Guild Wars 2

First things first. I only play only in platinum tops (though I dropped a lot while trying to learn warrior). I do pretty OK on most other professions. My win % on engi, ele and DH are actually pretty good. But then comes warrior.

Whatever build I try, I seem to get wrecked when playing sPvP. Perhaps that is because all builds I tried are exlusively melee (and I don’t want to humiliate myself with going rifle or bow)? The problem comes from the nature of sPvP. Enter conquest, everyone from enemy team jumps into the god-kitten circle, in the middle of spam of traps, wells and all kinds of kitten. Yes I do have three defensive stances. But in the midst of CC and random AoE damage spam that is not enough. Not even by a long shot. Unless it’s 1v1 where I guess I do OK-ish (I can improve a lot but that is up to me, I know what to work on). But in teamfighs I feel utterly useless. I either enter the fray and despite my defensive cooldowns I get absolutely destroyed in seconds (while trying to land my big telegraphed setups which get dodged/blocked/missed more often than not). Or I stay at the side and try to chase loose guys which is again counterproductive since on a DH I can do three times more damage in the very same role. In similar fashion, my lasting power in the middle of red goo is much higher on engi or ele.

Im trying to figure out every single profession and how can I use it in sPvP. So far I got almost everything figured out. I do OK-ish on everything except thief (I dont feel like I win enough 1v1 vs other thieves which is crucial in its roaming mindset) and warrior. But while I understand what I need to do on a thief and I just didnt train my mechanics good enough, on warrior I am still at the level of question “What the kitten I do to actually help my team?”.

Anyone care to drop some warrior-pvp-noob-friendly advice? sPvP only, WvW is a different thing.

I’m a low plat gold-3 player.

Warrior used to be a premiere side node 1v1 class with either Zerker or Condi. The recent nerfs hit it so hard that all its CC and burst can be easily dodged, and it has a silly lack of sustain.

You can still play it at high gold level most likely, if you outskill your opponent. If you recall back in 2012 Warriors were snipers with Bull’s Charge Frenzy 100 Blades, that’s how you teamfight: you catch someone vulnerable, burst and pull away (keep your GS dash skills for escape). However it is undisputably on the bottom of viability right now.

If you really want to run Warrior, then staying in any teamfight isn’t an option anymore. I suggest Rifle/X Killshot Warrior and roam with it like a Necro, plugging people with unblockable Gun Flame. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJAURj8cQfHW3BehAnIWqCs3Rbq91is4aABAleQjLHA-TpRaABcu/gwXAAAKDc7hAw0HAQuHBAA Something like that.

Or run Torch burst Condi, catches people by surprise.

It’s because someone at ArenaNet thought nerfing ALL of Warriors decent CC was a good fix.

Basically, if you can bait dodges, 1v1 is doable. But against anyone with half a brain, you’ll likely get kited all day. It’s in a very bad place right now and I’m really hoping ArenaNet fixes it.

Simple answer. You’re playing warrior. Thats why. ANET hit it so hard with the nerf bat.

I’m doing somewhat ok but that’s because I’m playing only warrior since the beginning. This season the following builds work for me:
- GS power my standard build it still works the best for me
- Some Mace/torch condi build that I had loads of fun with

Everything else I get annihilated easily. With these builds sometimes I can kill the opponent quickly, while avoiding middle red circles, where I die instantly.

They truly nerfed warrior sustain hardcore to the ground, it’s miles from every class right now. Hope it will be changed soon.

So, I definitely have to disagree with everyone who’s saying Warrior is unplayable right now. I’ve solo queued to plat with it, and am doing all right with it there. (Generally speaking, I’m finding it to be my own, personal skill that’s holding me back, and not my class.)

The main things I’ve noticed is that the Warrior no longer shines super brightly in 1v1 situations. I’ve been most successful in matches where I’ve been in 2v2, or larger fights. (I’m running GS/Mace Shield) In large fights, you’re much more able to land headbutt, by just waiting for a bit, until people are distracted, and have used dodges. Same goes for shield bash.
End result, in those situations, I’m able to quickly go berserk, and proceed to lock down the group’s target, as well as provide high powered AoE pressure with the GS.

You also need to play a bit more cautiously, avoiding those circles, even if you need to wait a little bit before you can really go in. Try to avoid burning all of your defensive cooldowns on engage. Try to save them for securing kills when there’s high amounts of pressure. Or, for when you’re getting focused, and need to focus survival. Well timed stances, and blocks can enable you to last a fairly long time, if you’re waiting for backup to arrive, or just need to sustain while your team runs amuck, doing the damage in the team fight.
I’ve noticed that at this level, Necro is mostly for the teamfight damage, and as such gets focused instantly. I feel like Power Warrior is in a bit of a similar place. Perhaps a bit less damage, but it exchanges that for more CC, durability, and steadier pressure. (Been a while since I last dusted off my Necro, and this has been my first season in Plat, so apologies if I’m off by a bit on my knowledge of Necro roles.)

So, Warrior isn’t unplayable anymore. But you need to play it differently than you used to. So, to the OP… Try to avoid being the first person to enter a teamfight, and hold onto your stuns until the fight has really started.

The Not so Evil Overlord.6305:

So, Warrior isn’t unplayable anymore. But you need to play it differently than you used to. So, to the OP… Try to avoid being the first person to enter a teamfight, and hold onto your stuns until the fight has really started.

I feel like this defeats the purpose. With how most games currently work, you usually have DHs and necros from both teams (there is a always 1 DH per team and quite often 2 of them) enter the circle. Since there burst pretty much starts to fly left and right. You have few people on the ground within seconds no matter if focused or not. If I dont contribute to the fight since the start, we are essentially fighting a 3v4. And from there it all just goes downhill.

Seriously. Im trying everything on warrior and so far no effect. On DH I just stand at side and shoot someone and then from time to time roll into the circle, place all my traps and gtfo (this stupid tactic works great up to plat).

Oh and btw. What an excellent image to illustrate my problem (OP here). This is me playing warrior this evening. And I swear to all the gods that I tried my best to win in all of those games. Well parhaps after chain of leavers/afkers in my team (which you can see on the score) I got triggered. But I still tried. I dont remember I ever seen smth like this on my Game History window. I lost one and half tier of rating in few days. Once Im done with warrior it will take weeks of cheesing on DH or engi to get back my lost rating.

And to the guy who posted a rifle build advice. It does not seem to work. I can burst people all right. When they dont expect it. But once they realize what I am doing, they get back at me and shut me down accordingly.

Awe.1096:

And to the guy who posted a rifle build advice. It does not seem to work. I can burst people all right. When they dont expect it. But once they realize what I am doing, they get back at me and shut me down accordingly.

Yes, I do feel a bit guilty for posting it, since smart players will know you are just a slightly faster Necro with no Shroud. And I am by far not anything great on Rifle Warrior, if there’s expert opinion on running one I’m all ears.

Tell your team what you’re playing, good-natured Eles and teammates peel for you sometimes. But the truth is this: you need to land your F1’s under pressure, you need to be aware enemy team might mark you on sight, you need to come into fights late (don’t try to engage a 1v1; don’t run Rifle if no bunkers unless you really know what you’re doing), and you need to choose a good target, like a Necro low on Shroud, a DH you just saw pop his last F3, etc., and have teammates that focus the targets you pick.

The good thing is, because of the extreme burst and unblockable signet, you can down anything that doesn’t run toughness and doesn’t have 40% protection. I’m out of practise, but make sure your key bindings allow you to “quickdraw” Signet of Fury, Berzerk -> F1 + Signet of Might rapidly so you can catch people with their pants down. If you’re facing someone you shot earlier in the game and they get wary, pop a Signet/sheathe your F1s and see what they do, outside of popping invuln or CC’ing you, you can land an F1 after dodges or through blocks.

It’s always a problem when you get focused or blinded on burst, but you have no choice but to bail sometimes.

Some things you can do to increase survivability include switching to Marauder, replace your Signet of Fury with Berzerker Stance, replacing “To the Limit!” with Healing Signet, replacing Blood Reaction with Dead or Alive, using Sword/Shield instead of GS. You can even use Last Stand and Savage Instict. Just tweak it to your liking.

Alternatively, it may be counter-intuitive but you can build even more ham by replacing Defense with Strength, since there’s not much to be gained from building survivable Rifle (Power Ranger has more sustained damage than you), you might as well just go back to melee + stances where it can still be somewhat effective if you’re good at dueling. And the reason Warriors are struggling, of course, is because their best contribution is win 1v1’s.

The truth is, right now everyone else is doing Warrior’s job with less effort. Warrior is Challenge Mode.

Awe.1096:

Oh and btw. What an excellent image to illustrate my problem (OP here). This is me playing warrior this evening. And I swear to all the gods that I tried my best to win in all of those games. Well parhaps after chain of leavers/afkers in my team (which you can see on the score) I got triggered. But I still tried. I dont remember I ever seen smth like this on my Game History window. I lost one and half tier of rating in few days. Once Im done with warrior it will take weeks of cheesing on DH or engi to get back my lost rating.

Try this mace/torch build, it works great for me. You basically do condi burst after the initial 8-10 seconds (just avoid fighting until then), stacks go really high and it’s very hard to cleanse.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNApfTn8cAlhgVhAukCEliFjAzIAsBzZvD3k7zFJ1tC+AA-TZhAQB4Y/BAcKA84DAIflBAxRAAA