Tomes in WvW

Hey all. I'm putting together celestial armor for running Firebrand in WvW, and I have been having a blast. But I still haven't really figured out when it's best to swap into tomes. I find myself either not using them at all and just using my weapons or sitting only in tomes, more or less just smashing buttons.

So what's the balance? When do you netter players make the switch, what's the opening rotation look like, etc?

Tomes are very clunky and there seems to be issues with tome activation -- as it it's not instant and can get interrupted.

I still think Tomes should switch like Engineer kits. This way we can pick the skills we want, and when we want to use them. This of course requires changes to the mechanics like maybe putting "pages" on the ammo system individually for each tome. It would change the Radiance trait which recharges F1 to recharge the pages for ToJ (or simply add X pages to the current total up to the max... whatever).

Until then it's impossible to do 2 things at the same time with tomes. It's "all or nothing", based upon which tome you activate.

Tomes in WvW are your best kitten friends, they by far out perform any of the weapons in terms of healing, support, or burn ticks. The issue is you can only perform one of the selections at a time.

It's not a question of: what can one FB can do; it's a question of how can multiple FB's coordinate tomes between each other in a party. Master that and its an incredibly powerful tool kit.

I thought i would hate these tomes. But instead of fighting them and trying to run FB like a core guard, i've embraced the tomes and i loving the kitten out of them

Ok, so it's fine to just sit tome on cooldown? That makes sense.

The difficulty then seems to be mastering when to go to each tome and coordinating that with the zerg. Any tips or tricks for optimal tome rotation?

There is none. You need to know and be coordinated with the other FB/guard in the party. And to know if you are the one who starts on F3 to spam 4 for the resistance/stunbreak or you are the one going for heals or offense. With low-skilled pug based blobs, you are better of not running Firebrand at all, cause its lack of sustain unless you sit on F3 at that moment, and general lack of mobility will get you killed.

I am having great success with tomes in WvW, even in a semi coordinated pug without voice comms. I roll in with f3 out, I put 1 on the tag to get him through the initial push and when the melee FFA starts I drop 4 and 3, I just rotate those until I'm on CD. After that I either go on the offensive or start dropping heals with ToR 4 followed by 1 spams until 4 comes off CD. I'm rarely on voice comms but dropping 5 then 4 and having a condi rev drop their blasts in the field would be nice. The burning is nice from TOJ but it is my least used tome, I abuse ToC procced for quickfire pretty frequently.

For mobility, I haven't had much problem. I survived a three way fight in SMC lord room the other day, and pretty much just rotated my tomes the whole time. Usually when I die to lack of mobility, for me, its cause I got lag blob bomed, or wasn't watching the tag well enough. I sometimes swap out my thrid utility for Merciful intervention or JI for extra mobility, but not often.

Anyway this is just what's been working for me, and I wanted to share. I also think on a build with burning that is in a group that pushes well staff is still very good up close. That said, I also recognize there seems to be a lot more pirate shipping going on, so I find myself camping scepter alot outside of tomes.

Mobility would be much less of an issue if we were allowed to freely cast Merciful Intervention.