Guild Wars 2

Hi fellow Warriors,

I have been using the following build in PvE and I am enjoying it, but I need help rounding out what Traits I should be taking with my last 20 trait points.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIQQNBJhN6E0hkHbeQKImICAIFaBW6RZslGA

This is a Mace + Warhorn build that focuses on applying Weakness on enemies. It is based on the Shouts & Warhorn set up that Yojack used in his build, however instead of a Sword I stuck with a Mace and took the “Cull the Weak” and “Sundering Mace” traits in the Defense line to up the damage I’m dishing out on the weakened targets.

My issue is that I have 20 trait points that I don’t know where to invest. Do you think it would be better dump them into the Strength line to just up my damage more? Maybe I can invest 10 points in Discipline to get the “Inspiring Shouts” or “Mighty Defenses” traits? Or I could even dump points into Arms and switch my second weapon set to Rifle and take “Crack Shot”?

I know this may not be the most efficient build, but I enjoying using it. Any help would be appreciated just keep in mind I would like to hold on to the Mace & Warhorn weapon set as my primary focus.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If you’re looking to wear some +Precision gear, then this is what I would suggest.

Discipline – 20 pts

(If you take the Discipline points, then your Shout build will look just like my soloing Shout build.)

1) Getting access to Signet Mastery is vital for any character who runs Signet of Rage. Being able to shave off 12 seconds from your recast timer is remarkable for a T1 Major trait.

2) Getting access to Heightened Focus for the bonus +% Crit Chance will also make a noticeable difference.

3) Even if you switched your Elite out for Battle Standard (and switched your T1 Tactics trait to the Banner trait), you could re-arrage your Discipline powers to Heightened Focus and Sweet Revenge.

4) The minor trait of Fast Hands will eventually become very powerful.

Disclaimers

1) It’s been a while since I played my Shout character, but I don’t remember seeing the +Crit Chance from Heightened Focus being added to my (H) screen. There have been people questioning whether or not this trait actually does what it says that it does. (I brought this up back during Beta, but it’s still never been corrected to my knowledge.)

2) The Fast Hands trait has always been bugged. At times, it works as of the 2nd Weapon Switch during a combat. Then at other times, people have reported increased Weapon Switch timers. This trait will end up being really strong once it’s not a buggy piece of junk.

I can’t log in atm to check the cooldowns, so cds are from the wiki, but what about going:
30 defense for either Defy Pain (5 sec invuln when you drop below 25%, 45 sec cd) or Last Stand (90 sec cd is kinda long, though).
Because you’re probably trying to stay in melee as much as possible to keep weakness up.

The last 10 points could go into Strength for +12% dmg or Discipline for extra adrenaline on swaps and +9% crit… depends on how often you use your burst skill and on your crit%, though.

Panzen.4625:

30 defense for either Defy Pain (5 sec invuln when you drop below 25%, 45 sec cd) or Last Stand (90 sec cd is kinda long, though).

Just to clarify, the T3 Defy Pain was changed in an update to only grant 3 seconds of Invulnerability (minus Conditions) and still has the 90 second recast. Nor can its duration be increased by anything which increases the duration of Stances.

Now the +Stability buff from Last Stand isn’t a horrible choice at the 45 second recast. My personal issue with the trait is that it only kicks in after you get CCed the 1st time. Since it helps to break up chained CCing, but that’s about it. Having said that, the most recent updates made it so you could stack +Stability a couple of times. Therefore you could use a +Stability power and your Last Stand proc would no longer be wasted like it used to.

Hm…. you sure? The numbers I stated were taken from the wiki and you mixed up the cds (90<→45).

Thanks for the suggestions Wiser with Age. I like the idea of getting “Signet Mastery” for “Signet of Rage” cool down reduction. That will help me keep Swiftness up as well as keep more Boons on Me to benefit from the “Empowered” trait. I will try it out.

Panzen

I’ve used both on my tanky Warrior.

Since the nerf update, the T3 Defy Pain still has the same recast as the standard skill (which I regularly slot and has a 90 second recast) and its duration was reduced down from the standard 5 seconds to 3 seconds (which is why I almost never use that trait and prefer to use the Retaliation proc instead). The base skill still has a 5 second duration, but the proc was gutted for PvP reasons (which is where almost every GW2 nerf comes from).

Then the various ways that grant +Stability all have more reasonable recast timers, which both the trait and the Balanced Stance power share. (I just don’t like the Balanced Stance proc’ing trait because it only prevents chain CCing and not the initial dose, which is the only one that I normally care about.)