Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I am a returning player – I used to play a Guardian for WvW; but found him too “static” for my liking so I stopped playing. (and yes maybe I played him wrong).

I am looking for a class I can play in WvW that’s a bit more “dynamic”.

I am thinking about either building a Warrior Beserker who from what I understand has good mobility, good survivability and can do decent burst or a Revenant.

I am not interested in playing a “role” per say – more about playing a build that’s fun, engaging and dynamic.

What would you say are the differences in playstyles, strengths and weaknesses of the 2 classes?

Thanks!

Warrior is the second strongest/low skill floor overall class in the game right now. It is defensive without the user actually having to heal, hit invuln manually, comes with a big pool of health, starts with the strongest armor and can be built to hit like a truck. Boon and Stun Lock builds are the more prevalent variants.

Rev isn’t in a great place but in capable hands is fierce. It has several mechanical play issues that makes it a bit clunky and it tends to be an all or nothing style play. Not as easy to play as a warrior but if you like complex combos it is a solid pick.

For WvW zerging, guardian obviously does least damage (outside purging bombs) and is more support focused. Revenant is kinda like guardian with dwarf + mallyx providing resistance + damage reduction to party but no has no AoE stability/real condi cleanse. Basically normal comp would have like 2-4 warriors or so and 1+ rev per party.

Anyways strength and weaknesses:
Rev:
+ Has range, deals lot of damage from range with hammer
+ Part of melee party, can make basically party immune to death for 5 seconds by using dwarf elite and provide resistance.
+ Is useful at all parts of fight, has lot of CC, Range pressure and support
+ Has versatility regarding do you want to go melee or ranged
+ Low cooldowns
- Very boon and partyreliant, easily CC locked or condibombed. Usually first one to die unless you position correctly (<600 range from melee but can’t take a single well/corrupt bomb tick because stunbreaks have cast time)
Warrior
+ Deals lot of melee damage. Immob and CC lock in same hammerskill (really strong).
+ Has option to take warbanner that can turn fights around
+ Very self reliant, doesnt have to be as careful as revenant about going too deep, can create multiple downs by himself. Often last one alive out of melee.
+ Has more versatility buildwise than revenant (more armor? ok, More damage? ok , Other utilities? ok, Some trait choices? yeaah)
- Doesnt have the capability to play ranged/provide rangedpressure, unless goes rifle, which is not a good choice. Can feel little lost unless experienced.
- Long cooldowns on utilities, without good party hard to contribute after cooldowns are over. lot of these “screv this” moments when commander/team plays too passive
- Doesnt really contribute much to the party boon/healwise.

As you can see, warriors have lot of downsides while revenants are irreplacable part of melee train to keep the party alive/provide easy low-cd ranged pressure (necros and eles get rekt by rev hammer). Thats why revenants are more popular choice and feel like they have more carry potential in unorganised fights.

However if your organised group is missing damage/cc lock, opting for warrior is great. The last European GvG tournament was won by a guild that ran 4 warriors out of 15 players to tear through those tanky specs just because revenants have damage issues in melee range.

The Decisive difference I have seen between blobs that run lot of warriors or revenants is that the warrior heavy blob has really strong initial bomb and melee train, but they often crack on the 2nd well bomb and lack range pressure. Which leads to that if they dont finish enough enemies within 40 seconds, they often lose, but are very dominating on the first 40 seconds. The revenant heavy blob has stronger sustain/range pressure.

warrior for damage/ tank
revenant for support/ some damage

Dont make an asura btw, its horrible to play asura rev or warrior

Warrior is a far superior duelist/roamer, can disengage much better from fights that go south, is the second most mobile class in the game after thief, and has much better survival against burst.

Revenant defenses are: damage absorb heal from glint, 4 second shield block that makes you immobile (aka you die because you are separated from your melee train).

Warrior survival: 3 sec shield block that can be used while moving (better version of rev shield block), 2x uses of endure pain for 8 seconds of physical invulnerability, 8 seconds of condi invulnerability from zerker stance, and healing signet is the highest HPS heal in the game, or you can take the same damage absorb heal rev has.

Only reason to play revenant is if you want the option to be in the backline as ranged with hammer.

As a revenant, you cannot escape fights. You are slow and immobile as phase traversal requires a target to teleport and costs almost half your energy bar. That’s your only mobility.

And you do less burst and cleave than a warrior. Warrior melee weapon cleaves/aoe’s 5 targets.

Revenant mainhand sword splits damage so it’s useless as an aoe weapon, and staff does pathetic DPS.

Zenith.7301:

Revenant defenses are: damage absorb heal from glint, 4 second shield block that makes you immobile (aka you die because you are separated from your melee train).

Warrior survival: 3 sec shield block that can be used while moving (better version of rev shield block), 2x uses of endure pain for 8 seconds of physical invulnerability, 8 seconds of condi invulnerability from zerker stance, and healing signet is the highest HPS heal in the game, or you can take the same damage absorb heal rev has.

Only reason to play revenant is if you want the option to be in the backline as ranged with hammer.

As a revenant, you cannot escape fights. You are slow and immobile as phase traversal requires a target to teleport and costs almost half your energy bar. That’s your only mobility.

And you do less burst and cleave than a warrior. Warrior melee weapon cleaves/aoe’s 5 targets.

Revenant mainhand sword splits damage so it’s useless as an aoe weapon, and staff does pathetic DPS.

Actually no, what you play as rev, is staff/hammer. With staff block + evade for survivability because sword shield is useless in zerg fights. if you even then wanna play sword, then play sword sword with mobile block instead of shield immobile one. Most of the times you just camp hammer and spam the skills and swap to staff to use the 5 skill on necro bombs or 3 skill to block stuff or 4 skill to cleanse your party. The autos and 2 skill are great damage skills as well, the issue is mostly that autos are hard to land…

Also no1 uses glint/shiro in the fights but dwarf/mallyx, because shiro was nerfed was heavily, that even dwarf gives you more survivability than shiro. And you dont need glint because you already get max might, protection, regen and swiftness from guardians + dura runes. Fury is good but not worth taking over the 50% damage reduction for party every 10 seconds for 5 seconds. And mallyx resistance is just great with the condi bomb being the meta. Purges + epidemic bombs are regular, and also the resistance nullifies their impact. So rev is basically kinda like boonstripless necro with more support, in melee party and range but massive damage with hammer but also massive damage reduction+condi immunity on clashes. Focusing staying outside well bombs, dealing damage and using dwarf/mallyx when necessary.

Rev build looks something like
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQJAWinfNWNSuJrJRHl/kskygS4S5QJorcrkFNFSdG34HtFIANw2CbIA-TlCEQBtRTATU+9gHAA82fYLKBdnOAEeBAAwhCwfq/QgjAQAAEgbezs5NDM0hO0hO0h2Nv5Nv5NvZpAycrF-w

I also know sword/shield or axe/shield is good for warriors but better option is normally to play hammer + greatsword. Greatsword always of course, because the damage is insane. Also most warriors skills have 3 man targetcap, its not like the autos hit 5 people.

Warrior build looks something like
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJIQJARCDVhYXI44B0hYZLwevsdWKxgSXLA5vFAA-T1CEQBMR5WiUx5JKJA4hAoN6CewDAIF7P4P1DAwRAYLKBhwFAgUADs1C-w

Warrior has more versatility on the trait/utility/gear/weapon choices. You can either go full zerk or take some marauder/knight like in the build. Revenant really needs marauder/zerk + dura with zerk trinkets.

You can also play cele rev with mace/axe in 15 man scale focusing on corrupting people with mallyx.

Zenith.7301

Revenant defenses are: damage absorb heal from glint, 4 second shield block that makes you immobile (aka you die because you are separated from your melee train).

No Revenant defenses are:
Sw/Sh: #3 evade, #5 healing block, #4 prot
Staff: #3 block+blind, #5 evade, #4 heal + cleanse
Hammer: #3 evade, #4 projectile destruct

Glint: infuse light, prot access
Mallyx: Stunbreak, on demand resistance
Shiro: Evades

Additional passive defensives available in traitlines.

OP will you be running with a zerg, small group organised, unorganised small groups, solo roaming or seige hugging and flipping camps?

Or all of them?

The answers you get will depend on what you are doing and the environment you will be playing in. If you want an engaging dynamic class then I wouldn’t pick warrior as it’s very passive, not to say there isn’t a clear difference between a good and bad one just they do well against other classes regardless.

Revenant is very weak to condition damage and we are in a condi meta where they are strong especially in roaming so you will get your backside handed to you. A good rev can play around this and get a win but it’s a hard fight. It is a great power spiker and has great cleave though.

If you want something that has risk vs reward while being engaging play a zerk/zealots druid, power mesmer, non DP thief, core any class or power revenant. If you want an easy build you can do whatever with and be effective no matter where to berserker warrior and just switch headbutt to battlestandard if needed in zerg fights.

Crinn.7864:

Zenith.7301

Revenant defenses are: damage absorb heal from glint, 4 second shield block that makes you immobile (aka you die because you are separated from your melee train).

No Revenant defenses are:
Sw/Sh: #3 evade, #5 healing block, #4 prot
Staff: #3 block+blind, #5 evade, #4 heal + cleanse
Hammer: #3 evade, #4 projectile destruct

Glint: infuse light, prot access
Mallyx: Stunbreak, on demand resistance
Shiro: Evades

Additional passive defensives available in traitlines.

Sword 3 displaces you from your melee train= die. Shield 5 roots you in place= displaces you from melee train= die from pinball CC when nobody’s sharing stability with you.

As I said, in my post which nobody is bothering to read, staff is an alternative.

What you trade in defenses for staff is essentially becoming a mace/shield warrior the entire fight BECAUSE STAFF DOES GARBAGE DPS. STAFF DOES GARBAGE DPS. You are blocking damage but you are applying no pressure yourself, unlike the warrior.

Hammer roots you in place with #3, again displacing you from your team. Anything that makes you lose control of your positioning and character during a zerg clash is bad. Hammer 3 is mostly used to nuke people because it hits hard.

Hammer sustained DPS, however, is garbage.

Warrior can apply immensely more damage while his defenses are also active. A revenant must drop all offensive pressure to use his defensive weapons.

I don’t even know how people can even debate the idea that revenant is better than warrior in a bruiser role.

You’re there because you bring resistance to the group, you have drop the hammer, and 33% boon duration increase. They don’t bring you for the damage or because you’re a solid frontline melee class like guardian or warrior.

Really, the argument over which is better, a Revenant or a Warrior is a pointless argument. Both have very different roles. In the current meta, Warriors are straight up DPS. They bring strong self-resistance vs the condi meta, and pack a huge punch. Even better as a Berskerker.

Revenants do not do as much damage as a Warrior can, but their role (similarly to the guardian) allows for some decent damage + a lot of team buffs. If running Glint, the Herald can provide all swiftness, most might, and fury to the group. Guardians could essentially free up staff, because empowers and swiftness symbols are not needed, and can run GS/Hammer or Mace/Shield/Hammer. If they run Jalis, they give a nice damage reduction on pushes, and support with additional stability. If they run with Mallyx, then they give an awesome resistance skill, which is pretty much necessary in the current meta.

I think the type of gameplay makes all the difference. I command primarily, so I have spent thousands of hours on my Guardian, and recently switched to commanding on my rev. I have also played Warrior. Warriors hit like a truck, and they can move in deep and tank a lot of damage. But they are not the only member of their team. Rev’s build up the team and allow everyone else to be more effective, in addition to their own DPS. Hammer 2 is solid DPS. Hammer #5 is a nice knockdown. Staff #5 is a nice way to scatter the backline that do not have stability. Desired role means everything. I think they are both great.

apharma.3741:

OP will you be running with a zerg, small group organised, unorganised small groups, solo roaming or seige hugging and flipping camps?

Or all of them?

The answers you get will depend on what you are doing and the environment you will be playing in. If you want an engaging dynamic class then I wouldn’t pick warrior as it’s very passive, not to say there isn’t a clear difference between a good and bad one just they do well against other classes regardless.

Revenant is very weak to condition damage and we are in a condi meta where they are strong especially in roaming so you will get your backside handed to you. A good rev can play around this and get a win but it’s a hard fight. It is a great power spiker and has great cleave though.

If you want something that has risk vs reward while being engaging play a zerk/zealots druid, power mesmer, non DP thief, core any class or power revenant. If you want an easy build you can do whatever with and be effective no matter where to berserker warrior and just switch headbutt to battlestandard if needed in zerg fights.

Thanks everyone for their well thought out responses.

I think I will pretty well be running with a zerg solo because quite honestly I don’t have the time to play more than an hour or two; two or three times per week.

Druid – isn’t that more of a support class that heals?

Druid is really boring and unimpactful, its basically single target constant damage and has no real benefit outside glyph of empowerment + grace of the land to buff allies dps. In the burst/singletarget meta, druid is too unreliable as healer, so people use tempests which actually reduce the burst/condicleanse to allies. Basically druids are boring alternative for tempest healers but are capable of buffing their allies dps if you dont need that much survivability.
Druids are mostly used because the smoke field/stealth access when scrapper/thief dont fit in the comp. Something for guilds to try, not for solo players.
Check the ranger forums about druids, theres lot of salt there about them being bad/good.

Rudedawg.1876:

I am thinking about either building a Warrior Beserker who from what I understand has good mobility, good survivability and can do decent burst or a Revenant.

Go Warrior because the WvW raid meta is really close to what you can run for roaming (in both gear, traits and even weapons), is very easy to play and can handle himself ganking attempts. The sustain is, also, godlike.

Revenant, instead, uses a WvW raid build that is utterly useless againts ganking attacks and needs deep changes if you want to roam or duelling; is weak vs cc, conditions and any class which can kite at range and use stealth or mobility to disengage, and even if your regear and retrait for roaming/duelling is a VERY hard class to play.

Buran.3796:

Rudedawg.1876:

I am thinking about either building a Warrior Beserker who from what I understand has good mobility, good survivability and can do decent burst or a Revenant.

Go Warrior because the WvW raid meta is really close to what you can run for roaming (in both gear, traits and even weapons), is very easy to play and can handle himself ganking attempts. The sustain is, also, godlike.

Revenant, instead, uses a WvW raid build that is utterly useless againts ganking attacks and needs deep changes if you want to roam or duelling; is weak vs cc, conditions and any class which can kite at range and use stealth or mobility to disengage, and even if your regear and retrait for roaming/duelling is a VERY hard class to play.

Have to agree here. Any Rev built for Zerging/Havok/Raid/Whatever is basically Thief or Condi bait if caught in the borderlands alone. Berserker Warrior on the other hand is very proficient in either zerging or roaming without having to switch builds plus has excellent mobility to boot.

Rudedawg.1876:

apharma.3741:

OP will you be running with a zerg, small group organised, unorganised small groups, solo roaming or seige hugging and flipping camps?

Or all of them?

The answers you get will depend on what you are doing and the environment you will be playing in. If you want an engaging dynamic class then I wouldn’t pick warrior as it’s very passive, not to say there isn’t a clear difference between a good and bad one just they do well against other classes regardless.

Revenant is very weak to condition damage and we are in a condi meta where they are strong especially in roaming so you will get your backside handed to you. A good rev can play around this and get a win but it’s a hard fight. It is a great power spiker and has great cleave though.

If you want something that has risk vs reward while being engaging play a zerk/zealots druid, power mesmer, non DP thief, core any class or power revenant. If you want an easy build you can do whatever with and be effective no matter where to berserker warrior and just switch headbutt to battlestandard if needed in zerg fights.

Thanks everyone for their well thought out responses.

I think I will pretty well be running with a zerg solo because quite honestly I don’t have the time to play more than an hour or two; two or three times per week.

Druid – isn’t that more of a support class that heals?

It’s an excellent roamer but when I wrote the response I had no idea what you were wanting to do. As someone said, run warrior, it’ll give you lots of options for roaming but also running in a zerg with plenty of stability, damage mitigation and durability.

Check meta battle for a starter build for it.

Revenant used to be a thief counter when it first came out before they clobbered it with nerfs…

Zenith.7301:

Revenant used to be a thief counter when it first came out before they clobbered it with nerfs…

It still is. A well played Rev is actually a handful even for two decent thieves. Revs on top of each other start getting very difficult to manage.

Straegen.2938:

Zenith.7301:

Revenant used to be a thief counter when it first came out before they clobbered it with nerfs…

It still is. A well played Rev is actually a handful even for two decent thieves. Revs on top of each other start getting very difficult to manage.

Um no. There is no class out there that is going to even remotely threaten two competent Thieves who are working together. We are talking endless blinds and interrupts here.

wvw is dead so neither, the only scrubs who play it now are spvp rejects.

Straegen.2938:

Zenith.7301:

Revenant used to be a thief counter when it first came out before they clobbered it with nerfs…

It still is. A well played Rev is actually a handful even for two decent thieves. Revs on top of each other start getting very difficult to manage.

The Cynz of the WvW forums. Sorry, don’t read fiction.

Warrior because a Char warrior with Hammer looks beast. Do some hammer stun!!!

Straegen.2938:

Zenith.7301:

Revenant used to be a thief counter when it first came out before they clobbered it with nerfs…

It still is. A well played Rev is actually a handful even for two decent thieves. Revs on top of each other start getting very difficult to manage.

That’s some gr8 b8 m8

Unless you weren’t trolling, if that’s the case l2p