Guild Wars 2

twitch.tv/defektive
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By popular demand:

I’ve been asked a number of times to share a few builds I’ve been running in tPvP
(Tournament PvP Builds). While, not many of these builds are 100% complete, I’ve found myself circling between them as I carve out a niche on my tPvP team.

They aren’t optimized 100% but are good to go for trying out.

Preface: The style I’ve been going for lately is Target Support + Cleave. Whether this be stuns, immobolizes etc. But maintaining mobility, being able to remove condis and remain solid in a fight.

New: DPS Hammer tPvP Build (I use this often).
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcO1wxQCPMxBE0DNkLqC1D7oOijUBxA-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsY9xGCA

#1 - GS Target Support:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbkzpGOGS4hJSAYFcZkETqHtVXcpCiB-TsAA1CnIwRhjDHDOScs1MsY9xGCA

I expect a lot of players to enjoy this build if they understand the concept well enough.

#2 Hammer Target Support
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBiYDbkzpFOGS4hJOAgUUFXqHtVXcJFixGA-TsAg0CtI4SxljLDXSus1MsY9xGCA

Been trying this in tPvP lately, It’s a much more dmg based stun build. May end up using this or the GS build in the shoutcasted tournament this weekend.

#3 LolWTF Axe Target Support
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRBHdxG2InTybMkwDTcAwooogUParu4SKEjNA-TwAA1CnI4SxljLDXSus1MsY9xGiJHA

This is about as experimental of a build you’re going to get out of me.

A lot of longetivy, immobolizes, mobility, condi cleanses couples with freaky axe spike when combined with +Power, 100% crit chance from sigil swap and tons of +crit damage (we’re talking 9-10k crits).

What do you think of sword/mace and mace/warhorn build?

With the sword as main weapon you get good mobility and have an easier time sticking to your target. And you can still get around 60%? crit chance while going real tanky with sword. It’s a condition cleans build, hence the warhorn.

The mace will be for single target fights, insta 2s stun and the skill interrupt with daze and the block that hits pretty hard.

Haven’t worked out the traits to optimal something, but wondered if this could work. I am not that experienced in sPvP. But tried it out and seemed to work to some extent.

You know, I like it in practice and have tried something similar in the past, but I think for the appropriate amount of damage to be there you’d have to switch to Axe instead of Sword.

Sword doesn’t do enough overall damage to be justified as a primary weapon at the moment.

Hi Defektive,

Thanks for posting your updated builds. I always enjoy seeing your builds and trying them out, although I pretty much exclusively WvW.

I had a quick question about your hammer build which you’ve dubbed a more dmg based stun build. A lot of builds doing the rounds trying to fill this role sacrifice points in the discipline line in favor of Unsuspecting Foe in arms, and the extra % damage in Berserker’s power. To what extent have you found the increased recharge time making up for this? It seems like it’d be awesome in locking an opponent down, but hitting for considerably less.

Thanks, and will look out for you on shoutcasts!

AdamHughes.4306:

Hi Defektive,

Thanks for posting your updated builds. I always enjoy seeing your builds and trying them out, although I pretty much exclusively WvW.

I had a quick question about your hammer build which you’ve dubbed a more dmg based stun build. A lot of builds doing the rounds trying to fill this role sacrifice points in the discipline line in favor of Unsuspecting Foe in arms, and the extra % damage in Berserker’s power. To what extent have you found the increased recharge time making up for this? It seems like it’d be awesome in locking an opponent down, but hitting for considerably less.

Thanks, and will look out for you on shoutcasts!

I think people who are using hammer + Unsuspecting Foe are severely gimping their overall DPS. Only 3 Warrior attacks can use Unsuspecting Foe (Mace F1, Hammer F1, Shield 4). The maximum time interval you can deal damage is 2 seconds of +50% crit chance.

Once you factor in gamelag and ability delay, you’d be hard pressed to get 2 attacks out of that time frame.

On paper it makes some sense, stun, then deal damage. I’ll have 2 seconds of damage dealing, but in practice most players bring stun breaks and there’s a lot of stability thrown around, essentially enemy intelligence cuts directly into your crit chance stats because players are relaying on UF.

I prefer not to use it, it’s not consistent enough and when I do pick it up I trick myself into thinking I can skimp in other stats to boost other areas (drop crit chance in favor of crit damage for instance).

Defektive.7283:

twitch.tv/defektive
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#1 - GS Target Support:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbkzpGOGS4hJSAYFcZkETqHtVXcpCiB-TsAA1CnIwRhjDHDOScs1MsY9xGCA

I expect a lot of players to enjoy this build if they understand the concept well enough.

Hello Defektive, nice to see you back. I enjoy trying out “GS Target Support”, but im not sure if i fully understand . Can you please explain why “Burst Mastery” (have you thought about Berserker’s Power and Furious instead of Versatile Power and Burst Mastery)?

Wooyadeen.6491:

Defektive.7283:

twitch.tv/defektive
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#1 - GS Target Support:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbkzpGOGS4hJSAYFcZkETqHtVXcpCiB-TsAA1CnIwRhjDHDOScs1MsY9xGCA

I expect a lot of players to enjoy this build if they understand the concept well enough.

Hello Defektive, nice to see you back. I enjoy trying out “GS Target Support”, but im not sure if i fully understand . Can you please explain why “Burst Mastery” (have you thought about Berserker’s Power and Furious instead of Versatile Power and Burst Mastery)?

Ok so the first thing you’ll notice about the build is the lack of crit chance, (its in the mid 20’s).

This implys actually using Greatsword F1 to get on-demand fury. Because you’ll be using the F1 of both the Sword and GreatSword, burst mastery lets you chain the two together. Example: Flurry (cancel) -> Greatsword F1 -> 100b etc. etc.

Furious: Would be good if you’re going to be Adrenaline starved (almost called it Rage starved!). But with burst mastery you’ll geting +crit damage and you shouldn’t ever go Adren starved considering you’ll be in melee range most of the time with fast attacking weapons.

Berserkers Power: Because with this build you should be constantly using your F1’s, you’ll never really get to use Bersekers power to its full potential since you’ll never have a full bar of adren (maybe 1-2 bars tops at all times).

I choose to have 5pts in Power simply to wipe blinds when I dodge roll. Couple that with 10% +dmg on bleeds, Zerker’s power isn’t really needed. When I have Burst Master I also don’t need Furious.

Essentially it’s optimized for in-combat aptitude, not number crunching.

I’ve been trying to like the horn, I really have. On glassy builds though I just don’t see how you do without a shield though. I mean, I play warrior quite a bit, and I don’t recall a teamfight where I wasn’t focused at some point.

I’ve also been playing with the hammer a lot again, it just feels like I’m without a role with it half the time. Stability? Welp, sorry guys but I’m useless now. I mean, I definitely like it better 1v1 where I can disengage and wait out stability, but the dps just can’t even touch on gs+axe/shield.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcO1wxQCPMRCAkiq4yUoI1D7qLuUBxA-TsAg0CtIMSVjrGjRyas1MsYJyGCA

I’ve been running a variation of your original hammer build, was wondering if you had some advice for increasing how much damage I pump out with it? I’ve also run it with the same rune set that you’ve currently got on your builds, but it still seems like just not quite enough to down and finish someone (usually enough to down someone, but I have no way of really stopping them from getting back up again when a guard comes along to get them up).

Would really like to run something other than the standard build (well, I guess my GS build isn’t really 100% standard, but still the weapon set is), I just feel rather trapped in it.

Jonwar.9205:

I’ve been trying to like the horn, I really have. On glassy builds though I just don’t see how you do without a shield though. I mean, I play warrior quite a bit, and I don’t recall a teamfight where I wasn’t focused at some point.

I’ve also been playing with the hammer a lot again, it just feels like I’m without a role with it half the time. Stability? Welp, sorry guys but I’m useless now. I mean, I definitely like it better 1v1 where I can disengage and wait out stability, but the dps just can’t even touch on gs+axe/shield.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcO1wxQCPMRCAkiq4yUoI1D7qLuUBxA-TsAg0CtIMSVjrGjRyas1MsYJyGCA

I’ve been running a variation of your original hammer build, was wondering if you had some advice for increasing how much damage I pump out with it? I’ve also run it with the same rune set that you’ve currently got on your builds, but it still seems like just not quite enough to down and finish someone (usually enough to down someone, but I have no way of really stopping them from getting back up again when a guard comes along to get them up).

Would really like to run something other than the standard build (well, I guess my GS build isn’t really 100% standard, but still the weapon set is), I just feel rather trapped in it.

The highest optimization I’ve ever gotten my hammer build in terms of damage + survivability is this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8OGQQPqCuQDVPsj6IOSFEDA-TsAg0CtIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsYJyGCA

I hope that’ll solve your damage issues.

In regards to Horn as an offhand, It’s a life saver. If I’m getting say Shatter bursted, Instead of spending that one second to shield stance, I’ll just warhorn 4 and dodge away while also most of the time converting a vulnerability into protection.

I still use shield when I’m going more bursty, so I feel this build may fit you slightly better.

Burst I can generally avoid, it’s more spam that I feel I need the shield for. IE HS spam in a prolonged fight when my health is starting to dwindle, or ranger SB spam while I’m trying to take care of another target. It also doubles as a way to eat blurred frenzy shatters (HB, BS, etc) when my movement skills are on CD… and I also find shield bash as the only truly reliable way to interrupt skills.

I’ve actually tried that very combination, I think it might just be the people I play with. I feel our groups are always short on damage with people traiting towards personal survivability for 1v1 capability. Basically a common situation for me is it being just me and a guard on a point, the other guys bring a guard and a couple of damage dealers (with our other roamers being occupied) one of the damage dealers has to die quickly if we’re going to hold out, and it falls on me to pop balanced stance and make sure nobody gets him back up. Their guard is gonna pop stability if he can, and he’s gonna throw a shield bubble or sanctuary down, making this rather hard to handle with a hammer.

Hi Defektive , thanks for sharing knowledges and experiments.

I know you dont like unsuspecting foe because you think the window of opportunity is too narrow.
But I’ve been experimenting and here’s what I found :

Sigil of paralyzation (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Paralyzation) in fact increases stun and daze duration by 1 sec instead of 15% (maybe it’s a rounding).

So playing mace+ shield you can get 5s of unsuspecting foe on your target.

One other interesting fact is that unsuspecting foe seems to also work on dazed targets (tested positive , five minutes ago).

What I did then was :

Taking your hammer template
replace hammer by mace/shield
Do appropriate traits changes , for example :
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sBxF-0-RKFP0S4cL-60;9;499J-T4;03;048;245A5ok0U;1KJG4KJG46BG

And have fun in hotjoins.

What do you guys think ? traits changes ? viability outside of hotjoin (the word http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten was considered crude sorry) ?

caporal moktahr.3408:

Hi Defektive , thanks for sharing knowledges and experiments.

I know you dont like unsuspecting foe because you think the window of opportunity is too narrow.
But I’ve been experimenting and here’s what I found :

Sigil of paralyzation (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Paralyzation) in fact increases stun and daze duration by 1 sec instead of 15% (maybe it’s a rounding).

So playing mace+ shield you can get 5s of unsuspecting foe on your target.

One other interesting fact is that unsuspecting foe seems to also work on dazed targets (tested positive , five minutes ago).

What I did then was :

Taking your hammer template
replace hammer by mace/shield
Do appropriate traits changes , for example :
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sBxF-0-RKFP0S4cL-60;9;499J-T4;03;048;245A5ok0U;1KJG4KJG46BG

And have fun in hotjoins.

What do you guys think ? traits changes ? viability outside of hotjoin (the word http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten was considered crude sorry) ?

Hi Moktahr thanks for responding, yes I know of the Sigil of Paralyze bug, it’s been in the game for at least 6 months

I like Unsuspecting Foe in theory, but I feel that when you’re in the middle of a tPVP match and you’re edging on UF to be a major provider of your spike damage you’ll be unpleasantly surprised by how many stun breaks, stability and invincibility there are. Essentially, UF forces you to play very strategical with your own specific burst, but the game has so many ways to mitigate it that you’ll spend more time trying to set up that burst than you could just with a higher consistent DPS build.

Don’t have my hesitation stop your theory crafting, I just think it’ll be a better trait if it was incorporated into my abilities so you didn’t have to play so specific just to get +50% crit chance.

Thank you for your answer. So I’ll continue having fun in hotjoins but just in hotjoins then.

Coming back to your subjet and your builds.
How would you define target support ?
Is it the act of assisting another roamer while he struggle to kill a bunker ? Or something different ?

The way I Interpret Target Support is this.

When your team needs someone dead they call on you to make sure the enemy is in the necessary position to die.

When my team says “kill the Engineer” I’m able to on-demand leap, immobilize and stun that opponent for such a period of time that my DPS teammates can catch up and burn them down before the enemy player has a chance to react.

Likewise, as you fullfill that role you can also peel really well for teammates and provide support to your bunker as you further mitigate damage they would otherwise receive.

It’s a tricky position to be in since it requires great team coordination between boon stripping, burst targets etc.

I bet you and your team are somewhat dedicated to find a place to fit warrior’s playstyle. Target support seems to be the warrior’s niche considering his CC and damage abilities , pretty much his former place back in gw1 “spike initiator” or “linebacker”.

Would you think “avalanche” an old build of yours would fit that role ?

I’ve since tweaked that build to fit the team-role more so, it has its good and bad moments. The problem is theres a bunch of knockbacks for a ton of classes right now so depending on comp a Support war of that style may not even be needed.

I use a variant of that , because I became addicted to the adrenaline rush you can get and the applications you can make from.

I thank you for sharing and explaining your point of view it was entertaining.
I have now to practice again.

Hi, this is what I’ve been running as GS/LB with Soldier’s amulet.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOJvxQCPMRCAThiuMSiJNj2sLVQMA-ToAA1CnIwRhjDHDOScs4MsYBB

I still can’t get into sword completely, for I am a bit addicted to Longbow (some ranged spike, some ranged sustained damage, even an immobilize), so I just tried to get all the damage bonus I could from not using burst skills.

The result is decent in 1v1 (I think I managed to down even some BM rangers and some mesmers that were not completely clueless). But I’m still unsure of its place on a tournament match. I still meet problems with elementalists: I hit hard, but not hard enough for them to go down in small time. Kinda annoying, but I think it’s the price for sacrificing spike damage for sustained damage and survivability.

Also because I mostly play YOLO queue, so there’s not much organization (and that’s why I don’t use stuff like Frenzy)

Sometimes I also switch FGJ for Signet of Rage, but it’s only because I see it as my tiny lucky charm.XD

Thanks to Defektive for being an inspiration. And sorry for defiling your builds.XD

I’m sorry but I’m going to be the one to say it… your greatsword sword Warhol build is complete TRASH. Lol burst mastery? U plan on spamming sword f1 which does NO damage at all without condition damage … GS f1 for fury ok that’s somewhat decent this build would be way better off with an axe in main hand war horn is meh without the trait might as well grab a shield .. I know you go sword main hand for number 2 but you already have mobility on GS so use an axe man actually deal some deeps

fakeblood.2576:

I’m sorry but I’m going to be the one to say it… your greatsword sword Warhol build is complete TRASH. Lol burst mastery? U plan on spamming sword f1 which does NO damage at all without condition damage … GS f1 for fury ok that’s somewhat decent this build would be way better off with an axe in main hand war horn is meh without the trait might as well grab a shield .. I know you go sword main hand for number 2 but you already have mobility on GS so use an axe man actually deal some deeps

The point of sword must have gone way over your pretty little head.

And you should never use Sword F1 for it’s DPS anyway.

Defektive.7283:

fakeblood.2576:

I’m sorry but I’m going to be the one to say it… your greatsword sword Warhol build is complete TRASH. Lol burst mastery? U plan on spamming sword f1 which does NO damage at all without condition damage … GS f1 for fury ok that’s somewhat decent this build would be way better off with an axe in main hand war horn is meh without the trait might as well grab a shield .. I know you go sword main hand for number 2 but you already have mobility on GS so use an axe man actually deal some deeps

The point of sword must have gone way over your pretty little head.

And you should never use Sword F1 for it’s DPS anyway.

Oh sorry so you plan on using as an immobilize? Why not use a longbow? Better f1 and has an immobilize and has range arching arrow actually deals deeps. I’m sorry there is no way for you to justify this build its absolutely horrid

fakeblood.2576:

Defektive.7283:

fakeblood.2576:

I’m sorry but I’m going to be the one to say it… your greatsword sword Warhol build is complete TRASH. Lol burst mastery? U plan on spamming sword f1 which does NO damage at all without condition damage … GS f1 for fury ok that’s somewhat decent this build would be way better off with an axe in main hand war horn is meh without the trait might as well grab a shield .. I know you go sword main hand for number 2 but you already have mobility on GS so use an axe man actually deal some deeps

The point of sword must have gone way over your pretty little head.

And you should never use Sword F1 for it’s DPS anyway.

Oh sorry so you plan on using as an immobilize? Why not use a longbow? Better f1 and has an immobilize and has range arching arrow actually deals deeps. I’m sorry there is no way for you to justify this build its absolutely horrid

Let me get this straight.

You’re comparing Longbow based (primarily) the immobolize it provides, and a FI that doesn’t even suite the build type?

Friend.

Sword Has an 8 second CD 4 second immobolize that lets you set up any type of attack you could possibly want afterwards.

Friend.

Sword provides you with an amazing leap that lets you get over even some of the trickiest of PvP structures. Example: You can leap from the treb, over the wall.

Friend.

Sword’s Leap in combination with it’s F1 provides you with an on-demand bulls charge.

Now lets compare it to longbow, friend.

25 second cd 3.25s duration immobolize, that’s ranged (thus it has a much higher chance of missing it’s target).

This isn’t a zerker build, so Longbow 3 nor it’s F1 will hit very hard, you basically need to build straight zerker for that to occur.

0 +Condition damage = burning is pretty weak.

Now look friend, I can see you getting blind sided by DPS! DPS! DPS!
There are more ways to play this game (successfully). Being closed minded isn’t going to get you anywhere.

two AOE imoab’s and a leap vs 1 st imoba, slow attacks and 0 mobility. hard choice :s.

fakeblood.2576:

Defektive.7283:

fakeblood.2576:

I’m sorry but I’m going to be the one to say it… your greatsword sword Warhol build is complete TRASH. Lol burst mastery? U plan on spamming sword f1 which does NO damage at all without condition damage … GS f1 for fury ok that’s somewhat decent this build would be way better off with an axe in main hand war horn is meh without the trait might as well grab a shield .. I know you go sword main hand for number 2 but you already have mobility on GS so use an axe man actually deal some deeps

The point of sword must have gone way over your pretty little head.

And you should never use Sword F1 for it’s DPS anyway.

Oh sorry so you plan on using as an immobilize? Why not use a longbow? Better f1 and has an immobilize and has range arching arrow actually deals deeps. I’m sorry there is no way for you to justify this build its absolutely horrid

So some points:

• Sword auto attack chain damage is actually higher than greatsword
• Sword #2 isn’t affected by crippled and chilled (but it also isn’t affected by swiftness)
  • In this build it isn’t affected by immobilize either
• Sword offers alot of soft CC (long cripple and extreme immobilize)

Bow has an immobilize? Yes it does.
But the difference in cooldown is 8s for sword vs. 25s on bow.
Not to mention how unreliable projectiles are (random clones/rockdogs/elementals/reflects ftw) at the moment.

And even untraited the warhorn offers a party-wide immobilize break on a 15s cooldown, not to mention of the high uptime on vigor.

Dodges are often better than block, because there since release ANet added some unblockable skills, some of them being used regulary.

My guess would be that if you’re going for the immobiliser burst mastery + sword gives you a 2 -4 sec immobiliser every 8 seconds whereas Lb 5 gives you three sec, every 25. Additionally it seems to bug out quite a lot in my experience.
By no means I’m saying the longbow is not a good weapon for warrior. On the contrary really, but bow 5 is certainly not the main reason for that. (IMO it’s the aoe burns and the ability to stack might.)
I think it’s hard to deny the utility the sword brings for certain builds and by using a one handed weapon you free up space in your of hand which allows for diverse builds using shield, war horn, mace etc plus a second sigil.
Anyways it’s no reason to dismiss a build in this manner without trying. We’re all in the same boat for now and the more we share our builds the better chance for us to make the class worthwhile despite the disadvantages.

Well, trying sword with another build, i found myself having problems chasing people: it seemed like my character stopped for an istant right after my leap, allowing the enemy to gain enough distance to be out of Hamstring range. Is it possible, or it was my imagination?

However, sword’s immobilize is a bit tricky: by losing adrenaline you lose part of your crit damage from Enhanced Focus. But that is not much of a problem.
The bigger problem is with lag: many times I found myself screwed because the game didn’t realize I pressed a button.
Using the sword + 100b combo I should:

Use Flurry
Cancel Flurry
Switch weapon
Use Arcing Slice
Use Hundred Blades (whether or not with Frenzy)

If the game doesn’t recognize one of these abilities, you might have a problem. You can solve it with a bit of button mashing, though (by pressing a skill multiple times).

Then again, I realized many class don’t have problems with immobilized:

mesmers just teleport away, or use Blurred Frenzy
Thieves just either teleport or evade
Rangers evade
Warriors Hundred blade you back
Guardians bunkers use block. (even if they are some of the classes that suffer the most)
Elementalists use RTL (even if maybe they are one of the classes where immobilize is needed)
Engineers and necromancers are the only two classes that don’t have a heavy counter: they can either cleanse it or use invulnerabilities, but both are trickier.

So… al this to say: longbow or sword, damage wise is all about spike or sustained damage. With the sword you can mess with the enemy more, but it’s core mechanic for us (immobilize) can be countered easier, while Long Bow gives the chance of having ranged pressure (useful against Rangers and Mesmers) but without as many immobilizes (but with the chance of taking off some points from discipline to put them into Berserker’s power, for 12% more damage).

And, well, personally Long Bow is teaching me there are moments where I can dish out hundred blades to deal some good damage even without immobilize.

But yeah, the travel bonus with sword/warhorn is undeniable. Still I find myself a bit uncomfortable with it (but it’s my fault mostly :P)

Firstly I’d like to say that it’s good to know there are some intelligent warriors that still have some time for this game.

Strictly speaking about your GS/s-sh build, I feel as if you are wasting some traits. I don’t believe that deep cuts is necessary, since applying a bleed is easily accomplished and the condition damage is too low to cause pressure. Personally I would opt for rending strikes to maximise the DPS of you and your team on a target, or furious reaction for extra survivability and a fury buff. This would eliminate the constant need to use the horrible GS F1 ability, since you will more often than not be targeted when you start locking down opponents… and the fact that you are a warrior will generally mean insta-hate as well.

I don’t think that Burst Mastery is necessary since you are able to reapply immobilize with relative ease using hamstring/flurry/blade trail combos, plus your team will be able to throw their own CC, hopefully interrupts or stuns which you lack completely. I would take Signet Mastery to make the most of SoR and SoS, allowing you to have access to more fury, and a more frequent full condition removal.

As far as the warhorn goes, I think it may be worth trying out, but a shield would give you access to an interrupt, which can really change the tide of a battle if used correctly, not to mention personal survivability, which is a huge problem for warriors currently.

Overall I think it’s a pretty well thought out build, and I’d be interested to see what you have to say about my critique.

Feed.4531:

Firstly I’d like to say that it’s good to know there are some intelligent warriors that still have some time for this game.

Strictly speaking about your GS/s-sh build, I feel as if you are wasting some traits. I don’t believe that deep cuts is necessary, since applying a bleed is easily accomplished and the condition damage is too low to cause pressure. Personally I would opt for rending strikes to maximise the DPS of you and your team on a target, or furious reaction for extra survivability and a fury buff. This would eliminate the constant need to use the horrible GS F1 ability, since you will more often than not be targeted when you start locking down opponents… and the fact that you are a warrior will generally mean insta-hate as well.

I don’t think that Burst Mastery is necessary since you are able to reapply immobilize with relative ease using hamstring/flurry/blade trail combos, plus your team will be able to throw their own CC, hopefully interrupts or stuns which you lack completely. I would take Signet Mastery to make the most of SoR and SoS, allowing you to have access to more fury, and a more frequent full condition removal.

As far as the warhorn goes, I think it may be worth trying out, but a shield would give you access to an interrupt, which can really change the tide of a battle if used correctly, not to mention personal survivability, which is a huge problem for warriors currently.

Overall I think it’s a pretty well thought out build, and I’d be interested to see what you have to say about my critique.

Good post. I’ll explain the choices briefly.

Deep Cuts: Since the 25Pt +10% damage on targets that are bleeding is an important portion of the overall damage increase since the build uses Soldier Ammy. My thought process was this: If I’m switching between weapons and chaining CC’s a bunch in order to keep an opponent close to me long enough to deal damage, then I need bleeds up as long as possible. Otherwise bleeds could fall off between attacks or weapon swapping. The goal wasn’t to provide condi damage, but to guarantee a longer uptime of + damage.

Burst Mastery + Heightened Focus: These two work hand in hand. If I’m at full adren and use my sword F1 + switch to GS. I’m gauanteed bare minimum +2% crit chance, more likely I’ll be in the 2nd bar immediately so it’s a +6% crit chance that works in concert with the Solder’s Ammy lack of crit chance. I do take signet master on the majority of my builds. The goal of this one however was to provide cleave damage while still being tanky. +Crit in a heavy power build is important in order to maintain consistent damage output.

Warhorn: The biggest problem with GS is arguable cripple and chill. Almost every movement skill is impaired by this and almost bring our DPS output to a crawl.
I’d rather take an AoE Chill dispel over a block, especially when the majority of damage can be mitigated by whilwinding out of a situation. Block is exceptional when you’re lacking in toughness, however this build isnt super bursty, going from blocking into a strong DPS opener is more difficult than mitigating movement impairing effects and maintaining DPS output at the same time.

Anyway, that’s my train of thought. Anyone and everyone is allowed to change these builds, hence why I posted them!

Well, applying bleed on a hard to chase enemy may be a bit difficult, thus weakening the effect from Attack of Opportunity.

redslion.9675:

Well, applying bleed on a hard to chase enemy may be a bit difficult, thus weakening the effect from Attack of Opportunity.

Hence why there are a number of immobolizes and 3 gap closers and almost every attack applies bleed.

For the Hammer Target Support build, how much does not having Reckless Dodge to counter blinds effect you? I’ve been running your original Hammer build with the 10 in Strength and I LOVE being able to clear dodges by just rolling.

I understand and applause someone for not taking the regular warrior builds but those builds are pretty bad ^^

Saeco.7196:

I understand and applause someone for not taking the regular warrior builds but those builds are pretty bad ^^

If you invest some time and try to learn to play, you can also understand this build.

Saeco.7196:

I understand and applause someone for not taking the regular warrior builds but those builds are pretty bad ^^

I appreciate your feedback. However keep in mind these builds weren’t built for standard mindless Warrior zerker play. – These builds are for PvP, primarily, tPvP. These builds should not work in PvE or WvW since these concoctions are specifically designed to fill a niche in tPvP.

Spend some time understanding what they bring to a fight and you’ll quickly realize that with some ingenuity you can pull off greater feats that support your team more-so than a high DPS target dummy.

I find a lot of what’s WRONG with the community is that we tunnel vision. We say the class can only do X Y and Z. Well what about the class doing R? or V? or T?

People dismiss them rather easily without putting the time and effort into consistent testing.

It’s easy to be an arm chair Warrior chest thumping to the status quo. It’s far more difficult to sit down with Excel to min-max a number of things and then try them in real-world scenarios.

For Hammer builds (Especially sword/hammer now that Flurry is fixed) how do you feel about Building Momentum? Considering how amazing Earthshaker is I find it a real shame to miss out on. I find that it contributes a lot to survivability in a pinch, nowhere near thief/ranger levels of dodge of course, but it helps.

Heck, the only reason I’d not get it is when I’m just too strained on trait points. (which unfortunately happens which hammer due to compulsory 20 in defense)

I was thinking… what about adding some ways to stack 15+ Might stacks, using 2x Runes of Hoelbrak, Fire and Strength, Sigil of Battle and fire combo fields?

Do you think it may help with damage?

And what weapon would you suggest with it?

If you wanted to go full on might stacks, maybe something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBHhNakzJ5N4RGiJOAYUU0RqH21WcJFAwGA-ToAg0CnI0RFkLIjOycs5MEZJC

Personally it’d probably be to glassy for me (I used to run a similar build wit Lyssa runes without fgj and signet of stamina and bulls charge and endure pain instead and empowered to have a damage spike when using the elite).
Anyway for stacking might (for you and your party) as far as I can tell combining signet of rage (traited) with fgj, triple might runes (60% might duration+20% boon duration from tactics), with sigil of battle (3 stacks on swap essentially every second swap) plus versatile power (one stack every swap), and then chaining (thanks to burst mastery) combustive shot (fire field) → arcing arrow (blast = 3 stacks) → call to arms (blast = 3 stacks) → eviscerate (leap = fire shield = 1 stack per attack per second) + the odd 3 stacks from short temper would give you maximum stacks in a PvP environment.
I suppose sword would work just as well, but I always thought of the amount of damage eviscerate does with 10-15+ might stacks outweighs the utility of the sword (then again you also get the condition damage bonus and could pull points out of discipline if you don’t rely on both burst abilities as much.)
Whether or not this is viable is a different question, but worth testing. My 2 cents anyway.

Well, this is not a smart idea, but adding Banner of Disciplin would give us even 1 more blast finisher, and maybe it would let us to build a less glassy warrior. I’ll have to try this, even if it sounds kittened.XD

I tried with conditions once. The damage was incredible, but I was squishy as hell.

And… well, it’s all fun and games until a s/d thief comes around.XD

Jzaku.9765:

For Hammer builds (Especially sword/hammer now that Flurry is fixed) how do you feel about Building Momentum? Considering how amazing Earthshaker is I find it a real shame to miss out on. I find that it contributes a lot to survivability in a pinch, nowhere near thief/ranger levels of dodge of course, but it helps.

Heck, the only reason I’d not get it is when I’m just too strained on trait points. (which unfortunately happens which hammer due to compulsory 20 in defense)

Love building momentum, but as you’ve I find it difficult to allocate enough traits to it.

redslion.9675:

I was thinking… what about adding some ways to stack 15+ Might stacks, using 2x Runes of Hoelbrak, Fire and Strength, Sigil of Battle and fire combo fields?

Do you think it may help with damage?

And what weapon would you suggest with it?

It may or may not work but then you need to take into account how hyper aware you’re going to need to be of the fight in order to take advantage of something like that.

I think on paper it sounds amazing but in practice it’s hard to pull off. Then you gave up a bunch of things to get a tradeoff that isn’t 100% working.

I tested damage with sword an 20 stacks of might recently, but it wasn’t so amazing (it might have been my imagination, tho)…

Seems like GS doesn’t scale much with damage. May it be?

If that’s true, with that weapon may be better stacking more precision and crit damage.

Updated with new build.

Defektive.7283:

redslion.9675:

I was thinking… what about adding some ways to stack 15+ Might stacks, using 2x Runes of Hoelbrak, Fire and Strength, Sigil of Battle and fire combo fields?

Do you think it may help with damage?

And what weapon would you suggest with it?

It may or may not work but then you need to take into account how hyper aware you’re going to need to be of the fight in order to take advantage of something like that.

I think on paper it sounds amazing but in practice it’s hard to pull off. Then you gave up a bunch of things to get a tradeoff that isn’t 100% working.

Ok, now I know: it doesn’t work well.

The fact is you have to use fire combo fields to pull the most of it. While the enemy is attacking you. And I find adrenaline management kinda difficult. Keeping more than 20+ stacks of might is almost impossible.

However, I realized the weapons working best with it are axe, hammer and sword (the third attack of the chain goes up to 3k, lol)

redslion.9675:

Defektive.7283:

redslion.9675:

I was thinking… what about adding some ways to stack 15+ Might stacks, using 2x Runes of Hoelbrak, Fire and Strength, Sigil of Battle and fire combo fields?

Do you think it may help with damage?

And what weapon would you suggest with it?

It may or may not work but then you need to take into account how hyper aware you’re going to need to be of the fight in order to take advantage of something like that.

I think on paper it sounds amazing but in practice it’s hard to pull off. Then you gave up a bunch of things to get a tradeoff that isn’t 100% working.

Ok, now I know: it doesn’t work well.

The fact is you have to use fire combo fields to pull the most of it. While the enemy is attacking you. And I find adrenaline management kinda difficult. Keeping more than 20+ stacks of might is almost impossible.

However, I realized the weapons working best with it are axe, hammer and sword (the third attack of the chain goes up to 3k, lol)

I’m working on a build that uses might stacking for high condition damage, so you can make the most of LB3 and S2 giving you might without really needing to be aware of it. Pairing sword with warhorn gives an extra blast finisher as well as higher mobility and condition removal. With points in tactics you gain passive boon duration and Hoelbrak runes thats an extra 20% might duration with -20% condition duration as well.

You wont be getting 20 or more stacks like this, but I still think it might be worth looking into.

Then For Great Justice!, Signet of Rage and one Sigil of Battle should be enough to reach 15 stacks, I guess.

Ok, tried merging Hammer build, Axe build and some might stacking.

Here is the result:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneSjcOJvpQyQMRCEkCNkLMFKC1D7oNijUBxA-TsAA1CnI0RFkLIjOycs5MEZhwkDA

I’ll have to see how this rolls.

Edit: It doesn’t work. The power you get is not worth it.