Guild Wars 2

This is a testimonial, not a revelation. After getting driven into the ground over and over again by condition spammers I finally decided to try out the Runes of Melandru and Lemongrass Soup which I had seen mentioned multiple times here on the forums. The difference in survivability was night and day.

I was able to stand toe-to-toe with condition spammers (necros and engies the prime culprits) and shrug off most of their stuff. They still hurt me, but they could rarely get that critical amount of conditions built up to push me over the edge.

We are still weak against conditions compared to other classes. But the runes plus the soup turned me from a relatively easy kill into actual opposition. Anyway…if you are a warrior and haven’t tried this combination yet, you owe it to yourself to give it a go.

P.S. The builds I was running were the following. These are provided as point of reference for at least what worked for me and what can work with this combo. I’m sure there are many more builds that will work and are probably more optimal.

GS/Sw&Sh
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR8ejkOBvFP+OMxBEMDN8KuMgCmQpYOqDA-jUyAYMBZKCMVKQZvioxWGLiGreBTVuoalLg3gRrGA-w

GS/Hammer
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARSjkOBvFP+OMxBEMDNkLuMgCmQpYOqDA-jEyAYMAqUgyeFRjtMWENW9CmqcR1KXAvBjWNA-w

I personally prefer Runes of Hoelbrak these days: helps with conditions, doesn’t take a hit on my damage, and they synergize well with Forceful Greatsword. Mel runes are good don’t get me wrong but I run builds that have their sustain from things like Endure Pain, Counterblow, Shield Stance, Zerker Stance, and whirlwind attack. With 20 points in defense and a bit of Valk armor tossed in you’ll have a nice balance.

Hoelbrak, if you are stacking loads of might(i.e. if you are a bullrush frenzy 100b freekill)

Melandru, if you are part of the 2% who don’t have some weird greatsword fetish and do not stack might from other sources aswell.(My only source of might is warbanner anyway)

Right now, I use neither, tho. Unsure whether I should grab melandru or respec to SoR and grab Lyssa Runes. Because My Hammer build is rather low on might stacks, Hoelbrak Runes are not that good for me.

naphack.9346:

Hoelbrak, if you are stacking loads of might(i.e. if you are a bullrush frenzy 100b freekill)

Melandru, if you are part of the 2% who don’t have some weird greatsword fetish and do not stack might from other sources aswell.(My only source of might is warbanner anyway)

Right now, I use neither, tho. Unsure whether I should grab melandru or respec to SoR and grab Lyssa Runes. Because My Hammer build is rather low on might stacks, Hoelbrak Runes are not that good for me.

Most warriors only use GS for mobility and to combo 100b with the buffed Skull Crack:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwpQyQMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9AP2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

GS has the best synergy with Skull Crack and makes up for Mace/Shields lack of mobility. Far from a free kill. The might is also just a matter-of-fact synergy, it’s mostly for the strength because too much toughness (which if you’re running hammer means you’ll have a good amount of) makes you a bad Guardian with less survival and less damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOtwpQyQMxBE0DsoK4C1D8YDjjUBxA-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxGCA

Running that with Hoelbrak at least allows you to dish out some damage, I find the utility from the stances and Shield Block go a lot further than stacking Tounghness and Vitality. Not to mention that in 1v1s and small skirmishes you have a better chance of coming out on top.

GS/Mace Warrior is a free kill for Stab/Blind/Block spammers. So Thieves, Necros, Engineers, Guardians and some Eles. But yeah, other than that, you’re fine ;p

i use lyssa, removes all condtions + all boons for 5 sec. + 10sec boon on healing
(often get protection, at that point i feel like a god.. lol :-P

Melandru is nice but i dont want to run all day around eating food also.. (dont have that much gold)
So without the food melandru is missing the point.

nicknamenick.2437:

i use lyssa, removes all condtions + all boons for 5 sec. + 10sec boon on healing
(often get protection, at that point i feel like a god.. lol :-P

The thing is, massive condition removal is a big thing against necros, but they can also turn all of your boons against you.

Melandru is nice but i dont want to run all day around eating food also.. (dont have that much gold)
So without the food melandru is missing the point.

You could just buy Bowl of Poultry and Leek Soup for like 3 silver a piece. That’s what I do.

For a long time I had considered getting melandru ruins but between mending and lyssa runes I feel alright vs conditions . That being said melandru plus food is really good and probably the best condition management we have next to LB + Ire. Be warned some players do run givers and 80 to 80% condition duration so even with melandru + food ymmv.

I wonder what kind of drivel was going through their heads when they decided to stack duration reduction additively. Some people just can’t reason logically and unfortunately the devs are among them.

Yaki.9563:

I wonder what kind of drivel was going through their heads when they decided to stack duration reduction additively. Some people just can’t reason logically and unfortunately the devs are among them.

I would imagine that it mostly has to do with the fact that making it multiplicative would favor -duration% over +duration% massively.

YuiRS.8129:

GS/Mace Warrior is a free kill for Stab/Blind/Block spammers. So Thieves, Necros, Engineers, Guardians and some Eles. But yeah, other than that, you’re fine ;p

Not from my experience. However, you might be referring to the elite players who stack food that is 40% condition duration increase; those give me a hard time.

Those are FEW and FAR between. The only times I died last night was because of zerging interrupting me or I kid you not my food went down in the battle itself; lol happened twice.

Besides that this spec with Holebrak, lemongrass, AND dogged march means basically I can focus on whipping someone. Mace stun is the best in game now as far as I feel. It’s hard to see coming. That and the fact I love missile reflection. Gave a warrior a 14k crit on a killshot the other day; was rather amusing.

Might stacking with block and sigils too – strength and battle on mace and shield and I have might show up on weapon swap on greatsword since might stacking with 20 in arms does that part fine.

0/20/20/0/30.

I solo MAINLY.

Strength and battle don’t work together well due to shared CD…

Cygnus.6903:

Strength and battle don’t work together well due to shared CD…

I don’t understand. So, if I’m wielding my greatsword and its currently using sigil of battle and switch to mace/shield that has battle and strength and the CD is up it would proc stacks of might on weapon switch but then if I crit within 10 seconds it won’t proc another might?

And, does sigil of strength combine with forceful greatsword?

That is exactly how it works. It’s even worse if you have sigil of battle on both sets, as your swap cooldown is lower then the cooldow on sigil of battle.

Strength does stack with forceful gs. But as far as might stacking goes, stick with battle IMO.

YuiRS.8129:

GS/Mace Warrior is a free kill for Stab/Blind/Block spammers. So Thieves, Necros, Engineers, Guardians and some Eles. But yeah, other than that, you’re fine ;p

Stab: Endure Pain and Shield Stance, use them wisely to counter large Spikes.

Blind: Berserker Stance, the 8 second duration is more than enough time to lock down a thief by using Shield Bash, then when they use their stun break hit them with Skull Cracker and it’s over.

Block: Learning how Guardian Block skills work make it easier to simply wait them out or trigger the bock then dodge right after to avoid any damage. I spent a few days playing as a Guardian and fighting them became much easier. Not to mention you have blocks of your own on a rather short CD to avoid leap of fait and Ray of Judgment (which with reflect Projectiles makes the Guardian blind himself).

It’s all about knowing the meta and how the skills work. Other classes don’t necessarily have to know other players builds because they have so much spam it doesn’t matter (although knowing the builds make things easier for them as well) but it’s a MUST for warriors. Using your Stances wisely means that Condition spammers are unable to harm you for 8 seconds, Reflect on Counterblow and Shield Bock can be used to screw Rangers and Engis over, and Endure Pain keeps you safe from spikes.

Yes, there will be times when your skills are on CD and you get destroyed, but that’s true of most classes. A ele with Armor of Earth or Mist on CD is a tasty meal for your Skull Crack. This is even more true for Necro with their lack of mobility or ways to counter CC. This build will have the most trouble 1v1 with mesmers that play smart and stick to wearing you down. This is mostly due to Blurred Frenzy being the bane of a warriors existence. It got nerfed vs retaliation but that doesn’t help us much.

Basically, we are slowly starting to become more viable, and the Zerker Stance change helped a great deal. Cleanses aren’t really the best choice imo when conditions are so easily reapplied, but being immune to them for 8 seconds is pretty fantastic especially when you’re also cleansing 3 condis frequently with Skull Crack.

I think he meant stab as stability, not pointy attacks.

Olba.5376:

Yaki.9563:

I wonder what kind of drivel was going through their heads when they decided to stack duration reduction additively. Some people just can’t reason logically and unfortunately the devs are among them.

I would imagine that it mostly has to do with the fact that making it multiplicative would favor -duration% over +duration% massively.

You don’t understand what multiplicative stacking means.

40% food, 25% runes duration reduction:

Additive: 1 – (0.4 + 0.25) = 0.35 so a 65% reduction
Multiplicative: (1 – 0.4)(1 – 0.25) = 0.45 equals 55% reduction

Lets take it to extremes (unfortunately available in the game):
40% food, 25% runes, 33% trait duration reduction:

Additive: 1 – (0.4 + 0.25 + 0.33) = 0.02 so a 98% reduction
Multiplicative: (1 – 0.4)(1 – 0.25)(1 – 0.33) = 0.30 so a 70% reduction

Clearly additive is far, far, far more powerful as the sum approaches 100%. A 98% reduction is the counter to a 4900% increase, while a 70% reduction is the counter to a 233% increase.

Multiplicative scaling means that they can balance duration increase and decrease relative to each other without any worry about the interaction between multiple sources. This cannot be done with additive scaling, which is why it is a total rookie/idiot/ignoramus programming decision.

Yaki.9563:

You don’t understand what multiplicative stacking means.

40% food, 25% runes duration reduction:

Additive: 1 – (0.4 + 0.25) = 0.35 so a 65% reduction
Multiplicative: (1 – 0.4)(1 – 0.25) = 0.45 equals 55% reduction

Lets take it to extremes (unfortunately available in the game):
40% food, 25% runes, 33% trait duration reduction:

Additive: 1 – (0.4 + 0.25 + 0.33) = 0.02 so a 98% reduction
Multiplicative: (1 – 0.4)(1 – 0.25)(1 – 0.33) = 0.30 so a 70% reduction

Oh come on.

I was talking about the way +condition duration% interacts with -condition duration%. You completely ignored that and proceeded to make some unrelated point. And I lack understanding?

My point is the following:

• With additive stacking of durations, +40% condition duration is equal to -40% duration.
• With multiplicative stacking, the above is not true, as it would result in a total of -16% condition duration

naphack.9346:

Hoelbrak, if you are stacking loads of might(i.e. if you are a bullrush frenzy 100b freekill)

Melandru, if you are part of the 2% who don’t have some weird greatsword fetish and do not stack might from other sources aswell.(My only source of might is warbanner anyway)

Right now, I use neither, tho. Unsure whether I should grab melandru or respec to SoR and grab Lyssa Runes. Because My Hammer build is rather low on might stacks, Hoelbrak Runes are not that good for me.

this made me lol. so true lol… so true

I used Lyssa/SoR/Signet mastery for about the last six months. With all the extra badges of honor I recently took the plunge and bought a full Soldiers/Melandru set for WvW, changing Signet Mastery to Death from Above.

I miss stability (and protection and regen) on SoR, and have had to swap a shout out for Balanced Stance. I love the way conditions and stuns slide off me with the runes+soup. Relying less on SoR means that I can slot Battle Standard.

Lyssa gives an incredible elite, but one that demands SoR and Signet Mastery for best results. Melandru turns ‘swap all conditions for all boons every 48s’ into ‘less conditions always.’

Overall it’s not a huge difference, but I do feel a bit stronger in condition-heavy environments.