Guild Wars 2

“How do I become a good warrior?”

“Oh, by the way I don’t actually want to use a good build”.

I’m pretty sure using a good build is one of the steps on how to play a class well. This is like me trying to become good at magic but saying I only want to use some ****-tier janky combo deck which will win like 2 games out of 50.

I’ve never understood the resentment towards “meta”, I just see it as suck it up and run it or don’t run it and accept you’ll be suboptimal or even bad.

Vellusk.3042:

I’ve decided I’m going to main warrior for sPvP. I’ve read here and there warriors are easy to kill and most warriors suck, I don’t want to be a typical warrior.

Any advice on what to practice/ general strategies in order to be an above average warrior? Specifically I plan to play GS/SwordShield and Axe-Axe/Axe-Shield. I don’t care whats viable or meta, those weapons are what I prefer and I believe more in outplay and fun than meta weapon sets. (At least I’ve seen warriors do well with non-meta weapon sets)

I’m noob, any help would be great, thanks!

So you’re basically asking how to be a better warrior while running a crap spec?

Because you know…first answer would be “Start running a decent build…” this game is not designed to work with every “fun spec” that comes to mind, if you want to start playing at good levels you MUST run a good build…personally i won’t even take a double axe or sword shield…or a s/s condition and all that stuff in team…because as a warrior i know that he’s gonna be a cripple for the whole team..if you wanna play for win with a team you MUST run something useful…if you wanna play for fun just stick to hj since noone cares about what you run there….it’s like asking “How can i compete in F1 driving a VW Golf?” It just makes no sense…

Personally, I think it comes down to just building yourself to benefit your team.

There’s alot of available build potential if you stick to that mindset.

Defektive.7283:

Personally, I think it comes down to just building yourself to benefit your team.

There’s alot of available build potential if you stick to that mindset.

Which means having a build that can stay alive. Not having a LB in PvP at the moment is a sure path to respawn.

Julie Yann.5379:

Defektive.7283:

Personally, I think it comes down to just building yourself to benefit your team.

There’s alot of available build potential if you stick to that mindset.

Which means having a build that can stay alive. Not having a LB in PvP at the moment is a sure path to respawn.

Well, defektive actually played Hammer/Sword+Shield yesterday at the ToG and he didn’t die a lot. Mainly because his job was not to die, I suppose.

Julie Yann.5379:

Defektive.7283:

Personally, I think it comes down to just building yourself to benefit your team.

There’s alot of available build potential if you stick to that mindset.

Which means having a build that can stay alive. Not having a LB in PvP at the moment is a sure path to respawn.

I don’t think that’s true.

LB is definitely great from a perspective of “I need this for me”. If your team has a really strong team presence you can easily get away from LB.

Defektive.7283:

Julie Yann.5379:

Defektive.7283:

Personally, I think it comes down to just building yourself to benefit your team.

There’s alot of available build potential if you stick to that mindset.

Which means having a build that can stay alive. Not having a LB in PvP at the moment is a sure path to respawn.

I don’t think that’s true.

LB is definitely great from a perspective of “I need this for me”. If your team has a really strong team presence you can easily get away from LB.

True, it really depends on your team. I speak mainly from soloq experience where teams are somewhat individualistic by nature.

holodoc.5748:

Lachanche.6859:

There are mace/sword and axe/sword variants to the defense/discipline theme, there is also an axe/warhorn build recently made popular by rom as well as a greatsword/longbow build occasionally seen around (although imo gs is not quite there yet).

Why would anyone want to use GS/longbow combo? Those weapons do not synergize at all. If you rely on longbow then it means you are probably wasting trait points on something like “Cleansing Ire” instead on going offensive. There is absolutely no reason to use GS with defensive builds. Yes GS is an excellent gap closer for warrios but what do you do when you reach your target? Ask him/her nicely to drop dead?

btw i think i forgot to mention sword/shield + greatsword wvwvw builds, every now and then you see them used around.

For roaming maybe but you will have a really hard time finding a warrior in WvWvW which uses a shield. In zergs its useless because standard warrior support builds usually consist of sword/warhorn + hammer or GS+hammer. For roaming people usually choose warrior condition builds because its not unusual to fight a 2vs1 against enemy camp flippers. In those cases an off-hand sword or even mace are far more useful weapons than shield.

Duel Vassangel on his GS/LB (or watch him play in his duel server, NA only). Don’t know if Tarcis streams while playing GS/LB anymore… You’ll see why it’s workable. You have to be absolutely mechanical to utilise the GS mobility in a 1v1, and land your LB shots to actually deal pressure.

And there are very few opportunities to burst (Bull’s Charge, Pin Down) which require you to outplay your opponent. He kills you harder on his zerker hambow, but sometimes he runs GS/LB because mastering it requires a high amount of skill. GS burst is really just using Whirlwind Attack simultaneously as attack and evade. Arcing slice still hasn’t found its place. Spec is

4 Short Temper OR Great Fortitude/Slashing Power
0
4 Dogged March/Cleansing Ire
0
6 Vigorous Stances OR Signet Mastery/Destruction of the Empowered/Burst Mastery

Pack Runes, Zerker Amulet
Berserker Stance/Balanced Stance/Bull’s Charge
GS Air/Fire/Intell
LB Battle/Energy/Doom
Or run 40604 first for Defy Pain. Frandlier version. Less dying.

Sword Shield/GS is the “runner” spec for WvW. You take mobile strikes, dogged march, hoelbrak runes, -40% food, and you can run from anything and come back for a quick 100b when you catch chasers alone. Shield is used as a Sword F1 setup and as a functional Endure Pain. Watch M Black’s Warrior clips on Youtube. Or maybe Team Riot.