Guild Wars 2

Hey all, i was wondering do you need cond damage to make the sword a decent weapon? I’m a tanky warrior running 0/10/30/30/0 (can’t decide atm between a shout healing build or banners). I use a sword/shield as my main weapon set and i swap out my second weapon between (Longbow for aoe, GS for quick bursts like on burrows and the rifle for ranged fights) I’m currently using CM’s gear which has Prec/Tough/Cond damage stats on and i was thinking about using the AC’s stats which is Power/Tough/Vit for the extra health as tough is good, but as soon as you get a large stack of conditions it becomes useless. However, then i’d loose out on cond damage and was wondering would the sword still be a decent weapon, i don’t want amazing damage, but enough to be able to do a decent ammount, if i stacked power instead. I went to HoTM to test using cond damage and power and they worked out to kill them around the same time.

Has anyone else tried using the sword as a MH weapon but stacking power instead of Cond damage? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks

I don’t know about PvE, but in PvP MH Sword is utter trash, only good for jumping around.

I run 10/0/30/30/0 So I am stacking some power with knights gear and soldiers runesas well. I had started off as a full on bleed warrior with jacked up precision able to easily put up 25 stacks of bleed and do nice crits but my survivability was crud. So I switched to the tanky trait spec above. I have been toying with taking 5 out of the vitality or toughness line and dropping it into the precision one along with the ten points sitting in power.
I regularly use either Sword/warhorn or sword/mace with rifle swap. I feel my damage output now is definitely sub-par but my survivability is great. Problem is giving up the sword’s #2 ability makes me feel totally immobile so I’m loathe to switch to axe mh.
So back to your original point, I don’t think stacking power on 1h Sword isn’t a great idea if you’re totally ignoring precision, especially if you haven’t gotten “deep cuts” trait. If it’s balanced out, then power can’t hurt.
The swords main mechanic is bleeds, so I think its best to use it that way. I’ve been doing the opposite and am underwhelmed, especially where I had come from.

Yeah i was thinking about swapping to a axe/shield weaponset, but i think the sword feels nicer i just don’t like the bleeds. I know the sword is aimed around the bleeds, but there are times where cond damage is useless like attacking burrows. Where as if i go power (if it works) i’d be doing decent damage output anyway not including bleeds then the bleeds would help top it up abit further.

The sword works best with power and condition damage.

It is sort of a mix between the two but best results are combination of both.

Yeah i know, but if i get the tough/vit gear then i can only have power, otherwise i’ll stick with prec/cond damage and toughness

I don’t know about PvE, but in PvP MH Sword is utter trash, only good for jumping around.

I would completely ignore this statement. Sword/Horn and Sword/Shield in SPVP and WvW is fantastic if you can manage the play style. You have to time your abillities right and stay on target. Keep them slowed, keep swiftness up and use your leap. I recommend using Rifle with a Sword/Horn build.

I use mostly Sword/Horn for everything. I realized its usefulness in Beta and have never been long without a build that used it.

Underutilized 1h Sword can ‘feel’ useless. You have to trust in your bleeds and tighten up your finger dexterity on the keyboard but it absolutely rocks. I almost never lose 1v1 and even when I do can tell it was my fault.

Currently using dual swords. My trait is 20/25/25/0/0. So with gear and trait, my main focus is power and precision. Sure, my bleeds do not as much as a pure condition build, but i apply bleeds much quicker and hit harder in general. I use signet of fury, FGJ, frenzy and signet of rage normally. I’d exchange my signets for banners in dungeons though.

The build works really well, even in pvp. One time in wvw (opponents were most likely not 80 yet?), 3 warriors, or atleast 2 warriors + another class attacked me, 1 vs 3. I slaughtered them all by myself. One warrior was using 100 blades on me, the other warrior had a 1h sword as well. Using frenzy on them is just awesome. One tried to run away, simply leap and use the 3rd sword skill to cripple, and slash some more until the guy dropped.

There is 1 major disadvantage, which is the defense against con damage. :P

Anyways, i don’t have much condition damage, and instead rely on my ability to keep on hitting my target. And the more crit + power you got, the more your hits count and the quicker you build up bleeds. Also useful if you want to use other weapons who don’t rely on con damage at all, like axes, or targets that don’t take condition damage.