Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been reading up on the mace/bow condi warrior to get an idea of how to better handle them. From what I could tell, most of the condi damage comes from the mace primal burst skill and longbow fire field. Is that a correct assumption?

Also, what is the best way to keep the warrior from building adrenalin and condi bursting? I was thinking kiting and attacking from range would be effective?

I’m messing around with power Reaper atm and I was only running consume conditions and staff for condi clears. Thinking of maybe swapping out Spectral Armor for Plague Signet to help with that.

1st Q isn’t so easy. You’re mainly right. But it depends on the other OH weapon. If torch, it can do a fair bit of damage w/ the roaming fire field and all. But the other popular choice – shield – does jack for damage. Keep in mind, too, that some run a more hybrid damage build; so even the direct damage hits contribute decently as well.

I’m not sure you can do much to prevent a warrior from building up adrenaline. If you can totally disengage from combat our adrenaline quickly goes away, but we heal up too. We get it from passive sources like getting hit and weapon swapping and such. Also know that when we switch into Zerk mode, we already have a full bar for a mace primal on your head.

Unfortunately for you, I find Reapers to be one of our best match-ups.

Shaogin.2679:

So I’ve been reading up on the mace/bow condi warrior to get an idea of how to better handle them. From what I could tell, most of the condi damage comes from the mace primal burst skill and longbow fire field. Is that a correct assumption?

Also, what is the best way to keep the warrior from building adrenalin and condi bursting? I was thinking kiting and attacking from range would be effective?

I’m messing around with power Reaper atm and I was only running consume conditions and staff for condi clears. Thinking of maybe swapping out Spectral Armor for Plague Signet to help with that.

Yes mace primal and fire field are where the dmg comes from. Kiting is less effective vs condi players (very effective vs power users). Condi players generally have only a couple of high damage abilities…..you can get up close and personal with them for eez kills if you just dodge/avoid these abilities.
I wouldn’t bother trying to prevent them from adrenalin building. If you wanted to know tho: them hitting stuff builds adrenaline, them getting hit will build adrenaline if they are condi clear traited, them being in combat will build adrenaline if signet of might or arms spec’d (unlikely to be arms spec’d unless glass 1 shot cannon type), breaking stuns, landing headbutts….those are the main ones. I would just focus on avoiding the headbutts, that will be the key to stopping alot of their damage if they use headbutt. Signet of fury is another one to watch for….can see if they have it spec’d by looking over their nameplate, generally only ranged users use it instead of headbutt generally.

Hi,

Welcome on the warrior forum.

Shaogin.2679:

From what I could tell, most of the condi damage comes from the mace primal burst skill and longbow fire field. Is that a correct assumption?

Somehow yes, but it’s a bit more complex than that. Basically, in terms of damage, you should pay attention to the following:

• Skull Grinder (Mace F1) and Scorched Earth (Bow F1) as you’ve read. These can only be used in Berserker mode. A warrior may still use Combustive Shot (vanilla Bow F1) in emergencies I guess, e.g. to cleanse conditions.
• Pin Down (Bow #5) will do good damage and immobilize you. The immobilization can be used to root you for other skills, such as Scorched Earth (Bow F1). It has a specific tell though, so you can usually mitigate it.
• The combo swap-to-bow at melee for Geomancy/Doom proc (cannot underestimate that) -> Fan of Fire (Bow #2). Tentatively dodge if you anticipate it (e.g. the warrior is on mace, not berserker mode, and is coming to you). Remember that a warrior can swap weapons every 5s.
• The combo Shattering Blow (damage + stability) -> Headbutt (proc Krait, stun and fill adrenaline, no self-stun because of stab) -> Berserker Mode -> Skull Grinder.

You may find some people using Strength instead of Discipline. They lose Fast Hands so their weapon rotations become much slower, so it’s basically an inferior version, but it does add a bit of damage:

• Hard control of the mace and the shield will now inflict bleed thanks to Body Blow,
• Interrupt will inflict confusion thanks to Distracting Strikes.

Finally, I suppose some players could choose to play something else than Krait, such as Guardian. In that case, blocks will now burn you.

Shaogin.2679:

Also, what is the best way to keep the warrior from building adrenalin and condi bursting? I was thinking kiting and attacking from range would be effective?

You cannot really prevent a warrior from building adrenaline. In the standard macebow build, he’ll get adrenaline when he hits you (e.g. with the bow) or when you hit him (thanks to Cleansing Ire). Headbutt will grant 3 full bars of adrenaline, and Shattering Blow will give a bit too.

Kiting a macebow warrior is possible, because the build has a low mobility. However, it has a tons of blocks, and all blocks are traited to reflect thanks to Shield Mastery, so the warrior just has to use LoS or reflect your damage. You cannot die to a condi warrior should you kite him, but you cannot kill him that way either.

Aside from the damage elements listed above, pay attention to:

• Berserker mode. It has pulsing stability, which may negate some of your attempts to control / interrupt (and is very useful for rez/stomps). It also has Dead or Alive, although you may not care much about this one (warriors do try to enter Berserker Mode when dying, to have that ultimate helping hand).
• Lots of blocks/reflects: Counterblow (Mace #2, CD 10s), Shield Stance (Shield #5, CD 20s traited), and Shattering Blow (CD 15s). Prepare to stow weapon if you see the warrior reflecting your projectiles – or interrupt the blocks with unblockable skills.
• Vengeance of course, especially with Berserker mode which will provide stability (Eternal Champion).
• All kinds of bursts (=F1 skills). Bursts proc Adrenal Health, which significantly contributes to the warrior sustain. Never take on the Skull Grinder, not sure if you can do something against Scorched Earth though (Interrupt maybe? Combustive Shot can be blocked / reflected / destroyed, but don’t know for Scorched Earth).

Shaogin.2679:

I’m messing around with power Reaper atm and I was only running consume conditions and staff for condi clears. Thinking of maybe swapping out Spectral Armor for Plague Signet to help with that.

I don’t play necro, so cannot really tell if more is required here. Just remember that a warrior has Endure Pain (free 4s physical immunity CD 60s) and Defy Pain (4s physical immunity at 50% HP CD 60s), so 8s of physical immunity every minute, during which you may want to kite.

Sorry for long post, good luck.

Thanks for all of the help. I actually ran into another mace/bow warrior the other day. Plague Signet over Spectral Armor actually made a huge difference. It was in unranked though and in a team fight so not sure whether the warrior was any good or not. Would anyone be available to duel sometime so I can get some practice in against a decent warrior? I’m on NA server.