Guild Wars 2

Feel free to debate and correct me

I will try my best to refrain from current existing warrior build influenced opinions.

1. Dislikes

1a. As much as I like the idea of the warrior getting a bit more condi, I genuinely hate it that I feel it is stealing the Guardian’s thunder with all the fire. Kind of feels like “The Guardian’s Apprentice”.

1b. The utility skill Sundering Leap:

Leap to a location and gain adrenaline. When you land, deal damage and inflict vulnerability on all foes in the area.
Damage: 512
10 Vulnerability (6s): 10% Incoming Damage, 10% Incoming Condition Damage Adrenaline: 5
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 180
Combo Finisher: Leap
Range: 600

I feel this completely over shadows the utility shout skill On My Mark:

Call out target foe to make them vulnerable.
10 Vulnerability (10s): 10% Incoming Damage, 10% Incoming Condition Damage Range: 1,200

Even with traits to help shouts out, On My Mark would only cooldown 1 second faster than Sundering Leap. Sure, Sundering Leap applies 4 seconds less vuln, but can apply to 5 enemies. It’s a gap closer as well as a leap finisher. On My Mark requires a trait to grant it adrenaline on use when Sundering Leap doesn’t. Sundering Leap also applies damage on hit. I know thematically it makes sense, but practically I feel it renders the shout unwanted (Even with the possibility of a quick small heal when traited). My issue is not with the skill, but that fact that it belittles another existing skill.

1c. This applies to all Elite Specializations, not just the Bezerker: The first minor trait, I feel should be baseline. I thought Elite Specializations were supposed to add new roles and playstyles. Why though do they add them at the sacrifice of a minor trait? I feel as if that Primal rage: You can equip torches and use rage skills. Gain access to berserk mode and primal bursts, and other Elite Specializations’ first minor traits should be made baseline when choosing to equip(?) them and have the trait replaced with something more fitting. I don’t like the idea of people sitting on the fence of choosing between a current Specialization and an Elite based on a minor trait.

1d. Shattering Blow: Summon a rock in front of you, and then shatter it to gain adrenaline and send rock fragments at all foes in front of you. Foes bleed based on how close they are to the rock. The shock wave produced by this attack reflects projectiles

Damage: 631
4 Bleeding 0-200 (10s): 880 Damage
3 Bleeding 201-400 (10s): 660 Damage
2 Bleeding 401-600 (10s): 440 Damage
Adrenaline: 5
Number of Targets: 5
Reflects Missiles
Range: 600

Not too fussed about this: Don’t like the animation. Summoning a rock seems weird. I’d much prefer to stomp the ground and have a rock rise infront of you ready to punch/ charge/ tackle into the enemy. Warrior’s aren’t elementalists

1e. The Primal Burst skill for the sword, Flaming Flurry: Lash out with a flurry of strikes that destroys projectiles and shoots fireballs at foes in front of you.

Damage (8x): 880
8 Burning (1s): 1048 Damage
Number of Targets: 5
Pierces
Range: 900

Genuinely like the implications of this skill, just not a fan of how. Shooting fireballs from a sword? What? Just seems Bizarre to me.

2. Likes

2a. Torch Skill 5, Flames of War: Cleanse conditions and become a mobile fire field that burns nearby foes. When the field expires, it explodes, damaging foes and burning them again.

Damage: 760
Burning (1s): 131 Damage
2 Final Burning (5s): 1310 Damage
Conditions Removed: 2
Number of Targets: 5
Duration: 5s
Radius: 180

I just like it

2b. I like that rage skills give Adrenaline.

2c. I like the 10% attack speed boost with Beserk as I feel it synergizes well with the Stance skill Frenzy: Frenzy to gain quickness and might

Quickness (6s): Skills and actions are 50% faster.
5 Might (6s): +150 Power, +150 Condition Damage
Breaks Stun

..and the Trait Fatal Frenzy: Gain an attack-speed boost when activating berserk mode

Quickness (2s): Skills and actions are 50% faster

..and the Trait Dual Wielding: Attack speed is increased when wielding a sword, axe, or mace in your off hand.

Increased Attack Speed: 15%

…and the Trait Heightened Focus: Gain Quickness when you strike a foe that is below the health threshold

Health Threshold: 50%
Quickness (4s): Skills and actions are 50% faster.

I feel as if these grouped together will convince people to use other weapons rather than Greatsword for DPS

2d. I like that Primal burst skills can be used every 5 seconds.

2e. I like that the Trait Dead or Alive: Taking fatal damage while in berserk mode ends berserk but heals you and converts remaining adrenaline into health.

Healing per remaining adrenaline.: 266
Healing: 2,610

..does not have an ICD.

2f. I am in love with the Trait Eternal Champion: Gain stability while in berserk mode. Gain stability when you break out of stun.

Stability (3s): Cannot be knocked down, pushed back, pulled, launched, stunned, dazed, floated, sunk, feared or taunted.
Boon Application Interval: 3s

2g. Rifle Primal Burst skill looks awesome!

3. Questions

3a. Does the Heal Skill Blood Reckoning: Heal for a percentage of the damage you deal. Critical hits heal for more and give extra adrenaline.

Damage to Healing: 30%
Bonus Crit Conversion: 20%
Adrenaline: 1
Duration: 6s

..give healing on outgoing condition damage?

3b. Do the following Traits still get their final tier functionality when the Adrenaline Bar is full whilst in Beserk mode, and if so what happens with their lower tier Adrenaline Bar boosts?:

Beserker’s Power: Gain a damage boost when you use a burst skill. Boost power increases based on how much adrenaline you have built.

Adrenaline Stage 1 (10s): 10% Damage
Adrenaline Stage 2 (10s): 15% Damage
Adrenaline Stage 3 (10s): 20% Damage

*Adrenal Health: Regenerate health based on adrenaline level. *

Adrenaline level 1 healing: 117 (0.05)?
Adrenaline level 2 healing: 234 (0.10)?
Adrenaline level 3 healing: 351 (0.15)?
Interval: 3s

*Cleansing Ire: Gain adrenaline when hit. Remove a condition for every bar of adrenaline spent when you hit with a burst skill. *

3c. Does the 15 second recharge time for Bezerk mode start once you’ve activated it or after it ends? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserk

3d. Will the Trait Rousing Resilience: Gain toughness and health when you break out of a stun. be overpowered..

Healing: 1,000 (0.1)?
Rousing Resilience (8s): Gain up to 1,000 toughness based on your level.

..when paired with the Rage skill Outrage: Break out of stun and gain adrenaline for each foe near you?…..

…and does the effect of Rousing Reslience stack on multiple stun breaks? If so, in what way? Duration or intensity?

Adrenaline: 3
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 180
Breaks Stun

..is equipped?

3e. Does the 5 second recharge on Primal Burst skills apply to both weapons on use or just the one currently equipped when used?

3f. Does the Trait Versatile Power: Gain might on weapon swap. Burst skills recharge 15% faster apply to Primal Burst skills?

3g. Does The Trait Burst Mastery: Burst skills deal more damage and restore adrenaline on use

Damage Increase: 7%
Stage 1 Adrenaline Restored: 3
Stage 2 Adrenaline Restored: 7
Stage 3 Adrenaline Restored: 10

..apply to Primal Burst skills?

My dislikes of the Berserker is that they made it such an upgrade to Warrior and not a side-grade like it was supposed to be. They got Necromancer’s Reaper right and that’s about it (perhaps Dragonhunter too?)…

If they were going to go this route, they should have just made it so the Berserker gets OFF-HAND bursts so that picking the Berserker means you miss out on some capabilities of the standard Warrior. And since they already made the skills for a lot of weapons (longbow, greatsword, hammer, rifle, sword, mace and axe), you’d just need torch, warhorn and shield burst skills, preferably something tactical. But instead, it’s like Berserker has everything a Warrior has + a whole other book of tricks.

Leo G.4501:

My dislikes of the Berserker is that they made it such an upgrade to Warrior and not a side-grade like it was supposed to be. They got Necromancer’s Reaper right and that’s about it (perhaps Dragonhunter too?)…

If they were going to go this route, they should have just made it so the Berserker gets OFF-HAND bursts so that picking the Berserker means you miss out on some capabilities of the standard Warrior. And since they already made the skills for a lot of weapons (longbow, greatsword, hammer, rifle, sword, mace and axe), you’d just need torch, warhorn and shield burst skills, preferably something tactical. But instead, it’s like Berserker has everything a Warrior has + a whole other book of tricks.

I feel as if it is more of a side-grade for a few reasons.

1. The Primal Bursts, although they can be used more often than the default Burst skills, they do less damage. (Granted they do have some additional effects)

2. The Warrior’s Traits within their Specializations, I feel are balanced equally as is. This being said, to use the Elite Specialization you would have to sacrifice current awesome Traits, which I find hard to do. (Probably won’t rebuild current Warrior builds I have at the moment as I feel it would be too much of a sacrifice. Will most likely create a new Warrior specifically for Bezerker.)

Regarding Off-Hand Bursts: I probably would’ve preferred that over Bezerker. Having a secondary Burst skill option (e.g. axe on F1, shield on F2), at hand on the F2 button would have increased flexibility and tactical thinking in combat. Would however of sucked for Two-handed weapons.

LeviQuiteQuirky.6892:

3. Questions

3a. Does the Heal Skill *Blood Reckoning…. .give healing on outgoing condition damage?

3b. Do the following Traits still get their final tier functionality when the Adrenaline Bar is full whilst in Beserk mode, and if so what happens with their lower tier Adrenaline Bar boosts?

3c. Does the 15 second recharge time for Bezerk mode start once you’ve activated it or after it ends? https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Berserk

3d. Will the Trait Rousing Resilience: Gain toughness and health when you break out of a stun.

…and does the effect of Rousing Reslience stack on multiple stun breaks? If so, in what way? Duration or intensity?

3e. Does the 5 second recharge on Primal Burst skills apply to both weapons on use or just the one currently equipped when used?

3f. Does the Trait Versatile Power: Gain might on weapon swap. Burst skills recharge 15% faster apply to Primal Burst skills?

3g. Does The Trait *Burst Mastery ..apply to Primal Burst skills?

Answers:

3a: Yes, it heals from outgoing condition damage too. Was mentioned in the Twitch stream.

3b: Yes, they still function, as mentioned in the Twitch stream. They didn’t mention anything about levels while in Berserk, afaik, but I suspect Level 3 is the only one that will be possible… which is amazing since max adren when in Berserk only requires 10 hits.

3c: They didn’t mention this on the stream. It would be odd to start it when initiated given the cooldown is shorter than the duration, but I guess we’ll find out.

3d: Yes, Hugh mentioned on the stream that he’d made a build that played with this mechanic. I don’t think there’s any reason to think it can stack in intensity, and I doubt it’d stack in duration but I guess we’ll have to see.

3e: Probably just the one, as normal.

3f: I believe they said all adren/burst related traits were to work in Berserk, so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t.

3g: As per 3f, yes, probably.

@Leo
I disagree. I won’t personally feel compelled to use Berserker from a power perspective, meaning, I don’t think the traits or Berserk mechanism overshadow all other aspects of the warrior and I fully expect to continue running builds without them.

I do think it’s a class upgrade though in that it provides additional versatility through powerful options.

LeviQuiteQuirky.6892:

Feel free to debate and correct me

I will try my best to refrain from current existing warrior build influenced opinions.

1. Dislikes

1a. As much as I like the idea of the warrior getting a bit more condi, I genuinely hate it that I feel it is stealing the Guardian’s thunder with all the fire. Kind of feels like “The Guardian’s Apprentice”.
(…)

Everything is stealing guardian place, tempest with boons, boon duration non existent on a class that heavilly deppends on boons, revenant can easilly be in place with guardian at support/bunkering and wvw frontliner stability, for sure warrior will do more fire stacks easilly than guardian also, will be a sturdy heavy condi damage instead of the glass canon torch guard.

No worries guardian players are used to that.

LeviQuiteQuirky.6892:

Leo G.4501:

My dislikes of the Berserker is that they made it such an upgrade to Warrior and not a side-grade like it was supposed to be. They got Necromancer’s Reaper right and that’s about it (perhaps Dragonhunter too?)…

If they were going to go this route, they should have just made it so the Berserker gets OFF-HAND bursts so that picking the Berserker means you miss out on some capabilities of the standard Warrior. And since they already made the skills for a lot of weapons (longbow, greatsword, hammer, rifle, sword, mace and axe), you’d just need torch, warhorn and shield burst skills, preferably something tactical. But instead, it’s like Berserker has everything a Warrior has + a whole other book of tricks.

I feel as if it is more of a side-grade for a few reasons.

1. The Primal Bursts, although they can be used more often than the default Burst skills, they do less damage. (Granted they do have some additional effects)

2. The Warrior’s Traits withing their Specializations, I feel are balanced equally as is. This being said, to use the Elite Specialization you would have to sacrifice current awesome Traits, which I find hard to do. (Probably won’t rebuild current Warrior builds I have at the moment as I feel it would be too much of a sacrifice. Will most likely create a new Warrior specifically for Bezerker.)

Regarding Off-Hand Bursts: I probably would’ve preferred that over Bezerker. Having a secondary Burst skill option (e.g. axe on F1, shield on F2), at hand on the F2 button would have increased flexibility and tactical thinking in combat. Would however of sucked for Two-handed weapons.

Nothing stops Two-handed weapons from having F2. You just design new F skill for GS, Hammer and LB.

For example, Greatsword F2:

Gladiator’s Defense

Block incoming frontal attacks for 0.5/1.0/1.5 seconds. Attacks within 300 range extend Gladiator’s Defense duration by 0.5s (1s ICD per target). Max duration: 4s.

Choppy.4183:

Answers:

3a: Yes, it heals from outgoing condition damage too. Was mentioned in the Twitch stream.

3b: Yes, they still function, as mentioned in the Twitch stream. They didn’t mention anything about levels while in Berserk, afaik, but I suspect Level 3 is the only one that will be possible… which is amazing since max adren when in Berserk only requires 10 hits.

3c: They didn’t mention this on the stream. It would be odd to start it when initiated given the cooldown is shorter than the duration, but I guess we’ll find out.

3d: Yes, Hugh mentioned on the stream that he’d made a build that played with this mechanic. I don’t think there’s any reason to think it can stack in intensity, and I doubt it’d stack in duration but I guess we’ll have to see.

3e: Probably just the one, as normal.

3f: I believe they said all adren/burst related traits were to work in Berserk, so there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t.

3g: As per 3f, yes, probably.

Thanks for the answers

RE: Answer 3c. I thought the Cooldown and duration were the same.

Rym.1469:

Nothing stops Two-handed weapons from having F2. You just design new F skill for GS, Hammer and LB.

For example, Greatsword F2:

Gladiator’s Defense

Block incoming frontal attacks for 0.5/1.0/1.5 seconds. Attacks within 300 range extend Gladiator’s Defense duration by 0.5s (1s ICD per target). Max duration: 4s.

Yeah, don’t know why I counted that out lol

Aeolus.3615:

sturdy heavy condi damage instead of the glass canon torch guard.

So more of a constant damage of time dealer rather than a quick burst of massive damage and then everything is on cooldown?

LeviQuiteQuirky.6892:

RE: Answer 3c. I thought the Cooldown and duration were the same.

Huh… the wiki does say 15s, but I was sure I saw 12.5s somewhere. I’m not sure why they’d bother to add a CD that equals the duration of a state that can’t be cancelled if it starts on activation, but you never know. My bet is it’s at the end so it has a 50% uptime at most.

LeviQuiteQuirky.6892:

Aeolus.3615:

sturdy heavy condi damage instead of the glass canon torch guard.

So more of a constant damage of time dealer rather than a quick burst of massive damage and then everything is on cooldown?

That is how i imagine the what berserker will be, an heavy armored ele :|, use bow (or torch ) to force target burn evades then pull GS for Nike Burning warrior, with 14% ferocity bonus will help phisical damage on condi builds.

Not funny how everything in this game is resuming to stack fire damage to win…mechanic, it feels a expect to loose if not speced for that.

The Dead or Alive trait looks amusing, especially when combined with Defy Pain and Endure Pain.

What I highly dislike is the fact that hammer f1 knocks my target further away, usually I use it as a gap closer as we all know warrs gets kited – and now the target is knocked away and out of reach of our cc follow ups/damage.

nacario.9417:

What I highly dislike is the fact that hammer f1 knocks my target further away, usually I use it as a gap closer as we all know warrs gets kited – and now the target is knocked away and out of reach of our cc follow ups/damage.

Yea, aside from trying to knock players away from capping points in PvP I can’t think this will be far more annoying than helpful. I would have preferred if they had gone the exact opposite and done something like gravity well where your attack “implodes” and you pull enemies to you.

Lol, or creates a crater so deep opponents fall toward you in the middle?

Nice catch about Sundering Leap vs “On my mark!”. Of course you can make the shout heal with the trait but it shouldn’t take a trait to make it worth taking over Sundering Leap. Perhaps “On my mark!” could get a little more oomph to keep it competitive. Perhaps increase the stacks of vuln or add a second condition to it?

I for one found out a pretty sweet Mace+axe/GS power build that allows for a crapload of AoE might procs through blast finishers while maintaining great CC and some nice heavy hitters that are nicely setup by skullcrusher outside of berserker mode. Granted I’ll have to ditch the Strength line but I find I gain a lot in return, and I probably wont even need brawler’s recovery or berserker stance since we can use primal bursts all day with how easy it is to reach 10 adrenaline thanks to Versatile Rage and that new 10sec CD Outrage utility that breaks stuns and grants 3 adrenaline per enemy near you alone.

I thought the elite spec would be some condi fest crap but I will definitely enjoy it with power builds.

Likes:
New skills

Dislike:
everything else

Berserker is so OP it’s mandatory => no more warrior, only berserker ….
Look at the trait for instance:
Dead or alive is uterly broken, it’s literraly DEA’s engi but it last 15sec on a 13sec cd …. =>Need a HUGE internal cd
Eternal champion … like wtf ? make it something like: when entering berserker mode, grant 5stability stack for 3sec. It’ strong, maybe be OP, but not as much as the current trait

Even the concept:
For 10adre, you get a spell that is worth ~25 (they said it’s slightly weaker than a tier 3 burst) on a shorter cd

Hopefully this^ can be fixed by number tweak
.

The worse:
I’m not sure it really opens condi build. Outside of torch and mace’s primal burst, there isnt much condi application, and both this skill aplly condition warrior could already spamm. Condi warrior lack condi cover, the spec do not give it to him :/

Can be fixed too, but a bit harder (and even more to balance)