Guild Wars 2

I have been looking to create a condition based warrior build for a long time, the idea of bleeding and burning my way threw the battlefield was one I have always wanted to try. However I was unsatisfied with the many condition sw/sw/bow builds that were out there. I have always hated the bow for warrior, it shoots slow but most importantly I can not ground target to save my life. So what alternatives did I have? Well that’s when the 20 point power trait Distracting strikes caught my eye. 4 stacks of confusion on interrupt. Alone possibly not that powerful but with the right tools, and a little practice a killing machine was born.

This Build:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKVP0f4oK-60;9;4J9O-E26-2;048;22;0TNX600;0bUytbUytCskxNER1R0;204192C3K_P59FWFV-7-6;16RN

The power lies in the new Runes of Perplexity. These things are POWERFUL. The number 2 effect causes 3 stacks of confusion on attack, and the number 6 effect as far as I know adds 2 on skill interruption. Added together, this gives the possibility to stack 4+3+2 in one interruption. That is 9 stacks of confusion on your first interrupt, followed by 6 for each interrupt after the initial 3 stack proc on attack. We have 3 consistent interrupts in this build, and also bulls charge. This build gives you the opportunity to stack up to 21 stacks of confusion on a target in WvW, and for those of you doing the math out there its about 4k damage in confusion per skill use for that unlucky soul you decided to smack up side the head.

Keep in mind that your bleeds and torment also hit pretty hard, and your attacks are not the weakest. You have decent armor, decent health, and in my opinion excellent damage in the form of many conditions include bleeding, torment, poison, and confusion.

That’s not even the best part! The build is designed to play off of the Meta skullcracker/GS build. Everyone is screaming OP OP on that build and when they see a mace in a warriors hand they expect a huge damage spike. You’ll run up to them, and BOP them on head, and almost always they will spam their stunbreaks and escapes to create distance to get away from your 100 blades spike. But the joke my friends is on them, because there is no 100 blades spike in this build. The spike was already put on when we originally BOP’d them with skull crack. Infact they spiked themselves by using their escapes in rapid succession in their panic to escape the scary two handed sword.

There is alternatives to the meta my friends, it is our job as warriors to go out in search of them. Stay strong, stay hungry, and most importantly stay thirsty my friends.

-Pelz Purestrike

There is just one flaw, well it’s not as much as a flaw as a hindrance that prevents this to be totally OP. Both the trait and the rune requires an actual interrupt so when you stun an enemy who is just standing around you will not apply confusion. This is most likely the reason why this is not going to be OP. You will never be able to spam your interrupts and expect lots of confusions. However, if your fighting someone who is blindly attacking you and you can interrupt them consecutively you’ll pretty much win. It will certainly require some practice but it also will never be that OP.

I’m testing this spec right now and you’re correct it is possible to stack 9 confusions on one attack. The real strength comes from the duration with traits and runes you can reach 60% duration with another 40% from food which will net up to 20 seconds of confusion. Long lasting confusion on people with little abilities to remove conditions will be devastating.

Some things I would recommend you could test:
In sPVP sword/sword is certainly a possibility but in WvW a hammer or mace/mace might come in handy for large groups.
Also, I currently speced into full strength for Physical Training and using Kick/Bull’s Charge/Stomp. This way I have 3 aoe stuns with hammer and Stomp.
In large groups I started using Rampage since I don’t have any other source of stability. Rampage now gives 3 single interrupts and 1 aoe stun. It increases survivability gives you stability and allows you to apply confusion.

Hey I made a confusion stacker too. I prefer to split the swords, as you’ll have stuns on both weapon sets

To be perfectly clear. I think the wording is bad. The trait and rune say: “Causes confusion on interrupt” which can be translated into: “Causes confusion on stun/daze/push/pull…”
But, in reality it should say: “Causes confusion on interrupt of an ability”.
People might make a wrong assumption as did I in the beginning about this. There is a difference but it is not clear in the description.

This build works better as a power build as I am running it with mace/shield hammer with great success. Also trait applies 4 stacks on interrupt rune applies 5 on interrupt and other part of rune applies 3 so there is a possibility to apply 12 instantly but every interrupt is 9 stacks. Also for the third part if the rune it says on hit and that triggers from them hitting you not you hitting them. Also before y’all try to smite me down I run rabid armor with knights earrings and power toughness crit dmg trinkets and a zerker back piece and zerker weapons. Since you already have 20 in power might as well make it a power build that also does 1.2k a tick for 9 stacks of confusion

Finally some people noticed my thread! It’s nice to have some discussion on this topic it was getting like a ghost town in here.

@Gorrog
The key is to time your interrupts. This is not a face roller my friend. A lot of the professions in this game have very easy to spot casting animations, and in order to use the build to its maximum potential you need to be smart with your interrupts. The wording is very clear on the traits and runes. It applies on interrupt, not on stun/daze/push/pull. If you use a stun on someone who is not casting there is no interrupt.

@peter
I also tried to run it with split weapons but ended up switching back to the sword/sword. For me it is easier to have one set for cc and confusion application and the other set for damage with bleeds and torments.

@DuhGeneral
You could hybrid it up with some power if you like, but I really enjoyed focusing more toward the condition damage. The idea of getting a confusion hit for around 4k per skill use is what really attracted me too it. watching some thief 2 shot himself after engaging you is always a pretty funny experience.

One more thing to point out for everyone, last time I checked the Confusion runes were not available in Spvp so for now the build really is only useful for wvw. A less powerful confusion build can still be used with different runes, and for that I would recomend going for a hybrid like DuhGeneral says.

I mean my confusion still ticks for 1.2 k for 9 stacks and 2.5 k for 18 so my dog with the confusion is still up there I love it makes me people cry

On a side note, I had 21 stacks of confusion on an enemy yesterday and the damage is insane. I was ticking for above 3k+ and I’m still missing Rabid weapons for this build. Everything else has condition damage on it. The 4k self kills should be possible since you have to add might buffs into the equation.