Guild Wars 2

Good day everybody, I’m a complete newbie to the game’s PVP. After trying it with my level 35 warrior (maybe too soon?) and getting my behind handed to me almost every time (which is ok, I’m NOT complaining, seriously) I’ve asked here and there and the gist was “go hambow or it’s a no-go”. Is that right?
Now, I DO wanna learn to play, but with MY preferred weapon setup, which is Great Sword and Rifle. I understand this may sound odd to some (“why choose something else when there’s already a tried and true thing?”), but GW2 is a game, right? So I want to ask: will I be able to play the game the way I want or will I have to use the “tried and true”, else I’ll be gimping myself every step of the way? Or should I maybe switch to WvW, or never leave PVE at all with my setup?
I’d really like some unbiased opinions (if there are such, anyway). I’m not trolling, not whining (though I DO feel emotional about this, no argument there) or starting another flame war.
I just want to see some unbiased opinions.
Big thanks in advance to all who (hopefully) answer.

It’s not as strong as hambow or bow/x but you can definitely get it to work with the right traits, no question about that. I know little about warriors, so perhaps someone else can help you out here?

In terms of Runes, pick strength because they hit the hardest by a pretty good margin. Runes of the Pirate are also good if you want to keep a distance with rifle. For weapon sigils, I’d recommend using Battle and then whatever else you choose (air/fire are strong for DPS).

you might be able to have some fun in certain hotjoin games, depending on what kind of opponents you go up against. and what your actual build is.

but in solo arena or team arena, i have no heard of many people running greatsword / rifle to much success though.

could you link us what build you are running?

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

you might be able to have some fun in certain hotjoin games, depending on what kind of opponents you go up against. and what your actual build is.

but in solo arena or team arena, i have no heard of many people running greatsword / rifle to much success though.

could you link us what build you are running?

princess olrun ran it successfully in ToL. I believe he and Team Teamwork made it to the quarterfinals before losing to GF.

greatsword can be worked into builds, but rifle just doesn’t do anything in pvp.

the only attraction it has is Killshot but even that hits for far less than eviscerate and takes alot longer to build adrenaline.

its viable in wvw though were higher stats and foodbuffs are present.

Thanks again for answering, folks, appreciate it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQJARUjMd0FaZHOewJaAmgCZnPBHX7AQ9T85DBA

This is the build, not completed in regards to the equipment, since I’m just getting acquainted with all the options).
In short, I once saw a build and videos by Rendolphe, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqRa5K_kukA, and to put it plainly – it hit the spot absolutely.
I know the build is outdated.
What do you say?
Also, if not the warrior, then what class should I maybe choose if… well, me and Great Swords are eternally bound together:) It’s a joke, but, as they say, there’s truth in every joke… apologies if I reiterated the proverb incorrectly. English is, unfortunately, not my native language.

Unfortunately, when it comes to competitive PvP, you’d usually want to go for what’s best rather than what’s most fun to play. If it’s a GS warrior you want, you could always go with Greatsword + Longbow or Mace/Shield + Greatsword, both of which can offer a degree of success.
Other competitive specs that successfully incorporate GS are Mesmers and DPS Guardians. Then there’s also Power ranger (and some beastmaster builds).

Hello, this is Not David from Team Teamwork. GS/rifle is what olrun, our warrior, plays. If you want to talk to me about how to make it the most viable/fun in pvp send me a message (Not David is my ign).

The best Rifle build I’ve managed to come up with is this. The reasoning for going 6 in Arms is for Attack of Opportunity because at least then the Rifle AA becomes slightly less terrible since it gives you a constant 10% damage increase and the Forceful GS trait also helps out. If you time it perfectly you can go Bull’s Charge + Kill Shot and it’ll connect the split second before they get up. Rifle seems to basically be a ranged Axe but honestly sometimes the range isn’t worth it. Sniping off a squishy target from a distance can be useful but something about the weapon has always felt off to me.

You could also run something like this or this which would give you more soft CC and some team condi removal on option 1. Sword also benefits from AoO and still give you mobility. You also have the option of using Flurry and swapping to Rifle and getting a full Volley in 1v1 situations where you probably won’t be able to reliably land KS. Personally it’s a spec I would LIKE to use but when I looks at what some other builds bring it’s difficult to justify.

Great! I see that there’s at least a split of opinions… which is better than what I was led to believe. It’s a game after all, right? So why the heck not?
Any more tips for me?
And guys/gals, I really DO appreciate your time. The game is HUGE – you knew that, right?:) – and navigating through all the options and variations, while trying to “stay yourself” to boot is, well, much less tiresome with such support.

I think it is viable. It is not extra strong and there are probably better power options, but it’s not too bad. It won’t hurt the team.

I personally wouldn’t want something like that in my team just because there are better options, but still it’s not bad!

Personally, I think we should just ignore the meta.

I am a total alt-aholic and as such I play nearly every class with varying success, but most importantly I LIKE to do it.

OP, if you like this spec, DO IT! I tried something completely different on my warrior last week: Axe/mace with Mace/Axe. Most people seemed so ignorant of what maces can do that I killed several “Meta” players. On top, I didn’t run the passive build with stances and signets, but went all offensive with movement skills.

My advice: don’t run the meta, because it’s just what everyone runs and it will ruin your fun, instead play your own style and your own build and just rock all those self-assured meta players. :p

I tried rifle warr in pvp. It was fun nailing the occasional unlucky soul, but it was not very effective. For ranged sniping go staff ele or glass ranger, much better at it then warrior is.

I was messing around with a 6/6/0/0/2 zerker rifle build. Used frenzy to pew pew, when they got below 50% I got quickness again. Seemed pretty decent. Kill shot is brutal, and volley is an amazing skill. The rest of the rifle isn’t so great so there will probably be some future buffs to it. If you also wanna use gs then you need to primarily be in rifle and only use gs to like, maybe bull’s rush in to cleave downed bodies or for mobility.

Sirendor.1394:

Personally, I think we should just ignore the meta.

best thing said ever. Meta build or does not matter at all if you do not enjoy playing it, and most importantly, actually know how to play them.

In essence; Do what you want, just don’t drag anyone else’s leg.

nop, nothing is viable except hambow for war.

even axe/sword is semi viable cuz no cc, and only good for duel.

i know because i already tried every single possibility

Considering rifle was my primary weapon in PvE and WvW I was sorely disappointed with how it competes in the PvP standings.

The damage output isn’t bad, but there’s no mobility and the only defensive option for it is the #5.
However, the Rifle’s greatest weakness I found was the constant spamming of blind that makes it utterly useless in most matches against decent players. It’s why the longbow was generally favoured more because of such.
The telegraphed attacks and wind-up for killshot certainly didn’t do it any favors either.

I’d like nothing more than to use it effectively in all game modes.

Simon.3794:

nop, nothing is viable except hambow for war.

even axe/sword is semi viable cuz no cc, and only good for duel.

i know because i already tried every single possibility

This is definitely not true. I don’t know about whether rifle is viable or not but people do fine playing other specs besides Hambow. They pretty much all involve Longbow but not necessarily hammer. Hammer to me is such a noob weapon its infuriating how face roll it is. It’s very powerful because of lame traits but hell will freeze over before I ever use Hammer.

yes it is viable.

Saw one last night with 25 stacks of blood lust (killing 5 players). They sat near the opposing teams spawn and kept kill shotting scrubs. Probably hitting for around 10k+ I’d imagine.

Simon.3794:

nop, nothing is viable except hambow for war.

even axe/sword is semi viable cuz no cc, and only good for duel.

i know because i already tried every single possibility

I personally find Axe/Sword with Celestial gear more versatile than Hambow. Yes, you give up that control but in exchange you gain the ability to always have some way to exploit a weakness in the enemy. You have decent condi damage and power damage while still being tough enough to stay in the fight. Anyone who’s good is going to save some form of Stability/Invulnerability for stomps so losing out on the ability to interrupt stomps hurt much less than I expected it to.

I just wish I could get out of using Longbow on Warrior. You can do good work with Skullcracker but certain builds are just going to flat out suck to fight against. If GS had a sort of AoE that always triggered Cleansing Ire like Combustive shot does but with a much smaller range then I could see Warriors being able to ditch the bow.

My apologies for breaking the conversation somewhat, but before i forget – sir Not David, if you still visit this topic, could you please contact me by means of this forum? I’ve already sent you two messages, one by the forum mail and one ingame, but received no answer as of yet. Thank you.