Guild Wars 2

Here is my build so far, but I’m hoping for feedback.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#2|2|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|25|1975|1523|0|15|1895|0|0|30|1518|1510|1056|0|0|0|0|0|0|4|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|

I like the look and feel of the Sword/Sword & Rifle loadout. I like that the offhand gives me an additional bleed and a block (with counterattack) for survivability. I’ve been leveling using an all signet build, and it’s worked alright through low-level dungeons and map completion. Everyone here seems to look down on signets at level 80 though. I assume that is because of the lack of group utility, but hopefully someone can explain. I like the shouts and their benefits, but there are even those that look down on shouts either due to having to get to Tactics 30 to make them useful.

I also have a question in the Arms line. From everything I read, bleed duration is not such a huge deal, especially if you’re running with a condition necro or some other heavy-bleed spec. At Arms 10, should I take Rending Strikes to add some vulnerability to the build? Can it trigger at the same time that Precise Strikes does, or are they mutually exclusive? Also, is it worth it to go to Arms 30 to get Opportunist, if you can couple it with Leg Specialist?

If you go to Arms 30, that prevents you from getting to Defense 15 for Adrenal Health so I’m not sure if that’s a good trade off.

I know next to nothing about equipment, but I’m leaning towards lifesteal sigils for that added survivability. And I know I’ll need to stack condition damage.

Long story short, is there a viable L80 sword/sword build that can survive in FotM or other endgame dungeons while still providing good warrior DPS?

Pretty much the build i run with for dungeons except i use empower allies instead of leg specialist. I also go with a mix of zerker/knight gear, no rampage. Had no problems with 30+ fractals when groups are reasonably good.

25 arms is a must for those extra 10% but i prefer adrenal health instead of 30 arms. Adrenal health over time will be worth around 40% of your main heal. Shouts another 60% so you get 100% more healing with this build.

For main hand i use strength sigil since swords are hybrid weapons and therefore benefit from both power and condition damage given by might boons. Also, 2 crit proc sigils conflict with each other so for the offhand i go with a stack sigil, either perception or bloodlust.

JDGATX.9385:

Everyone here seems to look down on signets at level 80 though. I assume that is because of the lack of group utility, but hopefully someone can explain.

No. Signet builds suck at lvl 80 because they scale horribly.

At low level the bonuses they give are fantastic. Above and beyond the normal for those levels. This is especially true for Deep Strikes. 40 Precision (and that’s per unused signet) at low levels equates a LOT of critical chance. So much so that around levels 20/30 it’s common for Warriors to have around 90-100% critical chance.

But as levels progress, the bonuses they give are increasingly less significant, until they become downright redundant. For example Deep Strikes becomes a waste of a trait. At lvl 20 you attain +1% critical chance for every 3.16 points in precision, which means that a single unused signet + Deep Strikes grants you ~12.7% critical strike. But at 80 you require 21 precision for +1% critical chance, so the same unused signet + deep strikes only grants you less than 2% critical chance bonus.

The same is true for most signets themselves. Signet of Fury, Signet of the Dolyak and Signet of Might all grant 10 base + your level of bonus to their respective stat. At low levels this is a very significant boost. At high levels it’s a drop of water in the ocean. The only signets you might want to use at high levels are Signet of Rage (the only real Elite warriors have), Healing Signet (good for defensive builds) and Signet of Stamina (perma mini-vigor with an all condition clear attached).

Worse even, is that you just get more important skills…

If you want the offensive boost from Signet of Might and Signet of Fury, you’re a million times better just taking For Great Justice, and not just for party-aiding purposes either. Fury’s flat 20% critical chance boost is negligible at low levels where tiny amounts of precision grant massive boost to the stat, but at high levels a readily available, low cooldown instant +20% critical chance is a godsend. And it only costs you one slot instead of two.The extra might is just gravy on top.

Then you have things like Frenzy, Endure Pain, On My Mark, Shake it Off… Depends on your build, but whatever option you were going for with signets, there are generally better/more important non-signet options you’ll need, or at least REALLY want, to take first.

So, in short, Signet Builds start out fantastically, but scale horribly, which is the exact opposite of mostly every other skill worth using. Use it to level, then dump it at level 80.

Lots of great feedback so far. Thanks!

Here is an updated build. What do you think?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmRkmo0MzoGRNmoGRNm0pfGaVRzzRo08kil7kiH7kil7070M7kGW70V7owZ70M7ow170z

I kept three signets: Healing, Stamina, Rage.
I slotted in two shouts: FGJ, OMM.

Sword actually has almost as much dps as Axe or Greatsword, but the way condition stacking works makes it very difficult to realize your damage potential.
Might is where a lot of your condition damage/power is going to come from if you’re running Rampager’s gear (which I would strongly suggest you do).
With these two issues in mind, make sure your teammates can assist you in building might and that they will not need to stack bleeds of their own.

I disagree that condition duration is unimportant to sword builds as this is where a large portion of your damage should be coming from; without the bleeds, swords’ damage is nothing compared to you other weapon choices. That being said, you have to weigh cost/value of condition duration as it is a stat that comes in mixed bags. The 50% bleed duration trait is a great source of condition duration, but the 10% sigil is not. Also don’t be tempted by sigil of earth (60% bleed on crit) as sigil of fire will do far more damage even in a condition damage build. If you can stay alive, consider taking condition damage stacking sigil.
One luxury afforded by a sword spec is that you don’t need the 12%crit/12%damage adrenaline traits to be effective as power/crit damage are not quite as central to your dps and can therefore use either your sword adrenaline skill or bring a longbow for the AoE burning and fire field (which does wonders with might).

I also wouldn’t recommend making rifle a central point of your build; switch to it if there’s a fight you absolutely don’t feel you can melee in, but I think you’ll find learning how to melee various bosses much more rewarding. Also if you’ve got the level 15 discipline weapon swap trait you can use rifle+longbow in ranged fights to maximize your damage potential by rotating those weapons and using the adrenaline skill on the longbow whenever it’s up.

If you decide to go for an adrenaline spec you may want the 30 points in discipline just for the bonus adrenaline on crit since you’ll already need 25 points for the 10% damage on bleeds anyways.

Sorry for the long-winded nature of this post. It’s difficult to fit months of theorycrafting/testing into one reply :-). I don’t use sword/sword anymore, but that’s more due to the perception that it is bad and the difficulty in finding a group when you use it. As I mentioned above though, in a team built around your build you can certainly keep up with the warrior titan weapons.

Prahl.1057:

Sword actually has almost as much dps as Axe or Greatsword, but the way condition stacking works makes it very difficult to realize your damage potential.

No.
25 Bleeds deal up to 3-4k DPS on a Sword Warrior, GS/Axe Warriors sit on 7-8k DPS.
From a DPS perspective direct damage beats by far condition damage on Warriors.

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

25 Bleeds deal up to 3-4k DPS on a Sword Warrior, GS/Axe Warriors sit on 7-8k DPS.
From a DPS perspective direct damage beats by far condition damage on Warriors.

Oddly enough, swords also deal direct damage and crit a lot and benefit from crit damage on banners/traits… who would have known?

Swords are hybrid weapons so you need all 4 damage stats to have its full potential, thats obviously not possible since you only get 3 stats per gear (minus upgrades). However, if you remove all gear and leave only your weapons, swords will do higher damage than axes and greatswords. This means swords have bad scalability.

Therefore imho, swords will be a better choice for non glass cannon builds only. Problem is, most pve content is easy so people usually go with glass cannon builds.