Guild Wars 2

In an ideal world I’d have the vid prepared for this post, but in light of the people furiously trying to reverse engineer it on NA I thought I’d just post it up.

Started running it when the patch notes were leaked, and was immediately surprised at the way it plays versus good players, especially when dealing with engineers and necros. After the patch came out I tried combining it with new traits (such as cleansing ire) however I think you’ll find this to be far more effective. Most undiscovered builds are counter-intuitive, much like the axe GS (arms-less 30/0/0/10/30) burst build I started running in march, which is now well established in the burst warrior meta (I don’t know the details on its usage before then, everyone was probably there before me).

Anyway here it is

EDIT: in light of the patch/further tweaking. I’ll switch up zerker stance for dolyak against low condi teams.

Every 40+ warrior I’ve shown this to has agreed it’s OP, so I’m just trying to push the warrior meta forward a bit…

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sBxs-FCRKFM0g4gL-60;9;4T9;0T17A3;652ACRF7-wl6KJG4KJG46Bw

… Kick, kick? I think bolas will be better then kick here XD.

Now… runes of Lyssa, and the signet trait with only the elite signet?.

I think that I understand you want to use the elite skill for protection and retaliation, but… that’s just not in my eyes to actually pick Lyssa.

I also assume that you use stuns for the extra 50% crit chance, but… the skills themselves have high cooldown, which means you won’t be able to repeat them enough times to use it, so you are probably going to use your burst skills a lot, which means that the trait “berserker’s power” won’t be as effective.

Now… about the sigils, I’ll have to use caps to be clear on that, since I tend to see it happen quite often… TWO SIGILS OF THE SAME KIND DON’T GIVE THE SAME BONUS TWICE, ONLY ONCE!!!!!!

Which means, you are just wasting a spot for another sigil there.

Now… it seems your build doesn’t have that much mobility, and no, I just can’t take the signet of rage’s swiftness as enough, I actually never use it because the duration for it feels too long >.< (1 whole second, doesn’t sound that much, but things can go badly while having to do nothing in 1 second).
Because of that, I suggest changing that trait to “warrior’s sprint”, for 25% more speed with melee weapons, because that if not, I think that you’ll most probably get kitted a lot…

Now… I can’t see that much difference between the “balls of steel” to the balanced build… you just changed one utility skill and acted like it is a whole different build “specifically versus high condi/low”, and then I noticed that you changed the amulet to a berserker amulet in “balls of steel”… really?

In fact, I actually find the balanced version better in case of countering low CC, because the utility skill you picked for “balls of steel” got no stun break, and even higher cooldown, while still remaining not that effective against condition damage anyway. (doesn’t delete the current conditions that are onn you from what I understand, and only a 4 second immunity against unmodified conditions, where the good players can notice their conditions don’t stack, and just wait until it’s over to spam their conditions again)

That’s the same build i’m running, aside the fact i prefer bull rush instead of endure pain and warrior’s sprint instead of destruction of the empowered.

Personally i believe my build is better, especially since it’s hard to stick on targets with swiftness or if you’re chilled/crippled.

Bull rush on a 32 secs CD is a lot , and can be even used as a mobility tool.

It’s rather easy to 100-0 a target while full stunlocking him, ( @poster above) i would not disregard this build at all, imho this is tier A stuff.

Mrbig.8019:

That’s the same build i’m running, aside the fact i prefer bull rush instead of endure pain and warrior’s sprint instead of destruction of the empowered.

Personally i believe my build is better, especially since it’s hard to stick on targets with swiftness or if you’re chilled/crippled.

Bull rush on a 32 secs CD is a lot , and can be even used as a mobility tool.

It’s rather easy to 100-0 a target while full stunlocking him, ( @poster above) i would not disregard this build at all, imho this is tier A stuff.

Yeah can definitely see bulls rush being an asset for better roaming.. although have to say there are so many situations when that kick is so clutch.. especially with the root on staggering blow.

And i think the poster above is a troll.

Why are you using the berserker stance? Just use the Signet of endurance instead for condition removal on a 36s cool down.

I’m guessing you will basically save your elite for stability.

Without dogged march or mobile strikes you might have a hard time against spam immob/crippe/chill and you only have one gap closer (hammer burst). I’m not sure if you are intending on fighting on top of a node the whole time.

For roaming just switch out of your hammer or mace/shield into sword/warhorn to travel then switch back when about to go into combat.

Phaeton.9582:

Mrbig.8019:

That’s the same build i’m running, aside the fact i prefer bull rush instead of endure pain and warrior’s sprint instead of destruction of the empowered.

Personally i believe my build is better, especially since it’s hard to stick on targets with swiftness or if you’re chilled/crippled.

Bull rush on a 32 secs CD is a lot , and can be even used as a mobility tool.

It’s rather easy to 100-0 a target while full stunlocking him, ( @poster above) i would not disregard this build at all, imho this is tier A stuff.

Yeah can definitely see bulls rush being an asset for better roaming.. although have to say there are so many situations when that kick is so clutch.. especially with the root on staggering blow.

And i think the poster above is a troll.

Kick has an odd self root, just like shadow shot was for thieves.

I believe it’s not intended and as soon as people will find out how ridicolously strong CC wars are and aNet will start to see Kick animation some more, they’ll fix it like they did for old shadow shot.

P.S

when you hit for 4k with Kick , you really feel your duty as a war has been fulfilled.

XII.9401:

Why are you using the berserker stance? Just use the Signet of endurance instead for condition removal on a 36s cool down.

I’m guessing you will basically save your elite for stability.

Without dogged march or mobile strikes you might have a hard time against spam immob/crippe/chill and you only have one gap closer (hammer burst). I’m not sure if you are intending on fighting on top of a node the whole time.

For roaming just switch out of your hammer or mace/shield into sword/warhorn to travel then switch back when about to go into combat.

Berserker stance will stomp necros against cheesy meta comps/it allows you to apply much more pressure to condi classes. It can also be used for blind immunity.

Chill/cripple/immob and most importantly weakness can be cleansed using healing surge, and swapping weps isn’t possible in tpvp sadly. Mobility is an issue however, and I will switch up the adept level traits in both strength and disc depending on the opponents. With soldiers ammy, reduced signet CD is usually better however for the sustain.

Mrbig.8019:

when you hit for 4k with Kick , you really feel your duty as a war has been fulfilled.

this

Phaeton.9582:

In an ideal world I’d have the vid prepared for this post, but in light of the people furiously trying to reverse engineer it on NA I thought I’d just post it up.

Started running it when the patch notes were leaked, and was immediately surprised at the way it plays versus good players, especially when dealing with engineers and necros. After the patch came out I tried combining it with new traits (such as cleansing ire) however I think you’ll find this to be far more effective. Most undiscovered builds are counter-intuitive, much like the axe GS (arms-less 30/0/0/10/30) burst build I started running in march, which is now well established in the burst warrior meta (I don’t know the details on its usage before then, everyone was probably there before me).

Anyway here it is, I’ll try posting a more in depth guide later, along with some vids of it going up against top players.

There are two, one balanced build and one specifically versus high condi/low cc (excluding fear) teams.

‘Balanced’ CC Cleave

‘Balls of steel’ (anti condi) CC Cleave

Reverse engineer? You mean spectate, click on traits / gear and copy down what you have. Oh you beat me with that build, copy paste, now everyone has that build lol. What if I want to keep my build private? I cant gg.

Sharing helps the community grow, and the attitude displayed above seems to be the thing on GW2 (and with scrubs on GW1), where – ironicly – build diveristy is but a far cry from that of its predecessor.
In GW1 heydays, you’d see lenghty in-depth guides and analyses of various builds as well as strategies by multiple top teams, and yet guilds would STILL manage to innovate build- and tactics-wise for the actual tournies, while here you instead see people whine to no end how ‘their build’ was stolen. Besides, if you made a certain build, I am certain you ought having the confidence to be able to use it better than any ‘copy cats’ out there, rite.

At the end of the day, you should consider it a compliment ‘your’ builds are considered good enough to be used to start with.

On topic, those warrior builds are SO cheesy it’s not even funny. CC spam ftl :’c

KarlaGrey.5903:

Sharing helps the community grow, and the attitude displayed above seems to be the thing on GW2 (and with scrubs on GW1), where – ironicly – build diveristy is but a far cry from that of its predecessor.
In GW1 heydays, you’d see lenghty in-depth guides and analyses of various builds as well as strategies by multiple top teams, and yet guilds would STILL manage to innovate build- and tactics-wise for the actual tournies, while here you instead see people whine to no end how ‘their build’ was stolen. Besides, if you made a certain build, I am certain you ought having the confidence to be able to use it better than any ‘copy cats’ out there, rite.

At the end of the day, you should consider it a compliment your builds are considered good enough to be used to start with.

On topic, those warrior builds are SO cheesy it’s not even funny. CC spam ftl :’c

In GW1 I saw people not taking player in their group if they weren’t running the exact build they wanted. I saw people not taking anyone under rank 5 or 6, no way for lowbies to ascend.

If you must know I do share my builds, and the OP aspects of the class I play when I find them (such as ele signets “doubling” up when using written in stone before patch).

What I don’t like is that you can just nick someone’s build willynilly. The way the GW2 meta develops is:
Step 1, play my class, lose to another class
Step 2, reroll that class jump onto forum and find “it’s” build
Step 3, check spvp forum to see that everyone is complaining about that class and build.
Step 4, defend the build, hoping to hold onto what little power you have till next patch.
Step 5. Did someone say Neckros?

I have played ele since week 1. I remember when everyone stopped playing ele because it was under powered. I remember when everyone flocked to play ele due to a single build.

I do agree sharing builds and guides can help players and the community grow. I have committed a fair amount of time helping other elementalists in their quest to not be underpowered. I have also put up a few pvp strats, not that anyone ever reads them lol. In fact, if it had not been for the D/D dapheonix build I would not have unlock the power potential behind D/D and would still be running a 0 0 10 30 30 build, instead of a power house 0 15 0 25 30 that I ran a fair while ago now.

Back to the topic at hand.

Would not bolas be a good addition to this arsenal, over kick?
Personally if it was me, I would probably go kick, most of my warrior builds are kick. Why? To Spartan kick people off the top of clock tower. But bolas would make it easier to chase people or to put dodge pressure on. (also I play ele with focus …. focus doesn’t have a reflect, I swear it by the god of fire Balthazar himself).

TGSlasher.1458:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Sharing helps the community grow, and the attitude displayed above seems to be the thing on GW2 (and with scrubs on GW1), where – ironicly – build diveristy is but a far cry from that of its predecessor.
In GW1 heydays, you’d see lenghty in-depth guides and analyses of various builds as well as strategies by multiple top teams, and yet guilds would STILL manage to innovate build- and tactics-wise for the actual tournies, while here you instead see people whine to no end how ‘their build’ was stolen. Besides, if you made a certain build, I am certain you ought having the confidence to be able to use it better than any ‘copy cats’ out there, rite.

At the end of the day, you should consider it a compliment your builds are considered good enough to be used to start with.

On topic, those warrior builds are SO cheesy it’s not even funny. CC spam ftl :’c

In GW1 I saw people not taking player in their group if they weren’t running the exact build they wanted. I saw people not taking anyone under rank 5 or 6, no way for lowbies to ascend.

That has no direct relation to the facts I listed though. Some guilds innovated more than others, and some were more successful while innovating than others.
Perhaps things were different if GW2 wasn’t so deprived of diversity.

KarlaGrey.5903:

TGSlasher.1458:

KarlaGrey.5903:

Sharing helps the community grow, and the attitude displayed above seems to be the thing on GW2 (and with scrubs on GW1), where – ironicly – build diveristy is but a far cry from that of its predecessor.
In GW1 heydays, you’d see lenghty in-depth guides and analyses of various builds as well as strategies by multiple top teams, and yet guilds would STILL manage to innovate build- and tactics-wise for the actual tournies, while here you instead see people whine to no end how ‘their build’ was stolen. Besides, if you made a certain build, I am certain you ought having the confidence to be able to use it better than any ‘copy cats’ out there, rite.

At the end of the day, you should consider it a compliment your builds are considered good enough to be used to start with.

On topic, those warrior builds are SO cheesy it’s not even funny. CC spam ftl :’c

In GW1 I saw people not taking player in their group if they weren’t running the exact build they wanted. I saw people not taking anyone under rank 5 or 6, no way for lowbies to ascend.

That has no direct relation to the facts I listed though. Some guilds innovated more than others, and some were more successful while innovating than others.
Perhaps things were different if GW2 wasn’t so deprived of diversity.

I agree with this statement, GW2 needs more build diversity. As it stands my pvp friend will not pvp due to having to run the correct build to win. He finds the play style of tourneys to be bland and I agree with him. I have been running a non FOTM build on my ele since the game was released, every build I have used has been of my own creation. Yet to do tPvP I have to deviate from one of my builds, and focus down a more narrow path. That’s just boring. If I wanted to play D/D ele all day long I would have bought “D/D Elementalist” instead I brought Guild Wars 2. Yet I got D/D Ele, No Warrior, and All Necro Feast 2009 bundled into the one game.

I also run a stunlock CC build, thought quite different from the above:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sBxs;1RK-Q0d4NL-60;9;59T-T;13;0089;152AWoF2;2CoF2CoF25kH

I have not done that many tourneys with it yet but it seems to do ok so far (for a warrior, that is). With full health and shield you got around 1560 toughness which is quite decent for a berserker amulet. Though Cleansing ire may have its faults you got decent condition removal/reduction, better than the above builds at least.

I sometimes switch out endure pain with berserker stance, depending on circumstances.

I noticed you have two para sigils on maze/shield. I didn’t think para sigils would add up? I thought having one rounds up with a second, thus having a 4 sec stun on maze. Am I wrong here?

XII.9401:

For roaming just switch out of your hammer or mace/shield into sword/warhorn to travel then switch back when about to go into combat.

yeah, swapping weapons in tPvP….it was removed months ago.

I noticed you have two para sigils on maze/shield. I didn’t think para sigils would add up? I thought having one rounds up with a second, thus having a 4 sec stun on maze. Am I wrong here?

From the wiki – Static bonuses stack with themselves when used on dual-wielded weapons, except for Superior Sigil of Force (only +5% bonus to damage) and Superior Sigil of Accuracy (only +5% bonus to crit chance). You can always test it out in the heart of the mist anyway, it should be a noticeable difference with/without the sigils as long as its rounded up to the nearest 1/4 of a sec.

The OP runs 30 in the strength trait line for what I’m assuming is 30% increase condition duration. So with lyssa, 2 sigils of paralyzation and 30 in the power line we get → 30% (power trait line) + 30% (2 sigil of para) + 10% (lyssa) = 70% increased stun duration (from mace/shield combo).

So say you got full adrenaline, skull crack goes from 3 seconds to (3+2.1) = 5.1 secs (round down to 5). Thats quite a long stun if its not broken. Not to mention shield base (skill 4) goes from 1 sec to 1.75 sec. Chaining them together and u get one meaty stun that is almost 7 secs (provided its not broken or stability is in play of course).

Switch to hammer (lose the 30% extra condition duration from the sigils of para.) and you still get 40% increased duration from lyssa + power trait. So earthshaker goes from 2 sec to 2.75 secs.

All up you could keep someone locked down for some time switching between mace/shield + hammer. Theres pro’s and con’s with this build as all builds have obviously, but this build and similar ones have probably the longest stuns in the game for a class.

Phaeton.9582:

Yeah can definitely see bulls rush being an asset for better roaming.. although have to say there are so many situations when that kick is so clutch.. especially with the root on staggering blow.

And i think the poster above is a troll.

You… think my post was a troll? O_O

… Look, you didn’t explain your build that well and just gave it to us as it is, so of course there’ll be people that would say other things XD.

Oh, and turns out that the 6th bonus of lyssa gives all bonuses, not just “protection and retaliation” like in “into the mists”
And about the sigils… my bad, the only sigils that don’t have their same bonuses applied are the sigil of superior force and the sigil of superior accuracy.

Now… still, I am not that fond of kick, and since I didn’t see any defenses for “kick”, whilt the bolas are a physicial utility as well… why kick instead of bolas? XD

I think kick is a wonderful skill. It’s a 1/2 second interrupt on a 20 sec (non-traited) cool-down. Which means getting that quick interrupt on a heal, or stopping a rez. There is a lot of utility potential with kick, if the skill is used properly. As far as bolas, it can get removed rather easily with condi removal.

I’m more curious where you’re getting Adrenaline from.

Considering all your weapons are exceptionally slow and easily susceptible to blind spam, I can only tell you’re generating rage from Burst Mastery (and that’s not really generating, as it is saving).

I’m also somewhat concerned regarding your mobility and thus your effectiveness at assisting at a point on-demand and without setup from your team.

Then to top it, 24k hp but at barely under 1.5k toughness has me off as well, thats barely stronger than a wet noodle but without the damage required to apply pressure.

Personally, the numbers don’t add up and thus the puzzle pieces don’t fall together.
This will require video footage for me to feel more comfortable agreeing or disagreeing with your choices.

My 2c.

I like Physical Training as a Trait and think Kick is a really cool trait. Think I heard Xeph on a podcast saying that it was his favorite utility to. Love the idea (especially on Asura) of you jumping up and kicking someone in the face.

I like Unsuspecting Foe, but it seems made for Valk Jewel. Might just be my opinion though.

http://papaganooshplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/papas-physical-training-build.html

Check out mine on there they are quite similar to yours.

Might be worth PMing one of the TP guys. I think they did a fair bit of testing with the Hammer + Mace/Shield Warrior with Phantaram as their whipping boy. They may have answers for the points highlighted by Defektive (slow as hell and the eternal blind spam problem)

Defektive.7283:

I’m more curious where you’re getting Adrenaline from.

Considering all your weapons are exceptionally slow and easily susceptible to blind spam, I can only tell you’re generating rage from Burst Mastery (and that’s not really generating, as it is saving).

I’m also somewhat concerned regarding your mobility and thus your effectiveness at assisting at a point on-demand and without setup from your team.

Then to top it, 24k hp but at barely under 1.5k toughness has me off as well, thats barely stronger than a wet noodle but without the damage required to apply pressure.

Personally, the numbers don’t add up and thus the puzzle pieces don’t fall together.
This will require video footage for me to feel more comfortable agreeing or disagreeing with your choices.

My 2c.

I would always start a fight with full adrenaline, and I mean ALWAYS. Quite surprised initial generation would ever be seen as an issue. Beyond that, for melee warriors weapon swapping is frequent, and combined with hydromancy it’s quite easy to chain both full burst skills in a row. Using my healing surge during the fight will then bring me back to full allowing access to both bursts again.

As far as toughness is concerned, I would run dolyak signet instead of balance stance often, I just keep forgetting to amend this (clearly this is a post patch issue).

But tbh with the access to more evasion, EP and shield stance, I find the direct damage survivability to be very good compared with other professions within the meta. Obviously there is a positioning factor inherent with any melee warrior build. The point to note though is that pressuring a player with cc and significant damage makes it much more difficulty for them to apply similar pressure.

But yes I’ll try and show some footage, just need some more duelling known players in tourneys etc.

In terms of hammer speed, when chaining stuns this is less of an issue. Most stun chains are set up with either the mace, kick or earthshaker, which are fairly easy to get off. And blind spamming can be an issue, however it can be countered. Firstly by this patch an hour ago..

Warrior:
Berserker Stance: The duration of this skill has been increased from 4 to 8 seconds.

….for thieves, and as far as things like flame turrets/wells are concerned all melee warrior are in the same boat with blind spams, and hammers are are no worse off than other weapons. I’ve had little problem with ele blinds so far.

For the very few thieves on NA that don’t make mistakes this build will not work brilliantly, however this isn’t designed to duel thieves. It’s designed to control and cleave builds which are deemed OP if just damage is applied.

Initial Adrenaline generation isn’t the issue. Sustained is. The nice thing about running Endure Pain (now cleansing Ire) is all that adrenaline you build back up playing as Hammer. You’re attacks are slow, youre movement is slow.

I’d feel concerned about using my F1s so often (atleast, to their full potential).

Just feels like your working against yourself with your trait choices.

+50% crit chance isn’t going to help a whole lot considering the speed at which you swing your attacks. And you won’t be able to use that +50% for a full uptime since you won’t be at full Adren a large portion of the time.

Then you’re grabbing Zerkers power, but are limited in Adren sustain as well as how often you probably are using your F1s. I would see a average of +5% damage from a 30pt trait.

So… it seems kick is actually something you guys like XD, for me, not so much, when my opponent plans to use his health I tend to be too far away with kick to interrupt it, so I prefer bolas that he’ll atleast be close.

Besides, I agree with Defektive about the trait choices, berserker’s power isn’t that great if you’ll constantly use your burst skills, and not have enough capabilities to bring back the adrenaline to full for the bonus.

You’ll might want to change the trait for something focuses less sustaining a full adrenaline, as it seems your build isn’t focused on keeping a full or a near full adrenaline for this trait to have enough of a good potential.

Defektive.7283:

Initial Adrenaline generation isn’t the issue. Sustained is. The nice thing about running Endure Pain (now cleansing Ire) is all that adrenaline you build back up playing as Hammer. You’re attacks are slow, youre movement is slow.

I’d feel concerned about using my F1s so often (atleast, to their full potential).

Just feels like your working against yourself with your trait choices.

+50% crit chance isn’t going to help a whole lot considering the speed at which you swing your attacks. And you won’t be able to use that +50% for a full uptime since you won’t be at full Adren a large portion of the time.

Then you’re grabbing Zerkers power, but are limited in Adren sustain as well as how often you probably are using your F1s. I would see a average of +5% damage from a 30pt trait.

I’ve never found adrenaline sustain to be an issue when traited 30 in discipline, but you’re free to try it yourself if you think it could be an issue. Almost all my bursts are full, and you won’t need many versus most builds.

As far as the trait choices are concerned, as I mentioned in the OP they are counter intuitive. The simple truth however is that they provide significantly more reliable dps to the build than any other combination I have found, and in terms of condi removal, lyssa+ immediat cc on the condi burst class makes cleansing ire not necessarily worth the drop in dps.

Is staggering blow still bugged? It ruined my cc chain.

Pyriall.5027:

Is staggering blow still bugged? It ruined my cc chain.

Use kick

Phaeton.9582:

Pyriall.5027:

Is staggering blow still bugged? It ruined my cc chain.

Use kick

I run a different spec and different utilities to the same effect. I haven’t been running it since staggering blow was bugged. Just curious if the fixed it yet. I haven’t seen it in any updates.

Pyriall.5027:

Phaeton.9582:

Pyriall.5027:

Is staggering blow still bugged? It ruined my cc chain.

Use kick

I run a different spec and different utilities to the same effect. I haven’t been running it since staggering blow was bugged. Just curious if the fixed it yet. I haven’t seen it in any updates.

Still bugged

A few quick questions Phaeton, I have TPVP’d with you before with lyss and cutsu, so I am putting it out there that I respect you a lot as a player.

So few things I see you are running both weap swaps with good adrenaline skills, but you don’t have cleansing ire (for the adrenaline on it), how do you feel your upkeep on adrenaline is is the one bar saved from burst mastery enough to keep using them?

Also you are saying its a cleave build, with the long cool downs on hammer skills without merciless hammer, what are you cleaving with? Mace auto? Or hammer auto on node? Both sound rough and unpleasant, and don’t seem to put out much pressure. I can see earth shakers on points as a cleave, but a lot of blinds and guardian stability floating around, how do you play it in point?

Also do you get kited hard with no gap closers? It definitely seems like that would be the case, especially without siggie of stam for condie cleanse, and if you are using the 30 sec heal to do cleanse the cripple chill and immob has that presented issues with sustain?

Thanks mate, build looks really interesting and I am curious, but these issues are holding me back.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

A few quick questions Phaeton, I have TPVP’d with you before with lyss and cutsu, so I am putting it out there that I respect you a lot as a player.

So few things I see you are running both weap swaps with good adrenaline skills, but you don’t have cleansing ire (for the adrenaline on it), how do you feel your upkeep on adrenaline is is the one bar saved from burst mastery enough to keep using them?

Also you are saying its a cleave build, with the long cool downs on hammer skills without merciless hammer, what are you cleaving with? Mace auto? Or hammer auto on node? Both sound rough and unpleasant, and don’t seem to put out much pressure. I can see earth shakers on points as a cleave, but a lot of blinds and guardian stability floating around, how do you play it in point?

Also do you get kited hard with no gap closers? It definitely seems like that would be the case, especially without siggie of stam for condie cleanse, and if you are using the 30 sec heal to do cleanse the cripple chill and immob has that presented issues with sustain?

Thanks mate, build looks really interesting and I am curious, but these issues are holding me back.

Haha appreciated, hope you can have some fun on skyhammer with it tonight (pro tip: spec for fall damage^^)

The key thing this build does, which many other builds running mace/hammer don’t, is that it hits hard. Anything from 3k to 4.4k with some attacks is enough to kill certain classes with one chain. When theorycrafting it was only when the cc hit hard that mace/hammer chains felt strong. As for adrenaline upkeep this was much the same point defective raised. However the combination of weapon swapping and hydromancy ensures two full burst attacks starting from one full bar is easy. But as I said your best bet is to try it out. If you’re struggling to maintain adrenaline you could always switch up the grandmaster trait in strength, although I haven’t really tested the utility of this yet.

In terms of kiting necros can be a pain given half the chance, however once you’ve got that first skull crack off there’s little opportunity to kite. In fact 30/30 necros will drop from a single chain. Kick helps a lot with kiting.

Defektive.7283:

Initial Adrenaline generation isn’t the issue. Sustained is. The nice thing about running Endure Pain (now cleansing Ire) is all that adrenaline you build back up playing as Hammer. You’re attacks are slow, youre movement is slow.

I’d feel concerned about using my F1s so often (atleast, to their full potential).

Just feels like your working against yourself with your trait choices.

+50% crit chance isn’t going to help a whole lot considering the speed at which you swing your attacks. And you won’t be able to use that +50% for a full uptime since you won’t be at full Adren a large portion of the time.

Then you’re grabbing Zerkers power, but are limited in Adren sustain as well as how often you probably are using your F1s. I would see a average of +5% damage from a 30pt trait.

You can constantly use the profession skill. 90% of the time it’s on 100% adrenaline. If that’s not the case in your situation then I suggest you roll a necro.

Just updated the build in light of changes to zerker stance + further testing

The poster you called a troll, afaik, is correct. This is due to the sigil rounding (para sigil will aways round up). So you 4s stun is a 4s stun with 1 sigil or 2 sigils. With hammer your 2s stun is a 3s stun.

I feel like the meta on NA must be significantly different from that on EU… so many build there completely lacking mobility. It seems like it would struggle a lot against teams that quickly shift their strategy instead of running with the law of insanity and banging their heads on mid one at a time until they lost the match.

Jonwar.9205:

The poster you called a troll, afaik, is correct. This is due to the sigil rounding (para sigil will aways round up). So you 4s stun is a 4s stun with 1 sigil or 2 sigils. With hammer your 2s stun is a 3s stun.

I feel like the meta on NA must be significantly different from that on EU… so many build there completely lacking mobility. It seems like it would struggle a lot against teams that quickly shift their strategy instead of running with the law of insanity and banging their heads on mid one at a time until they lost the match.

This build is great I’ve been using it now.

But the no mobility thing it’s called warriors sprint

Good spot on the duel sigils, it’s true they don’t stack.. fixed it now! Also warriors sprint is a great trait to take to compensate for mobility, I do a fair amount of duo with a glass ele/thief and the 100% vengeance res can be fairly clutch, and is also useful in close duels.. but you may find yourself in situations where it’s not needed.

I swapped it up for warriors sprint anyway for balance purposes – cheers for the feedback!

vengeance in general is a great clutch downed state ability despite what people say. I think it’s becoming a tradition to ceremoniously rez me after I vengeance stomp someone to get my team up.

By mobility I’m not really talking movement speed, swiftness is an easy buff to keep up really. I’m more on about gap closers, which can be used to traverse the map a lot faster. This is, in my humble opinion, what makes warriors an asset instead of a liability. We might not be the best help, but seconds count, and a fight is a whole lot more even if you get there fast as opposed to after your buddy has blown half his CD’s.

A lot of this I suppose changes according to team composition. The people I play with are generally on fairly low mobility classes so I’m kindof stuck, which may put the blinders on me to other options (the only exception is one guy who’ll play ele if I bother him enough about it).

All this being said, I’d really say give mainhand sword a chance. With this build final thrust would hit for pretty epic damage, and you have an immobilize as a way to set up burst when the target has stability up. It’s a different type of control, but control none the less. You can still very easily 100→0 necros provided they don’t plague while keeping them pretty helpless with interrupts.

Jonwar.9205:

vengeance in general is a great clutch downed state ability despite what people say. I think it’s becoming a tradition to ceremoniously rez me after I vengeance stomp someone to get my team up.

By mobility I’m not really talking movement speed, swiftness is an easy buff to keep up really. I’m more on about gap closers, which can be used to traverse the map a lot faster. This is, in my humble opinion, what makes warriors an asset instead of a liability. We might not be the best help, but seconds count, and a fight is a whole lot more even if you get there fast as opposed to after your buddy has blown half his CD’s.

A lot of this I suppose changes according to team composition. The people I play with are generally on fairly low mobility classes so I’m kindof stuck, which may put the blinders on me to other options (the only exception is one guy who’ll play ele if I bother him enough about it).

All this being said, I’d really say give mainhand sword a chance. With this build final thrust would hit for pretty epic damage, and you have an immobilize as a way to set up burst when the target has stability up. It’s a different type of control, but control none the less. You can still very easily 100->0 necros provided they don’t plague while keeping them pretty helpless with interrupts.

The build is strong, but clearly if your comp is in need of mobile downed cleave more than strong cc cleave/1v1 potential there are other builds. I for one ran a longbow warrior today.

What I would suggest, perhaps when the map rotates, is that experienced warriors try this build out, even if its just for laugh. You might be surprised.

The thing about your build Phaeton is, after those 10 seconds of Beserker stance, you’re a walking timebomb. The fear chain would eat you alive.

Unfortunately for Necros, they haven’t had much experience dealing with this build yet so it’s going to be very difficult for them at first but when they figure out you don’t have Stability (except from Lyssa), they’ll just rip you to shreds.

so what you’re saying is.. apart from the 13 seconds of immunity, and the fact that any terror necro is as good as dead after the first cc, they will face roll?

Perhaps it is a L2P issue, but someone will have to prove it.

Dirame.8521:

The thing about your build Phaeton is, after those 10 seconds of Beserker stance, you’re a walking timebomb. The fear chain would eat you alive.

Unfortunately for Necros, they haven’t had much experience dealing with this build yet so it’s going to be very difficult for them at first but when they figure out you don’t have Stability (except from Lyssa), they’ll just rip you to shreds.

You are still dangerous for them (but I’d add stability nevertheless).

The main role of this kind of warrior is to make the necro’s life almost as miserable as yours.XD

Chain stun works wonders against any enemy who can’t block or teleport. If they do, is a bit harder but doable.

The main problem is in group fights you can be easily overwhelmed, for you work on shutting down single enemies.

Phaeton.9582:

What I would suggest, perhaps when the map rotates, is that experienced warriors try this build out, even if its just for laugh. You might be surprised.

Those two weapons are always surprising, as long as you are in the right place.

Pheaton;

I have been toying around with my old warrior for ages and have always liked these kinds of set ups, but I would like to ask your opinion on an alteration to the build.

my strength tree is the same, as is my discipline tree, with the caveat that I only have 20pt in Disc: Warrior’s Sprint and Signet Mastery

The other 20 points I have in the Defense tree for Dogged March and Cleansing Ire.

I believe that the Cleansing Ire is an incredibly powerful tool for filling up your adrenaline bar for more frequent burst utilization, which compensates for the lack of Burst Mastery, in addition to the cleansing it offers.

also, instead of Endure Pain and Berserker Stance, I have Signet of Stamina and Balanced Stance. I did have berserker stance, but after trying out kick as this thread has spoken so highly of it, I fell in love. I play as asura, and it always reminds me of this song:

boot to the head!

Final question, what are your thoughts on distracting strikes instead of berserker’s power?

Omg Phaeton I feel sorry for you, so many people on these forums are stupid, trolls, or just don’t think x.x Hopefully you help some people out though.

Not David~

They actually banned my eu account today for 72 hours because whole teams were reporting me when I stomped them.

In that meta you may as well run a zerker ammy.

Phaeton.9582:

They actually banned my eu account today for 72 hours because whole teams were reporting me when I stomped them.

In that meta you may as well run a zerker ammy.

wut wut WHAT? you got banned?

warrior hax!

nakoda.4213:

Phaeton.9582:

They actually banned my eu account today for 72 hours because whole teams were reporting me when I stomped them.

In that meta you may as well run a zerker ammy.

wut wut WHAT? you got banned?

warrior hax!

Nope just lots of sore losers.

Bulls charge is the new kick, updated.

Phaeton please post a vid ;D

I dont understand how long ur stun takes but I have a pretty hard time getting an entire chain off w/o my enemy running away ;(

JackBeShippin.4159:

Phaeton please post a vid ;D

I dont understand how long ur stun takes but I have a pretty hard time getting an entire chain off w/o my enemy running away ;(

Having decent Internet helps a lot XD.. Also bulls charge is a great free cc if things go sour, which many other hammer builds don’t have the luxury of. It’s always better to overkill the cc if you’re uncertain about getting the hits in. This is certainly a skill cap build for hammer mace warriors though, there’s a build described below with much stronger sustain if players are getting away.

so yeah running three warrior builds right now.

1. 0/0/30/20/20 rifle/s shield for sky hammer trolling
2. Build above when my team is already stacking classes like spirit rangers and guardians and some hard roaming cleave is needed.
3. A build very similar to this https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/PvP-Build-Hammerfall/first#post2654089
But with a valks amulet and hammer mace shield. On eu it can hold up as a makeshift bunker against/with decent players, and on NA… It’s just hilarious in a team scenario.

The loss of dps to the mace/bulls charge makes it trickier to kill from a single stun lock however.