Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

does anyone know a good mid-point bunker build for warriors?
Warrior is lacking so much for this job: Stability and protection for the group, a lot of condi remove or even aoe blinds.

Maybe Anet could consider merging few of them into the active parts of the banners?
Would make them much more usefull.

Greetz Bäm!

I feel like you are being genuine. In which case warriors can have alot of solo condition cleanse, aswell as solo stability. Though we lack AoE blinds and protection. Blocks/regen from Healing Signet and banners + Adrenal Surge also help. When going bunker your contribution to the team is being able to hold that point, not buff them aswell. If you want to do that you might want to try out Guardian. The banners have their own uses and don’t really need any more buffs. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS5ejkOFvtQCQMxBA0jrqKLlC7oLpIMyA-TsAA1CtIKSVkrITRyisFN+YFyuDA. this is just a bunker build I made on the spot. You can CC your opponents into submisson, or off the point. Stability comes from Last Stand trait and from Signet of Doylak. condition cleanse comes from activating your signet of Rage (thanks to runes of Lyssa) and from using your burst. Team buffs are added thanks to your banner and Empowered Allies trait. Inspiring Banners allows your banner to be on the battlefield almost permanetly.

Maybe there are some ways for warriors to play a bunker, but that would be more of a close point bunker where there aren´t the heavy team fights.
I think guard, nekro and ranger are much better for mid bunkering because of their group support.
But my actual intention was to find a better use for active skills (when you pick them up) for the banners. I think only banner of tactics and banner of discipline have a usefull 3.

http://intothemists.com/guides/1004-banner_bunker_warrior

This is the guide I posted for banner bunker warrior. The banner bunker warrior grants permanent team-wide regeneration, swiftness, and vigor, along with the banner buffs. You have the strongest hard rezzes in the game and also bring the incredibly strong res utility of Battle Standard.

When people compare bunker guardians to bunker warriors, they often only look at what the bunker warrior doesn’t bring that bunker guardians do: AoE stab, AoE prot, and burstier AoE condi removal. However, the warrior brings a lot of things that the guardian does not. For one, its tankiness means it doesn’t have to be babysat like a bunker guardian does. Second, its stuns and immobilizes are a kind of support too, just more offensive than the guardian brings. It lets you lock down a target for your group to focus. Third, the res strength of the warrior, especially when you include Battle Standard, far outclasses that of the guardian. It brings a lot of stuff to the table, but you do have to think about how you are going to make up for its flaws.

My team runs a DPS guardian along with the bunker warrior. The DPS guardian can bring the AoE stability and protection that the bunker warrior can’t. Also, the bunker warrior locks targets down for the DPS guardian to burst, since DPS guardians have trouble sticking to targets otherwise. When you’re trying out new builds, you have to look at the team comp as a whole.

In regards to banners, I don’t think they need a straight up buff, but they need some quality of life changes. At the moment they are extremely clunky to use actively. The passive benefits are all that banners are really used for currently. I want to use those actives, but it’s just so slow.

Bamboula.6579:

But my actual intention was to find a better use for active skills (when you pick them up) for the banners. I think only banner of tactics and banner of discipline have a usefull 3.

The 3 skill for all banners is a swiftness boon. I think you’re talking about the 2 skill. The tactics banner has a small group heal, the discipline banner has a short group fury, the defense banner has a short knockback, and the strength banner has vulnerability. In regards to the usefulness of those skills, I’d rank them defense > discipline > tactics > strength. Honestly, it’s not even worth the time to pick up the tactics and strength banners if you aren’t going for the swiftness, but the knockback from the defense banner has some nice uses when trying to decap a point, and the discipline banner is a good DPS boost for your party.

Listen to Olrun; one of the best warrior bunks evarr

Olrun that is cool as I’m a new warrior PvPer and was myself just trying to create a bunkery-type warrior and wasn’t getting anywhere.

I’m confused about your comments under “Utilities” as I only see one banner slotted but you mention 3 different ones?

I don’t use the same banner in every situation. At the moment I swap between Banner of Defense and Banner of Discipline, bringing Banner of Discipline if my team is heavily power based and Banner of Defense at all other times. I mentioned the useful actives just in case people decided to bring them.

Annnnd I just noticed this: “Savage Leap can be used to move around the map slower”

I’m kittening brilliant.

Other than that, you can use flurry to set up ally burst.

I’m already doing this with a roamer war, to set up 100b (even if the best combo is bolas → 100b → Skull Bash/Flurry → Final thrust)

Hehe.

Thanks. I will give that a shot, though having played only a couple of hotjoins as warrior my guess is it will take a while to get up to speed on a build like that one (esp the weapon combos.)

Josh Davis.6015:

I can confirm that Olrun’s build is one of the best bunker builds for warrior. Thanks for the guide, Olrun!

Gee that’s great. More reasons to run double/triple warrior teams.

Can you guys maybe let some other professions in your meta? Or should we all just reroll warrior?

Most teams still run guardian bunkers for the group stability and protection. I think warrior bunker is a viable alternative, but that’s just it. It isn’t completely taking over the role. Warriors are by design a very versatile class, so they fit into the meta more than other classes. They are definitely a little strong right now, but your whining is definitely out of proportion when you look at the professional teams and don’t see all warrior teams.

Elementalists by design are a very versatile class, and they aren’t in the meta. Mesmers are a very versatile class, and they aren’t in the meta.

Secondly, there are no professional teams.

Third, you play a warrior and are heavily biased toward the profession. Double/triple warrior is the meta, which means they are insanely out of proportion. Downplaying the broken state doesn’t make the problem any less real.

Last, you believe that a profession is only overpowered when it’s a quint team?!? That’s ridiculous.

First of all, I was responding to your hyperbole of having everyone roll warrior. Second, I did say that warrior’s were too strong right now, so I have no idea where you got the idea that I was saying they weren’t. Third, I don’t know where you’re getting your information about the meta (solo queue?) but, especially after the hambow nerfs, I haven’t seen very many double warrior teams.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

First of all, I was responding to your hyperbole of having everyone roll warrior. Second, I did say that warrior’s were too strong right now, so I have no idea where you got the idea that I was saying they weren’t. Third, I don’t know where you’re getting your information about the meta (solo queue?) but, especially after the hambow nerfs, I haven’t seen very many double warrior teams.

Watch
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/events/GW2match-net-EU-OFFICIAL-TOURNIE-15th-Dec/first#post3380820

all teams played with warrior and some with 2 warriors. But at finals was in every team only 1

Honestly don’t care about the meta composition of “professional teams”. Since PvP is (unfortunately) entirely oriented around holding capture points, I want to create characters that are good at it, and this sounds like it might be one.

Thanks again Olrun.

Josh Davis.6015:

I can confirm that Olrun’s build is one of the best bunker builds for warrior. Thanks for the guide, Olrun!

And warrior players often say the class can’t bunker.

I run a similar build except I take vigorous shouts and rampage. Its a great elite for debunkering and holding the point until allies come to help.

I don’t see the problem with there being a warrior on most teams and two on some. There are team comps that two of the same class, and warriors aren’t the only ones who get stacked. The classes I don’t ever really see effectively stacked are mesmers, thieves, and elementalists. It really just shows that, while warriors are a bit too strong right now, it’s nowhere near as outrageous as you were making it out to be after the hambow nerfs.

In regards to shouts vs. banners, banners win out in pretty much every situation. The only way for shouts to outheal banners is to use 3 shouts and spam them as soon as they go off cooldown, which doesn’t allow you to time them for maximum effect and forces you to go without stability. Banners also scale better with healing power.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

I don’t see the problem with there being a warrior on most teams and two on some. <snip>

I stopped reading right there.

want to get to top 100 in solo q? warrior bunker’s the way

Okay so.. how do you actually play this? Any tips for a newbie, Olrun? I’m not really sure what to do with the weapons and skills. I’m trying to read your tips within the build description but it’s unfamiliar.

I get the idea of dodging and playing defensively to hold a point. What do you do to take one?

Also: Why “Fear me”? I’m sure it’s there for a reason but I can’t figure out why a very short duration fear on a long CD is worthwhile.

I have never tried that bunker spec with banners, i usually run a shout warrior to support at mid, and i often play it instead of bunker guardian (as stated before, to compensate the lack of aoe stability a dps guard with stand your ground can do it.)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBJhJak0p5t6R5BHOggeohZRVoKAHpHoBbkGA-TsAgzCmIySllLLTWyssZNaY9xsBA

I find that the amount of support this build can offer is great, once you get just 3 kills you got full stack of life, which means shouts will heal for about 2.8k each, which means that using both “great justice” and “shake it off” will grant your team 5.6k heal, fury and might, and 2 conditions removed (3 on yourself).
Not having stability is a choise that will define better its role: he is not THE stomper, when one is finishing the downed its better for this kind of warr to stun/knockback those trying to rezz (specally if they drop shadow refuge), or anyway CCing other opponents to reduce the amount of dmg the stompers coudl get.

Why warhorn? i just like it alot, i traited it in order to increase the amount of support i can give against conditions (conversion to boon is even better than just removing), thx to the ridiculous CD (12s and 16s).
Basically i can spam condition removal for my team (12s, 16s, 20s, 20s, 48s), and in case we are getting a burst of condition i can make use of cleansing ire, activated with earthshaker to also slow down the attrition for few seconds and give time to cleanse.
Warhorn also offer a full uptime on swiftenss, which is great to kite in teamfight or to get to a point to assist the team.
And then…. the underrated Call to arms, i love that too… 6s aoe weakness can help a bit to lower overall damage and 13s vigor aoe will just make necros love you.
Then there is also a blast on 1/2s casting time and 16s cd, which is great on mesmer field to give aoe chaos armor or on engis/ranger water field to spam more heals.
[Happened once that the ranger used healing spring, the engi blasted 2 times on it, and i did 2 more blasts + 2 shouts…. thats a serious aoe burst heal]

Remember when warrior and necro were bad for months? They were not being played on the top level teams and warrior was extremely bad. Defektive and symbolic wrote up a bunch of topics about what each class needed and the devs didnt listen. They gave us burning and healing signet… This was a Bandaid fix with no real balance solution.

Thanks cuge, I’ll try that one too!

@Thedenofsin There’s a guardian on pretty much every team. OP. Pls nerf.

@Qaelyn There are really only two ways to take a point as a bunker warrior, Fear Me! and the Banner of Defense knockback. Neither are very strong, but it’s something I give up for the other benefits. I’ve seen some run Stomp to decap.
Basically, when you play the build you have to decide when to go aggressive and when to run in circles. Your stuns and immobilizes will really help lock a target down for burst, but you don’t want to go down yourself. It’s a balancing game.

@cuge My build is a bunker. Yours looks more like a support/off-bunker. You have no way to effectively mitigate power-based damage (I use shield block and defy pain). Also, I don’t think the second life sigil is at all worth it compared to the number of dodges you get from the energy sigil.

@Torqky Sure, warriors are still a little strong right now, but the hambow nerfs were in the right direction balance-wise. We’ll get there.

Well i might also swap in defy pain to survive better aginst spike, same goes for second weapon choise, i might try it out now.

Tried them both briefly. So far a bit better luck with Olrun’s, but I’m having difficulty with the weapons. I don’t seem to have much way to deal with an onslaught of multiple players, or I don’t know how to do so effectively. In an 8v8 hotjoin I had difficulty with 2 or 3 players, especially ones with petting zoos, simply overwhelming my defenses.

I think I might be better off with cuge’s weaponset? I like the banner emphasis but the hammer just seems super useful in this sort of build.

Of course maybe the problem is 8v8 instead of 5v5. They tend to be more zergy.

Olrun, ever considered swapping the 10 in Strength for Discipline to get Warrior’s Sprint? It’s just super nice to have the extra speed, though I realize a bunker isn’t supposed to move all that much.

Does the regen on banners only apply when first summoned? If so, that’s not an awful lot time given their insanely long CDs.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

@Thedenofsin There’s a guardian on pretty much every team. OP. Pls nerf.

…except for the teams where the warrior has pushed even the guardian out from the role of mid-point bunker, as highlighted by your build.

Thanks for reminding me about how warriors are taking over that role as well. -)

Thedenofsin.7340:

the warrior has pushed even the guardian out from the role of mid-point bunker, as highlighted by your build.

Just wanted to stop in and say how happy I am to have been pushed out of that role. This build largely came into our team so I wouldn’t have to stand in that circle anymore.

Idk if your using shield Qaelyn but its invaluable

I did use it and the abilities are certainly nice. Just feels like something’s missing.. lack of an AOE option maybe.

Qaelyn.7612:

I did use it and the abilities are certainly nice. Just feels like something’s missing.. lack of an AOE option maybe.

longbow has nice burst and firefield but ive never used it with a bunker build, you could try mace/shield/LB or mace/shield/hammer

Longbow is a powerful weapon but it doesn’t fit this type of build really. I was thinking more hammer. But I’ll give the shield and sword more of a tryout, Olrun does seem to know what he’s doing.

Olrun isnt the only one who has been running bunker warrior, I honestly see no reason to use sword unless your trying imob someone off a point or using conditions.

It’s because you want to run shield (for defense) and warhorn (for support). So, you need two mainhand weapons to go with those. Mace is an obvious choice, and sword is what’s left. Plus, sword gives you an extra CC and a leap for mobility.

Josh Davis.6015:

I can confirm that Olrun’s build is one of the best bunker builds for warrior. Thanks for the guide, Olrun!

That build looks absolutely horrible, i mean banners of def in pvp?? when do you start playin your own game!!??

@Thedenofsin Why is it okay for guardians to have their position locked into every team, but not warriors? If you’re so worried about how a warrior is on every team as a warrior, you should be happy that people have an option other than guardian for their mid bunker.

@Qaelyn Hammer is a viable option. My build is 100% defensive. Bringing hammer with the build makes it more offensive, but you do lost some survivability. It’s all about personal preference and what fits with your team. I’ve definitely seen some bunker warriors run hammer.

@clint You’ve obviously never face a warrior bunker on Legacy of the Foefire. Savage Leap is invaluable there. You run in circles and, when it’s off cooldown, you about face and jump all the way across the point. It ends up mitigating more damage than any dodge roll. Also, one of the primary benefits of the bunker warrior is the ability to lock down a target for your team to burst. The swords immobilize does this very well. For example, if your team downs someone, but the other team is going to get the rez off, you can immobilize them all in place. That way, even once the rez goes off, your team can AoE them down.

@Menno One of the main issues with running banners in PvP is how hard they are to use. They take a lot of time to pick up, and the actives don’t really compensate for this enough. They also don’t follow you around. But all of that is moot if you’re a mid bunker. The banner gives about 300 health per second to your team, 1700 max health, and 170 toughness. It’s like a mini Spirit of Nature without the rez, but it only takes up a utility spot.

Olrun: Defensive is what I’m after too. I’ll stick to your build and give it a fair try.

Still confused about the banner regen trait. The description says 3 seconds but then the tooltips have large numbers. Is the regen actually active the whole time the banner is out? If so, that’s pretty amazing.

Other questions:

1. Would it be worth taking an active heal to complement the passive heal from the banner, to deal with burst damage?
2. Does the regen stack if you have 2 banners?
3. Ever try the build with a cleric’s amulet instead of soldier’s?

Mace has great cc and an extra block. I guess if mobility is more important for you mid run sword, if not go mace.

@Qaelyn Inspiring Battle Standard applies 3 seconds of Regeneration every 3 seconds. It’s permanent AoE regeneration for the duration of the banner. With Inspiring Banners, the banner uptime is almost 100%.
1. With the amount of armor you have, you aren’t generally going to get bursted very hard most of the time. When you do get bursted, you can shield block and dodge roll and stuff while your health goes back up. I guess you could try it, but I don’t really think it’s worth it.
2. No.
3. Yes. I actually run it frequently. Soldier’s tends to be stronger against condi classes, whereas Cleric’s is stronger against power damage, especially since the benefit of Cleric’s is reduced by poison, but Soldier’s is not. I do like Cleric’s a lot, though.

@clint Or run both

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

@Thedenofsin Why is it okay for guardians to have their position locked into every team, but not warriors?

The answer is: there are 8 professions and 5 slots on a team.
Your build shows just how overpowered warriors are.

Yeah its really up to how you wanna play

@Thedenofsin If you aren’t whining about guardians too, then your logic doesn’t make sense.

I have climbed the top of the soloqueue and teamqueue leaderboards with this exact build. It works and is incredibly useful in team fights. People hate it and I love being incredibly frustrating to kill which is exactly what this build brings to the fight.

Warriors are a very strong and viable bunker, believe it. Sorry guardians.

Some guardians are happy they don’t have to stand in a circle anymore

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

Some guardians are happy they don’t have to stand in a circle anymore

The general fear of guardians is that without being needed on mid to bunker, where do they fit into the team? The only thing they then bring that others can’t is aoe stability. Non bunker guardian builds tend to be sub-par otherwise.

I would personally love a viable off-guard, but given the last balance patch, its not likely to happen any time soon.

I know of several successful DPS guardians. It has its benefits.

OlrunTheBlade.1486:

@Menno One of the main issues with running banners in PvP is how hard they are to use. They take a lot of time to pick up, and the actives don’t really compensate for this enough. They also don’t follow you around. But all of that is moot if you’re a mid bunker. The banner gives about 300 health per second to your team, 1700 max health, and 170 toughness. It’s like a mini Spirit of Nature without the rez, but it only takes up a utility spot.

Not to nitpick, but regen with a soldier will be 168ish, rather than 300 with your build.

Unless you were talking Cleric’s.

Forum bug …fixed