Condition Firebrand

August 2022

Condition Firebrand can provide solid DPS and a lot of group support by sharing Aegis, Stability and Epilogue:Eternal Oasis in Tome of Resolve. Rotation of the build is based on simple principles and loops well. The build has access to a lot of utility that can help you and your allies survive. The solid DPS output of the build combined with this fact makes Condition Firebrand a very common pick favored by many players.

Optimized variant of this build is built around Rune of Balthazar and will provide the highest DPS possible utilising both Viper and Sinister gear.

Universal variant uses Rune of the Renegade to use Viper gear sacrificing a small amount of DPS. The upside here is the ease of switching to other guardian builds like Condition Willbender (Universal) or Condition Quickness Firebrand.

Low intensity variant shares the same gear as universal variant and focuses on creating a more passive/slow rotation sacrificing considerable amounts of DPS. This is achieved mainly by swapping Loremaster with Stoic Demeanor which turns Sanctuary into a powerful DPS skill. Entering Tome of Justice is no longer a part of the rotation since one would lose the virtue passive effect. This results in a significantly easier rotation to follow.

Build Fundamentals

The cooldown on your Tome of Justice can get reduced by killing enemies due to Renewed Justice, if this happens you need to adjust your rotation accordingly. Try to place Symbol of Vengeance or Symbol of Punishment before entering Tome of Justice again.

All your mantras have no cast time so you can use them while casting other skills without interrupting them.

Important Notes

Use Mantra of Flame off cooldown.

Finishing your auto-attack chains is very important as Searing Slash deals very high damage compared to previous parts of the chain.

The trait Radiant Fire will proc every once in a while giving you the opportunity to use another proc of Zealot's Fire. Try to make sure you don’t waste this proc – by going into Tome of Justice as it procs as an example.

Another important tip on this matter is to try to never do the following sequence: Zealot's Fire (proc from Radiant Fire) Zealot's Flame Zealot's Fire. This skill sequence is not optimal as it will include an aftercast which will delay your rotation. To circumvent this problem, try to activate Zealot's Flame before the proc from Radiant Fire which when timed well will lead to the sequence Zealot's Fire Zealot's Fire without aftercasts. If this timing isn’t available, try to use another skill after Zealot's Fire (proc from Radiant Fire) before finishing the sequence with Zealot's Flame Zealot's Fire.

You can use Renewed Focus for 3-second invulnerability and reset all your tomes if you finish the cast. It can be used to enter Tome of Justice an additional time during the encounter or precast Epilogue:Ashes of the Just before starting encounters such as Dhuum or Xera. Renewed Focus will not reset the cooldown of the tome you currently have open so make sure to close it before or during the cast of Renewed Focus.

Note: If you know the encounter well, you can also time the use of Renewed Focus to ignore some mechanics and increase your dps uptime.

Group support

Just because you are a DPS player, it doesn’t mean you should ignore your F2 and F3 tomes, especially since they will grant you access to multiple valuable utilities. You can help your group tremendously in some dangerous situations.

For example, using Epilogue:Eternal Oasis in Tome of Resolve will increase your party’s incoming healing by 33% and will convert conditions to boons, use it to counter high damage pressure, and cleanse conditions on your party members if necessary. You can follow with Chapter 2:Igniting Burst while in this time for even more condition cleansing.

Use Tome of Courage for Stability and damage reduction but be aware of using Epilogue:Unbroken Lines if the tank is in another subgroup and is using low toughness as you increase the Toughness of your party. Epilogue:Unbroken Lines will grant Stability, Aegis, Protection, making it the strongest skill in this tome, but you can provide additional Stability with Chapter 1:Unflinching Charge and if needed, reflects with Chapter 3:Valiant Bulwark.

Crowd Control

• Blazing Edge
• Tome of Justice Chapter 3:Heated Rebuke
• Tome of Courage Chapter 2:Daring Challenge with Taunt
• Chains of Light with Immobilize

Alternatives

Utility Skills

You can replace Signet of Wrath or Mantra of Flame with:

• "Stand Your Ground!" for squad-wide Stability.
• Hammer of Wisdom / Sanctuary for extra CC.
• "Advance!" for Swiftness and more Aegis.
• Wall of Reflection for more projectile reflects.

You can replace Renewed Focus with "Feel My Wrath!" if your party lacks Quickness or Fury.

Traits

You can replace Archivist of Whispers for Liberator's Vow if your party needs more Quickness but you will need to follow same rotation as Condition Quickness Firebrand “5 page” as you will only have 5 pages in your tomes instead of 8.

If your party has very low Alacrity uptime or Renewed Justice resets the cooldown of your Tome of Justice often, you can swap Archivist of Whispers for Unrelenting Criticism. If you decide to use Unrelenting Criticism, you need to follow “5-page” rotation as well.