I used a similar layout to another thread here, I changed things that I felt would be more balanced as some of the suggestions if anet went along with it would overbuff warrior. Feel free to comment on some of the things I’ve mentioned. I’ve bolded main points so you can skim over the thread faster. I should state I’m a warrior main with LOTS of experience in high end pvp, WvW solo roaming/teamfights, GvG’s, and PvE. For the purposes of these changes I’d like to focus on the PvP environments i.e. WvW/PvP.
Great Sword: I know some people want the rush improved, or having hundred blades sped up/range increased, but I think it’s fine as is. Rush is both good mobility and the damage is high if you can land your attack. I feel if they increase the strength and abilities of greatsword anymore it would make other weapon sets obsolete. You really have to set up the attacks to make it work.
Axe Main Hand: I feel that since they moved the dps portion of the axe to the end of the auto attack chain, axe has suffered a lot. I know many of you like GS/axeshield in power builds, but I find greatsword/swordshield far superior. In an actual fight against a competent opponent you simply don’t have the time to complete the full chain. My suggestion is reverting the axe nerf or cutting the auto attack chain in half so it takes less amounts of attacks to see that damage. As for eviscerate, again I see it fine as is. For such a high damaging attack it needs to be setup. I do this through counting dodges used, baiting a dodge and timing the eviscerate for the end, or using CC. The buff to shield (2 second daze) allows you to land this quite easily (assuming the stun isn’t broken).
Axe Off Hand: Now here is where I do think a lot of people are onto something. Axe offhand, the idea behind it was to generate adrenaline quickly but this is assuming your target is doing nothing while you generate that adrenaline. I’m totally for having the whirl become a projectile reflect (similar to the thiefs stolen skill). The 4 skill (dual chop) I believe the fury doesn’t have synergy with really any other set. I think this skill in general needs to be reworked and if you have any suggestions leave them in the comments!
Sword Main hand: Sword already applies a long lasting bleed. Sure cleansing comes into play especially in our current meta, but I don’t feel it needs an extra stack as it strikes pretty fast. Also increasing the physical based damage of it would make axe main hand inferior. Instead, my suggestion to adjust sword to be great for both berserker and base warrior is to give the auto attack adrenaline gain on hit, similar to rifle auto attack. For based warrior that means charging your ability to land your F1 Burst on bleeds faster and for berserker it encourages stacking more bleeds to reach your rage form (at which point you stack fire). This would be a strong upgrade to sword without making the weapon more powerful than other options or “OP”.
Mace Main Hand: Fine as is.
Mace Off Hand: Add a small leap to crushing blow and Increase the damage/velocity of tremor. To be a strong contender to options like shield, something needs to be done to make it worth taking over other options (especially if my other suggestions are implemented).
Long Bow: Make the longbow trait (1s burn) baseline. Longbow feels like a hybrid weapon however with a lack of conditions on the autoattack, many choose to use traits and alternative weapon sets to stack conditions OR they have to add sigils like geomancy/doom to buff up the application.
Hammer: I feel this weapon set is fine as is for base warrior. It’s great in team fights, and is pretty solid as is even post nerf. On berserker however my experience is limited as I found it to be almost weaker than using it in base form. One of the ideas I have for improving this is making the aoe on rupturing smash similar to arc divider in terms of size, but have it ripple out in quick pulses immobilize and bleed or perhaps, pulse bleed/daze instead (making it a great way to AOE remove stability, something unique to warrior).
Rifle: Ahh the rifle, some have suggested making the pierce baseline. I feel that isn’t needed, nor would I want that. I run greatsword/rifle very often, almost as much as greatsword/swordshield. I know a lot of you may disagree but I feel that rifle is in a good spot right now. It’s become a “power weapon” and is great where it stands. At the very most adding the bleed back to the auto attack without decreasing the physical damage or adrenaline gain. Sure you might say that “guardian longbow has a low cooldown killshot without needing to charge adrenaline”. Dragonhunter is very strong right now, we can all agree on that, they have almost replaced us in our respective roles. We cannot however suggest that this weapon be buffed to be equal in capacity or greater. I’d rather be balanced fairly then have to be over nerfed again.
Warhorn: I feel first and foremost this needs to be adjusted from the trait line point of view. Returning the 2 conditions to boon conversion. Secondly, since warrior is about mobility and the warhorn is described as “Grants boons to allies, facilitating mobility”; it should grant vigor AND super speed to allies with call to arms.
Let me know what you guys think of these adjustments, and don’t be afraid to contend my ideas, I welcome the criticism! Let’s collectively get warrior back on track. I know there hasn’t been any devs in here since HoT but I know that they are reading these threads, so let’s help them out. Cheers.