HotW Warrior Build
Generally, you’ll want to NOT be a glass cannon, and you should be solid for all dungeons.
Having a high DPS is of no importance if you’re downed all the time, and making allies go down trying to save you.
I’d keep the rifle since you’ll always want a ranged option in dungeons. Also, what specifics parts in HotW are you having problems with? For most bosses there, the name of the game is kiting, like the wolf boss in path 3 and the Butcher, which have steps you can jump on to help kite them better.
As for Warrior-specific tips, that I cannot help with. But generally, you’ll always want to be sturdy and be able to support yourself.
Helia – Stormbluff Isle – [MORD]
Hey, I think it’s just a reality of warrior in dungeons to feel that way. A lot of posters claim that a majority of dangerous attacks can be rolled through, but really this is far from the case especially with trash. The difference in damage output enemies can do in a specific dungeon is huge (trash packs and bosses). The is no way to be ready for every situation even in a single dungeon.
The frustrating thing is no matter how tank or support oriented you become, certain things will still crush you (especially a lot of trash packs). Guardians will outshine in terms of damage and survival and group support in a similar defensive spec. Warrior damage takes a huge hit when going into defense but I agree with the poster above that damage is irrelevant in most dungeons outside of the regularly farmed ones.
I’d say if you want to stick with GS / Rifle 10/20/0/30/10 with Knights armor, and soldier runes (or war horn instead of rifle if you want to use different runes.) You’d be focusing on might generation and not worrying about the bleeds on crits.
If you are not interested in support shouts 20/25/15/0/10 in Knights Prefix to be a sturdier GS dungeon warrior.
There are other builds that focus on keeping up weakness with mace main hand, but mace is a huge hit to damage and weakness doesn’t seem to change incoming damage much, I havn’t tried it that much however.
This build looks interesting to if you want to get fancy:
I have not been able to accumulate the condition damage pieces to attempt it myself so I can’t say for sure. It seems to have high damage potential and decent survival. It might be better with Apothecary for something defensive/support if you are into that(instead of the power precision condition recommended). I’m not sure about healing power however as healing stat to me doesn’t seem as powerful as a lot of people make it out to be (even in 5 mans) from my testing.
Last thing I can think of would be a full out Soldier build. 30 Defense and 30 Tactics with some combination of axe shield mace warhorn or hammer. There would be a lot of situations where you would still get crushed however trying to stay toe to toe and a Guardian would outshine you completely on this front.
I think the first 10/20/0/30/10 I talked about is your best bet for an all around dungeon spec. You’ll still get downed, but the difference is very noticeable and the group buffs shout heals brings and condition removal even without healing gear will make a difference. Generally “most” things that will down this will down a full tank warrior also give or take a couple of seconds.
Absolute best advice I can give is:
1. Don’t be afraid to swap to rifle and kite. Lots of mechanics and encounters and trash packs seem to demand and be balanced around the whole group switching to range and kiting. I’d say get the mentality that it’s a very viable weapon to stay on for harder dungeons and don’t feel pressured to stay in melee if the damage is not manageable.
2. A lot of the harder paths are just not balanced well for pugs (possibly organized groups also), they suffer from design issues instead of challenge issues. I think this is partly why FotM is so praised in comparison to the original ones as the damage going out seems to have been much tighter tuned. This is generally why in all pug groups there is some tight wound spaz yelling that you have to run through half the instance glitch up a wall have everyone afk in a spot, then go to a bugged area off the map then skip 5 bosses, then stand behind a box to attack a boss etc. A lot of paths have the potential to annihilate most pugs and most classes/specs, if done without exploit.
Discovered the one and only ecto nerf to date. Endured verbal abuse and infractions to prove it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Changes-to-ecto-salvage-from-rares/first
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Changes-to-ecto-salvage-from-rares/first
(edited by Stego.3148)
Guys, you are so helpful. I feel kinda guilty because I can’t really add anything more, you covered most of my problems and yes, I’m having so much problems with PUG groups, Arena Net should REALLY add a voice chat option.
I’ve taken a look at your suggestions and the link you showed me is great. I love rifle and Sword+ Warhorn is amazing. What I am mostly looking at is survivability and support while still being able to do damage.
I think I’ll go 0/25/15/30/0 and about the runes, I think I’ll go with full Soldier’s Rune (Shout removing condition looks nice, I use it in PvP) or something that gives stability. I often kite with rifle so that’s not a real problem but sometimes I feel useless when I’m pulling out and my party members are still fighting the trash mob.
Full rampager set sounds good and with trinkets I’ll put some in power, vitality and condition damage. About sigils, I have no idea…I used to have Major sigil of fire on my rifle but not sure if it’s worth it (I’m kinda low on money).
And for water fights, I usually kite because if I try to melee, they’ll kitten me in no time.
Never ever go full damage as a front line. You will be in the front and taking lot of frontal damage for your team. You need mitigation in terms of toughness and vitality. Pure damage is garbage if you are dead all the time and allies have to go into danger to revive.
Alright, tested my new build mostly in PvE, still waiting to try on dungeons:
Focus: Support, Self sustaining warrior Bleed build, 24,5k HP
0/25/15/30/0, same as Stego’s link (same traits)
-Superior Rune of the Soldier (6/6)
-Full Rampager Set on armor
Weapons:
-Sword: Rampager, Sigil: Tried Superior Sigil of Blood but was kinda kitteny so I switched to superior Sigil of Rage which is far better imo.
-Warhorn: Rampager, Superior Sigil of Restoration (very useful if you run a low HP build)
-Rifle: Rampager, Superior Sigil of Hydromancy (useful if you get swarmed/focused when in melee, just switch and then 5th skill)
Trinkets: 3 Soldier Rings/Back (Power, Vitality and toughness I think) and 3 Rampager (power, precision, condition damage)
Overall verdict: I thought this build would be better than expected but its nothing amazing. Just tried out 2hours and PvE only but till now, I’m not impressed. With this kind of build, you must be in a group (can’t really solo in Orr). And yes I am well aware that this ain’t a “tank” build but you can’t take a lot of punishment with this build (and takes a while to kill enemies). Playstyle: Kite, run circles around mobs, pull back if any trouble, pump warhorn 5th skill and then Switch.
Also, if the amount of heal you get from shouts (30 Tactic slot), try banner, grants regen for the whole party and be sure to take the 20% recharge trait for banners.
Tested it in Honor of the Waves path 2-3, really shined in this dungeon, never downed, good support and never taking lots of damage. Here’s my base build stats btw:
-Power: 1589
-Precision: 1841
-Toughness: 1356
-Vitality: 1536
-Attack: 2430
-Critical chance: 48%
-Armor: 2427
-Health 24 572
Change the Sigil of Hydromancy on Rifle (because of quickness cooldown, I can’t activate this sigil) and replaced it with Superior Sigil of Wrath (+10% damage against Sons of Svanir) but I’ll probably take Superior Sigil of Corruption sometime in the future, did the same thing on both of my underwater set (both have Superior Sigil of Wrath).