Guild Wars 2

I’ve only played AC at the moment, and I’ve done fairly well, but I was wondering if theres anything I could improve.

I play a warrior, Greatsword and Hammer, however longbow if ranged is needed, and I always carry a sword, sheild and axe with me. (I use Sword/Axe for condi when needed)

On my bar its Healing signet, Shake it off, For great justice, Bulls charge and Signet of Rage.

Traits: 4/0/4/2/4

And my armor/weapons are all zerker and I’m working on my rings andtrinkets, but my amulet is, Gwen’s Necklace, I needed the extra toughness, but I’m getting another once I get the laurals to swap out when I don’t.

Is there something I could be doing better?

different people play different. imo my suggestion will be

1, run banners. banner check with group if more than 1 warrior. either banner of disc or str.

2, run gs and axe main sword offhand for the extra damage you can deal from traits. (longbow usually used for mightblast with warhorn 5, banner on firefield, banner 5, lb 3)

3, use on my mark, fgj to boost group damage output.

generally hammer is a nono due to the fact the extra skills it provide knocks mobs away from fields, like blind etc. or say if you are fighting a boss behind wall of reflection, you might knock it to the other end of the wall defeating purpose of having a wall of reflection in the first place. but generally its a pretty good weapon to remove defiance stacks.

if you are going in a pug group, might as well do 6 5 0 0 3. more damage, faster kill, less to worry about. you can manage yourself better when the mob is dead instead of letting it hit you constantly because you have lesser damage but more toughness. best defence is always do drop them down first and of course play smart.

www.gw2dungeons.net and youtube helps a lot with encounters
As for builds, watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ll2dXedsxw

If you have any question, go on.

Don’t use hammer. It’s not very high damage, and using the knock-backs is very situational (if you know how to use it to bunch up enemies, good— if you’re using it off cooldown and it throws enemies out of stacks, that’s bad).

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83915-axemace-dps-build-for-dungeons-and-fractals-041514/

At the moment Phalanx Strength with Empowered Allies is pretty good if you happen to be the only warrior. Gives ton of group DPS as well as way more HP than necessary so it’s rather beginner friendly. Optional is having Sigil of Strength in a Greatsword. You’ll be rolling in 25 stacks of might consistently.

0/6/0/6/2 is the build for it or some variation of it. Basically you just camp with the Greatsword and run with 1 or 2 banners and a break stun utility (usually shake it off). Run full zerk gears and you’d still end up with like what, 25kHP? You may have a ranged weapon as swap or just use sword/warhorn for faster running.

i’d honestly just take 30/25/0/0/15 or 30/30/0/0/10 in pugs, it’s better to maximise your own dps than boost the dps of bad pugs

I like to run 4/4/0/6/0 with all the GS traits, Phalanx Strength, and Empower Allies. Bring Banner of Strength and Discipline. Camp greatsword. The reduced cooldown for greatsword trait makes hundred blades and whirlwind attack have very nice, short cooldowns. You also have no incentive to keep your adrenaline up, so you can have 100% personal fury uptime with this setup. You also get the most dodges with this build, since you have a lower cooldown on whirlwind attack and get some endurance back when you use Arcing Slash. Arcing Slash isn’t good damage, and only hits one target, so don’t use it on cooldown, just use it if you’re out of fury or if you need more endurance.

If in a party that can cap might without Phalanx Strength, go for 6/4/0/4/0 for the extra 15% damage at full adrenaline trait. You can also do 4/6/0/4/0 if you’d prefer to camp axe instead of greatsword.

If there’s already another warrior with Empower Allies, go 6/6/0/2/0. Coordinate your banners so you can pack another utility. Switch the GS traits for axe traits and pack an axe/whatever instead.

The first build is the default. It is the lowest personal damage, but more than makes up for the loss by intensely increasing the damage of your party. The rest of your party has to be within range of Phalanx Strength for it to actually matter though, so if, for whatever reason, you’re in a party where everyone else is at 1200 range, you can go to the next trait build.

Battle Standard is pretty much the best elite ever. Signet of Rage is essentially a selfish Battle Standard without the added revival utility. Use Signet of Rage when you’re out soloing stuff.

Thanks! ALl of this was really helpful I’m going to switch my traits and stuff and try out dungeons with this

maha.7902:

i’d honestly just take 30/25/0/0/15 or 30/30/0/0/10 in pugs, it’s better to maximise your own dps than boost the dps of bad pugs

I second this.

I wouldn’t even consider using phalanx strength personally, especially in a pug team where you have no idea if the other people are going to react to mobs/bosses and/or make proper use of their class skills… too wasteful.

Unpopular opinion here, but I wouldn’t run anything other than PS in PUGs. From my experience, it’s worth to bring it most of the time. For the most part, their DPS is not really good, however I prefer having reasonable kill times. And especially IF the guardian/mesmer cannot use reflects, killing stuff faster becomes more important. I like being useful to my puggies. It’s part of MY contribution to the run.

Or the pugs eat the floor and you’re stuck without 28% of damage modifiers.

I rarely see everyone dying (except for Mai Trin), not even at scale 50 Mossman or Archie. To be honest, it’s easy enough to not wipe in a 5man group with 4 people being able to res you all the time – even for pugs. And as long as I am standing, I can get everyone else up using Warbanner as my last resort.

No Pulse.2967:

Unpopular opinion here, but I wouldn’t run anything other than PS in PUGs. From my experience, it’s worth to bring it most of the time. For the most part, their DPS is not really good, however I prefer having reasonable kill times. And especially IF the guardian/mesmer cannot use reflects, killing stuff faster becomes more important. I like being useful to my puggies. It’s part of MY contribution to the run.

I agree. I switched from solo to PS build during boss blitz (where play-how-you-want and uplevels abound) and 5% health timing went from 4 to 2 minutes. I was astonished.

neosymmetrical.1296:

I’ve only played AC at the moment, and I’ve done fairly well, but I was wondering if theres anything I could improve.

I play a warrior, Greatsword and Hammer, however longbow if ranged is needed, and I always carry a sword, sheild and axe with me. (I use Sword/Axe for condi when needed)

On my bar its Healing signet, Shake it off, For great justice, Bulls charge and Signet of Rage.

Traits: 4/0/4/2/4

And my armor/weapons are all zerker and I’m working on my rings andtrinkets, but my amulet is, Gwen’s Necklace, I needed the extra toughness, but I’m getting another once I get the laurals to swap out when I don’t.

Is there something I could be doing better?

IMO, the best possible thing that you could be doing is what you’re doing now: Asking for help. Learn from Purple Miku, Colsey/Maha/Hendo/Dub, Leo (No Pulse/noobgood), spoj, and all the other amazing dungeon runners on here. Listen to what they say, they’ve proven what they’re talking about both mathematically and practically. If they say to change something, change it. Open your ears and eyes and try to get better every day. Abandon your ranged weapons outside of very specific circumstances. Melee everything. Become a student of [noob]. Get a mentor. Practice, Practice, Practice. Enjoy the practicing as a process to getting better. If you die/fail, stop and think “Why/how did I fail?” Answer your question yourself after thinking, or ask your party, or the forum regulars. Try not to make the same mistake twice.

You won’t be Dub, Goku, Purple Miku or anyone else like that over night. It takes time and practice. Be humble. Admit your mistakes and don’t accuse others of messing up. If you died, most of the time it’s YOUR fault.

Get better

Good luck and welcome to the trashcan…. ermmm……. I mean the dungeon subforum

Lucas.9157:

No Pulse.2967:

Unpopular opinion here, but I wouldn’t run anything other than PS in PUGs. From my experience, it’s worth to bring it most of the time. For the most part, their DPS is not really good, however I prefer having reasonable kill times. And especially IF the guardian/mesmer cannot use reflects, killing stuff faster becomes more important. I like being useful to my puggies. It’s part of MY contribution to the run.

I agree. I switched from solo to PS build during boss blitz (where play-how-you-want and uplevels abound) and 5% health timing went from 4 to 2 minutes. I was astonished.

People tend to not understand the effect of going from ~3 might stacks to ~20 might stacks on 4 other people. It doesn’t matter if they’re wearing clerics, that’s over 2800 extra power you’re adding to the party if you can proc PS that much. Add in EA and a strength banner, and that becomes another 1650 power. Add in banner of discipline and their crits are hitting 12% harder, and happening about 9% more frequently. With the extra 1000 power you’re giving everyone, you probably just increased your party’s dps by ~50% (assuming they have about 2000 power, and that estimate is lowballing it). No other class can turn a bunch of low dps players into some respectable dps quite like a PS warrior.

IvanTheGrey.2941:

neosymmetrical.1296:

I’ve only played AC at the moment, and I’ve done fairly well, but I was wondering if theres anything I could improve.

I play a warrior, Greatsword and Hammer, however longbow if ranged is needed, and I always carry a sword, sheild and axe with me. (I use Sword/Axe for condi when needed)

On my bar its Healing signet, Shake it off, For great justice, Bulls charge and Signet of Rage.

Traits: 4/0/4/2/4

And my armor/weapons are all zerker and I’m working on my rings andtrinkets, but my amulet is, Gwen’s Necklace, I needed the extra toughness, but I’m getting another once I get the laurals to swap out when I don’t.

Is there something I could be doing better?

IMO, the best possible thing that you could be doing is what you’re doing now: Asking for help. Learn from Purple Miku, Colsey/Maha/Hendo/Dub, Leo (No Pulse/noobgood), spoj, and all the other amazing dungeon runners on here. Listen to what they say, they’ve proven what they’re talking about both mathematically and practically. If they say to change something, change it. Open your ears and eyes and try to get better every day. Abandon your ranged weapons outside of very specific circumstances. Melee everything. Become a student of [noob]. Get a mentor. Practice, Practice, Practice. Enjoy the practicing as a process to getting better. If you die/fail, stop and think “Why/how did I fail?” Answer your question yourself after thinking, or ask your party, or the forum regulars. Try not to make the same mistake twice.

You won’t be Dub, Goku, Purple Miku or anyone else like that over night. It takes time and practice. Be humble. Admit your mistakes and don’t accuse others of messing up. If you died, most of the time it’s YOUR fault.

Get better

Good luck and welcome to the trashcan…. ermmm……. I mean the dungeon subforum

I agree with this man. The best way to learn generally in games is by asking and being open to everyone’s advice. I’ve found that even sometimes the rude people you might encounter in mmos might have a thing or two you can learn from them.

1) My bets advice is to figure out what you want from your character first. Keep in mind what kind of strategy you want to lay, and what the goal of that strategy is. Are you like my Mesmer who resists attacks with a barrage of toughness, returning fire with hgh precision crits? Or are you more a man of damage soaking in mind who presents high bits of vitality to keep himself alive. If you choose to keep your current Berserker ideas, go for it, if you want to run something different, use that to. don’t be afraid to experiment despite the garbage I got. A big part of this level of gaming is the fun of working out all kinds of various strategies and how they all work just as well.

2) Once you have a goal, keep in mind how to reahc that goal, If resisting strong attacks is your game, then you need toughness to increase the strength of the hits you can take. If you want recovery from near death, you might want to pick up healing power, if you want sheer DPS, power is your call. Once you have your stat priorities, learn each weapon and which one works best for that output. I.E no Mesmer in his right mind would pass up using a staff for condition effects.

3) The most important part is communication. Always try to talk with your team and work things out. There were jokes here for example of people refusing to speak at all when asked questions or having strategy worked out. You want to talk. Sure, you wont always agree, I’ve told people I won’t slot specific skills, and that we will have to work something else out(some rare exceptions apply) I find the single greatest part of any dungeon is working together with all kinds of builds to figure out how to win.

4) Strategy, never go into a dungeon expected to play the exact same way every time, unless you are calling for an extremely specific strategy for your party, be willing to lose and work with eveyrone’s skill to problem solve whatever may be ahead. Take your time and enjoy learning as much as playing.

Forgive me if my advice is general but thats how me and all my friends(heck anyone I talk to) seem to agree on. good luck my friend!

top kek

maha.7902:

i’d honestly just take 30/25/0/0/15 or 30/30/0/0/10 in pugs, it’s better to maximise your own dps than boost the dps of bad pugs

I disagree. In pugs, fights go much quicker with my phalanx than with my dps warrior.

Considering might stacks gives flat power instead of a % modifier, theoretically if they’re non-zerk they would get a bigger % of damage. So I’d assume this would definitely be better for casual pugs.

Fror.2163:

maha.7902:

i’d honestly just take 30/25/0/0/15 or 30/30/0/0/10 in pugs, it’s better to maximise your own dps than boost the dps of bad pugs

I disagree. In pugs, fights go much quicker with my phalanx than with my dps warrior.

I pug arah where people are either out of range of PS and/or dying all of the place.

Plus I hate playing support builds and don’t think unproven players deserve me going the EA/PS banner female-dog role since I don’t know if they can pull their weight or not.

maha.7902:

Fror.2163:

maha.7902:

i’d honestly just take 30/25/0/0/15 or 30/30/0/0/10 in pugs, it’s better to maximise your own dps than boost the dps of bad pugs

I disagree. In pugs, fights go much quicker with my phalanx than with my dps warrior.

I pug arah where people are either out of range of PS and/or dying all of the place.

Plus I hate playing support builds and don’t think unproven players deserve me going the EA/PS banner female-dog role since I don’t know if they can pull their weight or not.

I don’t do Arah as much as I’d like to so I cannot speak for that dungeon. But for all of the others including fractals, I don’t see any reason to take anything else than Phalanx. When you ask for “zerker” or “meta”, most pugs stack so Phalanx is a good option. Maybe I cannot notice the difference between pure dps and phalanx when I solo, but I can definitely tell the difference between the two when I pug, I’d go Phalanx any time.

i’m selfish, play for my own entertainment, and my entertainment is maximising my own damage. idgaf about the rest of my party unless it’s a guild group or people I know – hell I only do banner b_____ in the rare times I run in guild because it’s just out of respect for the efficiency of the group.

i dunno. I feel like its probably ideal for easy content (so basically everything besides arah or pug fractals if they’re ranging), but if i’m doing things where i don’t have any faith in them surviving, then hell no am I running it.

Yep, but you can solo each and every single boss. I can’t. I need to rely on my partner, and I need to make them better even against their will if I don’t want a run to last too long.

Tachii.3506:

Considering might stacks gives flat power instead of a % modifier, theoretically if they’re non-zerk they would get a bigger % of damage. So I’d assume this would definitely be better for casual pugs.

Problem with % -damage is that it’s not directly comparable. If you do 10 DPS and pugs 1 DPS each it’s better to give yourself 10% boost than 20% boost to every one of them.

Damage gained from Power depends on “critical multiplier” (number based on Precision and Ferocity). Tank pugs have low multipliers which means less actual damage per Power.

These are all great builds and strategies, but I feel they lack one major element. If you are looking to be better in dungeons, dont run PUGs. Get guildmates, or find a regular group you can run with to do dungeons and take your time in learning the boss mechanics. Learn why you stack where you stack and not someplace else. What the boss tells are you so know when to dodge, etc. You could have the best build in the game, with the best gear and know that build inside and out, but if you are in a bad PUG with a bunch of leeroy jenkins’ or those not knowing what they are doing you’ll have a hard time regardless.

This thread is all wrong. There is one thing you need to know to be good at dungeons. Trust me, I’m a professional:

Spam 1.
You’re welcome.

Aphrodesiac.2913:

Trust me, I’m a professional russian

And as always, have a nice day.

Lucas.9157:

Aphrodesiac.2913:

Trust me, I’m a professional russian

And as always, have a nice day.

For teh moder Russia!

maha.7902:

i’m selfish, play for my own entertainment, and my entertainment is maximising my own damage. idgaf about the rest of my party unless it’s a guild group or people I know – hell I only do banner b_____ in the rare times I run in guild because it’s just out of respect for the efficiency of the group.

i dunno. I feel like its probably ideal for easy content (so basically everything besides arah or pug fractals if they’re ranging), but if i’m doing things where i don’t have any faith in them surviving, then hell no am I running it.

This is why on guardian I go bane signet sys and retreat with 5/5/0/2/2. When they yell “guard y u no reflect?!” I’m all like “sry dps loss”.

Aphrodesiac.2913:

This thread is all wrong. There is one thing you need to know to be good at dungeons. Trust me, I’m a professional:

Spam 1.
You’re welcome.

This guy is a moron, don’t listen to him.

Spam 2 instead.

<3

I also prefer PS warrior for a pug. The problem is, without Rune of Strength, PS warrior is not that good and I CAN’T wrap my head around buying those rune for my Warrior. When i bring it with my guild I run Scholar since i’m not the might source (from Elementalist). So i end up playing 30/25/0/0/15 instead for pugs.

Thaddeus.4891:

I also prefer PS warrior for a pug. The problem is, without Rune of Strength, PS warrior is not that good and I CAN’T wrap my head around buying those rune for my Warrior. When i bring it with my guild I run Scholar since i’m not the might source (from Elementalist). So i end up playing 30/25/0/0/15 instead for pugs.

Sigil of Strength and boon duration food should be enough.

dlonie.6547:

Aphrodesiac.2913:

This thread is all wrong. There is one thing you need to know to be good at dungeons. Trust me, I’m a professional:

Spam 1.
You’re welcome.

This guy is a moron, don’t listen to him.

Spam 2 instead.

<3

U wut m8?

Spamming 2 is better at dungeon than 1-spam because 2 is a bigger number. Bigger nummer is moar deeps.

In other words, just ignore me. I’m being a smart kitten .

thief spamming 2 with D/D, HIGH DEEPS.
Not everyone should spam 2 at the start, after a while… yeah

No Pulse.2967:

Thaddeus.4891:

I also prefer PS warrior for a pug. The problem is, without Rune of Strength, PS warrior is not that good and I CAN’T wrap my head around buying those rune for my Warrior. When i bring it with my guild I run Scholar since i’m not the might source (from Elementalist). So i end up playing 30/25/0/0/15 instead for pugs.

Sigil of Strength and boon duration food should be enough.

Not enough to keep 25 stacks of might. If I can’t get big numbers of might i want big numbers of damage That’s the only way I enjoy the warrior in dungeon right now (I prefer to play my guardian or my Elementalist anyway).