The archive contains builds that are not actively maintained any more! The information you find here might be outdated, irrelevant or even misleading.
The Celestial Firebrand is a build for groups to use instead of a Heal Firebrand. It provides more than enough healing for most groups, permanent Quickness, a large chunk (15-18 stacks) of Might and on demand Stability and Aegis, whilst dealing a decent amount of damage. It is especially strong in PuGs where often a Heal Firebrand is overkill, especially in condi groups, but the convenience of having a more supportive player pumping out important boons such as Might, Stability, Aegis and heals is invaluable.
There are two variants shown below; a Celestial variant, and a Celestial Heal variant. The Celestial 150AR variant is the standard version that provides solid damage while being fairly forgiving with boon uptimes. While the Celestial Heal 150AR variant is much more supportive and a last resort before swapping to Heal Firebrand. All of these builds can be optimized further with a mix of gear to suit your needs using our gear optimizer.
There are several different gear, utility, and trait setups that allow you to maintain quickness that can be situationally chosen. Check the gear optimizer to adjust your gear for the boon durations listed below:
(all charges off cooldown) - 90.85%
with , (all charges off cooldown) - 29.2%
(all charges off cooldown) and - 54.24%
Equipment
This is the standard build with high boon duration which allows it to be played with various Trait and Skill setups, and has an easier time maintaining boons.
Check the build section for some common gear variations. You can also use our gear optimizer for more variants!
If you do not need the extra support, feel free to take as a DPS increase. If you want to increase your healing output, take .
Taken if you do not need the Might generation from .
This can be run in combination with for extra Might generation from and some CC. It is will help to proc if you run it.
Defiance Bar Damage
Skill
Damage
750 damage
150 damage
in
150 damage
200 damage
250 damage (50/s)
with
100 damage
Build Guide by Ciello
Although made in a previous patch, this video still contains useful information about utility skill selection and gameplay. However quickness generation, tome usage and traits have changed
Recharges all virtue skills, grants Invulnerability for 3 seconds.
A 1200 range teleport to an enemy.
A 1,200 range teleport to an ally.
Common Gear Adjustments
As you will have seen from the equipment, Celestial/Seraph Firebrand has many variations you can use to adapt to your needs. Here is a brief overview of the common Attribute types, Runes, Sigils, and Consumables that are used when gearing Celestial and Seraph variants. As mentioned above you can use our gear optimizer to help calculate what gear will be best, but in general, remember you want to aim for 100% Burning duration and enough Boon Duration duration to maintain Quickness (although the higher you can get your Concentration and Boon Duration, the easier time you will have maintaining boons)!
Use all charges of off cooldown and every 7 seconds due to the cooldown of
Only use these skills close to your allies - try to "puke" on them with the mantras
Use whenever ready if you are running it.
Keep in mind that equipping/stowing a tome grants you (only you, not your party members!) 3 seconds of Quickness every 8 seconds thanks to !
Please note the minimum suggested boon duration is influenced by prestacking and typically short phases. It is recommended to get as much Boon Duration as you can for an easier time maintaining boons! Outside of fractals, your boon duration will be lower with these setups due to not having .
The rotation is a lot simpler compared to any other Guardian build (except for HFB where your weapons do not have an immediate effect on how efficient the build is). However, weapon swaps require careful consideration, because it is not efficient to be stuck on staff or to have less than 25 Might during a damage phase.
Getting the weapon swaps right is probably the hardest part (more info below). Generally, it is recommended to always camp Axe/Torch and only swap to staff to use to top up Might.
General information:
On Axe/Torch:
Use
Use into
Use
Try not to interrupt your auto-attack chain
Make sure to have ready for when you need to CC or need to pull in any adds.
In :
Your standard DPS rotation is , , .
Don't be afraid to replace , with for more CC or to pull any adds.
On Staff:
Use
Blast fire fields with . If there is no fire field you can put one down with tome1-4
Use
Apart from that:
or to break defiance bars.
Remember to be smart about your free utility swap and adjust as necessary to the encounter and your party.
Suggested key moments to swap to staff and :
MAMA: There is no exact key moment and you need to decide on your own when to swap to staff.
Siax: This build has quite good damage and is fairly self-sustained enabling you to kill your add quickly. Swap to staff for the last few percent and be ready to in the middle. This works better the slower the group is due to the weapon swap cooldown. If another person helps you kill your add (typically the Renegade) you can chill on staff for the add so you are ready to swap to Axe/Torch sooner.
Enso: Be on staff at the beginning of every phase and use while Ensolyss is invulnerable.
Skorvald: Anomalies 2 and 4. In case your group gets too fast you might have to skip at the 2nd island. When using the 66% portal make sure to drop a on Skorvald before swapping to Axe/Torch.
Artsariiv: If your party deals the majority of its damage in the middle you want to empower at 66% and 33% shortly before she becomes vulnerable. If not, you may empower while she is jumping away and the team kills the Anomaly.
Arkk: Finish your orb first by camping in the light field and auto-attacking with the superior weapon (staff) so you can precast and .
Ai: On light Ai you will want to mid at the beginning of the fight and after each split phase. You should also swap to Staff during the split mechanic so you can cast as everyone returns to the middle. On Dark Ai this is mostly the same aside from the lack of split phases so keep an eye on Might and be ready to swap to Staff when needed. Remember with the amount of movement in this fight to be casting where possible to help keep everyone moving.
Tomes are very useful when no other skills are ready. also gets refreshed every time an enemy dies (works with anomalies at Skorvald/Artsariiv/Arkk, knights at MAMA, and hallucinations at Siax).
and are great for high incoming damage scenarios.
:
Use this Tome for emergency healing and cleansing.
heals in a cone in front of you.
heals and cleanses conditions.
gives some boons but will rarely be used.
places a healing field that can also be blasted for extra healing.
converts conditions into boons and grants allies an incoming healing modifier.
When running Virtues entering this Tome also cleanses conditions.
There is no set rotation in this Tome, use whatever skills you need for their utility and make sure to press Skill 5 as it is an incredibly strong skill.
Rotation
Example Opener
Staff/Axe - Torch "Rotation":
(Staff 3)
(Staff 2)
Weapon Swap
(Torch 4)
(Axe 2)
(F1)
(Axe 3) (x2)
Auto Attack Chain
(Axe 2)
Precasting
If you have a Mistlock Singularity present you can use these skills for precasts: