Guild Wars 2

Maining Warrior since release has taught me a great number of lesser-known Warrior tricks and I figured this would be a good time to share some of them. Hopefully there are more out there we can add to the list.

Eviscerate can actually be used in conjunction with 2 other Burst Skills, Combustive Shot (at the right disance) and Kill Shot (traited and at the right distance). Evisc into Combustive Shot not only hits like a truck but also applies Fire Shield. You have to Evisc while the shot is still in the air, so it’s basically, Burst/swap/Burst. For what it’s worth, Kick also knocks someone perfectly into Evisc range for a nice undodgable Evisc.

Tremor hits twice in melee range, once as a melee hit and the second time as a piercing knockdown projectile. This is a projectile finisher also, adding some nice flavor to an already impressive skill. Fighting a blind spammer is where this is really nice, the first hit will miss while the knockdown will still disable the target.

Quick Breathing is a better-than-advertised condition removal skill. Charge first removes all snares from your team then removes a condition, turning it into a boon. This will turn Burning into Aegis, Vulnerability into protection, bleeding into Vigor, Blindness into Fury and if you’re really tricky, Fear into Stability.

Missile Deflection changes Parry and Counter Blow into 3 second long missile blocks, rather than blocking only one attack. If they only block missiles, you still get adrenaline at the end making the skills win/win/win in those scenarios.

Smoldering Arrow explodes on impact, making it a great aoe blind spam. Particularly shines when pulling Warrior groups in high level Urban Battleground fractals as it can negate several of their charges simultaneously. IMO proper use of this skill separates the men from the boys with Longbow.

Leg Specialist has a much farther reach than realized, making it a nearly invaluable trait. This allows Throw Axe, Crippling Slash and Bladetrail to immobilize. It also allows your Spear Chain to immobilize 3 targets. It also allows Hammer Shock to immobilize 5 targets making them unable to avoid (or at the very least burn condition removal making them vulnerable for) an impending Earth Shaker. I need verification, but I swear I’ve seen targets get immobilized in a crippling arrow cart field, but my field of vision was obscured by castle walls in almost all of these circumstances.

Earthshaker is a Blast Finisher from the point you leave, not the point of impact. On paper that’s kind of a bummer as some fields would be nice to blast when you get to those fools, but when you think about it area swiftness or weakness or even 3 stacks of might pale in comparison to blast healing your ele/ranger buddy or even better, AOE stealthing yourself and your team turning into a giant AOE Stealth Stun Bomber.

Backbreaker someone in WvWvW and they will not survive. May be confirmation bias.

Inspiring Shouts is handy in a shout heal build and rather versatile owing to the nature of shout skills. If 3 shouts are about to be up, you only need 1 bar of adrenaline prepped to fire a fully charged burst skill. You can charge it the rest of the way during the animation of an Evisc, while charging a Kill Shot, while leaping for Earthshaker, while swinging a Skull Crack (very small window though) and while a Combustive Shot is still in the air.

Savage Leap will allow you to finish the EB jumping puzzle in record time, allowing you to skip the dark room almost entirely.

Could you post footage of using Savage leap for the Dark Room? I wouldn’t mind skipping that part.

Also yeah leg specialist + arrow cart = perma lock down since last patch

peter.9024:

Also yeah leg specialist + arrow cart = perma lock down since last patch

This one is so funny to see, hope it stays.

Have you confirmed charge works the way you say? Last time testing was done on it there was a bug where it wouldn’t remove the snare then remove a separate condition.

Brilliant post, and great read.

Thanks!

BurrTheKing.8571:

Could you post footage of using Savage leap for the Dark Room? I wouldn’t mind skipping that part.

Not really, but I might be able to describe it. It really helps to have a Fiery Dragon Sword for that part, or the mad king back pack. At the very first jump in the dark room turn around and hug the wall going to the right around it. There’s a small lip you can walk across. When you get to the edge of it, face about 45 degrees to your left from the wall, savage leap and hold forward while in mid-air. This should get you on the first platform. Land, head left up the stairs. When you get to the first set of beams, Stop. Face the lit door 90 degrees away from the beam, savage leap and hold forward. You are now done with the dark room.

pot.6805:

Have you confirmed charge works the way you say? Last time testing was done on it there was a bug where it wouldn’t remove the snare then remove a separate condition.

I’ve been using it in this fashion for weeks.

I thought I could help with this thread.

All burst skills apply the trait bonuses for maximum benefits before they complete the attack like heightened focus and berserkers power.

All skills with knockback/knockdown/stun apply their effects first before they calculate damage, so sigil of impact or hammer trait effectively makes every attack that gives a hard CC major damage increase.

Stun from Earthshaker/skullcrack/shield bash/pummel bash is applied prior to attack, so unsuspecting foe gives these attacks 50% extra critical chance on the actual attack + any other attack that is applied during the stunned status. Great for Axe/Shield where you can get an easy guaranteed crit for eviscerate from a shieldbash → eviscerate.

All skills that apply any condition, applies the condition first prior to the calculated raw damage, so 25 into arms which gives 10% more damage on bleeding targets applies the 10% on an attack that also gives bleed. Or cull the weak applies the extra 5% damage immediately with Fierce blow from hammer.

A secret to condition builds is, that its tick dmg is based on your condition dmg at the moment, not when you applied them, which means if you had 8 stacks of might when you Flurry (F1 skill from main hand sword) on an enemy and then for great justice and proced sigil of might, the next ticks will jump in damage by the extra 8 stacks of might that you just obtained.

hope this helps
=D

paralyze sigil was fixed so take it off of your shields for use with shield bash.
axe 2 cast time makes it for an instant follow up hit to other attacks(no delay).
No longer bladetrail behind yourself
If you cancel axe auto attack after the first swing of triple chop, you can increase your dps slightly.

Keybind a weapon stow button so when your on hammer you can cancel cast your stuns putting them on 3 sec cd if you target dodges or has stability

gs whirlwind through your target to get more hits
GS rush hits like a truck. if used right after a stun skill it hits instantly, 0.25 sec delay.
Weapon swap before healing surge, you never know it may put you into higher healing bracket.

If you use kick, you can still reach your target with eviscerate.

At OP tips, quick breathing conversion when using warhorn 4 is bugged and does not pull that extra condition off. It converts a slow.

Good info +1

/15char

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

At OP tips, quick breathing conversion when using warhorn 4 is bugged and does not pull that extra condition off. It converts a slow.

I just tested this with Icebrood elementals in Frostgorge. Changed frozen and bleeding into Swiftness and Vigor, only used Charge.

peter.9024:

Also yeah leg specialist + arrow cart = perma lock down since last patch

This has always worked like this.

Longbow f1-> Drop a banner in -> Longbow 3 into the aoe -> pick up banner, click 5 -> warbanner + For Great Justice

=

18 might stack that is aoe and last 20 seconds minimum.

—

With just 2 warriors, you can easily bring your entire team to 25 might.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

axe 2 cast time makes it for an instant follow up hit to other attacks(no delay).

If you cancel axe auto attack after the first swing of triple chop, you can increase your dps slightly.

Can you elaborate on these 2?

Skills with a cast time experience no delay?

And how does canceling auto attack increase dps of triple chop?

Without Fast Hands, picking up and dropping a banner wouldn’t trigger swap cd. This means with Versatile Rage, you can keep picking up and dropping a banner to gain adrenaline.

Picking up a banner triggers Sigil of Battle.

When you Savage Leap from a higher to lower ground, swapping weapons right before the animation ends would allow you to jump further. Swapping too late would finish the animation and stop you mid-air. Swapping too early would end the leap prematurely and thus shorten the jump. So it’s always better to swap too late than too early.

Warriors are the fastest class in the game (by using sword/horn + gs), making skipping mobs in dungeons extremely easy.

Shinki.8045:

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

At OP tips, quick breathing conversion when using warhorn 4 is bugged and does not pull that extra condition off. It converts a slow.

I just tested this with Icebrood elementals in Frostgorge. Changed frozen and bleeding into Swiftness and Vigor, only used Charge.

Okay good to know! This wasn’t the case for a long time.

CoaxialMazer.9140:

I thought I could help with this thread.

All burst skills apply the trait bonuses for maximum benefits before they complete the attack like heightened focus and berserkers power.

All skills with knockback/knockdown/stun apply their effects first before they calculate damage, so sigil of impact or hammer trait effectively makes every attack that gives a hard CC major damage increase.

Stun from Earthshaker/skullcrack/shield bash/pummel bash is applied prior to attack, so unsuspecting foe gives these attacks 50% extra critical chance on the actual attack + any other attack that is applied during the stunned status. Great for Axe/Shield where you can get an easy guaranteed crit for eviscerate from a shieldbash -> eviscerate.

All skills that apply any condition, applies the condition first prior to the calculated raw damage, so 25 into arms which gives 10% more damage on bleeding targets applies the 10% on an attack that also gives bleed. Or cull the weak applies the extra 5% damage immediately with Fierce blow from hammer.

A secret to condition builds is, that its tick dmg is based on your condition dmg at the moment, not when you applied them, which means if you had 8 stacks of might when you Flurry (F1 skill from main hand sword) on an enemy and then for great justice and proced sigil of might, the next ticks will jump in damage by the extra 8 stacks of might that you just obtained.

hope this helps
=D

+1 on this for sure the damage applied comes first so yea sigil of impact is pretty much +10% damage on hammer for the most part. Didn’t know about cull of the weak but I figured it would be the same also.

wait…does that mean the hammer trait gives it +25% dmg…!!? since, you know…it counts the stunned status before the damage. So +25% dmg to hammer 4, 5, and burst, is that right?

Based on my own testing, Earthshaker is the ONLY Hammer skill that applies a control effect before the damage. This means only Earthshaker automatically gets the 25% damage. All other skills have to be combined with another disabling skill (from yourself or another person) for the damage bonus.

The most powerful options to self-utilize this trait would be:
1. Earthshaker followed by Fierce Blow or Backbreaker
2. Backbreaker followed by Fierce Blow

Attached are the damage numbers I got in The Mists when testing the Merciless Hammer trait. Pretty clear that the control effect does NOT come before the damage, except for Earthshaker. I tested this with:

• PvP Steady Hammer
• No Might/Fury
• No Amulet
• No points other than the 20 points in Defense to turn the trait on/off for testing

When you use movement skills from the edge of the cliff, you will retain speed you had just before leaving ground (so if you use Rush to rush off the cliff you will still travel 1200 on X axis, while falling). This does not apply to Savage Leap, since you start falling after the animation ends.

Also – this is a bug for sure – immobilize condition does not stack duration, it overwrites duration. So if you use Leg spec with bladetrail, hit your target (1s immobilize), then throw bolas (4s immobilize) and your GS will hit same target on its way back (1 s immobilize) you wil get about 2.5 secs of immobilise, instead of 6 (and it will waste your bolas completly, so beware).

I’m fairly sure, it should only overwrite when the own duration is longer than the one already applied to the target.
If I’m mistaken, hard numbers pls.

Hard numbers are in my message – alought they arent really hard, because i never intentionally tested it in spvp. but description of the immobilize condition states – stacks duration (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Immobilize), and it doesnt stack.

just tested in wvw the leg specialist trait overwriting longer duration immob confirmed. Pretty funny

Shinki.8045:

Quick Breathing is a better-than-advertised condition removal skill. Charge first removes all snares from your team then removes a condition, turning it into a boon. This will turn Burning into Aegis, Vulnerability into protection, bleeding into Vigor, Blindness into Fury and if you’re really tricky, Fear into Stability.

I love turning Burns into Aegis against Guardians and just generally getting Protection from Vulnerability. Didn’t know about Fear though.

Missile Deflection changes Parry and Counter Blow into 3 second long missile blocks, rather than blocking only one attack. If they only block missiles, you still get adrenaline at the end making the skills win/win/win in those scenarios.

Wish the same was true for Riposte. But that’s a pretty heavy boost to the tankability of Mace/Shield. Good to know.

Makes me wonder whether that works with Mighty Defenses. It could give Mace/Shield a much needed damage boost. And possibly make it a really dangerous set.

Leg Specialist has a much farther reach than realized, making it a nearly invaluable trait. This allows Throw Axe, Crippling Slash and Bladetrail to immobilize. It also allows your Spear Chain to immobilize 3 targets. It also allows Hammer Shock to immobilize 5 targets making them unable to avoid (or at the very least burn condition removal making them vulnerable for) an impending Earth Shaker. I need verification, but I swear I’ve seen targets get immobilized in a crippling arrow cart field, but my field of vision was obscured by castle walls in almost all of these circumstances.

Dumb as it might sound, I never thought of using Leg Specialist with Hammer Shock before this. People seem to almost exclusively talk about Blade Trail when it comes to Leg Specialist.

Inspiring Shouts is handy in a shout heal build and rather versatile owing to the nature of shout skills. If 3 shouts are about to be up, you only need 1 bar of adrenaline prepped to fire a fully charged burst skill. You can charge it the rest of the way during the animation of an Evisc, while charging a Kill Shot, while leaping for Earthshaker, while swinging a Skull Crack (very small window though) and while a Combustive Shot is still in the air.

Inspiring Shouts is nice, however sadly it competes with things like Signet Mastery, Mobile Strikes, Heightened Focus and Sweet Revenge. And then there’s the fact that a lot of shout healers carry Superior Runes of Soldier, making spamming shouts for adrenaline a bit of a waste. But I suppose it could be neat with a well timed FGJ+Fear Me+On My Mark for some big hard-to-avoid damage.

Savage Leap will allow you to finish the EB jumping puzzle in record time, allowing you to skip the dark room almost entirely.

Savage Leap is one of the reasons I prefer Sword/Warhorn over every other weapon set. In my eyes, Savage Leap is like a Warrior’s Heartseeker. Unless you happen to be one of those people who spam Heartseeker.

Good stuff

Carry around all of the weapons, for things like using Savage Leap in all the jumping puzzles or dredge Fractal or for PvE map exploration. Swapping weapons/talent for Missile Deflection is definitely invaluable in quite a few PvE boss fights as well.

Olba.5376:

Makes me wonder whether that works with Mighty Defenses. It could give Mace/Shield a much needed damage boost. And possibly make it a really dangerous set.

I’ll test it, that’s a great idea.

Inspiring Shouts is nice, however sadly it competes with things like Signet Mastery, Mobile Strikes, Heightened Focus and Sweet Revenge. And then there’s the fact that a lot of shout healers carry Superior Runes of Soldier, making spamming shouts for adrenaline a bit of a waste. But I suppose it could be neat with a well timed FGJ+Fear Me+On My Mark for some big hard-to-avoid damage.

The math on healing shouts versus inspiring banners, at least early on, claimed that shout heals were only competetive if spammed on every cooldown. I chose that as an option as I figured it would give a great adrenaline boost for something I’d be spamming anyways. With the incredible amount of Adrenaline this allows for a frontliner it’s hard for me to see a strong argument against it. Your mileage may vary.

Savage Leap is one of the reasons I prefer Sword/Warhorn over every other weapon set. In my eyes, Savage Leap is like a Warrior’s Heartseeker. Unless you happen to be one of those people who spam Heartseeker.

And this is why I made Howler.

I hate Sword Main hand! Its like heartseeker if the only reason you carried dagger main hand was for heart seeker and none of its other abilities. Sword is good in condi build but other than that it does no damage except 3rd strike of the auto chain. Sword off hand has some potential if you go 25 into arms you can get that +10% damage pretty easily and keep bleeds up for a long time.

Btw noone so far mentioned most basic trick – dont be ashamed of running away from 1v1 fights you cant win. Run from mesmers, most likely run from thieves, run from necros if you are not sure you can outplay them…. no need to worry about rangers, guards and other warriors, coz most likely you will be able at least disengage safely. Idk about eles, too hard to discern when you need to run

That, however, doesnt mean you should leave your comrades in pinch, unless enemy numbers are really owerwhelming.

PS – kitten i confused that thread with WvW forums so everything i said here applies only to WvW

Phira.3970:

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

axe 2 cast time makes it for an instant follow up hit to other attacks(no delay).

If you cancel axe auto attack after the first swing of triple chop, you can increase your dps slightly.

Can you elaborate on these 2?

Skills with a cast time experience no delay?

And how does canceling auto attack increase dps of triple chop?

Triple chop cast time is slower per hit then the first chop and double chop. Once the first attack of triple chop hits, stow weapon and then press chop-double chop.
This worked better with frenzy so it may not be as viable anymore because I think stow and take out is kinda slow full time. I need to test this at regular attack speed.

In reference to cast time delay. Only certain skills act as follow up skills. I think this is a carry out from GW1. Prime example from GW1 was the skill savage shot. No matter the previous skill use, you could tack on savage shot. In gw2 axe two appears to function that way. I have tested with eviscerate, auto attack, shield bash. Try it for yourself to see what I mean.

Shinki.8045:

The math on healing shouts versus inspiring banners, at least early on, claimed that shout heals were only competetive if spammed on every cooldown. I chose that as an option as I figured it would give a great adrenaline boost for something I’d be spamming anyways. With the incredible amount of Adrenaline this allows for a frontliner it’s hard for me to see a strong argument against it. Your mileage may vary.

I’ve seen those kind of posts, but that’s the thing: they only talk about healing. Most people running Vigorous Shouts also have Superior Runes of Soldier for the condition removal. And personally, having that much condition removal only for it to be mostly in-cooldown is waste. Personally I only use Charge and For Great Justice just enough to get permanent boons.

By the way, after intense testing running with Drakkar Zergs yesterday, I can confirm the Backbreaker one.

Can also confirm the darkroom one.
Who needs a torch or shiny weapons? Longbow all the way, use the AoE circle of arcing arrow to scan the terrain and target the ledges you want to jump on to adjust the aim for your savage leap perferctly. Combustive shot can be a makeshift lightsource, if you ever happen to find yourself in a situation where the AoE targets of arcing arrow are not enough(stairs in P2 of Dark room for example)

Shinki, than you for the awesome post.

As for my two cents: tired of getting knocked off of things in Fractals? The Warrior has excellent access to skills that will prevent this! Balanced Stance, Dolyak Signet, Shield Stance, and Rampage. Freeing that Titan becomes a walk in the park.

Here’s a couple from me:
Signet of Fury is incredibly useful when paired with Hammer for navigating jumping puzzles. Earthshaker, if it doesn’t hit an enemy, doesn’t drain adrenaline.
So you use Signet of Fury to instantly, completely fill your adrenaline bar, then use Earthshaker to bounce around like a homicidal flea.

ALL axe skills allow you to continue moving on activation; NONE of them root you. Use this to your advantage and move around continuously while attacking with your axe.