Q:
How is this build viable for dungeons and PvE?
I agree with Sami’s opinion, except for the off-hand axe AoE : it does 360° damage instead of a simple cone to start with. Secondly, you combo with almost any field-skill available in the game.
I’ve got a mitigated opinion about “Vengance” however : in some places it proved much useful as there were some easy-trash mobs to kill. However this is not a regular basis, and most of the time you’ll have silver mobs only. So unless you make sure that your team focus on a quick silver kill, “Vengance” is only good if you already know the path and the minions.
Depending on your prefrences (here it is as DPS I guess), i’d suggest you:
Dual axe / sword – warhorn.
=> Main damage and combos with axes / bleed stacks on adrenaline and support (cripple / weakness / speed / endurance regen)
Strength – 20 (bonus vitality OR damage on adrenaline / +5% damage with axe off-and)
Arms – 10 (Bleed +50% longer)
Tactics – 30 (70 power bonus (huge!) / -20%warhorn OR -20% shouts / healing shouts)
Last 10 points can either be spent on Defense (adrenaline on hit) or Discipline (adrenaline on shout).
I do not fancy the two possible traits on 30 strength, but you might want to get that minor 25 on strength.
As you see, this build relies mostly on having at least 2 shouts in your skill belt. I strongly suggest “For Great Justice” and “Shake it off” as a basis. As third skill, you might consider either adding an extra shout (“On my mark” / “Fear me”) or something else (“Endure pain” / “Tactical Banner”).
Each shout heals all nearby allies (range 600 on FGJ) for a good amount: more than 2k if memory serves. More if you drop “Tactical Banner” and use it’s first skill.
Why this particuliar build ? Because you can deal a nice amount of damage (raw with axe + bleeding on sword burst) while being reasonnably tanky; plus when you back-off because of low-health / a non-melee cycle on boss, you still are useful with your shout / warhorn skills.
Do keep in mind however that your only mob control you get is through your cripple / sword adrenaline burst, and that you’re not a real damage soaker (unlike shiled + stance duration).
There are others builds for a tanky crowd control warrior … but that is for another thread
EDIT : reading your post again, I strongly suggest equipping signets with only extreme precaution. Even for healing, i’ve gone from “Healing signet” to “Medning heal”, for the simple reason that it removes 2 conditions along the way. Which is simply awesome (you do get a lot of conditions in every dungeon).
The reason for equipping signets with precaution is that you can easly be tempted by the “full signet” skills, therefore loosing all defensive / more interesting boons options.
So far, the only useful signets I’ve found are the “Rage Signet” (ultimate), “Might signet”, and healing signet if you’re 100% sure that you won’t get poisonned or that your team mates can easly remove it.
(edited by tjafaas.3726)
I would advise to skip vengeance. As per weapon use what you like You can have fun with everything and manage to do explorable dungeons modes so it’s just your choice. For trash mobs exes will be great just like a GS, for bosses, well most of them need range weapon so exotic one with a nice sigil will be great. If you want to highly participate for the team go for healing shouts but you can skip it if you will not like the build with these (like me). I really like defense trait route so I have 30points there and also I use knight’s armor set for dungeons – works really great. Lately I’ve added superior runes of soldier and I just can wait to see mu shouts remove 1 more condition each time I use them (didn’t have time to test it thou).
As per skills Mending Heal is in my opinion superior to healing signet but with current runes I may change it (just need to test first). And again signet of rage is just to awesome not to use it (again my opinion and play style) but I do not use any other except for few bosses when I need additional condition removals or 2nd balanced stance). For utility skills I have 5 from which I choose 3 and change them during dungeon according to situation (boss/trash or boss dmg → dps/condition). These would be: endure pain (I love this one, because it let’s me make a mistake and do not die), for great justice (really needed in some situations but not always), On My Mark (if your team do not have other ways to put 25stacks of vuln. on boss or chapm, this one is remarkable, useless for trash), Shake it off (must have, for me always – also it’s great for team as it removes condition from party members as well), balanced stance (situational, for some bosses or areas where you need to move swiftly with no interruption). Now I’m not fun of banners myself so will not be able to help with these
“Reality is an illusion created by a lack of alcohol.”