Guild Wars 2

Just started a warrior and she’s now near 80. So I think I’m sort of getting a good idea of what’s good and what’s not so good.

Are burst skills worth using?

Reason I’m saying this is that because of Berserker’s Power and Heightened Focus, it just doesn’t seem like its worth it to use them and take a hefty DPS decrease. Eviscerate if you trailed for axe sea like the only one worth using.

Its a bit weird that Anet made traits which basically discourages you from using your class mechanic and thus making the game more boring (Double Dragon: Wander of the Dragons much?). Or is this just me being a noob?

Only a few select burst skills are even worth using…

Even then, probably not worth it when you have Berserker’s power. I don’t like the burst skills and I wish they had been overhauled.

Situational. I always use Eviscerate if it will kill a Boss, and use Combustive Shot for pre-pull Might Stacking.

The 15 point Minor in Strength means using your Burst gives 1 bar of endurance back, so that’s worth bearing in mind.

PvP/WvW is different, if you were wondering.

But for the most part, no.

Yeah you generally only use at the end of a fight or if you desperately need a dodge. Using combustive shot for a fire field is nice though.

Also in cliffside fractal when doing the arm seals you should spam combustive shot on the side your group is stacking at. This will immediately pull the group as they spawn and stop them healing the seal.

Adrenaline builds quite quickly. The damage you do with berserkers might with axe auto is roughly the same as using evis on a great crit and letting it rebuild to full. However great sword f1 is pathetic. It only gives you boons that you can get super easy anyway. At least with evis it is a leap finish. Flurry is a strong immobilise. Hammer is a AoE stun/ combo field detonator. Mace a painfully slow hard CC 4 second stun. Killshot is a possible high hitting crit damage.This basically means using axe/hammer/bow the f1 could be useful..anything else and it is better to just ride off berserker power with a few situations where the burst maybe good here or there, but in general not using it will be more effective at downing.

I’ve been so far just using GS F1 after HB/WWA/rush to keep fury up 100% then using that heal skill to top to 100% adrenaline.

It seems Eviscerate is worth using if you got that axe discipline trait, because if there’s multiple enemies, 1 axe no2 pretty much instantly fills your bar and otherwise it takes like 3 seconds to fill it back up. Or instantly with axe 5.

But I really think Adrenaline skills need an overhaul. The way it is right now, it does seem like a pretty terrible design decision because you got traits which basically tells you to not use your class mechanic, which doesn’t make any sense.

Perhaps they should change Discipline’s passive to be an increase in the rate of adrenaline gain and add a trait (like that guardian Virtue trait) which adds secondary effects to burst skills, eg (numbers need balancing):

- GS: also adds 3 stacks of 10s Might per bar used.
- Mace: adds 7 stacks of vulnerability
- Axe: now cleaves
- LB: allies in affected area gains fury.
- Sword: each hit increases the damage of the next hit
- Rifle: decreases casting time
- Hammer: grants protection per enemy hit

It’s not that the class mechanic is bad, it’s that Berserker’s Power is so strong. It’s … like a 10 trait point further investment, since every PVE build goes 20 in because Axe Mastery or Slashing Power. And it’s not like that line is a Healing/Vitality line, it gives Power too.

But we don’t need Berserker Power nerfed anymore, bumping it up to GM from Adept is enough.

^ I think it’s either nerf b. power or make burst skills more useful. Atm I think it’s a case if buff burst skills.

People say that burst skills are something that’s supposed to be very situational but given that they are the defining feature of warriors, shouldn’t gameplay as a warrior involve extensively using them?

I totally think burst skills are worth using. In PvE they all have different uses, like Eviscerate could help tearing down an Elite or Veteran that much faster. The Fury from Greatsword’s burst is excellent if you aren’t running any utilities that give Fury. I run stances so it fits great. If you wanted to run Signets it could find it’s way in there if you don’t want to run Signet of Rage.

I’m not saying it’s wrong or that it isn’t logical in PvE right now, but it seems like most of the time the general idea for playing the warrior is to do as much damage as possible and anything that has incredible utility use seems to suck. I think the issue has to do with how dumbed down stacking every single fight in the game is making the combat feel.

In a dungeon run where mobs dodged and kited, just in our skill pool alone the skills would make more sense to use. The Immobilize on Flurry could be used to keep foes in AoE’s or to get them off of the tail of one of your buddies. You wouldn’t use it on the Spider Queen in AC right now because, well, you’re already stacked and that doesn’t make any sense. I’m not against using LoS, but in my opinion it’s so prevalent in the game right now that it’s dumbing down the combat too much compared to other formats. I think the utility of a great number of skills falls out of light in PvE because of this.

The problem is with pve design. If mobs weren’t so pants on head dumb you’d see our burst skills being regarded as important just like in PvP, where every burst skill other than GS is great. As it is generally all you need is dps, why bother using immobilizes or stuns?

Spoj The Second.7680:

Yeah you generally only use at the end of a fight or if you desperately need a dodge. Using combustive shot for a fire field is nice though.

Also in cliffside fractal when doing the arm seals you should spam combustive shot on the side your group is stacking at. This will immediately pull the group as they spawn and stop them healing the seal.

No worries, they are “fixing” that dodge thing next patch.

Alone a burst skill isn’t anything special, with maybe the exception of Axe, Bow and Rifle being decent uses. For the most part I’d never use it for combat. keeping the burst bar full has more benefits if your speced for it. The only real exception for me is Cleansing Ire which even then is reserved for those emergency times when my warrior is flooded with 4-5 conditions and I have to get them off in a hurry other wise I’ll just leave my bar full.

Jzaku.9765:

The problem is with pve design. If mobs weren’t so pants on head dumb you’d see our burst skills being regarded as important just like in PvP, where every burst skill other than GS is great. As it is generally all you need is dps, why bother using immobilizes or stuns?

You can never get AI to be as good as players, at least not yet.