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Celestial Firebrand

Hybrid Build
  • June 3, 2023
  • 13.98 min to read
Overview
Up-to-date

updated for the 2/14/2023 patch

Template Code
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Boons
Role
  • Hybrid
Synergy high
DPS average
Independence high
Acquiring basicsaverage
Achieving masterydifficult
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.
The general idea of these builds is to leverage the Celestial stat combo (Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Ferocity,
Healing Power, Condition Damage, Concentration, Expertise) and the Seraph stat combo (Precision, Healing Power, Condition Damage and Concentration). This gives a high amount of Healing Power and Condition Damage. They then uses Runes, Sigils and Food to cap Burning duration allowing you to deal a good amount of damage.
There are Three variants shown below; a low AR Celestial variant, a high AR Celestial variant, and a Celestial Heal variant. The Celestial 150AR variant is the standard version with high boon duration and provides solid damage while being fairly forgiving with boon uptimes. It also has the advantage of working well in other content outside of fractals with minimal changes. The Celestial 222AR build is a more offensive build and offers the most damage. 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:
  • ,
    ,
    ,
    (using all charges) - 60.5%bd
  • ,
    ,
    ,
    (saving last charge) and
    - 69.8%bd
  • ,
    ,
    ,
    (using all charges) and
    - 32.5%bd
Equipment
This is the standard build with high boon duration which allows it to be played with lower Agony Resistance and has an easier time maintaining boons. This build also has the advantage of working in other content such as Raids and Strike Missions
Check the build section for some common gear variations. You can also use our gear optimizer for more variants!
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial
  • Celestial

Any item with the same stats may be used!

Firebrand
Heal
Utilities
Elite
Celestial
Celestial
Celestial
Celestial
Celestial
Celestial
 Food
Utility
Build
Traits
  • Radiance
  • Honor
  • Firebrand
Alternative Traits
Taken if the group is struggling with healing.
Taken if you are struggling to upkeep Quickness (particularly useful if you are playing
).
Defiance Bar Damage
SkillDamage
750 damage
150 damage
 in
150 damage
200 damage
250 damage (50/s)
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
Situational Skills
When Stability or a stunbreak is needed.
A stationary reflect lasting for 10 seconds.
A strong AoE heal for 5 seconds.
Provides Aegis to 5 targets.
Deals an additional 200 defiance bar damage. A very good replacement for
on Artsariiv and MAMA.
Can be used as a source of Vulnerability. If your group's Vulnerability uptime is low, taking this is a DPS increase.
When Stability or a stunbreak is needed. Only take this if you can upkeep Quickness and Fury without
.
Cleanses multiple conditions thanks to charges.
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 at least 69% Quickness duration to allow you to play
in Fractals (although the higher you can get your Concentration the easier time you will have to maintain boons)!
Details
Keeping up Quickness is a lot easier than with a Condi Firebrand thanks to the increased Boon Duration. Nevertheless, it has less room for errors compared to Heal Firebrand! General guidelines for keeping up Quickness:
  • Use
    whenever ready.
  • 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
  • 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
    !
To play
in Fractals you need to have at least 60% boon duration to upkeep Quickness. Both the Seraph and the Celestial builds have 40% from gear. meaning you will need to get the rest from agony resistance and consumables. If you cannot get enough boon duration to be safe just play with
!
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, you need at least 70% Boon Duration to play
.
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.
  • Common rotations in this Tome are 2-5-4-1-2 for maximum sustained healing or 5-4-2-1-1 for maximum burst healing.
:
  • Use this Tome for massive Stability, Resistance or a reflect.
  •  grants Stability.
  •  inflicts 1 second of Taunt on the enemy which is a 75/s soft CC.
  •  places a bubble that reflects incoming projectiles.
  •  places a field that pulses Resistance to allies. This will help dealing with non-damaging conditions such as Blinded and Slow.
  •  provides Protection, Aegis, Stability as well as extra Toughness.
  • 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.
  • You can camp in this Tome for a few extra seconds to get an extra cast on an important skill, for example, a 2nd reflect. However, only do this when needed as you will not have access to the boons and healing your weapon skills provide.
Rotation
Example Opener
Staff/Axe - Torch "Rotation":
  1.  (Staff 3)
  2.  (Staff 2)
  3. Weapon Swap
  4.  (Torch 4)
  5.  (Axe 2)
  6.  (F1)
  7.
  10. (Axe 3) (x2)
  11. Auto Attack Chain
  12.  (Axe 2)
Precasting
If you have a Mistlock Singularity present you can use these skills for precasts:
  1. Cast
    skill 4 and 5
  2. Blast the fire field by casting
  3. Use
    3 times and
    once due to the cooldown of
  4. Use
    as you are sharing Quickness.
  5. Use
  6. Take Mistlock Singularity
  7. Use
Example Rotation by Saturn
The build used here is a variation of the Celestial Heal 150AR build, and shows the axe rotation for dps.
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