Guild Wars 2

Recently got 80 and went with a Greatsword build. Love doing the big hits and all, but I am a glass cannon. Too much so I think as I ran my first dungeon tonight and died way more then I would have liked.

I’m currently running a 30/30/0/0/10 build with my runes being all Rage and my Sigil is Rage as well(wasn’t entirely sure what runes to run with).

So need some help revamping my build or rune setup or something to make it so I can actually stand in melee and deliver my damage.

dont expect to deal the same damage if you plan to go tankier, I run full Power/Toughness/Vit gear with soldiers runes, shouts, GS and Axe Shield.

I can deal sufficient damage, but the most important part is staying alive and aiding teammates.

It is personal opinion but “big numbers” are not actually needed in the game as much as you think, it expedites the killing process, but against more than 1 enemy (or a boss) it is a battle a attrition where dealing consistent damage over a longer period of time will prevail.

It is a case of deal a ton of damage and suffer from downtime (cooldowns or…death)

vs

Dealing medium/high damage but applying it constantly to a target with little to no downtime.

That extra 300 toughness/vitality you can get from the trait lines is actually quite impressive (and the traits help too ofc)

It is really hard to give build advice to people since they all want different things, and some of those things are nigh impossible to achieve (for ex 30k crits with HB but toughness/Vit statted gear/traits just doesn’t happen)

But I will throw my 2 cents in there:

I run a 10/0/20/30/10

Full Power/Tough/Vit Armor
Runes of Soldier
GS with Sigil of Air (or Fire)
Axe (Blood) and Shield (Bloodlust)

Healing Sig, FGJ, Shake it Off, On My Mark, Sig of Rage

Yeah, totally get that – staying alive and applying constant damage while helping groupmates verse going for that big crit. But I must say, I did like critting for 26k…I just need to get some meat on these bones so to speak.

I noticed you don’t run Arms but instead pickup two of the defensive lines. I’m not sure if I am looking to do that as it seems a tad too tanky. If you had to pick which would you say gives the most benefit for survivability?

Depends what your weapon sets are, Tactics is for shouts mainly, and the other you can use for hammer, shield masteries etc., but both give beneficial stats.

If you are suffering from condition issues, health is great since toughness really doesn’t help against.

I use V for arms to give a considerable damage boost just in a single trait

And use shield, turtle’s traits in defense, so that is pure tanky/defensive

and use shout traits and empowered from the tactics line since my build revolves around it.

So Defense would aid you if you dont use shouts, tactics if you do use shouts.

If you’ve only recently got to 80, you could trait towards more survival, but then when you’ve got more of a sense for the fights and such, switch back to Glasscannon. I run a Glasscannon build and I don’t go down much, if at all.

^ what he said.

If you just reached 80 standard PVE tactics you used while leveling don’t really work much on dungeons and such. so gear up to become tougher to get a feel for how the enemy AI/bosses work.

So once you get used to how encounters work you can ease your way to being a glass cannon again. just remember to dodge when needed.

usually there is a tell when a mob or boss will use a skill that deals insane damage. like a glowing effect or will pause for a bit. and try to stay out of those red AOE circles if possible.

You can greatly increase survivability and not lose that much damage if you get Knight’s Armor with Beryl jewelery or something like that instead of going full Berserker’s

i just made an warrior as well , not verry experienced on it.
burst build don’t have extended survival utility’s, however the burst is insane .since you will need endurance pain and bull charge
With an decent life on hit from sigil of blood and omnoberry pie , i had managed to solo yesterday the Arena event -cursed shore – 3 veterans + minnions and 1 minichamp + 2 minions.
The key of survaivability as far as i noticed in wvw and pve is burst and run. Main escape ability is whirlwind.bull charge without an target is an great escape ability , same as rush. Bolas are great if you fight an single enemy.
Do not run an singet warrior , singets will drag you back. Endurance pain is an panic button, that will only absorb damage for 5 seconds, and will not protect you from knockbacks /knockdowns and stuns, so i recomand use it only as an escape ,
If you want an tanky build : omnomberry pie or ghost, knight set and heals
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Healing_Signet – healing singet can provide 250 hp /sec
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Adrenal_Health – adrenal health another 120 /sec
combined with an shout build
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vigorous_Shouts – vigourous shouts – 1200 heal at 0 healing power
or an banner build
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Inspiring_Battle_Standard

I run the same build and runes As ziet with 2-3 zerker items thrown in and sigil of strength on the gs (fire on hammer). You can pretty much stand your ground with this build with no help from a guardian and keep your party up.

if you just want to increase your survivability put 30 points in tactics for the shout heals (banner healing is ok too but sometimes you need the burst heals from 3 shouts) you can neglect crit on a warrior as we get so much fury

1 suggestion I can give you is learning the art of the melee dance. You’d be surprised at how much damage a melee can take just because they are accidently standing on the edge of attacks hitbox when they don’t have to be. try to stay at their back and DO NOT be afraid to back away if needed I myself try to carry a rifle on me at all time for my swap. this way even if your backing out of the fight your still providing a steady steam of damage till you recover enough to jump back in for the big hits.

the golden rule is a “a dead warrior hit nothing” in my limited experience I found I died far less if I know my chars hit limits and save myself and everyone the grief of stopping their dps just to drag me out of the mud because I wanted to get in that 1 last hit when the 2-3 that stop to help could of done 10X the amount of damage in that short time.

More defence will improve your ability to take a hit but in the end you will still have the same issue, taxing yourself too hard and find yourself kissing the earth when you didn’t have too.

that’s the truth overall in this game. Since there is no dedicated healer every class has to take care of itself one way or another and this is why/where the “player skills” matter a lot. Some ppl call others noobs if they don’t play in the expected way i.e. a warrior has a GS, wears full berserker gear,has all signets in passive mode for precision etc etc and never ever stops dealing dmg but I am bored of rezzing these fools in almost every fight:)

Well tonight I was going to try something along the lines of 20/0/0/30/20 or a 20/20/0/30/0 shout build.

if you end up liking the shout build you should try the 6 soldier runes. it will give you some toughness and its nice to have the condition removing with every shout for you and anyone in range.