I’ve been going back and forth between “real” WvW and EOTM since the new map came out, and I’m sort of hunting for a decent warrior build that will work in unpredictable group comps and large, unruly blob fights.
I’ve messed around with a few different builds, and recently have tried what seems like the cookie-cutter warrior front line shout healer build:
http://intothemists.com/guides/991-wvw_shout_heal_frontliner
I went with the traits from the second one, except swapping out Leg Specialist for Lung Capacity. Gear is as shown in the second link; basically all PTV + Soldier runes, with zerker weapons and power/precision/crit damage on the trinket jewels. It seems like a reasonably good all-rounder setup that would work well with a lot of different traits and weapons, so I’ll probably stick with the same gear and just change up the skills.
As the build comments on the intothemists page note, the shout healer build seems to be less ideal when you’re (possibly) the only warrior running it, and in any case when there is an unknown level of or almost no real command presence or coordination with the group, so that the heal spamming potential from having masses of these does not come into play.
I’m far from any good with this build yet, but I feel like I’m not going to get much mileage out of it even when I get better. Instead of being actual 10v10 or 50v50 fights, most zergs seem to descend almost instantly when engaged into 50 × 1v1 to 5v1 fights. So it feels like the best setup for the PUG environment is more of a roamer with as much survivability and escape as possible, rather than a team-focused build.
I also feel like I wind up standing around with nothing to do sometimes due to a lack of ranged damage, especially at walls and doors. I think any PUG build is going to need to at least have a bow equipped to deal with kiters, NPCs and siege up on walls, and for staying out of the AOE spam no-man’s land while still trying to do some damage.
I had started out with a three-stance build a while back that was nice for powering through AOE walls, surviving ambushes, and getting focused in furballs. I also liked Mending + the cleanse on heal trait, which is an awesome low CD solo complete cleanse. But it felt like a build that does nothing for the group (other than keeping yourself not dead, which I guess is a benefit).
Anyway, I’m curious what builds other warriors feel are their go-to builds for EOTM silliness and generally just following around random blue triangles in small to mid-sized trains in the borderlands maps.