Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks:

I adore using that combination of weaponry on the warrior: sword in my main hand, an axe offhand, and a longbow in my other weapon set. I love spamming the longbow burst ability, jumping in with sword-2, and then axe-5ing, and then using the sword burst. It’s just…so satisfying.

I am familiar with this build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6SAPzcn2jc But it seems out-of-date now, and focuses on conditions, which worries me greatly. Is there any way to make it work now?

I admit, I could very easily give up the main hand sword, but honestly mace is underwhelming (sadly) and dual axes just lacks mobility, and the burst doesn’t do as much damage via conditions, which I’ve noticed these weapons can really pump a lot of out. I know conditions aren’t as strong right now, though, which does make me very sad.

Really I’m just so kitten tired of axe/mace//greatsword I’m just looking for any other combination of something different to do. I tried a cleric-gear shout-heal and soldier runes build, and that was okay, but it’s really just not necessary in almost every PVE setting…

Anyway, any thoughts on how to make such a weapon setup work in PVE? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks, everyone. <3

If you want to get the most out of sword you’d have to go for a hybrid build (some kind of rampager and berserker mix), but you won’t have much survivability. With rabid gear you won’t have any direct damage and the vitality on carrion isn’t very useful.

There is a zerging build that is kinda fun. Its not viable for 1v1 or small group play.

It revolves around using the F1 skill on the bow then leaping into the fire field that you cast on the zerg with a sword which gives u fire shield, then spinning with the axe to shoot flames or whatever aoe fields are in the area at the zerg around you then then escaping.

Basically you trait last stand and spiked armor in defense. So you dont get knocked down in the zerg or u cast balanced stance before you leap. Then when they attack you it hurts them cuz you have fire shield on and retaliation. Plus you are shooting flames while spinning. Then you disengage.

So this is how the combo goes. F1 bow into zerg. Cast stability, now leap into the fire field, cast frenzy, now spin, then disengage, rinse and repeat it can really do massive damage if played right. and mass bags.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8XjcO9uxQuQMxBE0DNMLEQ1j2wOijUhyA-TsAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNEYJyWAA

Ozzrel.9825:

If you want to get the most out of sword…

You’re absolutely right. Right now I’m wearing rabid gear (that Galanth’s set, or whatever it’s called from the trading post). I’m actually doing all right damage. But of course, that’s on conditions. The toughness is nice, so I’m at least somewhat tanky. I’m really lacking power though, so I do my best to stack might and have might-on-swap on my longbow.

Do you have any thoughts on how to go hybrid but not being horrible? I know I can’t do the FOTM damage right now, but perhaps at least ~10% away from that could be acceptable, especially if I’m bringing something more to a group (e.g. more might stacking, fields, etc.).

Warlord.9074:

There is a zerging build that is kinda fun…

I was looking for a PVE build, but I do love me some WVW, so it’s exciting to see that this build could potentially work there! I hadn’t even considered it, honestly.

Thanks a lot, gentlemen!

I put my build in the build post. I overcome the need for being a hybrid by being a tank. Most builds dont get the most out of might since it increases condi dmg and power. But a might stacking tank hybrid can. 30 defense, 30 tactics, 10 in the last tree. Trait for shouts, hoelbrak runes for might duration and might on hit, and learn how to use fire fields to further stack might. 15-20 stacks of might during a fight is totally feasible. That overcomes the lack of offense stats from going clerics and tank traits.

Netu.2671:

Do you have any thoughts on how to go hybrid but not being horrible? I know I can’t do the FOTM damage right now, but perhaps at least ~10% away from that could be acceptable, especially if I’m bringing something more to a group (e.g. more might stacking, fields, etc.).

You can’t expect to do axe kind of dps (lets face it: axe is king of dps), but you can do pretty good numbers.
Having 100% bleed duration is nice for longer fights, but you might hit the bleed cap, 50% burning duration will let you get a lot more out of your bow (but you will probably have to use food for that). High condition duration also reduces the gap between rampager/zerker, carrion and rabid gear (with rabid and rampager gear you have a high risk of hitting the bleed cap though).
When picking traits, deep cuts and fast hands are a must. After that you can put more points in arms tree if you want damage (25 points trait is good if you have power gear) or you can put them in defense or tactics (whichever you prefer).
For offhand weapon: sword for single target, axe for aoe (or mace if you want aoe cc), horn for more might stacking. Shield can be useful in certain situations, but you don’t want to use it all the time.

Get some berserker gear and switch your sword and axe around, now you can impale someone evis and rip them while pew pewing them with your bow just because…. You know what, that sounds entertaining, imma go run this in wvwvw and see how it goes

Lorelei.3918:

I put my build in the build post. I overcome the need for being a hybrid by being a tank…

Yeah! I was running something like that before; it was pretty cool. Sadly, though, with an organized group I really just didn’t feel like I was doing much, because my damage was so awful. When things are that easy, if you’re killing things faster, you’re mitigating more damage really by making things dead than by being alive longer to endure the more damage the enemy throws out, if that makes any sense… I would like a fun supporty build again though—it was pretty cool while it lasted.

Ozzrel.9825:

You can’t expect to do axe kind of dps (lets face it: axe is king of dps), but you can do pretty good numbers…

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m currently running three different rune sets, two of each, to achieve +45% bleed duration. Then I’m using condition damage food. If I could find something to make my burns better, that’d be cool, too.

Does anyone know, or know how I could figure out, the specifics for which stat points I want/need? E.g. should I do three pieces of carrion, three of berzerker, or something?

I love fast hands—I use it in basically every build I do make, usually—I am currently something like 0/20/0/20/30, but I’ll have to check later after work.

I’ll pick up an extra sword, I didn’t consider using it for single target. I keep a mace and shield on me, luckily.

Thanks again for the help! I’m getting closer to figuring this out.

Loading.4503:

Get some berserker gear and switch your sword and axe around…

Ha, that does sound entertaining! XD Thanks. Let me know how it worked out for you!

Thanks everyone for all your advice! I hope I can figure out what stats I need and get a nice build up and running for this. I want to love my warrior again—hopefully with your help I can.

Netu.2671:

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m currently running three different rune sets, two of each, to achieve +45% bleed duration. Then I’m using condition damage food. If I could find something to make my burns better, that’d be cool, too.

Does anyone know, or know how I could figure out, the specifics for which stat points I want/need? E.g. should I do three pieces of carrion, three of berzerker, or something

You could use condition duration food and use condition damage runes. Should net you more condition damage at cost of some precision.
As for gear… I played with my spreadsheet a little, and rampager with ruby jewels in trinkets seems to be the best choice, but the difference between that and carrion isn’t that big. Rabid is really close too, but having 100% bleed duration is an absolute must for it.

Ozzrel.9825:

Netu.2671:

Thanks for all the advice! I really appreciate it. I’m currently running three different rune sets, two of each, to achieve +45% bleed duration. Then I’m using condition damage food. If I could find something to make my burns better, that’d be cool, too.

Does anyone know, or know how I could figure out, the specifics for which stat points I want/need? E.g. should I do three pieces of carrion, three of berzerker, or something

You could use condition duration food and use condition damage runes. Should net you more condition damage at cost of some precision.
As for gear… I played with my spreadsheet a little, and rampager with ruby jewels in trinkets seems to be the best choice, but the difference between that and carrion isn’t that big. Rabid is really close too, but having 100% bleed duration is an absolute must for it.

You could try rapid gear with undead runes. This would give you good defense and condition damage. Then use zerker trinkets for higher bases damage.

Rabid doesn’t mix well with other sets since you will lose a big chunk of power with it.

Ozzrel.9825:

Rabid doesn’t mix well with other sets since you will lose a big chunk of power with it.

then be squishy and worst off than a zerker 100b warrior idc. be a squishy crappy condition build that gets owned. and does bad damage. there is ur build for you.

Warlord.9074:

Ozzrel.9825:

Rabid doesn’t mix well with other sets since you will lose a big chunk of power with it.

then be squishy and worst off than a zerker 100b warrior idc. be a squishy crappy condition build that gets owned. and does bad damage. there is ur build for you.

Then go full rabid. Zerker gear won’t add anything to that, since crit damage is useless without power.

Okay, so after some testing, I think I have decided this build, while cool, is simply not as high of damage as I would like, although the survivability is admittedly quite nice.

I’ll just run the old greatsword//axe/mace until I figure something else out, I guess. Alas.

If anyone has any further thoughts/suggestions, please feel free to let me know. My warrior is stagnant, and that makes me sad!

Without mixing in direct damage, you won’t be getting high dps. Conditions benefit only from 1 stat on your gear, while direct damage can benefit from 3.

that build isn’t out-dated. i still run the same build, works very well.