Guild Wars 2

Hello all, first time on forums so bear with me.

I’m a decent wvw player who loves to play solo or with a friend mainly for ganks/camp raids. I have tried a ton…. of different builds and weapon variations. I have like 3 entire bank tabs dedicated to all my exotic weapons/armor/accessories. I played a lot of gw1, and dabbled in aion for a few months and greatly enjoyed the playstyle of templar in aion, and warrior in gw1. My obsession with heavy armor has always been the look of the sword board along with it.

I came up with a build that has worked so far, it’s very nice in 1v1’s and in most team situations. Regardless, I feel condition spikes in this game don’t ever amount to raw dps as with an axe for example.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAseTjgOVvtO2QMRCCsgzjkMFyrPYnkizgGA;TkAqZMzImxykbGJTrFGVM9A

I run a full set of toughness, prec, and condi damage, including weapons/trinkits.
Even with a sword as my main, most of my dps comes from the longbow, especially after the pin down buff (6 bleeds along with an imob instantly). I tend to use longbow 3/4 of the time I’m ever fighting and feel like sword has only been used for warrior as a utility/gap tool.

I suppose I’m asking numerous questions. How do other warriors feel about the sword and shield setup in this game, I know I’m not the only sword/board kitten out there. What are some other gear variations with sword/shield that work? I’ve thought about getting an entire valk set and playing with that, but it seems like raw damage from a sword still doesn’t surpass its conditional use. One of my favorite things about gw1 was the way hundred blades worked for 1h sword, making sword an amazing spike weapon. I think it would be nice to see something like that added in gw2. Are there any other sword shield warrior mains out there, and if so do you mind compare/contrasting my build with yours?

Sounds a lot like how my warrior functions. Build is bad link by the way.

These forums suck with links, just copy and paste it.

I really use sword shield as my defensive / utility set. Similar to you, my main damage comes from the other weapon set (GS), with the sword shield on swap. It brings however a really nice leap, another cripple, a 3 second block and 1 daze and 1 4-second immobilize which I can follow up with a 100b.

Iove.3902:

These forums suck with links, just copy and paste it.

Thanks, who would of thought, a simple fix for a simple problem.

For the build itself. As I said my warrior is similar, used the bolas for a long time and the kitten things never hit. Scorpion Wire on my thief is more reliable, and that’s saying something.

I use a build similar to this in PvE except I spec more into Defense to get shield master. Start off fights with the bow, burn enemies down, leap in to get fire aura, finish them all off. I flip back and forth between sword/shield and longbow so i can get access to the AoE blind and Pin Down from Longbow, plus it provides me with a blast finisher in Arc Shot for combos, etc. Slot skills are usually Endure Pain, Banner of insert banner of choice here, and Signet of Stamina (love those dodges). I take the 10 points in Tactics currently to get Inspiring Banners.

I seem to be one of the few who really enjoy the sword warrior in this game. Final Thrust has a pretty solid skill modifier on it and scales well with Power, so you can use the condition damage provided (and you get the +10% damage vs. bleeding foes in traits) as just an extra boost. Or you can just go full condition and make your bleeds and burns hurt even worse, although you sacrifice some direct damage as a result.

I like my sword/board and Longbow warrior though. Very fun playstyle to me, swapping back and forth between ranged and melee, jumping into the fray and tanking, multiples leaps and blast finishers. It’s fun.

It seems like most of us use the sword as a utility, which I’m not going for. I don’t like the idea of using it as a setup for a better weapon spike. Compared to axes, if you spec power swords you’re really selling yourself short in the longrun for dps. There’s too much counter to sword making it hard to hit the 3rd chain attack often. Cripple is on a long cooldown, even if it misses and that only leaves us with leap. While it’s nice as a first gap closer, there’s enough gap closers for other professions that negate it. I’m wondering if anyone out there has found a build/gear set that allows them to hit decently with sword, while still maintaining enough damage negation to be effective? I’ve found a hilarious banner bunker build that has managed to outheal a guard, and d/d ele, but the damage is literally nonexistant.

My opinion is that the sword doesn’t offer enough viability or single target dps solely on its own, without having to use it in conjunction with another weapon, like longbow for condi damage, or great sword for hard damage. Even with high power/crit, the f1 for sword still does terrible damage unless specc’d into bleeds.