Guild Wars 2

The Problem:

Tired of running into melee range, just to have that lovely red target put above your head and getting trained down by 3 or more haters? Necros stripping your Stability and ruining your day before you can say “Hundred Blades”? Mesmers turning you into a bird, yanking you all over the map and exploding clones on you like it’s the Fourth of July?

The Solution:

BOOM HEADSHOT

The Build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s70g;1NKFP0b4NL-60;9;5T-9T;106A;10;057AI-V4;2G3G3G3G35Bb

(Sword/Shield is also an option, trading a bit of mobility for a more flexible melee setup and an extra usable Burst skill. The rest of the build remains the same, just put a Sigil of Fire on the Sword and a Sigil of Force/Bloodlust on the Shield.)

How to Play:

This ain’t your grandma’s Warrior build, where you’d be getting into the thick of the action. In fact, the sneakier you can be, the better. You might say, “Who wants to be sneaky, I a’int no Thief!” Well, after landing a few surprise 1-hit Kill Shots on said Thieves, you might change your mind! The goal with this build is to come up to a team fight, pick out a squishy, mid-health target, and Kill Shot them. Try to approach teamfights after they’ve already begun and from a blind spot or inconspicuous direction so you have a good chance of not being seen as you spike the target down. The “Furious” trait and your Signet of Fury ensure that you have easy access to Adrenaline whenever you need it (use Signet of Fury off CD when combat’s over for a good opener in the next fight), and Kill Shot has a mere 7s CD with this build. Additionally, with Fury on and 4 Signets off CD, you have a staggering 85% crit rate, so Kill Shot has an incredibly high chance of 1-shotting glass cannon targets. The “Crack Shot” trait allows you to put good body pressure at a safe range in case the enemy team tries to revive your poor target. With “Leg Specialist”, you have one of the few long-range Immobilizes in the game, allowing you to assist your team with setting up bursts without compromising your position.

With all of this talk about the Rifle, what’s the Greatsword for? Well, at some point the enemy will catch onto why their teammates are suddenly dropping like flies, and the Greatsword will ensure they have a tough time catching up with you. If get low on health, or if landing a Kill Shot in one teamfight becomes difficult, you can always swap to Greatsword and gain excellent mobility to move to another part of the map. With enough assistance from teammates, it can be difficult for enemies to catch up with you and take you down as long as you use positioning and distance to your advantage. Lastly, if you find yourself in melee range and are looking for some body cleave, Stability + Hundred Blades offers some of the best in the game.

Ok, ok, this sounds good and all, but good lord, why 5 Signets?

Well, actually, 4 of the Signets fit perfectly into the build. The clear worst of the bunch is Healing Signet, but if you think about it, this is one of the few builds possible for Warrior where Healing Signet isn’t the biggest sacrifice in the world, since it has a very defensive playstyle, so a better burst heal isn’t quite as needed. Rarely will you be getting yourself into the thick of the action since your damage from range is already very, very good. It’s possible to run this build without Healing Signet, but you are giving up the passive 40 Precision to do it. I find that when you’re able to constantly keep yourself on the edge of the battlefield and use positioning and spacing well, it’s not completely necessary to have a better heal than Healing Signet, and I prefer to have the extra crit chance. But, try it out for yourself! The rest of the Signets work fine for the build, now that Dolyak Signet is instant and a stun breaker.

Weaknesses:

With “Leg Specialist” and the rifle knockback, you do have some defense against Thieves, but otherwise they can be a bit tough to deal with if they know what they’re doing (Sword/Shield tends to work a bit better against Thieves). Also, the build works the best on maps where there are good ranged perches available, such as Forest of Nifhel and Battle of Kyloh. Also, this is not intended as a dueling build, so avoid situations where you would go up against a build well-suited for dueling 1v1. As long as you stay very aware of your surroundings and play defensively when being targeted, you can do very well in teamfights and take heat off your other DPS.

Give me feedback!

Given that my bunker Guardian is needed, I never really get a chance to try my theorycrafted builds in tournament, but in hotjoins it’s worked pretty well (unless I get trained endlessly around the map by people who hate getting Kill Shotted XD). My hope is that more Warriors will try this build out and let me know how well it’s worked for them. Happy headshots!

Dolyak and Healing Signet are surprisingly undervalued, and I use them on alot of my Warrior builds. Easy damage mitigation, combine that with the Adrenaline healing trait, and regular regeneration, and you are easily a bursting tank. Though, I prefer focusing more on Axe, but using Rifle as a secondary weapon. Rifle can be unreliable, on occasion.

The damage of Kill Shot is equal to an Eviscerate, but from a distance.

Rifle is fine until your ar’se gets trained by two enemy eles who jump on top of your face and won’t let go until you’re dead.

zone.1073:

The damage of Kill Shot is equal to an Eviscerate, but from a distance.

Rifle is fine until your ar’se gets trained by two enemy eles who jump on top of your face and won’t let go until you’re dead.

So, 2 of them chasing 1 of me around the map off point for a while? Sounds good to me.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Dolyak and Healing Signet are surprisingly undervalued, and I use them on alot of my Warrior builds. Easy damage mitigation, combine that with the Adrenaline healing trait, and regular regeneration, and you are easily a bursting tank. Though, I prefer focusing more on Axe, but using Rifle as a secondary weapon. Rifle can be unreliable, on occasion.

Healing Signet heals for less than any other of our heals overtime. So all you save is a 1s cast time for a heal, otherwise you lose in survivability.

I’m using Dolyak’s and Adrenal Heal. I’m not even close to being a tank. You need healing shouts and soldier’s stuff to be survivable to any respectable degree. In this build, you just put a thin layer or cotton on your glass jaw.

YuiRS.8129:

I’m using Dolyak’s and Adrenal Heal. I’m not even close to being a tank. You need healing shouts and soldier’s stuff to be survivable to any respectable degree. In this build, you just put a thin layer or cotton on your glass jaw.

Then don’t try to be survivable, be ranged.

Send two ele’s? More likely one thief, one ele, or… well, just about anything really. If there’s one thing I can say about rifle warriors with absolute certainty it’s that I’ve yet to lose to one 1v1.

Pack a longbow, it does as much damage as a rifle in AoE fashion and with more built in utility.

Jonwar.9205:

Send two ele’s? More likely one thief, one ele, or… well, just about anything really. If there’s one thing I can say about rifle warriors with absolute certainty it’s that I’ve yet to lose to one 1v1.

Pack a longbow, it does as much damage as a rifle in AoE fashion and with more built in utility.

First of all, I did say this isn’t a dueling build. Secondly, that’s not true, LB doesn’t do as much single-target damage as a Rifle. Volley in this build crits nearly all the time for quite a lot of damage. And being able to spike someone down with a single shot in a teamfight (before they get a chance to heal) is a very valuable thing in tourney.

I had a sniper build before this patch and it can be effective only if you rely on a group, because for a 1v1 fight is terrible, this build rely on others to do anything, you are going to be zerging and thats it, so much warriorish when you rely on sniping people that dont even know what happens.

It was fun for a while when i used it before patch but, nah, i want a true warrior class not this thing or an archer.

Fenrir.5493:

I had a sniper build before this patch and it can be effective only if you rely on a group, because for a 1v1 fight is terrible, this build rely on others to do anything, you are going to be zerging and thats it, so much warriorish when you rely on sniping people that dont even know what happens.

It was fun for a while when i used it before patch but, nah, i want a true warrior class not this thing or an archer.

Right, I know sniper Warrior builds existed before, but the 5 Signet version I have here wasn’t possible until after the 6/25 patch, due to the change for Dolyak Signet and the changes to the Discipline trait line. The big difference is the increase in damage to Kill Shot due to Burst Mastery, and the ability to take that trait along side Destruction of the Empowered.

And I know this build won’t suit everyone’s playstyle. But maybe some will like it, so I posted it for those people to enjoy.

cymerdown.4103:

Jonwar.9205:

Send two ele’s? More likely one thief, one ele, or… well, just about anything really. If there’s one thing I can say about rifle warriors with absolute certainty it’s that I’ve yet to lose to one 1v1.

Pack a longbow, it does as much damage as a rifle in AoE fashion and with more built in utility.

First of all, I did say this isn’t a dueling build. Secondly, that’s not true, LB doesn’t do as much single-target damage as a Rifle. Volley in this build crits nearly all the time for quite a lot of damage. And being able to spike someone down with a single shot in a teamfight (before they get a chance to heal) is a very valuable thing in tourney.

As much single target burst damage? No. As much realistic damage over time? I would say yes.

My point was that as soon as somebody notices you you’re gone, I’m aware it’s not a 1v1 build, but other non-duel builds will wreck you just as easily. Also, the greatswords mobility suffers greatly from movement impairing conditions and you have nothing to really deal with that… so, it’s unlikely you’ll be successfully running away from anything other than guardians and mesmers.

Personally if I were to run a rifle, and wished to stay completely out of melee, I’d pick sword/horn. Not just for the 4 skill on the horn, but also for the ability to abuse the hell out of terrain with leaps.

Jonwar.9205:

cymerdown.4103:

Jonwar.9205:

Send two ele’s? More likely one thief, one ele, or… well, just about anything really. If there’s one thing I can say about rifle warriors with absolute certainty it’s that I’ve yet to lose to one 1v1.

Pack a longbow, it does as much damage as a rifle in AoE fashion and with more built in utility.

First of all, I did say this isn’t a dueling build. Secondly, that’s not true, LB doesn’t do as much single-target damage as a Rifle. Volley in this build crits nearly all the time for quite a lot of damage. And being able to spike someone down with a single shot in a teamfight (before they get a chance to heal) is a very valuable thing in tourney.

As much single target burst damage? No. As much realistic damage over time? I would say yes.

My point was that as soon as somebody notices you you’re gone, I’m aware it’s not a 1v1 build, but other non-duel builds will wreck you just as easily. Also, the greatswords mobility suffers greatly from movement impairing conditions and you have nothing to really deal with that… so, it’s unlikely you’ll be successfully running away from anything other than guardians and mesmers.

Personally if I were to run a rifle, and wished to stay completely out of melee, I’d pick sword/horn. Not just for the 4 skill on the horn, but also for the ability to abuse the hell out of terrain with leaps.

Sword/Horn’s an option, but you don’t really need a ton more swiftness since you’ve already got 33 every 48. Vigor’s alright, but I think the Shield 5 generally better defensively, and the Shield 4 helps to set up Flurry (you won’t use it much, but it’s still nice to have the option). I personally believe Greatsword’s slightly better overall for the reasons I mentioned.

And I wouldn’t say as soon as someone notices you you’re gone, they first have to get close to you without taking too much damage, and having them overextend into you (which they will have to if your positioning is good) isn’t always a bad thing anyway. When you play it right and with a good team, you sort of exude this field of force of 1200 range, and people have to be very careful about entering that field or risk getting immob-ed and bursted by your team, or taking a bunch of rifle damage, or if they get distracted/CC’ed, eating a Kill Shot. I’ve been practicing the build and been having success with it in hotjoin (not that it says that much, I know), I’ll try to get some solo queue matches in with it tomorrow.

Also, you do have a way of dealing with slowing conditions — Signet of Stamina. Anyway just try the build! It’s pretty good, I swear!

Looks fun, but Healing Signet isn’t very good with Zerker amulet. I only use it with a regen build. Adrenal Health, Healing Signet, and Banner regen are all very good when used together. I’d take Healing Surge.

Copenhagen.7015:

Looks fun, but Healing Signet isn’t very good with Zerker amulet. I only use it with a regen build. Adrenal Health, Healing Signet, and Banner regen are all very good when used together. I’d take Healing Surge.

If you actually play the build, I think you’ll find (at least I did) that Healing Signet’s actually sufficient in this build despite the Zerker ammy because of its defensive playstyle (snipe, kite, snipe, kite). You don’t typically get focused hard enough to the point where you need a better spike heal, and the times where you do, the better spike heal wouldn’t usually be enough of a difference to matter (also, might be obvious, but don’t heal yourself with the Signet until you would otherwise die if you didn’t). Play it for a while and see what you think.

One more WvW build.
Sniper are in my opinion the most cool build, but no way of run in PvP.

Rifle Kill Shot doesn’t work in spvp. Only way to get it off is if the enemy is not looking at you, usually in team fights if you’re sneaky, in any 1v1s or 2v2s the long cast time and extremely obvious kneeling and aiming animation makes it VERY easy to dodge/block if you’re an experienced player. The few times I’ve gone up against rifle warriors in a situation where I can see them I found dodging it to be so easy it’s funny.

Also, the rifle auto attack sucks with zerker, the bleeds only tickle in a zerker’s build. Weapon needs to be redesigned so the autoattacks do higher dmg, cause invuln and lose the bleed. Meanwhile Kill Shot should do about 70% of it’s current damage but have the cast time shortened to 1 sec while the aiming animation should not involve kneeling but just aligning the sight to make dodging still quite doable but not silly easy. Until then if you want range go LB. And yeah about healing signet, it’s bad unless you got a lot of healing power, which no decent spvp warrior does, so it’s just another way of saying it’s bad for spvp period.

Julius.1094:

Rifle Kill Shot doesn’t work in spvp. Only way to get it off is if the enemy is not looking at you, usually in team fights if you’re sneaky, in any 1v1s or 2v2s the long cast time and extremely obvious kneeling and aiming animation makes it VERY easy to dodge/block if you’re an experienced player. The few times I’ve gone up against rifle warriors in a situation where I can see them I found dodging it to be so easy it’s funny.

Also, the rifle auto attack sucks with zerker, the bleeds only tickle in a zerker’s build. Weapon needs to be redesigned so the autoattacks do higher dmg, cause invuln and lose the bleed. Meanwhile Kill Shot should do about 70% of it’s current damage but have the cast time shortened to 1 sec while the aiming animation should not involve kneeling but just aligning the sight to make dodging still quite doable but not silly easy. Until then if you want range go LB. And yeah about healing signet, it’s bad unless you got a lot of healing power, which no decent spvp warrior does, so it’s just another way of saying it’s bad for spvp period.

Oh ok, so you tried the build? And played it the way I recommended?

cymerdown.4103:

Julius.1094:

Rifle Kill Shot doesn’t work in spvp. Only way to get it off is if the enemy is not looking at you, usually in team fights if you’re sneaky, in any 1v1s or 2v2s the long cast time and extremely obvious kneeling and aiming animation makes it VERY easy to dodge/block if you’re an experienced player. The few times I’ve gone up against rifle warriors in a situation where I can see them I found dodging it to be so easy it’s funny.

Also, the rifle auto attack sucks with zerker, the bleeds only tickle in a zerker’s build. Weapon needs to be redesigned so the autoattacks do higher dmg, cause invuln and lose the bleed. Meanwhile Kill Shot should do about 70% of it’s current damage but have the cast time shortened to 1 sec while the aiming animation should not involve kneeling but just aligning the sight to make dodging still quite doable but not silly easy. Until then if you want range go LB. And yeah about healing signet, it’s bad unless you got a lot of healing power, which no decent spvp warrior does, so it’s just another way of saying it’s bad for spvp period.

Oh ok, so you tried the build? And played it the way I recommended?

There is nothing in what you described I haven’t tried before, been playing the class since launch. Too many weaknesses in that set up, will only work in niche situations, will get eaten by condis, easy to dodge most of the damage unless you’re out of sight which isn’t always a possibility. Just not good enough for tourneys, advising you not to waste your time until they redesign the weapon, but that’s up to you.

Why not use Banner of disipline, more precision and more crit damage, when you’re going all out to maximize your burst skill…

more swiftness and fury is never a bad thing either…

FluxWing.7318:

Why not use Banner of disipline, more precision and more crit damage, when you’re going all out to maximize your burst skill…

more swiftness and fury is never a bad thing either…

Because then you’d have to lose one of your 3 important utilities: your only condition removal, your easy source of adrenaline when you need it (and 220 precision passive), or your stunbreaker/stability.

JETWING.2759:

One more WvW build.
Sniper are in my opinion the most cool build, but no way of run in PvP.

I’d have agreed with that statement before the last patch (6/25).

[quote=2381646;cymerdown.4103"BOOM HEADSHOT":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rP7ZpwkGAo

[/quote]

LOL< LOVE the video !!!

I have a rifle warrior too and it is SO MUCH FUN