Guild Wars 2

been reading alot of threads and it seems like the best (or most optimal) build atm zergs/groups is soldiers/invaders gear, hammer, s/s or s/w or something else using 0/10/30/30/0 (shout build) or some small variants of that. Am I correct? Just curious before I invest badges and coins into this. I do see how this brings the most utility and value to a group as a warrior.

cba to retype it all. Suggested a build in a thread right above yours. It’s a small difference but this build makes you a great roamer as well, can easily solo most objectives and fight off any class (so far)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/WvW-build-3/first#post2507121

In the future, try to check the forum before you ask a question, a similar thread might be going on. (or in this case, alot of them)

why write all that stuff out when you can link to a build? I dont see what traits you posted nor and sigils, runes, acessssories, rings, etc. I get the general idea though.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhJaE0JGu2x5BHSggeohVhAaP8D6DvRqgYA-jUyAoLBR6DIVAgQAl9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUtHvIa1A-w

This is in my opinion, the best wvw warrior build out there. Sword/x (I like warhorn). Hammer. Melandru Runes, PVT gear. PVT trinkets with azurite jewels(find a sutible toughness/healing substitute if you cant afford that) Warrior with so much HP is better to stack toughness than vit, because they can heal a greater percentage of their max HP and the toughness takes away from incoming damage, making heals more effective. The build revolves on the F1 skills burst mainly for hammer and Longbow when you swap out a weapon set for a longbow with a fire sigil. You cleanse conditions, 3 stunbreaks is critical, you maximize your own stuns. Battle standard or rampage is good for either group rez(super helpful for a zerg) or the stability, which you also get with balanced stance(a stunbreak). Also, a weapon swap sigil, whatever one you want, is super awesome to have for the 5 sec weapon swaps.

Also, spiked armor is not a mistake, it procs every 15 seconds, or multiple times per battle, granting extra retal, where as endure pain isnt super helpful and a long CD on the trait. Merciless hammer is also a good choice

Phate.4871:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhJaE0JGu2x5BHSggeohVhAaP8D6DvRqgYA-jUyAoLBR6DIVAgQAl9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUtHvIa1A-w

This is in my opinion, the best wvw warrior build out there. Sword/x (I like warhorn). Hammer. Melandru Runes, PVT gear. PVT trinkets with azurite jewels(find a sutible toughness/healing substitute if you cant afford that) Warrior with so much HP is better to stack toughness than vit, because they can heal a greater percentage of their max HP and the toughness takes away from incoming damage, making heals more effective. The build revolves on the F1 skills burst mainly for hammer and Longbow when you swap out a weapon set for a longbow with a fire sigil. You cleanse conditions, 3 stunbreaks is critical, you maximize your own stuns. Battle standard or rampage is good for either group rez(super helpful for a zerg) or the stability, which you also get with balanced stance(a stunbreak). Also, a weapon swap sigil, whatever one you want, is super awesome to have for the 5 sec weapon swaps.

Also, spiked armor is not a mistake, it procs every 15 seconds, or multiple times per battle, granting extra retal, where as endure pain isnt super helpful and a long CD on the trait. Merciless hammer is also a good choice

interesting..do you feel you’d give alot more team support going full 30 in tactics with shouts? seems like thats what alot of people do but id like to get your opinion on why you differ. Thanks.

Fade.9124:

interesting..do you feel you’d give alot more team support going full 30 in tactics with shouts? seems like thats what alot of people do but id like to get your opinion on why you differ. Thanks.

To answer, and I do hope you read this, team support from shouts isn’t stellar for more reason than you cap at 4 others +yourself, for 5 people for a heal. This a lag preventing measure that skills effect a limited number of people in the effect range. And from a teamplay prespective, I feel a bit limited with shouts as they arent all that useful for teamplay in wvw, with the team based ones taking hte longest to recharge. I feel that the personal gains from the weapon swaps help keep a warrior alive more. If you can be at the front of a charge and rampaging, you can do more of a dent than if you die or play chicken foot. By playing better yourself actually helps the zerg/team to live longer, because you are part of that zerg, and if you die, you stop absorbing damage, and start letting it spill to glass ele’s and mesmers and the necros, who cant sponge damage very well.

Edit:

If you really want to help the zerg over your own survival, then I owuld banner over shout. Not only is the banner elite the most team oriented one ever, but it also pairs nicely with the quickness from frenzy. I call it a power rez(you throw the banner much faster). I take the toughness/vit banner and the power or the presc banner and frenzy then the warbanner. Note the stance duration is for more quickness uptime. Banners are super awesome because they keep working even after you die, whereas you cant keep shouting. They have 20% CD reduction and grant regen to up to 15 people, or 15 per banner up. they also damage enemies, and when the zerg wins, people pick them up for swiftness that you can cast with them. So you help in and out of combat. If you cant tell, I love fast hands and a on swap sigil. warrior is one of the only, if not The only class that can reduce weapon swap so much. also, a reckless dodge procs a ton in a zerg, so it is a super awesome evasion turned DPS. I would take it over 20 in discipline any day.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhJaE0J7NAyGCHSggUohfhVg+wbkeEGsxaA-jUyAoLBRCCA9BkQAl9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUtHvIa1A-w

Fade.9124:

been reading alot of threads and it seems like the best (or most optimal) build atm zergs/groups is soldiers/invaders gear, hammer, s/s or s/w or something else using 0/10/30/30/0 (shout build) or some small variants of that. Am I correct? Just curious before I invest badges and coins into this. I do see how this brings the most utility and value to a group as a warrior.

Hammer s/w + shout heals /soldier runes is very popular at the moment… but as for the best build it depends on what everyone around you is running and what everyone else is doing.

Best stats on your gear also depends on what everyone around you is running AND how good you are at minimizing the damage you take.

Oh and Id advise against leg specialist in any build right now, while it used to be great, as with all decent things on warrior they nerfed the crap outta it patch before last, hits 1 target only with hammer shock right now i believe, there are at least 2 better traits you could put in that slot.

thanks for your insight guys really good read here and some great build concepts. I come from a tpvp environment so it’s completely different and you can’t get as creative as yo u can with pve/wvw builds.

My next question would be in regards to gearing up, i do have ascended items and on my way to being able to get more soon. But for armor, etc would u just build off the soldier set from the wvw armorsmith (invaders iirc) or what would you recommend that wont cost a fortune?

Thanks again!

Yeah, just get the Invader’s set, the set that launched many a Commander, it’s a very strong base armor set you can build on and tweak as you get more comfortble.

If you really want to statistically optimize your gear, here’s how:

Cavalier = Exotic Amulet/Earrings/Back w/ Exquisite Beryl Jewels
Invader/Soldier = Exotic Rings w/ Exquisite Beryl Jewels
Invader/Soldier = Helm/Chest/Leg armor + 2H weapons \*
Valkyrie = Shoulder/Hand/Foot armor + 1H weapons \*

(for PvE you’d add Ruby Orbs, Divinity Runes, or Scholar Runes to the armor, but for WvW you want something like Soldiers or Melandru Runes for zerging, or Lyssa or Hoelbrak for roaming)

Food (roaming): anything with +10% Crit Damage on it
Food (zerging): Omnomberry Compote (heal on kill)
Consumable: Sharpening Stone

Ascended trinkets = All Cavalier

That leaves you with high Health/Armor/Power/Crit Damage, but very low Crit Chance. Compensate with a build that gets you a lot of conditional Crit Chance from traits 1, 2.

\* I actually do the weapons backwards: Valkryie Hammer, Soldier/Invader Sword/Warhorn. The reason is b/c the builds I run linked above rely on Hammer for damage, and S/WH for defense, so I want the max possible Crit Damage on the Hammer, and the max possible V/T on the S/WH. But technically that’s not statistically optimal.

Phate.4871:

Edit:

If you really want to help the zerg over your own survival, then I owuld banner over shout. Not only is the banner elite the most team oriented one ever, but it also pairs nicely with the quickness from frenzy. I call it a power rez(you throw the banner much faster). I take the toughness/vit banner and the power or the presc banner and frenzy then the warbanner. Note the stance duration is for more quickness uptime. Banners are super awesome because they keep working even after you die, whereas you cant keep shouting. They have 20% CD reduction and grant regen to up to 15 people, or 15 per banner up. they also damage enemies, and when the zerg wins, people pick them up for swiftness that you can cast with them. So you help in and out of combat. If you cant tell, I love fast hands and a on swap sigil. warrior is one of the only, if not The only class that can reduce weapon swap so much. also, a reckless dodge procs a ton in a zerg, so it is a super awesome evasion turned DPS. I would take it over 20 in discipline any day.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhJaE0J7NAyGCHSggUohfhVg+wbkeEGsxaA-jUyAoLBRCCA9BkQAl9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUtHvIa1A-w

What do you guys do to stay in range of the banners during combat? Does your Commander just keep the group near them in battle, or are backliners picking them up and moving them around to keep them in range?

Half the time I pick them up by accident when I’m trying to loot bags