Guild Wars 2

I really am terrible at playing as a warrior and I’m not too sure why I get killed so so easily.

My first character was Guardian that focused on Altruistic Healing so naturally they were pretty hard to kill.

I decided to go on the complete opposite scale for things with my warrior and I was going to make them full berserker. I didn’t though. I’ve just reached level 80 and I’ve equipped myself in a berserker rare armour set (no jewels or runes yet) and a set of knight’s jewellery. So I do have at least some toughness in there. I did that as I realised I wasn’t going to last long going full berserker, but the toughness from the jewellery seems to do next to nothing.

Sure I can kill things kitten quick compared to my guardian but it seems like in any dungeons if I get hit even once then half of my health is gone. Sure I’m dodging as often as I can and healing whenever possible but it doesn’t seem to be doing me much good.

So, after all that I guess I’m asking, “what am I doing wrong”?

My utility skills are all damage based (For great justice, frenzy and on my mark) so should I be making them more defensive? That seems a little counter-productive to me though if you’re going to try and focus purely on damage with your stats then making your utilities defence based.

I haven’t bothered getting exotic armour yet as I’m not sure it’s worth investing in them with this set of stats only to find them useless.

tl;dr – How the hell do you play (not even full) zerker warrior without dying in 2-3 hits in dungeons?

Don’t get hit

Seeing as I don’t know a thing about warriors, have you tried the warrior profession forum? Those are usually most helpful with profession specific questions.

Frotee.2634:

Don’t get hit

Seeing as I don’t know a thing about warriors, have you tried the warrior profession forum? Those are usually most helpful with profession specific questions.

That’s kind of what I was aiming for, there’s only so many dodges you’re allowed in a certain space of time though!

It’s called Glass Cannon for a reason, Bulls Charge and hundred blades. That will knock out a good amount of there health, I can hit for about 14K I’m still building my gear.

keln.6051:

It’s called Glass Cannon for a reason, Bulls Charge and hundred blades. That will knock out a good amount of there health, I can hit for about 14K I’m still building my gear.

Thanks, but I’m not sure how that was supposed to help?

Perhaps I should have stated already that I am primarily using a greatsword.

I’m sure someone has the build made up on one of the character builder sites, but here’s an overview of how I learned the glass-cannon (or near-glass-cannon) warrior:

Weapons: Greatsword/Rifle while you’re learning new content. GS has great DPS, the rifle has decent DPS at range while you’re taking a breather and letting your endurance regen because you’ve dodged too much. When more comfortable, go with Greatsword/Axe+Mace. There’s a lot of sigils you’ll want to play around with, but while you are gearing up, go for Major Sigils of Battle, Bloodlust, and Force (or a Ruby Orb) distributed such that you won’t have more than one of each equipped over all of your on-land or in-water weapons (yes, I know I’m simplifying here). You’ll eventually upgrade to superior versions on your exotic weapons, but the major ones still help!

Armor: Start with a balance of knight’s and zerker’s armor. If you keep on dying, swap in a bit more knight’s, then work your way up to getting used to more berserker’s while acquiring more exotics.

While working in masterwork and rare gear, give yourself a little more oomph by getting some Crests of the Shaman, or, if they’re cheap, Crests of the Soldier. If you are having issues surviving, swap out your currently rare berserker’s chest, legs, or helm for a (even masterwork if rare is too expensive) knight’s piece, but save your zerker’s stuff for when you are more comfortable.

For a very long time my Exotic armor was Knight’s Chest, Legs, and Head with Zerker’s Shoulders, Gloves, and Boots, and to min-max the balancing, I used emerald jewelry and put in exquisite ruby jewels. I’m moving to more berserker’s gear now, but that’s because I’m getting more used to where to move/stand to avoid attacks. The wiki has a table about how many stat points you give up on a piece of armor for 1% crit damage on exotic level 80 gear. If you don’t plan on having a decent guard in your party, aim toward a full set of Superior Runes of the Soldier for your armor (starting again with Crests of the Shaman/Solider while farming gold). If you do plan on having a decent guard, then slotting your armor with Ruby Orbs will give you even more oomph.

Traits: If I recall correctly, a GS offense warrior trait distribution is based around 20/30/0/0/0. I prefer 20/30/0/0/20 myself.

Utilities: should be (6) Healing Surge, (7) For Great Justice, (8) either Shake it Off or Frenzy (not sure if it’s still in vogue after the recent patch), (9) either Banner of Discipline, Banner of Strength, or On My Mark, and (0) Signet of Rage. Pretty much use 7, 9, and 0 whenever you can, 6 whenever needed, and 8 as needed if SiO or 8 whenever safe if Frenzy.

General combat: Enter melee using GS 3, 5, or even Bull’s Charge if you run it; stay in melee for as long as you can while activating GS 2 whenever possible; GS 3, run, or dodge out of melee when you start feeling the pain, switch to rifle, use rifle 1 and 3 all the time, 2 and 4 when you want the cc. When your endurance and health are back up, enter melee again.

Other tips: Line of Sight EVERYTHING! The bane of the full glass warr is spread out ranged enemies, so run around a corner so that they have to chase you to have a clear shot at you. I know it’s not much of an accomplishment, but my glassy warr “tanked” CM story because we LoS’ed all of those ranged bandits to get them to clump in melee.

Yeah, oversimplified, but I hope it helps! Ping me in-game if you’d like!

Thanks a lot for the advice! Slowly working my way up to full berserker gear rather than going straight into it sounds like a plan.

I had been using the rifle as my second weapon so I suppose I’ve been going in the right direction there and my traits have been 20/30/0/0/20. Having the 100% chance of rally is nice but it’s not all that useful if you’re getting downed two or three times every encounter.

I virtually never used my burst skills as I had traits helping out with higher adrenaline so I found Mending to be more useful but I’ll give Healing Surge a go and see if it helps.

In most games people who use warriors run in and stand there and fight. In Guild Wars 2, to survive as a zerker warrior, you have to be mobile. You run in hit hard, get out, take a breather, run in again. You kite. Circle strafe. Do anything you can. If you’re moving you get hit less. That means you can save your dodge for big attacks, many of which are telegraphed.

If you’re running in and standing there, eventually you’re going to get stomped on.

Vayne speaks my playstyle as warrior very well. You throw that GS and then charge in, popping cd’s. You then unload hb and do anything that can nuke, then just get the kitten outta there and shoot away. All of this being as mobile as can be. I seem to be able to cut through mobs pretty well, it’s a mindset you get into (At least for me it is).

Joyful Blue.7392:

Frotee.2634:

Don’t get hit

Seeing as I don’t know a thing about warriors, have you tried the warrior profession forum? Those are usually most helpful with profession specific questions.

That’s kind of what I was aiming for, there’s only so many dodges you’re allowed in a certain space of time though!

Well you don’t have to dodge to avoid getting hit. You know how a lot of boxers dance on their toes in the ring, moving even though they really don’t HAVE to? You should do the same thing in GW2 – get in the habit of always moving in fights. You don’t have to kite – just circle the mob.

Also, map the key that makes you turn 180 degrees instantly. I’ve found it really effective to dodge (or step) forward through a mob, then hit a hot key and stab them in the back. You can avoid a lot of damage by stepping behind a mob as they attack. Save your endurance for when you’re stuck smack in the middle of a big red circle. You can also boost your endurance regeneration with food, which can help you dodge more. You can avoid damage by saving your stuns/interrupts for the big attacks that take half your life away.

Also, keep in mind that you can’t DPS when you’re dead. You may find that by sacrificing a little DPS on your stats sheet for a little survivability, you end up with a higher effective DPS.