Warriors were kinda bullied out of WvW when pirate ship meta came about, some switched to killshot others just rerolled to revenants, but with the recent stability change they are needed again, and they are needed badly. The lack of banners and immobilizes is hugely obvious at the moment and i hope this gets some of you back on the melee train.
This is a guideline for players unsure of what to use and players looking to improve on their game. I can guarantee you can survive anything in this gear, so i’d advise new players to focus on learning proper skill rotation and dodging rather than using gear with more defensive stats. You might get a bit frustrated or even flamed, but it’s the only way to become a better player.
Link to the build (Ascended): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJIQNBiYD7kKRokUsLEwxDgOEsUFYvj2U7rFZx1ACAK9gGXOA-TRDEABRpkoNdDbpEE+9Hg4CA0hGG/V/5JlIPcEAY4gAIlSIAeQAMpcIAACwNvZ2sNDO6RP6RP6R7m38o38o3sUAZu1C-e
I use durability runes because my melee party uses it aswell and the proc becomes very potent when it occurs 3x-4x instead of just 1×. It’s also my 1st recommendation. If you hate PvE or don’t want to use it for some other reason, there are many alternatives. I’ll mention Rune of Hoelbrak, Strength and Melandru as some, altho Melandru isn’t as good anymore since you should rarely get stunned.
The sigils in weapons are subject to personal prefference. If you’re not landing alot of Final Thrusts after switching to S/WH, the intelliegence sigil doesn’t make alot of sense. You’ll have to work these out for yourself, just make sure you have Bloodlust on one of your underwater weapons aswell or your stacks will drop when you enter water.
Plate of Mussels Gnashblade is the best food for WvW at the moment, altho it is relativly expensive. If you don’t want to spend that much gold, use whatever food is dropped by the commander (usually Lemongrass Poultry or Saffron Bread). I’d advise against Saffron Bread, since you should always have stability, unless you are not in a party with 2 guardians for some reason. Same goes for Sharpening stones, if you can’t/don’t want to invest in Furious sharpening stone use the power ones.
Quick skill choice explanations:
Outrage – I use it as an early stun break for statics/lines that catch you before your guards pop stability, aswell as an adrenaline generator after the first leap to get Berserk asap. Due to it’s short cooldown it extremely useful in a number of situations.
Defiant Stance over Healing Signet – while Healing Signet appears nice in combination with adrenaline regen, it’s useless in a hard push or while stuck in a well coordinated bomb.
Most of the time u’ll get enough healing from adrenaline regen and water blasting/empowers, Defiant Stance comes in as a tool to push through a heavy bomb and hold damage, power ressing under heavy fire, or getting you from low HP to full HP when a refresh isn’t possible, or u see you’ll be stuck in a bomb due to unavoidable CC etc. Make sure to pay attention to your cooldowns, don’t pop Defiant Stance when you see your Defy Pain activated and don’t waste it by activating it outside of enemy damage, most times it’s better to stand in range damage for 2 seconds than running away and remaining on low health.
You can switch to Healing Signet if the skill lag makes Defiant Stance unusable, which is sometimes the case in the current build of the game with large scale fights and 3-Ways especially.
Dolyak Signet over Balanced Stance – Dolyak Signet now has the same 40sec cooldown as Balanced Stance and still provides 10 stacks of stability aswell as 180 armor before activated. Balanced Stance now applies 2 stacks of stability every 3 seconds which means there’s a possible 1,5sec window in which you can get stunned/feared so there’s is no reason to use it over Dolyak Signet.
Tips for new players:
Your priority in fights are immobilizes (Flurry while out of Berserk and Rupturing Smash while in Berserk), blasting water (Call to Arms, Hammer burst) and bannering downed players. Get these right first!
Always save Call to Arms for blasting water fields.
Use Teamspeak! Calling out your banner will enable other warriors not to waste theirs. Even if you’re shy, or have a crappy microphone, it’s only one word! And alot of times it can be the difference between your zerg wiping or surviving.
Ask the commander if he has a personal banner, if he does use you banner when you see 3 or more allies in downed state, or when the commander asks for it.
Use Charge when you see a party member or a nearby ally immobilized in a bomb.
Final Thrust does very high damage to people below 50% HP and hits 3 targets, that’s why you have the Intelligence Sigil on your sword set. Use it on downed or low HP players as often as possible.
Try to save your Dolyak Signet for bannering if you can. If you have no stability when you have to banner and are still inside enemy range, stand still for that 2sec cast to avoid being interrupted by guardian lines and static, fear unfortunatly is a gamble.
You can use sword leap and hammer burst as a getaway skill when immobilized! Altho pay attention to which direction u’re facing when using leap. While being immobilized it will use your direction on the time of the immobilize not where your camera is pointing.
Always have an ally targeted, best if it’s the commander this will allow you to both see the commander’s HP for well timed banners and prevent you from leaping back into the enemy unintentionally. All your weapon skills cleave so there is no need to target anyone else but the commander.
Don’t use Staggering Blow if u’re not sure about your positioning, alot of warriors just ignore that skill in WvW because when used incorrectly it can clear 5 enemies out of your range bomb, however it’s very powerful when used correctly by placing yourself behind the enemy to sandwich them between yourself and your raid and then knocking 2 or 3 of them into your raid’s damage preventing their escape or when pushing through on a wall or a choke.
ALWAYS STAY ON TAG! That’s where the water fields, empowers and damage mitigation will be!
(edited by Noxy.5402)
