Guild Wars 2

Hello. I recently started playing Guild Wars 2. I’ve been running standard Discipline/Defense/Berserker build for a while now, but I noticed something interesting recently.
I would like to discuss with you, veteran/veteran-ish warriors of Guild Wars 2 and ask you to share your opinions on what I am about to bring.
So basically with discipline zerker you keep swapping your weapons a lot. This lets you spam bursts a lot and heal from it. But I realised that with Strength trait tree and a GS you can stack might really quickly and conveniently, without needing to switch weapons a lot or even, at all. This might stacking approach is very pleasant for me, but I wanted to bring Berserker trait tree to the table as well. After all, Berserker would give me extra attack speed, which would mean – more criticals and even more might.

At this point I am already used to berserker spam and my keybinds, so I really would like to stay berserker, but I am here to ask/consult with you, guys. What do you think about Berserker/Strength/Defense warrior build? Are there any of you using this kind of layout? I believe that in PvE it should be pretty viable. In PvP, however, I think I would still go discipline over Strength.
Waiting for your opinions / feedback. Thanks!

P.S. What about runes? I think for this build Rune of Traveler would be great, since I would lose movement speed from Discipline tree.

So the upside is it can give you an extra 35% damage above what you’re doing with Disc, plus any extra might you’re getting. If you use DotE and/or Burst Mastery on Disc, reduce that figure accordingly.

In pve, it should work fine. In pvp, I suspect it won’t be as good because you’ll be giving up….

• Warrior’s Sprint. Unless you have a high uptime of swiftness, you’ll actually have less mobility overall with this build right here. You’ll also have to contend with immobilize a lot more.

• Brawlers Recovery. This may not be a huge loss depending on your other build choices and what you come across, but I personally like BR quite a bit

• Bursting. With Disc, every time you swap your weapons, you’ve refilled a lot of the adren you’ll need for your next burst. BM will add even more to that after your first burst, and you’ll also be able to burst more frequently due to the -15% CD.

• Fast Hands. There are two big things you’ll be missing by losing this….. First, you won’t have as ready access to things like blocks, cc, or (possibly) range when you need it, nor will you have that clutch second burst to drop on someone immediately after the first as often. Second, you also won’t be able get as much out of your sigils.

As for runes, you could go Traveler, but that would come at the expense of a lot of the damage gain you’d be getting from the Strength line, and would only offset one of the costs of dropping Disc.

Pack runes would probably be my choice… you gain a bunch of power and precision (which ties into Blood Reaction), you’ll have 50% uptime of in-combat Rage and Swiftness (which helps offset the loss of Warrior’s Sprint), and you’ll be providing team benefit.

At the moment I am using Dolyak runes on my build and it feels just fine, so switching to Traveler / Speed runes wouldn’t hurt me and switching discipline to berserker would boost my damage even more. Basically, yes, this build is PvE orientated and I would switch from strength to discipline for pvp.
I simply find might stacking so enjoyable, that I can’t resist rolling this build

Right now I wonder wether I should stack vitality with Speed rune or better get +36 to all stats with Traveler. I think that I should roll Traveler, since defense trait line gives me enough survivability and extra offensive stats will help a lot I feel.

I used to run strength instead of discipline in all game modes. I can confirm it works suitably well, though I should note I run GS/rifle rather than GS/Axe shield so I wasn’t missing out on the easier shield bash combos or quick access to blocks.

It might not be optimal, but it’s worth fiddling with to see which you prefer.

Onlysaneman.9612:

I used to run strength instead of discipline in all game modes. I can confirm it works suitably well, though I should note I run GS/rifle rather than GS/Axe shield so I wasn’t missing out on the easier shield bash combos or quick access to blocks.

It might not be optimal, but it’s worth fiddling with to see which you prefer.

Right now I am using rifle, but I think on switching to Mace/Shield or Axe/Shield for the shield spells to survive. Or might stay rifle for ranged attack option. Long bow looks like a viable option as well.

Longbow gets less good the further away you are (except tagging mobs). So if you’re looking for a truly ranged weapon, go rifle.

I agree with the previous poster. It won’t be optimal, but you may find it more fun. So play around with it…. Fun wins everytime.

In PvE, take a sigil of speed on your main killin weapon. You’ll easily have 2min uptime of swiftness. If it ever runs out, just insta warrior kill a nearby NPC and start running again.

no fast hands, and no 25% passive speed and no burst mastery is bad. You give up too much when you don’t take discipline. If this is for PVE you wouldn’t chose defense over discipline. In PVP defense and Discipline is essential.

Warlord.9074:

no fast hands, and no 25% passive speed and no burst mastery is bad. You give up too much when you don’t take discipline. If this is for PVE you wouldn’t chose defense over discipline. In PVP defense and Discipline is essential.

I’m afraid, that without defense I won’t survive long. Right now I feel tanky enough with the Defense trait line to go in without fear into almost any fight. That healing on adrenaline use and healing on movement conditions feels really useful. Also I feel like I am doing enough damage even with the defense line.
I compensate my movement speed losses with Rune of Traveler. Plus extra boon duration it provides comes in handy.

In terms of movement (in pve, at least), I think Ross has it right with the Sigil of Speed. With Runes of the Pack, it’d be even better.

well you should work on getting better, and stop using defense tree in pve, unless you are trying to do somthing by yourself that most people need a zerg for.

This sounds so wrong for me to ditch defense. I feel like I won’t be able to be tanky enough or solo anymore. Maybe I should get a sigil with life steal and some life regen food to compensate that? Then I could switch to discipline over Defense. I will try to play around and see what I can get.
What do you guys think about Arms instead of defense? It gives some nice options to stack crit chance up to 100% and stack vulnerability.

don’t do arms. If you must why not just use a shield and put stances on your bar.

GS axe Shield. Put endure pain and like zerkers stance on your bar or something.

Also key bind the dodge skill and use it. I will give you a tip. If you are zerker you will kill fast enough tha everything dies before you die.

Try using Omnnomberry pies food, and maybe like sigil of blood on GS. So like Force and blood sigils. That should give you plenty of regen. Other sigils you can do like leaching on Axe for life steal.

I still think that is overboard. But that should be pleanty. You goota learn to dodge and stuff.

Warlord.9074:

don’t do arms. If you must why not just use a shield and put stances on your bar.

GS axe Shield. Put endure pain and like zerkers stance on your bar or something.

Also key bind the dodge skill and use it. I will give you a tip. If you are zerker you will kill fast enough tha everything dies before you die.

Try using Omnnomberry pies food, and maybe like sigil of blood on GS. So like Force and blood sigils. That should give you plenty of regen. Other sigils you can do like leaching on Axe for life steal.

I still think that is overboard. But that should be pleanty. You goota learn to dodge and stuff.

Yea, I am not talking about simple fights. I am talking about something like Verdant Brink Golem HP, Vampire HP or even Wyvern boss fight in the Canopy. I tried Arms and Discipline with sigil of blood on my GS (I also use sigil of Strength for extra might stacks). Those huge boss fights just doesn’t feel right without defense. With defense I can simply spam rage bursts and hundred blades to get extra 500 hp per tick of regen, so total 1000hp per second just from signet + Adrenal Health. And I still end up putting out 30k bursts from hundred blades. With Arms or Discipline I die like a kitten and I end up with same 30k bursts.
I just find defense better for me, since right now I have extra healing. That means I can put sigil of Accurcay on my GS fro extra crit chance and roll sigil of might for extra power. This semi-tanky berserker rolls good for me.

well hate to say it but the active arinal healing is new? We played warrior for 4 years without it. When we started the game warrior didn’t even have healing signet like now or condi cleanse. So your going to have to break yourself of it as you are using it as a crutch and we never had it for years and were fine.

Warlord.9074:

well hate to say it but the active arinal healing is new? We played warrior for 4 years without it. When we started the game warrior didn’t even have healing signet like now or condi cleanse. So your going to have to break yourself of it as you are using it as a crutch and we never had it for years and were fine.

Hmm… Well I am relatively new to this game. But Maguuma jungle really demands defense trait line from you. Could I ask your advice on how to survive Heart of Maguuma madness without defense?

Oh, and also. After some consideration, I decided to put on Runes of Strength on my armor. It is really usefull to have extra might duration. I also run Sigil of Strength and sigil of Accuracy on my GS. I am afraid to switch Accuracy with something like Sigil of Speed, since I would lose 7% crit chance. Right now I have ~62% crit chance raw and ~80 with fury active. That is of course enough, when fury is up. Maybe I will try discipline over defense right now for sure, but I really need to figure out how to sustain my health. Blood Reckoning’s description looks promising, but I would hate to get rid of healing signet.

I usually go with the following while doing HoT areas:
Defense: 222
Discipline: 233
Berserker: 113

For Defense if you are using either the Shield or Mace you can Shield Master and Sunder Mace for faster Skills Recharge.
Also for fights that need it you can use Last Stand for permanent, or close to it, Balanced Stance/Stability. eg. Golem Mk 2 World Boss.
And Defy Pain is another option as well.

In Discipline if you are using Standards you can switch Brawlers Recovery for Inspiring Battle Standard for some extra healing for you and the party.

Berserker I am not sure what is better Bloody Roar or Eternal Champion, so use what ever feels right.
And if you still need more Condition removal go with Savage Instinct

Normally go with GS, and Axe and Warhorn(Speed Boost, and Condition Clear)/Mace/Shield or Mace/Shield
Also carry a Rifle and Longbow for fights that need it.

As for Skills, I pretty much run all Signets, except for Head Butt, because I am mostly Lazy. Change some skills for fights that need it though.

For group play I go Phalanx Strength Warrior build.

If you used this food and these sigils your healing would be pretty similar to defense. If you scroll up I already suggested them. Alot of people don’t know about sundering leep. Anyways people should try using that instead of headbutt. It has a similar CD and if fills your adrenaline full, also add 10 stacks of vuln to boost DPS and adds mobilty and it doesn’t self stun you.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR5enMdA1kidhAmkCcigliA7d4mcnuGDgHQAQpLE9yCA-TVCBABnpEkiHAQHHEAAuAA5pbgjjAAWK/qZ/hKV/hUAlrMC-w

Warlord.9074:

If you used this food and these sigils your healing would be pretty similar to defense. If you scroll up I already suggested them. Alot of people don’t know about sundering leep. Anyways people should try using that instead of headbutt. It has a similar CD and if fills your adrenaline full, also add 10 stacks of vuln to boost DPS and adds mobilty and it doesn’t self stun you.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR5enMdA1kidhAmkCcigliA7d4mcnuGDgHQAQpLE9yCA-TVCBABnpEkiHAQHHEAAuAA5pbgjjAAWK/qZ/hKV/hUAlrMC-w

Yeah, I am using Sundering Leep as an initiator spell to start fights with berserk. That way I get extra 20% damage using my burst early. I also use precision signet and berserker stance + signet of fury for extra crit chance early in the fight. Those stacks fill pretty fast.
I tried playing Maguuma without defense. I didn’t use the ‘lifesteal on crit’ food yet though, which would give me around 400hp every 2 seconds. Combined with healing signet, I might be OK.
Right now I am just wondering if Sigil of Strength is even necessary at this point. It actually grants long stacks, so I might keep it.

Thank you for ideas! I feel like my build is getting together and I am finishing it.

Cambeul.3719:

I usually go with the following while doing HoT areas:
Defense: 222
Discipline: 233
Berserker: 113

For Defense if you are using either the Shield or Mace you can Shield Master and Sunder Mace for faster Skills Recharge.
Also for fights that need it you can use Last Stand for permanent, or close to it, Balanced Stance/Stability. eg. Golem Mk 2 World Boss.
And Defy Pain is another option as well.

In Discipline if you are using Standards you can switch Brawlers Recovery for Inspiring Battle Standard for some extra healing for you and the party.

Berserker I am not sure what is better Bloody Roar or Eternal Champion, so use what ever feels right.
And if you still need more Condition removal go with Savage Instinct

Normally go with GS, and Axe and Warhorn(Speed Boost, and Condition Clear)/Mace/Shield or Mace/Shield
Also carry a Rifle and Longbow for fights that need it.

As for Skills, I pretty much run all Signets, except for Head Butt, because I am mostly Lazy. Change some skills for fights that need it though.

For group play I go Phalanx Strength Warrior build.

I am trying to get my build to work around might stacking, so I basically need the Strength trait line (Forceful Greatsword trait). For now I will try to play around Strength/Discipline/Berserker.
Actually right now I am trying to figure out what to use for skills. Sundering Leep feels like a really important skill for my build. Berserker stance comes in handy at times for condition denial and precision signet is for crit chance. I just can’t find space for a banner. I would love to get that healing opportunity from a banner, but I can’t decide what skill to give up All in all without defense it’s sometimes trickier to survive, but with right nourishments I should be good.

For solo work, I would not worry about Banners, I think I would go:
Healing Signet (Some people like Blood Reckoning) – It does not give you that big nice Heal, but the constant healing you get I think is more in the long run?

Signet of Fury – Precision is Nice, and so is a full Adrenaline Bar when needed, usually if your Head Butt fails.
Endure Pain
Berserker Stance

Head Butt – Full Adrenal, Breaks Stuns, great Burst Action

Try that, that seems to be one of the more common Solo Skill loadouts.

I would only start adding Banners when you start to do Group Events.

well for Maguma jungle i think the condi clear on swap is better than having a banner. I’ve had some sick condis put on me by mobs before.

Cambeul.3719:

For solo work, I would not worry about Banners, I think I would go:
Healing Signet (Some people like Blood Reckoning) – It does not give you that big nice Heal, but the constant healing you get I think is more in the long run?

Signet of Fury – Precision is Nice, and so is a full Adrenaline Bar when needed, usually if your Head Butt fails.
Endure Pain
Berserker Stance

Head Butt – Full Adrenal, Breaks Stuns, great Burst Action

Try that, that seems to be one of the more common Solo Skill loadouts.

I would only start adding Banners when you start to do Group Events.

Yeah, seems reasonable. But actually I found some other layout that works also just fine, I guess. Now considering I don’t find Endure Pain a very useful skill, since it gives only 4 seconds of immunity from attacks, but condis are still affecting you.
So what I found to work for myself right now is Sundering Leap for full adrenaline, and even if it fails – you still get 10 adrenaline. Plus, you apply vulnerability to the target.
Second skill is Berserker Stance. I usually pop it when I need to deal with condis or I need adrenaline.
Third is Precision Signet. I don’t find myself using it a lot, because I like to keep that precision passive

Even though, thanks for the tip about banners. That actually makes sense to leave banners for group play.

Warlord.9074:

well for Maguma jungle i think the condi clear on swap is better than having a banner. I’ve had some sick condis put on me by mobs before.

Yea, also mobs like to push and throw you around like a pup, or even stun you. Stability on rage is very useful as well.