Guild Wars 2

CHANGES TO READY UP WARRIOR TRAITS

It seems from watching the stream a lot of unused traits still made the cut and will likely remain unused, I know things are subject to change and this is a list of changes I would personally like to see. I have clocked over 5000 hours on my warrior and extensively played all game modes with it. I don’t feel like any builds for the warrior have died, but I can also see a lot of cheesy builds coming too. Will be great fun to test things out again.

note: these are not the changes displayed in the ready up, these are my suggestions using their format as feedback.

STRENGTH

Minor

• Recklessness: Dodging inflicts damage (827), applies cripple (1sec)
• Weapon Mastery: Gain 150 ferocity while wielding a melee weapon. (was axe mastery, moved to minor trait + made any melee weapon)
• Stick and Move: Now +10% damage while stationary. (changed from endurance not full + buffed)

Adept

• Restorative Strength: Using heal skill removes all conditions and grants +1 might for 8 seconds for each condition removed.
• Short Temper: Gain Might (1 for 5 sec) and adrenaline (1) when ever your attacks are evaded, blocked or missed.
• Physical Training: Physical skills have reduced cooldown, do more damage, and are more potent -20% cooldown + 100% damage / potency -50% fall damage (removed adrenaline dependency / potency = distance of knockback etc)

Master

• Body Blow: Stuns, Dazes, Knockbacks, Pulls, Pushes and Launches inflict Bleeding, Torment and Confusion. (3 bleed, 3 torment, 3 confusion 8sec)
• Forceful Greatsword: +10% damage, -20% cooldown, +1might 5sec on critical with greatsword and Spear. (Merged with slashing power and moved to strength specialization)
• Axe Mastery: Each hit with an axe grants +2 adrenaline, -20% axe cooldowns. (removed ferocity from trait, removed requirement for a critical hit, no longer grandmaster)

Grandmaster

• Berserkers Power: Increase damage for a short time after spending adrenaline Stage1:10% damage, Stage2:15% damage, Stage3:20% damage for 10 seconds (applied after the burst skill is used)
• NEW! Staggering Blows: Your Stuns apply daze when they are broken or expire (1sec).
• Building Momentum: Burst skills that hit recover 50 endurance and apply vigor (6sec) (Moved to major trait + Was 15 endurance)

ARMS
note: by selecting this tree minor traits should not passively apply bleeds
(You are not forced to take a condition gear or ruin other professions bleed stacks with weaker bleeds, same philosophy should be applied to all professions that passively apply conditions)

Minor

• Critical Burst: Burst skills that critically hit restore 8 adrenaline.
• Unsuspecting Foe: Increase critical hit chance vs stunned foes by 50%.
• Attack of Opportunity: +10% damage to bleeding foes. (Removed +50% bleed duration)

Adept

• Deep Cuts: Critical strikes apply bleeding (2sec) + Bleeds last 50% longer (Added the minor trait Precise Strikes)
• Berserker’s Fury: Critical strikes will apply swiftness (10sec) (10sec cooldown). Striking a foe below 50% health will grant fury (10sec) (10sec cooldown) (Increased health threshold, reduced gain adrenaline in combat)
• Signet Mastery: -20% signet cooldown, Become unblockable whenever you use a signet (6sec), +100 precision for each unused signet. (added signet of mights effect to every signet)

Master

• Rending strikes: Critical strikes apply vulnerability (100% chance for 5 seconds) (removed swiftness, more stable vulnerability stacking, faster weapon attacks will apply it higher)
• Opportunist: Gain Fury and might on immobilize (10 sec of fury and 3 might. 10 sec cooldown)
• Blade Master: Swords -20%cooldown, +20%critical strike chance vs bleeding foes.

Grandmaster

• Burst Precision: Burst skills have 100% critical chance, if you miss reduce burst skill cooldown by 3 seconds. (Moved from strength)
• Furious: Critical strikes give extra adrenaline (+1) and apply +1 might (3sec) (removed unique condition boon for additional might)
• Dual Wielding: +20% attack speed when wielding an axe / mace / sword in your offhand (changed 5% damage for an additional 5% attack speed)

DEFENCE

Minor

• Thick Skin: Extra armour with lower health. <75%: 5% damage mitigation, <50%: 10% damage mitigation, <25%: 15% damage mitigation.
• Great Fortitude: Gain 5% health (Moved from strength specialization and mad minor, removed power stat dependency, will grant lesser health if no vitality on gear)
• Spiked Armor: Gain retaliation when struck by a critical hit (10sec + 10sec cooldown) (removed additional toughness, increased retaliation duration, removed dependency on block)

Adept

• Shield Master: -20% Shield cooldowns, Reflect while blocking, grant +1 might on block (8sec)
• Dogged March: -33% duration on cripple / chill / immobilize, grant regen (3sec) when affected by cripple / chill / immobilize (10sec cooldown) (UNCHANGED)
• Armored Attack: Your attacks ignore 10% of the targets armor … OR Your attacks remove protection (5sec cooldown)

Master

• Adrenal Health: Spending adrenaline heals you, level 1: 1250 health, level 2: 2400 health, level 3: 3600 health. (was a minor, changed to grant health on the use of adrenaline)
• Stance Mastery: +25% stance duration, activating a stance grants vigor (6sec)
• Cleansing Ire: Remove conditions for adrenaline spent Stage 1: 1 condition, Stage 2: 2 conditions, Stage 3: 3 conditions, grant +1 adrenaline when hit. (UNCHANGED)

Grandmaster

• Rousing Resilience: Gain protection (4sec) when you use a stunbreaker ability and Heal for 1100 (10sec cooldown) (removed requirement being stunned to gain affects, gain protection not added toughness)
• NEW! Blunt Trauma: Mace and hammer skills -20% cooldown, +20% damage vs stunned foes, Apply 3 vulnerability (10sec) on stun or daze.
• NEW! Ready Up: Activates balanced stance when you are Stunned, Dazed, Knockbacked, Pulled, Pushed or Launched (60 sec cooldown), Activates Endure pain when below 25% health (60sec cooldown)

TACTICS

Minor

• Determined Revival: Gain 5 stability while reviving (2sec) (30 sec cooldown)
• Fast Healer: Cleanse targets conditions and revives 20% faster
• Inspiring Presence: Boon duration increased 10%, Outgoing healing to allies increased 10% (removed per target)

Adept

• Leg Specialist: Immobilize (1sec) when you cripple (5sec cooldown) (UNCHANGED)
• Quick Breathing: Warhorn skills -20% cooldown, convert 1 condition to a boon. (UNCHANGED)
• Empowered: Increase damage for every boon on you, 1% damage per unique boon. (UNCHANGED)

Master

• Shrug it Off: Shake it off now removes an additional condition, Use shake it off when you have 2 or more conditions (25sec cooldown)
• Burning Arrows: Longbow -20% cooldown, Dual shot applies burning per arrow (1sec), increase range of arrows to 1500 yards. (Added increased range)
• Empower Allies: Grant yourself and allies +150 power while in combat (radius 600) (UNCHANGED)

Grandmaster

• Powerful Synergy: Double the potency of combo finishers (blast twice, leap affects duration +100%, projectile affects duration +100%) (Affects blast and projectile too)
• Shout Mastery: -20% Shout Cooldown, +8 Adrenaline on shout, shouts heal 1480. (Merged all shout traits)
• Phalanx Strength: When you grant yourself might grant it to nearby allies as well (6sec) (radius 600) (UNCHANGED)

DISCIPLINE

Minor

• Versatile Rage: Gain 5 adrenaline And 2 might on weapon swap (merged with old versatile power)
• Fast Hands: Weapon swapping recharges faster (5sec) (UNCHANGED)
• Versatility: Burst skills recharge 15% faster.

Adept

• Crack Shot: Rifle and harpoon shots pierce, -20% cooldown.
• Warrior Mobility: Run 25% faster while wielding melee weapons, movement skills remove immobilize. (merged warriors sprint + mobile strikes)
• Vengeful: Vengeance has a 100% chance to rally when you kill when you kill something, Vengeance grants 100% endurance, 50% health, Vengeance is available immediately when downed.

Master

• Inspiring Banners: Banners grant regeneration to allies (3sec duration + 3sec interval)
• Destruction of the empowered: Deal 3% extra damage for each boon on the target. (UNCHANGED)
• Brawlers Everywhere: Stunbreak if you weapon swap while stunned (30sec cooldown) (Changed from remove 1 condition)

Grandmaster

• Burst Mastery: Burst Skills do 10% more damage + restore adrenaline Stage 1: 3 adrenaline, Stage 2: 7 adrenaline, Stage 3: 10 adrenaline. (more damage on burst skills else unchanged)
• Heightened Focus: Gain quickness when you strike a foe below 50% health (4sec) (15sec cooldown) (Moved from arms, Was last chance, reduced cooldown)
• Adrenaline Rush: Gain adrenaline in combat (1 adrenaline 1 second), increases time after combat that adrenaline is held (10sec). (was Berserkers Might moved from strength)

TRAIT REMOVALS

• Powerful banners: Removed
• Inspiring Banners: Baseline
• Furious Reaction: Removed
• Cull the Weak: Removed
• Desperate Power: Removed
• Thrill of the Kill: Removed
• Heightened Focus: Removed

SKILLS / UTILITY CHANGES

• All Banners: -20% recharge and +50% radius are now applied to all banners. (Baseline inspiring banners)
• Healing Signet: On use grant resistance, lower interval healing.
• Battle Cry: Was adrenal health, is now a shout, grants 30 adrenaline and heals 5885 (30sec cooldown) (no longer healing based on adrenaline level)
• Sweat it Out: Was mending, is now a physical, remove 3 conditions and heal 5240 (20sec cooldown) (renamed to sound like a physical ability)
• Rampage: Is now a stance
• NEW! Taunt: f2 skill will taunt your target for adrenaline, Stage 1: 1sec, Stage 2: 2sec, Stage 3: 3sec

WEAPON CHANGES

Rifle

• Volly 3: Stacking Vulnerability, +2 per shot.
• Brutal Shot 4: Remove vulnerability, explosion at target for AoE damage and blast finisher, higher damage.

Sword

• Hamstring (Auto attack chain 3): Needs a nicer and more fluid animation.
• Final Thrust 3: (edit: removed suggestion)

Mace

• Pulverize (Auto attack chain 3): (edit: removed suggestion)

Greatsword

• Greatsword Swing + Slice (Auto attack chain 1 and 2): Remove vulnerability stacking, increase base damage to compensate. (Changed to reduce physical builds ability to apply conditions, buffed base damage to compensate)

Axe

• Dual Strike 4: A lot higher the damage to make viable in damage rotation, increase the cast time to give larger time to dodge it to compensate.

ELITE SPECIALIZATION

• TBA

Holding For Great Justice!

hire this guy for warrior tester

Well done TPenny!

Sorry but no, you just destroyed Sword for power builds.

Mending is a Physical skill get over it and here to stay, i don’t know why ppl want it as shout so badly when that build is already strong against condi.

also stun break on 5s CD is OP.

Juba.8406:

Sorry but no, you just destroyed Sword for power builds.

Sword was never good for power builds, when Final Thrust was added this it a hybrid weapon at best.

Juba.8406:

Mending is a Physical skill get over it and here to stay, i don’t know why ppl want it as shout so badly when that build is already strong against condi.

Very well, it wasn’t something I would be so passionate about. Although the heal itself is rarely used and as a shout it would at least get considered.

Juba.8406:

also stun break on 5s CD is OP.

Sure, or apply an internal cooldown of 30 seconds.

edit: changed some of the abilities you mentioned to be less OP

Sword is good for condition builds, but little else. One of my warriors uses duel swords/longbow. doing fairly large amounts of condition damage. Axe and greatsword are overall great for power builds, however.

Dual Strike 4: higher the damage to make viable in damage rotation, increase the cast time to give larger time to dodge it to compensate.

Skills like this should have more functionality i.e. reduced on crit or adrenaline based cooldowns and not be thoughtless skills. You could argue that the fury gain from this skill is valuable but otherwise it’s just a filler skill that looks fancy when you press it.

Offhand axe is like the Necromancer of offhand weapons; cool but total garbage.

Axe Mastery cannot be in the same trait set as Berserker’s Power

You also heavily nerfed Axe Mastery to the point of it not being Grandmaster worthy anyway.

TPenny, thanks for transcribing these.

Some of the changes are pretty nice, including the baseline upgrade to banners, the Tactics changes to shouts, and the move of Forceful Greatsword to Strength to synergize power builds. The shout-trait merger is pretty nice as well, because those were a necessary package for shout builds anyway.

But the nerfs to Adrenal Health and Healing Signet really ruin what sustain Warrior had to begin with, and some of the moves are straight up bizarre (Axe Mastery and Merciless Hammer to grandmaster level traits?). We’ll have to see how things shake down…

Also they’ve made it pretty clear that sword will be condi only after this Final Thrust nerf. The -20% cooldown upgrade to Blademaster got me excited, until I realized that Final Thrust is now going to be just a glorified, slow melee version of Impale. Looks like sword will have no place in power builds anymore. It would have been nice if they did something with Flurry as well, but that was always condi based anyway. But it is nice that Forceful Greatsword is moving to the strength line.

After the Adrenal Health nerf, the change to Armored Attack, and the loss of Defy Pain, I don’t know if Defense is worth taking anymore just for Cleaning Ire.

I also get the feeling that despite the Crack Shot upgrade, rifle is still going to be the unwanted redheaded stepchild of weapon choices. The Burning Arrows merger makes Longbow almost a total no-brainer.

Thuggernaut.1250:

Also they’ve made it pretty clear that sword will be condi only after this Final Thrust nerf.

where did they say that ?

i watched the stream they never mentioned Final Thrust .

TPenny.5071:

Sword was never good for power builds, when Final Thrust was added this it a hybrid weapon at best.

Yeah when you have an attack that equals full adrenaline Eviscerate its Power viable, currently power sword warrior can beat Axe warrior easy.

even off-hand sword work great on power builds.

Juba.8406:

TPenny.5071:

Sword was never good for power builds, when Final Thrust was added this it a hybrid weapon at best.

Yeah when you have an attack that equals full adrenaline Eviscerate its Power viable, currently power sword warrior can beat Axe warrior easy.

even off-hand sword work great on power builds.

PvE:

• Sword can be used in a power build as an offhand weapon, a higher dps alternative to the shield when you need a block for the encounter.
• Or when the target is hitting max vulnerability stacks without you; for a slight damage increase over offhand mace on longer fights.
• You can try and build a sinister geared warrior focusing on bleed stacking and fit final thrust into the rotation when the target is < 50% health.

PvP:

• A < 50% health target final thrust is exactly the same damage as a full adrenaline eviscerate. (1019 with no gear or traits)
• The cast time is the same, although final thrust is slightly harder to land without the homing leap component.
• The cooldown of final thrust is still 5 seconds higher than untraited eviscerate, 7.25 seconds more if fully you have maxed out your discipline line.
• Any power based build switching to sword uses it for the mobility / immobilize primarily.
• The sword is currently only used in hybrid or condition builds.

Anything can change; and we still don’t know how conditions will do in HoT encounters, weather they are long fights of attrition, short moment to moment combat , or mechanically required for the situation.

But I digress… Sword is a hybrid weapon at best (right now).

I don’t know if I like these changes more than the ones announced overall. There are some things I like and some I really dislike.

The trait stuff I didn’t like…

First I don’t like losing out on the passive bleeds in arms, because then you lose out on the synergy with attack of opportunity. With your proposed changes you would either have to lose signet mastery which would suck in PvE, or lose out on the bleed on crit. Mehhhh.

Secondly, where is dual wielding damage? You know, it’s already a huge problem that axe mastery is moved to GM because pure axe builds will no longer be an option in PvE. Taking away dual wielding from dual wield agility is just another unnecessary hit.

Third I don’t get why you removed furious speed. It’s currently a really useful trait and I would prefer at the very least to be merged with rending strikes, because as it stands it seems kind of lackluster for a master trait without it. If you are removing the swiftness there it should be added elsewhere imo.

Otherwise you made a lot of crappy traits seem a little more useful, which is nice.

As for weapon changes…

If you’re going to make rifle #4 have an aoe impact, you may as well make it a blast finisher as well. It should/would only blast if it hits the target and it would blast at the location of the impact.

I don’t agree with changing final thrust… I rather like the way it functions right now. It’s semi-difficult to land on experienced players in PvP and serves as a really good hybrid weapon. The bleeds happen on autoattack so I don’t see it as necessary to move the damage to more bleeds, because it’s already really easy to stack bleeds on condi builds as it is so this would be unpleasant for sword users overall imo.

Daze on mace autoattack seems OP, and if this were implemented then mace #3 would need to be changed. There is just too much cc with it being on autoattack, I don’t like it.

Greatsword autoattack I don’t see why it needs to be changed, it’s a good thing for it to apply vuln and also a good thing for it to have increased damage. I’m not sure what your objective is with changing it.

Axe #4 I completely agree with, but I want to emphasize the damage increase part and make sure it hits a noticeably higher amount than it does now, enough to make it actually worth dodging.

Hi,

TPenny.5071:

PvP:

• A < 50% health target final thrust is exactly the same damage as a full adrenaline eviscerate. (1019 with no gear or traits)
• The cast time is the same, although final thrust is slightly harder to land without the homing leap component.
• The cooldown of final thrust is still 5 seconds higher than untraited eviscerate, 7.25 seconds more if fully you have maxed out your discipline line.
• Any power based build switching to sword uses it for the mobility / immobilize primarily.
• The sword is currently only used in hybrid or condition builds.

While you’re right in your analysis for PvE, I think that you’re underestimating the sword in power builds in PvP. Have you played it before yourself? Or at least the (boring) WvW zerg frontliner?

You do seem aware of the versatile nature of the sword: high burst, good mobility, nice soft control (cripple and immobilize), and of course good bleed application. This nature is actually what makes it excellent in non-PvE power builds. You can pair a main-hand sword with whatever other power weapon of choice in the alternate set, and have a working setup. Remove any of the three components aside bleeding, and you do kill the sword in power builds.

Mind you, I thought like you before: I theory-crafted a lot, and put the sword in the condi/hybrid category. Some people on the forum suggested pure power main-hand sword builds, I tried them, at first skeptical but always curious, then truly understood what these people meant, and have since been using main-hand sword as a power weapon.

Regards.

Purple Miku.7032:

First I don’t like losing out on the passive bleeds in arms, because then you lose out on the synergy with attack of opportunity. With your proposed changes you would either have to lose signet mastery which would suck in PvE, or lose out on the bleed on crit. Mehhhh.

Purple Miku.7032:

Greatsword autoattack I don’t see why it needs to be changed, it’s a good thing for it to apply vuln and also a good thing for it to have increased damage. I’m not sure what your objective is with changing it.

Yes you would lose the passive synergy while soloing only, now you have to make an active choice. Also no longer ruin other professions bleed / vulnerability stacks with weaker ones, another step towards helping condition specs become viable. If 90% of the conditions come form your build or choice of weapon, not passively applied with full power builds. Party synergy / group play would benefit from a condition player not scoff at the idea when he/she brings the bleeds, vulnerability, weakness, etc.

Purple Miku.7032:

Secondly, where is dual wielding damage? You know, it’s already a huge problem that axe mastery is moved to GM because pure axe builds will no longer be an option in PvE. Taking away dual wielding from dual wield agility is just another unnecessary hit.

Dual wield damage is compensated for. The trait it was 10% attack speed and 5% damage in separate traits. Arenanet only combined the two and added 5% additional attack speed. I only suggested swapping the 5% damage for 5% attack speed to bring it up to 20%. But your concern for axe mastery is warranted, I’ve moved to to master tier.

Purple Miku.7032:

Third I don’t get why you removed furious speed. It’s currently a really useful trait and I would prefer at the very least to be merged with rending strikes, because as it stands it seems kind of lackluster for a master trait without it. If you are removing the swiftness there it should be added elsewhere imo.

The swiftness component is inside Berserker’s Fury.

Purple Miku.7032:

If you’re going to make rifle #4 have an aoe impact, you may as well make it a blast finisher as well. It should/would only blast if it hits the target and it would blast at the location of the impact.

Agreed.

Purple Miku.7032:

I don’t agree with changing final thrust… I rather like the way it functions right now. It’s semi-difficult to land on experienced players in PvP and serves as a really good hybrid weapon. The bleeds happen on autoattack so I don’t see it as necessary to move the damage to more bleeds, because it’s already really easy to stack bleeds on condi builds as it is so this would be unpleasant for sword users overall imo.

Purple Miku.7032:

Daze on mace autoattack seems OP, and if this were implemented then mace #3 would need to be changed. There is just too much cc with it being on autoattack, I don’t like it.

Agreed