Guild Wars 2

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.4|7.1g.h1.9.1g.h2|7.1g.h1.g.1g.h1h|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|3s.d16.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|k5a.0.0.k69.u59c|55.7|5y.6b.69.61.6m|e

Posting my PVE-focused build in hopes of feedback and sharing with other new Warriors.

I built everything here around the main-hand Axe. I love the skills and skins, and I’m slowly working my way towards Frostfang. The off-hand weapon switches (as often as possible, which is every 5 seconds, to maximize the free Might stack from Versatile Power as well as the 3 stacks from Sigil of Battle) from Mace to Warhorn. Before I get a bunch of “Switch to Greatsword with Axe/Mace and stack 25 in Arms”, I’ve played Strife’s rather excellent build featuring GS/A&M into the ground. In fact, my build draws from Strife’s in some places. If you’re looking for a pure DPS build and run with organized groups only, definitely go with his build.

I just don’t like being rooted for the duration of HB, especially in Fractals. I still bring an untraited Greatsword into CoF path 1, but honestly, I don’t notice much of a difference between the two specs given I can stay mobile and DPS where the GS build causes me to pull back and regroup after dropping HB. This need is largely because I tend to PUG, which lends itself to needing a bit of extra survivability which I feel the Warhorn provides absolutely perfectly when traited (condition removal, extra dodges).

The main features of the build:

• Generate a ton of adrenaline through weapon swaps, axe critical hits, and burst skill which synergizes extremely well with Strength V (Berserker’s Power) and Discipline V (Heightened Focus)
• Discipline XII (Adrenal Reserves) and Strength minor trait Building Momentum synergize extremely well with Strength V (Berserker’s Power) and Discipline V (Heightened Focus) and Healing Surge (putting it above Mending by 500HP) since you will always have at least one chunk of Adrenaline
• Tactics VI (Empowered) synergizes extremely well with Tactics IX (Quick Breathing) and the Warhorn condition conversion, leading to an easily-maintained 4 boons 90%-100% of the time (Vigor, Swiftness, Might, Fury) and spikes to sometimes 6 boons when converting Poison to Regeneration or Vulnerability to Protection not factoring in boons from other players
• Fast Hands synergizes extremely well with Sigil of Battle and For Great Justice to reliably and consistently stack 7 stacks of Might, and with Signet of Rage to stack 12 without any outside Might from other players
• Huge group utility in frequent condition removal, frequent condition conversion, might and fury from For Great Justice, 100% up-time swiftness and vigor from Warhorn, precision and increased critical damage from the Banner of Discipline
• All this while doing 2000+ damage on an auto-attack crits (~85% critical chance with Fury, ~115% critical damage), 10,000+ damage on Eviscerate crits

This is a DPS-focused build with increased group utility and survivability for PUGs, solo map completion, and low-to-mid-level Fractals.

Let me know what you think!

I’m running the exact same build and find it quite viable if you don’t want to go the all-in DPS full Glass cannon route.
IMO you bring much more to the group in terms of DPS and utility running this build instead of running a standard shout/heal support build.

What do you think the best trait dump order would be for starting this build at level 11?

I think it is a fairly Nice build and I think will serve you very well in PvE. I still Have a Really big itch that bothers me though whenever i see two weapon sets with the same mainhand weapon >.>. Have you thought about perhaps making Axe/Horn, into Sword/Horn, since it will give you some extra mobility? In WvW or PvP, i would highly recommend sword for savage leap and Flurry immobilizing, but otherwise your build seems to suit what you want and need, and seems to synergize well with itself.

Im curious whether people know that if you run the same main hand you dont need to buy 2….aka have your main set as axe shield and your 2ndary set as just warhorn…when you weap swap it keeps the axe in mainhand and just swaps offhands…

the only thing ive yet to test is whether regarding above scenario if having sigil of battle on that 1 axe will still proc with each and every weapon swap. I assume it would…which be amazing.

Zanthrax.6538:

Im curious whether people know that if you run the same main hand you dont need to buy 2….aka have your main set as axe shield and your 2ndary set as just warhorn…when you weap swap it keeps the axe in mainhand and just swaps offhands…

the only thing ive yet to test is whether regarding above scenario if having sigil of battle on that 1 axe will still proc with each and every weapon swap. I assume it would…which be amazing.

If an on-swap sigil isn’t on cooldown and that weapon is in the set being swapped to, then yes. It also works when you were holding a banner and let go of it, thus swapping back to that weapon.

Incidentally OP the site you’re using seems to be out of date, banner still showing as 90 + 10%.

I use that one:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|7.1g.h2.9.1g.h1|c.1g.h2.g.1g.h1|1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d.1n.7d|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67|a5.p36.0.k69.f5|2e.1|5y.69.61.6i.6m|e
I switch to sword/warhorn for movement, buffs, condition removing, add some bleeds with sword#1 and switch back to axe. The bleeds last longer with Deep Cuts which is a nice additional damage (and works well with Attack of Opportunity).
If I’m lazy i play with axe/warhorn // sword/warhorn. If I need more defence I play with axe/warhorn // sword/shield. If I need distance I play with axe/warhorn // rifle (with arms VII).
If I will be better in avoiding damage, I will change the knight armor to berserker armor.
Some thougths:
The +20% might duration from rune of strength sounds better to me than sigil of battle. And the whole set is equal to 6 rubys when you look for damage.
With the Warhorn you don’t need SIO in PVE, take Endure Pain instead.

Sorry for my english, I’m not native.

I think the Axe burst is only useful for PvP / WvWvW in my honest opinion.
With mobs, you can easily build up adrenaline, but then it’s better to swap to Longbow and use that burst to give some area might, combo field, etc.
With bosses, it’s a slow process building up adrenaline and you have to invest traits to make it go faster (which I personally think is a waste). Even then, the time you spend building up adrenaline hurts you as Heightened Focus and Berserker’s Power is not active.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|7.1g.h2.e.1g.h1|3.0.h4|1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1g.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|a5.p56.k29.0.f5|55.1|5y.69.6i.6f.6m|e

Here is my build for fractals. I don’t burst with Axe, only with Longbow when necessary. I swap in Rifle for some bosses.