Guild Wars 2

I don’t normally post in forums but feel compelled to here with regards to the recent patch. I believe that Anet were trying to encourage diversity in builds, although I am uncertain of their success.

I have been playing warrior since launch. I tried a lot of builds, but settled on sword and warhorn as I liked the play style and the fact that it brings more to the party than just raw damage. I have run a lot of groups, and I would say that 95%+ of other warriors in these groups have used greatsword (I have no issue with this, happy for people to play what they like). In all my runs I have never seen anyone else run with sword and warhorn. I also use healing banners, in a recent run someone asked me how I was stacking regen on the party and before I could answer another warrior said it must be a bug as warriors can’t regen others.

I would consider my build to be one that is in the minority and something that Anet might want to promote, if indeed it is keen to promote build diversity. Due to the changes in sword main hand, my damage has taken a hit, infact I am seriously considering changing to a greatsword build, this is a big thing for me as I am heavily invested in condition damage.

I am interested to hear how the changes have affected others and see if people are moving out of greatsword to try other options post patch, or if there are those who are running with other sets at the moment who are thinking of switching to other sets or even into the greatsword?

thanks for reading and any helpful comments.

I’m still playing 20/30/0/0/20 Rifle / Sword&Shield with Rampager gear. I lost a bit of direct damage with Berserker Power and Heightened Focus switched to grandmaster traits but I gain instead more mobility and condition cleanse, so this isn’t a bad thing.

Distracting strike is currently OP, at least when you are good at interupting people, and my kick got a good damage increase.

My only disapointement is with Sword Mainhand, wich locks you now into a specific build and serve almost no purpose as complementary weapon for a Rampager Rifle build anymore. Rifle or Longbow are now the complementary weapons for Sword Mainhand because to make Sword a good control weapon you will need Leg Specialist and this same trait will incite you to take Opportunist, leaving Sword Mastery untouched and leaving no place for Sharpshooter.

I’m playing something else now. That’s diverse, right?

Sorry to hear that your build took a hit. It is no secret that GS has traditionally been the bread and butter of the class because of its heavy DPS.

Another favorite has been the axe because of it also being heavy DPS without relying on 100b. Changing the 6th attack to deal nearly 33% of the overall damage definitely had an impact on the weapon and has left it in a worse state than pre-patch in a PvP environment.

Mace saw no significant changes and has been nearly non-existent since release because of its slow attack speed in PvP and its inability to CC Defiant mobs in dungeons. If anything, the bug fix to Sundering Mace made the weapon even less attractive.

I’m not a Hammer user, but I assume the aftercast reductions to be a good thing, once they fix Staggering Blow.

I think the big changes came in traits being moved around. Much of the community is up in arms because the most prominent GS build no longer exists, and I’m sure that many of them will step out and try new things, but for reasons previously mentioned, I think it’s more likely many of them will return to the GS when a new DPS build catches on.

I’ve been pretty disappointed with Anet’s ability to balance the weapons, and I hope a dev reads this because of everything they’ve done, they’ve failed the worst at making viable weapon choices that work in both PvP and PvE environments.

Anyway, it sounds like you mostly PvE, so in the interest of saving your build… and this is a huge shot in the dark, try putting a Sigil of Earth on an Axe with your current gear and see how you like that. The autoattack changes shouldn’t impact you much against mobs, and you’ll have better damage than sword. Additionally, the fast attack speed on the axe combined with that sigil will help you stack some bleeds assuming you crit fairly often. I’m not saying it will = the old sword, but if you want to keep warhorn, axe is an option, and that setup may save you the cost of regearing. If you need to adjust your build a little, I’m happy to help.

Slaunyeh.9852:

I’m playing something else now. That’s diverse, right?

Dota 2? Or some another game?

Suppose in a sense it has. I certainly no longer expect primarily good things from class updates, though I certainly give credit where credit is due. I like that they are trying at least, even if updates often seem very hit and miss.

Personally I don’t mind that they shifted Berserker’s Power and Heightened Focus to the Grandmaster level. They were certainly the most powerful Adept traits for most general gameplay, and more powerful than many other Master and even Grandmaster level ones. That those were the most obvious choices for those lines besides weapon related skills means now players have to rethink how and where they spend their traits.