Guild Wars 2

There are probably more threads on this, but they are lengthy/buried deep in here.

I’m probably stuck in an archaic mindset about shield use being synonymous with tank. I thought a warrior would be off tank / DPS, so I bought a few yellows accordingly: a 1h sword, a shield, and i’m currently using a longbow for aoe trash.

I am specced into Vitality for the banner bonuses, power, and 10 points in precision for crit effects.

To the point: What stats should I be prioritizing as a warrior?
I see some people saying: Power/Toughness/Vitality – Is that wrong? I feel like hunter pets do the majority of tanking when I’m in groups. Do I just not have enough toughness? I get clobbered pretty hard.

If anyone could give me an idea, or link me to a useful thread, that would help me determine how I should be specced as a fresh 80.. and what stats I should be prioritizing.. I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

All this is from a pure PvE/W3 standpoint, tPvP is very limited for us.

You can go either pure powerbuild with high toughness and a high steady damage weapon, it has low crit but good survivability and decent damage or glasscannon build with power/prec/crit gear or a balance between those two.
Not counting condition builds atm.

Ranger pets will become pretty useless “tanks” in later lvls.

FYI sword is mainly a mobility/condition damage weapon. Commonly people use GS or MH Axe for melee damage, rifle or lbow as 2ndary ranged set and hammer or mace for CC.

Good utility weaponsets:
High mobility – sword+warhorn, gs
High AoE – gs or axe&axe/lbow
High single target – gs or axe&offhand/rifle
High CC – hammer/mace+shield

Common builds and a lot of variations of those (copy-paste link if you get “bad link”):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARUjkOJvNP6OMxBAjiiA68gKmaSpot6A;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1soYAB

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneSnkOk8YzDSBxEhAAfwKThi0HgL9gM0SD;ToAA1CtoyyklILbWuskZtoYAB

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjkOJvNP6OMxBAkCrqyooIgUPaDO5A;ToAg0Cto4ywlgLbNOuk1soYAB

You’re not an off-tank if you can’t heal. The damage you soak up is irrelevant if you have enough regeneration to recover it. We can get up to 4 permanent regenerative abilities and shout for several thousands of health every few seconds. I use a tanking sword/shield build with bow as ranged weapon. I have Signet of Healing, Adrenaline Heal, Runes of Dolyak and Banner of Discipline Regeneration (-20% CD). I am build on healing and condition damage, and I rarely get downed (save the 1-shot kill abilities I fail to dodge at times). Be sure to grab Shouting Healing, +90 toughness with a shield and Defy Pain in case of oh-kittencenarios.

Really great info, guys. Thank you.

This is about what I use in PvE (full melee):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhOD5kzxkHkCCHCBgRRRAdZQFT6DtlKIGA;TkAqsMZJyymlLLZWrCGWs/A
with mix of power/prec/crit and power/vit/tough
Last utility being Balanced Stance, banner, etc.

Obviously some parts require more tweaking.

Deathspike.1870:

You’re not an off-tank if you can’t heal. The damage you soak up is irrelevant if you have enough regeneration to recover it. We can get up to 4 permanent regenerative abilities and shout for several thousands of health every few seconds. I use a tanking sword/shield build with bow as ranged weapon. I have Signet of Healing, Adrenaline Heal, Runes of Dolyak and Banner of Discipline Regeneration (-20% CD). I am build on healing and condition damage, and I rarely get downed (save the 1-shot kill abilities I fail to dodge at times). Be sure to grab Shouting Healing, +90 toughness with a shield and Defy Pain in case of oh-kittencenarios.

Swap out dolyaks (only 30hp/s) for something else (melandru, soldier or earth are good alternatives) and it’s an excellent support warr.

I recently respecced from pure damage to a bit more survivability because of the higher lvl fractals and the extra need for some group support:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTnkOk8YzDSBxEhAAfwKThi0HgL9gM0SD;TgAg0Cto2yslYLrMutkbB

Can’t play with PvP calc as accurately as ingame. I run with my Pow/vit/tough tankset, zerk weapon&amulet, emerald/beryl accessories. 26774 hp, around 1.5k toughness, 21% base crit chance that is bearable thanks to high fury uptime. Non crit damage took quite a dive, but 100b still hits 10-12k+ on crit in fractals. Shouts heal for around 1.3-1.4k per one.

I wouldn’t feel the need to use a high survivability set in any of the older dungeons, full zerk with a bit of balanced dps build works totally fine anywhere else. Get Pow/vit/tough armor for W3 though, full glass isn’t smart there.

Yeah – I was curious about the build using shout heals, etc.

How should my traits look?

I picked up the build from one of the three posted above:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneSnkOk8YzDSBxEhAAfwKThi0HgL9gM0SD;ToAA1CtoyyklILbWuskZtoYAB

But it feels flawed with having only 15 points in defense..? I mean, 20 points minimum to get the shield skill… so shouldn’t I get 20? Probably subtract from the 5 points in discipline..

Also, is healing skill on gear at all important for a tanky-ish warrior? I mean, it seems to be close to a 1:1 ratio when I put on some crap blues just to see how it changes. Probably not worth it, but thought i’d ask.

Otherwise, going to just keep going POW/VIT/TOUGH.

Judah.5420:

Yeah – I was curious about the build using shout heals, etc.

How should my traits look?

I picked up the build from one of the three posted above:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAneSnkOk8YzDSBxEhAAfwKThi0HgL9gM0SD;ToAA1CtoyyklILbWuskZtoYAB

But it feels flawed with having only 15 points in defense..? I mean, 20 points minimum to get the shield skill… so shouldn’t I get 20? Probably subtract from the 5 points in discipline..

Also, is healing skill on gear at all important for a tanky-ish warrior? I mean, it seems to be close to a 1:1 ratio when I put on some crap blues just to see how it changes. Probably not worth it, but thought i’d ask.

Otherwise, going to just keep going POW/VIT/TOUGH.

Clerics gear is Power/Tough/Healing
Apothecary gear is Tough/Healing/Cond dmg
there is also Pre/Vita/Healing gear

If you want to use a shield, absolutely put at least 20 points in to defense, but if you use other weapon combinations (like warhorn) then the shield trait is moot.

Healing is very important for a tank, especially if you use shouts or banners, because it effects regen and healing skills. if you have healing signet, it is bolstered by healing, your ability to revive downed allies is effected by healing, everything that heals you is effected by healing.

my spec is 0/25/15/30/0.

another option for the basic pow/vit/tough is the (imo superior) toughness/power/precision. It only requires that you have proper condition removal, which I do with “healing shouts” and runes of soldier (removes condition on shout). This also gets your support up as you heal and remove conditions from others too.

There are a lot of viable options and one that isn’t mentioned for armour is the Vitality/Healing/Condition build. I mentioned my build before, and it works well combined with this set. It’s a bit more difficult to get, however you can gain a massive health pool with insane healing to keep it full (Note that your party members have much less health, meaning if they get hit once in a while it’s trivial to heal them; one shout recovers 40% of a typical glass cannon thief health).

Psybunny.8906:

Swap out dolyaks (only 30hp/s) for something else (melandru, soldier or earth are good alternatives) and it’s an excellent support warr.

Good point. Soldier is probably one of the most viable for dungeons due to condition removal, which is a blessing when dealing with poison interrupting your healing abilities. Melandru is a great choice in PVP, but I don’t really see the point in Rune of Earth (Am I missing something important judging on the stats alone?).

I’m interested in hearing more about the Vitality/Healing/Condition build.

What does the condition damage actually effect?

What weapon type(s) do you use with this build?

Thanks again.
-Kinz

Having run arah explorable a ton, as well as high level fractals, and tried many different builds, i can say there are a lot of viable builds especially at easier dungeons.

Eventually, berserker’s stands out among the rest though. It’s similar to many tough action games with mostly avoidable damage. When enemies hit so hard it makes your defense almost useless, you don’t get more defense, you give it up for even more attack power.

WvW is different. You simply cannot expect to avoid most damage. You also can’t expect to survive indefinitely on the frontlines, even with full tank gear. So how much tankiness you have is directly related to how long you can stay on the frontlines before having to retreat, and thus how much damage you can put out. Just keep burst damage in mind if killing is your focus though.

I really wouldn’t go condition damage. In open PvE (+ possible in other locations) you will suffer from condition caps. On dungeons there are quite many encounters where condition damage just doesn’t do anything (structures). No idea how it really does damage-wise but I don’t expect too well.

vitality is worthless you want full pwr/prec/crit dmg or pwr/prec/toughness….though i favor high dps as a warrior since we really can make the encounters go much faster that way. there are several high survivability builds that sacrifice very little from a maximum dps spec.

Seeing what other classes can do I wouldn’t talk about high survivability. :P

Warr’s have excellent survivability in PvE. :P

Are you just trying to say that PvE is way too easy?

Let’s say Lupicus. I have extremely hard time soloing phase 2, and phase 3 is simply no way. At least Eles seem to have it much easier, not 100% sure about rest (summons to take aggro, etc.)

Judah.5420:

I’m interested in hearing more about the Vitality/Healing/Condition build.

What does the condition damage actually effect?

What weapon type(s) do you use with this build?

Thanks again.
-Kinz

General Idea
Build a massive health pool that can absorb an insane load of damage, providing adrenaline for Combustive Shot, and doing some psychological warfare against glass cannons often panicking when you lose less than 40% of your health (without shouting). Also have a lot of regeneration for yourself and allies. Remember; shouts and regeneration are area-of-effect, meaning that multiple Warriors running this build is beyond annoying.

Weapons
The primary weapon for this is a Longbow. In PvP situations, you will be using your massive health pool to absorb damage and build adrenaline quickly (trait). Use Combustive Shot to create large-area burning damage and use immobilization to ensure your enemies absorb more burning damage. Stand in the fire to make auto-attacking burn and throw arcing arrow for a finisher area-of-effect blast. Use Fan of Fire point-blank for massive damage.

On the switch, either have a Greatsword or Sword/Shield. The Greatsword is used to escape a bad/zerg situation in a PvP encounter, using Whirlwind Attack and Rush. Ensure that you disabled automated targeting, otherwise you just might rush into whatever you attempt to escape. Escape to a castle, and if that is attacked, burn the attackers with Combustive Shots. Absorb damage they throw at you to fill your adrenaline for more Combustive Shots.

The Sword/Shield combination is used in Dungeons when melee is possible, or when roaming in WvWvW. Keep stacking bleed and use the shield to interrupt high-damage skills. Use your shield to absorb all the damage of glass cannon attacks, such as 100b Warriors or Thiefs. Never take the role of doing direct damage in a timed event, such as destroying the gate in CoF. You will suck in killing objects that can’t take condition damage; don’t even try.

Traits
Put 10 into Arms or Power. You choose! With Power you can take falling damage reduction for WvWvW or 5% power to Vitality. With Arms, take Deep Cuts to ensure your bleeding stacks last a lot longer.

The rest goes into Defense and Tactics. In Defense, take Embrace the Pain, Turtle’s Defense/Shield Master (depending on your weapon layout) and Defy Pain. In Tactics, take Inspiring Banners/Strong Bowstrings (depending on your utilities layout), Lung Capacity and Vigorous Shouting.

You’ll be swapping your traits depending on your situation.

Utilities
Shake It Off and For Great Justice are your two primary low-cooldown shouts, both healing a massive amount of health. Your third utility is either another shout, such as Fear Me (Great for interrupting resurrections, and healing your own), or Discipline Banner. Besides regeneration, the banner allows permanent Swiftness when you wield it.

Use the banner every 10 seconds to apply regeneration. This is easier if you run with another Warrior, since you can both apply a 7-second regeneration for 10 seconds, making it a lot easier to keep it up. Don’t worry about the lost time in PvP, you will continue to do burning damage and you regenerate enough with the boon.

The elite skill should either be Rage Signet if you are alone or a Warbanner when in a group. Truth be told, our elite skills are all pretty horrible, but Rage Signet is fine for the 30-second swiftness and Warbanner is good to resurrect friendlies. That last part can really turn a fight around, as it can resurrect up to 3 friendlies all at once. Now imagine having 4 of these Warriors all resurrecting one another, and remember, you have 50% of your life after a rally — that’s ~18K life. Not bad.

Equipment
Jalis Armor (Vitality/Heal Power/Condition Damage) and Shaman trinkets/weapons. Note that there are some unique weapons with the same statistics that are often cheaper to get at the trading post. Use a Sigil of Water for additional healing and Sigil of Life to build healing stacks. Sigil of Life can go on your Greatsword and Shield, and Sigil of Water on your Longbow and Sword.

For Runes, I suggest keeping the Runes of Dolyak on the Jadis armor at first (I still run with them, they are good in Dungeons but are lacking in PvP). Swap them out for something more PvP-orientated if you desire, such as Soldier. This is largely up to you.

Consumables
This is a very important part; use Rare Veggie Pizza and keeping using it. It adds 40% duration to our condition damage; that is basically just +40% damage at all times. That’s way too much to ignore or swap out for the minor benefits we can get from other consumables. Make sure you also take Master Tuning Crystal, which converts 6% of our Toughness and 4% of our Vitality to Condition Damage. Oh holy kitten!

End Note
Have fun! Let me know if this was helpful

There are no tanks in GW2, best to get that idea out of your head now. Your best bet is P/P/T. With a full set there should be absolutely no reason to use a ranged weapon. Stick to your melee weapons, they are better by far. Keep a Banner of Discipline handy, picking it up off the ground once every 10 seconds to give your entire party fury is going to make you very popular.

Geewoody.2017:

There are no tanks in GW2, best to get that idea out of your head now.

The build I posted above will gain aggressive of all monsters despite having glass cannon warriors in your party doing massive damage. This is due to the abnormal amount of healing you’re throwing around (on yourself and on allies) and healing will gain aggression much more so than direct damage. I usually want 3 cannons and 1 CC in my party; I know I’ll keep aggression, so let the cannons do their thing and we can move along quickly.

In my dungeon experiences, I find that health regeneration and lifesteal is the best “defensive” stat. Combined with the healing shouts (I have NO healing power whatsoever), I can run glass cannon full berserker with minimal problems. And it even leaves room for mistakes.