Guild Wars 2

Hi all,
On my lvl 65 warrior (my main account) I concentrate on stances, defense and power in my build. I usually participate in WvW and PvE and Dungeon running. My weapons of choice are the hammer – for zerg breaking and multi targetting – and gs, simply because i like the mobility and multi hit. I have been weighing up which attribute to choose in gear, e.g pvt, ppt.. As i stand, i am using pvt but I feel as though my hits are too weak. The way I see it, there is not much damage on hammer/gs nor is there particular potential for crits, so I usually base my character on raw power as I do NOT fancy a glass cannon build. I want to be able to hit fairly hard against multi targets, but I also need a fair bit of survivability because i’m not the greatest at cc. If anyone could find the time to give me some advice on armor/ weapon choices then I would be most grateful. Additionally, if you have any tips on hammer/gs builds, stance builds, or warriors in general, don’t hesitate to stick them down. Thanks all

The way I like to go about it is to optimize my gear for crit damage first, then aim for 25,000 Health and 3200 Armor, then for 2000+ Power. That results in high Health, Armor, Power, and Crit Damage, and very low Crit Chance from gear. But you can compensate by getting Crit Chance from Traits and Boons. Example:

Trinkets
Exotic Amulet/Earrings: Cavalier
Exotic Back/Rings: Soldiers
All Exotic trinket gem slots: Beryl
Ascended: 100% Cavalier

Armor
Helm/Chest/Leg Armor: Soldier
Shoulder/Glove/Boot Armor: Valkyrie
Weapons: Valkyrie

1. Build (Stance/Melandru version): 0/10/30/0/30

Unsuspecting Foe + Merciless Hammer both apply their damage buffs to Earthshaker and Backbreaker after the stun but before the damage. So that’s 50% Crit Chance + 20% (Fury) + 15% (Heightened Focus) + 9% (from Traits) = 94% Crit Chance.

With 2000+ Power and 80% Crit Damage, strong condition removal, high armor, and decent health, is survivable but can dish out decent damage.

Use Frenzy + Battle Standard to quickly revive downed allies or keep lords.

Mobile Strikes applies to GS Whirlwind, GS Rush, and Hammer Earthshaker = good escapes in zerg battles.

2. Build (Shout/Soldier version): 0/10/30/30/0

79% Crit Chance (missing 15% from Heightened Focus), same Power as above, 51% Crit Damage (missing the 30% from Discipline traitline), 28k+ Health.

Shouts heal and convert a condition to a boon. Strong when running in a guild comp with other Shout/Soldier Rune warriors and guardians (the cross-condition removal makes up for lack of Mobile Strikes).

The stats look even better with full Ascended trinkets: 0/10/30/0/30, 0/10/30/30/0.

You can’t be a full Zerker speedrun warrior with this gear, but it’s enough to do respectable damage while being very survivable in WvW, and competent in dungeons and fractals.

If you’re going WvW, I run something along the lines of:

0/10/30/10/20

Pick up Unsuspecting Foe, Cleansing Ire, Last Stand, Dogged March, Leg Specialist, and Mobile Strikes. The Mobile Strikes + GS allows you to basically get out of any Immo jam that you find yourself in, since Whirlwind will break it and evade for the duration. Rush also breaks immo, and Earthshaker, and Bull’s Charge (if you bring it).

Utilities are going to be what you prefer, but I try to keep Signet of Stam and Bull’s Charge up. If you roll Zerker Gear (I do, because I believe in utilities/traits/mobility being my defense), then Dolyak Signet will bring more % reduced damage, along the lines of 6-7%. Otherwise, Balanced Stance is rock solid. I haven’t really played with Beserker’s Stance much because I love the Sig of Stam passive, but it’ll be personal pref.

Leg Specialist allows you to both immo before Earthshaker to try to guarantee a land better, and gain ground with GS. Typically I do something along the lines of Earthshaker into a group, Staggering Blow, dodge, switch to GS (with Sigil of Energy), Whirlwind through people, dodge, then Rush out. You can really ping-pong around quite well with this set-up, and you can punish people who over-extend/chase with a well-timed Hammer combo.

I still prefer Healing Surge over Healing Signet because of the adrenaline and burst heal, though creating space is similar to blocking, which is the kind of delay a Healing Signet needs. Personally I only bounce out if I’m waiting for CDs and fighting more than one person, otherwise I try to keep up the pressure anyway. Signet of Stam also lets you clear all condis before breaking out with a Rush, including those pesky Cripples and Chills.

All in all, Hammer/GS is far and away my favorite weapon combo on Warriors, and I mostly just PvP. You can choose to either pick up Merciless Hammer and go through Hammer skills with Unsuspecting Foe’s additional crit (I try to get my crit up to ~50% while Fury is up so it’s guaranteed crits all over), or you can go for an Earthshaker into 100B combo. If you don’t pick up frenzy it isn’t nearly as much damage since it’s a 2 second stun, but the idea is to force them to use a dodge to get out (people panic and dodge out all the time), or just apply general pressure.

Good luck to you out there.

i’ve always thought it was a little disingenuous to include food buffs. that said here is what i run on my warrior 80% of the time

0/10/30/0/30

pro’s – high damage, great engages, tons of stuns, every type of finisher

con’s – can be kited easily, low health, requires an extremely active defense.

Thanks for your responses. Fiorello your build looks good but I think i would suffer the low survivability. Kurtosis your build also looks good, but I’m gonna have to wait until level 80 to get most of that stuff. Cogbyrn, which attributes do you look for in armour and weapons? Thanks for the responses