Guild Wars 2

After an extended break, I got back into GW2 a few weeks ago and recently decided I’d give the Warrior another shot while waiting for Heart of Thorns to come out. So far, I’ve gotten up to around level 55 and I’m starting to run into the same problem I had the last time I tried out the Warrior: finding a weapon set that’s both effective and interesting.

In terms of skills, my favorite weapon set right now is Sword+Shield (with Rifle as my ranged option). The autoattack animation feels good, the leap is spectacular, Final Thrust is a hair slower than I’d prefer but overall I like it, Shield Bash feels amazing, and I love the versatility Shield Stance adds. I also like the offhand Axe for when I don’t need so much defense.

However (and I’m sure this will come as a shock to no one), the Greatsword is clearly so much more effective than the Sword. Against mobs, Hundred Blades is pretty much the same as the Sword’s burst skill except with a bigger area and more damage, Whirlwind Attack offers basically just as much in-combat mobility as Savage Leap except it comes with a bunch of AoE damage as well, Rush really helps speed up map travel, and Arcing Slice is basically a better AoE Final Thurst.

The problem is that I find the Greatsword tremendously dull. It’s a great weapon but I’d much prefer to go sword-and-board. So, what do I need to do to make Sword+Shield or Sword+Axe work? I realize a lot of the Sword’s damage is tied up in its Bleed application but I’m hesitant to go for Condition damage over Power/Precision/Ferocity gear. I’m running the Arms specialization with the Sword and Axe traits, and while those help, I’m still finding the Greatsword to outperform Sword+Axe even when I don’t have the Greatsword trait.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Thing is, sword is more of a hybrid than a pure power or pure condi.
Main attack, is okish, if you’re full zerker, but subpar to Axe or even Mace. Final thrust will hit like a truck, but you gotta wait for your target to be 50%

2 is a leap, and 3 is pretty much a pure damage skill.

If you go full condi, the bleeds are decent, but you gotta spam Flury on cooldow.
Also, as a full condi, your final thrust will hit like a wet noodle.

However, it’s not a bad weapon, with Sinister gear, you can get a decent amount of direct damage + condi. Glad Anet came out with that gear, it makes the sword shine a little bit more. Try it out, the ascended trinkets are free if you do the achievements, and if you can’t afford to craft the armor, you can buy and mix zerker + rampager.

All that being said, the warrior’s ultimate weapon (like it or not)y is still the GS.

I use sinister gear with sword/sword and longbow and it kills people in WvW pretty fast. The longbow is just for big zerg fights ofc.

I tried zerker with main hand sword, was pretty lackluster. Hybrid is where it’s at imo. Offhand sword is crazy with hybrid too.

MH sword will never have the power of a GS, but I find a few things can help it. I’ve ran OH mace with dual wielding trait(Arms). The mace #4 give you 10 stacks of vuln. and its easier to land in pvp and wvw with the dual wield trait.

Also I find that Heightened Focus( Disc) is a great trait to land Final Thrust quickly and it helps down opponents quickly in wvw and pvp. Finally, Frenzy stance can really help with dps and also land final thrust quickly. Frenzy stance is just a great all around skill along with For Great Justice. Those are usually on my bar.

Look into sigils too. I got a sigil of strength in a sword and it works well with Blademaster trait. I crit a lot and gain might stacks.

As was said sword is a hybrid weapon which is at its best with something like rabid or sinister which gives u both power and condi damage. To run rifle with it is a bad pairing. Rifle is pure damage weapon condi gives u nothing with it.

Valik Shin.9027:

As was said sword is a hybrid weapon which is at its best with something like rabid or sinister which gives u both power and condi damage. To run rifle with it is a bad pairing. Rifle is pure damage weapon condi gives u nothing with it.

Yeah, I’d been trying to run Sword as a pure power weapon in the vain hope that the bleeds might not have taken too much of its power budget, but it’s only become clearer and clearer the higher up in level I go that that isn’t the case. I’ve also been running Rifle because it seems more fun than the Longbow rather than for synergy (and because the Burst skill is incredibly fun), but again I’m starting to reach those levels where efficacy starts to matter.

I guess I might have to try cobbling together a hybrid set of armor once I hit 60ish. Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

As said above, sword is a hybrid, and so therefore the warrior using it must be. I’m a sword-and-board guy myself for almost every RPG I play, ever. As I’m doing PvE almost exclusively in this game, I have no common need for the shield so it’s usually regulated to my bag.

I’ve been playing the past couple years maining with a sword/axe build, and here’s what I’ve found works:

Strength: 133
Arms: 133
Discipline: 232

My sword and axe (ascended) are both +90 Precision +90 Toughness +125 condition damage. I have Superior Sigil of Agony on sword and Superior Sigil of Corruption on the axe. I have a full set of speed runes on my armor. My ascended rings and trinkets mix maxing condition damage and precision.

This build is good for: direct damage, crit , speed (in and out of combat, but especially when enemy is <50) and a good bit of bleeding damage (and extra damage on a bleeding foe). You’ll crit more than your % states because of the bleeding with this build.

However, this build leaves you open to conditions yourself, so I deal that with the bow. I get to lose a condition when I switch weapons, and then on the bow I have Superior Sigil of Malice (for the burning) and Superior Sigil of Purity (to remove conditions).

The Bolas (7) come into play quite a bit. When soloing champs, the usual fight plays out as gain adrenaline, switch to bow, stop him with the 5 shot and follow up with 3, 4 then throw bolas then F1 a fire field, switch to sword/axe jump in with 2 (for the fire effect) then hit him with 5 (for the pew pew pew), 4, 3 if <50%, roll back and switch to bow, repeat.

For common mobs the sword is great for cutting a path and the axe for combos with the bow or cc.

There are times when I have to run away and having savage leap remove immobilize really helps here, as does all that speed.

As long as you can control the conditions applied to you and you know when to roll out and go ranged, this is a fun and survivable build. The only time I have trouble is when conditions come so fast I run out of options to remove them. But in PvE, this really only ever happens in the occasional dungeon, and I’ve usually got friends with me then who offer some support by way of condition control.

The sword is a condition weapon, some will tell you otherwise, but the sword really is a condition weapon, but doesn’t pair well with the shield, it pairs well with an off-hand sword with the blademaster trait, otherwise, you CAN make sword work in other builds, because of it’s mobility and the immobilize on flurry, but if you want it to be your main weapon you must go condi, either Sinister or Rabid.

I’ve been using it to great effect in wvw on a full zerk gear setup using a shield since the June 24 patch. It’s not the only build I run, but I’ve used it quite a lot.