Guild Wars 2

I am an old GW1 vet, had like 1000+ hours on a Ranger and my alt was a HB warrior…so i figured it was time for a new class going into GW2.

I chose the Thief, and by no means was I disappointed. Very fast paced, always on your toes. On top of that, you look like a kitten flipping around Yoda style.

Yet I have come to a crossroads with my thief on stuff to do, so it is time for an alt.

I would like a trip down memory lane, so I have leveled the two classes that I am interested in to 20, one being ranger, one being warrior. Since my Thief is a condition build, I would like a Power/Precision build this time around. Both Shortbow Rangers, and GS Warriors are very good at this.

So I leveled both of them to 20.

At first, playing the warrior is taking some getting used to. On my thief, i’m jumping around like a ninja, and attacking extremely fast. On the warrior the main skill, HB, requires me to stand in one place while attacking, and it seems like I attack soooooooooooo slow. I also do not like having a % movement increase signet like the thief or ranger, makes me seem like I am slow on top of attacking slow, unless I just haven’t found it. I am also worried that if I go for too much DPS or glass cannon, that being melee will suck. I have learned to dodge on my thief, but you only have so much endurance, so there will be attacks you have to absorb.

I have thought about maybe going A/A or S/S or something else in weapon swap to make up for the GS being so slow, are these viable?

Is there a % movement signet im just not seeing?

Will I be able to sacrifice some damage for toughness/vitality and still feel like i am roflstomping like the Hulk, or is glass cannon warrior viable if build right?

The only really notable speed boosts on the warrior I’ve seen was Signet of Rage (Elite) which gives roughly 30s swiftness on a 60s CD (48 if traited), so its not bad, but far from the useful persistence of the 25% signets. Some banners can also provide some limited swiftness.

I’ve played my Warrior up to 80 and then some. Granted, I don’t know how I compare in terms of damage to most warriors as I didn’t go for pure glass cannon despite my gear being all Beserker. So I don’t know fully in that regard.

Lets start with movement. It is possible to get 100% up time swiftness using http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Rage but the traits and gear are a tad bit gimpy for pure dps, but rage all by itself traited for signet cd will give you swiftness for 30 out of 48 seconds. Not bad. Warhorn is also an option for more swiftness. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Charge_

Technically ranger traited for sword and GS have the best movement in the game (Movement has less to do with swiftness and passives and more to do with weapon skills and utilites that move you). But we are second best (though DD ele would be king untraited) if you want to be ultra mobile its GS and Sword/Warhorn. We have access to a lot of weapon skill movements btw just that Sword and GS are the best http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mobile_Strikes

As far as attack speed goes. You have the little bit of quickness we have access to but in reality if you think its slow its slow. The swings are simply not fast and even Axe compared to dagger it is going to be slow.

As far as DPS goes right behind 100HB spam is axe auto attack so you wont miss all that much dps using an Axe. Standing still in PvE it shouldn’t matter very few mobs jump all over the place and you have immobolize options and knock downs.

None one can figure out the class for you entirely and DPS warriors Power or Pure glass will hit hard regardless.

On another note you play condition thief. So that’s P/D or D/D. Despite the straight forward skills GS warrior will require more skill over all than either of those builds. Timing your dodges and awareness play a bigger factor in warrior because there is no stealth for when you kitten up. You have an invul (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endure_Pain) and block (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_Stance) if you choose to carry them and that’s about it. This class is simple as all but in practical application of timing and skill play a bigger factor in survival here. One useful thing to know is that http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Whirlwind_Attack is an evade.

Even with a 0 0 30 30 10 defensive build with enough power and the right traits you’ll eat through content quickly.

Edit:

Theoretically if you did a lyssa build (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_Lyssa) with 30 points in tactics http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_Mastery_ and used a warhorn you would have perma swiftness.

For a regular lyssa build this would only require the warhorn so its not very gimpy its gimpy at all considering I run lyssa myself lol.

I run a glasscannon warrior atm, and it’s indeed viable. I runt Axe/Shield aswell so I’ve spent much time on learning to land the blocks and dodges and stuns. That’s really what it’s all about. Movement. If you’re glass, you have to move to stay alive. Stunbreakers are important, as soon as you’re pinned you’re dead.

Okay, you want speed? Warriors have perma swiftness and 4 leaps. How to get perma swiftness? Trait 10 in discipline for signet cooldown, get a warhorn, press 0 and 4 and voila, perma swiftness without any boon duration runes and all that crap. Just keep pressing warhorn 4 when off cooldown and 0 to maintain it. Warriors can adapt to ANY situation, reason is cause they can use ALL their weapons. A general mistake that warriors do is focus on only 2 weapons, thats why they fail. For that i would suggest 20/30/0/0/20 traits and yes glass cannon is perfectly viable unlike glass thiefs that need asian skills to not die. As for weapons, greatsword is for HB and whirlwind(which is an extra dodge), for auto attacks swap to axe then when swapping is off cooldown do HB again then swap to axe again, repeat for great success. Theres A LOT more tricks that warriors have to survive, 1 is infinite endurance regen, u can literally dodge non stop. That is why glass cannon is so viable, survivability comes from knowledge of content and dodging. Vitality and toughness is for when u do 30+ fractals with fail groups. Just PM me in game if u got other questions, too much to list here :/ P.S. Type Wethospu on youtube and see it for yourself how much survivability glass warriors have.

Ah the swiftness issue. Yes this was one of the first (of many) hurdles I discovered about the warrior class. As other have mentioned, signt of rage (elite), coupled with warhorn and signet cooldown will grant you swiftness almost all the time. That is conditional on using a warhorn in your offhand.

Conversly, say you do not want to run a warhorn (suffice it to say, signet of rage is a must) but still need the swiftness. Adept trait furious speed in arms gives you 10% chance to gain swiftness on critical hits. Doesn’t seem like much, but remember you’re most likely going for a crit heavy build, so you’ll proc it more than you think.

Then there are the weapon skills. GS #5 (rush) will take you 1200 distance. I use it mostly to disengage for example. GS #3 whirlwind attack will move you only 450 but traited with mobile strikes in the discipline tree, well let’s just say it will save your life (and leave a parting gift for anyone in your path). A quick 3 when imobolized followed by a 5 and you are covering some nice distance.

Sword #2 (savage leap) also breaks imobolize, and is a great gap closer or disengager (is that a word?). Even the hammer’s burst ability (earthshaker) is something that can get you out of (or most likely in to) trouble.

That said, you’re in for a shock when it comes to mobility. Warriors have limited utility skills which grant swiftness, so you will have to learn how to use your weapon skills to compensate for the rest. Lot’s time is spent thinking over how to best get your enemies to you so you can drop your heavy dps abilities on them. Night and day from your thief. Warriors dont have the ability to start or end a fight on a whim like a thief does.

May I suggest (if its combat you’re focusing on and not just moving around the world) that you seriously look into the adept tactics trait ‘leg specialist’ which applies an imobolize on any enemies you cripple. As warriors have tons of cripples, often times using these skills consecutively not only means your enemies usually pop their stunbreakers, but that you yourself don’t actually have to be so mobile since you’re gaining speed by slowing down your enemies not by actually moving faster yourself.

Have fun either way!