Guild Wars 2

Let me explain a little bit how this mace/shield GS build works in sPvP to try and end this uninformed OP trend. I’ve played this build and practiced it a lot so I have a pretty solid understanding of it. I no longer play it as I prefer mace/shield hammer better, it’s much more effective and reliable and if you want to see how I’m doing with it, I posted a video of about 50 minutes worth of dueling footage vs all professions on the warrior forums.

Outside 100B you do bellow average damage. If you stood in front of any opponent and he didn’t move, he just lets you do damage using any other GS skill while he also hits you, you wouldn’t stand a chance. With that being said, the conclusion is that if you don’t land 100B you won’t win. Now how many 100B do you need to land to kill someone? Not that many, just 2 or 3 should do the trick as 1 100B does about 6-8k dmg, maybe a bit more if the target is really really squishy.

Any real opponent should bring a couple of ways to get out of stuns. It’s not just warriors that have CC, all professions have it, necros have a ton of fears and knock downs, eles have some, thieves do too and so forth.

Now how many mace stuns can you actually land? Well I may not be the best warrior but I’m not the worst either and I practiced trying to land my mace stuns a lot. Vs a decent opponent that has dueled you a few times, you’re looking at landing constantly around 2/3. That 3rd mace stun will go to waste because it will either be dodged, you’ll get a surprise blind or stability or aegis and so forth.

With that being said, lets do a little math. You can hit your mace stun every 8 seconds with the standard builds. Lets assume it also takes you 8 seconds to get full adrenaline although it does actually end up being more time. This is a time frame that you’re looking at:
- at second 8 you have full adrenaline and you land your first mace stun which is broken
- at second 16 you land your second mace stun and it is broken again
- at second 24 you miss your 3rd mace stun

By the time a little over 30 seconds have passed, vs any decent opponent that brings some stun breakers and not just straight DPS utilities and expects to do well, you will have done bellow average damage and mostly, you will have just tried to stay alive by using all your utility skills (Ignore Pain, Berserker’s Stance, Balanced Stance) your shield block and at the same time build adrenaline so that you can in a perfect scenario attempt to hit your opponent every 8 seconds with your mace stun.

Now at second 32, in this perfect fight scenario you’ll get your first 100B and then at second 40 you’ll get your second one and hopefully win. If this is how things went, trust me when I say, you’ve worked so hard that you deserve to win.

Now what happens if you miss either your second 32 or second 40 100B? Well by the time you get another one at second 48, chances are one of the stun breakers is off CD so it will be broken. Unfortunately your defensive CDs aren’t back and you’re already struggling to survive. What happens when a mesmer can daze you or become invulnerable to one of your 100B in addition to all the stun breakers he has or even worse, what if he’s using a staff? What if the pet of the necro you’re fighting stuns you during one of those 100B?(and the list goes on) Lets just say things don’t end up looking too good for you.

So before you start complaining about how OP this build is and how you’re getting killed, how about you make sure first of all that you’re not super squishy, that you bring a few stun breakers and that you learn to kite a warrior when he switches to mace/shield or at least save all of your interrupts, blinds, stability and CC for that moment. A warrior that misses 2 mace stuns in a row is pretty much a dead warrior. Ignore Pain and Berserker’s Stance are 2 utilities that just about any melee warrior needs to bring to a fight and use every time just to survive. Balanced Stance or the signet equivalent is also often, especially in team fights pretty mandatory. We have to bring 3 defensive utilities just to survive and you expect to win with pure DPS or passive utilities? I say learn to adapt, the tools are there, I’m sorry you can’t run around as a DPS machine and be a PvP hero but neither can warriors.

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

Maybe someone else can answer my question.
Was heavy cc ever a problem before those changes?

Edit:
Do you need to post the same text in three threads?

Since you’re not arguing, Heavy CC wasnt even a problem before the changes. So the answer would be no.

i dont even like the Mace its so slow for me , Sword is much better, you get Flurry which is close to what you get from skull cracker and a very hard hitting Final Thrust so you dont have to rely on just 100b for damage also you get amazing mobility.

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

Pretty much how warriors have to run Berserker’s Stance and Runes of Lyssa JUST to be able to have a fighting chance vs Necros, Engineers and Spirit Rangers?

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

You mean necros again right? Because I had to change all my characters just because of necros.

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

Warriors are the most played class, and every single other class has to change traits/runes in order to deal with this one build.

And Warriors are the impossible ones to argue with. How are we supposed to begin a discussion with you if you do nothing to substantiate your claims?

HatSimulator.9362:

Since you’re not arguing, Heavy CC wasnt even a problem before the changes. So the answer would be no.

My question was badly formulated.
I meant was heavy cc ever widely used before those changes?

stefanplc.5234:

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

Pretty much how warriors have to run Berserker’s Stance and Runes of Lyssa JUST to be able to have a fighting chance vs Necros, Engineers and Spirit Rangers?

By that you mean dedicating your rune set (hoelbrak, melandru or lyssa), 2 traits(dogged march and cleansing ire) as well as 1-2 utility slots (berserker stance and signet of stamina).

HatSimulator.9362:

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

once again we see how ignorant are these complainers. thanks for the fun. oh btw you don`t see good players complaining, why? you guessed it.

HatSimulator.9362:

Now that (almost) every warrior is using this build, and the fact that warriors are the most played class, I and many other people on the forums in different professions have had to make builds just to find how to counter all these stuns.

I’m not saying stunlock, unlimited healing warriors are OP but when every single class has to change traits and runes just to counter one class, it becomes OP.

(not replying to anything replying to this post, warriors are impossible to argue with)

Thank you so much for realizing that Necromancers are OP!

Everyone has to run conditions removal because of Necromancers, so by your logic Necromancers are OP.

In fact, on my Warrior I run Sig of Stamina, Berserker Stance, Cleansing Ire, and Melandru runes (-condition food in WvW too)…..all just to try to counter Necromancer conditions.