Tank FirebrandMay 2022

Tank Firebrand can be seen as a variant of Heal Firebrand which focuses more on self-sustain and tanking capabilities by swapping the Virtues traitline with Valor. Other than tanking the build can provide permanent Quickness, Swiftness, high uptime on Fury, and <25 stacks of Might to the party. It has access to lots of Stability and Aegis.

Build Fundamentals

Stand behind and face your allies when using your Mantra of Solace, Mantra of Potence, and Shield of Judgment as those skills affect targets in the cone where you are facing. All your Mantra skills are instant cast so you can use them during the casting of other skills like Empower or Shield of Absorption.

For Quickness use Mantra of Solace, Mantra of Potence and "Feel My Wrath!" . There is no need to spam your Mantra of Solace as it only applies Quickness once every 7 seconds.

To provide boons and healing to your party use Empower, Symbol of Faith, and Symbol of Swiftness together with Bow of Truth.

Staying alive

Staying alive and tanking encounters can be achieved through combining Aegis uptime with the self-sustain from the trait Altruistic Healing.

To ensure blocking relevant attacks with Aegis utilize your skills Shield of Judgment and "Advance!" first. Another option is to use Protector's Strike which can block an attack while providing Aegis and Protection to the party. Entering Tome of Courage gives access to Epilogue:Unbroken Lines, a powerful ability that can also provide Aegis  and Stability  to the party along with 300 Toughness for 5 seconds.

The trait Altruistic Healing will heal the player for a small amount every time a boon is given to an ally. While this may not seem like much, this trait is not subject to an internal cooldown and when the boon output is scaled to 5 players it quickly becomes a powerful way of self-sustaining. Always try to make sure you are in the range of your allies to be able to provide boons to them through symbols, mantras, and other skills such as Shield of Judgment and "Advance!".

Crowd Control

• Shield of Absorption
• Tome of JusticeChapter 3:Heated Rebuke
• Tome of CourageChapter 2:Daring Challenge with Taunt
• Line of Warding
• Hammer of Wisdom
• Sanctuary
• Bane Signet

Alternatives

Utility Skills

You can replace Bow of Truth with:

• "Stand Your Ground!" for squad-wide Stability.
• Hammer of Wisdom / Sanctuary / Bane Signet for more CC.
• Wall of Reflection for more projectile reflects.
• Signet of Mercy for a long-range single target revive.
• Merciful Intervention for long range shadowstep to an ally.