Guild Wars 2

This guide explains how to build a dungeon/PvE warrior with team-orientated support and high survivability using a Greatsword and situational off-hand weapon. You will be able to choose from a variety of configurations to match your warrior to your current party (without having to re-trait) and how to select equipment that best suits your playing style. Most experienced warriors will already have one of the equipment sets that I will recommend and I encourage these players to give this build a try.

Consumables
The consumable is actually a core component in survivability. The one that you will need to have is all times is a food that has a chance to steal life when you hit with a critical hit. This includes Omnomberry Pie (66% chance) which is relatively expensive, Mixed Berry Pie (50% chance) which is quite cheap and Blackberry Pie (40% chance) for which there is no excuse to have none.

Equipment
Now that we have established that critical rate is important for stealing life, we need to have equipment that includes Precision. We also know that we will be wielding the weapon that gives us the most mobility and damage, the Greatsword, which is a direct damage weapon. This means we need Power and Precision, leaving three viable equipment options.

Berserker: Berserker provides critical damage and is referred to as the glass cannon equipment set. It has the highest possible damage but leaves something to be desired in terms of survivability. This equipment set allows for fewer errors and I recommend using this set when you are more experienced in dungeon encounters.

Knight: Knight provides toughness and is recommend to players whom haven’t mastered dodging the hard hitting skills a boss throws at you in a dungeon. It has the highest possible damage reduction due to the added toughness and provides a greater survivability. The total damage output is about 15-20% less compared to using Berserker, but is recommended when you haven’t mastered dungeon encounters yet.

Explorer: Explorer provides magic find and is recommend to players wishing to be leeching parasites. Magic find improves the chance on higher grade loot, but has the downside of each previous mentioned equipment set; a lower survivability as Berserker has and a lower damage output as Knight has. I do not recommend using this set, but if you are insistent on using something with magic find, this is the one that you should be using.

Situational Weapons
Your primary weapon is a Greatsword and there is little reason to discuss this weapon again, but certain encounters call for different off-hand weapons. There are several weapons to choose from.

Axe/Shield: The reason to choose these weapons as your situational weapon is for the ability to block incoming attacks. Several dungeons have hard-hitting skills thrown at you that can be completely negated using the shield. This is especially true at higher level fractals when you do not have enough resistance. The reason why I paired an Axe is due to it being a good direct damage weapon but could be swapped for a Mace. A Sword is a poor choice because our Power/Precision does not work well for the Sword that uses Bleed as a form of attack.

Rifle: The rifle is a distance weapon that is perfect for attacking from a distance. The Longbow, the other distance weapon, is more orientated around area-of-attack and condition damage and does not work well with the Power/Precision combination we have. Certain encounters have an almost mandatory distance attack requirement and having one on you is absolutely required.

Hammer: I am listing the hammer because it is a fun weapon. It does not have the damage or speed as any of the other weapons but it has a lot of crowd control and smacking monsters around with a hammer is fun. This weapon is great when you’re dealing with easy content and you want a change of pace, but is not generally recommended as a serious weapon.

Sigil and Runes
To improve your critical change you want to use a Superior Sigil of Perception. The consumable improves survivability based on your critical chance, meaning that Perception is actually adding stacks of Precision which benefits your survivability. The runes you want are Superior Rune of the Soldier due to the condition remove it provides when shouting. You will always be having between one and three shouts, allowing you to deal with a lot of conditions.

Traits
Arms (25): The Arms trait line provides you with Precision. The Precise Strikes trait gives you 33% chance to cause bleeding on a critical hit and the Rendering Strikes gives you 33% chance to inflict vulnerability. Pick Forceful Greatsword which reduces cooldown of Greatsword abilities and gives you might each time you hit a critical hit. The reason we put in 25 points is because we will gain 10% power when the enemy is bleeding, which it is guaranteed to be due to your crazy critical chance.

Defense (15): The reason we invest in defense is Adrenal Health, which requires 15 points into this trait line. It will provide a great amount of health regeneration and boost your survivability. It also provides some additional toughness, which is never a bad thing. The trait choice is yours, you could pick Missile Reflection when using a shield or Turtle’s Defense for additional toughness when crippled. This choice ultimately does not really matter and is highly situational.

Tactics (30): The tactics line is the bread and butter of this build. Two of the three available traits are required to create the configurations that are listed below, so you have one (Master) trait available to choose. I recommend using Empower Allies unless another warrior has it enabled, at which point you could use Empowered for additional damage.

Configuration
Your healing slot should be used for Healing Signet at all times for the added passive health regeneration it adds. You should aim to never activate this skill at all, since it removes the passive health regeneration, but it could potentially save your life at times to use it wisely. Your elite skill should always be Battle Standard to revive fallen allies. A lot of players would want to use Signet of Rage, however we can already achieve permanent Might/Fury so it would be a waste.

Banner Warrior: A banner warrior uses the Inspiring Banners and Inspiring Battle Standard traits to have permanent regeneration boons on you and your allies. You can choose this configuration when your party members have limited regeneration capabilities. Use the For Great Justice shout for Might/Fury and a single condition remove, while using Shake It Off to remove two conditions and break out of stun. The third utility skill should be Banner of Discipline for the permanent regeneration boon, critical rate and critical damage. You and your party members can pick up the banner to cast Fury to achieve permanent Fury. In some situations, you could swap Shake It Off for another banner to cover a larger area with regeneration. This is sometimes necessary when kiting a boss.

Shout Warrior: The shout warrior uses Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouting. You can choose this configuration when your party members provide enough regeneration boons (when there is a Banner Warrior, for example). Use the three shouts, For Great Justice (for Might/Fury and a single condition remove), Shake It Off (removes two conditions and breaks out of stun) and On My Mark (Vulnerability). Note that each shout now has a reduced cooldown and will heal your entire party when used.

Banner/Shout Hybrid: This configuration actually combines the benefits of both previously listed builds, but requires you to pause and cast regeneration manually. This is only recommended when you wish to take a more active support role and when there is no good source of regeneration already. Uses Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouting for healing when shouting and Inspiring Banners to reduce banner cooldown. Use For Great Justice (for Might/Fury and a single condition remove), Shake It Off (removes two conditions and breaks out of stun) and Banner of Tactics. Pick up the banner each 10 seconds to cast regeneration for you and your team, or, have other party members use it as well to give you more time to damage.

Conclusion
You now know how to pick equipment, traits and utilities that synergizes with your current dungeon and party configuration allowing you to having regeneration, healing signet, adrenal health, steal life and shouting for massive survivability. Before jumping into a dungeon, check your party capabilities and pick a configuration accordingly to maximize effectiveness. Please share this build along your warrior friends, even if they are not intending to use this exact build, this can be a good starting place to learn about utilities that are easy to learn and love, adding extreme effectiveness to your entire party. Thanks for reading!

little reason to discuss the GS? gee, another one of these topics. maybe if you’re mindlessly running CoF all day.

one of the primary reasons to use GS, 100b, is almost impossible to land without the proper setup in high level FOTM play. without 100b, DPS goes down considerably to the point where a Axe AA rivals damage output. additionally, all other skills of the GS lack party use — Blade Toss, Rush, WWA are all single character utility. meanwhile, an Axe/Mace Warrior can apply Vulnerability, Knockdown, and Cripple constantly while keeping up with great damage from the Axe AA. given also that an Axe MH also gives you the freedom of an OH weapon and another rune, i think considerable discussion should be had of whether or not the GS is the proper weapon.

in straight environment PvE, the GS works great. i prefer Axe/Axe because of how easy it is to tag mobs but GS is certainly more powerful due to ease of landing 100b. but to say that the GS warrants no discussion in high level Dungeon play? c’mon.

also, the Longbow certainly works well with a Power/Precision build. LB 3 is a burst finisher, short cooldown, and does incredible damage. LB also has a Cripple and an Immobilize and all of its AoE attacks work great with Omnomberry Pies (hit more enemies with a higher crit rate, get more health back). Rifle is the weapon to use in single target DPS but Longbow has its uses and is not niche.

To accommodate the discussion, the Greatsword is indeed used for auto attack damage and hundred blades, but the most important reason is Whirlwind Attack, which allows you to evade for the duration of the attack while dealing damage. Hundred blades itself is not, to quote, ‘almost impossible’ to land at all, not in dungeons (including high level FOTM) at least. It is ‘almost impossible’ in player-versus-player, that I do agree on, but the AI controlling the monsters is extremely bad and extremely predictable.

Wielding an axe in the main hand is one of the situational weapons I described, and has good utilities. The damage comes close to auto attacking with the Greatsword, but you’re not doing just that. The vulnerability of an Axe leaves to be desired as the sheer speed of the Greatsword, combined with auto-attack effects, and the appropriate traits stacks vulnerability at a much higher pace. The cripple attack of the Greatsword is an area with a forward straight line allowing you to cripple entire groups with a little positioning. The knockdown of the mace is nice, but is short with a long cooldown, it doesn’t even come close to being anywhere near constant.

The longbow is indeed a burst finisher, but so is any random banner. Pick it up, smash it into an area and activate the effects you love. Besides that, it does pitful damage when compared to the same-cooldown Volley of the rifle. Yes, it is an area, but so is your Greatsword. The other utilities of the longbow include a nice point-black fire attack, but which (sadly) does almost nothing at range. Its blind is nice but is once per 15 seconds, which is not anywhere near enough as the sheer pressure you can apply with a rifle. I probably don’t need to point out that the immobilize is short, doesn’t often work and has a long cooldown. I much prefer the aesthetics of the longbow, but for a Power/Precision build, it’s nothing more than a toy weapon.

I know you didn’t mention this, but there is something to be said for a Mace on the main-hand for blocking purposes. It’s actually quite nice with a good cooldown, but the attack speed is just pitiful. Remember that this build synergizes a lot with hitting critical hits to recharge and tank even the most harsh punishment.

the Axe AA outdamages any non 100b attack the GS has, excluding WWA against a wall. and it’s much, much faster than the GS AA and can be traited the same way in the Arms line for the Vulnerability traits (additionally, an extra sigil can be used for that effect too!).

also 100b is not hard to land in FOTM because of enemies evading, its hard to land because enemies do way too much damage to root yourself in place for 3.5 seconds. the skill becomes incredibly hard to use for its full length in any level higher than 15. compare that to the Axe AA and the Eviscerate, which deal comparable damage in much shorter bursts.

I have to agree on the LB being a bad choice. It has really slow attacks which do not go well with fast moving targets and the omnomberry pie (or omnomberry ghost). On top of that if you have crack shot you can do a lot of AOE and gain a lot of health back if Volley is used properly. Crack shot is far better than the 2 long bow traits combined which makes the LB even less appealing, so rifle > long bow. As for GS vs axe… they are pretty much even. If you think GS has less potential then you surely need to learn something about proper positioning which shouldn’t be the issue here if you are using an off-hand mace successfully.

Axe auto’s give you more hits per second than GS, and those hits do more damage. Auto-attacks are the worst thing about GS. GS is a great weapon, but that’s because of #2,3,4,5

Rifle is superior to LB in single target, even if you have all longbow traits and no rifle traits.

LB is superior to rifle anytime there are 2+ targets that can’t be lined up. ie, moving targets. It will also get more procs-on-crit, despite a slower fire rate, due to double shot (2 hits), fire fan (3 hits and penetration) and arcing arrow (AE)

IMO, one of the LB traits needs to reduce cooldown on LB skills by 20%

Axe does substantially more damage than GS against single targets. GS is completely dependent upon building up huge stacks of Might for its damage – its base damage is pretty bad.

For maximum damage you’d want to use GS to build might stacks, then switch to Axe – the highest damage weapon in the game – to unload huge damage.

@Ensign
that works very well on combat dummies but since this is about dungeons you’d want to make sure your secondary set is NOT another melee set.

This is about dungeons, which is why you’ll want multiple melee sets for maximum damage. If you’re going to pull out a rifle every time something remotely difficult pops up, go roll an Elementalist or Mesmer for better results.

If you can’t handle the pure manliness of axes and greatswords keep a rifle in your pack for Lupicus, and a longbow for WvW keep sieges. Those weapons are very niche, useful for those particular situations, and worth having around just for that. 99% of the time, however, double melee is going to be the absolute best you can bring, and you should get into the habit of swapping between the two for both the fresh cooldowns and damage boosts.

Rifles aren’t for the best PvE class in the game; they’re for the random deadweight you fill up your group with when you need to pug out a slot or two.

you’ve never done high level FOTM, have you?

try meleeing the Ice Elemental/Dredge Suit/Grawl Shaman/Ashym. try running into a pack of Veteran Ascalonians. report back with your results. range weapons aren’t a “niche” once everything can 2hko you. they are a necessity for even standard mobs.

Thank you so much for the guide and description, Deathspike. I recently got my warrior to 80 (was using Dontain’s GS; Axe/Horn “Rising Might” build for leveling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iJFVqFWm4Q ), and after dying a ton in Fractals with my team last night, I am going to try your rifle/banner setup here (with Knight’s gear since I am new to dungeons) and see how it works. Thanks again!

How do you get 1 condition removal on For Great Justice. On the tooltip it only mentions fury and might. Also for shake it off, it says only remove 1 condition on you and one on your allie? Is there a trait I need, or is the tool tip wrong ? Thanks

TonySu.7942:

How do you get 1 condition removal on For Great Justice. On the tooltip it only mentions fury and might. Also for shake it off, it says only remove 1 condition on you and one on your allie? Is there a trait I need, or is the tool tip wrong ? Thanks

superior rune of the soldier

6/6 Shouts remove a condition

Quick question on sigils:

If using Axe/Shield (only dual-wield config of the build), do you put Sigil of Perception on both Axe and Shield? Or what would you stick on shield instead?

(This is assuming that having 2 x Sigil of Perception equipped in Axe/Shield wouldn’t build stacks of Precision twice as fast).

Thanks a lot ! =)

Zelotes.1570:

Quick question on sigils:

If using Axe/Shield (only dual-wield config of the build), do you put Sigil of Perception on both Axe and Shield? Or what would you stick on shield instead?

(This is assuming that having 2 x Sigil of Perception equipped in Axe/Shield wouldn’t build stacks of Precision twice as fast).

Funny you mention that, because having two Sigils of Precision WILL double your stack gain, ie. a Sigil on axe and another on shield = 2 stacks per kill (this might be a bug, I should probably keep my mouth shut…). I run with two sets of weapons, the double-precision Sigil set, and another for when I have 25 stacks of precision with Sigils of Accuracy and Blood. And as long as your crit chance is high enough (~50-60% with Rage), the Sigil of Blood and Omnomberry Ghost make for tasty life-tapping goodness.

theamato.8756:

you’ve never done high level FOTM, have you?

try meleeing the Ice Elemental/Dredge Suit/Grawl Shaman/Ashym. try running into a pack of Veteran Ascalonians. report back with your results. range weapons aren’t a “niche” once everything can 2hko you. they are a necessity for even standard mobs.

Rifle is valuable against the Dredge Suit and the Harpy Grawl Shaman, put them in the same category as Lupicus – swap it in for your greatsword for those particular fights. Ice Elemental is perfectly reasonable to melee, though it’s a bit tricky and I can totally understand preferring to be lazy and range it. You’ll want to switch back and forth against Ashym during the second half of the fight. Again, these are all very specific fights with particular boss mechanics that demand you pull out a ranged weapon just for that fight.

Veteran Ascalonians have a single charge attack that you need to block or dodge roll, after which you need to be meleeing them. You have no business pulling a ranged weapon out against those – in fact, you’re doing your team a massive disservice by turning yourself into dead weight while forcing someone else to dodge the initial charge. If you’re not using a melee weapon against those guys you’re getting carried.

I can’t speak of what happens in the very high tiers where agony is instant death regardless of what you do (as I’m told the 50+ range is), but melee is perfectly viable through the 30s through most of fractals. That isn’t to say that you can’t use a ranged weapon, but I think it’s important to keep in mind that while a melee Warrior is the best class in the game, a ranged Warrior is a mediocre class that’s looking to get carried most of the time.

just a quick question to theamato, how do you manage to “AA and can be traited the same way in the Arms line for the Vulnerability traits”? I’m an idiot, I know, but I’m an idiot asking for help XD
Deathspike the build in general is good, especially the use of soldiers on top of shout warrior.

Can’t we just sum this up with use what ever you will because they all have pros and cons?

I run this build with a GS/Long bow. Works just fine yo

@Ed

i was referring to the Rending Strikes Major Trait in the Arms line (V, 33% chance to inflict Vuln on crit). that plus Axe 2 (and Mace 4 if you use in OH) allows you to stack even more Vulnerability than the GS can with its AA.

@Ensign

i agree with you in any non FOTM dungeon, that Rifle/LB should only be equipped in certain fights conducive to range. however, in higher levels of FOTM, you’re going to find yourself taking more damage than you would like more frequently. even against regular mobs and normally easy bosses (Svanir Shaman, Archdiviner, et cetera), having a ranged alternative to fall back on while you reap Omnom healing is very helpful (at least for me). while we agree in the abstract, the most important point here is that you should trait as if you’re not going to be 100% melee (even the LB’s Stronger Bowstrings is helpful, as is having both Forceful Greatsword and Cracked Shot) in FOTM.

Warrior ranged DPS may not match its melee DPS but your DPS falls to 0 and hurts your group when you’re always in need of rezzing.

i never thought of focusing on crit+life steal o.O

ill need to give this one a shot, however i think id like to keep longbow as my secondary weapon simply cause the aoe damage and the immobilize is amazing against npcs. but thats just me.

Deathspike.1870:

Hammer: I am listing the hammer because it is a fun weapon.

COULDNT AGREE MORE! lol

its too bad its tough to stack precision and toughness at the same time, cause high crit rates with the hammer does insane damage (not quite GS and axe lvl ofc), not too mention this new life steal thing im just learning about in pve, but then also the insane toughness would make being able to fight face to face with most monsters a very valuable member of the team.

anyone thinking “blood death knight!?”

actually idk how i feel about that anymore….. lol

@Ensign
Just to name one example: we did Cliffside and had a guardian with GS / sword+shield and do you know what happened? He kept backing away and did nothing 90% of the boss fight because he was constantly low on health. Not having a ranged weapon in kindergarten dungeons like AC or CoF are ok, but def. not in FotM. I myself am using GS / rifle. I keep using my GS and back away and switch to rifle to regain health then go in again. I do a lot of damage (most of the time I am the highest damage dealer) and rarely die, and even if I die it’s because of having to resurrect reckless people.

There are a few simple facts in games like these(Lineage 2 was the same to some extent) :
Melee does more damage than ranged, but it’s riskier, it can kill you easily.
Ranged does less damage than melee, but it’s safer.

Higher risk=higher gain, but you’re more or less gambling.All you need is a simple mob hitting you once just before an agony hit, and that’s it with you – only 4 people are left to fight.
It goes without saying that there are bosses that literally scream “you’ll die if you come melee range” so..

I like your build, its very similar to my own.

One point that I find you are 100% mistaken on is the great sword. Axe/Warhorn > GS both in terms of utility and damage. Swiftness on party > mobility from GS, AoE vigor is huge ontop of aoe weakness. The burst of axe isnt as strong as GS but the sustained DPS is far far superior to that of the GS.

TLDR: Axe/WH > GS otherwise decent build

I would also like to add, I run high end fractals and use two weapon sets.

Bow/Rifle and Axe+Warhorn/Bow

Bow/Rifle is the highest single target ranged DPS and I use it most of the time.

Axe+Warhorn is used on in infrequent occasions that I am able to melee. Some situations I use it when at range only as I have the 5sec weapon swap so I swap to warhorn, use to two spells, throw my axe then swap back to bow.

If you’re running FotM 40+, or are playing with weak groups in lower tiers (since melee depends very heavily on increasing returns from other strong melee for its effectiveness), then having a stock ranged weapon makes sense. At some point you have to recognize that your group is crap and that while circle strafing with a rifle is less than half as effective as beating down with an axe, you’re going to get zero support and you’re better off tickling your enemies to death while your group finds new ways to fail.

You’d be much, much better off on another class, however. I actually run in pugs with a Necro most of the time for that exact reason – when your entire group is failing hard, a tanky ticklemonster gives you the best chance to carry, and that’s what the Necro does well. It doesn’t belong in a strong group, but how often do you see those when inviting people at random?

At 40+ it doesn’t matter how good your group is. Warrior’s on the charr level can 1 hit you. You do have a point when saying there are better classes then a range only warrior, to a degree.

Doesn’t take away from the point that melee simply isnt viable at high level fractals as everything just hits far to hard

>Greatsword

Why, why do people insist on using this boring weapon. You only ever use it for two skills max because once your hundred blades is done you might as well swap out for something else.

Why, why do people keep mentioning the worst GS skill all the time? Do you think 100 blades is good? I have to disappoint you, it’s utterly bad. The dps is just like ~50% more than a series of auto attacks but it roots you which means no mobility, and no mobility = dead warrior. This is why I prefer GS over axe. It has far better mobility for both closing gaps to start dishing out damage sooner and to escape heavy damage and hitting the floor doing 0 dmg for quite a while. On top of that a GS has also far better AOE capabilities. Axe has whirling axe while a GS has Whirlwind Attack and Bladetrail. Both of them have far less cooldown and can be traited to have even less.

As for the warhorn: it’s nice if traited otherwise there are far better alternatives

no AoE capabilities for Axe? the first 3 attacks of Axe AA are incredibly fast and hit everything 180 degrees in front of you. Cyclone Axe hits 360.

Greatsword hits harder than Axe in the long run, assuming you have the crit to maintain the Might stacks. Otherwise it’s a wet noodle weapon. The point of the weapon is a big stack of Might and a few Vulnerability stacks which you share with your team. Even with all that going it’s barely better than auto-attacking with an axe.

It’s really a ‘swap to GS, hit HB, swap back’ weapon for building Might stacks. If you have a ranged weapon in your secondary set, the primary should almost certainly be axe.

in very easy dungeons (CoF, AC, etc), GS + Axe is pretty much the best choice for the above reason.

20+ stacks of might for GS > swap to Axe > Axe 2 > Eviscerate. the damage you can deal this way is silly. in higher level Fractals, you’d be hardpressed to be able to do the same.

the mobility of the GS helps in some Fractals (Cliffside comes to mind and dealing with the adds in Volcanic). but i’d take Axe + OH in most situations (should i be packing ranged secondary).

The auto attack is hardly an AOE. You can wipe your behind with its 130 range. The dredges in FotM are a good example. My kill rate is at least twice as much with the greatsword’s mobility compared to axes. Most bosses are done by swapping between GS and rifle. GS / axe would certainly kill me and endanger my team mates who are trying to res me. I’m not saying axes aren’t any good but surely not my No. 1 choice for harder dungeons. Another thing that makes axes less appealing to me – but this is a matter of my build – is the fact that I use my adrenaline passively with all 3 related traits.

again, spoiler alert, but Axe >>> GS when it comes to single target damage. you’re doing so little damage with a GS with Blade Toss and WW and not using 100b compared to the Axe AA (not to mention loss of OH).

a GS without using 100b or attacking enemies pinned against a wall is less damage than a LB/Rifle swap. may as well use that if it’s too dangerous to melee.

I’m pretty sure with a warrior if you have your stats right, most weapons are going to end up doing almost the same damage if you use them right. Comes down to what you like better brahs

People tend to rely too heavily on theory and never testing anything. I retraited twice to favor the desired weapon and the results are: ~1.3k (axe) damage on auto attack vs ~2.5-3k+ (GS with 4-5 might stacks and 3-4 stacks of vulnerability that come purely from auto attacks) is far from axe>>>GS even if the axe hits a bit faster. If I tried it on higher toughness targets or hit multiple mobs the results would favor the GS even more (higher weapon strength and more might). AOE capabilities discussed already. The only situation where the axe is the winner is when you press that dusty F1 and spec for burst damage but that would hardly do you any good in dungeons (since this is no PvP thread) unless you use a hammer or maybe a bow for the combo field. Constant high damage > burst

PS: I never said I’m not using 100 blades but it’s simply far from the best skill on the set.

I’m loving the discussions. It shows that different people have different preferences and different configurations work for their preferred playing style. There are some things to consider when switching to a different primary weapon:

Traits: Using an axe as your primary weapon would cause your Arms trait line to have to be redistributed. Forceful Greatsword and all the critical chance you get from the Arms line, including 10% additional damage, would have to be sacrificed for investments into the Power line to make it all worth while. This, however, reduces your total critical chance and thus your survivability. I’d like to see a mash up on an effective re-trait for Axe and critical life steal and give it a whirl before I conclude it is not so great. On paper, it doesn’t look that good.

Whirlwind Attack: The most amazing attack that effectively is a dodge when using it. The cooldown pretty much is a permanent vigor on you, since you can squeeze an additional dodge at any give time you require it. While doing damage. This simply cannot be underestimated, even if a different weapon might actually do more damage, you cannot give up Adrenal Health for its burst skills and having one less dodge can make a situation unbearable.

Keep up the discussion, I love reading about different playstyles people came up with

dukefx.9730:

People tend to rely too heavily on theory and never testing anything. I retraited twice to favor the desired weapon and the results are: ~1.3k (axe) damage on auto attack vs ~2.5-3k+ (GS with 4-5 might stacks and 3-4 stacks of vulnerability that come purely from auto attacks) is far from axe>>>GS even if the axe hits a bit faster. If I tried it on higher toughness targets or hit multiple mobs the results would favor the GS even more (higher weapon strength and more might). AOE capabilities discussed already. The only situation where the axe is the winner is when you press that dusty F1 and spec for burst damage but that would hardly do you any good in dungeons (since this is no PvP thread) unless you use a hammer or maybe a bow for the combo field. Constant high damage > burst

PS: I never said I’m not using 100 blades but it’s simply far from the best skill on the set.

1.3k crits with an Axe? what, were you using a level 1 Axe against 80 enemies? with FGJ and SoR, any warrior can sustain 8-11 Might stacks for the duration of the fight.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/78181-warrior-dps-test-gs-vs-axe-vs-sword/

this is a nice thread to illustrate my point. note what would happen if the GS user couldn’t pull off 100b.

dukefx.9730:

People tend to rely too heavily on theory and never testing anything. I retraited twice to favor the desired weapon and the results are: ~1.3k (axe) damage on auto attack vs ~2.5-3k+ (GS with 4-5 might stacks and 3-4 stacks of vulnerability that come purely from auto attacks) is far from axe>>>GS even if the axe hits a bit faster. If I tried it on higher toughness targets or hit multiple mobs the results would favor the GS even more (higher weapon strength and more might). AOE capabilities discussed already. The only situation where the axe is the winner is when you press that dusty F1 and spec for burst damage but that would hardly do you any good in dungeons (since this is no PvP thread) unless you use a hammer or maybe a bow for the combo field. Constant high damage > burst

PS: I never said I’m not using 100 blades but it’s simply far from the best skill on the set.

1.3k crits with an Axe? what, were you using a level 1 Axe against 80 enemies? with FGJ and SoR, any warrior can sustain 8-11 Might stacks for the duration of the fight.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/78181-warrior-dps-test-gs-vs-axe-vs-sword/

this is a nice thread to illustrate my point. they have similar TTK…but that’s only when the GS user can land 100b.

Deathspike.1870:

I’m loving the discussions. It shows that different people have different preferences and different configurations work for their preferred playing style. There are some things to consider when switching to a different primary weapon:

Traits: Using an axe as your primary weapon would cause your Arms trait line to have to be redistributed. Forceful Greatsword and all the critical chance you get from the Arms line, including 10% additional damage, would have to be sacrificed for investments into the Power line to make it all worth while. This, however, reduces your total critical chance and thus your survivability. I’d like to see a mash up on an effective re-trait for Axe and critical life steal and give it a whirl before I conclude it is not so great. On paper, it doesn’t look that good.

20 in Strength is all you need (for Axe Mastery or Dual Wielding). 30 is optional (pick the one you didn’t choose). i haven’t run the numbers to know which one is optimal but Axe Mastery allows the use of Shield or Warhorn, so…

traiting into Tactics and Discipline means you’ll be able to have 100% uptime on Fury (with FGJ and SoR on 80% CD) and 8-11 stacks of Might on your own (more if you use LB offhand for Fire field + Burst). Discpline gives you % boost to Crit Damage, too. using a Sigil of Perception, Accuracy, and Omnom Pies/Ghosts will boost the crit rate to 80+% (provided you have Knight or Berserker or any type of gear that gives +Prec on).

a build like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIIQNAnZTjkOJvNPaPMxBAjiiCS9wu2iLpoM0A

is a good example of maximizing Axe MH and doing tons of damage with it. you can go 30 into Tactics or Discipline, depending on what you need (support or more damage).

i use a 20/30/0/0/20 build when doing dungeons. in the easy dungeons (AC, CoF), Axe + GS swapping is easily the best way to go to maximize DPS. this is not optimal in FOTM, however, as i almost never use a GS (but i can’t be bothered to retrait every single time i want to do a different dungeon).

theamato.8756:

Snip

Needing to go 20 deep into Strength means you really do lose a lot of precision when compared to Arms, sacrificing a lot of survivability for that. The reduction is 12% critical chance for the trait change alone. I’m guessing that 25/15/30 would still work, because I’d like to weave Adrenal Health and 30 Defense for shouts/banners into that. I’m currently buying the required weaponry to give this a whirl, thanks for the insights.

Question for OP: If using GS as primary weapon, would axe/mace be a viable secondary (as opposed to axe/shield), all other things the same?

Zelotes.1570:

Question for OP: If using GS as primary weapon, would axe/mace be a viable secondary (as opposed to axe/shield), all other things the same?

Since the primary weapon is also an axe, sure! Depending on circumstances, it might be a better idea to use a shield with the Missile Deflection trait to bounce back projectiles and do amazing damage. Otherwise a mace is also a good choice.

Hey guys, I read through the entire guide as well as the discussion that follows and the one question I have that wasn’t clearly answered is what jewelry should you go for? If you went Zerkers armor should you go knights jewelry and vice versa? Or should you keep stacking the same, zerker/zerker knights/knights? Just trying to look for the most survivable build while still dealing the massive damage warriors are known for Thanks in advance! (I’ve been using a sword/warhorn bleeds build, and while effective, it doesn’t have the high damage output needed for fotm) ^^

Ryosukii.5472:

Hey guys, I read through the entire guide as well as the discussion that follows and the one question I have that wasn’t clearly answered is what jewelry should you go for? If you went Zerkers armor should you go knights jewelry and vice versa? Or should you keep stacking the same, zerker/zerker knights/knights? Just trying to look for the most survivable build while still dealing the massive damage warriors are known for Thanks in advance! (I’ve been using a sword/warhorn bleeds build, and while effective, it doesn’t have the high damage output needed for fotm) ^^

I run Knight for everything and I usually play together with another warrior whom is using Berserker for everything. You can make your choice and even add pieces of the other set to get the amount of damage/survivability you are comfortable with. Look at the following thread for the priorities of swapping pieces to get the maximum of both worlds when you do go down that route: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/. Personally, I’m usually the main ‘tank’ so I prefer full toughness because I get hit quite brutally and Knights helps me survive.

Greatsword is totally worthless without the Forceful Greatsword Master Arms trait. The ratios are balanced around getting a bunch of might stacks from greatsword crits; without them, you just have a low damage weapon.

In a standard ~50% base crit build Greatsword will out-damage Axe over a long period of time, assuming you can hit Hundred Blades consistently and maintain Fury – but the difference is not large, maybe 10% under a best case scenario.

I have a GS build which allows me to run 89% crit chance and have 100% uptime on fury. So according to you, this build would be at least on par or better than MH Axe? And you would suggest axe for more mobile combat and or situations that require say an off hand shield or war-horn?

Katanasama.9702:

I have a GS build which allows me to run 89% crit chance and have 100% uptime on fury. So according to you, this build would be at least on par or better than MH Axe? And you would suggest axe for more mobile combat and or situations that require say an off hand shield or war-horn?

GS is a burst weapon… Dungeons are about sustained damaged. So yes, Axe/Mace would be better than your build.

Oh and 20 in tactics is also 100% fury/might/swiftness uptime… Just sayin’

The trait configuration required to make an Axe/Mace an effective weapon combination is not team orientated at all. You will sacrifice team utility and your own survivability to make it have a better damage compared to a GS. That is great for player-versus-player combat where you can burn through utilities and do as much damage as possible to kill your enemy, but (higher level) dungeons have longer fights and much harder hitting enemies that require a team that has synergies with one another. Is this build better than MH Axe? For dungeons, absolutely.

Not team oriented? A constant(not really, but almost) 8 stacks of vulnerability considerably increases your parties dps (8%) and on trash mobs you can easily reach 12%. This is only coming from one warrior too. Not only that but Axe 2 hits a full 360 so everything around you gets those stacks. It also has more much survivability because the the Axe AA hits much faster than anything on the GS so that means that it proccs a lot more with Omnom pie/ghost.

Also for the real kick in the nuts, if you thought 100b was faceroll than the Axe AA is even more faceroll. The Axe AA does more damage than 100b save for the last hit, and that’s both untraited and taking all traits into consideration, but of course everyone is going to count this statement as bs. Another praise of greatsword is how ppl can easily reach max might stacks with the trait. But when you’re running a group with great synergy that’s not a problem with Axe/mace, my group happens to have a guardian that gives area might every 5 seconds and that’s just one source of might. With my build Axe AA hits for 2.9k at 8 stacks (almost 100%, I run signet mastery) and 3.9-4k at max might (15-20% upkeep).

I have no idea what you mean when you say you need to burn through utilities in order to reach maximum damage with axe mace. I’m using green banner and FGJ and those all further boost my parties DPS. If I’m feeling really generous and my party knows how to run banners than I throw down a purple banner, for more survivability and longer max might stacks. Since I’m traited into banners, it’s practically a constant 4-5% crit chance, 10% crit dmg, 95 healing power (neglible), and 10% boon duration for the whole party.