Guild Wars 2

Hi, My name is CoaxialMazer and I have a build that I theorized on my own, and I’m sure someone out there probably has come across this idea or there has been a guide on it somewhere (reddit/earlier beta/forum), but I haven’t been able to find it. Thus I make this guide for those who want to try warrior from a new perspective. This build has two parts [The basic idea I was aiming for] and [The actual build I use].

INTRO OF ME
I started out as a thief way before I knew how Strong they were and how powerful their skill sets where. I ran a straight glass cannon thief (full zerk/Ruby orbs) and I knew I was smashing people way to easy in WvW or sPvP (of course I had my shares of deaths too). Heartseeker is extremely strong, Backstab was ridiculous, and pistol whip was fun to abuse. Either way, I soon remembered how badly I loved to be a melee class with brute force (Warrior). All MMO’s i ever played, I always love being that Tanky/Dps kind of in your face style. So i re-rolled warrior after putting my thief aside. After playing thief, I realized how different the two classes were. Thief was definitely harder hitting burst (single target of course), and I felt thief utility/skills were more dynamic. Many escapes that I used on thief didn’t exist on the warrior.

I figured that wouldn’t be a problem if I went Tanky anyways. Well that’s when I noticed my biggest problems with warrior. Most people agree that for any build, regardless of class, we would need to prioritize 3-4 stats (power/precision/crit dmg/condition/etc.). And of course, reading about warriors, I came to the conclusion that Greatsword was our best Dps/Mobility weapon in the game (also realized that about 80-90% of the warriors running around use one). I am a person who is obsessed to play against the grain (Play with builds/weapons others don’t prefer), and try to make them work. Its a challenge I love to pursue, especially when those builds work.

I love swords because its not overly used, and dual wielding them looks as cool as a giant Greatsword on someones back. I don’t like swords cause they are so hard to make them work efficiently =(. I have had a tough time making anything work with them, not to mention how swords offer more utility than damage (I was seeking dps at this time of testing). And so I probably tested 20-40+ builds in 2 weeks, (mostly theorized and played around in sPvP – which i know is not the best place to test) but I did learn an enormous amount about warriors (abilities/skill sets/combinations).

I finally came to a build that suited my taste.

THEORY
I mentioned earlier that most people would agree that any class and build had stat prioritizing (3-4 stats). The build I came up with solved a little problem with warrior that I seem to find constantly showing up (you give dps – you lose survivability, and vice versa). Now i know everyone can say that’s the same with every class, but I disagree slightly because I believe most other classes abilities help manage their health and conditions easier than warriors (especially since warriors are in melee distance constantly, unless your a rifle/bow warrior).(opinionated)

A number of people and posts have shown that warriors are sort of (Jack of all trades, Master of none). This may or may not be true, but I did find a way I think can help make this an Above average in all compared to just balanced in all.

The build consists of 40 points dedicated in traits to obtain 30% boon duration and signet mastery to obtain reduced cooldowns on signets, along with 2 superior runes of Monk/Water to obtain 30% more boon duration and a 2 superior runes (any that give might duration).

This build allowed me to have permanent swiftness/fury/11+ might stacks. Reasons for wanting this:

1. Swiftness – easier for warrior to stick to target while attacking, and stay with a group
2. Fury – 20% crit chance helps DPS regardless of build
   20% crit chance ~ 420 Precision
3. 11 Might stacks – Power and Condition damage (385 to each)
4. Any other boon you may give to an ally would also be
   increased by 60% of the duration.

That is tons of stat bonuses and perks that are helpful to any build. This allowed me to trait slightly more focused on my weapon and made it so that even if I went tanky on my stats from armor/trinkets, I still had a good increase in DPS.

BASIS & VARIATIONS
This is how the foundation works.

• 30 in Tactics for 30% boon duration and 3,000 health is nice bonus.
• 10 in Discipline for Signet mastery (20% cooldown reduction)
• 2 Sup. Runes of Monk/Water, (I prefer last 2 Sup. Runes to be Hoelbrak) – This in
  Total gives (30% boon duration with 20% might duration (80% with the boon duration) , and the 50 healing/25 power help)

This leaves you with 30 trait points (a full tree to jump in/or spread out) to prioritize what weapon you wish to use the build with. 2 utility slots (For great justice and signet of rage are almost non-negotiable) and any healing skill you wish. +I understand that some people would want perhaps battle standard in some scenarios, and that is possible with this build (not needing to change traits because 30 into tactics is for banners as well) + allows for team perma regen.

Over all the basis for boon duration build covers a lot of areas warriors are strong in, without giving up too much in dps, or survivability. The variations are really wide. An example of a few:
(I assume people know what traits to get for their weapon/build as I will be
labeling only the trait allocations)

• Great sword Might Stacker/Shout healer
  10/20/0/30/10 (easy 25 stacks of might in most fights, with shouts for small aoe heals, and support for a team.)
• Hammer semi-bunk/Sword-Warhorn Support
  0/0/30/30/10 (extremely tanky, retaliation boon (Unverified if its duration is
  prolonged) is possible in WvW/PvP and access to adrenal gain + endure pain. Specing for warhorn in tactics tree helps team rid of aoe condition, and obtain random boons + swiftness and vigor for whole team.)
• Sword-Axe/Longbow (Whirling axe/fire condition damage/Fire shield) Banner
  20/0/0/30/20 (combo field usage, Aoe might stacking with banners that give regen, with might stacks, both fire and axe do damage, stability from battle standard can be used or stability stance (13.5 seconds duration with 60% boon))

This list isn’t limited to just these. I can name a few traits people can notice to be helpful in this kind of build that other builds seem to not take effect of:

Empowered – I believe it is 2% damage increase per a boon, it isn’t verified to work either, but I have tested and seem to have gained some damage increase with the 3 perma boons (should total 6% – Unknown if there is a % cap).)

Restorative Strength – With the signet cooldown reduction, signet of healing can remove certain (slowdown/weakness) conditions every 16 sec and provide some healing, used with 15 in defense tree can mean that you still have some of the health regen lossed from the activated signet.

Furios Reaction – Not the best of traits, but if you are in the tree and want vigor and are not stat-ed for toughness/vitality this trait can work for you. 10% of your health dropped will give you 10 sec of fury/vigor which equates to 16 seconds with boon duration.

I love the basis for boon duration due to how well they seem to synchronize with other abilities/traits we normally can’t use. My guide on this idea is very broad to say, so if you have any ways to tweak and create a build of your own with this foundation, it is highly encouraged.

ARMORS/STATS
This actually is the best part of this whole foundation for Boon Duration. You can literally mix and match armor/trinket pieces with many different stats to prioritize what you wish to increase (without too much sacrifice in other areas). If you want to go tanky with some decent damage, go Power/toughness/vitality and you will still have some Crit chance from fury to increase dps and might stacks for more power. If you want to go more supportive, you can get healing power/Toughness/Power and you won’t lose out too much on damage and still have an effective health pool due to heals (I assume shout build).

This is the part where you can really choose how your build and shape your warrior to your liking.

Example of how I use Boon Duration:

MY BUILD
It is a Sword/Sword – Longbow/Rifle build. Yes it is condition based, but because of my gear, I do have decent survivability and sustained dps from power equipment.

0/30/0/30/10
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1525|1523|1063|0|0|0|0|30|1057|1510|1

Armor -
Full Galraths Armor (Condition/Precision/Toughness) <— Back piece is also C/P/T

Trinkets –
Full Carrion (Condition/Power/Vitality)
With Full Exquisite Chrysocola Jewels (same as carrion)

Sigils – Preference
I used Earth/Doom for sword, and Smoldering for Longbow (force for Rifle)

Stats – without perma boons
Power = 1256
Precision = 1596
Toughness = 1386
Vitality = 1546
Attack = 2336 (condition dmg = 1295)
Crit Chance = 36% (46%with sword)
Armor = 2597
Health = 24672 (armor to health ratio is almost ideal (1:10 ratio is ideal))

Stats – With Perma boons (16 stacks of might (95% of the time), swiftness and fury)
(only showing the stats affected by might)(fury gives 20% more crit chance btw)
Power = 1816
Attack = 2896 (condition dmg = 1855)

I run normally, Shake it off/For great justice/ Sigil of might (i can keep it up for 18 sec of +5 might if i want damage with 2 sec off time) or stability stance *it stays up for 13.5 sec with this boon duration build, or any other utility i feel i may need. My heal is adrenaline rush for the spike heals and adrenaline gain.

Cons
Of course everything has a weakness and so does this foundation. Boon transfers/removers would drop your dps/movement significantly. It isn’t too bad considering the intervals to restack the boons aren’t too bad, and speccing more dps would better round out this weakness. Another con is that we aren’t specialized in any specific area other than being well rounded. That means, this build probably won’t work in tPvP. Again, this build foundation was sort of a way to make warriors above average in all and not feel we would suffer greatly from it. I still believe that the pros of boon duration outweighs the cons, but I am sure I don’t know everything about warriors and am still learning more things everyday.

DISCOVERIES
A few things I found while experimenting that I did not come across through research on forums or web. If anyone else found these things, I am sorry to have been late to the party.

• A secret to condition builds is, that its tick dmg is based on your condition dmg at the moment, not when you applied them, which means if you had 8 stacks of might when you Flurry (F1 skill from main hand sword) on an enemy and then for great justice and proced sigil of might, the next ticks will jump in damage by the extra 8 stacks of might that you just obtained.
• Blocks from skill 5 from sword/or skill 2 from mace did reflect projectiles when traited in the defense tree, (heard it no longer works as of 12/14/12 patch)
• As of (12/14/12 patch) do not get fast hands (15 in discipline) if you wish to constantly spam banner/aoe might stacks as there is a bug that makes you have a swap cooldown for dropping/picking up the banner.
• Knockdown skills do not benefit from Merciless hammer damage increase, only skills that clearly state (stun) on them give the 25% damage increase, Unknown if bug or intended, It has been stated (too lazy to find source) that Knockdown and Stun were supposedly the same.

CONCLUSION
I hope this opens a window for many people rolling warrior or avid warrior players. If you already know about this builds ideas than I guess this isn’t much help to you. I was initially going to keep it to myself, but I figured that helping other warriors see some kind of “fun” in their build and character can exist through this foundation. I accept any criticism or comments that can better help tweak and refine the warrior builds that exist. If this helped you in any way, I would be satisfied with a simple thanks. If you wish to criticize please provide helpful feedback and maturity in your responses. Thank you.

(Sorry for the Long Post >.<)

Links to other Guides

Max Adrenaline Guide
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Max-Adrenaline-Abuse-Universal-Guide/first#post1246880

Various Builds
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Various-Builds-for-Warriors-General-Guide/first#post1251107

[Possible Other Builds Coming]

30 points in tactics means..

You’re a roaming initiator or a point holder. Both can work, but it takes time to actually learn how.

Schwahrheit.4203:

30 points in tactics means..

You’re a roaming initiator or a point holder. Both can work, but it takes time to actually learn how.

Are you referring to tPvP?

Yep. You are by no means a DPS if you spec for tactics. It is god effective if you have other people to DPS for you. Otherwise it isn’t the most effective.

I see, I didn’t even know that this spec could even be considered viable via tPvP. Well the basis for the build was to make it an all around approach for any weapon or style a person wanted to go.

And when I mean tactics, I meant banners (One banner with Signet of Stamina and Balanced Stance) and not shouts. Shouts are garbage right now simply because of the fact that they take a utility slot.

I see shouts as more effective via Dungeon/PvE/WvW play. Indeed In terms of Point control, banner is more useful.

CoaxialMazer.9140:

I see shouts as more effective via Dungeon/PvE/WvW play. Indeed In terms of Point control, banner is more useful.

Anything works in PvE/WvW though.

^That is true. I really like boon duration though, and I like the idea of having tons of boons. (Not that it makes us get the boons we want like protection and regeneration)

You already get permanent team-vigor if you convert bleeds with the Warhorn skills. I don’t see a point in stacking boon duration on Warriors because most of the time getting full Rune of Water or Rune of the Forge is just better when talking about stats.

I see, well the point of boon duration, is for more than just vigor. The build isn’t aimed at tPvP either, it is interesting to note that it can be viable. Its just the idea of being self reliant (as i see this being the major theme anet tried to go for in GW2) in terms of obtaining damage/fury/swiftness on a warrior is pretty fun. I don’t know what extent boon duration really is viable in terms of PvP or any other area. It is known to me that having perma swift/fury/might does help with the dps drop some other builds don’t cover when you build tanky.

CoaxialMazer.9140:

^That is true. I really like boon duration though, and I like the idea of having tons of boons. (Not that it makes us get the boons we want like protection and regeneration)

If you like the playstyle of boons and maxing the potential of boons, the real choice which you probably don’t want to hear, is trying out a Guardian. I have both an 80 Guardian and 80 Warrior (and a few others on their way) and I agree with the boon concept builds as strong and filled with potential in team play whether it’s tPvP, WvW or PvE. As sick and powerful as the Warrior is by maximizing Fury, Might, Swiftness, Regeneration and even Vigor (and any condition conversion from warhorn), Guardian does it better with built in abilities from weapons, several traits giving boons by doing the most basic of things (like crit’ing) and instant shouts and nearly all of it is AoE.

This is great for general PvE roaming and Dynamic Events. You essentially have a permanent Swiftness/Might with a single ability. My friend used this build for a while. The Tactics trait line is not my cup of tea because I like to hit really hard, but if you’re running a support build with either shouts or banners, it’s great —- mandatory, even. You can partially make up for the lack of DPS inherent in the trait line by using Knight, Rampager, or Berserker armor. If you’re building for healing shouts, Sapphire trinkets, and if you’re building for DPS, either Emerald or Ruby trinkets.

That is the sad part =\, I know guardians can do it better, it is the fact that I have a level 80 warrior and that I am a bit stubborn in trying to make the warrior work. I might actually level a guardian sooner or later, but for the time being, I want to try to see what I can create with the warriors traits and abilities.

I dont like your runes in armor because there isnt any special skill. I have tip for you whitch perfect fit with your signet mastery+healing signet+signet of rage and missing boon duration you can replace with food Chocolate Omnomberry Cream.

1. Rune of Lyssa – for condition build
+165 Precision,
+10% Condition Duration,
When you use a healing skill you gain a random boon for 10 seconds (Cooldown: 10s),
When you use an elite skill lose all conditions and gain all boons for 5 seconds (Cooldown 50s).

2. Rune of Dwayna – for more heal
+165 healing,
+20% regeneration duration,
5% chance to gain regeneration for 10s when hit. (Cooldown: 30s),
When you use a heal skill you and all nearby allies gain regeneration for 5 seconds (Cooldown: 10s).

I didn’t say that you couldn’t use food for your build. Food is definitely a supplement for the runes if you want to do so. By all means do so, I restrict myself from using food cause I’m lazy and cheap =P, but yes you can do that. Lots of rune choices do open up if you decide to supplement the missing boon duration with food. The basis for which the build works, is on grabbing boon duration to obtain perma swift/fury/might for the gains. How you manage to achieve that is your own. You could even say keep the runes and switch the 30 from tactics out to anything of your choice and still get the perma boon affects and get more from your other traits . Another reason I like to run these runes is because most other useful rune choices are very expensive. This build is open to anything a person wants.

4 runes of Altruism might work as well since at 4 it has more boon duration and at 2 its got something nice too.

4 Runes of altruism isnt too bad if want the tier 1 bonus, but 2 water/monk = 4 altruism in terms of boon duration. I like the extra 20% for might duration to keep 16+ stacks of might constantly between FGJ/Signet of Rage/Signet of might. Of course if you wish to use altruism, thats fine too.

While making perfect sense almost everywhere and I could decide to give it a try, there is no reason to handicap yourself with such runes whereas you could get 6 lyssa runes instead.
Providing perfect synergy with boon duration and Empowered trait they have, why not?

My approach to a warrior is mainly that conditions should be mainly used to supplement your DPS, not the other way around. Warriors are definitely capable of high burst damage (even with the sword) and I think it really gives you the best of both worlds more so than a condition build (plus I think you really limit yourself by going 30 into tactics in terms of what you can really do).

Boon Duration is nice, but investing in it too heavily (through the tactics trait line and runes) when there are other more beneficial choices. You are still limited by how many stacks of might you get through cooldowns and they can be stripped away quite easily, so I think a middle ground would probably be more optimal. At a certain point, you probably will not have that many more stacks of might than as you would if you didn’t invest heavily in a boon duration kind of build.

A build that I have been toying with that I have really liked (in sPvP and general melee PvP combat) has actually been the Sword-Warhorn/any wep of your choice (i tend to use greatsword or rifle).

A favourite spec of mine is

10/25/15/20/0

I get 10 strength for the restorative strength or the one that gives dmg based on adreanaline

25 in arms for obviously the better crit chance (condition dmg is a very nice bonus too) and for increased bleed duration and extra crit chance on the sword. I go 25 because of the minor trait that gives you 10% dmg to bleeding foes, kind of seemed like a no brainer. The one that gives you fury and vigor is also a nice choice.

15 in Defense for the regen based on adreanaline, as for your major trait embrace the pain or the one that gives you toughness on cripples are nice

20 in tactics is nice too as it gives you a good amount of HP, a good amount of boon duration. I go either leg specialist or the one that grants me dmg per boon. The second major trait I get the one where warhorn converts 1 condition into a boon.

As for gear, I went a mix of Power/Vit/Crit Dmg and Power/Precision/Toughness. It seems like I am focusing on alot of different stats but the truth they are all almost equally valuable on a warrior. However, when put together with my trait set-up, you can get decently high values for each of these stats. As for runes, Divinity’s are an excellent choice for the crit dmg and stat increases all around. A cheaper alternative would be the Wurm runes which give you alot of vit, and a decent DPS increase.

For food there are plenty of options, if you feel you lack dps the truffle steak dinner is really nice, if you want to go the route of boon duration, your food and 20 in tactics should more then cover it, or for more tankiness the omnomberry bread is good too.

To me with this build, you have more than decent DPS (not just from burst but your bleeds are also a major source). Tankiness is decent (you should have around 2,700-3000 armor w/o food), maybe around 23-26K vit w/o food. Power will probably be around 1900, crit chance around 30-35% (without the sword trait and signet of rage). This is all with exotic gear.

You also have excellent condition removal (warhorn and restorative strength) and on top of that you can add some utility skills with condition removal. You pretty much have permanent swiftness as well and can inflict weakness and fumble on your enemies. On top of that you gain vigor and a random boon.

The warhorn is just an amazing offhand IMO that covers all the utility/condition removal that a warrior WILL need when engaging in melee. To me it is too hard to pass up on an offhand that does so much for you in terms of what your traits/gear/skills will not cover. On top of that, your allies will gain a lot of the effects that the warhorn gives.

Since it is a bit of an adreanaline based build, I like to use Healing Surge, but as for your utility skills, it is pretty much up to you, the situation and your playstyle.

Many may disagree, but I found this trait setup/sword-warhorn build most optimal in general close-combat PvP and it offers a lot of variation in terms of what type of gear you can use (you’d still have OK survivability if you went all Beserker though I think it is unoptimal).

Evalia.7103:

While making perfect sense almost everywhere and I could decide to give it a try, there is no reason to handicap yourself with such runes whereas you could get 6 lyssa runes instead.
Providing perfect synergy with boon duration and Empowered trait they have, why not?

I totally agree that Lyssa runes are amazing with boon duration and for empowered trait, no doubts there. When i had made this guide, the intention was a self sustaining (cheap) way to provide perma swift/DPS and allow them to spec into defensive gear/traits and perhaps make a condition/power warrior spec more viable in more scenarios. If i was to run Lyssa runes, it would be a different scenario though. Yes i would also need to use food to compensate for the lost boon duration, but it is possible to get perma all with that runes setup and food.

I recently was thinking about trying to make a P/V/T hammer spec for dps using lyssa runes. There are many options and choices in any build. My hope was to spread the idea of boon duration on warriors and our skills/traits could some what synergize together to make certain builds/specs more viable and useful. I didn’t want to see hundreds of zerker warriors or 100B warriors all day everywhere i go. Figured this was a great way to get everything you could want without losing too much in other areas (dps/tankiness/utility).

@killahmayne

Your build is interesting and seems to be speced more into dps. Everybuild generally has its pros and cons. I also agree that full blown condition warrior is very subpar compared to every other build in terms of dps/usefullness. Tactics tree was more support based rather than dps. The idea to gain dps from it, came from the fact that it gave boon duration, and that warriors had great dps boons. I currently have a second warrior that is specced without boon duration and is far squishier and less useful in a team, but he hits like a truck. I hope my guide was helpful though.

definitely an interesting idea though with the boon duration thing, but to me it meets a break point in which where speccing into other stats would be more beneficial instead.

Pure DPS like you said on a warrior isn’t as useful because of our lack of disengage ability and ways for enemies to stop sticking to you. For guardians it doesn’t matter as much because people recognize despite a lower base HP that they can constantly have protection and retaliation, combined with many heals. As a result, many people know not to focus them or not to hit them because retaliation is a mother. It isn’t very difficult to stick to a warrior and burst them down. That is all assuming you don’t have a greatsword, because it is a great weapon for weaving in and out of combat, but still a one trick pony in terms of DPS.

A warhorn brings so much to a fight and can make you useful in of itself to me it is a bit of an overlooked offhand sometimes. I honestly can’t think about using a shield over it or any other offhand.

killahmayne.9518:

I can see this build being pretty useful if you have a Guardian with you, as they give you many of the buffs that Warriors lack. Stat wise, warriors are the tankiest class in the game so imagine a Guardian constantly giving a Warrior Protection and Retaliation, Aegis and all of that lasts for about 6 seconds instead of 3.

I am pretty sure boon duration is based on the giver of the boon and not the receiver.

oh my bad yeah it is my mistake