Guild Wars 2

Glass cannon signet warriors in dungeons really grind my gears.

As a Warrior who is willing to sacrifice my own personal damage stats to spec for things like shouts that cleanse and heal, and also gear for survival with toughness and vit. I get a little tired of constantly rezzing some signet war who brings nothing to the group but a Hundred Blades CD between me rezzing his sorry kitten.

I understand running this for leveling, as it makes running through quests a heck of a lot easier, but for dungeons try to remember that a dead warrior does 0 damage. And a signet warrior brings 0 utility.

The signet build + trait is incredible up until about 50 in my experience. At that point it’s probably time to start using the big boy skills.

You can’t control what other people do. You can only control what you do. Therefore, you should stop rezzing him.

What are these warriors doing to these poor kittens?

I like signet warriors, they make me look better! Really though…stop it, 5 signets is near useless outside of soloing content.

omg a signet warrior killed my family and dog, I hate them! ¬¬

Corpus.5347:

What are these warriors doing to these poor kittens?

Ryoga.7126:

omg a signet warrior killed my family and dog, I hate them! ¬¬

Lmao!!

Yeah but seriously like someone stated above 5 sig strategy is nice up until lvl 50 if you’re soloing but after that theres really no excuse unless you’re lazy or afraid of getting out of your comfort zone and trying out something that will not only benefit you but your party as well.

I personally try to show all the warriors in the guild I’m in other builds and try to encourage them to try out different things than the 5 sig snorefest

Glass cannon signet warriors in dungeons really grind my gears.

As a Warrior who is willing to sacrifice my own personal damage stats to spec for things like shouts that cleanse and heal, and also gear for survival with toughness and vit. I get a little tired of constantly rezzing some signet war who brings nothing to the group but a Hundred Blades CD between me rezzing his sorry kitten.

I understand running this for leveling, as it makes running through quests a heck of a lot easier, but for dungeons try to remember that a dead warrior does 0 damage. And a signet warrior brings 0 utility.

I love to see them in wvwvw they stay downed as a arrow cart hits them

But I like my 21k Hundred Blades with 95% crit chance and 87% bonus crit damage and perma 20+ stacks of might!

It’s not about the build. It’s about skill. A good warrior will focus more on dodging than attacking. A bad warrior will use hundred blades whenever it’s off CD and just not bother dodging during the animation, regardless of if they are taking a lot of damage or not.

Anyone who uses 5 signets instead of 3-4 with FGJ just doesn’t know how to think for themselves though, and probably don’t know how to dodge.

More damage > less time fighting > less time to get worn out and die..

Its their build they can play however they want, i think people will get bored of Warriors if every single one of us followed the conga line that is healing shouts. Just because its good for support, doesn’t mean everyone finds it fun.

I’ve played with a large variety of classes in my time and the most volatile i have found were Guardians trying to tank. And thats only one, maybe two bad experiences. Nothing can be held accountable based upon the player’s class or their spec, only their attitude to combat and ability to execute what they want to do.

Signet greatsword may attract more bads then other specs, but thats because damage in general attracts more bads then other specs, and signet greatsword happens to be the best in terms of raw damage.

Your looking at it like people look at the WoW playerbase. ‘I have met X people who were bad!’ may sound terrible on paper, but you have to take the ratio into consideration. When 70% of the population prefers big numbers over being a buff bot, there are bound to be more people who mess up, because there are more of them in general.

I’ll tell you the two things im tired of, people whining about signet greatsword, and people who knee jerk tell people to run healing shouts. Because apparently full support > full damage in every case and every person must abide by this rule, lest they be sacrificed to Imhotep.

I run mace/shield and longbow, focused 90% on control, ripping defiance from bosses and stun locking non-defiant enemies, specced and geared for tactics and toughness, so im not defending my own spec. But there are many, many occasions where i have been in a fight, crying for someone to do more damage. Sometimes where the fight hinged on a greater damage output, to the point where i had to swap weapons and abandon what matched my trait set up so that the group could conquer the task.

For those who didnt get the analogy, WoW has a lot of trolls, but also a massive playerbase, just because you meet a troll a day does not mean the 11 million players or what evs are all trolls. Warrior is the most played class, most people want big numbers, most people go with best spec to see those big numbers, more people available to mess up though the ratio may still be the same between bads:goods.

can someone post a nice build… ive soloed my way to lvl 76(using signents and GS i might add) and its been working pretty well, but from what i hear i need to use some “big boy skills”
So can someone post i nice build for dungeons/wvw/pve or multiple builds?

I’ll switch from using my glass cannon build when I find content that requires me to switch. I’ve yet to do that.

So to the Op. Play the way you want and I’ll play the way I want. But if you have issues with the way other people play in a PUG group, I suggest you start looking into a premade so you won’t have to get your panties in a twist over what other people are running.

I play for my entertainment, not yours.

There’s nothing wrong with using a signet/GS/Rifle build in dungeons..its high dps and good survivability if the warrior plays well and uses his Dodge, condition cures and self heals ect..i"m not going to halve my dps just to throw in a few group utilities just to please some random squishy in a dungeon :P

PvP is another matter entirely, the 5 signet build will not work..

Signet of Rage is definitely a valid elite skill.
Signet of Stamina is a top tier dungeon utility.
Signet of Restoration is situational.

As for other signets, I can’t defend them.

I run a 5 signet build. yes i do. but i have never used a GS except for completing the skill set of the GS.. i use rifles yes and for my alt set
i swap between sword/shield for defense and sword/warhorn for buffs(when i know im going in combat) or just for the sake of running/
i find it really good in WvW.. i mean yes those support/semi-support/cc build warriors are good and all in WvW., but i see myself also doing decent.. specially with with every kill shot dealing half of the target’s HP or insta killing him or her.. i do 10k damage to players in WvW with kill shot and the 3rd rifle skill easily.. it sometimes shoots up to 15k and im even not half-equipped.. and with piercing bullets you deal high amounts of damage to people in a straight line.. it comes extremely useful in group fights in bottlenecks… you can almost inta-down 3 people in an instant.. and i dont really die that often since its a ranged weapon and use my alternate just for escape or movement

The problem is not the signet traits and GS traits. Its that people aren’t wearing gear to offset that. Don’t wear Zerker gear and trait GS/signet. Sure you’ll be able to put out mad damage but you won’t stay up long enough for HB to finish. Wear knights or Valkyrie. You’ll do slightly less damage but you’ll actually be able to do the damage instead of dying. Think about balance. Specialize but don’t hyper-specialize.

my build at most uses 3: Might, Fury and Rage… but thats only while soloing, or running with my girlfriends guardian.

When I go to dungeons I switch out the Fury with For Great Justice (i run on my mark as my other utility)

But I dont spec for Deep Strike anyway, so meh

I was however in Ascalonian Catacombs yesterday with 2 other warriors, both using nothing but signets and a rifle

that was a painful run.

When I enter a few dungeons I’ll switch. Till then most of my fighting is solo or world events. I may try out other builds again. I leveled to 30 without the signet build switch to it at 30 when I found out about it and have done rather well.

I’m also rather good at dodging.

Its the people that run around with 5 signets always on passive and speced with Deep Strike that baffle me……last I checked the amount of crit you get at 80 from 5 signets is pathetic at best.

its funny how FGJ outperforms Signet of might AND Signet of Fury in terms of “powerboost per time” and “critchance boost by time”, yet most people run signets

FGJ gives 3 might 100% of the time. Signet of might does 5 might 40% of the time (10s duration on 25sec cd), which is about equal as 2 might 100% of the time. The passive bonus is (active) 93power and 93 cond dmg vs (passive) 90 power.
Furys passive gives about 4% critchance 100% of the time (given you dont use the signet itself for adren). FGJ’s Fury-boon is 8sec of 20% critboost on 25 sec cd. thats about equal as 6.4% critchance 100% of the time.

Boon duration and “20% recharge” traits are existant for both sides.

I don’t think I would go so far as to call them noobs, but there are simply superior strategies a Warrior can use in my opinion by actually using the signets.

Let’s be realistic here. 5×40= +200 precision. That’s an amazing critical rate for glass cannon warriors who run a max damage build with 30 Strength and 30 Arms traits.

However, my warrior takes on a more supportive role, running 30 arms, 30 tactics, and 10 discipline.

While I lose +300 power (I make up for it with +power +vitality +strength 42k armor) I gain a number of VERY useful traits which you can change depending on your weapon.

These are my utilities of choice:
Healing Surge
Signet of Might
“For Great Justice!”
Signet of Fury
Signet of Rage

The first thing you will notice is it looks VERY similar to the Signet Warrior. And with a few variations, it IS a superior version of the Signet Warrior! (As you can still carry Deep Strike and swap Healing Surge for Healing Signet.)

How does this build work? Not only are your boons extended by 30%, but you have access to traits which decrease signet and shout recharge!

What this basically means is you can spam Signet of Might, “For Great Justice”, and Signet of Rage for perma 16 might, fury, and near-perma swiftness!

Because of the access to perma fury, you already have more critical chance than a Signet warrior ever would. This is in addition to the +90 precision provided by Signet of Fury and +80 more precision provided by the Deep Strike trait if you use Healing Signet instead of healing Surge and do not use Signet of Fury.

Now you also have access to the Vigorous Shouts trait which heals around 1000 HP whenever you use your shout every 20 seconds, making you a bit of a team player. In addition you’re also providing some blanket fury and might to allies through For Great Justice.

And despite not investing into Strength traits, tier 1 of Tactics grants you the trait “Empowered”, which grants you extra damage for each boon on you. According to GW2 wiki it increases damage by 1.5% for each boon, so it increases damage by 4.5%, which MIGHT seem low, but remember that you have a near-constant 16 stacks of Might, so that totals to around 20.5% more damage!

For specific weapon specifications, you can easily swap out Furious from the Arms traits into Forceful Greatsword, which grants might on critical hit. Because you have permanent Fury (if you keep spamming For Great Justice), and start at 16 Might, it’s actually possible to max out your own Might to 25 stacks!

If you want mobility or to support the team, you also have the Sword/Warhorn combo which provides an amazing leap skill as well as stacking with the swiftness of Signet of Rage to achieve perma-swiftness (as opposed to near-perma), and you also have the #5 warhorn skill to grant you Vigor for 13 seconds! (And weakens foes!) You also have access to 10% critical rate while wielding sword Trait, allowing you to achieve around 80% critical hit chance! (Combine with traits to vulnerability+bleed on crit!)

And keep in mind this IS the Tactics line! So you can swap out Signet of Fury if you want slightly less crit % and add in a banner of your choice to combine with the traits Inspiring Banners (bigger banner range and 20% less charge), and Inspiring Battle Standard (Regens allies in a banner)

Alternatively, you can focus on specializing more into shout-support and swap out Signet of Fury for “Shake it Off!”, giving you TWO shouts which heal 2000 HP to you and allies, and also cure their conditions! (On My Mark also works but it’s single target and inferior to Engineers applying vulnerability)

You also have longbow-related traits, which is always a plus. Longbow is a pretty awesome weapon!

Also, always keep in mind that although this build centers around perma Might and Fury and Near-perma Swiftness (unless you use runes+other swiftness skills), you can give up the Discipline trait which decreases your Signet recharge and try out Mighty Defenses (which will help you stack 25 Might when weapon swapping with shield and blocking a lot) and Heightened Focus (higher adrenaline = higher crit) .

Like I said. I’m not going to call Signet Warriors noobs… I’m sure their build has a place somewhere, and I predict speedclear teams in the future will use some variation of it.

It’s just that I believe my build can do the same thing and be more of a team-player, with access to a LOT more variety! (And +300 vitality goodness!)

They’re the GW2 equivalent of mending wammos.

In GW1, mending gave a relatively passive regeneration boon. This was incredibly powerful at low level. You could solo mobs 1v1, farm stuff etc. But at higher level those 2 pips of regen were peanuts but they still kept using it.

The deep strikes warriors are the same. They use a build that worked amazingly well at low level.. but works bad at high level. Or at least not as efficient.

They’re giving up their utility slots. They lose knockbacks, knockdowns, mass cripples, aoe condition removal, damage boosts, etc.

I’m pretty sure empowered only gives you 1.5% for might regardless of how many stacks you have. Otherwise that would be a little too silly…

Cres, each stack of might is approximately 1% of damage. If you have 3 boons and 16 might, that is about 20.5% more damage you deal.

2 signets is about the maximum a warrior should bring, and in most cases 1 is the right number (rage of course) I get worried whenever i see someone bring in more than 2 signets, it usually means they haven’t partied much/at all.

Perhaps a bit of a tangent, but what is even the point in using a 1H+Shield in this game?

With the idea being there is no trinity, which sounds good on paper, in the actual game people are generally much better suited to dps than they are at tanking/healing.

I mean; it’s nice that you want to build your character towards more utility/survivability, but imo the game fails in accomodating people that want to do so.

Seems to me there is more benefit to doing more damage in less time than it is to “hurr durr shield stance” for 5 seconds and only succeed in postponing the inevitable.

DaSBrOtZwEiMaL.9462:

its funny how FGJ outperforms Signet of might AND Signet of Fury in terms of “powerboost per time” and “critchance boost by time”, yet most people run signets

FGJ gives 3 might 100% of the time. Signet of might does 5 might 40% of the time (10s duration on 25sec cd), which is about equal as 2 might 100% of the time. The passive bonus is (active) 93power and 93 cond dmg vs (passive) 90 power.
Furys passive gives about 4% critchance 100% of the time (given you dont use the signet itself for adren). FGJ’s Fury-boon is 8sec of 20% critboost on 25 sec cd. thats about equal as 6.4% critchance 100% of the time.

Boon duration and “20% recharge” traits are existant for both sides.

I use For Great Justice most of the time now, but I can see why people prefer not to. It’s sort of a benefit and a bane at the same time that you’ve got to recast it so often. I mean my current build for PVE has a warhorn, three shouts and signet of rage. I’m keeping track of so many recharge timers and boons that I can sometimes spend a whole fight watching the skill bar and moving with my peripheral vision.

Kain Francois.4328:

These are my utilities of choice:
Healing Surge
Signet of Might
“For Great Justice!”
Signet of Fury
Signet of Rage

The first thing you will notice is it looks VERY similar to the Signet Warrior. And with a few variations, it IS a superior version of the Signet Warrior! (As you can still carry Deep Strike and swap Healing Surge for Healing Signet.)

How does this build work? Not only are your boons extended by 30%, but you have access to traits which decrease signet and shout recharge!

What this basically means is you can spam Signet of Might, “For Great Justice”, and Signet of Rage for perma 16 might, fury, and near-perma swiftness!

Because of the access to perma fury, you already have more critical chance than a Signet warrior ever would. This is in addition to the +90 precision provided by Signet of Fury and +80 more precision provided by the Deep Strike trait if you use Healing Signet instead of healing Surge and do not use Signet of Fury.

Now you also have access to the Vigorous Shouts trait which heals around 1000 HP whenever you use your shout every 20 seconds, making you a bit of a team player. In addition you’re also providing some blanket fury and might to allies through For Great Justice.

Why take Signet of Fury and Vigorous Shouts over Banner of Discipline and Inspiring Battle Standard? Banner of Discipline gives equal Precision, affects everyone around it, and boosts critical damage, and if you trait for banners, it has a downtime of literally 3 seconds. If, hypothetically, you wanted the Active instead of the Passive of Signet of Fury, Berserker’s Stance would give you more Adrenaline and has a better recast time.

Inspiring Battle Standard will always outheal Vigorous Shouts unless you are using the three shortest cooldown shouts and activating them as soon as they are off cooldown. “FGJ!” by itself heals for 1192 with Lung Capacity every 20 seconds; in 20 seconds Inspiring Battle Standard would have healed for 2600 (130 every second). You would need to use “Shake It Off!” and spam it as soon as it comes off cooldown to even come close to simply using a Banner, and even then you’d still be down a few 100 HP.

The only downside to Banners is you have to pick them up and deal with banner thieves in PvE (God I hope they fix this). You can drop them with tilde (or whatever you make your weapon swap key) and skip the obnoxious Plant Standard animation, Inspire will get your party to places quicker, and Furious Rally gives your party 10 seconds of Fury (and anyone in your party could pick it up and easily extend that 10 seconds more each).

^using shake it off also removes a condition though. That can save you a lot of damage without needing to heal. I have that & warhorn for a total 3 condition removal skills (warhorn says it converts them to a boon with that trait, but I think that part is broken) plus ‘for great justice’ and ‘on my mark’. It’s pretty good for general PVE stuff.

I’d use battle cry, but it seems not to even be a shout. IDK what’s up with that skill… wider range for a slower recharge, less effect, and only on other people. Seems like its only real use would be stacking extra stuff on top of FGJ on nearby allies.

LameFox.6349:

^using shake it off also removes a condition though. .

Not too mention that with Soldier’s Rune using Shake It Off strips two conditions

I just find Shouts much more useful than Banners.