Guild Wars 2

Sigil of Paralyzation has been buffed up to 30%, meaning that Skull Crack now lasts for the full duration of 100b. While Hambow is still a strong build, Skullcracker focuses on locking down a single target in addition to being much more mobile. In a well organized team being stunned for over 3 seconds is a death sentence. Another nice side benefit is that with a shield and Counterblow you’ll feel the Healing Signet nerf less because you have several ways to avoid taking damage. I have Furious Reaction on 2 versions but you can use Rending Strikes as well.

Here’s a few version of the build that I’m messing around with, there’s so much more room for build diversity when it comes to runes and sigils so you can really put your own spin on things. I’m leaning towards Hoelbrak runes, but Ogre seems like a good choice because while stunned it’s adding you your DPS and they can’t actively kill the Dog. In WvW I’m going to have a Sigil of Impact on the GS which will make it hit around what it did pre-Ferocity. The new Cavaliers ammy in PvP might be good because you’ll still have around 100% crit chance when you have Fury.

Version 1

Same trait loadout as before. More frequent uses of Skull Crack and more Ferocity. I’ve moved from Lysaa since Hoelbrak got buffed a bit but an unfortunate side effect is you only have 49% crit chance. It doesn’t hurt it too badly but it can screw you over sometimes.

Version 2

The weakness of this build has always been a lack of range, leading you you possibly having periods where you are dealing no damage to them while they kite. Spiked Armor helps with this a bit because you’ll have Retaliation around 50% of the time. It’s not useful vs slower hitting builds but kitting classes like Engi that hit you with tons of nades will end up killing themselves.

Version 3

Only a minor variation. You lose Warrior’s Sprint although you could switch out Dolyak Signet for Balanced Stance and take that instead. The Sigil of Geomancy will help insure you’re getting that extra 10% damage during the 100b and will last for a good amount of time after.

I feel that this build has a future now that other builds have been nerfed. I should also mention that this build can mop the floor with Hambow 1v1 if you use your blocks correctly. That’s pretty handy in organized play because chances are you’ll be able to deny their control for much longer than you’ll be able to deny yours.

EDIT: So, the new Phalanx Strength trait seems like it “might” be really fun. I haven’t messed with it much yet but with Forceful Greatsword you can give a ton of Might to your allies.

BETA Version 4

It lacks Cleansing Ire but I put on Shrug it Off in an attempt to compensate a bit. I’m not sure it’s viable but it’s certainly entertaining. With the new Runes of Strength the might you share will last for I THINK more than 9 seconds. It’s also a reason to use Mighty Defense.

what are you talking about? this build has been viable and effective since the first day the game was launched. get good.

Pray For Kosmos.5849:

what are you talking about? this build has been viable and effective since the first day the game was launched. get good.

You do realize that Warrior as a class wasn’t considered viable (only 1 good team ran one I believe) until the healing buffs right? Pre-buff Skull Crack was generally inferior to Earthshaker because it Stunned for the same duration but only on one target.

Also, after the Warrior buffs I was the first one to post a build that got a decent amount of attention (13,000 views, though idk how many were unique). It was an obvious build but you didn’t see it widely used until the class was buffed.

i’ve been play skullcrack gs build since the moment they announced the building momentum nerf, i have to say it was already pretty strong.
well i guess everything got stronger this patch. except my gs/lb build is gone.

dont use dolyak signet, its bad compare to balance stance.
you can have sigil of rage with 50% proc rate to have 3 second frenzy every 30 seconds, that might help with the build. pre patch i went zerker stance, frenzy, balanced stance.

0 20 20 0 30, last line had destruction of the empoweered.

Simon.3794:

dont use dolyak signet, its bad compare to balance stance.
you can have sigil of rage with 50% proc rate to have 3 second frenzy every 30 seconds, that might help with the build. pre patch i went zerker stance, frenzy, balanced stance.

0 20 20 0 30, last line had destruction of the empoweered.

Dolyak is not bad imo. If you’re traited into Signets already for a 8 sec longer CD you get 250 more toughness. That gives you a lot more sustain if you’re running Zerker.

250 more toughness is nothing, also you don’t have the toughness if its on CD, 8 second without stunbreak is huge,
if they lock burst you in that 8 seconds gap and you would be dead right there if you are zerker

plus it gives 180 toughness, not 250

Simon.3794:

250 more toughness is nothing, also you don’t have the toughness if its on CD, 8 second without stunbreak is huge,
if they lock burst you in that 8 seconds gap and you would be dead right there if you are zerker

plus it gives 180 toughness, not 250

180 Is still a significant amount of toughness. While you don’t have it while it’s not on CD you won’t always need to have Stability/Stun Break and in those situations Balanced Stance does nothing for you. You don’t even need it for stomping half of the time because you can just use Counterblow. I have encountered few situations where I go “kitten , I really wish I had brought Balanced Stance instead.” Proper usage of your blocks will mean that you only have to use the Signet in a worse case scenario.

BurrTheKing.8571:

It was an obvious build but you didn’t see it widely used until the class was buffed.

I disagree with this statement.

I showed some few odd Warriors well before the patch on how to duel with the Mace/Shield——Greatsword build. I was a fairly active dueling Warrior in Spvp when the actual pros were still in game. I am not saying I posted the very first iteration of the build but it was most certainly a early version (pretty sure the only one at the time I posted it).

It was the only build I used for Warrior in Spvp until I dropped the game and I know a few Warriors who also took to liking it because it had decent survival measures (even back then) and required some sort of skill. Even back then Warriors could clean conditions fairly well when using Mending and Restorative Strength (trait).

Was it used in Tpvp? No, because it is first and for most a dueling/soloing build. It could however be used in Tpvp as a far point pusher back in the day (which is what my team used it as).

Maybe your experience is different but in Spvp most Warriors were either Axe/Shield—Greatsword or Mace/Shield—Greatsword (before patch of course, but even back then you had Warriors using Hammer—Mace/Shield to stun lock as well). Why you ask? Because the aoe “meta” had not evolved yet and most teams were single target burst damage. This is all from my experience playing quite a bit of Spvp, so take it with however much salt you will.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Simon.3794:

250 more toughness is nothing, also you don’t have the toughness if its on CD, 8 second without stunbreak is huge,
if they lock burst you in that 8 seconds gap and you would be dead right there if you are zerker

plus it gives 180 toughness, not 250

180 Is still a significant amount of toughness. While you don’t have it while it’s not on CD you won’t always need to have Stability/Stun Break and in those situations Balanced Stance does nothing for you. You don’t even need it for stomping half of the time because you can just use Counterblow. I have encountered few situations where I go “kitten , I really wish I had brought Balanced Stance instead.” Proper usage of your blocks will mean that you only have to use the Signet in a worse case scenario.

180 toughness can save you a bit of HP, but 8 second difference of sb and stab can save your life, your teamates life or even save the group fight, i used to think signet is better too and i thought i actually had encountered few situations too, until i actually tried it, it does feel a lot of different, plus it gave you the speed burst, so you can position yourself better.

personally i felt a lot better and will never switch back,

Proper usage of your blocks will more likely reduce the need of extra toughness so you can have more access to stability and stunbreak, this way makes more sense to me, since you can’t stunbreak with blocks

BurrTheKing.8571:

Sigil of Paralyzation has been buffed up to 30%, meaning that Skull Crack now lasts for the full duration of 100b. While Hambow is still a strong build, Skullcracker focuses on locking down a single target in addition to being much more mobile. In a well organized team being stunned for over 3 seconds is a death sentence. Another nice side benefit is that with a shield and Counterblow you’ll feel the Healing Signet nerf less because you have several ways to avoid taking damage. I have Furious Reaction on 2 versions but you can use Rending Strikes as well.

Here’s a few version of the build that I’m messing around with, there’s so much more room for build diversity when it comes to runes and sigils so you can really put your own spin on things. I’m leaning towards Hoelbrak runes, but Ogre seems like a good choice because while stunned it’s adding you your DPS and they can’t actively kill the Dog. In WvW I’m going to have a Sigil of Impact on the GS which will make it hit around what it did pre-Ferocity. The new Cavaliers ammy in PvP might be good because you’ll still have around 100% crit chance when you have Fury.

Version 1

Same trait loadout as before. More frequent uses of Skull Crack and more Ferocity. I’ve moved from Lysaa since Hoelbrak got buffed a bit but an unfortunate side effect is you only have 49% crit chance. It doesn’t hurt it too badly but it can screw you over sometimes.

Version 2

The weakness of this build has always been a lack of range, leading you you possibly having periods where you are dealing no damage to them while they kite. Spiked Armor helps with this a bit because you’ll have Retaliation around 50% of the time. It’s not useful vs slower hitting builds but kitting classes like Engi that hit you with tons of nades will end up killing themselves.

Version 3

Only a minor variation. You lose Warrior’s Sprint although you could switch out Dolyak Signet for Balanced Stance and take that instead. The Sigil of Geomancy will help insure you’re getting that extra 10% damage during the 100b and will last for a good amount of time after.

I feel that this build has a future now that other builds have been nerfed. I should also mention that this build can mop the floor with Hambow 1v1 if you use your blocks correctly. That’s pretty handy in organized play because chances are you’ll be able to deny their control for much longer than you’ll be able to deny yours.

EDIT: So, the new Phalanx Strength trait seems like it “might” be really fun. I haven’t messed with it much yet but with Forceful Greatsword you can give a ton of Might to your allies.

BETA Version 4

It lacks Cleansing Ire but I put on Shrug it Off in an attempt to compensate a bit. I’m not sure it’s viable but it’s certainly entertaining. With the new Runes of Strength the might you share will last for I THINK more than 9 seconds. It’s also a reason to use Mighty Defense.

burr I noticed that myself earlier today had a similar thoughts about hard cc in general X D.

Mace shield is good maybe for wvw roaming but high end tpvp wise right now hambow is still a lot stronger. With certain sigils team fight wise it has been buffed. Pretty much making a viable/optimal build for tpvp you need longbow. If you don’t like hambow you can run axe/shield and lb with valks or pvt.

I tried that build, but Hambow is way better… There is no comparison between these builds at the moment.

In my opinion Stun + HB is also less performing than just Eviscerate.
The SC – HB builds requires a not easy set-up and deals damage in 4 seconds, meaning that anyone can use teleports or stunbreakers with ease.
With Eviscerate builds, you have just to press 1 button and you are doing little less damage.

Skullcrack never left, I’ve been running it for almost a year now in WvW.

With that said, I don’t think it’s competitive with condi bow builds in tPvP — the nerf to Lyssa runes really hurt this build, and we’re more dependent than ever on cleansing ire. This is less of an issue in WvW, as our stats scale fairly well and we can compensate.

I’ll be switching to Condi Bow/X for tPvP — Ill miss you skullcrack!

Skullcrack builds are great for dueling and 2v2s, I’ve never liked running it in tournies because I think hammer is too far superior in team fights.

Brigg.6189:

Skullcrack builds are great for dueling and 2v2s, I’ve never liked running it in tournies because I think hammer is too far superior in team fights.

It’s “back” in the sense that Sigil of Paral is now back to what it was before, possibly better.