Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I’m completely new to this game and would like to hear some opinions on which class you find the best to play as in PVP. Not so much in regards to fotm or being op, but what you find fun, what is your class strong at and what is it weak at.

If you could recommend a class that would be great. Specifically I like the idea of high mobility and survivability (preferably combined)

Any cool stories welcome too

guardian. the only class that viable in all game modes.

go thief

Can out self-heal any class in the game and practically never be touched.

Use conditions and spam away. Shadowstep in every direction. Cleanse every incoming condition.

It’s by far the best class in the game right now. This is my second time rolling a thief since i started. I’ve never destroyed people so effortlessly in the entire time ive played this game.

Go thief. Its win.

I enjoy playing my PP engineer due to its combat, build diversity and depth. Its has some of the best survibility in the game with perma swiftness, blocks, stealth, blinds, temporary immunes etc. The rotations within combat situations are very diverse and skillbased imo.

Its main weakness is heavy condi pressure, esp coming from condi warriors or necromancers.

If youre good with the class its one of the best 1vX classes in gamemodes like WvW aswell. Its a very slippery class as they call it, while being able to dish out good dmg at the same time.

thief is fun and op in pvp currently lots of stealth and the class doesn’t have cd’s its interesting. Mesmer is very fun if you enjoy confusing you enemies and using your opponents offense as your own offense (dodging and creating a clone to later be shattered), but it’s not the best class for pvp currently. Warrior has its own play style you can play cancer condi tank or cancer hambow warrior both are very good currently and you might find the cancer enjoyable. Ele has a super burst spec Scepter/Focus that has zero counterplay that can 100 – 0 someone. It can be very fun and enjoyable if youre into aids. Ele also has d/d bruiser spec that is fun and takes skill. Eles can actually do fine I believe now that this current patch has buffed them a little.
Guardian can be fun playing as either dps cancer or as a bunky guardian. They are very good in pvp and you must always take a bunky guard. Engineers have a million blinds and an op amount of burn with balthazar. Engineer focuses on surviving the fight while melting the enemy. (Op nades). Necrocancer is in a very good spot in the meta. It has epidemic that spreads condis to nearby foes and signet of spite applies every known condi to a single target with the push of a button. It also has it’s own type of cc called fear. Ranger has it’s trap build and spirit build. Push one a lot keep track of your pets abilities and shoot through fields. You can also do a beserker gs build that can be fun. Now which cancer…whoops i mean class do you want?

shoot i forgot to complain about thieves and their op stealth and evades and power creep.

OneManArmy.9732:

guardian. the only class that viable in all game modes.

^ Guardian is a solid choice. It’s not the only class viable in all game modes, but it’s a strong choice for just about anything and the mechanics are very straight forward.

I would discourage thief as it’s a very unforgiving class to learn due to the low passive defense (you’re squishy as hell) and high reliance on active defense (evade/stealth/blind).

If you want fun, I’d recommend Ele first and foremost, theif and mesmer second, and perhaps Necromancer third.

MightyMicah.7451:

If you want fun, I’d recommend Ele first and foremost, theif and mesmer second, and perhaps Necromancer third.

Fun, maybe, but thief, mesmer and ele will probably be three of the hardest classes to learn.

I’m not biased at all. Go ranger. Many people hate rangers due to the majority of them not playing skillfully, but any good ranger will be a serious threat to the opposing team, and make for a very difficult 1v1 opponent.

Wow! This community is really nice and helpful! It is such a nice difference not to be trolled or flamed when asking questions like this!

So I’ve narrowed it down to warrior, thief, guardian and possibly mesmer. I still have a few more questions though, if you wouldn’t mind giving a few more answers

Guardian: What is the mobility like on this class?

Warrior: Cancer tank?

Thief: If played well, how is the survivability? Is it a glass cannon?

Thanks

Lewisk.9853:

Guardian: What is the mobility like on this class?

Warrior: Cancer tank?

Thief: If played well, how is the survivability? Is it a glass cannon?

G: lowest in game
W:has diff. builds, you can find your way how to play
T:in any build low hp/armor. but a lot of dodges/blinds/shadowsteps. active defense.

Lewisk.9853:

Wow! This community is really nice and helpful!

haha just you wait

OneManArmy.9732:

G: lowest in game
W:has diff. builds, you can find your way how to play
T:in any build low hp/armor. but a lot of dodges/blinds/shadowsteps. active defense.

Necro has lower mobility than guard

Tank guardian until you learn sPvP basics. Your goal at first should not be to kill but rather stay alive long enough to prevent other players from decaping points from you. As far as staying alive (sustain) goes guardian is a pretty sure pick for beginners.

You’re making the wrong choice! Ranger is definitely the way to go if you want something extremely fun to play and that won’t ever be considered OP in any standard, but can still hold its own in any situation.

Lol. Most of the replies in this thread are biased opinions, but there are a few good points. All I’ll say is do not dismiss the Engineer amongst your choices. The Engineer is a very versatile class with a large variety of viable builds. Not to mention it is extremely fun to play, but that of course is my opinion. I personally play a bunker Engineer as seen in my signature below, and it can be a ton of fun if playing a tanky support role is something you’d like. I can literally defend a point against three other players, and have helped my team win many a matches this way.

Shaogin.2679:

Lol. Most of the replies in this thread are biased opinions, but there are a few good points.

I play mostly warrior in sPvP but I would still recommend a guardian over anything else for beginners (even more now with buffs received from new traits).

As far as engi goes yes its a really good profession for sPvP but imho it’s bundle mechanic takes a lot of time to get used to before the profession can be used effectively in sPvP.

holodoc.5748:

Shaogin.2679:

Lol. Most of the replies in this thread are biased opinions, but there are a few good points.

I play mostly warrior in sPvP but I would still recommend a guardian over anything else for beginners (even more now with buffs received from new traits).

As far as engi goes yes its a really good profession for sPvP but imho it’s bundle mechanic takes a lot of time to get used to before the profession can be used effectively in sPvP.

A very good point. A suppose the last thing we need is to be giving new players carpal tunnel. Lol

I’m now trying to decide between Thief and Warrior ^^

I’m fine with having to take time to learn the profession properly regardless of difficulty, usually when that’s the case I find I enjoy it more and don’t become bored so quickly.

So lastly then could anyone give me a little bit of a more detailed run down of the Thief and Warrior (especially this cancer tank build)

And personal stories of glorious deeds on the battlefield, or those ‘oh my god did I really just do that’ moments

Lewisk.9853:

I’m now trying to decide between Thief and Warrior ^^

I’m fine with having to take time to learn the profession properly regardless of difficulty, usually when that’s the case I find I enjoy it more and don’t become bored so quickly.

So lastly then could anyone give me a little bit of a more detailed run down of the Thief and Warrior (especially this cancer tank build)

And personal stories of glorious deeds on the battlefield, or those ‘oh my god did I really just do that’ moments

Well you should definitely give the Thief and Warrior forums a read if those are the two you’re deciding through. It will generally give you a basic idea of what to expect from each profession.

I’ve been doing this since my second post. Trying to refine what type of questions to ask

I’m still struggling with the hardest part of the game: choosing a name….

I don’t suppose there is a forum for that?

Dahkeus.8243:

I would discourage thief as it’s a very unforgiving class to learn

I agree, if you don’t count any of the other 7 professions in the game I’d even argue that it might just be the hardest one to learn.

Also: wat?

Lewisk.9853:

I’ve been doing this since my second post. Trying to refine what type of questions to ask

I’m still struggling with the hardest part of the game: choosing a name….

I don’t suppose there is a forum for that?

Sure, after you decide what race, go to that race’s forum page and ask around. On some race pages, such as Asura, there already exists a thread where people are showing off their names.

If you really want to master sPvP you will eventually have to play all professions in order to learn how to counter every single one of them.

holodoc.5748:

If you really want to master sPvP you will eventually have to play all professions in order to learn how to counter every single one of them.

I’m spamming +1 but it’s not going up. :C

Viking Jorun.5413:

holodoc.5748:

If you really want to master sPvP you will eventually have to play all professions in order to learn how to counter every single one of them.

I’m spamming +1 but it’s not going up. :C

i still dont understand how this +1 works. it rly weird, when you press it the icon becomes gray and I think this mean -1

One of the least forgiving classes to play is thief. If you screw up, you die.
You do get a lot of tools to not screw up, but once you do, it’s over before you can blink an eye.
After thief comes ele. Incredibly strong bursts, can be very mobile and surprisingly durable. But once again, one mistake is all it takes.
After this, you get necromancer. It is by no means squishy, but it cannot run. So if the necro gets bogged down, it is a fight to the death, and any mistake will cost you once you reach this point.
In the middle of the tree is ranger/engineer. Their a bit weird to play. One has a semi-efficient pet that shares its damage with the masters damage, the other is like a elementalist but all the attunements has been exchanged with crazy mechanical devices of sorts. Engineer and Ranger is probably the most engaging classes to play. Both takes skill, both are strong in their own right, and both can hold their ground.
Between the two, Ranger is more of the duelist, while engineer favors the “unfair odds”.
Then comes the mesmer. Its like a guessing game. If the enemy guesses right, you die, if not, you win.
The two most forgiving classes is warrior and guardian. They are easy to learn, easy to play, and sadly, a bit dull thanks to this. More often then not, when playing these two, its just “press button X to win”. It is fun in the beginning, but “it gets old” real fast. Ironically, because they are so forgiving, they also have a low “skill ceiling”. so once you reach the apex, these two classes will not be performing too far apart from that of the average player.

Lewisk.9853:

Wow! This community is really nice and helpful! It is such a nice difference not to be trolled or flamed when asking questions like this!

So I’ve narrowed it down to warrior, thief, guardian and possibly mesmer. I still have a few more questions though, if you wouldn’t mind giving a few more answers

Guardian: What is the mobility like on this class?

Warrior: Cancer tank?

Thief: If played well, how is the survivability? Is it a glass cannon?

Thanks

this community is nice … as long you are not a dev or some1 who support devs … oh and some1 that cries dying to thieves.

for me really warrior is the most fun since they have lots of builds

Hi there Lewisk!

If you want high mobility and survivability I would go ele.
The standard build (thanks to the reverted nerf) is 0/2/0/6/6 with triple cantrips and as much condition removal as you can pack. I would recommend starting as a full cleric, then maybe going on to valk or celestial. A good rune set would be strength, and sigils are strength and battle.

For ease of play I would also recommend a bunker guardian.
The most straight forward class in the game would have to be guardian, after that I would say warrior, and ranger. Ele, engineer, mesmer and necro have several different builds however because of the heavy condition application mesmers have the hardest time in pvp.
Try out the classes see what kind of play style works for you!

Hmm Elementalist…admittedly I read somewhere that they were very squishy and moved past them. I’d rather keep this to a single thread, so…

Would someone mind telling me more about the profession for PVP?

:)

Lewisk.9853:

Hmm Elementalist…admittedly I read somewhere that they were very squishy and moved past them. I’d rather keep this to a single thread, so…

Would someone mind telling me more about the profession for PVP?

:)

A good build right now would be 0/2/0/6/6 with runes of strength and a celestial amulet. You are kind of good at everything. Also sigil of battle and bloodlust or another stacking sigil… You aren’t as squishy as you once were on an ele

The big thing stopping them was a nerf to cleansing water over a year ago. It has since been undone… So now for the most part eles are back in full force.

Prysin.8542:

One of the least forgiving classes to play is thief. If you screw up, you die.
You do get a lot of tools to not screw up, but once you do, it’s over before you can blink an eye.
After thief comes ele. Incredibly strong bursts, can be very mobile and surprisingly durable. But once again, one mistake is all it takes.
After this, you get necromancer. It is by no means squishy, but it cannot run. So if the necro gets bogged down, it is a fight to the death, and any mistake will cost you once you reach this point.
In the middle of the tree is ranger/engineer. Their a bit weird to play. One has a semi-efficient pet that shares its damage with the masters damage, the other is like a elementalist but all the attunements has been exchanged with crazy mechanical devices of sorts. Engineer and Ranger is probably the most engaging classes to play. Both takes skill, both are strong in their own right, and both can hold their ground.
Between the two, Ranger is more of the duelist, while engineer favors the “unfair odds”.
Then comes the mesmer. Its like a guessing game. If the enemy guesses right, you die, if not, you win.
The two most forgiving classes is warrior and guardian. They are easy to learn, easy to play, and sadly, a bit dull thanks to this. More often then not, when playing these two, its just “press button X to win”. It is fun in the beginning, but “it gets old” real fast. Ironically, because they are so forgiving, they also have a low “skill ceiling”. so once you reach the apex, these two classes will not be performing too far apart from that of the average player.

Other than your 2 most ‘forgiving’ classes, I’m in significant disagreement with your claims about where other classes are positioned.

BoB.6082:

Warrior has its own play style you can play cancer condi tank or cancer hambow warrior both are very good currently and you might find the cancer enjoyable.

Guardian can be fun playing as either dps cancer or as a bunky guardian.

How dps guardian is cancer?XD

However, you can also play BRUTAL balls to the wall dps GS warrior. Just don’t play charr or norn, or you will have problems dancing through opponents.

I think I’m going to main a warrior, with thief and ele as alts for when I need a change.

I found this just a moment ago when searching for builds. Can anyone give me a detailed rundown on its pro’s / cons and what professions it will be strong/weak again?

You guys have been really great

Lewisk.9853:

I think I’m going to main a warrior, with thief and ele as alts for when I need a change.

I found this just a moment ago when searching for builds. Can anyone give me a detailed rundown on its pro’s / cons and what professions it will be strong/weak again?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9LtGfJvqkw

You guys have been really great

Well that video was in WvW, not spvp. It only works against bad players as well, because the whole thing relies on immobilizing them with your sword f1 skill and then swapping to GS and using 100blades for massive dmg. But any decent player will cleanse the immobilize right away

Greatswords can be useful on warriors in sPvP if you trait “Leg specialist” or bring some stuns/kbs (i.e. mace offhand or “Bull’s charge”) but anyone with some decent experience in sPvP will have a stun breaker which will leave you completely defenseless while you channel your “Hundred blades”. They are however useful for adding mobility to the player but considering that some trait and weapon combinations can outweigh that usefulness by a large margin (i.e. “Warrior’s sprint” and a free slot for a more useful weapon) greatswords are not that much popular for warriors in sPvP (completely different story with guardians though).

As a beginner you might want to trait “Cleansing Ire” and bring a longbow but not so much for dealing damage as for removing conditions. If you however trait your warrior for condition damage (I can already hear the audience cheer) you will find longbows to be as good for condition removal as for inflicting heavy damage which is not immediate but builds over time. As for your other slot you can choose whatever you like but do take note in which direction you are heading with your build. I.e. if you trait for condition damage some weapons which are more suitable for DPS will not be a good pick, if you trait for CC then you’ll need to understand that you won’t achieve much with weapons which inflict damage from conditions).

One more thing. WvWvW and sPvP are two completely different game modes. Unless you plan to play exclusively as a roamer ganker (sniping people which are alone on the map) you’ll need to understand the difference how to gear up and set up your build to be successful in those modes.

Play necro. Pretty much the most forgiving class ever and you have a large health pool so you can make mistakes and still come out on top. Necros are also extremely strong right now so rolling players shouldn’t be too difficult. xD

Holodoc thats exactly the type of reply I needed

In your opinion what would you change to this build to make it more efficient? I’m kinda of stuck on the high mobility thing, from my experience in previous games mobility has always been an aspect I’ve enjoyed the most (and I found is quite key to success)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4NKVP0S4wK-60;9;4J-J9J28;208-0;029-L;05U;1V19cV19cF0FW0-i-C;21061B2E3M4Ra-H0Bk-B;37V71EwN2;9;9;9;9;9-4-6b

Lewisk.9853:

Holodoc thats exactly the type of reply I needed

In your opinion what would you change to this build to make it more efficient? I’m kinda of stuck on the high mobility thing, from my experience in previous games mobility has always been an aspect I’ve enjoyed the most (and I found is quite key to success)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4NKVP0S4wK-60;9;4J-J9J28;208-0;029-L;05U;1V19cV19cF0FW0-i-C;21061B2E3M4Ra-H0Bk-B;37V71EwN2;9;9;9;9;9-4-6b

I wouldnt use that build. Mace is much better than sword for this kind of thing. The f1 skill on mace is called skullcracker and is a 3 second long stun. The reason mace is better is because of a master trait in the arms tree which increases your crit chance by 50% against stunned foes. There is also a sigil, called sigil of paralyzation that increases your stun duration by 30%. That adds a whole other second to skullcracker so that its actually 4 seconds long, which is extremely long for this game. There is also a sigil called sigil if impact which adds 10% more dmg to stunned foes. Putting that on your greatsword is huge as it basically gives you a free +10% dmg on your burst combo. There is also a trait in arms called forceful greatsword which reduces all the cooldowns of your greatsword skills by 20%, but it also grants you might for each critical hit you do with your greatsword. So each hit with 100b will just keep getting more and more powerful as you stack more and more might. The 15 point minor trait in discipline also synergies greatly with this build, reducing the cooldown on your weapon swap by 5 seconds. That means you never have to wait around for your swap to come off CD, you can always be swapping.

This is what i personally use

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIEQNAR5ejMdUGaZHWhwJaABpQDrizDAUJYCli5oOA-zkCBYfAojRmWGgEBmQAKHtIasVOFRjVhET7SpWFLQBAQAYiJxIFgeCjA-w

Strength runes are currently the top dogs DPS wise for runes, and they synergies amazingly with forceful GS. Battle sigils as well synergies very well with the whole thing and its not uncommon to have 25 stacks of might after you use 100 blades. You should be hitting for a minimum of 15k with the whole skullcracker->100b combo. Also thanks to your very high fury uptime (boon that grants 20% critical chance) + unsuspecting foeyour 30% crit chance you built for you have 100% crit chance on every 100b. Its also extremely durable thanks to the blocks on mace and shield, evade and mobility on GS, 3k armor (very high in this game) and healing signet.

Just be careful and watch if people have the boon stability on their bar (immune to CC). Search gw2 skullcracker build on YouTube and your sure to get hundreds of results

did all these fools ignore what you wrote about mobility and survivability? guardians have the least mobility in the game apart from access to swiftness. I’d say warrior with a greatsword / longbow stance build but if you prefer a ‘squishier’ but more evasive class, thief has highest mobility in game.

What about DD ele? Lots of survibability, damage and mobility. Relatively hard to play (compared to warrior) so it doesnt get boring fast.

holodoc.5748:

Greatswords can be useful on warriors in sPvP if you trait “Leg specialist” or bring some stuns/kbs (i.e. mace offhand or “Bull’s charge”) but anyone with some decent experience in sPvP will have a stun breaker which will leave you completely defenseless while you channel your “Hundred blades”. They are however useful for adding mobility to the player but considering that some trait and weapon combinations can outweigh that usefulness by a large margin (i.e. “Warrior’s sprint” and a free slot for a more useful weapon) greatswords are not that much popular for warriors in sPvP (completely different story with guardians though).

As a beginner you might want to trait “Cleansing Ire” and bring a longbow but not so much for dealing damage as for removing conditions. If you however trait your warrior for condition damage (I can already hear the audience cheer) you will find longbows to be as good for condition removal as for inflicting heavy damage which is not immediate but builds over time. As for your other slot you can choose whatever you like but do take note in which direction you are heading with your build. I.e. if you trait for condition damage some weapons which are more suitable for DPS will not be a good pick, if you trait for CC then you’ll need to understand that you won’t achieve much with weapons which inflict damage from conditions).

One more thing. WvWvW and sPvP are two completely different game modes. Unless you plan to play exclusively as a roamer ganker (sniping people which are alone on the map) you’ll need to understand the difference how to gear up and set up your build to be successful in those modes.

Actually, GS can do some serious damage. The problem is that it doesn’t have an inherent burst. You have no way of locking your target down while you chain hundred blades, and other skills are about sustained damage. Other than that, with your mobility you can survive a ton of punishment.

As it is now, IMHO it is strong against classes that will go down fast: thieves, shatter mesmers and the like. On the other hand, you might have problems taking down bunker guardians and decap engies alone.

You can solve this problem by using the right weapon and utilities to complement the greatsword:

With longbow you’ll be better off in group fights with AoE power. You have one immobilize, but bunker builds won’t have a problem with that. Some use Frenzy and bullrush for burst, but in this condi meta you are going to need as much condi cleanse as possible.

With Mace you’ll lose AoE, but will gain single target cc and a good burst setup (you should invest 20 points into arms for unsuspecting foe, but if you go 20 in strength with good crit chance it should be okay aswell, take into account unsuspecting foe will only help you for the combo, Slashing power will help you for more).

Hammer is probably redundant, and requires you to get merciless hammer, but without burst mastery you might not use burst skills fast enough. Sigil of intelligence is recommended.

Axe + Sigil of intelligence might be an idea, but with all the randomness of a tourney you might end up wasting half your eviscerates.

redslion.9675:

Actually, GS can do some serious damage.

Never said it can’t, rather that it’s usually very easy to avoid it. Stances, cantrips, blinks – every single one of those will prevent 100B from making serious, if any, damage.

redslion.9675:

With Mace you’ll lose AoE, but will gain single target cc and a good burst setup (you should invest 20 points into arms for unsuspecting foe, but if you go 20 in strength with good crit chance it should be okay aswell, take into account unsuspecting foe will only help you for the combo, Slashing power will help you for more).

Main hand mace actually has two stuns (“Pommel bash” and “Skullcrack”) which make “Unsuspecting foe” a pretty viable solution. Additionally “Pommel bash” can be extremely helpful for quickly disabling an enemy which tries to finish off a downed teammate because it stuns him for 1s and forces to restart his finisher after that. Very often that’s enough time for a teammate revive.

With longbow you’ll be better off in group fights with AoE power. You have one immobilize, but bunker builds won’t have a problem with that. Some use Frenzy and bullrush for burst, but in this condi meta you are going to need as much condi cleanse as possible.

A lot of warrior’s sustain against conditions is achieved through “Berserkers stance” which gives 8 seconds of total immunity to new (not existing) conditions and “Cleansing Ire” which works incredibly well with longbow burst. “Combustive shot” will remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent and since CS is AoE its almost impossible not to hit anything and achieve condition removal.

Such diversity of builds and choice can be a little over-whelming ^^

So while trying to maintain the goal of as much mobility/survivability as possible and still accounting for the need to control the target in order to land 100b to get the damage, would it not be effective to take the physical training trait and to use bola’s (16sec cd) and bulls charge (32 sec cd) alongside using a mace/shield set up.

This would allow for a 4 second immobilisation, a 3 second stun, a 2second knock-down and a 1 second stun as well as the +10% great-sword damage trait.

Although I’d lose the savage leap mobility and flurry immobilisation, I’d certainly gain the interrupt and stun from the mace and allow for two blocks with counter-blow and shield stance.

This way everything serves the dual purpose of mobility as survivability and mobility as offence. The charge and bola’s can be used to both close the gap and to escape from a target, the same with the great-sword mobility.

Would that be an efficient set-up or will it be lacking offensively/defensively or will the mobility be compromised by changing the design so much.

holodoc.5748:

redslion.9675:

Actually, GS can do some serious damage.

Never said it can’t, rather that it’s usually very easy to avoid it. Stances, cantrips, blinks – every single one of those will prevent 100B from making serious, if any, damage.

redslion.9675:

With Mace you’ll lose AoE, but will gain single target cc and a good burst setup (you should invest 20 points into arms for unsuspecting foe, but if you go 20 in strength with good crit chance it should be okay aswell, take into account unsuspecting foe will only help you for the combo, Slashing power will help you for more).

Main hand mace actually has two stuns (“Pommel bash” and “Skullcrack”) which make “Unsuspecting foe” a pretty viable solution. Additionally “Pommel bash” can be extremely helpful for quickly disabling an enemy which tries to finish off a downed teammate because it stuns him for 1s and forces to restart his finisher after that. Very often that’s enough time for a teammate revive.

With longbow you’ll be better off in group fights with AoE power. You have one immobilize, but bunker builds won’t have a problem with that. Some use Frenzy and bullrush for burst, but in this condi meta you are going to need as much condi cleanse as possible.

A lot of warrior’s sustain against conditions is achieved through “Berserkers stance” which gives 8 seconds of total immunity to new (not existing) conditions and “Cleansing Ire” which works incredibly well with longbow burst. “Combustive shot” will remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent and since CS is AoE its almost impossible not to hit anything and achieve condition removal.

What I meant is that it doesn’t have the big unavoidable damage to take down a bunker, but enought AA damage to take down every other enemy. The problem is you fill out a completely different role than hambow, whittlind down all enemies.

About mace, while it’s true that unsuspectig foe is extremely effective, you can go strength instead of Arms aswell, to have stronger damage with greatsword out of stun and/or being able to use Knight’s Amulet (which actually is hard to make viable, but when you do you gain an incredibly good warrior).
You can make up with the loss of unsuspecting foe by putting sigil of intelligence on mace, which packs a high punch on Skull Crack, while +10% damage and + 200 power make damage from 100 blades similar.

Sorry, what is the Knight’s Amulet? I googled but couldn’t find it

It’s the Toughness-Power-Precision one. If you go in the heart of the mists and open your pvp-build window, you can check all the amulets available.

BTW, as holodoc already pointed out, there’s quite a big difference between spvp and wvwvw in terms of builds and purpose. Where are you planning to pvp?

Lewisk.9853:

Sorry, what is the Knight’s Amulet? I googled but couldn’t find it

It’s an amulet which has toughness as it’s primary attribute meaning it greatly increases your armor allowing you to absorb more direct damage (which includes everything except damage from conditions).

As far as I can see it’s not listed on the official wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Amulet#List_of_PvP_amulets).

@Holodoc: Thank you ^^

@Wisebear: I was planning to start with WvW as I read somewhere its a good way to be introduced to the way pvp works in this game which from what I’ve seen is quite different to my previous experiences. Would you mind expanding on different builds for different types of pvp? (I haven’t tried any yet)