Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, I recently got to 80 and starting gearing my warrior. Just wanted a little advice!

I have some of my exotic gear, 3 pieces of knight and 3 pieces of soldier with soldier runes.
I also bought knight stats jewelry (only rares atm)
Typically I play with GS +ranged offhand.

I’ve been using the heavy arms build by Dontain, which is basically a healing shout build, with some sustained dps and pretty good condition removal because of the soldier runes.

I was wondering what other builds would work well with my armor setup and would possibly be more effective in a pve/dungeon scenario.

I feel like I do contribute in groups but if people think “what a noob! He uses healing shouts!” I’d like to know haha. Just want to contribute to my group the best I can!

Thanks!

Anyone who doesn’t like playing alongside a healing shouts Warrior in a group setting should be shot.

Just sayin’

Haha okay, as long as I know people appreciate it and I’m not holding the group back :p

I struck a balance:

Knight’s armour
Berserker’s weapons and accessories

Works out pretty well. Though when running with people who are full Berserker it gets annoying as you grab all the aggro and Warriors are not meant to tank like that.

What sigil would be good for my GS? Bloodlust or whatever it is?

If you’re going for a Warrior healing shout/support build, you’re better of going full Soldier’s. Knight’s is best used in combination with Berserker’s gear to take advantage of the precision it gives you. I know you aren’t using it, but just puting it out there, full Knight’s gear/trinkets gives you great Crit %, but that’s useless if you don’t have the Crit Dmg to back that up. I run a balanced build with three Zerk pieces (shoulders/gauntlets/boots) and three Knight’s pieces (helmet/chest/legs). I use Zerk weapons. My trinkets include an ascended Zerk amulet, a Soldier’s guild backpack with an exquisite ruby jewel, and exquisite orichalcum knight’s for the other four; two of which have exquisite ruby jewels instead of emeralds.

I love the build because it’s versatile when I need it to be. If I want mega survivability in WvW, etc., I can spec my traits and give myself around 3200 armor. If I want mega DPS (not as high as a full Zerker obviously), I can spec my traits and, with the proper skills, get upwards to 90% crit chance and dmg.

In my opinion, it’s the ultimate Warrior build.

TMCG.7108:

I feel like I do contribute in groups but if people think “what a noob! He uses healing shouts!” I’d like to know haha. Just want to contribute to my group the best I can!

My guild is running the hardest content constantly, so I can give you a pointer to what an high-end team will think of you depending on your build.
Here is how we rank Warriors, from worst to best:

Newbie Warrior
Full zerk gear, Signet build, never changes setup or skills according to encounters, zero chance to be in our teams.

Shout healer
Warrior locked into the same 3 utilities forever (and thus not using the best Warrior feats such as DPS, Invul, Control) so very inefficient.
I only take this in WvW, or in PvE if the current team has enough dmg and support so we just need a “filler” before going in.

The Incredible Hulk
A Warrior with all weapons/utilities/traits completely focused on control. I like these.
His damage is respectable but its biggest contribute is avoiding wipes through control.
Definitely worth a slot unless we’re doing very specific content where CC is not good.

Skilled Berserker
Full zerker Warrior that overcomes lack of defense with player skill and well-timed EP.
Will swap utilities and even weapons to what’s best in the situation at hand, goes down sometimes but will rarely die unless focused a lot.
Always worth the team slot.

Invincible Berserker
Same as Skilled Berserker except he went 30 defense and uses shield to be invulnerable 21.6% of the time. Will very rarely go down, let alone die. Swaps utilties/weapons according to enemies. It’s usually the guy who jumps in first to negate the big initial bursts and has incredible staying power.
I die to have these in my team, they make things much easier.

Endless-Spike Warrior
Warrior with big DPS and 20%+ DR, spikes mobs for extreme damage and rolls into another spike, makes sure EP negates tens of thousands of damage, will switch weapons and utilities according to situations, great staying power. Rarely downed unless on purpose when a dying mob is tagged, owns all weapons and carries them with him and even some gear pieces, usually the second last person to die when a support Guardian is present.
Although rare, when I see these Warriors they are guaranteed a slot immediately.

So, if you are Hulk or above you’re fine for endgame stuff.

Oglaf.1074:

I struck a balance:

Knight’s armour
Berserker’s weapons and accessories

Works out pretty well. Though when running with people who are full Berserker it gets annoying as you grab all the aggro and Warriors are not meant to tank like that.

This is a great set to utilize. Great for learning and eventually going Full Berserker if you desire so.

I personally like to do GS/Hammer a lot in dungeons.
I run a lot of pubs so the Hammer is invaluable to me when we run into a WTF moment and need some immediate CC to regroup.

Sahfur.5612:

I carry tons of consumables and keep them on the side of my screen and am capable of using them whilst on the move and using skills. With a little practice you can pop off a consumable or two during a dodge roll. It helps aid your group and most of the consumables are balanced enough now that its a small edge but any edge is an edge.

They aren’t necessary, but I simply believe in glorious and complete overkill. I make up the gold spent on them by the efficiency and speed with which I allow the team to run dungeons.

But Sah! you aren’t in a zerker spec using theoretical optimum effective power!

Actually, I have a -viable- zerker build with well -above- 6500 EP in the build calculator. I don’t see many builds with much higher than that. I keep the stuff in my inventory, three to four sets of gear at any one point, relentlessly balanced mathematically to fulfill a role, and fulfill it to magnificent excess. All I have to do is change traits for some if I wanted.
Some require no traiting.

Only problem? The potential isn’t there with most builds. Sacrificing potential to achieve higher dps seems counter intuitive, especially when the spike doesn’t outweigh the fact that healing and/or skirting must be done more often.

I destroy endgame stuff. I solo veteran karkas, champion orrian giants with effortless ease. I can sit and type casually as three veteran karka attack me.

I can switch utility and adapt to any given situation.

I am able to sustain if any healer is around and am able to do damage constantly with no pause or dodging unless a heavy attack is used. I do not have to skirt around like a zerker. I do not have to run away and ranged. I do not have to worry about long cooldown skills which provide nothing except self invincibility for a short amount of time unless there is an actual dungeon situation which requires it.

Anyway, that scale is incorrect, unless you are doing hilariously easy content such as COF. My apologies.

I am high end enough to be called “beast mode”, “terrifying” and “OP” by most given team-mates.
I have the zerker gear and am willing to switch for certain situations, but maximum potential is not achieved by becoming made of paper.

Shout build is fine, you simply have to bring more to the table than a small heal every few moments and be capable of thinking and adapting.

From someone who has spent time mathematically analyzing this stuff and solo-ing content, the list is pedantic and misinformed.

Feel free to believe the same things the hundreds of others do though: Thats what keeps me so competitive. I tried. The majority also used to believe some other builds were “best” and others “bad” but the hilarious part is alot of it has been flipped upside down in recent months.

So, what exactly did you contribute with this post…?
Can you post your build that you utilize and base your adaptations around?

Sahfur.5612:

I want people to realize that stacking zerker or vit isn’t the only way to go.
I also want them to realize that no build is optimum for all situations.

Do you realize how many people I see who refuse to change anything about their build for a specific part of a dungeon to make things run smoother?

Edit: I’ve had groups with zerkers who refuse to switch out their signet for the banner during lupicus. Why? They’d sacrifice dps. I want people to be more like water, shift and change for the situation.

Thats what I want to accomplish.

I already explained it above.

Thats how I’m successful, and I wanted to share that success.

The warrior community is running rampant with more or less the exact same builds and it is contradictory to progress or diversity.

Edit: I want people to understand they can unlock their maximum potential in more than one way. Zerker isn’t theoretical optimum for all situations. It works for speed runs in COF or if other people are able to draw aggro. In actually difficult content, a long cd skill, a few dodge rolls and a prayer do not cut it.

Run with good people.
I suggest trying to find a large, high-end PvE guild, they will be coordinated on TS and swap to the best stuff according to encounters.
PuGs are difficult to manage.

Btw I agree that full zerker isn’t the way to go outside CoF, I’m trying to push Warriors to get Cavalier trinkets or Knight’s armor.
In the hardest content even the most skilled player cannot permanently avoid all damage (let alone that constantly dodging deals little DPS, I actually use dodge offensively).