Guild Wars 2

With all the new changes, I’m looking for a new good dueling build to use. Though the meta greatsword is good, the build itself is easily kited by dueling rangers and symbolic guards kinda force you to step into their symbols xD.

Any good dueling builds out there?

I would say a traditional shout bow is still your best bet on dueling.

bigmonto.4215:

I would say a traditional shout bow is still your best bet on dueling.

Yeah it is pretty strong xD

Dueling wise? I have tested shoutbow extensively. It’s really poor now. Hammer gs is what worked best for me. Rangers are still beatable by dodging behind them while they’re on lb, keeping up the pressure by sticking to them and not getting stunned by their gs block. You don’t stand a chance against condition rangers though.

Guardians are a natural counter to warriors so it’s unfavourable for us, unless you’re sure you outside your opponent. Tips I can give is to bait out the blinds and blocks. E.g. You land a hammer stun, They’re bound to pop a block or blind. Don’t bother trying to continue to cc them (unless they don’t have any left) and just switch to gs and whirlwind. Kite their gs and keep up the pressure while they’re on scepter.

For a 1 on 1 build, I suggest using Axe+Shield / Greatsword.
If you want more mobility, you could take Sword+Shield.

Broski.6209:

For a 1 on 1 build, I suggest using Axe+Shield / Greatsword.
If you want more mobility, you could take Sword+Shield.

The thing about sword is it’s got no control over warriors (who can shake the immobilize), classes with teleports, or anyone with on-demand condi cleanse.

I’m currently using sw+sh/gs in wvw myself, but it’s not the best 1v1 set, imo. But the mobility is pretty important for roaming and small fights.

ReaperJr.5967:

Dueling wise? I have tested shoutbow extensively. It’s really poor now. Hammer gs is what worked best for me. Rangers are still beatable by dodging behind them while they’re on lb, keeping up the pressure by sticking to them and not getting stunned by their gs block. You don’t stand a chance against condition rangers though.

Guardians are a natural counter to warriors so it’s unfavourable for us, unless you’re sure you outside your opponent. Tips I can give is to bait out the blinds and blocks. E.g. You land a hammer stun, They’re bound to pop a block or blind. Don’t bother trying to continue to cc them (unless they don’t have any left) and just switch to gs and whirlwind. Kite their gs and keep up the pressure while they’re on scepter.

Are you sure you have tested extensively? Yes, shout bow is not as good as before, but only in the situation of 1v2+. In the past shoutbow can fight a while in 1v2+ even if it doesn’t win, now, it will die pretty quickly. Of course this is only because the overall damage to too high. I expect things to change after Anet adjust the dam a bit.

In the case of 1v1, shoutbow is still it. I would say the only class it has problem with is Mesmer. You should not have problems with ranger, thief, or Guardian at all. To say that it is really poor seems a bit extreme.

Eh, not proud of it but I pretty much camp dueling servers every time I’m on gw2. So I’ve pretty much fought against every build with every variant of shoutbow I can think of.

Mesmers are op now, I’m not gonna bother how shoutbow fairs against mesmers. The outcome is obvious. Same goes for ele. Against engi, it depends. If they’re running bursty or condition builds, there’s no problem. Against hgh sustain engi they just slowly chip us down till we lose. Against guardian it sorta depends, guardians are in a weird spot now as everyone runs different builds. Generally speaking you don’t deal enough damage to kill a guardian while they can kill you by bursting you repeatedly. Necros are pretty much a tie and so are condition rangers. Power rangers and thieves are 50-50.

^^^^ I agree with this guy 100%.

currently warr don’t have enough dmg or sustain to deal with those that knows how to play ( tpvp ).

Usually when i fight any warr … if you drag it out, kite them they will wear down eventually.

the class is still playable but it’s not 1v1 hero anymore

I think they need to bring back DMG from hammer , axe , bow that they nerfed a long time ago…

Liza.2758:

^^^^ I agree with this guy 100%.

currently warr don’t have enough dmg or sustain to deal with those that knows how to play ( tpvp ).

Usually when i fight any warr … if you drag it out, kite them they will wear down eventually.

the class is still playable but it’s not 1v1 hero anymore

I think they need to bring back DMG from hammer , axe , bow that they nerfed a long time ago…

TBH more damage won’t help Warriors in the game’s current state. We’re still the most telegraphed class in the game. Even right now, our damage is quite high but if we don’t land those hits, it won’t matter at all. This is further exemplified by the fact that there is an abundance of blinds now more than ever. Blinding Ashes, Shatter blind, Guardians, and Thief in general make attempting to use skills so god kitten frustrating.

Warriors are trash tier outside of Rampage in 1v1 right now. Quite possibly the worst 1v1 profession in the game, so don’t get your expectations too high regarding this.

Harkan.9017:

Liza.2758:

^^^^ I agree with this guy 100%.

currently warr don’t have enough dmg or sustain to deal with those that knows how to play ( tpvp ).

Usually when i fight any warr … if you drag it out, kite them they will wear down eventually.

the class is still playable but it’s not 1v1 hero anymore

I think they need to bring back DMG from hammer , axe , bow that they nerfed a long time ago…

TBH more damage won’t help Warriors in the game’s current state. We’re still the most telegraphed class in the game. Even right now, our damage is quite high but if we don’t land those hits, it won’t matter at all. This is further exemplified by the fact that there is an abundance of blinds now more than ever. Blinding Ashes, Shatter blind, Guardians, and Thief in general make attempting to use skills so god kitten frustrating.

Telegraphed is a great point made here. I refuse to use hammer in pvp against other player v player veterans. The telegraphed skills like that are way too easy to predict.

However, the only class I’ve had issues with dueling are mesmers/engis. The build I use is M/S GS. I think Arms, defense, discipline. With Stun sigil, int sigil on both, and doom. I find crusader amulet better than cele with this build 22k health pool isn’t a problem with proper non-facerolling techniques. Such as timing blocks with projectiles. Dodging unblockables. Use defy and zerker stance with yak runes and yak signet. If you time the skull crack with the GS with proper traits you can half life most classes. Of course burn their stabs and such.

General play – Avoid being kited with GS. Rampage when under burst pressure. Chase them down while in rampage to burn their cc recoveries burn their heal. After rampage or just starting switch to M/S anticipating counter attack -block/Dodge. Counter stun when appropriate and build adrenaline. When its full – the hardest part imo is landing skull crack. Once you land it switch HB – if they move cancel with auto attack, chase them and do some autos and spin to wins and switch back for another SC set-up. If you can continue CC pressure and dodge/block you’ll do just fine.

Final notes: Mesmers/Engis are generally annoying any other class can be well countered with this if you DO NOT spam skills. Wait for opportunities to attack and counterattack and stun to get some autos and then burst. Watch for set-up skills like Warriors Earthquake – counter with a block or watch for Ele’s DD rotation and just interrupt during key points such as soon as they go into earth or water and just stun.

Mace shield is great against melee encounters but not so much against ranged. Esp mesmers and engineers. Idk why you think they’re good against them.

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Lastly, nobody uses rampage in duels. It’s a soft ban as it’s considered cheap.

ReaperJr.5967:

Mace shield is great against melee encounters but not so much against ranged. Esp mesmers and engineers. Idk why you think they’re good against them.

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Lastly, nobody uses rampage in duels. It’s a soft ban as it’s considered cheap.

I recently started using mace/sword and lb and surprising really like it. While the meta gs/hammer has better initial damage, mace/sword can deal with a variety of threats. Really the only unfavorable matchup I’ve had so far is mesmers.

ReaperJr.5967:

Mace shield is great against melee encounters but not so much against ranged. Esp mesmers and engineers. Idk why you think they’re good against them.

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Lastly, nobody uses rampage in duels. It’s a soft ban as it’s considered cheap.

If you trait for reflects you should generally be able to use that to close the gap. Once they know you reflect they become super conservative generally.

ReaperJr.5967:

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Because dodging is the only way to evade Hammer attacks right? If I only had to count how many dodges the enemy did, Warrior would be a kittening god in this game and I’m not even exaggerating.

hello invis/invuln/blind/block spam oh can’t forget about you either elevation, pleasure getting wrecked by you

Harkan.9017:

ReaperJr.5967:

Secondly, hammer is telegraphed. But if you actually learnt how to land it after dodge frames or after your opponent has used up both dodges, it’s an easy stun lock for you.

Because dodging is the only way to evade Hammer attacks right? If I only had to count how many dodges the enemy did, Warrior would be a kittening god in this game and I’m not even exaggerating.

hello invis/invuln/blind/block spam oh can’t forget about you either elevation, pleasure getting wrecked by you

You look like one of those players that need to l2p. Naturally other classes will have active defenses, I won’t deny that. Your job is to bait them out and land a hammer cc chain after that.

Other than mesmers and elementalists, I’m not having issues dueling against other classes. Oh, and care to tell me what you would rather replace hammer with?

warrior is like trash this patch. Any player that is decent can easily kill you with all your telegraphed strikes. Not to mention we are extremely reliable on rampage now to killl anything literally.

ReaperJr.5967:

You look like one of those players that need to l2p. Naturally other classes will have active defenses, I won’t deny that. Your job is to bait them out and land a hammer cc chain after that.

Other than mesmers and elementalists, I’m not having issues dueling against other classes. Oh, and care to tell me what you would rather replace hammer with?

Says the person who’s currently using Shoutbow for duels and in a dueling server no less. I almost always speak from a higher level of play and not some random bad you find in WvW or a sPvP dueling room. I can say the same as you, I beat all classes with high winrates even Mesmers if they make enough mistakes for me. And that’s the thing, there are more unskilled players than there are skilled.

On the other hand, it sounds like you need to fight better players if you think baiting dodges and active defenses is so easy with Warrior. For example in a Ham/GS build, the main way you’re going to bait anything is with Whirlwind, Rush(lol), Bull’s Charge if you take it, and sheath/Weapon swap cancelling Hammer CCs. As the opponent, the main thing they have to watch out for are Hammer skills, especially ES, because it sets up your combos. Anything outside of a well used WW and obvious Hammer tells, you often won’t output enough pressure against the likes of a skilled Mesmer, Guard, Ele, Thief, and Ranger without resorting to Rampage. Before the adrenaline nerf, you could actually force dodges/actives with little drawbacks. Now? Not so much. Of course this is only one example of a build and other builds will have different results against other classes, like Shoutbow.

Mace/Shield is an alternative to Hammer. If you can’t see why, judging from your other posts, then I don’t have anything to say to you.

I said I tested shoutbow LOL. Never said I was actively using it. I rest my case.

If you really speak ‘from a higher level of play’, as you so claim, I would like to see how you play. Also, I just realised I have been thinking Mace shield as Mace sword, that was my mistake. I apologise for unintentionally spreading misinformation. Mace shield is a perfectly viable alternative to hammer, I just find that hammer works better.

Then again, how about that duel?