Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone…

I just started a new Warrior Alt and have gotten him to lvl 35. I seem to have suddenly lost all survivability and die constantly now. I have current level equipment & accessories. I’ve mostly been running sword/axe & longbow (also great sword).

I’ve never been good with traits and I think that’s where the problem lies. They’re all over the place & I feel a little lost.

Can anyone suggest a good trait set up and direction to go as I level? Any other suggestions for a Warrior newb would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Cheers!

From what I remember I got best results for levelling with greatsword. I remember it was a good compromise for me to use berserker gear and defensive traits. You don’t hit that hard but you can survive.

Other options would be to take hammer as second weapon and use weakness on it and AoE stun.

Or you can use axe and warhorn. Warhorn has AoE weakness (Call to arms) and axe has nice damage so you come to an enemy blow the horn for AoE weakness and smite them with axe or Gratsword 2.

Also, some areas have plain stupid difficulty. Try to change your levelling area and see if the problem is in your build / ability usage or in monsters.

If you are playing on Desolation EU or you can/are willing to guest to it, you can try to whisper me and I’ll help you in-game time permitting. I am sure it’s just some minor detail and everything will be all right.

First of all, sword/axe is a little silly. Swords are wasted without condition damage and that would just kitten your offhand. I wouldn’t trait for survival, instead focus on learning and using dodges, control, movement, and killing to avoid damage. Trait for DPS so mobs die fast and you can move on. Honestly though I leveled to 80 without ever buying the 2nd and 3rd trait books and just rocking whatever weapons I felt like using at the time. If I were doing it again though…

• At least 10 in Discipline for Signet Mastery. I’ll mention why in the next section.
• Build up to 20 in Arms for Rending Strikes and CD on either GS or Rifle, take something else if you’re carrying neither.
• Build up Strength and Discipline at your disgression after that.
  – Discipline primarily for faster weapon swaps which will give you more versatility in combat, and axe CD if you’re running x/axe for AOE or adrenaline building (if you only have axe mainhand it’s not entirely necessary, but the extra adrenaline gain is still nice.) Sweet Revenge is also very helpful for 20 points if you’re not running x/axe.
  – Strength of course for weapon specific bonuses, however endurance on burst at 15 can also be very helpful. Adjust the major traits to whatever weapons you’re carrying at the time.

Now for gear. Sword/Sword condition setups are fun and can help take down tougher enemies since you can bleed/torment and then kite, but all in all you’re sacrificing damage for every other weapon which can lead to staleness and boredom. So I’d recommend power/prec greens for armor and trinkets. If you really wanna play around with sword/sword at some point just buy condition trinkets. But whatever you do…

Slot 2x Major Water, 2x Major Monk, and 2x Minor Water (move to 4 superiors and 2 majors at 60.) Transfer the Monks especially with the the green Transmute stones when you upgrade armor.

After this eat the best boon duration with mf food you can and you’ll be rocking a nearly 100% SoR uptime. Perma swiftness, fury, and 5 stacks of might is… well it’s pretty much all you need for an easy time clearing maps.

The greatest advantage of this is not just moving around the map like a boss, but doing so while freeing up your weapon swap and your 3 slots to be purely combat oriented. FGJ is completely ignorable since at this point all you’re getting from it is 3 stacks of might.

Slot skills:

• SIO – The go-to stun break. Short cd, removes a condition, it’s hard to say no to this (but not impossible.)
• Signet of Fury – The extra precision is nice but its real utility is the instant full adrenaline on activation. Especially handy if you wanna cheese around with the rifle or longbow in combination with Heal Surge or Berserker Stance (Kill Shots and Combustive Fields all day long.)
• Balanced Stance – Lets you wade into groups of KD loving Centaurs and others with Axe 5 or whatever you want and the swiftness will cover any (minimal) swiftness downtime you have leftover from boon duration.
• Signet of Stamina – Dodge Wars 2, ‘nuff said. Though you’ll probably want this if you drop SIO, heck take both. Condition heavy areas can suck it, kitten Destroyers…
• Berserker Stance – More adrenaline fuel and also good in condition heavy areas, beware the long CD.
• Dolyak Signet – Another decent stun break. 12s of stability (with runes and food) adds even more to its utility.
• Stomp – Carry this for its stun break, it has good utility for getting breathing room, interrupting, and blast combos but never forget that it breaks stun. The stability during activation should also not be ignored.
• Kick – On a 20s CD this is the alpha and omega of slot interrupts. Oh so handy for the most annoying of Vets.
• Bulls Charge – In and out of combat mobility and control, not bad at all.
• Others – Don’t bother. They either have too little utility, too long of a CD, require too much maintenance, or are better suited towards groups.

Weapons:

• Axe – Mainhand is the all around best mobile melee dps, i.e. doesn’t force you to stand still. Offhand 4 should be avoided unless you activate it while running up to a mob to hit as soon as you’re in range. 5 is mediocre AOE but good for tagging at events and GREAT for building adrenaline, note that you can dodge while spinning. Burst is a decent spike with a little mobility. Don’t forget to leap through fields for the combo effects and use it to recharge your endurance if traited high enough.
• Sword – Mobility and conditions. Offhand 5 is a good active defense and can help build/maintain adrenaline between fights. It’s lackluster if you don’t gear for it though.
• Mace – With weakness and all of its control it’s good for survival against tough odds. Remember to use the third auto-attack for weakness as much as possible. Mainhand 3 is the same as Sword 5. If you take the offhand don’t forget to keep 4 up as much as possible for extra dps. All in all these are great for cracking tough nuts though you won’t kill as fast.
• Hammer – Decent, keep 2 up for survivability. Other than that I think it’s really only something to do in solo PVE if you enjoy the playstyle but it’s definitely worth learning. That said, mace/mace + hammer is all kinds of hilarity. There is a downside to using it without traiting for it, which you can’t do with this build, but you can still use it as a swap with Fast Hands.
• GS – Don’t take with rifle. Remember you’re only getting CD and bonus on one of them, if you need a ranged swap take Longbow. HB is of course the reason for the season, make sure your mob/s will eat the whole thing without interrupting you or moving. This can mean anything from autoattacking until they use their interrupt/escape, to backing off and swapping to range if they make the area around themselves dangerous, or popping stability like you give 0 kittens. Dodge a big attack right through them with Whirlwind, Bladetrail to keep the dps going, and Rush back into them. Run with Axe/X swap to take advantage of the better auto-attack during HB downtime if you want to be at your best DPS-wise.
• Rifle – An all around useful swap when traited, CDs are too painful to take it when not traited. Your shots will pierce, you can lead a fight with a vuln and spike while you’re still running to the mob, you can use it for an interrupt if you don’t have one slotted or in your primary, and the cripple lets you kite easily when it’s too hot in melee. The downsides are that it builds adrenaline slowly, and once your burst is done you’re doing kitten damage until you’re off CD so don’t linger if you’re not playing keep-away, take full advantage of fast swapping. Sigil of Blood is handy to regain health while kiting.
• Longbow – Destroyer of Hordes. That’s what I think of when I look at the LB. Between solo might stacking combos and crazy large burn field you can lay waste to entire regions by yourself. It’s not that hot for regular kiting without a cripple, but you can burn them and run directly away, using blind or immobilize to cover you when you need to stop and face them. These are good things since its untraited range is rather low.
• Shield – The cooldowns keep it from being a combat option, however it’s handy for running through areas you don’t care to fight through. Stick a Sigil of Energy on it and put it on your swap, Swap to it after you’ve dodged your endurance away, you’ll get an extra dodge and 3 seconds of immunity. Should be all you need to make it through that cave without losing your out of combat speed.

Thank you Vox & Edward. I really appreciate you taking time to leave feedback. And great feedback at that… You’ve given me a lot to think about.

I’ve recently switched to GS due to your comments and I’m finally getting the hang of it with great results.

Thanks again!!

Cheers!

Warrior leveling builds