Guild Wars 2

Im curious. How well does dual sword bleed build do in pve, when sword 4 is bugged?(only does 1 bleed, not 4). Are there any other viable off hand weapons that will fit into a sword condition build

Sword 4 does 4 bleeds. Watch carefully when you use it. It puts a unique debuff on the target, this debuf periodically adds the bleeds, four in total, over its duration.

It is a dotot…. lol. It applies damage over time… over time. It is still a very good weapon combo in pve.

If you are focusing your stats on condition damage, and your goal is to apply bleeds, I recommend the following… since sword auto attack has 3 attacks in the chain, the first two apply bleeds and the last one does not. If yu nterupt the chain after the second hit, preferably with another bleed skill, it resets the chain, and you start over again so that your next two hits apply bleeds again. Obviously you can’t always do that, and a lot of people will generally be too lazy to keep track and do it… but I figured I’d toss it out there for ya.

Pretty sure it was already established that the Sword 4 skill applies all 4 bleeds, just that they’re not all applied at the same time.

Another thing to note is to take advantage of all the crit boosts you can have on swords and take full advantage of a 60% chance to bleed on crit Sigil in your weapon.

And personally, I rather like dual swords as a combination. Sword 4 is a good, ranged attack and Sword 5 is a block with 4 stacks of long lasting bleeds. Axe in your offhand isn’t going to work too well, considering that the only useful attack out of that is Axe 5 and it can get interrupted easily. Mace gives you vulnerability and a knockdown, neither of which are too useful for a bleed spec. Shield gives you a situational block and a short stun.

I would say that the top three choices for an offhand with a sword mainhand would be sword, warhorn and shield, depending on what you’re doing.

Dual swords worked very well for me in PVE. Probably going back to them once I ditch this greatsword that is conspiring with cliffs to kill me. (Alright, I survive usually, but my PRIDE dies a little.)

Thanks for clearing up the confusion guys

Also, I’ve had NPC’s hit me with impale before, and I notice you can’t remove it as it’s not a ‘condition’ technically. Not that I expect this to be hugely important in PvP, I just remember it because they were junk mobs I was ignoring and it kept me in combat for ages.

Nothing is bugged about it; it’s just a terrible weapon. Its condition damage pales in comparison to most other professions, although Warriors were never too condition damage-focused. My suggestion is to stop using swords. It’s not they’re brimming with utility anyway, especially in PvE.

When all your weapon options lack major utility variety and are only competing in terms of damage applied, just bring the weapon that deals the most damage. That’s sword’s main problem. Greatsword is the obvious damage dealer, with some obvious flaws. Hammer is our one major utility weapon (disruption). Mace has its moments, especially as a weapon swap set. Axe is kind of just there when greatsword isn’t a good idea, as it doesn’t do anything very interesting. Sword’s only real cute trick is that it’s good at closing gaps in PvP. Offhand especially is worthless, as the damage just does not compare, especially lacking utility as it does. Why anyone would use it in PvE, I do not know.

They work very well if spec correctly. They aren’t a face roll but in both pvp and pve they are one of the best builds I have used on my warrior. The only problem I have is Sword #5 fix that and dual swords will be my perma build.

For general PvE, I feel the sword is probably the worst choice. When out soloing, the axe or the greatsword will kill the target and be moving on while the sword’s bleeds are still working, and in group situations you always have to worry about having your toes stepped on with regards to bleed stacks.

If the bleeds were of a much shorter duration for the same damage overall and everyone had their own personal bleed/poison/burn slot on the targets, it would help a greatly.

I use dual sword mainly because the weapon skills they provide. Damage output for sword #1 skill is fine, #2 for chasing and escape #3 for cripple (also apply immobilize and fury with traits)#4 does range attack and extra powerful strike #5 block (reflect projectile with trait) with nice CD.
For me any bleeding applied is extra bonus

I don’t feel swords aren’t useful in PVE. When I first started out, dual blades w/ cond/precision along with the arms tree ment you’re criting kitten near every swing. Throw on a few runes of earth and you’ve got yourself a never-ending bleed machine. The fun part is (as alway) swings hit multi-target, so you could block+apply, then use burst, then continue to just auto attack a group of mobs until the combined pressure brings them down.

I’ve since switched over to sword/shield with heavy survival. I didn’t hang up condition completely as I still apply bleeds, but I vew them as extra damage rather than a main source. Even though on paper the axe should pump out more dmg single/3-mob group, for some reason sword still brings them down a tad faster for me. I don’t dislike the GS, but it seems a bit to…common I guess. Hammer is fun as hell but a bit on the slow side (which coming from a sword n’ board, that means a lot) from what I’ve experienced thus far.

Granted, toon is only like 53 atm, but it’s going to be my 4th 80 on this acct. Overall been very happy with the Warrior.

Previous poster is correct it does stack 4 but over time, not on the initial hit.

I’m a Guardian first and foremost, and I rolled a Warrior for some variety and to try out the DPS world. My characters are RP and so my Warrior uses 2 swords and sword/shield. I’m building him to be a ‘Bleed Warrior’ and it’s a lot of fun. He’s like throwing a running lawnmower into a crowd, but he is a lot more squishy than my Guardian, trying to get used to that.

My challenge as he levels and at 80 is to balance direct damage and bleed damage, and give him enough survivability so he’s not a glass cannon. Level 0-30 was rough, probably more my own learning curve as I have played only a tank for years and never a DPS.

Anyway he is a blast and it’s fun to see him stack 18-22 bleeds on a mob (usually only on Vets, regular mobs don’t live that long) and bleed them out. His play style is definitely more run in, strike, stack the bleeds, and run out or shield and let them die, than standing toe to toe.

Very fun but it’s always good to get back on my Guard :P

I agree sword 5 needs a change..others are fine…i love the mobility of sword….be nice to have a cc put on 5…4 sec stun plz anet….yeahhhhh

Camagee.5391:

I agree sword 5 needs a change..others are fine…i love the mobility of sword….be nice to have a cc put on 5…4 sec stun plz anet….yeahhhhh

Sword five hits AoE. My bleed on 5 is 10,000. That’s a nice AoE. I like it. Hit em with 4, let them hit and be hit by 5, then sword F1. No one lives through that without a fast a clear. Thats 30k+ in bleeds. (Sword F1 procs lots of bleed on crit for me as well.)

That’s not 30k in bleeds, that’s about 24-25k in bleeds OVER 20+ SECONDS. That’s actually terrible DPS.