Guild Wars 2

I’ve only just hit level 80. I’ve been spending my trait points on just random things up until now, not really caring what I spend each point on as it seems to have been working fine up to 80. I decided that once I hit lvl 80, I’d then reset my trait point and spend them all properly.

I am currently Dual Wielding (Sword MH, Axe OH) and plan to stay that way, as I don’t really care for big two handers. I may down the line switch to Sword/Sword instead of Sword/Axe, but for now I’m just sticking with Sword/Axe.

I’m aware that there are not really any “cookie cutter” builds out there, and AFAIK you’re left to your own desires, as to how to spend your trait points.

So basically, I’m just wondering if there are any mandatory traits to spec into and how to make a decent balanced spec really. As a DPS, I’d obviously like to see some respectable damage numbers, but then again I’d also like to be able to survive encounters without having to constantly get revived or run back from a waypoint.

On the other hand, I don’t want to put TOO many trait points into Defense & Tactics, if it’s not really needed. Obviously Defense gives you increased Toughness, and Tactics gives you increased Vitality, but I don’t really have any idea as to how to spend my 70 trait points properly. How much vitality & defense do I actually NEED as a Warrior?

I plan on doing most things the game has to offer PvE wise, so I’d like to be as prepared as possible with all my trait points spent wisely, which is why I’d appreciate some help/advice with this.

Thanks guys.

When i first hit level 80 i started to beef my warrior up with toughness and vitality trying going with the “tank” mentality specced into defense. All this lead to was doing less damage than other people.

Fast forward and I am rocking a power, precision, and magic find and specced into strength, arms and discipline and I have yet to find an encounter that I couldn’t deal with reason to spec otherwise (even arah can be done).

One thing to mention is you definitely want to get magic find gear. So the problem with sword + axe is it need both power, precision and condition damage (kinda hybridish) but with mf gone that leaves you with power and precison or power and condition damage (axe/axe or greatsword only needs power and precsion).

This is mainly in part to the following: Mending, Signet of Stamina, and Endure Pain.

With those three skills you should be able to survive any encounter and build your guy as glass cannon as you want.

Also make sure you have a ranged secondary for pve.

(here’s my build: http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#11|11|10|5728|3903|45|246|20|2366|1496|0|20|1975|1519|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1545|1845|1105|14|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|)

I’d suggest putting atleast 15 points into discipline for the faster weapon swap. It’s one thing that i personally don’t run without anymore. Just curious, what is your other weapon set?

This build work for me:

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#2|11|10|919|16754|65|1890|20|836|1488|0|30|1525|1523|2413|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|20|1107|1553|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

I’m an Sword/Axe condition damage build Warrior as well & its way more fun IMO then the mainstream GS build Warriors.

I recommand getting a Rifle (PvE-wise) for your secondary weapon set. As they seem to do more damage then Bows for me anyway as the Rifle auto-attack applys a bleed (synergise well with your condition damage gear).

I’m using Rampager gear with Power/Vit/Cond. Dmg chestpiece & legs.
Using full Knight accessories (with Guild Defender Backpack) with Valk gems (Power/Vit/Crit Dmg) on my Earrings & Rings.

What sigils & runes you would use though is really all up to your preferences.
For me I went 3/6 Lyssa & 3/6 Centaur runes with Agony & Fire sigil on Sword/Axe respectively.

Only problem I see here is the fact that you use sword and axe. I loved sword and axe and it was decently viable. Problem is Sword is a condition damage dealer while the axe is a heavy damage dealer. If you go pure arms to satisfy the sword condition damage, the axe will crit a lot but without power to back it up you loose damage, also time you spend spinning around with your axe is time your bleeding aren’t applying so stacking bleeds become harder. Sure the axe can sometimes put some bleeds from the precise strike talent but it won’t be as much.

Dual axes on the other hand can go higher dps in melee through heavy hitting, almost as hard as a great sword if correctly spec. On the other hand dual swords can easily spec for high crit condition damage builds. With this getting 25 stacks f bleeds is easy. You won’t see huge numbers as you would in a greatsword while using a hundred blades but you will see a lot of 120 – 140 damage poping from the mob or even higher if purely condition damage spec. Now that’s over 3.5k per second. Way higher damage than hundred blades.

Rampager or carrion gear are great options for gear per say if you decide to craft, if you decide to go for temple gear then you should find a condition damage oriented set in there.

If you decide to go high toughness runes of undeath will grant some heavy condition damage and some toughness. Either way you should always build a defensive stat as in long term encounter such as Orr maps you will die a lot if full glass cannon. Condition remove is a most if spec into vitality carry a war horn around this way you can convert conditions into boons.

Hitting 25 bleeds is almost impossible and if you do, most stacks will start fading away immediately. You will only have about 8 stacks reliably on the target at all times. That is unless you PvE in a group, then you all your bleeds will be wasted against a 25 bleed cap and you’ll just end up being useless.

Sorry for the late reply, but thanks for all the responses guys.

From what I gathered from the above posts, I’m guessing I should just pick a certain weapon type to stick with? For example, Sword/Sword or Axe/Axe, or just GS?

I’m more than happy to go with Sword/Sword, although I’m not really interested in Axe/Axe or GS. Is Sword/Sword viable for PvE and if so, how would I go about speccing that?

I like high crit numbers, and always have done in MMOs, so I was wondering if I could make a type of crit focused build whilst using Sword/Sword?

I’m using Rifle as my secondary weapon also.