Guild Wars 2

So i seem to see these in WvW alot recently. They just seem to have that little bit (brokenly!) much CC and then combining that with Eviscerate which does insane damage itself makes fighting these builds VERY hard, to near impossible to beat.

So i was wondering if you guys have any tips about how to fight them? They seem to block rather a lot, they with Hammer they will throw EVERY CC they have at your before switching to Axe throwing in another stun before hitting you for like 6k+ in one hit, which because you have been spammed by constant CC their is nothing you can do to avoid O.o

Another one i have encountered that is insane is the Mace/Shield and Greatsword warrior. Being able to stun you for 3 seconds every 7-10 seconds and following it up with a Hundred Blade every 15 seconds is just too much for me to be able to handle. Even with more than 2,100 Toughness. Seeing as everything they have hits like a truck it makes it hard to dodge to save the dodges or you will just melt to the damage of everything else they have :/

Play extremely agressive from the beginning, fake your bursts, make them waste their stance CDs early, dodge key skills (save your energy) such as Eviscerate, Pin Down, Skull Crack and Earthshaker, get extremely defensive right afterwards, always time your spikes when stances are on CD and start getting agressive from there again, always use dragon’s breath after Combustive shot is casted. Doom sigil is a must have against any kind of Warrior. Play D/D 0/2/0/6/6.
Nonetheless, Warriors are a hard match up for Eles as Necros are to Engies, don’t get frustrated by that, it’s just the way it is. Hopefully you haven’t encountered a good Dire condi Warrior yet or else they would be on your ‘hard to beat’ list as well, those end up kittening you up even with full condition removal.

The problem is, everything they have hits like a truck and when they are spamming The Hammer i have no choice but to dodge/use cool downs its then that they change to Axe/Shield and follow it up with yet another stun and then Eviscerate. The damage they do combined with the insane Toughness/Armour as well as plenty of blocks and immunity makes it very hard to fight

Any Pure condition build is a walk in the park when i run Diamond Skin. I have yet to lose to a single pure condition build, of course Hybrid is another matter altogether.

I run 0/0/6/4/4 i run with Battle and Doom have more than 2,100 Toughness but still get hit like a truck :/

Not sure on how to do it with a condi build, but as a classic D/D the key is to properly sustain and to mid-range the hell out of him. Your range advantage is unbelievably important vs double melee warriors such as A/S hammer or M/S greatsword.

I kinda disagree with khenzy, rushing it seems very detrimental in my experience. They will burn through your stunbreaks in no-time if you don’t take it slow and kite them around.

If they are not running immunity to movement impairing conditions, this becomes an absolute walk in the park. Keep the soft cc up and he might not even manage to touch you.

Come to think of it, you might have quite the advantage if you have some decent + condi duration since you can chill and cripple him regardless of his build.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I run 0/0/6/4/4

I think therein lies the problem (or most of them), get out of that build and go meta. What use does Diamond Skin have againt a power Warrior? denying his/her Pin Down opener and that’s it, not worth it. Earth Magic is a crappy trait line past Adept and full of subpar minor traits.

Khenzy.9348:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I run 0/0/6/4/4

I think therein lies the problem (or most of them), get out of that build and go meta. What use does Diamond Skin have againt a power Warrior? denying his/her Pin Down opener and that’s it, not worth it. Earth Magic is a crappy trait line past Adept and full of subpar minor traits.

Well this one for a start wasn’t using Longbow. Who says that i run Diamond Skin against everyone? not heard of Stone Heart?

Gokil.2543:

Not sure on how to do it with a condi build, but as a classic D/D the key is to properly sustain and to mid-range the hell out of him. Your range advantage is unbelievably important vs double melee warriors such as A/S hammer or M/S greatsword.

I kinda disagree with khenzy, rushing it seems very detrimental in my experience. They will burn through your stunbreaks in no-time if you don’t take it slow and kite them around.

If they are not running immunity to movement impairing conditions, this becomes an absolute walk in the park. Keep the soft cc up and he might not even manage to touch you.

Come to think of it, you might have quite the advantage if you have some decent + condi duration since you can chill and cripple him regardless of his build.

It was all the constant CC. That combined with the hard hitting pretty much eveything was just to much.

The Mace/Shield and Greatsword Warrior just kept spamming the F1 on Mace and the Shield stuns following it up with Hundred Blades and when they can do this EVERY 15 seconds at the very longest, think he had some cool down traits it was pretty much impossible to counter.

The Axe/Shield and Hammer warrior pretty much did the same thing, spam Ckittenil i had nothing less, switch to Axe/Shield use the Shield stun which hit mean nearly every time for more than 2k damage and then follow it up with Eviscerate.

Even swapping to Earth in time didn’t work. Due to how often they could pull off the stun and then Burst i would always miss one, hit one, miss one and it just went on like that. The constant stuns, Knockdowns and such just wearing you down of defense while they spam blocks and immunities every time they were up and passively heal shrugging off the Poison up time i had on them.

Spare dodge for eviscerate and stuns.I would say u need stability for sure,else u get wrecked in squishie build in few seconds.On other hand,if they hiting for 5-7k eviscerate,they will be squishie aswell,so just patiently wait till endure pain is down and than burst.If u D/D u can use earth rooting aswell,it helps a lot to break their bursts.

I agree with Gokil on this.Dont really try to burn all CDs in first burst,they usually got endure pain,stabil stance and block on shield.

Gokil.2543:

Not sure on how to do it with a condi build, but as a classic D/D the key is to properly sustain and to mid-range the hell out of him. Your range advantage is unbelievably important vs double melee warriors such as A/S hammer or M/S greatsword.

I kinda disagree with khenzy, rushing it seems very detrimental in my experience. They will burn through your stunbreaks in no-time if you don’t take it slow and kite them around.

If they are not running immunity to movement impairing conditions, this becomes an absolute walk in the park. Keep the soft cc up and he might not even manage to touch you.

Come to think of it, you might have quite the advantage if you have some decent + condi duration since you can chill and cripple him regardless of his build.

You can’t kite a Warrior around that much with his sustain, much less so expecting him to have little soft CC ressistance, that’s unrealistic. If you don’t force his stances early, the warr is going to save them on your spikes and kitten you up. What pressure do you have midrange as D/D? Drakes breath, Ring of Fire/Earth… and…

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Well this one for a start wasn’t using Longbow. Who says that i run Diamond Skin against everyone? not heard of Stone Heart?

Of course I have, but what decent warrior is going to waste his esviscerate when you’re on earth attunement? Also, that trait forces you to save your Earth Attunement just for that, that screws all over your rotations (which are a core on any D/D build), making this trait more of a side bonus and entirely unreliable, again, in my honest opinion, it’s not worth it.
I think Bountiful Power, Zephir’s Boon and Evasive Arcana would give you the pressure and sustain you need. That’s just me, I donno.

KaporHabakuk.6219:

Spare dodge for eviscerate and stuns.I would say u need stability for sure,else u get wrecked in squishie build in few seconds.On other hand,if they hiting for 5-7k eviscerate,they will be squishie aswell,so just patiently wait till endure pain is down and than burst.If u D/D u can use earth rooting aswell,it helps a lot to break their bursts.

I agree with Gokil on this.Dont really try to burn all CDs in first burst,they usually got endure pain,stabil stance and block on shield.

Even before they use the first burst i am normally down 5-6k health due to the constant knockdowns stopping me from doing pretty much anything and then the dazes that can last 3 seconds at a time…

I run with Arcane Shield and Armour of Earth, though that doesnt mean much when they have both got insane cool downs and Warriors can use Shield blocks several times and be immune to most damage while i am still waiting on the cool down to finish

Khenzy.9348:

What pressure do you have midrange as D/D? Drakes breath, Ring of Fire/Earth… and…

I consider even lightning whip midrange. 300 range > 130 range. The entire set is practically made to kite heavies around.

The whole idea of baiting stances only works if it doesnt cost you a cantrip… When it gets to a back and forth, and you start trading blows and cooldowns the elementalist will lose without exception. You’re better off betting on kiting and going slow.

I’m talking about double melee warriors, and I’m fairly certain OP is talking about WvW scenarios. In PvP where having a longbow is the norm, the matchup completely changes. I agree with you in a sPvP scenario, and I’d also advise against running DS in sPvP.

Yeah this is WvW and i run Diamond Skin against Condition Builds, against zerkers and Power builds i switch to Stone Heart but even that due to the cool down of the burst combo i would stop one, then miss one, then stop one because its like every 15 seconds and pretty sure he was running cool down traits as it felt a lot more often.

I’ve fought a few of these, the only problem I get is when it’s not 1v1. If they’re a duo or a group and I get rooted, that HB stings…

1v1 is fairly straightforward. I run a condition build, 0,0,6,4,4, i don’t switch to stone heart. I’ll open with lightning flash into air 5, i never use rtl > air 5 as everyone dodges now. Then i’ll lay down some fire. Depending on what he does next i’ll usually arcane shield so I can apply the whole of fire 2 onto him and then i’ll switch to earth and kite.

You can root and then run around spamming earth 1 and it’ll keep hitting him behind you. Just watch for the stuns/earchshakers/shield charges. Once fire is up i’ll just make him run through some more flames. I don’t really use lighting whip as it puts you too close, it’s all about kiting/snares.

I use speed signet, as it’s useful as a blind and a stun break. A warrior fight is never a short fight. I know i’ll have to work through 2 endure pains.

I run with 20k hps and 900 healing, so i’m not going to be 100-0 in one shot, so even if he does get off one burst I can usually get back to full health after 1 water rotation. I’ve found warrior fights far easier since I switched to conditions spec.

If i’m feeling lazy i’ll just use FGS, hit 2 and make him stand in it. Then just fgs 3 through him, then spam 1 as he chases me and it shoots backwards.

I have no issue with warrior other than when using these sort of weapons. With all the stuns, knockdowns and such they have and the fact Eviscerate hits insanely hard even when you have really high Toughness

It does, the key being, don’t get hit with it. Eviscerate has a range of 300, a decently recognisable animation. You really do have to make the dodges count. Just wear him down with burn damage. His only way to clear it is with cleansing ire. If he can’t connect they he gets 0 clearance.

Just try to keep the soft cc up and stay away, make him run through your damage.

I don’t know man, since i’ve switched to condi 1v1 with almost everyone has been ok. I find phantasm/power mesmers more of a pain with phantoms hitting me for 8k+ a snare appearing from nowhere.

It is the spamming of CC from Hammer, then swapping to Axe/Shield following that up with ANOTHER CC and then using Eviscerate.

Don’t get me wrong, its not that they are insanely cheesy like Backstab build Thieves that rely on using Backstab, Stealth and Heartseeker.

If you’re going to play a d/d against a class with high melee range burst +melee range stuns you need to stay out of melee range as much as possible. It’s simple as that. If he earthshakers you he can’t land a big eviscerate.

Shield charge is very telegraphed, you should be dodging that every time.

Or switch to staff and just kite him.

Or do what i’m trying to do and get a charr level 80 and using the charrzooker to land 1200 range auto burn damage with a condi build.

You can’t dodge something while you are already stunned/knocked down. The duration of the stuns are rather insane as well. The Mace one i faced evvery like 10 seconds i would be hit with a THREE second daze.

How do you can’t CC like that when it is on such a low cool down and easily spammable and chainable…

In my opinion. Reaper of Grenth is the better Elite. Remember that Charrzooka gains nothing from ele. The range option it has is nice though

Hard to judge,cause maybe u encountered some really good player,and those are always hard to beat.Else i would advice u to check on warriors tools,so u understand what you against to.They can get one block from shield,and one dmg imunity from util.Their hammer is rather harmless if u pop stability also its usually easy to dodge.Eviscerate animation is very visible,and yes,sometimes u will not dodge it,happens,but mostly u have time to blink,arcane shield,dodge,blind,CC.

Maybe practice will get you better in that.Also again,if they deal a lot of dmg with any ability,it means they will be really glassy.So their only defense is to kill u faster or those mentioned abils “block,endure pain,maybe GS whirl abil 3”

Its not like you should loose 100% fights,just have to be carefull,as 1-2 mistakes means fast dead,at least on glassier builds.

Good luck

GS+Mace/shield are basically crit power/bunker builds with huge crits relying on stun>swap>sigil of intelligence to burst. I’ve seen these for a long time in OS, particularly mace shield+GS but I guess it’s catching up to the meta now.

You need all 3 utilities as stun breaks/teleport and good dodges to beat them and even then, it may be hard to get damage on if they’re playing smart because they can be kiting between their big cooldowns. They’ll also be running -condition so it’s almost impossible to keep them at range but the main thing you need to watch out for is their stun+ combo.

The Mace/shield+GS will generally have very low damage except their burst so you should be saving stun breaks exclusively for the stun, swap,100 blades combo and need to do that fast when you do finally get caught. Depending on crits the 100 blades spike can regularly do 15k+ damage within the stun duration if you have ~2400 armor which can mean full to zero. Attrition is not their goal, they would be at a disadvantage playing like that—it’s all about their spike and between that, they’ll try to minimize damage which may mean kiting with GS, shield blocks, or trying to get you to burn cooldowns.

D/D seems at a big advantage in terms of build wars because GS, shield, and -conditions can kite and mitigate d/d so well in combat. I had a long fight with one of these, probably about 5-8 minutes where he was kiting damage and I managed to dodge almost all his stuns but he finally caught me with no stun breaks and it was a full to 0 combo with 100 blades. I concluded even if you play perfect, it’s likely to lose to this build 1v1 because build wars. I imagine it’s not nearly as useful in a team though.

Hammer+axe/shield I haven’t seen as much of or at least not much that were any good but that would be more about attrition and constant damage then a cheese spike. I would assume it also uses crit power + sigil of intelligence in the build though.

I’ve been considering testing +40% condition food vs warriors for the cc to stick better.

KaporHabakuk.6219:

Spare dodge for eviscerate and stuns.I would say u need stability for sure,else u get wrecked in squishie build in few seconds.On other hand,if they hiting for 5-7k eviscerate,they will be squishie aswell,so just patiently wait till endure pain is down and than burst.If u D/D u can use earth rooting aswell,it helps a lot to break their bursts.

I agree with Gokil on this.Dont really try to burn all CDs in first burst,they usually got endure pain,stabil stance and block on shield.

Actually wars don’t really have to be that squishy to get those big numbers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKBFiWYU5yU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bOzL65jbWA

KaporHabakuk.6219:

Spare dodge for eviscerate and stuns.I would say u need stability for sure,else u get wrecked in squishie build in few seconds.On other hand,if they hiting for 5-7k eviscerate,they will be squishie aswell,so just patiently wait till endure pain is down and than burst.If u D/D u can use earth rooting aswell,it helps a lot to break their bursts.

I agree with Gokil on this.Dont really try to burn all CDs in first burst,they usually got endure pain,stabil stance and block on shield.

that’s the problem, they are not squishy. With their healing signet healing them for 300-400 every second each of their stuns means they’ll get their health back up from where it was. Plus 2 of their CC’s and Eviscerate are gap-closers. We only have two dodges so attleast one of those is gonna punch us in the face. I also bring stability and stunbreakers. Problem is that those warriors have blocks, stances, stability all sorts of stuff that makes sure that you can’t kill ’m despite them being somewhat squishy.

Its highly likely they run very little armor with that setup.Personaly i find them very easy to deal with unless they are a charr…dunno maybe cause of massive figure and animations that seem slower i lose my tempo.

What you wanna do is make them think you wanna go mano a mano.Go close then go far all the time while utilising frost aura/ground correctly.Use static aura when they go to axe/shield and they do 2.They will panic and then will use shield 5.use that time to gain distance/prepare to burst with Burning speed and heal up.Only dodge one of the 2 hammer stuns,if you can both then its okei.I good armor of earth will ruin their rotation cause many warrior just don’t see it and they think they have you stuned for ages.Engage and disengage fast.They don’t have much mobility and Shield bash is not as dangerous as it seems,if you know the range you might not even have to dodge it.
Apply burning on cooldown btw it counts their healing signet really hard.
Oh and it goes without saying,even if you fail all the above learn to dodge the animation of eviscerate