Guild Wars 2

Hi, My name is CoaxialMazer and I have a build that I theorized on my own, and I’m sure someone out there probably has come across this idea or there has been a guide on it somewhere (reddit/earlier beta/forum), but I haven’t been able to find it. Thus I make this guide for those who want to try warrior from a different perspective.

Theory
The Thought behind my build came after I realized that Norn warrior and swords didn’t have the same feel as human animation (Trust me its weird, but I made a second warrior just for that reason) and that I wanted to make swords a DPS build. I was also partially inspired to go Sword-Shield/GS and Sword-Sword/GS after watching a few videos and saw the pros/cons these weapon combinations. After much research and testing, I feel I found another way to develop a build to help warriors in a general way much like my Boon Guide.

Warriors have a Unique ability and traits just like every other class, except that most warriors would argue the adrenaline system is pretty subpar compared to other classes Special abilities, for example (joking way to explain):

Elementalist = 4 attunements + Superior Sigil of Battle = Boss
Necromancer = 2nd lifebar + already high health pool = Boss
Mesmer = Clones + dps + utility = Boss
Guardian = Passive virtues + actives = Boss
Ranger = pet ai + pet abilites = well… yea when they fix it =P
Engineer = Tool belt + skills = Pretty versatile
Thief = Steal + Cloak and Dagger + Back Stab = Broken

Anyways, all joking aside, warriors have adrenaline, and burst skills. Some burst skills were Amazingly broken (eviscerate/killshot) but the nerf to burst dmg made that stop. Some Burst skills now are still strong to some extent, including killshot/eviscerate, but overall the weapons that are associated with each of these burst skills is a true testament to the build in which you use. Lets look very fast at each Burst skill:

• Killshot (Rifle – Single target dps) = High Single Target Dmg (easy to avoid if someone notices)
• Combustive Arrow (Bow – Multi target dps) = Fire field + burn dmg (long duration and great field effect)
• Eviscerate (Axe – multi target close range dps) = High single target Dmg (easy to dodge/predict)
• Flurry (Sword – bleed/mobility use) = Multi close target immobilize/bleed (Low dps even if specced heavily on Condition dmg)
• Skull Crack (Mace – stun/weakness) = Multi close target stun (low stun time 2 seconds)
• Arcing slice (GS – Mobility/multi target dps) = ………….. uh fury? (fury for 10 sec max?)
• Earthshaker (Hammer – Crowd Control/weakness) = Multi target stun (sometimes doesnt always work and 2 sec stun only)

[I know these weapons offer more than what I stated on them, but those are their more stronger aspects of that weapon]

As you see, some are quite useful in certain scenarios, and others not so much. What that means, is that most of time our adrenaline bar is full, and leaving us with a burst skill of choice to use when we wanted. Well my guide is just a way I figured a warrior can spec any way they want gear wise, and get some tanky/dps without spreading points around too much into traits, assuming they don’t use the adrenaline skills often or at all (like me =D).

Basis & Variations

There is only 4 Skills/traits that gain maximum benefits from full adrenaline:

• Adrenaline Surge = Max health gain at full Adrenaline
• Berserkers Power = 12% max damage
• Adrenal Health = 360 health every 3 sec = 120 hp/s
• Heightened Focus = 9% crit chance

That means with 35 Trait points (I say 40 = Reason why after) you get Dps/HP effectiveness at a very good rate without ever losing it as long as you have full adrenaline. This means that even tanky specs or support specs can get some dps without having to go deep into the offensive trait trees. Anyone who doesn’t use their burst skills often, or at all, can gain massive benefits with just 35 trait points and have a more well rounded aspect to any of their builds.

What you get for 40 points =

1. 10 Strength = 100 power + 10% condition duration + 12% damage increase and damage (about an auto attack worth) when rolling, which goes great with Signet of stamina/vigor.
2. 20 Defense = 200 toughness + healing + 120 hp/s regen + free 100 toughness when your 90% hp + 2 defensive traits (reason for 20 is because I think the fixed trait Last stand compliments any build exceptionally well as long as your not using a shield or mace or hammer, and in some cases even if you are)
3. 10 Discipline = 10% Crit dmg + …..1% burst dmg (Another reason to not use burst skills) + 9% Crit Chance + gain 5 strikes adrenaline on weapon switch in combat (would argue if you didn’t put 5 into defense for last stand, at least 5 into discipline for fast hands and the 5% crit dmg which goes well with versatile rage)

The idea for full Adrenaline really is more or less centered around GS, since it has the worst Burst skill out of all of them, and GS benefits perhaps the most from all of these aspects, including the healing part because GS is a mobile type of fighting style = longer fight/chasing, allowing adrenal health+surge to be better utilized. This doesn’t mean that other weapons/builds can’t benefit from these traits/skill. A few Examples where these traits/skill can be made into other builds are:

(I assume people know what traits to get for their weapon/build as I will be
labeling only the trait allocations)

(please excuse the names, they were labels =D)

• Hammer Time = 10/0/20/20/20 – Hammer/Sword-Warhorn
  Aoe Dps/CC and Team Condition Removal/buffer, best to go with Power/Vitality/Toughness Gear
• Active Shooter = 10/25/15/0/20 – Rifle/GS
  Single Target DPS and high mobility. Roamer style with some defensive stats for close up and personal GS dps or escape. Most likely Zerker gear would be appropriate,
• Can I axe you a question? = 20/0/20/0/30 – Axe-Axe/(anything u want)
  High AOE Dps from Whirling-axe + last stand + endure pain = Shredder
  Knight/Valk/Zerk gear combinations are good choices.

There are many many types of builds that can be used to work with Full Adrenaline. The idea is to use the skills between two sets constantly, and use the burst skills as little as possible unless necessary or if your build is centered around it, to reap its benefits.

Certain Skills/Traits can also contribute to adrenaline gains very quickly in the case you wish to maximize the uptime of adrenaline with using burst skills every now and again like killshot or flurry. These skills/Traits are and their usefulness (opinion):

[Note: full 3 bars of adrenaline = 30 strikes]
[Every hit on an enemy target gives 1 strike of adrenaline]
[Rating for usefulness in terms of gaining adrenaline 1(weak) – 10(strong)]

• {5} Mace skill 2 and sword skill 5 give adrenaline after max charge up time of about 3 seconds = about 4 strikes of adrenaline each
• {7} Versatile Rage (5 Discipline) = 5 strikes for weapon switching in combat
• {8} Embrace the pain (10 Defense) = 1 strike for every hit on your character (does not include condition ticks/dmg)
• {4} Furious (30 Arms) = extra strike of adrelanine per a crit, Not to crazy about it
• {2} Berserkers might/stance (30 Strength/utility slot) = (5 strikes/sec) full 30 strikes over a period of 6 seconds, not really worth a slot in utility or going 30 into strength.
• {9} Healing Surge = Full 30 strikes + heal and gives more heal with full adrenaline is great. Best way to get adrenaline fast, yes it uses your heal, but gives full bars + heal on a 30 second cooldown.
• {1} Signet of Rage = Gives like 1 strike every 3 seconds. Idk why it would be on passive, its active is 10x more useful.
• {4} Signet of Fury = full 30 strikes and precision when not activated, not too terrible, but better choices elsewhere in my opinion.
• {8} Inspiring Shouts (10 Discipline) = 8 strikes per a shout, pretty good ratio for a shout
• {6} Sharpened Axes (20 Discipline) = extra Strike per a crit from axe, (this + whirling axe + 100% crit = full 30 strikes with one skill from one target)
• The rest of the other skills/traits aren’t even worth mentioning or bothering with.

This means if you are going to use Burst skills often then I Suggest you make sure you can gain adrenaline adequately Using a few of these traits/skills.

Armor/Gear

Best part about this Build is that it doesn’t affect your build design at all. You can go very heavy into dps (zerker gear) or Tanky (P/V/T) or mix of anything and still be quite able to deal some damage and be a bit sustainable. I do need to say that condition builds will probably not receive much gains in this build, but it is still possible to go 30 into arms and spec for sword or rifle, and retain the adrenaline usefulness. (Side Note (opinion) – Condition Warrior builds currently are a quite subpar to other builds warrior can achieve and other condition builds on other classes). To that Note, any kind of build can probably benefit from this basis of adrenaline abuse.

My Build

This is my current build with my second warrior. I mostly use this build for WvW/Dungeons. I always carry a rifle with me at all times for emergency ranged scenarios or fractals =P. Otherwise I use GS/Sword-Shield which I change sometimes to GS/Sword-Sword. The idea for this build was to gain maximum movement and stick to my target strongly + be some what able to mitigate damage and remove conditions.

20/0/20/0/30
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#2|9|11|317|5728|3903|246|20|836|1499|0|0|0|0|0|20|1084|1535|0|0|0|0|0|30|1109|1545|1553|7|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Sometimes changing traits around depending on whether I use sword/shield on offhand. I will change this build later to better go with Lyssa runes (using ruby orbs right now =P)(Cheap way to gain dps) which I plan on using with this:

10/0/20/10/30
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#2|9|11|317|5728|3903|246|10|836|0|0|0|0|0|0|20|1084|1535|0|10|1057|0|0|30|1109|1545|1553|7|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

Armor/Trinkets -
Full Berserkers and Ruby orb/exquisite Ruby

Sigils -
GS = Fire, Sword = Air, Shield = Energy
or
GS = Force, Sword = Rage, Shield = Energy

Still debating Q.Q

Skills -
(Adrenaline Surge/Mending) – Sometimes I need more healz, sometimes condition removal
(Balanced Stance/Frenzy) – Depending on Shield/Sword offhand
(Bull Rush/Bolas Throw) – Depends on how I feel
(Signet of Stamina) – endurance regen is amazing + active is great for condition removal
(Signet of Rage) – Obvious Reasons of pure Dps/swiftness

This build was a basis for obtaining a thief like personality while still feeling like a warrior. Its core parts are guerrilla tactics. 5 gap closers (shield bash is kinda a gap closer =P) [Bull Rush/Whirlwind/Rush/Savage Leap] + swiftness, helps jump in and out against most targets (both players or PvE mobs). High survivability if you can time your shield block/dodge rolls well.

Combos

This is a slight section outside of the adrenaline guide.
After playing a warrior for such a long time, I finally found a great way to utilize Fast hands and different skills together. This Research, offered a few ways to combine these skills and the second weapon set skills to their advantages (such as gap closer/knockdown/roll) which I call Combos (Not field combos only- but i will include them). I will not put the one trick pony combo in here because of its widely known use. (Please excuse the names, just for fun and labeling)

Field ones

• Flame Shield = (scorching arrow + leap/gap closer) it applies the burn dot on any attacker, decent for some dmg, but otherwise not to amazing.
• Might Stacker = (scorching arrow + Blast finisher) Gives might to allies in the area which you use your blast finisher (banner is common source)
• Fire tornado = (scorching arrow + whirl) Whirlwind or whirling axe are good skills to deal dmg to targets in a small area.

[x = any weapon you want]

Weapon & Utility Combos

• Triple Knock back (Hammer/sword-shield) = Earthshaker (hammer burst) into an area -> then Hammer skill 5 enemy target or skip straight to hammer skill 4 for knockback if you want to blow target in that direction -> then switch to sword and shield for savage leap -> into the ability kick -> use shield bash to close gap once more -> then use stomp (hilarious way to peel a target)(usage of balance stance could help make this happen smoother or use Fear me for another CC control)(does not work on someone who has balanced stance on).
• Guerrilla Warfare (Greatsword/sword-shield) = Bull rush -> into a hundred blades (don’t finish the full animation if target is about to use an ability or attack, or roll out, -> use whirlwind in direction of enemy -> switch to sword/shield for savage leap -> cripple -> auto attack till you can repeat process with a flurry/sheild bash into another hunderblade/whirlwind etc.
• Boom and Slice (Rifle/Axe-x) = Rifle butt -> Frenzy -> Bolas Throw -> killshot -> Signet of fury -> switch to axe -> Eviscerate
• Rip rip and dip (Sword-Sword/Greatsword) = Empale -> Savage leap -> Flurry but cancel early for rip -> bolas throw/bull rush -> switch to greatsword to start Hundredblade -> cancel early if target is no longer snared by using whirlwind -> rush to create space. Rinse repeat.
• Knock em down (Hammer/Mace-mace) = Tremor -> Bull Rush -> pommel smash Skull crack -> Stomp -> Signet of fury -> switch to hammer for earthshaker -> backbreaker -> Hammer 4 (can prolong the duration of all effects by timing them in a proper fashion. This is also known as juggling)

There are more combinations of attacks between different weapons sets and utilities. If you have others please contribute to this thread. Most of these combos are to be done in a very quick manner (no more then say 3-7 seconds at most).

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I hope this opens a window for many people rolling warrior or avid warrior players. If you already know about this builds ideas than I guess this isn’t much help to you. I accept any criticism or comments that can better help tweak and refine the warrior builds that exist. If this helped you in any way, I would be satisfied with a simple thanks. If you wish to criticize please provide helpful feedback and maturity in your responses. Thank you.

(Sorry for the Long Post >.<)

Links to other guides

Boon Guide
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Boon-Guide-Universal-Build/first#post1244240

Various Builds
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Various-Builds-for-Warriors-General-Guide/first#post1251107

[Possible Other Guides coming]