Guild Wars 2

Axe ’n Shield beefy DPS

Please tell me what you think about my build I want some comments because I have come to this by time and tweaking.

I use this build in wvw ( party roaming and zerg ), pve and dungeons ( with few major trait changes )

I don’t have the armors and accessory in the link but I will tell them.

This build focuses on heavy thoughness with good dps and moderate burst by using axe and shield, only downpart is that conditions are direct counter to this build. The passive regen let’s you to focus on positioning and countering your opponent’s as you don’t have to heal. Just remeber that poison will quickly cause a death.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneRjkOJvBPuQMxBAMjquyyoogUKsrOA
I sometimes run 20 in strength and 30 in defense for more tankyness.

Armors: Valkyrie’s
Weapons: Berserker’s, shield is Knight’s, fire or air sigils and accuracy sigil for shield
Accessory: Knight’s

For runes I would perhaps take dolyak’s for the extra survivability and synergy with passive health regen, but I don’t have exotic gear yet. I have rare armors with no runes and masterwork accessory. With my gear I sit on around 2900 ( will push up to and maybe over 3000 with exotic gear) armor and 43 ( will be on the better side of 50 with exotic) crit chance when I have fury on me. I hit for about 1000 dmg on avarage ( depending on opponent’s armor ) when I crit with axes and my evi does about 4 to 6 k damage. Dodge does for 600 aoe dmg and 1k with crit. This synergizes well with signet of stamina which is a must for this build.

This build is very mobile with greatsword, I use gs for initiation and getting out of bad situations with mobile strikes ( remember to turn autotargetting of or you may run into wrong direction and get killed ). For pve I change mobile strikes for 100% chanse to res if getting kill while in venegance and take shake it off in place of endure pain. In dungeons I change embrace the pain to turtle’s defense and gs to rifle in addition to all pve changes.

I don’t suggest solo roaming with this build as condition builds are the only problem and it is VERY difficult to escape i.e. from condition thieves which are becoming more and more common.

Things to look for and playstyle:

I will explain my build in wvw because if you can do it in wvw, the pve part is peace of cake. I have made this build to suit my playstyle so feel free to adjust it to suit your own.

The idea is to be in your opponent’s face dishing out aoe dmg with axes and keep dodging, but remeber to leave always some endurance that you can dodge once more soon if you happen to need it. Use SoRage and gs to get in and for great juctice while you are on your way in. Use endure pain first if you happen to get focused, remember to USE IT EARLY and swing that axe. At this point your opponent’s will be running or pushing even further into your zerg. If they start running just chase them and leave downed players for the rest of the zerg. Your mission is to drop as much elementalists as you can. If they won’t flee and your zerg is losing and running in fear use shield block, dodge few times and remember to de select your target ( esc or left click onto the ground ) before usibg gs 3 and 5 ( in that order ) to get out, otherwise stand there like a man and keep swinging that axe and dodging.

In smaller fights and 1 on 1 situations use Endure Pain early again when you feel like it, use shield block to counter bursts and buy yourself some time to regenerate health. You should focus on countering your opponent with dodge and shield skills while constantly spamming axe 1 and 2. Remember to use axe 3 whenever it is up if you have difficulties dancing around your opponent. You are doing it right if your goal is to get on your opponent’s backside 24/7.

For finishing use your shield 4 if it is up and throw an evi at your opponent’s back ( more common than face ) when they are on low health. This should drop them. Avoid using your burst skill if you are not sure that it will drop an enemy as losing your adrenaline will drop your offense ( berserker’s power ) and defense ( adrenaline health ).

When facing heavy condition damage you had better run first and then use signet of stamina and continue to run into safety. Going onto a condition damage dealer who is not glassy is suicidial so you should keep that in mind. There is no perfect build and there are always another build to counter yours.

And what comes to glass cannon backstabber thieves and heartseeker thieves, I have killed plenty of them by losing just 2k hp ( after I have killed them, so count off the regen if you want, I haven’t counted the regen per second but if you want to count it, it takes about 15 to 20 sec to kill one, about 6 to 10 sec to drop one, starting from thief’s initiation). With right timing, good reflexes and right skill usage they are the best meal for a hungry axe/shield warrior. Just remember to pointlessly swing your axe if they stealth as you can and will still hit them. There is nothing more fun than hitting a stealthed thief with shield 4 and killing them while they are stealthed.

And what comes to stomping, kill thieves and elementalists usually with damage and stomp everyone else. Ofc this depends on the situations really much but keep it as a guide line.