Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, pretty new to this game and know only couple of classes (not necro unfortunately).
Yesterday i played couple of duels with my friend and found out that i could hardly kill him. that was near impossible. What he did is PVT gear, minions traits, LOTS of minions and pretty much of conditions. so he had 27k hp and 2100-2200 toughness which is really a lot.
My build is berserker war 20\30\0\0\20 with Bull charge, Frenzy, SoR. Ive changed heal to Mending and change Shake it Off to SoS(to remove all conditions).
My setup is GS-S\S so i have lots of gup closers, have burst damage whatever but this is definitely not enough.

i could hardly burst half of his hp down and then he was just running rounds kiting me.
So maybe i should focus his adds first? or any advise. Thx.

In the case of equally skilled players, necro should never lose to a warrior.

But for tips against minionmaster, I suggest you spin-to-win his minions down, make sure to avoid the flesh golem rush, keep constant pressure on him to force him to go defensive, but save your main burst when he has used up his DS or when it’s on CD (10 secs untraited), make sure he doesn’t have fear on CC traited.

Never open with a frenzy burst, he’ll mitigate it easily with DS and it’ll leave you very very vulnerable. It’s better to bite chunks out of him with whirlwind/bladetrail&flurry (good with leg specialist) to non-frenzy 100b. Constant pressure is important, because if you leave him any breathing space he’ll kite or fearcombo you and burn you down with conditions while easily outlasting you. Burst him with frenzy 100b at the end of a dodgeroll when you’re sure you’ve got his defenses down.

Imo axe mainhand is stronger against necros than sword, since sword bleeds can bite you back when he transfers them, but pure direct damage from auto/eviscerate forces him to go defensive. Though using a lot of immobilizes and swapping to a greatsword is very effective form of pressure also.

Fighting tanky condi/minionnecros is similar to fighting mesmers, it’s pretty much a race against the clock where you have to keep constant pressure and kill him in a set time, otherwise you’ve already lost the fight, since he’ll kill you with conditions and outlast you.

thx a lot i should try this.
And what about range weapon, LB ex. worth it?

Lbow is so-so and it’s good for AoE pressure when you’re offpoint in a teamfight, gameplay with it mostly resembles thief sbow clusterbombing. It requires you to focus more on lbow when playing like that and keeping GS mostly for mobility/extra finisher burst. I think quite a few NA warriors play with GS+lbow, not so popular in EU.

Rifle seems to be pretty horrible in a closed setting like spvp, since the hard hitting killshot is easily avoidable by enemies, even by accident when they go behind terrain/object.

Warrior meta has pretty much made 0 changes since beta, only noticeable thing is that people run even more glassier, since the extra survivability from defense tree didn’t count for much. Axe/mace/sword+shield is what 99% of warriors here in EU use, you’ll sometimes see the occasional hammer warr and “wtf clearly from PvE” signet users. Main hand for 2ndary set depend on if you want damage/CC/mobility, it all depends on enemy team setup and map.

I strongly recommend grabbing leg specialist trait from tactics 10, dropping the arms 30 (you have quickness there I assume?) to 20 and using mobile strikes in discipline 20 if you don’t already have it. I strongly suggest grabbing some sort of stunbreak (balanced stance and endure pain are the most popular). Balanced stance is the overall every-situation choice and endure pain is used mostly against thief/burst heavy opponents.

If you need heavy condition removal you could swap bull’s charge for signet of stamina or have a look at lyssa runes. Lyssa removes all conditions/give all boons if you use your elite.

Overall warrior is a team fighter and needs other people to patch his downsides, else he is very squishy. He has better AoE pressure than a thief, very good rez denial and can stay in midfights a bit longer. Not a very good duelist though and most of the 1v1s you encounter you’re practically playing with a handicap unless you caught the enemy with his pants down. There are a lot of times when you have to disengage and run and refocus on other point or regroup with a teammate, since there are a lot of professions/builds you will never win 1v1 against a equally skilled player.

Warrior is just pretty bad in all 1v1 situations where the other guy has any amount of CC or slows.

Psybunny.8906:

Lbow is so-so and it’s good for AoE pressure when you’re offpoint in a teamfight, gameplay with it mostly resembles thief sbow clusterbombing. It requires you to focus more on lbow when playing like that and keeping GS mostly for mobility/extra finisher burst. I think quite a few NA warriors play with GS+lbow, not so popular in EU.

Rifle seems to be pretty horrible in a closed setting like spvp, since the hard hitting killshot is easily avoidable by enemies, even by accident when they go behind terrain/object.

Warrior meta has pretty much made 0 changes since beta, only noticeable thing is that people run even more glassier, since the extra survivability from defense tree didn’t count for much. Axe/mace/sword+shield is what 99% of warriors here in EU use, you’ll sometimes see the occasional hammer warr and “wtf clearly from PvE” signet users. Main hand for 2ndary set depend on if you want damage/CC/mobility, it all depends on enemy team setup and map.

I strongly recommend grabbing leg specialist trait from tactics 10, dropping the arms 30 (you have quickness there I assume?) to 20 and using mobile strikes in discipline 20 if you don’t already have it. I strongly suggest grabbing some sort of stunbreak (balanced stance and endure pain are the most popular). Balanced stance is the overall every-situation choice and endure pain is used mostly against thief/burst heavy opponents.

If you need heavy condition removal you could swap bull’s charge for signet of stamina or have a look at lyssa runes. Lyssa removes all conditions/give all boons if you use your elite.

Overall warrior is a team fighter and needs other people to patch his downsides, else he is very squishy. He has better AoE pressure than a thief, very good rez denial and can stay in midfights a bit longer. Not a very good duelist though and most of the 1v1s you encounter you’re practically playing with a handicap unless you caught the enemy with his pants down. There are a lot of times when you have to disengage and run and refocus on other point or regroup with a teammate, since there are a lot of professions/builds you will never win 1v1 against a equally skilled player.

Well done. Post of the week.

I learnt something, and aspiring warriors did aswell. I suggest you copy paste this into the warrior forums, it’s good info for aspiring warrior players.

Valkyriez.6578:

Psybunny.8906:

Lbow is so-so and it’s good for AoE pressure when you’re offpoint in a teamfight, gameplay with it mostly resembles thief sbow clusterbombing. It requires you to focus more on lbow when playing like that and keeping GS mostly for mobility/extra finisher burst. I think quite a few NA warriors play with GS+lbow, not so popular in EU.

Rifle seems to be pretty horrible in a closed setting like spvp, since the hard hitting killshot is easily avoidable by enemies, even by accident when they go behind terrain/object.

Warrior meta has pretty much made 0 changes since beta, only noticeable thing is that people run even more glassier, since the extra survivability from defense tree didn’t count for much. Axe/mace/sword+shield is what 99% of warriors here in EU use, you’ll sometimes see the occasional hammer warr and “wtf clearly from PvE” signet users. Main hand for 2ndary set depend on if you want damage/CC/mobility, it all depends on enemy team setup and map.

I strongly recommend grabbing leg specialist trait from tactics 10, dropping the arms 30 (you have quickness there I assume?) to 20 and using mobile strikes in discipline 20 if you don’t already have it. I strongly suggest grabbing some sort of stunbreak (balanced stance and endure pain are the most popular). Balanced stance is the overall every-situation choice and endure pain is used mostly against thief/burst heavy opponents.

If you need heavy condition removal you could swap bull’s charge for signet of stamina or have a look at lyssa runes. Lyssa removes all conditions/give all boons if you use your elite.

Overall warrior is a team fighter and needs other people to patch his downsides, else he is very squishy. He has better AoE pressure than a thief, very good rez denial and can stay in midfights a bit longer. Not a very good duelist though and most of the 1v1s you encounter you’re practically playing with a handicap unless you caught the enemy with his pants down. There are a lot of times when you have to disengage and run and refocus on other point or regroup with a teammate, since there are a lot of professions/builds you will never win 1v1 against a equally skilled player.

Well done. Post of the week.

I learnt something, and aspiring warriors did aswell. I suggest you copy paste this into the warrior forums, it’s good info for aspiring warrior players.

They’d just tell him he’s wrong and a skilled player has no problem in 1v1s, how warriors can bunker and how killshot is the most OP thing ever.

Anyways, to prove Psy’s point about the warrior meta, here’s a video from April 28, 2012:

a few NA warriors
what is NA?

I strongly recommend grabbing leg specialist trait from tactics 10, dropping the arms 30 (you have quickness there I assume?) to 20 and using mobile strikes in discipline 20 if you don’t already have it
thx Ill try leg specialist. Yes, i use quickness from my arms30,
I use Signets recharge faster, but you are right, its better to use mobile strikes.
Actually I came from PVE what is the main part of the game for me, but already make rank 12 that is pretty low i know, but still i understand much more now and dont start with burst for example cuz 90%+ ready for that as they see GS warrior. But still when i meet more or less skilled player i feel myself awful just dying (though i can have fun with low skilled players, lol. at that duel with necro engineer joined us and i killed him and finished him in 1-2 fight and ran away (yep, my friend necro even worse then me )

I strongly suggest grabbing some sort of stunbreak (balanced stance and endure pain are the most popular). Balanced stance is the overall every-situation choice and endure pain is used mostly against thief/burst heavy opponents
Yea i know, I use Shake it off for that purpose, I think I can change it for Balance stance, But EP.. i dont think its ok for sPvP. We have S#5 for the burst and i dont think EP is good enough to change Bull Rush, well.. when talking about pug and roaming (thats what i do)

If you need heavy condition removal you could swap bull’s charge for signet of stamina or have a look at lyssa runes. Lyssa removes all conditions/give all boons if you use your elite.
I saw one build here that was really great for me. Spartan. Axe\Mace Sword\Shield and Lyssa runes, But than i realize that these runes are not good for me. main thing is using SoR when you are already in a fight and thats really bad because you fight without all its benefits just to remove conditions afterwards. I changed them to the common divinity runes

Sword + Great Sword isn’t a good duel spec. Just putting it out there.

Hint: Mace + DPS weapon = Baseline in dueling.

But yeah Necro with Foot In The Grave, Reaper’s Protection, and Plague up is one of the most annoying BS ever.

BTW what are usuall sigils? I use Rage(quickness) for my GS, Hydromancy for my shield,
for A\S its sigil of 100% crit after swap on my axe, for S\S i dont really know, smtm just sigil of accuracy

Sword + Great Sword isn’t a good duel spec. Just putting it out there.
Hint: Mace + DPS weapon = Baseline in dueling
I get you right? it is GS + Mace\X ?

dmitrycx.7465:

BTW what are usuall sigils? I use Rage(quickness) for my GS, Hydromancy for my shield,
for A\S its sigil of 100% crit after swap on my axe, for S\S i dont really know, smtm just sigil of accuracy

You NEVER use 100% crit on swap on x/Shield or quickness on GS if you actually care about being more effective. Just putting it out there.

Dont use runes of the lyssa. Use ogre, it is way better.

And yes, always take leg specialist. If you take leg specialist there really is no reason to lose to a necro 1 on 1 (although a minion build is stronger with the stun breaker on the flesh worm).

The reason a necro will struggle with a warrior 1 on 1 is that you have 4 stuns or immobilises (the 2 ranged cripples, bulls charge and shield bash). The necro cant do anything about these because he wont have enough dodges and if he does get hit then he dies very quickly because necros are slow and lack any damage mitigation.

Additionally, any necro that is good in tpvp will be running utilities which are literally useless in a 1 vs 1 situation, whilst you as a warrior wont be. Fighting without utilities when the other person has them is obviously hard. And to be honest if I am to beat a warrior on my necro 1vs 1 then I have to land my corrupt boon (my only utility of use) or I am screwed. This is obviously not going to happen all the time because corrupt boon is hard to land.

So to those saying warrior is bad 1v1. It really isnt. A warrior is a very strong 1v1 build. In fact the class isnt that UP at all. It just needs some additionally condition removal OR just some buff to all its heals to bring them into line with other classes. These things mean the warrior is weakest in team fights due to its lack of healing relative to its hp (needs to be fixed imo) and due to its lack of condi removal.

Schwahrheit.4203:

You NEVER use 100% crit on swap on x/Shield or quickness on GS if you actually care about being more effective. Just putting it out there.

hate comments like that. Mate – tell what is better if you know, ill change for sure. But telling ‘this is wrong’ without telling what is right is really annoing

Yeah cause Corrupt Boon can be devastating vs. Lyssa, I would say don’t get attached to it vs. Necros.

It is also true that warriors aren’t THAT bad at dueling but the thing is they do not counter anything in duels either while other classes can have it so much easy in certain match-ups.

dmitrycx.7465:

Schwahrheit.4203:

You NEVER use 100% crit on swap on x/Shield or quickness on GS if you actually care about being more effective. Just putting it out there.

hate comments like that. Mate – tell what is better if you know, ill change for sure. But telling ‘this is wrong’ without telling what is right is really annoing

Just flame on the GS I would

dmitrycx.7465:

Schwahrheit.4203:

You NEVER use 100% crit on swap on x/Shield or quickness on GS if you actually care about being more effective. Just putting it out there.

hate comments like that. Mate – tell what is better if you know, ill change for sure. But telling ‘this is wrong’ without telling what is right is really annoing

I’ll give you another hint, it has something to do with Reckless Dodge.

Schwahrheit.4203:

Yeah cause Corrupt Boon can be devastating vs. Lyssa, I would say don’t get attached to it vs. Necros.

It is also true that warriors aren’t THAT bad at dueling but the thing is they do not counter anything in duels either while other classes can have it so much easy in certain match-ups.

Well a dual loses all relevance when people are swapping skills in and out to deal with certain classes. If you want to dual a necro then he should be forced to run his epidemic/signet of undeath utilities and you should be forced to run portal etc if you are a mesmer or whatever. IMO at least.

I’ll give you another hint, it has something to do with Reckless Dodge
?
sigil of endurance or smth like that that gives half of your endurance back? is that what are you talking about? well… i think its quite good for the S\S for ex. but i dont think it is ok on both of your sets because of 9sec cd.

dmitrycx.7465:

BTW what are usuall sigils? I use Rage(quickness) for my GS, Hydromancy for my shield,
for A\S its sigil of 100% crit after swap on my axe, for S\S i dont really know, smtm just sigil of accuracy

Sword + Great Sword isn’t a good duel spec. Just putting it out there.
Hint: Mace + DPS weapon = Baseline in dueling
I get you right? it is GS + Mace\X ?

Saying sword + GS isn’t a good duel spec, true. But as the warrior has lack of being competitive in duels, you don’t use this class for it. Warrior is meant to be a teamfighter, means you even roam together. And there the sword is the big outstanding weapon. Why? get 100% adrenaline, use f1. This 4.5 sec imobilize is huge teamfights. You even can press f1 and instantly change to GS, means you land your 100b without bulls-charge. I recommend to try it out.

Sword burst is clunky as hell. Half the time my character just freezes in place for the duration when I GS swap.

Plus I don’t like going 20/20/0/10/20, which you’d be a fool not to with sword. Either I have to sacrifice 10% crit damage + rally on vengeance or the quickness and 5% crit, to get the 1s immob. eh…

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

dmitrycx.7465:

BTW what are usuall sigils? I use Rage(quickness) for my GS, Hydromancy for my shield,
for A\S its sigil of 100% crit after swap on my axe, for S\S i dont really know, smtm just sigil of accuracy

Sword + Great Sword isn’t a good duel spec. Just putting it out there.
Hint: Mace + DPS weapon = Baseline in dueling
I get you right? it is GS + Mace\X ?

Saying sword + GS isn’t a good duel spec, true. But as the warrior has lack of being competitive in duels, you don’t use this class for it. Warrior is meant to be a teamfighter, means you even roam together. And there the sword is the big outstanding weapon. Why? get 100% adrenaline, use f1. This 4.5 sec imobilize is huge teamfights. You even can press f1 and instantly change to GS, means you land your 100b without bulls-charge. I recommend to try it out.

Right because Flurry + HB is totally new. Skull Crack + HB is better anyways cause 100% critical chance.

You don’t use sword to burst, you use it for imbolize. If you do it right then you hit 100% of your 100b even without frenzy. Second thing is you have an additional movement skill (nr. 2) on sword.
Sword / GS is a weapon set-up played by high-end players. If you observe them you will see how effective it is.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

You don’t use sword to burst, you use it for imbolize. If you do it right then you hit 100% of your 100b even without frenzy. Second thing is you have an additional movement skill (nr. 2) on sword.
Sword / GS is a weapon set-up played by high-end players. If you observe them you will see how effective it is.

Yes, and then it bugs out half the time and freezes me for the duration. It’s effective if it works, but it doesn’t most of the time. I’m literally just repeating what I already said.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

You don’t use sword to burst, you use it for imbolize. If you do it right then you hit 100% of your 100b even without frenzy. Second thing is you have an additional movement skill (nr. 2) on sword.
Sword / GS is a weapon set-up played by high-end players. If you observe them you will see how effective it is.

Learn to read bro, I compared Flurry to HB and Skull Crack to HB. I know flurry connects to HB.

I missunderstood because the word “bug” wasn’t there. But yes it happens. And still it’s effective even when you are freezed (mabye whirlwind helps), because your teammates have a not-dodging target. Seems to be a subjective issue.

Schwahrheit.4203:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

You don’t use sword to burst, you use it for imbolize. If you do it right then you hit 100% of your 100b even without frenzy. Second thing is you have an additional movement skill (nr. 2) on sword.
Sword / GS is a weapon set-up played by high-end players. If you observe them you will see how effective it is.

Learn to read bro, I compared Flurry to HB and Skull Crack to HB. I know flurry connects to HB.

Learn to who I am talking to. I was talking to a different player. If you read above you will get it.

^
Quote em next time then.

dmitrycx.7465:

BTW what are usuall sigils? I use Rage(quickness) for my GS, Hydromancy for my shield,
for A\S its sigil of 100% crit after swap on my axe, for S\S i dont really know, smtm just sigil of accuracy

Sword + Great Sword isn’t a good duel spec. Just putting it out there.
Hint: Mace + DPS weapon = Baseline in dueling
I get you right? it is GS + Mace\X ?

This type of build with a little variations is what most GS warriors run and this specifically is mine: http://tiny.cc/905ttw

Little explanation to sigil choices:

• Fire vs Air on GS: fire is AoE effect and 1.0 damage coeficent, Air is single target and 1.1 coeficent. Since GS is a cleave weapon, I prefer the extra AoE damage against groups, people rezzing etc. I’m using also using fire on axe MH if I have it as my 2ndary.

*Having rage on GS seems not so ideal imo, since you’ll be very in-and-out of meleerange while playing with a GS. Since you’ll want to use whirlwind as often as possible and having it proc after you just did a whirlwind and are trying to close the cap again will leave you with a “wasted” quickness with no extra damage to show for it. Could have it’s uses though.

• I use rage on my sword mainhand, since the role of sword in my playstyle is to setup my burst, to catch people and to keep mobile pressure on them. When rage procs (ideally at the start of a flurry), I swap to my GS right away and I can get off a “free” quickness 100b without having to use my traits or utility.

• I personally use bloodlust on my offhand, but that is purely to anyone’s preference. I just prefer the extra 250 power I get from stacks (it’s 5 per kill in s/tpvp so 25 is not so hard to reach). Energy/Hydromancy/Geomancy are very good “on swap” choices, I’d choose energy from those 3. Alternatively you could roll with for example force axe with fire shield, since axe mainhand will get both the 5% damage bonus and at the same time all the axe skills will still proc from the offhand fire sigil.

Overall about the build:
Warrior is very weak to slows and conditions overall, so you’ll have to play on mobility and “drive-by” attacks. Get in, burst and pressure, get out and move on, if it’s not safe to stay. You’ll most likely be the first one to get focused so smart play in being “invisible”, but still getting your job done is quite difficult in teamfights.

Usually the way to distinguish smart warriors from bad ones, is that a smart one never blows all of his cooldowns right away and he knows when to run. Combat with a warrior is all about baiting opponent defenses, pressure and waiting for an opening. Since you’re quite vulnerable and eat everything face first it’s usually a timed battle for you.

As Schwar said, mace+shield is better for dueling, since it requires a lot of baiting. And consider using it if you need a bit of setup for your bursts. My personal favourite and in my opinion best dueling spec is a bit tankier axe+mace/mace+shield build, but that build falls very short in tourna play due to lack of mobility and it has it’s glaring weaknesses against some builds. Fixing it with sword mainhand always felt like a poor man’s greatsword.

About runes:
I’m using Ogre runes myself, only for the extra damage they bring and your rockdog can be a decent ally in combat. I have also used Lyssa and it can be useful for clutch condi removal and stability for stomping.

Biggest Ogre downside is the thief’s sbow or any other bouncing attacks which will bounce between you and your dog, the other one is since it’s a damage rune it offers nothing else except damage.
Biggest downside to lyssa is the DPS drop from less power, constantly feeling forced to keep your elite on passive and saving it for some condiburst, since you’ll never know when you’ll need it and ofc the dreaded corrupt boon which hardcounters it and causes your death most likely. (Although from first hand experience from someone who also alts a necro, corrupt boon is a miracle to hit reliably -.-)

Schwahrheit.4203:

^
Quote em next time then.

That’s what I thought too.

I just did about 30ish tests. Here’s the results:

Bugged
Bugged
Bugged
Bugged
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
Bugged
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
WORKED
Bugged
WORKED
WORKED
Bugged
WORKED
Bugged
Bugged
WORKED
Bugged
Worked but weird spazzy graphical glitch
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Froze for 1 second then worked
Bugged
WORKED
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
Bugged
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Froze for 0.5 seconds then worked
Bugged
WORKED

There’s a higher success rate the longer you wait to switch, as well. Instantly switching almost never works, but waiting about 25% through the animation works most of the time.

This would be on a stationary test dummy as well.

I know the bug you’re referring to Larynx, I heard some talk that they might have a fix for it in the future patch. For me a quick strafe before swapping usually helps canceling channel skills more reliably.

EDIT: about leg specialist, it’s true beauty mostly lies in bladetrail imo, skillshotting and doing a double-immobilize on someone is just wonderful. :’)

Psybunny.8906:

I know the bug you’re referring to Larynx, I heard some talk that they might have a fix for it in the future patch. For me a quick strafe before swapping usually helps canceling channel skills more reliably.

EDIT: about leg specialist, it’s true beauty mostly lies in bladetrail imo, skillshotting and doing a double-immobilize on someone is just wonderful. :’)

I do enjoy that “perfect” bladetrail where it comes back and reapplies immob right as the last one ended. It’s just long enough to land 100B.

As for the strafing trick, that’s a decent solution if it bugs out. I’ll keep it in mind.

Thanks for the tipp psybunny. will test this later on.
I think atm the most constructive thread in this forum-part.

@Psy
Your making this more complicated than it should be with that wall of text in paragraph form.

I’ll write an easy guide to read.

Approaching a Necro:

1.) Shield Stance CAN be used aggressively because you can tell that their going to use marks to break Shield Stance. Dodge approach the marks if you can predict it and if done correctly you should be within melee range.
2.) Once your in melee range, I’d say try to land an immobilize and/or stun.
- Getting an incapacitate skills (stun/immobilize) is possible when you pay attention to how many dodges a Necro has (They can have 3 at best if they use Sigil of Energy but most only has 2).
- If they “try to save the dodge” then you can definitely punish them after they dodge.
- I prefer to use Bolas with Mace builds simply because using Bulls Charge would be a diminishing return.
3.) Anticipate and force out (Foot in the Grave, Plague, Reaper’s protection) by applying pressure, 1 and 2. Need I say more? Warriors need to be good at incapacitating in the first place and forcing out stun breaks.

Bursting a Necro down:

There’s a lot of ways, lets say you baited out their burst mitigation traits and skills.

Practice these combos and apply rule number 1 and 2. I guarantee that you will 100 to 0 anyone who doesn’t have a stun break available. Necros just happen to generally be one of the most easiest targets with the right comp. Looking at the Mace + w/e combos for starters.