Why aren't radiant dps builds more popular in spvp?

[brannigan.9831]

If you play guardian and dont want to bunker it seems like to me it should be the build of choice but I think DH is probably still more popular. Not sure why really the damage is really really high and there is a surprising amount of sustain with medi spamming for heals and condition cleanse if you use GS instead of hammer then you can freely spam f2 and cleanse a lot of conditions becuse you dont have to take glacial heart and can take absolute resolution. Its fun to double hit people with smite condition and lesser smite condition simultaneously for 4k each sometimes and shield of wrath for close 7k and people are always complaining to me in game about how hard I am hitting them. Its fun to crit on close to every attack and have huge crits because of probably the highest ferocity in the game possible.

[mes.4607]

radiant guardian does deal a lot of damage, but they can easily get trained down if their opponents know what they're doing. medi trapper is harder to focus down because of F2 leap and F3 block. It also has access to cripple, which helps them kite even more. medi trapper can range a lot better too

[Rennie.6750]

It works but the issue is that it's localised damage with a ton of conditional (as in "does more dmg when condition x is met, not condition damage) elements that makes it rather easy to avoid.

[otto.5684]

I use radiant guardian radiance/meditation/virtues with sword/shield and scepter/focus and sometimes GS.

 

Compared to Medi/trapper:

 

Pros:

* Better bruiser.

* Stronger solo.

* Probably better condi clear (depends on utilities though).

* No hard counters. Can be effective in almost all scenarios and against all opponents.

 

Cons:

* More reliant on boons.

* Limited CC options.

* Slow. Really slow. I can almost never catch-up with anyone who avoids me. It is not DH strongest suit either, but LB and SoJ allows you to chase opponents much better.

* Easy to down by focus fire.

* Must use Lynx or Speed rune. Medi/trapper also use Lynx, but has much better flexibility if you have support.

* Due to combination of most of the above cons, opponents usually will have better tools to control the battle. Does not necessarily determine the outcome, but can be a problem against highly skilled opponents, where they can avoid you or keep resetting the battle until it goes their way.

 

I would say medi/trapper with support is better. Radiant guardian is better queing solo, since you can deal with what ever gets thrown at you and less reliant on support.