Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’ve just started a Warrior and he’s currently level 23. He’s been using signets mostly and a greatsword paired with a rifle.

I’ve noticed that he tends to die alot when enemies stack condition on him. I haven’t been paying attention on stats since there’s little option atm when it comes to craftable heavy armor.

I have not touched his trait yet so I’m looking for a build with better survivability. Or any suggestion on how I can make him tougher. Weapon advice is also very welcome.

Thank you.

I recommend browsing these forums for the numerous threads that debate about the pros and cons of the warrior profesion,

also, the sticky thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Post-Your-Build-Thread/first

has a plethora of information.

The end result is that there is no one spec or build that is best.

Until you get up to the point where you can use traits that remove conditions (like quick breathing) or have gear that allows you to use runes that remove conditions (like Soldier runes) then what you need to do is balance yourself with gear that accentuates your weaknesses: add vitality and toughness. Conversely, focus on more damage so that your foes drop before the conditions become unmanagable.

You’ve a fair way to go from 23, so keep at it! Plenty of time to experiment with your profession.

keep with the GS/rifle, spec full dps, use the signet build, one of your signets removes all conditions, use it after a fight, and swap out healing sig for mending in high condition areas.

GS/longbow is also viable, but i found i only needed to use range on champs, everythign else gets killed very fast by HB, use whirlwind as a aoe finisher/escape

Without survivability you learn to play this game better. Think about that!

But yeah if conds kill you take condition removal.

I would suggest the first 10 trait points in Arms to get Deep Strike, so you’ve got a massive boost to Precision in lower levels. Then 10 in Strength to get Berserker’s Power – you’ll often have your adrenaline at full and a 12% boost in damage is fantastic. After this I started investing in Defence just to get Adrenal Health (along with Embrace the Pain) for more health regeneration – with that and the healing signet you barely have to look at your health bar, unless you’ve got some nasty conditions on you.

With high Precision & a greatsword you’ll be walking through mobs. I keep a rifle on swap for kiting around champs – I tend to find I usually get their aggro so as long as I keep moving well & there’s another player doing damage then there’s little problem; can’t remember the last time I got downed by one.

Thanks a lot. That’s true about survivability. I learned to swap weapons on the go. There was a boss in a skill point challenge with a cleaver that kept stacking bleeding on me so I kept dying at half health. I just switched to Rifle the 3rd try and he didn’t damage me at all hehe.

Thanks for the trait advice. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. He’s level 28 now.

The most easy way to level is by using sword+warhorn, rifle as offhand.

By using sword you gain two great advantages – bleeds and leap. Bleeds kill mobs pretty fast and you stack them on all mobs you are hitting (up to 3). Leap gets you faster to the next target, gets you out of combat if things go wrong and is a great overall mobility tool for traveling around the world. Beleave me, the best tool to get around the 80’s areas in the endgame.

Warhorn is by far the best mobility tool for a warrior. Use it for this purpose and you will thank me later. Your warrior being level 28 will soon unlock signet of rage, which as an addition to the warhorn gives you essentially perma-swiftness, which makes traveling even easier.

Traits: first 15 points go into Defense to get adrenal health. This, coupled with restoration signet and a cheap bloodlust sigil on your sword, will keep you alive in almost every situation. Invest the next 20 points into Arms – get “deep strikes” and “deep cut”. Those will boost your crits, hence enhance your bleed stacking and will make your bleeds last longer. Use “for great justice” to boost your crit rate and another two signets of your liking (bringing your signets to 4, hence the “deep strikes” trait).

Past that invest points whereever you like.

Use rifle as offhand for obvious range/kiting purposes.

This will dumb down your play style, because you will literaly stay infront of the mobs and unload damage while regenerating health. The superior mobility and the bleeds will make your play a blast, because PVE leveling is not all about DPS, its about traveling.

Heya, here’s the build I used to level my Warrior in PvE.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3XjcO5uJPuQMxBALjiA6ygKmUKa7OA

When using GS + popping For Great Justice & signets you can easily stack 25 Might, meaning things will die fast. Endure Pain is for those ‘oh shi…’ situations and will often save your life.

Axes are great for events, as Axe 5 has no target limit, meaning you can easily tag every mob.

If you want to solo champion mobs, you can go 20/30/0/0/20, pick up Crack Shot, replace Axes with Rifle and kite them to death.

It’s very glassy build, but the point of it is to kill everything before they can do any real damage.

Harrier.9380:

Axes are great for events, as Axe 5 has no target limit, meaning you can easily tag every mob.

Right and wrong. Axe 5 has the same target limit as every other AoE skill in the game- it can only hit 5 enemies at a time. However, the fact that it hits 15 times and hits 5 random enemies each time means you spread the love around quite effectively. I agree with what you’re saying, just wanted to clear that misconception.

niedawow.6725:

The most easy way to level is by using sword+warhorn, rifle as offhand.

Can’t add much here, sword+warhorn/rifle is great for open world PvE leveling – the #2 leap and Swiftness make traveling much more enjoyable. You might also want to try longbow in your offhand – create a fire field with your longbow burst, and then swap to sword+warhorn and #2 savage leap, which is a finisher, for fire armor.

How do you invest the first 15 points in defense? I thought the limit was 10 per trait til level 40?

I would add something..

Warhorn is fine to move around. .keep it in the bag and swap as needed to get from point to point.

But to fight it adds little. Slot sword for a really nice dps on 4 and great block and dps on 5.

Not saying the warhorn is bad, but don’t use it for fights is all. just bag it before you aer doing events and hearts.

Also a tip: use the weapon sigils that give swiftness on kill.At low levels the weapon sigils are quite weak and you won’t feel a difference to damage, but it is an awesome boost when you kill 3 mobs at the same time and get a 15 sec swiftness.Makes moving to the next mobs/event so much faster and pleasant (guess that’s why this is one of the more expensive sigils..but for low levels it’s a few silver only, so no biggie)

Vexien.4790:

Right and wrong. Axe 5 has the same target limit as every other AoE skill in the game- it can only hit 5 enemies at a time. However, the fact that it hits 15 times and hits 5 random enemies each time means you spread the love around quite effectively. I agree with what you’re saying, just wanted to clear that misconception.

Yeah, thanks, I was kinda in a hurry when I wrote that

Also, there is one exception to 5 targets rule – Hundred Blades can only hit 3.

Lysico.4906:

Not saying the warhorn is bad, but don’t use it for fights is all. just bag it before you aer doing events and hearts.

Warhorn 5 weakens enemies (50% damage) and gives everybody endurance. What’s wrong with the horn?

I just use this thread for my quick question.
I have a general question about the damage calculation. On my leveling Warrior (~ level 32) I just switched from Great Sword to sword (currently stronger than my GS)and off hand. And I was wondering why, according to the stat screen, my damage was higher when I just equipped the 1-h sword than with 1-h sword + equipped off hand (in my case warhorn with a bit +power). I doubt it’s that important, but I’m using the infamous full-signet build with 10 in Arms + Strenght and the remaining 2 points in defense, I think.
Thanks in advance

“Best” is very subjective—at least, it is if we don’t pin down what we mean when we use the word.

Above, several people were advocating builds with Warhorn for speed and vigor. Those are both appealing, but I don’t recommend leveling with anything+warhorn, as you can always swap to warhorn when you’re out of combat for the convenience.

I’ve leveled two warriors to 55-ish so far, and I’ve got a couple more on the rise. With each warrior I was trying different builds, including traits, skills, and weapon sets. The conclusion I reached was this:

For efficient solo leveling you will be hard pressed to top a standard signet build, wielding either a GS or dual-axes as your primary weapon, keeping a rifle in your off-set, and swapping to Warhorn if you really can’t stand running slow. I recommend dual-axe and rifle; GS is fun for open-world stuff, but it’s a chore in dungeons.

The reason I say this is because the damage of this build is so high that in most circumstances it more than compensates for the undeniable fragility. The rifle is important because 1) having a ranged attack is important and, at times, necessary, and 2) Rifle 5 and Rifle 2 let you keep that distance when it matters the most.

Start with 10 points in Arms and take Deep Strike (I); that’s the foundation of a signet build. After that, I’d say 10 points in Strength with Berserker’s Power (V). Run with Healing Signet, Might, Fury, Rage, and the last one is your choice: Dolyak gives just a bit of badly needed durability and some emergency stability if you need to activate it. You may prefer Stamina, as it improves our endurance regen and, on activation, removes all conditions.

Gear for Power until you can gear for Power/Vitality, and then eventually Power/Vitality/Toughness. Use the trading house to keep your gear up to date; upgrade everything you own at least every 10 levels, though every five levels would probably be wiser.

I know you asked for a tougher build and I gave you the typical glass cannon. If you want a “tough” build, just dump all your traits into Defense and Tactics, gear for Vitality and Toughness, run with a 1H/shield or 1H/warhorn, use Shake it Off, Endure Pain, and Dolyak Signet. You’ll be tougher, without a doubt, but your kill-speed will be so much slower… if that’s ok with you, go for it. I found it incredibly tedious, even though I really like playing tougher characters in most games. Trying to find a middle-ground between offense and defense isn’t ideal; you really end up being kind of lackluster in both areas.

For my GW Warrior, I run a max adrenaline build. 20/25/15/0/10. This gives me 12% dmg, +9% crit, and Regen from Defense’s 15 point passive. Pair that with Healing Signet, I’ve got a lot of health regen. The Dolyek signet is in the mix for reduced incoming dmg , and everything else is geared towards Might/Fury. Dodge out of the way and kite for a few seconds if you really need to buy time for that health to click back, but this gives me enough regen that I can kill 10 mobs without breaking combat (3-5 mobs at a time).