Guild Wars 2

I pretty much play this game to roam solo exclusively. I enjoy solo gameplay. Before I left a year ago and well before HOT, I was gs/hammer, which had great fluidity and i really enjoyed the play style, but it seems they really messed up the hammer traits and nothing flows.

So Im stuck between:
Gs+sw/sh
GS+axe/sh
Hammer+ sw/sh

Any opinions would be welcomed and appreciated.

Also, is Berserker worth it for solo wvw roaming and which wep set would it compliment best? Thank you!

Berzerker a/s/gs seems to be the way to go with warrior lately if you dont want to play rifle

I use s+sh/gs and roam almost exclusively. I like the sword for the mobility it provides, but axe is almost always better in an actual fight due to the offensive pressure it provides, except where mobility is more valuable for sticking to a mobile opponent, etc. I often equip axe in duels, but almost never run with it. Both are viable.

I don’t think h/s+sh is good for a roamer. A lot of classes are swimming in stun breaks, your mobility will be ok, but not great, hammer is slow and easily mitigated, which kills your main damage dealer.

Berserker is good for roaming, but it’s not a huge step up over core warrior for the role. I regularly chew up Berserkers, though I can’t deny how much better their burst is. Berserker does give you more diverse options though… you can replicate a standard a+sh/gs but with slight modifications, you can run condi with m+t/s+sh, you can run gunflame, you can capitalize well on Rousing Resiliance and Defender Runes for a more sustainable build, etc.

Have to agree about sword being better for sticking on targets, when fighting a mesmer or thief i prefer sword to axe…and i meant shield not sword for offhand

Depends if you want to use the berserker trait line or not. If you do, you might want to just run a more mobile form of gunflame….so rifle+gs with swiftness of some kind (from runes or whatever).

Outside of berserker trait line:
Gs+ something/shield. Where that something is an axe or a sword or a mace. Axe will definitely give you the best damage for duel type situations or pve in general. It fails horribly at mobility though so you will be stuck fighting in alot of situations without the ability to flee (unless gs 5 is enough, won’t be against competent players tho). Also if an enemy chooses to kite you with just ranged attacks you will be at a disadvantage with the axe. The burst on axe is also very short range and rather predictable to anyone who knows it even a little bit….so it takes a bit of creativity to land those bursts. This is where the sword comes in. It basically has 1 really good burst attack, final thrust sword 3, a 1-4 second immobilize (the burst) and it has the leap, sword 2, plus it deals bleeds and cripple which won’t do any damage of value but can help you waste the enemy’s condition clears and in some cases down low hp players using ‘endure pain’ or something similar. The damage from ur base attacks, sword 1, will be pretty pathetic though even with might stacked high. That said though the leap, sword 2, allows you alot of mobility….you can jump across cliffs to avoid/lose enemies and in general it gives you that one extra bit of mobility to retreat from zergs or losing situations should u need to. it’s also good if you use on kill sigils like bloodlust, sword will allow you to retreat effectively and thus….not die and lose ur 25 stacks. You will still be at the mercy of daredevils/thieves but you will still very hard to kill if you trait properly.
Then there is mace which people generally use in addition to stacking healing power. Which is a different way of playing I don’t really have an interest in. If I am roaming I like to take things fast…that means high damage attacks….power not healing. You don’t need tons of damage to roam effectively, but generally it isn’t desirable to be in long pvp duels especially when you are trying to cap something and their waypoints make walking back ridiculously frequent.

I run gs+sword/shield. With this I can solo everything on the desert borderland maps except the ogre lord at SW tower (although i did think of a new way that might work)…pretty sure i can solo the golemn lord at earth keep but never actually have done it yet. In that build I was always running 75% zerk and the rest vitality/toughness. Now that I’m comfortable with everything I want pretty much full zerk (90%+) and power stack (3000 base power). in terms of ebg, solo’ing towers is something I do regularly. I only got to duo a keep lord once….was intense but we did it even though there were 2-4 players defending while we took down the lord. I tried to solo the SMC lord recently and failed quite miserably. axe will make the pve easiest obviously though. Mace is also probably fine to use but will be much slower since u stacked healing power.

Hammer+ sw/sh:
you will likely be lacking in raw damage for the pve component of your roaming. Also you won’t be able to stack might as easily or readily…so that really impact your overall damage in both hammer and sword. Also hammer base damage is pretty terribad so…even if you run full zerk you won’t be that great damage wise. I mean the combination on paper gives you everything you might need. i would imagine hammer/gs is stilll way better though….you just can’t beat what the gs brings to warrior atm, and warriors need every advantage they can get atm.

The ability to be an effective roamer in wvsw is dependent upon being able to maneuver around enemies and avoid situations where you are hopelessly outnumbered. Depending on what tier you run in, you will have to determine whether or not you can fight you way out of every situation (axe or mace/shield) or if you need the ability to choose where you fight (sword/shield).