Guild Wars 2

So I just completed about 6 runs of AC story mode and just wanted to share some opinions and get some feedback.
First of all my goal in this post is to find a good mesh of a pve soloing and dungeon running spec. Throughout the runs I have tried multiple specs/weapon setups/traits.

The initial run was using my soloing spec I have been using since i began playing. It is a Greatsword/Rifle Signet spec. With my extra points in Defense because i felt the plus’ to toughness and healing outwieghed the one defensive plus in tactics (vitality). I was geared for precision for the most part, and by geared i mean all amulets, accessories, rings and any gems i had were precision or a combo of power and precision. Soloing has been no problem with this spec
So during the run things just felt chaotic. I would come in with my normal swing of things(greatsword isnt that complicated) and it would feel like i would randomly get knocked down or almost one shot from some random move that i didnt even know was being cast on me until the damage was done.
I have no problem dodging out of aoes you can see on the ground. Seeing a little red circle isnt that hard to counter. The problem laid in moves that just randomly came at me unexpectedly. Knockbacks coupled with stuns seemed to be the worst. Some knockbacks would leave me laying facedown in the dirt for 3-4 seconds. I guess I am trying to say I just felt " Squishy". I seemed to die alot. like at least once every other trash pull and 2-3 times per boss. That doesnt mean i died every boss, The wolf dude nante or w/e seems to never kill me. These numbers are just an average because the lover fight i make up for it lol.

So I decided on my next run to try the exact opposite. I re-traited myself full tactics and defense. Geared myself totally for toughness and vitality( again that includes accessories and all). I thought to myself that since there is no healers or tanks persay that the only way i could reduce me and my parties damage intake would be through stuns, knockbacks and blocks(blocks being mostly for personal reduction) I studied the weapons for a min and realized that mace/shield would be best for this. Mace mainhand gives one block with a retaliation when struck and a daze. The Burst skill is also a stun. The shield gives a nice block of course plus another stun. All in all thats 3 stuns and 2 Blocks. That being chained should make for some nice damage reduction with all my toughness and vitality to boot. My traits i decided were going to be endure pain for those moments when all of my blocks were on cd, defense banner because i figured that increasing my groups toughness and vitality wouldnt be a bad thing, and dolyak signet for the reduced incoming damage.

Also some info i have left out is my heal skill is Mending for the dual condition removal and my elite skill is the werewolf norn racial. I got a thing for werewolves ok
The werewolf allows me to buff the party and heal myself in an all in one shout, it gives me a pounce-stun, and a fear which is pretty nice in trash. And I still love rifle for the single target dps as its SOOO much easier to take less damage at range. Bosses that knockback smash on melee so if i notice a boss is doing it alot i just avoid my tanking altogether and stay at range.

That being said that run seemed to be a bit better as far as damage intake. The problem though lies in aggro or threat as some would call it. There would be times where i would have aggro and iniate my block only to have the mob aggro someone else at that moment so that i would totally waste it. And there would also be other times where I would have definate aggro and i would lay into almost every cd I had back to back only to die just has fast as if I still had the Greatsword signet spec. Also soloing in this spec SUCKED. It seemed forever to kill mobs

There really seemed to be no rhyme or reason to when I did or did not take a ton of damage other than just luck. Maybe if there was someway for me to tell when the boss was about to target me with something i could better manage the cds to make it more affective but sometimes its really hard to see a boss just “rearing his sword back” when u have 5 peoples aoes going off all around him. Alot of stuff still was just insta cast heavy damage.

So another aspect I began considering was my damage output it this spec, basically it was terrible, The biggest number i would see might have been 300. And in a way damage output is a form of damage reduction in a sense. The faster the boss dies, means the less time he is alive which means the less damage he can pump out to us as a group. So I began contemplating how to pump out more damage while still being able to mitigate damage for myself and my team.
I looked at sword/shield which increases my dps through bleeds , and i still got to keep my personal block but i only had one stun to help with my teams damage reduction. Then I looked at the Hammer which pumps out some pretty nice numbers( at least it feels like it does since i have no way to run any meters in this game currently) 3 stuns and a knockback( which could be considered a stun in a sense) and a fumble condition. The choice seemed like hammer was the winner since I couldnt really control when the block of the shield was going to be effective or wasted.
So this is my current spec. I’m Hammer/Rifle still specced into tactics, defense and heading into the strength tree so that i can get the +vitality soon from great fortitude.
Still geared for vitality, toughness.
I plan on trying a power/precision gearing coupled with the defense/tactics build later today with the hammer.

All in all dungeons feel a mess in my opinion. Random damage and no way to hold aggro effectively means you have to make a decision between doing crappy damage and staying alive longer, or doing nice damage and dieing more often. Both of which would probably even out in overall damage done in the end.
So i guess the real question is do you want to save money on repair bills and solo slow as a snail or do u want to spend more “money” and solo faster.
Does this “vibe” continue to endgame? Is there ever a point where a dps or “tanky” spec would outwiegh one or the other? Any opinions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

I very rarely die on my warrior and I’m still stacking 5 Signet/Greatsword combo, I put out immense damage. Study the fights a bit more, get used to what mobs do what. I always go by a standard rule of thumb…Let’s for instance take AC as the example..In AC I always tell my team to follow the correct kill order of;

Monk->Ranger->Mesmer/Necro/Ele-> Warrior

This is simply because monks will spam heal if you don’t put them down early, and Rangers put out so much ranged dps it’ll hurt you’re team for an extremely long time if you leave them alive. Mesmer and Necro don’t really do a lot to the team except apply conditions, which someone should be removing anyway, you -can- do it yourself, if you really wanted to. Warriors should just be kited, keep them away with knockback and slow until you’re ready to take them down. This doesn’t take much concentration and will keep you’re uptime to a maximum by prioritising the correct targets.

The other trash Mobs are the gravelings, gravelings are a severe pain in thekitten since you have to destroy the burrows quick, I mean really quick, before they spawn champion mobs that like to sit on your face and stay there till you die, they are extremely difficult to deal with, especially in a PuG where nobody listens.

As for boss fights, you had the right kind of idea, Warriors specialize in changing weapons in mid-combat, Use the rifle when you’re at range to inflict slows and weakness and move in with the sword when he turns to fight someone else. You should always be watching the animations of the bosses.

For example in AC explore, Lt Kholer(or something like that) has an aoe pull, followed by what is pretty much instant death. If you watch this for a while you’ll see the pull has a very unique animation, it makes the move incredibly easy to spot, a quick dodge will avoid the pull altogether and his threat will have been dealt with.

Overall it’s a learning curve, playing a warrior and not dying is an art-form. I very rarely die anymore, i’ve ran the dungeons enough times to know exactly what to look out for, when to dodge, when to move, and when to nuke hard.