Guild Wars 2

So, I’m not a huge fan of Axe (too reliant on burst skill and doesn’t have a gap closer) or Hammer (its a personal thing, its prob good but not for me). So i figured why not give sword a try, i mean its FT hits like a truck when target is under 50% HP. So i decided Sword/Shield + GS for max mobility and still good dmg.

The idea of the play style is:

-You got CI + sigil of cleansing + zerk stance for condi’s. I can run Lemon grass too but its a bit expensive for me so im not. I am aware of it though.

- GS 100b can be set up with sword burst or shield 4 + swap (was thinking about relocating 2 points into tactics for leg spec. cause of so much cripple but need to test first)

- GS stacks might and pairs with hoelbrak runes nicely (nothing new here)

- Sword has sigil of intel for a guaranteed crit FT for a finisher

-Furious reaction and gs burst gives me 70% crit chance

-reason i ran with dolyak signet is it still gives 8sec stability when stomping + extra toughness with also converts some to power for me

-if your wondering “why 1 soldiers ring!?” well its cause i got one zerk and one soldiers, no other reason. Id run 2 zerk if i had it.

Here’s Build : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUFajHehwJigfgC7t3CmCgjD+GoLNA-TFTDAB9oEj7DBAFHBgHeAARpk4JlDvo+DI6DAwEnEnAAIUCSz+DkBgZCA-w

Any feedback would be nice, im just spit balling here. Builds main purpose is to still have good burst but be able to stick to target better than axe allows.

i think sword works better with warhorn. with quick breathing trait, warrior can remove heavy conditions apply on warrior. And sword works great with deep cut, leg speicalist and opportunist trait. i suggest u get them in your build.

the armor must up to 3k at least in wvw, or else zerg just melting you in few secs. In my experiences, warrior have very little chance to kill somebody in wvw with greatsword. So, there is no reason to use forcefull greatsword if its not your main weapon

Hello,

Berserker Sword+Shield and Greatsword is the setup I’m currently investigating as well, so I’ll share some thoughts below, in the hope they can be useful to you. I still have plenty of testing to do (and won’t be able to do it the coming days), so everything is to be taken with caution.

Let’s start with your build: I think there’s nothing wrong with it. I actually started with something similar, except that I would not invest 2 points in Strength, but would rather invest 5 in Arms (to get Attack of Opportunity) and 4 in Discipline (to get either Destruction of the Empowered, or Mobile Strikes). I’d also take Missile Deflection over Dogged March, but that’s a personal preference.

Then I changed the vision a bit, because of the might building mechanics. Hoelbrak is great when you get lots of might, but the main mechanics to get some, with the build, is by using the greatsword (we have no fire field, no blasts). And you need to hit in order to get might, while one would prefer having might before the hitting. As I usually roam solo, this looked like a somehow wasted investment to me.

So I decided to switch to a non might-based build, using the runes of the Pack. In the end, in WvW roaming, what matters isn’t the max damage output that you can inflict, but how fast you can down the enemy, given his health pool and regeneration capabilities. All in all, the point is to have balance, i.e. just “enough” damage so that you can also invest in other things. So I reallocated all the points from Arms to Defense and Discipline, going for a PvP-like setting of x/x/6/x/6.

A friend of mine suggested using the sigil of Perception to maintain a decent critical chance, so I gave it a try. It lets me reach 84% critical chance with stacks and fury, so somehow removes the need for the intelligence sigil, freeing a slot for something else. I don’t have Furious Reaction, but it’s worth noting that the Runes of the Pack also provide plenty of Fury.

Next, as you’ve noted, we have a lot of cripple available, so I definitely took Leg Specialist. Also, I invested in the sigil of Incapacitation and put it on the greatsword (useful for Hundred Blades), and played with the Bolas as well (4s immobilization every 20s). All in all, the build does a good job of restraining the opponent’s movement, while being very mobile itself.

Here’s what I currently have. The build is to be played swiftly, in hit-and-run, almost like a SD thief. It comes with Brawler’s Recovery (quite useful as we often swap weapons) and Rousing Resilience (3.5k armor every 40s in a berserker gear, since it activates with Balanced Stance whether you break out of stun or not).The empty sigil space is for Incapacitation (not available on the website). I might try Mobile Strikes rather than Destruction of the Empowered, and condition duration increase food to maximize the effects of cripple/immobilize.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAseRjMdUGaVIedwJagqgC9BEAtu6eoxj9UbAA-T1REwALV+tS9HO6Dwt/AgTAwgnAgWlgkBIfCA-w

The friend I mentioned above chose the max damage variation, running a 0/6/0/2/6 build (with VI, X and XII in Arms) for a 97% critical chance with quickness, and have been quite happy with it, although I find it a bit too squishy for my taste.

HTH.

I know for a fact that this build works very well for solo roaming and dueling.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUGahHuewJagfAxYgBnrkZjy3tB-TFTDwA9UihSPQUlEHOCAJOEAPVOgb/hXq/ASTAATcSOBAQeAgSQSBAxYA-w

Your condi removal is less but you want to go with +condi duration for 7-8 second immob on the sword and 5-6 second “Fear Me”. You basically immobilize your target to set up 100b and if the target puts a block up you can quickly tap Fear Me to inteerrupt it(It’s unblockable). Kite around until your combo is up, go in for the kill. It’s a really fun build with a nice hook to it. Good Luck

Your build is fine as is, although I do think there is a better variant.

This is what I came yup with, keep in mind that personal playstyle matters a lot when finding the right build for you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUGaVImdwJagfgC9t3C5g1AYA0lGA-TVSEwAAeAADOCAaVCW4QAsU53K1fwt/AH9BOOBABAOAY4hHe4hHuUAMJMC-w

IMO this is what perfectly combines extremely high damage with survivability on GS/sword builds.

You get -73% on movement impairing conditions. You absolutely need this bare minimum, as you are full melee and your gap closers will fail if you are chilled/crippled/immobilised. All this while retaining the possibility to cleanse with CI.

The trait spread is designed specifically with a couple things in mind. First of all, you take 5 in strength to get 25% increase on conditions. This rounds off your level 3 sword burst to a nice 5 second immobilise. Anything more then this on condition duration is complete overkill in my opinion. Your opponents might cleanse, and if they don’t 5 seconds is still a lot of time to do what you need done. You can drop the 5th point in favor of DotE in Discipline, your choice. 50 power/5% duration increase and 3% damage increase versus 3% crit damage/5% burst recharge and 3% damage per boon on target.

Second, you take 6 in Defense to get Defy Pain for extra survivability and so that you are not obliged to slot EP, CI for an emergency condi cleanse and off course Dogged March. Sometimes, when you know you are facing a lot of ranged classes, you can swap out zerk stance for EP, and slot Missile Deflection instead of Defy Pain. Reflect OP, yo (vid to prove it).

3 in Discipline for the mandatory Fast Hands and guarantueed movement speed.

Air/Fire on GS gives maximum sudden burst. I agree with Elegie’s friend on sigil of Perception, as you will get a nice base 65% crit chance with high Fury uptime (going up to 85%). You still maintain extremely high power because you invest so heavily into Strength. I take energy on the shield, as that’s the defensive set.

It is a good roaming build, though it may feel a kitteneesy to use. You can outrun anything except for a thief or a FGS ele, and because you rely almost solely on mobility for survival, you will ‘run’ often. That’s why a lot of people call it the ‘running spec’. I actually find fighting these warriors frustrating myself, but hey, if other classes can kite, why can’t we, right?

Nice suggestions guys ^.^ I should note that this build was meant for WvW Solo roaming (my bad to forget to mention that), I play a guardian for GvG or zerging. So, after careful review I came up with this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUFajHehwJigkgC5onBXDgCQXVkaGA-TFTDAB9oEj7DBAFHBgHeAARpk4JlDvo+DI6DAwEnEnAAIUCSz+DkBwfCA-w

I had to sacrifice the might on GS crit trait to be more sword oriented. idk what this will play like and im kinda disappointed in the power/crit dmg loss. I will note that im very curious how Elegie’s mentioned build will play out and think im going to try to play it for myself. Quick question, does Dolyak signet proc Rousing Resilience even if not breaking from stun or is it only balanced stance?

Quite a lot of interesting and good suggestions have already been made, so I wont go for anything in-depth.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUFajHehwJaAmgCbnPBXT7AQZW85A-TFTDAB9oEj7DBAFHBgHeAARpk4JlDvo+DI6DAwEnEnAAIUCSz+DkBgZCA-w

Basically all I did was change Warrior’s Sprint for Vigorous Focus. You already have a boatload of swiftness and mobility from your signet and movement skills. Warrior’s Sprint is kind of unneeded. Similarly I got rid of your points in Strength. To be honest you can go without the ~2k HP since Warrior already comes with a trillion HP and you have quite a bit of condi removal/reduction already. I put these points into Discipline for a 3% per boon on target DPS boost (usually between 6 – 15% depending on what you’re fighting) and a 10% DPS increase to Bleeding foes. Because you have a passive bleed chance and bleed on sword auto, this is basically permanent and these two traits together give a huge DPS increase compared to the 100 power from Strength.

I’d probably recommend Balanced Stance over Dolyak Signet since you have no signet CD reduction (tbh you could take Signet Recharge over VF if you wanted, which would provide a higher uptime on Fury, Swiftness and Might).

Another thing I’ll say is while theoretically the Might from Forceful GS gives higher damage, it can be a bit difficult to sustain (I’ve got over 5.5k Hours on my warrior and I still have issues sustaining 15 – 20 stacks unless it’s a bigger fight). You get more reliable damage out of Slashing Power, in which case you can go like 4/0/4/04 with 2 points to put anywhere. Up to you though.

Animosity.5968:

Nice suggestions guys ^.^ I should note that this build was meant for WvW Solo roaming (my bad to forget to mention that), I play a guardian for GvG or zerging. So, after careful review I came up with this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUFajHehwJigkgC5onBXDgCQXVkaGA-TFTDAB9oEj7DBAFHBgHeAARpk4JlDvo+DI6DAwEnEnAAIUCSz+DkBwfCA-w

I had to sacrifice the might on GS crit trait to be more sword oriented. idk what this will play like and im kinda disappointed in the power/crit dmg loss. I will note that im very curious how Elegie’s mentioned build will play out and think im going to try to play it for myself. Quick question, does Dolyak signet proc Rousing Resilience even if not breaking from stun or is it only balanced stance?

This is decent, like the last one.

some tips.

Lose the intelligence sigil. It is really only useful for final Thust, which you often won’t use straight after swapping weapons. Besides, with such high crit chance and basically permafury, you are sacrificing a sigil for ~27% crit chance on three attacks. If you’d take perception, you’d get a permanent 12% crit chance added. But Bloodlust, doom, hydromancy, even battle are decent replacements.

Imho, forceful GS is way better then Opportunist. This is not so much because of the might stacking, which is not as good in wvw roaming, but more because of the -20% reduction. You will always have HB off of cooldown, more mobility, more Whirlwind (which is one of your biggest sources of damage AND it is an evade). I would never pick it over opportunist, not when I can get better sources of fury.

Deep Cuts is also mediocre here. You only apply bleeds with sword auto and burst. Burst is a short duration to begin with, whereas sword auto might be good, but you have low condi damage anyway and you don’t stack might. Furious Reaction would give you great Fury uptime, Vigor to boot, and would open up a slot for other options as you wouldn’t need Opportunist anymore.

The food you chose might look good, but the condition damage is somewhat of a waste for reasons stated above.

Leg Specialist is a great trait, and it gives you synergy with Opportunist off course. It actually works really well on this build too, as you have cripples on both sets. You do sacrifice a lot of damage though, as you could grab both Armored attack and DotE if you took out LS.

Again, try to find the version of the build that works for you personally. I used many different variants, some of which have been mentioned in this topic already, but decided to stick with the one I mentioned earlier. That one just works best for me.

Agree you def want to take Forceful GS over Opportunist. You shouldn’t need anymore Fury.

I believe Deep Cuts is in there just as much for Precise Strikes and Attack of Opportunity kitten auto.

Regarding LS vs Armored Attack and DotE you’ll have to play around with it. LS will help you land Final Thrust, but you lose a lot of base damage.

I’m partial to Slashing Power over Forceful Greatsword mostly because I’m not buying Hoelbrak runes any time soon.

As for the Sigils lose the Int. And I’d highly recommend Doom.

For food go back to the Soup.

TY Mexay, Cygnus (awesome hulk warrior vid, I subbed) and Sagramor for the very in depth thinking behind why X over Y trait. I Noticed how sometimes its difficult to keep a large stack of might alive in small fights and why you would take slashing power over FS (mexay). I already have the runes of Hoelbrak so I figure i’m gonna try with FS first and switch if i need to. Im going to be running this as a test in WvW i think.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAseRjMdUFaXImhwJaAmgCbnPBXT7AQZW85A-T1SDAB9oEj7DBAFHBgoUS8kyhXU/BE9BAYiTiTAAEPAQJIN7PQIABTAA-w

Its basically Mexay’s build but with a change to food (seriously guys, lemongrass is hella expensive) and i did swap out Dolyak sig for Balanced stance because of Vigorous focus. I’ve literally NEVER run without warriors sprint but with savage leap and gs #5, gs#3 and SoR i’m assuming I should be fairly mobile.

I took Sagramor’s and Cygnus’s advice to take sigil of doom to kitten any form of passive regen a opponent may have.

Any final tips on this edition of the build? Btw ppl i can’t thank you enough for the help cause i’ve had this toon for a long time but have never been able to successfully have fun playing him.

You can use the cheaper and ever so slightly less effective version same as you would with a Stone/Oil/Crystal.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Poultry_and_Leek_Soup

Don’t be so rigid with your build. If you think you’d do better with Dolyak try it out and see what happens. Also try swapping it out for different stances depending on your needs. The same goes for Furious Reaction. If you you find you don’t need the Fury/Vigor and you’re short on bleed up-time it might be worth trying out Deep Cuts to maintain bleeds during GS. Not saying you’ll want or need to make these changes, but be adaptable.

Leek soup is definitely helping. The build is working out quite solid. I’ve been able to handle 2v1’s quite effectively and maintain around 10+ might stacks at the worst of times. I though the loss of movement speed from warriors sprint would be hard to cope with but its really not with savage leap. Only think im not sold on is running 3 stances. the vigor is amazing but i find myself having a hard time locking down someone for a 100b without bola’s or Bulls. Sword Burst works wonders but the problem is most people run a block or a tele to move far enough that i cant close the gap and get more than 25% of the 100b to hit. I’ll have to mess with the utilities a bit i think. Oh and if anyone is wondering what kinda dmg this build is outputting then with a average 10stacks of might i can 100b for around 12k on light armor and final thrust for around 7.5k. Its fairly brutal.

Sword+gs is a common roamer build but not the most effective in zerg because you are rooted with 100b

Good thing you are having fun, that’s what it is all about. I was running swordGS again yesterday too. Good stuff.

Btw if you want fun try a cavalier rifle/sword+wh build. Ride the zerg with your high armor and if you see a low hp swap and finish him with a killshot (put iq rune in it for 100%crit)

More theory build discussion welcome!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJQQNAseRjMd05ZZIuhwJaAsgCdhHAnu6e4wX9UVAA-TlTEABYfCAcSJVTKDA4ABgo6OapEcJlKRcEASUlA20HwhGGGOEAO8AAgZ/hAAIAZz28mBeuzduzduz5m38m38m3sUAMJMC-w

Ideas behind the build:
- condition removal via Brawler’s Recovery/Sigil of Cleansing/SIO (over CI cause both Sword and GS burst skills are used more situational)
- up to 24 seconds of Rousing Resilience
- use Frenzy when stunned, Rousing Resilience will make up for the 25% incoming damage
- Leg specialist to prevent being kited and just be annoying
- Missile Deflection for priceless moments

Just an idea so far, but since this has been a very constructive thread I thought I could throw it in, too.

Hi,

You’ve got plenty of nice answers, it’s pretty cool! I hope that you’ll enjoy playing sword/shield and greatsword, and find a style that suits you best. Your last build was close to what I was running in the past. The 0/5/5/0/4 trait distribution is actually a standard one, which you can also enjoy running hybrid builds.

Now, I’ve been experimenting away from it (for physical damage builds) for the very reasons you quote:

• In terms of damage, I felt that might stacking not only wasn’t high enough, but was also obtained too late (i.e. after Hundred Blades, as per Forceful Greatsword mechanics, rather than before it). This is why I invested outside of the Arms line, using the Runes of the Pack and the Sigil of Perception to compensate for the damage loss. My current choice is Defense and Discipline, but Strength is a splendid investment as well.
• I chose Defense because of the added toughness of course, but also because of Defy pain at first, then Rousing Resilience. This somehow let me remove Endure Pain from my utilities, to take another one (Bull’s Charge or Bolas). To answer your question about Rousing Resilience: only Balanced Stance triggers it without requiring breaking from stun, the Signet of the Dolyak does not. It still means a 8s 3.5k armor every 40s, with stability (i.e. ideal to unleash a melee burst, possibly in a dual exchanges).
• I chose Discipline because of Brawler’s Recovery. Abandoning the runes of Hoelbrak means losing the 20% condition duration reduction, which is significant. At least I can clear conditions pretty often like that. Along with Cleansing Ire, it makes for some decent condition management, although not as efficient as the standard shout/soldier/warhorn zerg support warrior.
• Hundred Blades is hard to pull to the end, which is why I invested in immobilization, using Leg Specialist, the Sigil of Incapacitation and the Bolas. Even if the opponent moves away one way or another, there’s always another immobilization around the corner.

Regards.

Edit: removed off topic stuff.

ulchanar.4309:

More theory build discussion welcome!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJQQNAseRjMd05ZZIuhwJaAsgCdhHAnu6e4wX9UVAA-TlTEABYfCAcSJVTKDA4ABgo6OapEcJlKRcEASUlA20HwhGGGOEAO8AAgZ/hAAIAZz28mBeuzduzduz5m38m38m3sUAMJMC-w

Ideas behind the build:
- condition removal via Brawler’s Recovery/Sigil of Cleansing/SIO (over CI cause both Sword and GS burst skills are used more situational)
- up to 24 seconds of Rousing Resilience
- use Frenzy when stunned, Rousing Resilience will make up for the 25% incoming damage
- Leg specialist to prevent being kited and just be annoying
- Missile Deflection for priceless moments

Just an idea so far, but since this has been a very constructive thread I thought I could throw it in, too.

As with almost any build that does not put in Cleansing Ire, I have one of two questions;

How do you gain adrenaline?

The other one would be how you cleanse conditions, but you sacrificed enough (sigil, trait, utility) to get that going.

Also, popping Frenzy will mean death if you don’t slot Endure Pain. Rousing Resilience is not enough to counter Frenzy’s negative effect.

Rousing Resilience is just a very mediocre trait for roaming tbh. It usually amounts to an increase in damage mitigation from ~25% to ~45%. Honestly, this is not all that much. Endure Pain is way more useful to counter burst or to be aggressive in melee. Think of it this way; EP increases damage mitigation from 25% to 100% for 4 seconds, whereas RR only increases it from 25% to 45% for 8 seconds. To get the same net amount of damage mitigation, one would have to proc it twice in the same time you use EP once. This may seem good, hell you might proc it more often with SiO, but then, during those 8 seconds, you still take 55% of all damage… And SiO might have to be used for something else then stunbreaking (especially if you actually rely on it for condition cleansing).

This is all without considering the fact that RR requires both Balanced stance and an additional stunbreaker along with the heavy trait investment, for which you could have gotten an extra Endure Pain.

Adrenaline will be an issue, yes. You would have to save it during the fight and only spend it for Flurry when you want to land a full 100b.

The idea behind RR was to have it as a bonus with three other useful utilities. Frenzy has always been nice with 100b, but you have to use it together with EP or you will likely be dead. And if you use it without stability you might get CCed. So in the end you need to use 2 or 3 utilities to make use of it. Now with RR you compensate for the 25% incoming damage increase (as you said, mitigation would be ~45%: (100%25%)*0,55=68,75%, that’s even less than 100%0,75=75%). And if you use it after being stunned your oponent won’t use this stun again soon, so less need to pop stability for Frenzy.

You usually pop BS for a Flurry → 100b combo that roots you in place and makes you eat a lot of attacks, but then as well you will have the extra mitigation.

SIO is rather weak without Trooper runes and for yourself only (talking about solo roaming), but it has a low cooldown and (in theory) allows for ~30% RR uptime. Under perfect circumstances you could have 39,2 seconds of RR per minute with the three utilities (or even more if you take Lung Capacity over Leg Specialist). But of course Dolyak signet could be used instead, to have an offensive Stability (BS) and one defensive/reactional, or you could use a non-stunbreaking utility, e.g. Berserker Stance or Bull’s Charge.

As I said, nothing tested so far. I now saw that Elegie runs a very similar build, but with both CI and BR and with only BS as stun breaker. I’m curious what he/she can report.

ulchanar.4309:

The idea behind RR was to have it as a bonus with three other useful utilities. Frenzy has always been nice with 100b, but you have to use it together with EP or you will likely be dead. And if you use it without stability you might get CCed. So in the end you need to use 2 or 3 utilities to make use of it. Now with RR you compensate for the 25% incoming damage increase (as you said, mitigation would be ~45%: (100%25%)*0,55=68,75%, that’s even less than 100%0,75=75%). And if you use it after being stunned your oponent won’t use this stun again soon, so less need to pop stability for Frenzy.

Off course RR mitigates damage, and it helps with using Frenzy, but this combo will, imo, prove to be completely unreliable. You can only use Balanced Stance to ensure the 1k toughness. If you already used it, or if the situation is not calling for Frenzy, you are completely reliant on actually breaking from a stun to get your toughness. So, in fact, in order to use Frenzy reliably with RR, you need two utilities (Frenzy/Balanced Stance) and a GM trait in a line with much better traits to begin with.

ulchanar.4309:

SIO is rather weak without Trooper runes and for yourself only (talking about solo roaming), but it has a low cooldown and (in theory) allows for ~30% RR uptime. Under perfect circumstances you could have 39,2 seconds of RR per minute with the three utilities (or even more if you take Lung Capacity over Leg Specialist). But of course Dolyak signet could be used instead, to have an offensive Stability (BS) and one defensive/reactional, or you could use a non-stunbreaking utility, e.g. Berserker Stance or Bull’s Charge.

As I said, nothing tested so far. I now saw that Elegie runs a very similar build, but with both CI and BR and with only BS as stun breaker. I’m curious what he/she can report.

This best case scenario will never happen. It can not even be called the dream, as you will always need to use your utilities in reaction to your opponent as well, not just when it suits you (to get RR going).

IMO, best thing you could hope for is getting 16-24 seconds of RR per minute. That’s when you used Balanced Stance offensively. I can promise you are gonna need stability for stomping rather then setting up a burst. At least, in an outnumbered situation.

tl:dr, I think your testing will show it is not as viable as it looks.

Hi,

Unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to experiment a lot with the roaming build I’ve previously posted, but I will as soon as I get back to the game. So far, it was pretty fun and efficient to play.

As for Rousing Resilience (RR), I’ve been playing with it since about 1 month now, but mostly in PvP (let’s say about 300 games?). At first I’ve tried to maximize its potential, in a similar fashion as Ulchanar, i.e. making each skill count even if RR does not trigger, but have had mixed results. I somehow found myself hesitating to use or not a certain utility, waiting for a possibly (or not) incoming control. In the end, I simply came back to a standard triple stances (Balanced Stance, Berserker Stance, and Endure Pain), so only two skills relevant to RR. In the WvW build I proposed, I went with the Bolas, as it works wonders with the greatsword. Since the sword burst is available on a regular basis, I might re-equip Endure Pain instead (to be tested).

I’ve mainly played in PvP, not WvW. The 1000 toughness stat increase is very significant there, but might be less significant in WvW, where gear and food can supplement stats more efficiently. Anyway, against other direct damage build, it’s remarkably efficient, to the point opponents start avoiding you in 1v1s. Against hybrid / celestial builds, it’s not bad at all. Against condition builds, such as blackwater mesmers, it does not perform very well, not surprisingly.

RR has somehow changed the way I used stability: previously, as Cygnus has put it, I used to keep Balanced Stance to secure stomps. But now, I definitely use it in an offensive way, to make sure that my burst is not interrupted once I have cc’ed my opponent. This does mean a different stomping strategy – but having stability does not mean that you can stomp safely anyway when you’re outnumbered.

In a triple stances berserker build, I currently think that the trait is better than Defy Pain, but this could be related to my playstyle. I love bursting my opponent after a good preparation, but I also like playing patiently, grinding towards victory. My health falling to 25% generally means I’ve been outplayed – that I should have disengaged before, and that my opponent did not let me do so – so stand little chance after Endure Pain triggers.

For those interested, I’ve shared my initial impressions previously in the forum, in a dedicated topic. I’ve become quite a fan of the trait, mostly because of how it works with Balanced Stance. I think that the trait isn’t very popular among warriors, though.

Regards.