Guild Wars 2

I never really “got” Warrior until after the last patch when I tried Hammer and Sword/Warhorn. I love the playstyle, but the DPS is just god awful. I run with a SB Ranger, who’s just running circles around me. I don’t expect miracles, but I imagine there’s got to be a build that will allow me to at least hold my own in open world PvE (no dungeons, no fractals). I’m currently working towards 0/0/20/20/30.

Can anyone suggest a build?

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t recommend going for Quick Breathing for PvE.

The thing is, your chosen weapons limit your damage quite a bit, as you will want to have Merciless Hammer, but that’s 20 points into Defense.

If you want more damage, you should consider taking 20 from Tactics to Arms and grabbing Unsuspecting Foe (50% crit on stun, very nice with Earthshaker) and Blademaster (10% crit for sword).

Personally I found that my personal favorite offhand with a Sword is Axe. Gives that little extra Fury and tons of adrenaline with Whirling Axe.

Though let’s be honest: Hammer just isn’t a DPS-oriented weapon. So you can forget about matching up to 100 blades or Axe/Mace.

Not enough damage in your build. Try 0/15/25/0/30 instead. That’s a mix of Cavalier and Valkyrie gear, if you want more damage, go 100% Berserker.

Both traits Unsuspecting Foe and Merciless Hammer apply their damage buffs to Earthshaker. When Earthshaker lands, it stuns first, then applies its damage, so those traits apply their damage buffs immediately after the stun but before the damage.

That’s +15% Crit Chance (Heightened Focus) + 10% Crit Chance (Critical Burst) + 50% Crit Chance (Unsuspecting Foe) + 20% Crit Chance (Fury) + 15% base = 110% Crit Chance.

Damage buffs from Destruction of the Empowered + Versatile Power + Armored Attack + Merciless Hammer. DoE generally won’t help much against boon-less trash mobs, but not many other good choices in that tier for pure damage.

Alot of fun. Also try Axe in place of Sword for better autoattack damage in between Earthshakers.

Thanks guys, I’ll give those a try.

I’m not expecting awe-inspiring DPS, I just don’t want to be embarrassed to go out in public.

Just occured to me that 0/10/30/0/30 would be better.

Since the max potential Crit Chance is 110%, you can drop Critical Burst for Cleansing Ire. That drops your max potential Crit Chance to 98%, but gets you much faster Adrenaline regen, strong condition removal, and slightly more Toughness and Power.