How are you support Firebrands doing?

[Xithryl.2807]

Has anyone come up with a decently strong build for Support FB? I've been checking all over the forums for builds, and I have seen a few, was wondering what you all are using and how it is working out. How are you going about supporting your group?

I'm looking for a nice fun support FB build :) Currently still swapping between my FB and my Druid. I'm sure Firebrand wont ever fill that Druid spot, but I'm hoping to get a decently useful Firebrand support build, so I don't feel like I always gotta hop on Druid to feel useful in a group.

[Selendile.9106]

Been doing honor/virtue/firebrand, with full minstrel and it's been alright. The reduced cooldowns from the launch patch has made things a lot better than the demo weekend.

[Xithryl.2807]

@Selendile.9106 said:Been doing honor/virtue/firebrand, with full minstrel and it's been alright. The reduced cooldowns from the launch patch has made things a lot better than the demo weekend.

Sounds awesome!What weapons are you using? What kind of play style? Could you provide a link to your build? Or maybe just let everyone know the way you specced?

[Thani.8569]

Have you tried with full celestial instead of minstrel ? And concentration sigil ?Is Minstrel that better ?

[Xithryl.2807]

@Thani.8569 said:Have you tried with full celestial instead of minstrel ? And concentration sigil ?Is Minstrel that better ?

I haven't messed much with gear yet, Hopefully I can settle down on a decent FB Support build to then start getting gear for... I haven't seen anyone using Celestial, but I have noticed a few people suggesting Minstrel :\

[Ojimaru.8970]

I'm using Minstrel for now, but will be working towards a set of Harrier. The main problem with Harrier right now is that there are no known ways of making Ascended-tier gear, as far as I know.

[Incarne.4927]

I really don't know how I feel about support FB just yet. Full minstrel, mace, shield/staff/ (sometimes focus). Valor, Honor, FB... I think we will never be close to Druid or Tempest heals because we lack a dedicated heal skill that can be spammed without a cooldown. Tempest water auto attacks, and druid beam attack are examples. I would like to see us get something similar, while we do have options to put out heals, we have a limited amount we can use (Tome of Resolve, Aegis heals, Bow of Truth, Staff 2 and 4, Merciful inervation, recieve the light, and other minor heals). The mace auto attack chain is not a reliable source either since we need to hit a target 3 times with a slow animation for a minor heal, and it has a small heal radius. I think we really need a staff rework on guardian to fit more of that support role, the 2 skill is so wonky and everything else is rarely useful other than the 4th skill.

[RabbitUp.8294]

Pve firebrand has no purpose using minsters, commander and such. If a group picks firebrand, it's not for their heals.

Firebrand is quickness, and after that pure dps. We are replacing a dps slot, we can't afford to go minstrel.

[Ojimaru.8970]

@Incarne.4927 said:I really don't know how I feel about support FB just yet. Full minstrel, mace, shield/staff/ (sometimes focus). Valor, Honor, FB... I think we will never be close to Druid or Tempest heals because we lack a dedicated heal skill that can be spammed without a cooldown. Tempest water auto attacks, and druid beam attack are examples. I would like to see us get something similar, while we do have options to put out heals, we have a limited amount we can use (Tome of Resolve, Aegis heals, Bow of Truth, Staff 2 and 4, Merciful inervation, recieve the light, and other minor heals). The mace auto attack chain is not a reliable source either since we need to hit a target 3 times with a slow animation for a minor heal, and it has a small heal radius. I think we really need a staff rework on guardian to fit more of that support role, the 2 skill is so wonky and everything else is rarely useful other than the 4th skill.

The majority of Guardian (and even Firebrand) heals come from Regeneration, based on arcdps readouts (while healing myself for 243k health over a single fight). However you can't discount the support power of Aegis, which arguably is worth more than flat healing.

[RabbitUp.8294]

Regeneration is so inconsistent in a raid setting, you might as well ignore it. You will be competing directly with druid for it.

As for aegis, it's almost always not worth more than healing in raids. Even for the mechanics that are actually blockable, there's chrono and dps firebrand/dh. At the same time. if a group wanted an aegis-like utility to prevent damage, barrier is miles better.

[Xithryl.2807]

@Incarne.4927 said:I think we really need a staff rework on guardian to fit more of that support role, the 2 skill is so wonky and everything else is rarely useful other than the 4th skill.

I would love to see that, I like using Staff, but yeah skill 2 is very wonky, and while 4th skill is nice, it renders you immobile, I guess it would be ok if our other staff skills weren't lacking.

[nvmvoidrays.2158]

i've been doing Honor/Virtue/Firebrand with Mender's and Mace + Focus and Scepter/Shield in sPVP. it seems to be working out well.

WvW, i've been doing the same build, but, with full Celestial, other than weapons and switching out Mace/Focus for Staff or Scepter/Shield, depending. i'm using Leadership runes as well. it feels like i'm effective, but... it's hard to tell.

[Ragnarox.9601]

I am using this build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRAne8dnsADNCj1BDGBDkCjFGCbPf+PLoXFrGQAIr+kf6PA-jFCEABJ8EAEUJod7PAwJAQLlfFcQAGW/Amq/EAIB48YeMPmHwv8L/yv8L/S9l8l8lf5XSKgtGaB-w

works pretty well in pve and wvw.

[Ojimaru.8970]

@RabbitUp.8294 said:Regeneration is so inconsistent in a raid setting, you might as well ignore it. You will be competing directly with druid for it.

As for aegis, it's almost always not worth more than healing in raids. Even for the mechanics that are actually blockable, there's chrono and dps firebrand/dh. At the same time. if a group wanted an aegis-like utility to prevent damage, barrier is miles better.

Interesting. Why would you say that Barrier is better than a buff that prevents all damage, knockbacks, conditions, etc. and has a longer duration?

[Brutaly.6257]

Playing in pvp with honor/virtues/FB and doing Well tbh. Using a sage amulet.

Scepter/shield is the main weapon, axe/torch for burst in combo with shield knockback, in combo with quickness.

[Sam.3162]

Pretty well. If we could get a mantra trait that increased the radius so I didn't have to stand on top of my friends, then it'd be almost perfect as far as I'm concerned. Basically, change Weighty Terms into something else entirely.

[Arricson Krei.9560]

Full heals Nomad's Guard in WvW. Honor, Virtues, FB. Mace/Shield and Staff. On paper, 1500 heal per condition removed with Resolve 2. Consider the maximum 4500 healing from removing 3 condis and slap on +70% outgoing healing and you have something akin to overkill. Couple that with trickle heals from Pure of Heart and you can keep your team topped off. Works great in WvW.

Nomad's over Ministrel's because of the boon corrupts prevalent in WvW. With how I've set up my build, I wouldn't be supplying much Quickness anyway, so the conc would've been a waste.

[setdog.1592]

idk but ive come with a weird pve build, its pretty fun tho, damage sucks (but aoe from ToJ is ok) but i like the slower playstyle and much fewer deaths.shamans gear, zeal 111, virtues 121, fb 222. mantra of solace, intervention, mantra of truth, SWORD OF JUSTICE (yes a spirit weap), mantra of liberationweaps are axe/torch:mace/shield. its great for pve roaming but you have to be willing to take your time, if you want a speed build, this is not it,but i can pretty much walk around the map kill stuff and move on.

will prob work alot better with better gear choices, but like i said, i like the slower pace, to me it feels very paladin likeafter i get to know the prof better ill tweak it more for better damage, but im still learning the nuances of fb

but you may want something strong for pvp, this isnt it

[Xithryl.2807]

@setdog.1592 said:idk but ive come with a weird pve build, its pretty fun tho, damage sucks (but aoe from ToJ is ok) but i like the slower playstyle and much fewer deaths.shamans gear, zeal 111, virtues 121, fb 222. mantra of solace, intervention, mantra of truth, SWORD OF JUSTICE (yes a spirit weap), mantra of liberationweaps are axe/torch:mace/shield. its great for pve roaming but you have to be willing to take your time, if you want a speed build, this is not it,but i can pretty much walk around the map kill stuff and move on.

will prob work alot better with better gear choices, but like i said, i like the slower pace, to me it feels very paladin likeafter i get to know the prof better ill tweak it more for better damage, but im still learning the nuances of fb

but you may want something strong for pvp, this isnt it

I'm gonna try it, thanks! I'm looking at purely PvE builds and the very Paladin like feel sounds awesome.

[nvmvoidrays.2158]

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRApd7fnsAD97gFCBGBDEEhF9BbvjOSXpVBgk04K7C1hCRA-jRUAQBnSlg9ouTN0QYBlg+7BAMhjAwT1GkGlHAwEHA3fgFaQkhGBPcSACxBUoCHoAloELP6ACAgAIbGmuNzmBEBwOGA-e

this is my current build. it's very Paladin-esque. i know my weapons and back/trinket are a mess. i'd want them to be all Celestial, ideally, but it hasn't panned out yet. i'm not too worried about it. yes, all my armor, but my chest is still Exotic, as are my weapons. in an ideal world, i'd have Ceelstial-everything and be happy as a clam.

you can switch out "Save Yourselves!" and Mantra of Potence for other utilities, but, those are all really good for open world. SY is a big burst of damage/buffs. Mantra of Solace + Mantra of Potence + "Feel My Wrath!" is a lot of Quickness, considering the talents i decided on make your healing spells grant Quickness and applying Stability/Aegis applies Quickness, so, Mantra of Solace applies 5s of quickness if you use it every 12 seconds. if you use Mantra of Potence at the same time, you can get 7 ½ seconds of Quickness every 12 seconds. if you go for more boon duration, that goes up even higher. if you get, iirc, around 90% boon duration, you can have permanent Quickness on yourself.

if you want an sPVP build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRApd7OnsAjNDBOCD8DhlHCbveuPDoZtn5T9BLA0A+AA-jZBHABlv/A+lBa+IAMwJBAgHAAA

first utility slot is free, but, i usually slot Contemplation of Purity there because fuck Necromancers/Scourage. this build is pretty awesome. good damage (when using Tome of Justice), good survivability, good support.

[TrippyDroppings.6735]

I have been running a new build I made for this expansion for testing and it has been working well and is fun.

en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vVMQNAW5ensADFBjdBDOCDkCjlKCbPduOrnYDgAwEIb8ceSPA-jFCGQBpU9nDcRAQ3+DPz8DAeCA7RJ4J1NgDlfBAQAIAG9olC4zdWA-w

I like to sometimes switch out staff for Axe/Focus still Seraph stats. Works really nice for solo play (especially with the axe trait) where you need ways to get through those break bars.

But the main build works really well in pve group play where you have enough sustain to keep pumping out good duration boons and pretty nice heals. While burning is your main source of damage. (I have recently switched the sigils of blood to smoldering on both weapon sets.

When playing solo I just switch some traits here and there (you can drop Honour completely if you want and take Radiance 2/2/1 for much better damage) and it continues to perform well.

[MidnightO.8632]

I'd say the support is more in Aegis/Quickness/Protection and Stability than healing. Healing seems generally very underwhelming, it's good here and there if you absolutely need to cleanse some condis or do a quick heal burst with quickness but FB is decidedly not a healer imho. Overall for me the book is one big heal ability cooldown.

So far support comes as a side effect of my rotation since it includes heaps of quickness and aegis spam to boost my own damage which also boosts teammates. This comes between fire tome bursts. If I want some extra survivability I bring out Mace/Shield for even more support at the cost of DPS (but the fire tome burst and quickness is still there). All this in full damage gear, though I suppose I would take boon duration if I really wanted to support. But even like this quickness/aegis uptime is very good.

Also, third tome is probably better support utility than heal tome. You can literally spam aegis quick enough to eat even channeled attacks. You can push a group through a whole range of traps and hazards, just spam 1 and run right through them. You can secure revives and more, great utility.

Just the healing mantra + quickness mantra are enough to provide some serious quickness uptime when traited. So weapons and gear on top of that are up to you. If you want to boost this aspect then take anything that provides aegis (and hence quickness). So far I haven't managed full 100% uptime, but on DPS build it's impressive regardless. Hell, I spam quickness on my thief in pugs and it makes a difference and that is much lower uptime.

[Umadusa.5874]

I'm full Cleric FB with elite sigil, battle presence and loremaster. I also have alot of aegis traits. And heal on aegis. I'm a tank. I'm a healer. I'm a protector. I rock. Love it.

[Garrick Witchblade.7964]

The full support FB build (pvP) from Metabattle is flat out amazing. If you have a group that realizes what you are, as I always tell my team before the match begins, you can hold and cap a point with ease even if you have less numbers. The damage is pretty non-existent, but the ability to stay alive and keep others alive and protected is a great rush and I have seen my win percentage increase by 15-20% since making the build a week ago.