Guild Wars 2

i’ve lost count of the number of times i’ve seen 5 signet warriors in pug dungeon runs who faceplant every fight, either against trash mobs, or bosses. and when asked to link their gear, it’s always full zerkers.

if warrior players stopped sacrificing ALL their team utility for the sake of a larger cyber member, and started using more team oriented skills and utility stuff like swiftness/condition removal/stun breaks/stability, warriors would be more than viable. as it stands however, most warrior players are more concerned with their nice big numbers on the hero screen than actually being useful in fights.

every time i see a warrior in a pug dungeon run, i cringe a little inside, because i expect them to be useless. most of the time, they prove me right.

it doesn’t help that whenever new players ask what class they should play, people tell them to play a warrior.

it helps less when they ask how they should gear their warrior up, and everyone responds with ‘get full zerkers cos you know, damaj k?’.

and for best weapon? greatsword. cos 100b for you know, damaj k?

it helps even less when for some reason, as a main, the warrior class attracts the most number of players who are unwilling or unable to do anything more than toddle up to enemies and auto-attack.

what this means is that more than half the time, you get a glass cannon warrior with no range weapon switch whose only strategy is to walk up to things and hit them until either they die, or he dies.

it’s like a nut kicking contest. i’ll kick your nuts, and you’ll kick mine, and the guy who cannot get up loses. unfortunately, in areas like arah, mobs tend to have bigger nuts than you. and they also kick very hard.

this strategy is completely counter intuitive, but somehow still extremely prevalent.

what boggles my mind even further is why so many people still insist that glass cannon/5 signets is a viable build in dungeons because you can just ‘l2dodge’.

what bull.

you have only 2 dodge bars. sooner or later, (and trust me, it’s always sooner when it comes to zerker/signet warriors), you’re going to be out of dodges. and then you’ll be on the ground spamming ‘4’ because you can’t take more than 2 hits. and i’m not even talking about big telegraphed hits like kohler’s vacuum move. i’m talking about hits like lupicus’s untelegraphed normal projectile attack. or the spider mobs’ paralysis in ta.

my guild mate told me a once while we were pug running a dungeon with a signet warrior: ‘the sky is blue. ricky martin is gay, and the warrior is on the ground’.

inescapable facts of life.

it stopped being funny after the warrior went down for the 8th time (yes, i counted. he died twice to locusts in phase 1) in one single lupicus fight. he proceeded to die 2 more times in the final boss fight even though he wasn’t kiting.

what is especially strange is when one realizes that warriors have a skill called ‘shake it off’. it is honestly, one of the best, if not the best skill in the game. traited 20 sec condition removal/stun breaker shout? which removes 2 conditions with soldier runes? yes, please.

crippled? shake it off. got knocked down? shake it off. poisoned? shake it off. have girlfriend problems? shake it off. i mean, really, can you say no?

apparently many warriors can.

then come to the forums and whine that the warrior class is terrible.

what is this, i don’t even-

/rant

I like hearing FOR GREAT JUSTICE EVERY 25 seconds…NOT. That’s one of the reasons I use signets, but not all 5 signets kinda dumb wasting utilities for passive stat boosts for reasons you mentioned. I use longbow/axeaxe

5 signet warriors are the W/Mo of GW2.

I run a shouts warrior with full soldier runes, and berserker armor, plus a nice mix of trinkets to add some power and more toughness.

When I run dungeons, the different is very noticable. I don’t do that much less damage than a glass cannon, and I survive a lot more.

No healing shouts, though. Just condition removal from the rune bonus.

Most of my items are zerker, a few toughness/vitality. I run 4 signets+great justice. I don’t have much problems with dying constantly. Although it does happen when dodge fails (50%) and I get 1 shot by the boss.

I’ve tried other builds, but the cooldowns on condition removers are way to long for me to give up a passive signet. Especially when the mobs spam those conditions (including stun, knockdown, etc..). When i did use the other skills this is how the fights went.
Stun: use break
knockback —> SOL
start getting up, get hit with a daze
…
Get some bleeds and a poison on you
Shake it off (by the way the signet removes ALL conditions so it’s better anyway)
.0005 secs later get another stack of bleeds on you, and probably knocked down again just for giggles)

It’s just not worth it.

With Dodge and most other movement abilities (charges, jump backs, etc..) being broken and not firing off, or leaving you standing in the same spot after, none of that other crap matters anyway.
Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

Anet just needs to fix their dam game before there’s no one left to optimize the builds anyway.

Zerker gear is great for both pve and pvp. The issue is the “Signet Warrior”.

That kind of build promotes the “faceplant” behavior you are talking about. yes, those type of warriors are usually ineffective in most cases i’ve seen.

I run zerker with sword/shield and hammer and i provide outstanding support for my group in many situations.

It’s not the gear, its just the Signet warrior mentality

Varonth.5830:

5 signet warriors are the W/Mo of GW2.

W/Mo got nothing on W/E hamstorm bro

kendokken.3257:

Most of my items are zerker, a few toughness/vitality. I run 4 signets+great justice. I don’t have much problems with dying constantly. Although it does happen when dodge fails (50%) and I get 1 shot by the boss.

I’ve tried other builds, but the cooldowns on condition removers are way to long for me to give up a passive signet. Especially when the mobs spam those conditions (including stun, knockdown, etc..). When i did use the other skills this is how the fights went.
Stun: use break
knockback —> SOL
start getting up, get hit with a daze
…
Get some bleeds and a poison on you
Shake it off (by the way the signet removes ALL conditions so it’s better anyway)
.0005 secs later get another stack of bleeds on you, and probably knocked down again just for giggles)

It’s just not worth it.

With Dodge and most other movement abilities (charges, jump backs, etc..) being broken and not firing off, or leaving you standing in the same spot after, none of that other crap matters anyway.
Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

Anet just needs to fix their dam game before there’s no one left to optimize the builds anyway.

Signet can not be used as a stun breaker therefor your argument for it is failing considering you mention knock down a lot which the signet does not help you with. The signet removes all conditions once every 40secs. Shake it off removes 1 condition and 1 stun breaker every 20secs. So by your arguement about daze and knockdown “shake it off” is the better option. I run Signet of Regen, banner of tactics (full traited), “Shake it Off”, “For Great Justice”, and Signet of Rage. My armour is Power/Toughness/Vit, with my accessories being Healing/Power/Toughness.

I battle in WvW on the side of Stormbluff and i am one tough warrior. I am one of the warriors that charge into large groups of enemies and able to live through it. I use a Sword/Shield, Axe/Shield, Hammer, and rifle (I switch out the sword, axe, Hammer based on the situation i am going to be facing).

LOL @ way point zerging. I don’t know of a boss that requires this. Don’t stand in front of mobs. I haven’t been in many pugs that did the wp zerg.

Those howlers in AC… they take a breath before they do their knock down scream. i never had issues with dodge.

Yes I play warrior.

Yes, and 5 sig greatsword warriors (without weapon swap) will go with it all the way to end game and then complain about lack of content and boring combat. But then give them super grindy gear with 8% more stats to work towards and they are then happy to spam ‘1’ and ‘2’ for a few hundred more hours… No wonder the MMO industry is in the state that it is in.

I only did 2 dungeon. I fail to see how it’s the problem with the signet build and gear.

I’m using knight gear, shout healing with soldier rune for condition removal. I still faceplant.

The only time I dont’ faceplant is I switch to range weapon and have it easy like other range class.

kendokken.3257:

waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later

With good team synergy you don’t have to waypoint zerg.

My thought is that five people focused on doing their own thing – for topic’s sake, let’s say five zerker/signet warriors – will have a harder time getting through a dungeon than five people who each bring something to share with the others. Like a guardian that shares protection, or an ele that spams buffs on attunement swap, or warriors that use shouts/banners.

This is not to say that 5 signets is valueless. I think it has its right place and time, I just think that in a group setting, the power of your group buffing abilities is more powerful (even with the cooldowns) than signets which are more powerful when in a solo situation.

kendokken.3257:

Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

I think you are proving the OP’s point. That is just how a party of glass cannon warriors fight bosses. People that know better will be done in 5.

Suddenflame.2601:

kendokken.3257:

Most of my items are zerker, a few toughness/vitality. I run 4 signets+great justice. I don’t have much problems with dying constantly. Although it does happen when dodge fails (50%) and I get 1 shot by the boss.

I’ve tried other builds, but the cooldowns on condition removers are way to long for me to give up a passive signet. Especially when the mobs spam those conditions (including stun, knockdown, etc..). When i did use the other skills this is how the fights went.
Stun: use break
knockback —> SOL
start getting up, get hit with a daze
…
Get some bleeds and a poison on you
Shake it off (by the way the signet removes ALL conditions so it’s better anyway)
.0005 secs later get another stack of bleeds on you, and probably knocked down again just for giggles)

It’s just not worth it.

With Dodge and most other movement abilities (charges, jump backs, etc..) being broken and not firing off, or leaving you standing in the same spot after, none of that other crap matters anyway.
Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

Anet just needs to fix their dam game before there’s no one left to optimize the builds anyway.

Signet can not be used as a stun breaker therefor your argument for it is failing considering you mention knock down a lot which the signet does not help you with. The signet removes all conditions once every 40secs. Shake it off removes 1 condition and 1 stun breaker every 20secs. So by your arguement about daze and knockdown “shake it off” is the better option. I run Signet of Regen, banner of tactics (full traited), “Shake it Off”, “For Great Justice”, and Signet of Rage. My armour is Power/Toughness/Vit, with my accessories being Healing/Power/Toughness.

I battle in WvW on the side of Stormbluff and i am one tough warrior. I am one of the warriors that charge into large groups of enemies and able to live through it. I use a Sword/Shield, Axe/Shield, Hammer, and rifle (I switch out the sword, axe, Hammer based on the situation i am going to be facing).

My point was I QUIT using Shake it off and went back to the signet because the cooldown took longer than the stun/CC spam. So I’f i’m going to get CC’d constantly anyway (mostly because dodge is broke) I might as well remove all OTHER conditions instead of just 1 at a time.

Personally I can’t stand CC in games. Removing control of your character adds nothing to the game and only frustrates players.
I can’t believe some idiot dev actually put it on EVERY single mob in this game and topped it off by letting the mobs spam it. Actually I can belive some idiot dev had that idea, but I can’t believe it got approved to be added as ‘gameplay’.

laokoko.7403:

I only did 2 dungeon. I fail to see how it’s the problem with the signet build and gear.

I’m using knight gear, shout healing with soldier rune for condition removal. I still faceplant.

The only time I dont’ faceplant is I switch to range weapon and have it easy like other range class.

Support requires a bit of a team effort. If everyone else is just doing DPS and they leave you to “tank” then yeah you’ll be running or lying face down in the dirt.

Fortuna.7259:

kendokken.3257:

Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

I think you are proving the OP’s point. That is just how a party of glass cannon warriors fight bosses. People that know better will be done in 5.

No his point was about warriors face planting constantly. I rarely do. But in PUGs I see a constant stream of Thiefs, mesmers, warlocks, eles, etc.. running back from the waypoints 3-4 times per boss beacuase they can’t take even 1 hit from the ridiculous bosses. 20k+ damage and 2 million+ HP is just a kitten way to design Boss “fights”.

I’d rather have reasonably tuff bosses that require some tactics and thought, but if you failed you were done for the day, than the completely laughable ‘content’ these are.
In most MMOs I love running dungeons and do even the older ones just for fun. In this game I’ll run exactly the ones i need for the armor skins I want and never set foot in them again. There is simply nothing remotely challenging or fun about them.

5 signets build is a leveling build that suppose to have little effect on level 80 due to the crit reduction and lack of real utilities, its not even a very effective build in WVW or PVP, and full berzerker is wvw glass cannon build, i see no reason why people put them together and go into dungeon where they need lots of survival.

i run a full berzerker with FGJ +fear+endurance regen signet+SOR, glass cannon traits in wvw. but in dungeon, i swap to power/toughness/vitality+soldier rune+tanky trait healing shout, with 3 shouts in skill sets and reviving banner elite, whopping a hammer, steady as a rock.

I call them Rockstars since their weapons of choice are usually stones.

kendokken.3257:

My point was I QUIT using Shake it off and went back to the signet because the cooldown took longer than the stun/CC spam. So I’f i’m going to get CC’d constantly anyway (mostly because dodge is broke) I might as well remove all OTHER conditions instead of just 1 at a time.

Why not use both Shake It Off and Signet of Stamina? If you’re in a group setting and debilitating effects are landing on you, chances are other group members are getting hit too. Wiping 1-2 conditions per person is very valuable.

What I do is use Shake It Off when I’m hit with conditions infrequently. Then if I get nailed with something really nasty, and I hit Shake It Off and I don’t hear it fire, I hit the Signet.

alcedonia.7831:

it’s like a nut kicking contest. i’ll kick your nuts, and you’ll kick mine, and the guy who cannot get up loses. unfortunately, in areas like arah, mobs tend to have bigger nuts than you. and they also kick very hard.

I’ll admit, I lol’d hard at this part

have girlfriend problems? shake it off.

I feel bad for you son…

DigitalKirin.9714:

This is not to say that 5 signets is valueless. I think it has its right place and time, I just think that in a group setting, the power of your group buffing abilities is more powerful (even with the cooldowns) than signets which are more powerful when in a solo situation.

This. 5 sig is simply a way to make your character stronger on an individual basis. People look to optimize their personal performance because it is easier to notice and makes them feel so awesome. But as a team they are weak because people don’t notice little things like “Shake it Off” is helping five characters – not just one.

I don’t think its a problem with the build its a problem with the game. Warrior traits make them go melee. Great sword does the most with hundred blades its like 10k I’ve pulled up to 17k and I know other Warriors have pulled more. Where as the support is standing around doing ranged. Of course those warriors are pulling all the hate from mobs. If you pulled more dps you would be going down instead.

Granted every class can play poorly. When a warrior plays poorly its just that much more apparent and the signet thing is a bit silly. I personally blame anet for design the game the way it is if they didnt make a trait that basically said hey use all the signilets everyone wouldn’t be.

Sure we can stand around using bows and rifles and give up massive damage. Then wed be like you.

AerictheBoss.9172:

Where as the support is standing around doing ranged.

I think you might have a misconception of what support is.

To me, support characters are ones who do at least one of the following, if not more:
-Grant Boons to multiple members
-remove conditions from multiple members
-CC mobs
-heal members

This means a Guardian, whose ranged attacks are quite a bit weaker than their melee, can be focused on support. This means Warriors who choose to melee, can Also be support.

AerictheBoss.9172:

Of course those warriors are pulling all the hate from mobs. If you pulled more dps you would be going down instead.

Hate is generated for a variety of things. Also, some bosses/monsters have different hate mechanics.

Hate is usually generated by (in no particular order, since people haven’t figured out the specifics yet):
-Toughness
-distance from the mob
-Wearing a Shield
-Dealing damage

AerictheBoss.9172:

Then wed be like you.

I’m a warrior. I melee. And I’m like them. A team player.

kendokken.3257:

Fortuna.7259:

kendokken.3257:

Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

I think you are proving the OP’s point. That is just how a party of glass cannon warriors fight bosses. People that know better will be done in 5.

No his point was about warriors face planting constantly. I rarely do. But in PUGs I see a constant stream of Thiefs, mesmers, warlocks, eles, etc.. running back from the waypoints 3-4 times per boss beacuase they can’t take even 1 hit from the ridiculous bosses. 20k+ damage and 2 million+ HP is just a kitten way to design Boss “fights”.

Warlocks? …

And yes claiming that the way to fight bosses is to WP zerg them underscores the mentality of just what the OP is talking about. A constant stream of players coming from the WP is just bad, and a 5 sig berserker warrior is contributing to that even if he manages to kite such that the others end up paying the repair costs.

@alcedonia — I lol’ed. If I ever group with you, I’ll be sure to equip my GS and all of my signets!

I think a few posts here prove alcedonia’s point. Warriors aren’t just damage. There isn’t a profession meant for just damage. All professions, including warrior, are able to fill multiple roles within the same build. The heal-shouts build can be powerful support and do a fair amount of damage. A shouts-banner-signet build can put down damage and offer a fair amount of support. Min-maxing, in the strictest sense, as in “I am DPS only and my gear, traits, skills apply only to that,” isn’t something that’s sustainable, in dungeons in particular, in GW2 unless you have a pretty well coordinated team.

Anyways, I’m addicted to Strifey’s videos. They make dungeons look easy and his warrior is a beast while still offering condition removal, might stacks, fury, and additional pre/crit damage to his team.

http://www.youtube.com/user/strife025/videos?flow=grid&view=1

I don’t recall seeing any 5 signet warriors since the first couple weeks of the game being out. Though shout warriors and others who use similar glass type builds go down just as fast as they would. I have been in runs with some who die constantly and some who last the fights out. It depends on the player. I’m sure the ones I ran with that stayed up would still do so as 5/sig as other utilities won’t add that much survivability if any. I really think its a player skill issue. I did a run not long ago with a berserker warrior who had twilight. They died in almost every trash pull and boss. Only signet they had was rage, which is a good utility for its activate.

Personally I play a full cleric gear set including jewels and 6/6 water runes. I have banner heals with signet of healing, shake it off, banner of tactics, endure pain, signet of rage. I have several weapons I carry; hammer, great sword, rifle, sword/shield. I prefer to have either hammer or great sword with the sword/shield. Rifle I use only specific fights, usually in FotM.

I prefer this build not as a way to face tank everything but it makes it really easy to carry players who have issues. I am often the last man standing in several pugs while all 4 others are running back from the WP.

Everyone should master the build they choose, regardless of what other players may think. If you are a good all around player you will make it work. No, l2dodge will not be enough.

kendokken.3257:

Suddenflame.2601:

kendokken.3257:

Most of my items are zerker, a few toughness/vitality. I run 4 signets+great justice. I don’t have much problems with dying constantly. Although it does happen when dodge fails (50%) and I get 1 shot by the boss.

I’ve tried other builds, but the cooldowns on condition removers are way to long for me to give up a passive signet. Especially when the mobs spam those conditions (including stun, knockdown, etc..). When i did use the other skills this is how the fights went.
Stun: use break
knockback —> SOL
start getting up, get hit with a daze
…
Get some bleeds and a poison on you
Shake it off (by the way the signet removes ALL conditions so it’s better anyway)
.0005 secs later get another stack of bleeds on you, and probably knocked down again just for giggles)

It’s just not worth it.

With Dodge and most other movement abilities (charges, jump backs, etc..) being broken and not firing off, or leaving you standing in the same spot after, none of that other crap matters anyway.
Besides Anets concept of ‘fun’ combat is waypoint zerging the bosses continuously until you wear through their stupid amounts of HP 15 minutes later.

Anet just needs to fix their dam game before there’s no one left to optimize the builds anyway.

Signet can not be used as a stun breaker therefor your argument for it is failing considering you mention knock down a lot which the signet does not help you with. The signet removes all conditions once every 40secs. Shake it off removes 1 condition and 1 stun breaker every 20secs. So by your arguement about daze and knockdown “shake it off” is the better option. I run Signet of Regen, banner of tactics (full traited), “Shake it Off”, “For Great Justice”, and Signet of Rage. My armour is Power/Toughness/Vit, with my accessories being Healing/Power/Toughness.

I battle in WvW on the side of Stormbluff and i am one tough warrior. I am one of the warriors that charge into large groups of enemies and able to live through it. I use a Sword/Shield, Axe/Shield, Hammer, and rifle (I switch out the sword, axe, Hammer based on the situation i am going to be facing).

My point was I QUIT using Shake it off and went back to the signet because the cooldown took longer than the stun/CC spam. So I’f i’m going to get CC’d constantly anyway (mostly because dodge is broke) I might as well remove all OTHER conditions instead of just 1 at a time.

Personally I can’t stand CC in games. Removing control of your character adds nothing to the game and only frustrates players.
I can’t believe some idiot dev actually put it on EVERY single mob in this game and topped it off by letting the mobs spam it. Actually I can belive some idiot dev had that idea, but I can’t believe it got approved to be added as ‘gameplay’.

I’m sorry to say dude but idk what your doing wrong but i have no issues what so ever with it. And its in the game to add some diversity and challenge to it. Only mob that can keep me down is Centaurs but once you reach lvl80 they cant do overly much or at least shouldnt. Orr just has a few dazes and knock downs which shouldnt be an issue unless your pulling like 10 of them at once. In WvW knockdown, stun, immobolize are used a lot and your signet will have no effect and you would be dead before you could even get it off. On a 20sec cool down its far more useful then the signet. At most i have 3 conditions on me (poison, bleeding, vulnerability). Bleeding does not stack duration nor does vulnerability therefor i do not care about them as much and want my shake it off to remove poison which does. unless of course i have like 12 stacks of bleeding or vulnerability on me during a fight then i want to remove those first. With 6/6 runes of melandru on me I dont care about short duration conditions (burning hits me then is gone in less then 1 sec). Or you could trait the shout so that it removes 2 conditions. You could also trait the shout so that it automatically removes conditions when you have more then 2. Therefor you could remove 3 conditions + stun breaker that has a CD of 20secs. Hell its rare to have 4 conditions on a character at a single time.

The issue isn’t of one massive problem imo. It’s a collective of decisions, an event cascade if you will. It is the series of three choices, namely wearing full zerkers, running 5 signets and only utilizing a greatsword that makes a significant portion of the warriors i encounter nothing more than dead weight.

I’m pretty sure experienced players or those with more mental and physical dexterity will be able to function well semi-well or even well with that setup.

But when you realize that the warrior class tend to attract new players looking for an easy main, the problems start to show. Because they simply do not know what hits they can take, what hits they should avoid, when to run and when to fight.

So people tell them to go full zerkers because damage is important.

And when they ask for an easy build for warrior, people tell them 5 signets with passives.

And when they ask what wouls be the best weapon, they get told gs for 100b.

In isolation, they’re all correct. But put them together and you get a recipe for disaster. You’ll end up most of the time with a glass cannon melee char with no utility in the hands of a new player unable to learn much because he spends more time reclining on the ground throwing rocks than staying alive to find out what he should be dodging, what he should be tanking, how to position himself etc.

If at any point, they had made a different decision, they would be way better off. Knights instead of zerker gear for example. Fgj and sio instead of 2 random signets. Soldier runes. Using a rifle or bow. If at any time they had done just one of those things mentioned, they would have a completely different experience in dungeons.

It’s very frustrating and amusing at the same time. Zerker 5 signet warriors are like the obnoxious cousin every thanksgiving who eats all the drumsticks, makes a lot of noise and fart a lot.

I actually never see signet warriors in my PUG groups now.

Cant seem to edit my post on my iphone if a mod would help merge this with my previous one so i wont double post, that would be massively appreciated.

@condas

Being the last man standing is kinda a dubious honor for most big boss fights considering the way most bosses hate are based on either highest damage or highest life total. So being the last one alive most of the time means you are doing the least amount of damage, or are the most glassy.

Like for example lupi will always chase the guy with the highest life. He will rotate hate once in a while, but generally will keep sticking to one guy for the entire second phase. Or at least until the guy goes down. Then he’ll move on to the guy with the next highest hp.

I advertise myself to prospective parties as a ‘Rifle Warrior’ for good reason- I hate seeing our class with Greatswords running into dungeons. Dont get me wrong, GS have their uses but I want to be both a damage dealer and a valuable member of the team. Yes, TEAM. I run a shouts heal build that focuses on boon stacking, specifically Might. 2x Pirate, 2x Monk, 2x Water for a total of 30% boon duration plus 20% Might duration. Might on crit for my rifle and bam, a constant 18-20 stacks of might, more if another member is giving it.

It may not be the best build and yes, it caters to those using a GS more (due to the Might on GS crit trait) but ive made it work by using a ’zerk rifle instead of a Knight GS. Full Knights set for the majority, full ’zerk set for occasions such as fighting the Maw, spare Knights set with Divinity runes in case im stacking too much Might and im healing the party as im running around.

Also run with a axe/shield for a quick 3sec block + power stacking using a Blustlust sigil, and I add ‘Endure Pain’ during the harder fights. Job done as far as im concerned.

tl;dr – I hate crappy warrior builds as well and im a warrior myself

Agreed +1… The amount of signet glass cannon warriors who barely even know how to play the already easy class is astounding.

I don’t understand why signet build happens to be pretty popular myself.

You’re essentially trading your utility for 10% (at 80) crit chance with the 40 precision per unused signet trait.

I must be very weird warrior if I may say that. I never went to dungeon with signets up. I’m using Axe+Horn and Bow. Regarding skills, it’s healing, Shake It Off, On My Mark, For Great Justice and Elite banner for being able to resurrect. In case it’s needed I have almost all weapons available in my bag.

I think that especially the horn is the best supporting weapon for warrior. And bow provides root, blind and great aoe’s if used properly.

This setup provides great mobility for group, vigor and debuffs for enemies. Horn does have one of the best available. Bow in other hand can be taken as temporary problem “remover” due root and blind. Also warrior can do own combo with a bow providing AOE might +3 buff.

All is about people only.

Every time i pickup a 5 signet war in a pug i die a little inside. Most the time they’re obnoxious and unwilling to take advice too.

I change my build every now and then but i generally roll with healing shouts. Around 3.6k heals every 20 seconds with Great justice/shake it off/on my mark with constant fury and 3 stacks of might every 20 sec and 10% extra dmg for the group it does add a decent amount of dps over time. With full soldier thats 4 conditions removed every 20-25 seconds with 20% reduced shout cd.

I run zerk/eagle armor with knight trinkets and do fine in most dungeons. I do tend to go down a bit more than others though so am considering soldiering its just my eagle runes are in my tier 3 cultural gear <.< They really need to make an item that removes runes without destroying 20g items or transmuting to waste a 3.5g rune.

Not all greatsword warriors are signet/zerkers. (Wait, no, how about “sigzerkers”? I like the sound of that one.)

I use a greatsword – berserker stats, true, but it’s the WEAPON.
I use a rifle – whatever stats the Lionguard Rifle exotic from the Lost Shores event is (still looking for a good/affordable sigil to replace the karka one, though).
My heal is Prayer to Dwayna (because I’m human and find it to be the best; Healsig is okay for regen, but TERRIBLE for when you NEED a heal.)
My utilities, 90% of the time, are Signet of Might, Shake it Off, and (Endure Pain/Balanced Stance). I will change to other things as warranted – and I USE my signet of might!
My elite is my most malleable skill. Hounds of Balthazar is common for general PvE, but I’ve used Rampage, Avatar of Grenth, and yes, once used the Signet of Rage (I needed something that would work at range, and summons would aggro the boss’s many, many, MANY guards.)

I have two armor sets. An offensive set for general PvE (currently rare berserkers, but when I get enough ectos to make an exotic set, I’m going to hybrid in some condition damage, at least), and a defensive set (very hybridized, with Power, Toughness, and Vitality being key stats) for dungeons, WvW, and Events Strong Enough To Kill (Hi, god events and claw of Jormag!). Neither yet has runes, which is annoying me because I’m not GETTING things good enough to carry Superior Runes. Or the right materials to make some.

But really, whichever set I’m using, I play smartly. Unless I have to stand still for a skill execution, I am almost always on the move. Dodging is fine and good, but staying mobile conserves stamina so you CAN dodge when you really need to.

Now, before you ask “what is the point to all this rambling”, the point is simple: Not ALL GS/Rifle warriors are cut from the same cloth.

I will admit, however, that the exceptions are not as common as I could wish.

I have been running Dungeons constantly recently, my main is a Warr and i get so embarrassed when the grps i am in get other Warrs, mainly because they are the GS/Zerk/sig builds. They bring nothing useful to the grp other than the fact that we are constantly having to revive them.

The inability of these morons to switch to a ranged weapon is astounding, i have a nice rifle, i know i dont bring as much dmg if i am not in melee, but… i am not on the ground. I am at least shooting and doing dmg versus laying on my back waiting for others to pick up the slack.

I am full defensive i generally run in pirates gear for magic find, and i use Dual Axes. Far from the ideal Warrior builds other’s expect to be running. I figure if i am not dead (like those other warrs) i am up and using shouts to heal and fix conditions. I use dual axes because they can and do more AE dmg then GS users, which in dungeons like AC,CoF,TA and others with large amounts of trash mobs, it helps alot more than just big dmg to one mob.

Its rather frustrating getting pigeon holed because of other lazy players.

DigitalKirin.9714:

AerictheBoss.9172:

Of course those warriors are pulling all the hate from mobs. If you pulled more dps you would be going down instead.

Hate is generated for a variety of things. Also, some bosses/monsters have different hate mechanics.

Hate is usually generated by (in no particular order, since people haven’t figured out the specifics yet):
-Toughness
-distance from the mob
-Wearing a Shield
-Dealing damage

And this may be the real issue.

The hate/aggro mechanic is virtually random, meaning there is no surefire suggestion you can give or action you can take to tag team a mob.

Sometimes you will get a mob that ping pong between toon, other times you get one that will jump into lava to snuff out one specific toon. And often you find that the very same mob changes behavior between runs and there is no way to nail down what changed parameter triggered the different pattern.

So end result is that unless your dealing with some gimmick boss the basic solution becomes to pile on the hurt and hope you are the one left standing.

>_< i usually stick with the 5 signet setup in all pve outside of dungeons since its easy to steamroll just about everything … that being said i do have other gear primarily centered around dungeons, but i will occasionally forget to switch to a more group oriented setup… but then again some people like having me go around with 5 signets, tho i think they just want a better chance to see me dyeing lol

in any case… it is a game in the end, i think its rather fun to run around without much regard to anything other than “lol killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill BIG NUMBERS!!!” … sometimes xD

Completely agree OP. Warriors have even managed to shake off the nerf stick. It’s amazing they’ve created a profession that’s even managed to shake off the devs now.

When an engineer complains about the issues with their class and how imbalanced it is to shoot 30 bullets into a warrior and STILL see him coming or throw 30 grenades and still not kill that Orr mob and see a warrior run by and thump them in three hits we’re called unreasonable and whiny, but here it is still happening since launch. I can only imagine what it’s like in pvp.

Apparently only two classes can successfully do a 1 shot and neither of them have grenades, flame throwers, bombs, explosives, or electric tasers, Yeah that’s balanced.

Duke Darkwood.4237:

Not all greatsword warriors are signet/zerkers. (Wait, no, how about “sigzerkers”? I like the sound of that one.)

… i like it too xD

I’m a 5 signet warrior… with full rampagers and double sword + rifle so… yeah.

Like most other sets, full zerker warriors take skill and adaptation to work properly. 5 sigs in dungeons can bite them in the kitten though, having 1-2 stun breakers and Endure Pain is typically a better idea but that also depends. Ultimately, the trade off is that a mistake usually costs you way more.

But if a war knows what he is doing, he will not “faceplant on every mob”, even in dungeons, even with a 5 sig build. Been there, done that.

The heart of the problem is, I’d by what I can tell anyway, the fact that due to the abundance of gs/5 signet/zerker warriors it is way, way easier to find one that sucks at what he does.

Outside of dungeons though? A 5 sig zerker war plows though Orr and anything else outside of group events like hot knife through butter.

Agreed.

I have 1 level 80 and shes a warrior.

4 Berserker items. Chest plate and gloves with toughness vita power from AC. Zerk accessories .

I run “Signet of might” “Shake it Off” “For Great Justice” “Banner based on team needs” and "Sigent of Rage or Revive banner& depending on group needs and let me tell you.

I dont die. I put out huge damage. I am the most important person to the team comp. I can take damage. Res downed players instantly. Res without banner. Buff and dps.

Thats how you build warrior.

The problem isn’t 5 signet warriors, it’s people complaining about 5 signet warriors while pugging. People looking to do a pug run are usually looking out for themselves, as that’s usually how they play the game, by themselves. They don’t fine tune their chars for a group, as they have no group to tailor their build to. If you don’t want to group with those type of players, stop pugging, get yourself a group, and quit expecting something different (the very definition of insanity).

As i expounded in my previous post, the issue isn’t with 5 signet warriors (which can hold their own with the right gear) or full zerker warriors (which can hold their own with good traits and/or utility skills).

It is the combination of both. A 5 signet warrior running full zerkers.

Because that leaves the warrior frail and without any utility. The only thing they have that they can rely on is dodge. Of which there are only 2 bars. Of which doesn’t work when mobs/bosses do untelegraphed attacks.

That combination of full zerker/5 signets in dungeons often lead to rock throwing. And when i say often, i actually mean very often.

Throw another spanner into the gears when some of these warriors simply have no other viable weapon on them other than a greatsword and the frustration increased exponentially.

Gs/5sig/fullzerkers doesn’t work. At all. Yet that is the build that new players go to because on the forums, that is the information they go away with. That full zerkers is one of the best setups for warrior. That 5 signet makes for the easiest warrior gameplay. That gs is the best weapon for warrior because of high damage in the form of 100b.

So by running full zerkers/5signet/gs, they should have an effective, high damage, easy to play character.

Unfortunately that conclusion is wrong. And imo, there’s no real solution to it other than awareness that the ‘best setup/gear/weapon choice’ cannot be taken in isolation. But i’m not sure if new players will want to be bothered by that.

I mean, if i’m interested in finding The Optimal warrior, the answer of ‘it depends’ wouldn’t really answer my question no matter how true it is.

I don’t really see the problem with it. If those players want to run all signets and they are comfortable doing so then what’s the issue? This is sort of what happened in the first game.. People found effective builds and ways to kill stuff/survive/win and other people didn’t like it because they thought it was gimmicky. Whilst the signet build is good for some things, it’s not good for others. I’m sick of seeing meteor showers everywhere lagging my map out during big events.. Do I want ele’s to stop using staff’s? No…

Me and my guildie run full zerkers with ruby orbs+frenzy. We don’t even have condi removes xcept heal or any planned synergy with the rest of the guild group and stuff dies in instances friggin fast. I have every weapon+defensive set with soldier runes but meh…1/3 of damage so /care, we want to do the instances fast not 100% safe. So, hate on players being bad, not the gear choice being bad.

Want to see what goes down fast? Glass cannon thief that isn’t played good, 1hit KO.

I mentally cringe every time I see a 2h Sword Guardian with Signets ^^

Seriously, there are alot of bad Warrior players, but there is an equal amount of really really abysmal Berserker 2h Sword Guardians that think they are warriors.

And of course faceplant as often as the 2h Signet Warriors with the exception that their damage compared to warriors is pitifull.

Strikes me as a situation where people think if they’re not causing crazy damage, they feel that they’re playing the game wrong. My main’s an Engineer, and my fingers have got to dance in order to make sure I’m pulling my weight (and I’m not great at the game, in all honesty). DPS might be sweet for regular PvE, but Dungeons are as much about survivability as anything – and not just of yourself, but everyone in your group. Glass cannons are fine when you’re the only one suffering if you run into a wall, but they can be a liability if others are expecting teamwork and mutual support, particularly if there isn’t an equally-focused healing person to balance out your ’zerker fragility.

But yeah, it’s not the gear, its the player – and not even the skill of the player, but just what they’re choosing to bother themselves with. GW2’s pretty generous to generalists, and a lot of classes can fill different roles reasonably.