Guild Wars 2

I started a Warrior and am playing with my son who is a Guardian. We have been playing 5 days. I am trying to get used to the dodge system I am sure it will take some time.

I am curious what kind of build I should use for leveling. I have 3 open trait lines and have only put 5 into Arms because the bleed seemed like a good idea. I am running 2 axes but am open to anything though my son doesn’t like taking all the damage when I am doing pot shots with the bow so I think that is out. Any advice for an old dog?

Greatsword / Axe + Axe is not bad for a lot of aoe damage for rounding up mobs and slashing them down. On your gear make sure to spread some points into defensive stats as well. Knights gear would be a good place to start. Look for gear with Power, Precision, and Toughness.

Your trait line wont matter too terribly much for leveling. It is a very fast grind and youll be 80 in no time. The arms tree has some good stuff.

Anything in particular? I am just level 18 at the moment. Is there a real reason to weapon switch? It seems lost on me.

a great leveling trait is arms I (Deep Strike). It gives you precision for every signets you have. This means you’ll need to get signets: I recommend signet of might, fury, and dolyak (they give power, precision, and toughness respectively), and of course there’s the healing signet and your elite signet of rage.

You don’t really need defense imo. A warrior’s best defense is his ability to kill stuff really fast. Plus, having heavy armor means you already have a high defense than most other classes.

Having said that, I love using the greatsword. If you do plan on using one, aim for these traits: arms X (Forceful Greatsword), arms 25 (Attack of Opportunity), strength IX (Slashing Power) and strength XI (Berserker’s Power). Basically with a greatsword’s playstyle, you never use your burst (F1) skill, and you rely on 100 blades for damage, and whirlind attack for dodging.

I recommend changing options: fast-cast ground targeting (so you can time whirlwind attack better), and turn off autotargeting (so you are not forced to face the mob when using skills). This is useful for running past mobs and for positioning your 100 blades. So get used to attacking without targeting.

KevinfromPhoenix.7692:

Anything in particular? I am just level 18 at the moment. Is there a real reason to weapon switch? It seems lost on me.

Weapon swapping allows you to obtain another bar of skills. Different weapons are useful for different situations.

For example, the mace excels at stunning, but that’s about it. The hammer can stun too, not as long as the mace, but it offers more crowd control (CC). The greatsword and axe are dps weapons, with the axe coming out on top in terms of raw damage, but the greatsword gives mobility. The one-handed sword offers a mix of power, mobility, and condition damage.

And I haven’t even touched the offhand variants, the shield, or the ranged weapons yet. I suggest reading the wiki to learn your weapons skills.

As for a leveling build, anything really goes. You can’t really focus on it anyway, since you won’t have the levels to learn your traits. However, you should start looking towards a build that seems interesting, and try to level with that build. That way, you’ll get a taste of what if feels like. And if you don’t like it, you can always re-trait; although that takes more money the higher level you are.

I also find it pretty cool that you play with your son. My father doesn’t have the patience to learn anything this “complicated”. Heck, he just mashes Heavy Punch/Kick in Street Fighter.

the longbow is one of the strongest, most versatile weapons on warrior and it is to your advantage to know its ins and out when you hit 80, because compared to other warrior weapons it takes some practice to be efficient. learn to use it properly for great effect, setup combo fields with F1 for your son to pull off combos, it is the only weapon with a combo field for warrior, just dont use the autoattacks, they are horrible :P

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo

for putting out melee damage you might want to try greatsword for leveling, it has the best damage output besides axe and offers a free evade with the whirlwind skill on a low cooldown. axes dont do bleeding btw, so that trait is a waste. but axe is a solid damage weapon too, just not as aoe heavy as greatsword and lacking on the defense compared to it. if you want to make use of the bleeding trait, use double swords, they are the traditional bleeding weapons (build for condition damage then).

i would recommend to give all the weapons a try and see how you like to play them while being aware they are either condition or power-based (though the condition ones can usually be played as power aswell) and you should build accordingly.

Wow T.T I really envy your son, being able to play videogames with his dad. My dad thinks videogames are drugs and should be avoided But anyway, I would recommend using GS and ax/something. Later on, closer to 80, you can try ax/shield since it provides survivability, which, if you run GS with, should help. Definitely focus on the strength tree and maybe arms tree for traits, since power is the most powerful stat at lower levels. Rifle is really a good alternative at lower levels since it offers heavy 1v1 ranged damage and even a melee move

KazNaka.4718:

a great leveling trait is arms I (Deep Strike). It gives you precision for every signets you have. This means you’ll need to get signets: I recommend signet of might, fury, and dolyak (they give power, precision, and toughness respectively), and of course there’s the healing signet and your elite signet of rage.
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It isn’t that good anymore. Effect now scales based on level so you won’t get ridiculous critical chance. Also the trait is quite buggy and doesn’t seem to work half of the time (not sure if fixed).

OP’s Son here:

He seems to take so much damage and die so effortlessly. With my Guardian, I can just kind of sit there and use my Greatsword to turn a group into pieces. He is generally getting beat to oblivion as I am still doing fairly well.

Is there a way that he could still do decent damage without getting waffle stomped? Any advice on gear or anything? So far, he is using Signet of Healing, Precision, Power, and For Great Justice wit the +Precision per Signet trait.