Guild Wars 2

Hello and thanks for taking a look!

First off, I’m just getting back into GW after a year off, and I’m still very new. I’m at level 50.

I mostly play GW with my girlfriend, PvE. She’s a ranger, and she’s using a frost drake and jungle stalker, and she’s pretty good. We play as a team, but a lot of the time I end up engaging the mobs head on, with her playing healing/DPS support role.

Before I stopped playing, I was going for this save adrenaline build, as it looked pretty cool. I had specced 15 into Defense, with the rest into Strength and Arms. Now that I’m back into the game, I did some research and first found that the SA build cannot be done as shown in the vid, as he has Beserker’s Rage available at 10pts Strength. Apparently an update has moved that to 30pts Strength. So, I started researching the “current best warrior builds”, and while of course there is a lot of debate, I settled on the 30/25/0/0/15. When I hit 40, i respecced all into Strength and Arms, and found that I die a lot more often. So, since I tank for my girlfriend a lot, I thought maybe I could try to do a build that would mix the best of SA and the newer build.

Here’s what I’ve come up with for my current level 50 character.
Here’s what the final build looks like.

I’m not 100% sure if I have the right adept/master/grandmaster traits, or skills, or if this build is any good, etc. I guess I’m basically asking you guys to consider that I usually roll with just my GF in PvE, I do some/most of the tanking, and I’d like a build that is “fun”, can take some punishment, is good paired with a hunter, and still maxes DPS, with those other factors in mind.

I’m also considering using Healing Surge in place of Healing Signet. I don’t have anything giving me bonuses from or to signets, and the pairing of the higher straight heal with the adrenaline use/regen seems like a better fit than Healing Signet (though, it does provide regen, but I think it’s also getting nerfed 8% in next update).

Thoughts?

What you have there already looks pretty good. I’d advise against dropping healing signet for pve, even with the nerf. The HPS is very strong, sometimes you just have to stretch it’s usefulness by kiting for a few seconds or letting the pet take over tanking.

On that note though, you might also consider taking LB. I just think it’s a great general purpose weapon for kiting, might stacking, and aoe, when needed. It’s not optimal dps, but the every-day utility is great.

Thanks Brigg! I’ll checkout LB. I’ll have to feel it out, considering my GF uses long and shortbows exclusively. I’m currently using GS and Hammer, but only because I found a rare hammer that is very very strong.

This might be an even better build, considering I want my adrenaline full at all times (for Beserker’s Power and Adrenal Health). From what I understand, the greatsword burst skill is total crap, but the axe burst skill is great.

Thoughts?

GS/Hammer is really fun imo. Also, GS burst is not really necessary because fury uptime should be high already with your elite signet and FGJ. Axe burst is indeed a strong hit, but from what I remember it ends up being a dps loss overall when you’re using that tasty zerker power trait.

Hey also, in case you haven’t seen it, this is kind of the definitive warrior dps theorycrafting thread: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83915-axemace-dps-build-for-dungeons-and-fractals-101513/

Don’t feel like you have to copy exactly (especially if you want to mix in tankiness for your duo gameplay), but it’s good to be familiar with what’s optimal and why.

So your new build for example drops attack of opportunity for CI. That’s a legitimate trade if you feel like you need the condi clear (practically a required trait for pvp btw), but AoO is a big time dps trait. So just be aware of that.

Oh, last thing you could consider is warhorn too. Weakness is an amazing debuff. There’s some commentary on that in the thread as well.

Thanks for the link! I saw this, but didn’t read it carefully because it seemed geared towards lv80 dungeon runs, but you’re right, I’ll read through it. Lot’s of good info here.

I guess I didn’t think AoO would be useful for me since neither my weapons nor skills cause bleed, and the trait that does (Precise Strikes) only does so 33% of the time that you crit (which I do about 40% of the time). Seemed like a waste to spend points to get 10% dam increase on only ~13% of enemies… or am I calculating that wrong (33% of 40%)? However, something I just realized is that my GF’s build does a LOT of bleeding, so I guess I’ll still get a lot of use from it. It doesn’t matter who causes the bleeding, so long as it’s there, right?

Anyone else want to chime in? Thoughts on AoO for my build, based on what I said?

I’ve actually been using GS and then swapping around what my 2nd weapon is, based on the most interesting weapon I have on hand at the time. Right now I have a rare rifle and LB, so I’m playing around with those.

BTW, This is my current lvl 61 build