Guild Wars 2

Has anyone found a good way to do this as a warrior yet?

I can kill the scrubbier ones, but anyone with a shred of sense knows to force out Berserker Stance, kite, and move in after that. I find the manner of damage application poor for powering up Cleansing Ire, which in turn limits condi clear even if I trait in CI.

Of course, I can just leave the fight. But they’ve got a fair bit of movement to them as well, so if I don’t bail early enough, they could catch me (unlike, for example, a condi chrono or reaper).

Has anyone found a good warrior build or playstyle to handle them in wvw?

Same issue here,on gs/axe they will just bomb you and kite you out as you said,but gs rifle seems to work if you time your gunflame.Other than that a good one will just toy with you on double melee unless hes bad or if you get a lucky cc burst on him.

Caedmon.6798:

Same issue here,on gs/axe they will just bomb you and kite you out as you said,but gs rifle seems to work if you time your gunflame.Other than that a good one will just toy with you on double melee unless hes bad or if you get a lucky cc burst on him.

Yeah, I thought about rifle. I think it would work better than all melee, but a good condi dd should be able to handle that pretty easily too (stay out of range, move in close for death blossom, or reflect with stolen whirling axes).

Maybe a bow-based condi berserker would do it, but I don’t play that. Can’t think of anything else though.

Choppy.4183:

Caedmon.6798:

Same issue here,on gs/axe they will just bomb you and kite you out as you said,but gs rifle seems to work if you time your gunflame.Other than that a good one will just toy with you on double melee unless hes bad or if you get a lucky cc burst on him.

Yeah, I thought about rifle. I think it would work better than all melee, but a good condi dd should be able to handle that pretty easily too (stay out of range, move in close for death blossom, or reflect with stolen whirling axes).

Maybe a bow-based condi berserker would do it, but I don’t play that. Can’t think of anything else though.

I have been running GS Rifle since HoT hit and the setup is quite effective against thief. I have fought ghost thief and even killed some as well. Vs most classes with fair chance besides condi mesmer unless vs a unskilled one.

Warriors cant touch thieves without a ranged weapon. You won’t be able to kill/pursue them unless they let you.

Even if you run rifle though you’ll have some issues since majority of thiefs are no longer running staff….so you have a very limited number of times you can damage a thief during its rotation. Rifle increases the window against a dd/sb, but they still have the advantage.

Thanks everyone. Seems like most people are landing on the rifle for this.

My best results have also been with the rifle, but it really requires an opponent who’s incompetent, unlucky, distracted (like a group fight when they can’t watch the killshot), or otherwise asleep at the switch for the rifle to be reliably effective.

I’m garbage with my thief, and even I can think of several tools in a standard build to manage a rifle warrior.

Still, it may be the best we’ve got for now.

Start off with healsig as your first resist option,play it defensively and dont keep chasing him around..let him come to you.Taking more distance while you wait till adren has filled trying to ignore his biggest bombs.When you do pop into berserk do not insta gunflame him,autoattack a bit untill he starts wasting evades or closing in where you will gunflame and try to land a rifle or headbutt which he will either dodge,if he stays in your face at this point while dodging and applying blind,pop berserk util and switch to gs and start bursting,if he takes distance again…you turn around and get more distance with rush,switch back to rifle..and if youre not rdy for berserk yet dont hold back with using normal killsjhots either.It either lands or he start wasting more evades.Just try to play it smart and dont go tunnelvision chasing on him cus thats whats gonna kill you.During the fight pop healsig whenever needed to resist right away.

From the perspective of a person who mains thief (warrior second) I do find the Rifle warriors facing this build the most troublesome. That said a lot of that has to do with not seeing a lot of them around so they sort of a new thing.

The other warrior type that can counter this to a degree are those traited with some of the Physical skills such as bulls rush , stomp and the like and who time them for right after an evade by the thief. If the thief traits impaling over UC he can be prone to an immob. If you can bait the thief into using his evades on your weapons, those physical utilities can be more effective.

If you trait peak performance those Physical skills can hit pretty hard and get off cooldown relatively quick. (ie kick every 9 seconds bola every ~ 13)

Thanks for the Thief main perspective, babazhook. The trouble there is that a build loaded with physicals beyond Bull’s Charge isn’t going to be very viable in wvw. I could see it for a duel, maybe, but that’s about it.

That said, why wouldn’t the thief just stay up close with death blossoms and caltrops after the initial steal, and then shadowstep at the first sign of trouble, followed by shortbow from range until things mellowed out?

Choppy.4183:

Thanks for the Thief main perspective, babazhook. The trouble there is that a build loaded with physicals beyond Bull’s Charge isn’t going to be very viable in wvw. I could see it for a duel, maybe, but that’s about it.

That said, why wouldn’t the thief just stay up close with death blossoms and caltrops after the initial steal, and then shadowstep at the first sign of trouble, followed by shortbow from range until things mellowed out?

Oh I would not load a build down with Physicals for WvW. I am just detailing what type of build my own thief has most issues with and it one that uses Physical skills. The stances IMO are overused and create a “lazy warrior” who grows too reliant on endure pain and defy pain. When facing a thief the more dodges you can get him to burn off the better and having stances or signets and banners on your utility bar do not force him to burn a dodge.

For a DB thief you just have to get the timing down right for the headbutt or stuns. With the longer headbutt cast time you just launch it a bit earlier. If you launch it almost as soon as he does his DB you should hit him. It actually easier for you to land a headbutt once he in his DB frame then to land one if he is able to act freely and dodges when he sees the tell.

When I face a DB thief on my P/d , I generally wreck them with Immobs. P 2 and the needle traps dropped at his feet. Many of these builds take impaling lotus and Immobs can counter them.

To the thief using DB and Caltrops as a warrior you just have to keep in continous motion. Not in the same area as you remain in his DB umbrella. If he leaps up for the DB just move away, the range of the DB is melee so You can avoid a lot of that by getting out of melee. You have freedom of motion. He does not as the DB a locked animation.

When I was playing with a DB SB thief , I was counting on the warrior to stick to me trying to swing because if he started moving off he was harder to tag and a lot of my DBS just missed. DB thief is not very mobile and has little in the way of stealth.

if you get into the " i am just gonna swing it out toe to toe with this thief" mentality he is just going to pile those conditions on. The DB d/d thief is one of the very few thief builds that do not use hit and run tactics. With the added benefits to choking gas , He willw ant you to ’stick around" even more so he can get his whirl finishers in that poison field.