Guild Wars 2

I play a lot of Thief where this question feels more obvious:
Evading/interrupting/blinding critical moves, landing backstabs, being clever with stolen skills, stealth juking, managing initiative, and of course contributing in a TF without getting gibbed (where I struggle.)

What makes a great warrior?
Do you find the tactical skill-ceiling high enough or is it mostly strategy (build/pre-fight commit)?

Edit: I’m not asking what makes Warrior great or why you enjoy it. What separates a good Warrior from a great one?

You dont have to struggle. Just run away out of combat to get full health and come back and reset the fight. Like all thiefs do in WvW.

The skill ceiling is lower IMO, and I main war with thief second. That does not mean the skill ceiling is low, though.

I find that a truly mastered thief will beat the same on warrior every time. Thief has some incredibly powerful tools in Steal and Stealth, plentiful evades and interrupts.

What makes a good warrior great are many things. You have to know the class inside and out in order for you to surprise your opponent. Warrior is probably the most telegraphed class in the game, so switching your playstyle from defensive to offensive and being able to land your big hits is crucial.

Obviously, because warrior is bulky, you can afford a few mistakes. Thieves can make mistakes too but are sooner forced to reset (which is easy for them, so not a big problem I guess). And unlike thief, warrior has to be sure that the fight he is picking is one he can win, because the mobility, while good, is not good enough to outrun anything (unlike thief, or any class with access to stealth).

what makes a great roaming warrior is mostly knowing all the other classes xD when you get screwed over there are no real out of jail cards like blink on high ground, go to stealth, get out of range instantly – stuff like that. so better know what’s dangerous before it hits. fighting a build you never fought before is usually GG for warrior as you have way less of a strategy then other classes. i feel like we have all the tools needed to deal with all of the stuff – but its precision work, you cant spam kitten like a mesmer (except in berserker mode, wahoo) – nor get out of jail.

Thanks for the commentary, it’s definitely interesting.

Of course pre-commit judgment is going to be more important on a class with fewer resets.

I can definitely feel that Warrior is more telegraphed, I can see successfully landing your damage being a differentiator (baiting out dodges/Invulns).

I feel like there must be more tactical depth because some warriors I’ve fought just feel so much more insane than others – but maybe that’s a build difference (strategy) opposed to mechanics (tactics).

Most of the stuff been said already but I’m still going to commit.

Baiting and timing: Obviously a big thing with warriors telegraphic skills. Make them dodge and use another skill to time it land when they come out of dodge.

Skill cancel: Cancel your big windups to bait dodges. You can sheath weapon mid swing to put it to a few second cooldown. It’s also good to know this just to cancel a skill if you are sure you will miss it.

Pressure: Warrior has low CD’s on most stuff so you can easily keep pressure on. You don’t necessarily have to do big combo wombo as long as you can keep dishing big hit skills all the time.

Trade hits: Warrior has huge HP pool and you can easily trade hits. You can easily take a 5k hit to give 5k hit yourself. On most cases the 5k on them means way more than the 5k on you. So take a hit to make a hit.

Thats something I can give for this thread