Guild Wars 2

I hit level 80 a few days back. I’m currently in Malchor’s Leap (Orr) carrying on with my Personal Story. I’m using a Greatsword, having changed from Sword MH/Axe OH due to people telling me that GS was “so much better” which is fine, I don’t mind sticking with GS, that’s not the problem.

The problem is, now that I’ve hit 80 I’m not really sure how to spread my traits out whatsoever. I tried going the full DPS route, and speccing as 30/30/0/0/10 but with my traits set like this, my survivability in Orr is very questionable. As soon as I have more than 3 mobs on me at once, I’m dead, especially if there’s a Veteran with them.

I then tried giving up some of my damage for more survivability, therefore I tried out 20/25/15/0/10 which takes some of my DPS away, but also gives me some extra Toughness. Now, I’m not sure where the line ends… How much Defense is enough and how much is TOO much? I’m trying to cause as much DPS as possible, whilst staying alive, but I can’t seem to find the right balance. I’ve been overlooking the Tactics trait line, as I figured more Toughness would help me to stay alive as opposed to Vitality, but then again I’m just guessing here, I really don’t know.

It’s a lot harder for me to decide where to spend my traits, seeing as I’ve been spoonfed in WoW and had my builds handed to me for the past several years. I’d obviously love to spec as a full on DPS, with no defense at all, but I know if I was to do this it’d probably be the complete wrong thing to do.

I want to be able to survive as much as possible in all aspects of PvE, whilst still doing respectable damage, so if you guys could help me out & give me some pointers, I’d greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

Try crafting or buying level 80 rare or exotic armor with a defensive stat in it, such as Knight (power/precision/tough). That should still help your greatsword out with precision and certain traits which give you might on critical with a greatsword.

Unfortunately, Orr is just designed to be a nuisance to the majority of characters due to almost all mobs having stuns or confuses or pulls or whatnot, haha.

Well as people often say in here, warriors are one of the squishiest classes. This is a little less true in PvE, but the fact still remains that our defensive capabilities are somewhat limited.

That being said, having a boatload of toughness and vitality wont really make a huge difference if you’re running a damage oriented build. About 75% of survivability comes from traits and skills.

Investing in Tactics is highly recommended if you want to increase your survivability. It lends a good deal of vitality, but more importantly gives access to Vigorous Shouts(at 30 points), which are immensely helpful for increasing survivability. Use “For Great Justice” for it’s fury and might and “Shake it Off” for stun break and condition removal. Pair that with either “Lung Capacity” or “Shrug it Off” and you’ll add a considerable amount of healing. Also if you’re going to be using Vigorous shouts it would be wise to invest in a set of Superior Runes of the Soldier(if you’re an armorsmith you can craft them). Runes of the Soldier with the full set will give condition removal to all shouts and will improve survivability even further.

If you need even further survivability yet, investing in defense wouldn’t be a bad idea either. The Defense tree adds toughness as well as healing which will improve your shouts and healing skill. Traits like “Shield Master” are great for survivability. If you invest the full 30 points you get access to “Defy Pain” which will buy you some time if you’re being focused and “Armored Attack”(minor trait) which will make up for some of the damage you might lose.

Some survibility comes from mobility rather than damage soaking/mitigation. In this case you want to look at Discipline and the trait “Mobile Strikes.” With that you can escape any immobilize placed on you and thus any damage that would be dealt because of that. Also in the same vein is the warhorn. The warhorn can allow you to run with perma swiftness(especially with 30 tactics), it breaks immobilize, and gives you vigor which will allow you to roll more often(and take less damage because of that).

Obviously investing in these options will reduce your damage output(except for discipline), so really you can just add survivability to taste. I’m constantly switching around my setup/traits, so I can’t say which build that will best suit you.

Anyways, good luck!

Thank you guys, that’s a great help!

What he said. I will add that axe/shield and axe/mace are great wep combos for Orr. And skills Stomp and Fear me are essential for loosing the mob trains when you run through.

“Angriff.1935 – Well as people often say in here, warriors are one of the squishiest classes. This is a little less true in PvE, but the fact still remains that our defensive capabilities are somewhat limited.”

Warrior’s are squishy? Like hell. Full cleric shout heals with Mace/Shield and Mace/Warhorn with the right traits can tank the AC exp Lt. (although I skip him now) indefinitely if you’re good.