Guild Wars 2

PS. I also stream GW2 sPvP from a non-GS warrior perspective.
twitch.tv/defektive

Shout out to Coalition Gaming – Recruiting for sPvP and WvW - Darkhaven http://www.CoalitionGaming.org/apply

All my builds can be found here: http://forums.coalitiongaming.org/guildwars/defektives-build-thread/

Disclaimer: This build revolves around all primary stats BUT Crit. Crit to this build is not optimal.

Build – “Avalanche”

Game Play:
1v1 – http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/333898008
tPvP Point Defense – http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334138943

This build is my personal tPvP build. It brings lots of survivability with lots of control yet being able to still throw a strong punch in any fight. I like to think of it like this:
It’s an avalanche of a build that starts off slow but builds momentum as the game progresses.

Stats:
3200 – 3800 Attack (Go over 3800 with buffs from teammates and using combo fields)
29,600 HP
2010 Toughness
4% Crit

This is my Warrior. He’s very handsome.
http://i.imgur.com/kyckW.jpg

The build:

Runes:
6/6 Superior Rune of the Solider – http://www.guildhead.com/recipe/883601/superior-rune-of-the-soldier

Amulet:
Soldiers Amulet / Rune – http://www.guildhead.com/item/21083/soldiers-amulet

First Weapon Set:

Hammer - Rune of Bloodlust (+Power for every kill)

Second Weapon Set:

Mainhand:
Axe - Rune of Bloodlust (+Power for every kill)

Offhand:
Mace - Rune of Might (?) (Gain Might for 20secs on weapon swap)

Traits:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#ccRc9VMRavmMRavma0xx0VzaboRb
-10/0/30/30/0

*’*New*’*
DPS Variant
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#ccR9wG0xG0VRzaboR
-20/0/30/20/0

Healing:
‘Healing Surge’ – Lots of HP, gains Adren, which is important in this build since Adren can give you up to an additional 12% more damage as well as its importance to CC.

Utilities:
‘For Great Justice!’
‘Shake It Off!"
’Fear Me!’

Elite:
‘Signet of Rage’

Gameplay:
Your Goal:
Lock down enemies to assist your allies in defeating them. This is especially important so that you can locate and eliminate enemy Burst players with team work. The goal isn’t to try to stop their whole team with CC, but to single out 1-2 specific players who you want to control.

With this build you have 5 CC’s.
3 From hammer (F1, #4, #5)
1 From Utilities (‘Fear Me!’)
1 From Mace (#5)

The main point of the build is to be constantly rotating in and out of Hammer / Axe-Mace every 10 seconds. The reason being is you can use ALL of your Hammer CC in a 10 second time frame, swap to Axe-Mace to keep applying damage and have an additional 2 CC’s while in that weapon set.

Building Power:
-‘Why do you have TWO Runes of Bloodlust?" – Well I found that while I’m constantly rotating between weapons, I may miss out on kills that could add to the Bloodlust buff. This buff is extremely important to increasing your overall DPS so one of your primary goals is to quickly hit 25 stacks (be in range of 5 enemy kills). Not having to worry about which weapon set your in lets you focus on singling out and controlling enemies.

-With 30 Points in Tactics Boons last 30% Longer. When you weapon swap to Axe/Mace you gain 3 stacks of Might for 26 Seconds. By constantly swapping in and out you should be able to maintain 6 stacks of might (sometimes 9). Once you add in your signet of Rage AND For Great Justice boons (remember boon times are 30% longer now!) you can easily hit an additional 500-600 power.

-Boons give you more power. With the Empowered Trait the longer you have your boons up the more damage your doing. Keep those boons up!

Burst:
Axe Eviscerate burst can deal between 5-6k Dmg. This isn’t a burst build but it has some legs if needed in a pinch.

Kiting:
This build has two slows, one from Hammer. Another from the Axe. However you only want to kite an enemy so you can stay on them, not so you can stay away from them.

Using Utilities:
I constantly keep FGJ + Rage up adding in 9 stacks of might + Speed + 20% Crit.

In terms of Shake it Off! I use it to get out of slows and break stuns (beauty of a 20 sec CD).

Cont.

Cont.

Staying Alive:
With this build you have so much CC that staying alive shouldn’t be an issue if you’re properly mitigating enemy attacks.
Also, Shouts heal which is a nice cushion but don’t bet on it to save your life (even though it has for me a few times).
Remember to only use your healing surge ability with Full adren + when no Poison conditions are up.
If poison is up: Shake it Off should clear it. You can cast shake it off mid-Healing Surge cast.

This is an extremely fun and REWARDING build.
You’re a tank, you’re annoying to deal with (cc’s), but once you’re up and running it becomes an ‘Avalanche’ of pain.

With so many CC’s you can easily Res your allies and stop enemies from stomping.

Imagine starting the game with standard Power doing ok damage. But as the game progresses you start dealing 1200-1500 hits while maintaining a ton of CC, with a ton of health.

Thank you!

Nice build man. I was running your bleed build before with limited success and I’ll give this a shot later. Keep up the good work boss.

I’m a fan of any hammer build. I also like the idea of “Fear Me” on utility as I did not realize that triggered the hammer damage bonus.

My only qualm is this trait build seems to have a whole lot of tank and not as much spank. Is really necessary to max out both defense and tactics trees when your opponents are so heavily CC’d already?

The trait build took me some time to iron out. I kept switching it up trying to coax more damage out while still being tanky enough to hold off 2-3 ppl at a time. However it quickly became obvious that without a suitable gap closer I was constantly stuck taking alot of dmg. So tankyness was a neccessity. If you look hard at the traits though you will notice there are a number of + dmg modifiers in an attempt to make up on potential damage lost.

Edit: By request I have added slight DPS Variant to the build.

Adds:
+100 Power
+5% Damage

Loss:
1000 HP
Shouts no longer heal

Your character’s head is GIGANTIC.

In your post it says 3200-3800 power. Is that with the stacks of might up? Because on the crap calculater im using it only shows a base of around 2k for this build.

Dood, I’ve been playing this build for the past 5 hours in spvp, I haven’t done any tpvp yet. I’ve never been more comfortable as a warrior. I can take pretty much everything 1v1 without hassle (aside from mesmers sometimes). The condition removal/healing shouts are really effective and save me often vs mesmers/necros. I was playing around with builds like this, but just plain worse. I wanted to say thanks for sharing! I don’t feel significantly worse than other classes when I play this

Thanks for the build! I played it for a few hours and it shines especially in a competent group, but even in a stupid group it can still stay alive which is important (for those of us who do pugs in sPvP). As for classes, surprisingly the only one that gave me trouble 1v1 was a very defensive engi. Other than that I got in a few 2v1s also. But anyways the important thing is you are a great asset to your team with this build, in my opinion.

I’m glad so many of you are finding success with this build!

I’m currently playing some tPvP with it in case any other entrepreneurial spirit is interested! twitch.tv/defektive

As for Weapon X:

The calc is wrong. You should sit at 3200 or right on it in-game. and with Might stacks going +bloodlust up you’ll easily hit 3800.

You’re talking about power right, not attack?

attack +15chars

Tried this build out tonight for a little while and loved it. Modified it a little fit my playstyle, but overall an awesome build! Good work.

Really liking this build, the pug teams I’ve played with have liked the control and small heals I provide.

Tried both variants, “Avalanche” is an apt name for the tanky build, while the damage build, I would suggest calling “Juggernaut” Nice builds and Thank You.

Very close to what I use when I mean business (aka not trying out wacky specs) and I love it. I know everyone harps on about warhorn being great, but a shout warrior can do what he does best OFF that global cooldown which is amazing. I assume you use power/vit/toughness gear.

One more heart +1 for offhand mace (amazing knockdown) and the bloodlust + might sigils. I think if you spec for surviving and get the bloodlust stacks you start doing damage close to a glass spec.

Some might argue swapping the defense traits to missile deflection, shieldmaster and merciless hammer, but I think embrace pain is a great mitigation trait. Possibly moreso than shield master. Why? Adren = earthshaker, which means damage prevention via stun.

I’m not a fan of either 30 traits for defense tbh. Spiked armor has low uptime and is only useful if you’re being attacked (if you are being attacked and not your groupmates, you’ve already won the fight). It also doesn’t sit well with proccing followed by you stunning or knocking the enemy to the ground. Defy pain is just meh. 3 seconds on an already tanky character… eh. But I guess what else could you pick? Best of a bad bunch I suppose. Possibly the mace trait for more knockdowns but that’s not a great pick either. Putting the 10 points elsewhere won’t work well either because of the toughness→power conversion minor.

I feel naked without balanced stance. And I don’t rate the traited version… proccing while you’re sitting on your kitten on the floor isn’t helpful. It should proc AND prevent the cc that hits you.

Power, vit and toughness are my favorite stats by far, which is why a build like this suitkittenreat.

Anyway, darn you for posting this. I’ll be facing more of em now ):

fadeaway.2807:

I’m not a fan of either 30 traits for defense tbh. Spiked armor has low uptime and is only useful if you’re being attacked (if you are being attacked and not your groupmates, you’ve already won the fight).

….

Anyway, darn you for posting this. I’ll be facing more of em now ):

:)

By the way the uptime of Spiked Armor is actually very high.

It lasts 5 seconds, has a 15 second cooldown.
-Cooldown STARTS when the 5 seconds Starts. So in reality you won’t have Spiked Armor only for 10 seconds (not 15).
-AoE attacks proc it, and AoE attacks will take damage from it. So while they may not do direct damage TO you, they sure will be taking damage from it for AoE negligence.

I’ve killed more people than I can count with Spiked Armor, to the point that I feel frown face without it.

Thanks, I will give spiked armor another run.

Some food for thought around soldier (pwr/tough/vit) vs cleric (healing/tough/pwr).

Soldier shout: 1432
Cleric shout: 2170

soldier
surge 291 hps 17460 per minute
mending 234 14040
signet 181hps if active, 210 passive
6 shouts per minute (lung capacity) = 8592 hp per minute
6.8 shouts per minute (shrug it off) = 9737 hp per minute

max 27197 hp mer min

cleric
surge 322 hps 19320 per minute
mending 271 16260
signet 227hps if active, 240 passive
6 shouts per minute (lung capacity) = 13020 hp per minute
6.8 shouts per minute (shrug it off) = 14756 hp per minute

max 34076 hp per min

max of 6879 total difference over a minute
soldier amulet = 6440hp

Therefore if the fight lasts over a minute, your own personal HP is better off by using cleric amulet and your team mates gain roughly 240hp per second. The 279 power loss isn’t fun for your dps though. This is useful in a large group perhaps.

I tried the Clerics Amulet for a while for the same reason but it didn’t meet expectations.

Here’s why:

HP Pool to start with isn’t very high (22kish lets say).
Solider pops that up to 29. Id rather have a buffer zone of an additional 7k HP over being able to heal for more total HP over a minute, mainly due to the fact that 90% of fights don’t last over a minute.

Lets really cut down a total fight to 30 seconds because realistically it sits around there.
At 240hp per sec – 7200hp in 30 secs by your calculations.
200 HP More. – Under the assumption your popping shouts on CD which isn’t optimal because you don’t want to be blowing your stun break and double stacking your Fury bonus etc.

In a mathematical sense your numbers work - in game however the circumstances don’t lend itself well.

And then there’s the power loss….

I do however like it if this was WvW or Dungeons.

Thanks a lot for posting this build Defektive. I loved my knight in Warhammer because I was the control man but it always lacked damage. I’m very excited to try this build.

For some reason I can’t edit the build right now to include these gameplay Proof of Concept videos. When I get the chance I’ll add them formatted correctly:

This video covers if the Avalanche Build can throw a punch
“Who says ‘bunkers’ can’t do damage?” - http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334468167

Video displays the importance of interrupts in a sPvP environment
3v2 With Uwaaah - http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334468860

Video covers the inevitable “but can you beat a Mesmer?” Yes.
tPvP Mesmer vs. 1/2 HP Avalanche Build -http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334471836

Video show cases damage + survivability of Hammer/Axe-mace
1800 HP Goes a long way
http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334806954

PS: In regards to the edit – I can ‘edit’ but when I go to save the changes, nothing gets saved. Reloaded the forum and tried it on a different browser – same effect.

Holy kittens! I love this build.

^Good! I’m glad you enjoy it. I’ve met a lot of people who are having success with this build.

How are you dealing with knockback heavy guardians / engies? I’m running a similar build (0/0/30/30/10) and I’m using Last Stand in tier 3 defense slot for stability, can’t really imagine fighting in Kyhlo clock tower without it :o.

Terhix.4801:

How are you dealing with knockback heavy guardians / engies? I’m running a similar build (0/0/30/30/10) and I’m using Last Stand in tier 3 defense slot for stability, can’t really imagine fighting in Kyhlo clock tower without it :o.

I actually run a modified build akin to this but its more damage based. In it I run balanced stance (very very similar to the DPS Variant posted).

I would recommend to those having stability issues swap of FGJ for balanced stance, it’s almost a necessity against intelligent teams.

In regards to Clocktower – no matter what build I always swap out my utilities if I’m going to / holding that point. This usually consists of stomp / fear me / balanced stance in order to decap the point or wait until people arrive.

Utilities are situational so don’t hesitate to swap them out when needed.

Edit: Also added another video (http://www.twitch.tv/defektive/b/334806954) which show cases the Control / Survivability and Damage this build has vs. 2 thieves (2v1).

Fair enough, sounds similar to what meditation guardians tend to do (swap one for stability shout or bane signet if needed).

Terhix.4801:

Fair enough, sounds similar to what meditation guardians tend to do (swap one for stability shout or bane signet if needed).

Exactly, the problem with the traited stability is that it won’t kick in until after you’ve been stunned / knockbacked. So if you’re trying to hold a point you’ll get knocked off and THEN it kicks in. And here in lies the problem: Your forced to walk back up to the point (2-3 seconds) and in that time frame you lose stability.

It’s still better than nothing and it lets you keep shouts. My biggest peeve is stuff like guardian hammer 5 or sanctuary (or spirit hammer spam, though haven’t seen that one in a while), which get countered nicely by the trait. That said, being able to pop stability manually is obviously better since you can use it just when you want to stomp someone and what not.

Ever considered using double mace to bring an extra daze and Adrenaline stun that lasts quite a while? It really ups single target CC by a landslide (And also gives them weakness as a normal condition.) but it does chip away your ability to burst.

^ My thoughts behind this follow this principle:

Bring 1 weapon set for Defense
Bring a second weapon set for Offensive.

A Hammer is primarily a defensive weapon, stuns / knockbacks up the wazoo. When you’re prepared to do damage you dont want to just swap to mace/mace because the damage output is rather poor in comparison to Axe.

While the CC would be greater, the point of the weapon swap is to bring the pain.

Based on the upcoming patch:

I have a feeling that with burst builds taking a hit, and bunker builds becoming less bunkery. This build will be well suited for tournament pvp, especially the DPS variant.

Defektive.7283:

Based on the upcoming patch:

I have a feeling that with burst builds taking a hit, and bunker builds becoming less bunkery. This build will be well suited for tournament pvp, especially the DPS variant.

I’m so hoping the patch has this effect on the meta. I’d love to play my sword + longbow build and not have it be completely mathematically sub-par in every way to just running with a GS and frenzy.

How is this build (especially the DPS variant) doing these days? I jump around a lot between a few classes and am looking for a fresh perspective on warrior – i was previously playing goldraeder’s spartan build but I like the looks of this one with the hammer :P Just curious if it’s still viable for s/tpvp? I can’t think of any reason why it wouldn’t be.

Am also curious. About to get serious on my warrior and love the control this build provides.

I was just trying it out and find that I just cannot land the hammer control abilities… probably a l2p issue but they are slow and get constantly dodged or out of range.

Now this guide is good and all. I’m even willing to give it a 10/10 in terms of being a guide.

But as a build, see-ing as shouts are underpowered, its efficiency in a real game would be a 6/10 at best.

The moment you burn “Fear Me” and “Shake It Off” you’re done for against a good chain stunner. Believe me, Hammer Warriors are easily chain stunned back.

No Warhorn mastery or Warhorn somewhat cripples your team if you don’t have it with 30 points spec’d into tactics.

FYI – I was using the DPS variant which takes Sig Stam, Frenzy, and Balanced Stance instead of the shouts. I Found that 1) I was having a really hard time reliably getting the hammer cc’s off (which, again, may be my lack of skill/experience with this) and 2) the dmg was pretty low – also probably due to my current skill level using this build since he states that you need to build up stacks from kills before the damage ramps up.

Anyways, it may not be the build for me. So far I have had the most success with Goldraeder’s spartan build but would still like to try something else. I tend to like tankier specs so I can stay alive longer at least while learning the class… so that may rule out typical GS HB builds.

What about taking the DPS variant and replacing dual-handed with distracting strikes? You’ve got a LOT of interrupts in this build and therefore the potential to continuously reapply confusion, which combines nicely with retaliation.

Schwahrheit.4203:

Now this guide is good and all. I’m even willing to give it a 10/10 in terms of being a guide.

But as a build, see-ing as shouts are underpowered, its efficiency in a real game would be a 6/10 at best.

The moment you burn “Fear Me” and “Shake It Off” you’re done for against a good chain stunner. Believe me, Hammer Warriors are easily chain stunned back.

No Warhorn mastery or Warhorn somewhat cripples your team if you don’t have it with 30 points spec’d into tactics.

DPS Variant switches up your utilities and provides higher damage.
It was my preferred type of Avalanche build.

That being said I haven’t played this game in almost 2 months and I don’t intend to come back any time soon so, to each their own!