Guild Wars 2

Hey all – I’m settling into my Warrior and will likely make this profession my main, but have a few questions.

I was using Yojack’s build for some time, and I loved the tanky/support quality of it, but the damage was just slow and painful and I felt kitten in situations when bleed was capped at 25.

So, I’ve just switched to a GS berseker build. All my traits boost damage or damage utility in some way, and I am now mowing things down WAY faster than I was using sword/warhorn.

Now to my questions:

1) Is this type of glass cannon GS berserker build viable for dungeons and fractals?

2) Which is a better 2nd weapon for a GS build – longbow or rifle? I’ve always used rifle, but just wondering.

Thanks!

Although many threads have answered these questions, I’ll sum it up quickly.

The best players play almost full GC cuz they know how and when to dodge properly.Knowing your class and knowing the encounter helps tremendously.So until you learn these, you’ll eat dirt quite regularly.
GS build is viable and very good for dungeons.For fractals, it’s good till late 20ties I guess.After that, you get punished really bad if you try to pull off a full HB.
Longbow.Best weapon ever.Don’t ever drop it.The damage is real good and the same as rifle(or better), and the aoe fire field is pure gold.The immobilize when kiting a boss is also extremely good.

Glass is viable ANYWHERE up til 30ish fotm, which is where I keep the glass gear and switch to a different spec.

I’ve got two different Warrior and each is using a different range weapon. All things considered, I’ve come to really like the Longbow. Yet it really depends on your character build and how you use your ranged weapon.

The best description that I heard about the longbow is that it’s like a shotgun. Contrary to your expectations, it often tends to be most deadly when you’re pretty close up. It’s F1 move is an AoE fire field, which can damage melee enemies if you center it on yourself (in addition to adding Flaming to your arrow shots). Blast moves also give out AoE Might stacks when using the F1 field. The bow even has some nice control moves on it. This is my weapon of choice on my defensive hammer character.

Rifle has a better single target burst and it’s designed for letting people hang back. I use this on my mace / warhorn AoE supporting shout build. For the times that I need to range kite a mob or need to wait a moment for my heals to refresh, the rifle offers a lot of flexibility.

Each weapon has its own niche. Yet I would personally consider the longbow to be an unrecognized treasure. Most of the Warriors don’t seem to use it, which is a shame. I wouldn’t have bothered to try the longbow if I didn’t already have a Warrior with a rifle. Sometimes the negative hype about a weapon isn’t as accurate as we would like to believe.

Played fotm with glass melee (ranged swap on dredge) up to 30, got disappointed how easy that still was, haven’t played fotm since then.

Qid.1937:

Glass is viable ANYWHERE up til 30ish fotm, which is where I keep the glass gear and switch to a different spec.

THIS, please look at what this guy said.

Glass Cannon warrior is viable everywhere until 30 FoTM IF you meet the following requirements.

1. You must know the dungeon/content.
2. You must know how to time dodges and know the bosses attack patterns.

Beyond 30 FoTM, it changes.
A lot of people will still go full glass cannon, and you can, but I believe that is counter-productive. With some well timed dodges and such, you can survive, but I feel that you are spending more time dodging, rolling around, etc. instead of attacking.

After 30 FoTM, this build seems to do very well.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.3|7.1g.h2.e.1g.h1|3.1g.h1|1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1g.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7|2s.d13.2s.d13.3s.d19.3s.d19.2s.d13.2s.d13|a5.p56.k29.0.f5|55.7|5y.69.6b.6i.6m|e

You maintain 5.7k effective power and hit a whopping 35~40% damage reduction. I say 35~40 since the build automatically includes 200 from Turtle’s Defense.
*Note that I did not fill in Fury and Might for this build.

Also, an important thing to note (when deciding between GS and Axe) is that a lot of GS users will argue 25 might stacks. This is incorrect. It’s not a 25 difference of might stacks between GS and Axe; rather, it is usually about 10.

With LB, FoJ, and SoR… you can maintain about 12 stacks of might by yourself.
I would say GS sits around 18 stacks of might (sure you can hit 25, but unless you are investing into Might like Sonic Boon Build, you’re not going to maintain 22~25 on a boss you need to consistently dodge… especially 30+ foTM)

Thanks for the insight fellas.

I ran the new AC (all paths) a few times with the glass build, and had some contrasting experiences. The first few runs it was cake. Our DPS was fantastic and we breezed through paths 2 and 3 with almost no deaths or issues.

Then, with a new group, it felt much, much different going through the same areas. I attracted aggro more, had to back off and use rifle more, rez other people, etc. I also died more. Just felt sloppy. These were PUGs, so to be expected, I suppose.

I did one fractal run and glass felt fine, but it was lvl 1 so, yeah.

I’ll grab a longbow and try it out today. Sounds like it could be a pretty nice weapon to have on hand, if not equipped all the time.

Full Berserker, in my opinion, is so reliant on the group.
Even if you are super pro, a bad pull by your team mates = wipe..
Unless you run and want to have the noobies bad mouth you for running xD

I personally go Full Knight w/ Ruby (except gloves for skin hehe) and Full Berserker Trinkets. I find that it’s perfect for any situation.

Knights gear with my mixed up ascended jewelry and fractal backpiece (precision here crit dmg there toughness here) With my AC weapons are working wonders for me in high level fractals. My toughness is 3100 with 45 percent crit chance and 62-70 crit dmg depending on weapon usage. I LOVE it.

Oh yea and Eagle runes

I dunno, for fractals over 30 (I’m at 40now) I still run almost all zerker except for helm, chest and legs, which are knights. If anything, running all glass before taught me to dodge properly. If you keep stretching fractal runs, there is a greater risk of screwing up. Leave the tanking to guardian with team aegis and reflect.

5 stat points – upgrade slot of trinkets and backpack
7 points – Ascended Back Piece
8.5 stat points – Ascended Rings
8.7 stat points – Ascended Earrings
9.4 stat points – Ascended Amulet
10 stat points- traits (not an equipment, but listed for comparison)
12 stat points – glove, shoulder and boots
12.8 stat points – 1H weapons and amulet
13.33 stat points – Earring
14 stat points – Backpack (rare version from guild armorsmith)
14.22 stat points – 2H weapons
14.4 stat points – Coat
16 stat points – Ring, helm and legging

This is how much stats you give up for each point of crit damage. Full glass is perfectly viable but alot of people choose to keep their Hat/Legs/Chest Knights (power/precision/toughness) to get some more breathing room without THAT big of a loss to DPS.

I love the raw power of GS, Dual Axe. Seeing the numbers fly from 100B – swap – Whirl – Evis – swap – 100B is so satisfying.

Personally I wouldn’t go full Zerk cause 1 bad dodge is all it takes to end your usefulness in 40+ fractals.