Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’m looking for a Warrior build that maximizes (or nearly maximizes) effectiveness in PvE (things like Fractals, Dungeons… anything tough that PvE throws at us), but also does good in WvW (I’m guessing that the best PvE build may not work as effectively against players who can dodge and in general get out of the way rather than face tanking your entire 10 second death-burst).

I suppose what would have to remain static across all situations is the armor (I only want to make one set of ascended, it’s costing me my savings already…) and runes, but I suppose I would not mind having to change my traits with each transition from or to WvW, though if I can keep the points in the same trees and just change the majors, that would be great.

As mentioned above, I would like to know what stats I should aim for on armor… I’m no expert in the field of Warrior (or any field, actually), so what may be obvious about taking, say, healing power over toughness is not obvious to me.

Please and thank you in advance!

If you want to join the elitist groups running simple dungeons like CoF, you need full Berserker. Other parties and parties for the fractals of the mist will be fine with you running toughness. Personally I run full Knight armor and weapons with Berserker trinkets in both WvW and PvE. I also do shouts for healing and condition cleansing (3 shouts, runes of the soldier) in both forms. For me, this is extremely effective, but of course, sacrificing Berserker will reduce your total power. In WvW, a good balance of damage/surviving is more important than raw power tho..

Hi,

As you’ve said, contents between PvE and WvW differ a lot, so using the same gear for both of them could be detrimental. I understand that crafting an ascended set is costly enough, but that does not mean you cannot have two sets of armor – one ascended for the content that you prefer, and the other exotic! Also, you may want to experiment with new builds in the future, so you’re likely to eventually have additional sets (so far, I use 4 of them for my warrior).

Now, let’s try and answer your question, i.e. a multi-purpose set, for PvE and WvW. What follows simply reflects my own view, others’ mileage may vary.

Usually, what is considered the most efficient build in PvE is a full direct damage build, with no toughness nor vitality. The content there is indeed not difficult, to the point that some skilled players can even solo dungeons originally intended for groups of five. All in all, as long as you can observe your foe and dodge/block its biggest attacks, you’ll be doing well enough. In terms of gear, this translates into a full berserker set (weapons, armor, trinkets), usually with Scholar Runes, with traits allocated in power, precision, critical chance/damage.

Now, WvW is another story. The game there is way more competitive, and you’ll get hit anyway (dodging/blocking won’t be enough) – therefore going there as a glass cannon can earn probably you more miserable defeats than quick victories.

Many builds are playable in WvW – since you want to use one that is compatible with PvE, we’ll remove condition warriors, and stick to direct damage warriors, with a bit of control. So, the gear you might be looking for:

• In terms of armor, the berserker armor,
• In terms of runes, I feel that using Scholar Runes would be wasted on WvW, so I’d go for something else, for instance Melandru Runes,
• In terms of weapons, berserker would be good, but make sure to have most weapons available, at least one greatsword, one axe, one mace, one hammer, one shield (with sigil of energy), one warhorn and one ranged weapon,
• In terms of trinkets, I’d use two sets of trinkets, as ascended ones are easy to obtain, either through WvW or through fractals. One set would be berserker, and the other could be more defensive, like a mix of soldier and cavalier.

I believe that adjusting trinkets and traits would then give you enough flexibility for situational optimization.

So, the PvE build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOJvZPOPMxBAzDjAqoLDqYSfgOA-jAyAYLBZ6DMJCgKAl8KiGbZsIas6aMlLRUtMA5TA-e

And some possible WvW build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejkOFvtQCPMxBEkCNsKOKGPlQ9wO2w4A-jQyAYLBZ6DMJCgQAl8KiGbZsIasabM1rgsKOpyAsMBA-e

HTH.

For PvE go either GS, Axe & Warhorn or GS, Axe & Mace for maximum DPS with one ranged weapon available (rifle = mor single target, longbow = more AoE and more group support via the blast finisher of the 3).
Typical is 30/25/0/0/15 and berserker-stuff, but you could also mix in some knights/cavaliers trinkets to survive longer if u need that. Runes of the scholar or ruby orbs, orbs are cheaper and you don’t have to be above 90% health to get the full boost so that’s what I’d prefer.
Healing signet is better than healing surge in both PvE and WvW (btw also in sPvP) and it regenerates your health so that you could stay above 90% health for scholar rather easily, probably easier than with healing surge.

Then WvW… Mace and GS works only if
a) your enemy is bad at dodging
b) your enemy is lagging
c) your enemy has no stability
d) you can somehow manage to get skull crack of even against skilled players (shield 4 -> f1 for example)
It can be nice but you could also go for something else like bow/gs, hammer/gs, maybe even try hambow in WvW
Berserker armor can still be used (maybe lyssa/melandru runes or stay with ruby orbs for dmg) and berserker weapons too but then at least have some toughness in your trinkets (I like mix between knights and cavaliers) – you could also buff your vitality but as a warrior you have almost 20k anyway
Energy Sigil on one weapon is nice, I like to run this build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIQQNAR8ejkOxuFPqQMxBEkiroKMK+BgQ9YOsjNE-j0CBYLCykFA0HwUBQJPFRjtNoIasabYaYER1mdAWzKaG0pGA-w
change dolyak-signet to signet of stamina against condi classes and berserker’s stance to balanced stance against cc enemies (for example warriors) – otherwise leave it (can be helpful against thieves, for escaping,…) or change it to endure pain
You could also go 30/0/20/0/20 or 20/0/30/0/20 or 20/0/20/10/20 (empower or leg specialist) but I love the traits discipline gives me – you could also change your grandmaster trait in discipline to the one that reduces your used adrenaline by 33%.
The combo is: f1 on sword then interrupt it by weapon swap to gs and hundred blade your enemy to death – 4 sec immobilize (could also go gs/bow with the 5 on bow but that’s harder to land or you could use throw bolas)
Also the sword and gs give you awesome (!) mobility – if u want even more change your shield to Warhorn (and change the first trait In defense too)

Hambow is the most PvX build in existence for Warrior. It excels in high end PvE (w/ good cleaving, a fire field, 2 blast finishers, and 2 AoE CC skills) while primarily being a PvP/WvW build.

Greatsword / Hammer / Spear
0, 20, 20, 0, 30 for PvE / 0, 10, 30, 0, 30 for WvW
PVT armor with Melandru runes
Knights trinkets (mix of zerk for PvE) and weapons
All signets

Enjoy.

Velimere.7685:

Hambow is the most PvX build in existence for Warrior. It excels in high end PvE (w/ good cleaving, a fire field, 2 blast finishers, and 2 AoE CC skills) while primarily being a PvP/WvW build.

No. Hambow does not ‘excel’ in PvE. Axe/GS excels, hammer should be left in your PvP slot(s).

hybrid.5027:

No. Hambow does not ‘excel’ in PvE. Axe/GS excels, hammer should be left in your PvP slot(s).

I already cited my reasons as to why it works, so I’m just gonna respond to your blanket statement with another blanket statement:

I’m right and you’re wrong.

Not very nice to be on the receiving end of such, is it?

If you want a little defence for condition removal go 0 20 20 0 30 with cleansing ire and burst when wanna have fury and or clean conditions. This is a ok wvw build too depending on weapon setup etc.

And off course you don’t use a hammer and longbow in pve. Its slower. But as a beginner you may think so. Axe mainhand and greatsword IS best setup in pve as all mobs die fastest then. The first 3 answers is complete in their understanding.

I would advocate not to find a build to do both. You intuitively know they are different and should be but you seem to still want to find something that can do both. Fact is you can but you shouldn’t. You should almost certainly have different armor for both. Zerker for PvE – PVT (my preference) for WvW. Get ascended in whatever you play the most and exotic for the other. Don’t worry about having all ascended in both yet.
You will learn the profession that much better by re-traiting each time. Eventually you can go from you zerker PvE build to a shout warrior (or whatever) in WvW in a matter of seconds for a little under 4 silver. Plus you can try out some of the different traits and know why you select certain ones. For example, I can’t resist traiting in “Death from Above” in my WvW builds although there are plenty of other places to use that 10 points. But it makes for an interesting time (and another blast finisher).
*edited to include statement against using same armor.