostly full dps condi firebrand (viper + renegade rune) and took quickness mantra/elite/some traits to give ~60% quickness uptime to pad the boon uptime of the average pug chrono. Of course this still leaves the wonderful soft cc of fb. Blocks on heal, reflects, condi clear etc with nearly the same dps as the benchmark builds.

sounds like someone needs to brush their teeth.