Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow forum-going warriors.

Just posting my experiences with my favorite profession, the warrior. Hopefully, I can get some better insight into the class as a whole, as I still feel I have a lot to learn in regards to sPvP. This is mainly regarding PvP in general, as I have no problems in PvE on my warrior.

I’m using a highly unorthodox build for PvP. Call me crazy, but I loathe the ability Frenzy. I don’t like using it at all, but I can’t quite explain why. I run a build that is somewhat glass cannon, using shouts in all 3 utility slots, and Signet of Rage as my elite. For my heal, I use Healing Surge, because this build gets decent condition removal through my shouts. For reference, my build is:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR8encOk8YUQOPwEZAwooIgUKgru0DxQLNA;T0Ag0CnoyyklILbWuskZt+Y8x5jtIvPA

As always, you may need to copy+paste it into your browser to get it to work.

I like the build overall, but if I’m playing solo, I always run into the same problem… Movement impairing conditions. I tried playing a high toughness/vitality Greatsword/hammer warrior, but I always ended up dieing regardless of how tough I was. It was great 1v1, but I didn’t have enough damage to pressure or kill my opponent. With this build, I rely on the high mobility from mainhand sword and greatsword to get out of danger. It works very well, until a cripple or chill comes into the equation… Both of these conditions severely reduce the distance traveled, and more often than not, make me look kind of silly as I use a 20 second cooldown (rush) only to traverse all of 8 feet.

When I play with a support oriented friend, such as an altruistic healing shout guardian, I remain mostly condition free, and I can survive very well. In addition to being able to move around unhindered, I get sought after buffs like protection and stability, which is nice.

So, my problem is this: When I’m playing by myself, or fighting 1v1, is there anything I can do to keep my mobility effective? It seems like once chill or cripple are applied, my means to escape are null and void, especially if I have loads of other conditions on me that cover them.

I’ve even tried using Mending instead of Healing Surge, and replacing the Berserker’s Power trait with Restorative Strength, but the conditions they remove are normally quickly reapplied. It does help, but at the cost of healing effectiveness, which I need to survive the more burst damage oriented classes.

I apologize for the large wall of text, but I’d really like to keep playing my warrior in PvP, and any time I get crippled or chilled, my survivability goes down the drain. I’d really appreciate any tips, as I’m not the most experience/pro player out there.

Feliyx, #1 floor tanker in NA.

Yeah I don’t like Frenzy either, to make it reliable you need to devote 3-4 of your 5 of your skills to it (endure pain, stability of some form, and probably a charge/bolas which can easily miss), and even then there are plenty of abilities available to your opponent like various invulns or simply dodge rolling.

Shouts are pretty rad and you’ve wisely gravitated toward them, especially the cooldowns, so you are more use in a lengthy fight (as opposed to the Frenzy builds which are get-in get-out one trick ponies). Although personally I wouldn’t devote all 3 utility slots to shouts, stability is too important to the way I play so I need that Balanced Stance / Dolyak Signet, though I prefer the stance due to the signet being interrupted at the worst possible time, all the time.

As far as cripple goes, it is pretty much ubiquitous on me during fights and I just accept it for an inevitability ;-P. A warrior commits to the fight, because the devs didn’t really give us a way out aside from the combo: warhorn swiftness → sword leap → GS dash/whirlwind. When you end up having to melee, try not to be out in the open… use the environment pillars/trees/walls to break line of sight – you’re going to be crippled but make them work to get you down.

Honestly I just don’t see shouts as viable in sPvP, WvW perhaps on very tanky builds but even then I find myself unwilling to drop any trait points into them and even less willing to equip more than maybe one. This is partly due to the fact that every minor trait in tactics is entirely useless and I generally find vitality to be the least useful stat for warriors to grab.

If it’s just cripples that are a problem however, keep in mind that you have your own cripples so you can slow them down to your pace, and WW is remarkably effective while crippled. Signet of Stamina is also a nice little way to get rid of overwhelming conditions, and if you drop Inspiring Shouts you can pick up signet mastery and have it and swiftness available far more often.

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.

I’ll have to work on getting more practice on specific maps for good areas to fight in. I’m also going to try replacing On My Mark with Balanced Stance, because I always find myself in a situation where I just get wrecked, and afterwards think “That might’ve been different if I had stability.”

It’s a shame that there’s no good way to keep myself snare-free, but I’ll just try and adapt around it. I’m really loving the mobility that my Sword and Greatsword give me, because it makes me hard to pin down. It’s always good to know I’m not the only warrior having problems with snares. I’ll get used to using pillars to bait enemies close to melee range, so I can immobilize them and get to work on chipping away at their HP.

Thanks again for the advice Vorpal, it’s much appreciated.