Guild Wars 2

I have always enjoyed control builds but Hambow has always been rather weak when it comes to fighting classes like Thieves, Mesmers, and any build that moves around a lot. that can easily avoid all of your big control skills. So I decided I wanted to make a build that is focused on fighting those classes while still being able to face down most foes. I’ve been testing it for a while and was told that it was a nightmare to fight…so I made a bad pun and made it the build name.

The Knightmare

Knightmare 2

I really hate it when people run from a fight or simply refuse to fight me head on, so this build applies a ton of Immobilize in addition to a bit of Chill to insure that whatever your fighting stays in range of you most of the time. I try to take as much advantage of Sword and Longbow being hybrid weapons as much as possible although most damage comes from the power side. Attack of Opportunity insure you are pretty much always doing 10% more damage and Blademaster in addition to high Fury uptime and Lyssa runes means most of your attacks will crit. Just like most Warrior builds these days you’re very strong against condition builds as well due to your plethora of removal.

I actually tried running Warhorn instead of Shield and but the 20 points in Tactics for Quick Breathing and Leg Specialist but the removal from the 2 Warhorn skills just wasn’t enough to combat a condi spam build. You also lost a lot of sustain because let’s face it the Defense line has the best traits for Warriors.

Now, I don’t I may have made this as optimal as I could have. For one thing I’m not totally sold on Bolas yet. It does synergize well with Pin Down since it makes it hit much more frequently and If they cleanse the first Immob they’ll be hit the the second immidiatly after. Add in Flurry after that and they’re probably not going anywhere. It’s also a finisher which makes it work well with Combustive Shot (in fact you also get 2 leap finishers and a blast finisher). That being said there may be better options.

You probably noticed that there’s 2 versions of the build. I can’t decide whether getting that extra power via Armored Attack is better than Destruction of the Empowered or not. It be more obvious if there was a +Power/Perc/Tough like in PvE because with toughness as the primary stat you get a pretty large bonus. That being said against foes with a lot of boons you can deal a good deal of extra damage. The Chill on the weapons is a bit of a gimmick (my Warrior’s name is Burr Chillthorn) and can be replaced by whatever you want but I have noticed that it can serve as a good cover condition.

Please leave any feedback, but please post your reasoning for your suggestions.

I like the addition of chill. In fact I like anything the warrior brings to the table that is non typical at this point.

I personally would run;
20-15-20-0-15
sword/shield (Chill/corruption)
Longbow-doom
Rampagers amulet
variations condition runes

equip distracting strikes
drop bola’s for launch

The up time on applying an ‘Annoying’ factor with being to able interrupt, break stealth, apply chill, poison, confusion, prime combo fields and detonate them or leap finish them= you’re just that guy who can interfere with others playstyle to point that it upsets their game.

However there is the personal mastery factor as well. If you get comfortable with this build, then anything is possible and no changes are needed.

My current dilemma is whether or not I’m screwing over my team running this build over Hambow. Being able to keep players without stability off a downed teammate can be really valuable. That being said I see a lot more Mesmers and Thieves in TPvP now and they absolutely hate this build. I feel like a bit of a bullet magnet which is actually nice because then I can just use Shield Stance and start luring people away.

Personally, I always found blademaster to bet very lack luster for a 20 point trait, even more so when you have 53% crit chance to begin with. I would replace it with either opportunist, furious reaction, or rending strikes.

Julie Yann.5379:

Personally, I always found blademaster to bet very lack luster for a 20 point trait, even more so when you have 53% crit chance to begin with. I would replace it with either opportunist, furious reaction, or rending strikes.

I used to think the same thing about Blademaster and I did try opportunist but the thing is, with Signet of Rage and Signet Mastery you have very high Fury up-time as it is. That means with it and Blademaster you’re going to be critting around 83% most of the time with sword out. This means that you’re also always getting a benefit from Furious. It really does need to reduce sword CDs though like every other weapon trait.

Been runing this build for almost a year now..
And i still like it, i did first 0/30/20/0/20 buy for some more damage i run 0/30/25/0/15 now..

Furious is very good in this build because both weapons can benefit from it + high crit..

Btw i rather run with Oppertunist instead of blademaster, thats because i dropped signet master for 25%speed, with that its just so easy to stick around with sword

And yes i run with lyssa but also 3xstances.. So yeah i havr 60sec lyssa.. But i dont really feel much difference.

Signet of dolyak looks nice but most of the time you dont benefit from the passive and you need signet master with that.

Runninh this also in wvw its a really nice and balanced build

Don’t you guys many times find that raw damage is just not enough?
Can you kill a point guard with this build? soldier hammbow? rabid engi? PU mez?
I mean fast and reliable enough during tournament , not in the 1v1 hero kinda way.
At least in current meta I find that some builds can negate direct damage too well and w/o help or perfect chain stun or something you can rarely drop them.
They might not kill you either, but if i want him off a point I want him out.
I can easily notice this in 1v1 with hammbow, if the fight is not too short you will see that most damage he actually did was not the hammer, it was burning.
That’s y i moved to hybrid – that reliable condi pressure can do wonders.

will be glad to hear your experience.

Personally i would not use knightmare build.
From my personal experience, only 3 types of builds work – support, burst or bunker
with burst you try to kill target in less than 30s time in order to avoid their utilities coming off cooldown + big skills cooldowns. If you fail at that, enemy most of the time wins, (or fails, if his build is bunker/meant to take damage, then you go even)

Support i use is sword+warhorn/ axe+mace shouts x/x/x/30/20 build, or swap axe+ mace with hammer for more lockdown. not using this alone, since you dont do enough damage, but in team scenario giving everyone shouts and removing condi works really well.

You build ( again, only my opinion) – looks like lesser version of any hammer build. If you want to lock enemy, earthshaker ( 2s stun) > ham 2> ham 5 ( 4s total locdown) > ham 3 > ham 4 (5s+). with immobilise – enemies has way more ways to escape or blind you interupting combos.
+ having shield improves your survivability by alot, but really lacks power in killing enemy ( shield 4 harder to land than it looks)

So long as you consistently land Arching Shot and Final Thrust your DPS can be very high. All your Immob makes this much easier, using Fan of Fire at melee range also deals a good amount of damage for how low the CD is.

Of the 3 you mentioned PU Mesmer is the easiest. Combustive Shot takes out their AIs before they become too big a threat and all the immobilize you apply means they can’t stay away from you. Not to mention even with low Condi damage Mesmers still can’t easily get rid all the bleeding and burn.

If played right Hambow Warriors can almost be comical. Make sure not to waste your Immobs when Zerker stance is up. Use Shield Stance after they pop it then just wait till it’s out them go on the offensive. Focus on damaging them without Immob when Bow is out and them use your bow to keep them out of range and laugh as they waste their Earthshaker by just smashing in place.

Haven’t fought a lot of Engis recently, which is odd because I hear how common they supposedly are. What I have fought haven’t been that hard because once again they focus on staying away from you, which this build denies. Combustive once again easily takes care of the Supply Drops especially since most are close enough for a Arching Shot to hit all of them. You also have tons of cleanses so the conditions shouldn’t be a problem.

Note that this comes from a guy who is currently severely handicapped by the fact that I have terrible DSL internet that frequently cuts in and out. I’m honestly surprised that I manage to win any 1v1 fights seeing as I basically have to input what I want to happen several seconds in the future from what I’m currently seeing.

Well I don’t think you meant this build is for tournament play but if you did then I’m kinda agree with Introp on this.
I think there are other viable builds but if we focus on yours then:
Your roll is that of zerk roamer, so even if its good and fun (i love these weapon set) if you can’t do it better then a thief then yeah – not viable for tpvp.

The tactics you wrote are true and current but if we are talking about equal levels players then – you are not dropping bunker guard, you are not dropping soldier hammbow (they have same tactics as yours you know. you can drop zerker if they dont get u) and if you haven’t met decap engi I guess u really don’t play much lately, but hate to tell you that you won’t drop them either. (PU mez is garbage anyhow so forget that)
The thing is, hammer warrior need no excuses coz even he if won’t win 1v1 (which they still do) they bring a lot to any team by CC – u can’t stom/rez interrupt with immobilize.

Sorry again for landing all this, I do think this build is viable in roaming/ duels and even more important – its very fun.

The problem I see with this set up is the dodge/evade and teleport spammers. Sure they can get caught but they can still teleport and evade around while immobilized (because logic). This build might be fun to play but you really can’t do much even with high dps as soon as all the blocks/dodge/evade/teleports start being spammed in. Also, immobilize is all fine and good but those who dodge and spam condi clears this’ll get shut down by.

As for fighting hambow warriors with this build, so long as you know what they’re doing and block it, any fight against them is comical regardless of what you’re running.

I’ve been playing with many warrior builds as of late and this is what I’ve found: You either get team play control or damage, solo damage and mobility, solo damage and control, team damage and mobility, but never all 3 (damage/control/mobility) at the same time. Your build fits the solo damage and mobility. I’ve tried a lot. Most fun I’ve found was mace/sword+longbow for solo control/damage (well that and endure pain followed by defiant stance really, really annoyed heartseeker spammers).

I would view the build as being a possible in-between of a home point guard and a roamer. You’re tough enough to hold off and kill a single and even survive long enough against two enemies until backup arrives. It’s actually pretty funny how long you can keep people from even REACHING the point with Pin Down and Bolas because many charge your home with the express purpose of getting on point before actually engaging.

While you’re probably not as tanky as a condi banner War you are much more mobile and not tethered to something you have to pick up and use. What you do have is the ability to jump into the mid fight, turn the tide, then get back to home. Something else I’ve noticed is that when you have 2 Hambow Warriors they can sometimes end up stepping on each others toes, using Staggering Blow and accidentally knocking someone out of range and the like. However this build actually complements Hambow perfectly. You lock them in place and deal faster damage than Hambow while they keep them in place. Not to mention one of your weapon sets doesn’t become almost worthless when someone has a lot of stability so you’re almost always working optimally outside of Zerker Stance.

This also works with Necros as well because it forces them to sit and eat all those nasty condis while you cover them with mostly throw-away conditions. It could even force someone to eat the entire barrage from a glass cannon Ele. What would really help this build is the addition of a ammy that gives Knight stats like in PvE. With Armored Attack and toughness being the primary stat you find yourself with 3k Attack and Armor in addition to a high crit chance and decent health. Right now the other ammys aren’t worth using with a build like this.

I’ve spent some time testing this and after dueling a guildy for a long time he eventually made a few changes that I think are viable. That being said on my internet the closer it gets to prime time the more things become a choppy and frustrating experience so It’s hard to say if one is actually any better than the other considering it’s more or less just a tradeoff. It also loses a bit of the “identity” the original build because it’s the same points distribution as the GS+LB build just with a sword.

Knightmare 3

P.S: I swapped out the Sigil of Ice for Hydromancy because it seems like compared to the Sigil of Fire it never seems to proc consistently.