Guild Wars 2

So the dust has settled a bit on the patch, I have had time to read a lot of builds by some very good players and hear what they have to say about possible uses for the Warrior.

From this (and this will be stating the obvious for many of you) the things that are causing problems right now are AoE damage and Conditions.

The embodiment of this is the Necro so I wanted to create a build that could put down some AoE damage and Condi’s whilst at the same time bringing to the table a good foil for Necro, lots of CC.

This is what I came up with:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBjYDbE0pFu2R1hJOQYU8DiceQlpQ+kizwGA-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscNsYZxuAA

I have been a fan for the Physical Utility skills for a while now, but they just never seemed viable putting up a Grandmaster trait for them.

This build brings:

Decent AoE team peels from Warhorn (when in team fights)
Good CC
Great AoE damage with burns ticking along

The way I tend to play this is almost never engaging unless you have to, and using Kick to keep people off you, hence the Scholar Runes. You could swap out stomp for Bolas for keeping someone away from you, but I like the ability to knock people out of Sanctuary/Rez/Shadow Refuge.

If you are having trouble staying above 90% you can switch one rune (or all of them) out for Divinity Runes and the damage is still very nice.

Similarly if you like engaging more in Melee range you can swap the below traits out:

Restorative Strength instead of Great Fortitude
Deep Cuts instead of Rending Strikes

Put up a couple of variants of the build here:

http://papaganooshplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/papas-physical-training-build.html

Would love any constructive criticism from people.

It looks like it’d be fun as hell, though I can’t really see it being useful. Constructive criticism wise:

1) Not sure if this was fixed, but stronger bowstrings lowered auto attack damage, making it a poor choice if not running a condi setup. Also, the extended range is negligible in PvP tbh. Empower Allies/Desperate Power are better choices here imo. Empowered may work here as well with boon conversion from warhorn (2% damage per boon, so it would push your personal dps further than empower allies given your high uptime of 4 boons plus what you’ll incidentally convert/pick up from allies).

2) Runes of the scholar, in my experience at least, don’t really pay dividends with retaliation/AoE spam. Hitting 3 people with your f1 will get you below 90% pretty fast if you’re taking a stray hit here and there. Personally prefer 5x scholar 1x divinity or hoelbrak if the other team has a necro (which is basically every team now). My playstyle is generally closer in with the longbow though, so I could be wrong here (drop f1, 3, blind if it seems necessary, hopefully hang onto 5 to shotgun 2 and HB then WW across the point, swapping back to longbow to spam more f1).

3) Maybe I’m wrong here but I don’t see this doing a lot of damage (I haven’t tested it, but I’m rolling numbers around in my head, which I’m generally pretty good with). You’re missing out on 20% crit damage given that longbow builds generally push 20 points into discipline (at least). Also without fast hands you lose out on a lot of dps if you get focused and have to disengage. Also losing out on DoTE, which will generally give your AoE spam at least a 12% boost at a mid fight given that there will be a guard there, and he will be pooping AoE boons every half second.

4) While I like the heal from mending better than surge, it’s still kitten. Since both heals are terrible I prefer the one that lets me use my f1 more often.

The mace/shield+GS build:

1) you’re kinda screwed by stability here, granted you have bolas but you won’t be doing a whole lot of damage without unsuspecting foe in this build.

2) Most mace/shield+GS builds depend on rotation to constantly pressure the other guy until he just can’t dodge/stunbreak anymore. Without fast hands you lose a lot of this pressure (the other guy has 9 seconds to right himself after you swap to mace/shield as opposed to 5).

3) While I like these builds a lot, until the condi spam meta dies down a lot I find it pretty difficult to get anything done with it. HBing all the time means standing still a lot, which means eating a lot of conditions.

4) I’d generally recommend reflect missiles with this setup, as it gives you a second block instead of just a reduced cooldown on 1.

5) A lack of your own stability means you’ll generally get CC’d off of people a lot.

Overall probably a pretty good 1v1 setup though.

Like I said, just constructive criticism. If nothing else the builds look fun, I just don’t see them contributing enough to warrant bringing a warrior over something else. To me the only thing we can really do better is raw damage, which while taking a great deal more thought and patience than other classes, can make up for glaring deficiencies in a teams overall dps if played right.

Thanks for the input! I put it up on our guild forums and got some quite similar feedback too. Always good to hear an opinion twice, as it shows it is most likely to be better than the current.

1) Agree totally. This was one of the things that was brought up. You can certainly go with other traits here and Empower Allies is a nice touch.

2) I see what you mean. I think it is a difference in play styles. I usually am like you and like to get in the thick of it (like a Warr should!), but for this it is more for standing on the outside of a point (cliff on Foefire or Keep ledge on Forest) and spamming away, then when you are ready go in and get busy!

3) The damage isn’t that great at all. It is more to lay down some AoE fields, stack might, provide condi peels, lots of CC for the main damage dealers and also throw your hat down for some decent damage. Having tested it out a bit more it certainly isn’t toothless, but it also possibly doesn’t do enough all the time to warrant the lack of DPS.

4) Mending is nice with the condi problem right now, I just love seeing a 9/10k heal fired off.

Mace + GS Build

3) I think this sums it up a lot. It is a nice idea, but until the crazy blind/condi spam dies down it isn’t viable.

I agree with what you say about Raw damage being the only thing we can bring right now. I revived one of my old builds and tried to revamp it for the third time here:

http://papaganooshplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/papas-adrenaline-junkie-build-mark-iii.html

Worth noting it is running Stronger Bowstrings so ditto what you said above for that!