Guild Wars 2

Despite the recent nerfs I’ve been having a great deal of success with this new Skull Cracker variation. It takes some getting used to due to Skull Cracker’s century-long cast time and flashing animation but once you get the hang of it again you should find yourself with a great deal of success.

You can find the full write-up on Into the Mists here: http://intothemists.com/guides/2198-skullcrackers_revenge

One of the best things about this is that, while Crack->Hundi is the biggest threat of the build, it can still stand on its own. You still have pretty good sustained DPS and excellent survivability even if you disregard the main gimmick of the build.

Be wary that some of the Into the Mists items aren’t displayed correctly (namely the Cavalier’s Mace showing a huge crit damage boost and the lack of Sigil of Paralyzation.)

Here’s some recent footage of this build in action in the Obsidian Sanctum. These are all duels using a slight variation of what I have spec’d out in the guide (but I do go over the variation in the equipment section.) I’m using Lyssa Runes with no food or oils. (I later put on +7% poison duration food because there were Deluxe Burgers in the arena. :P)

Unfortunately I get my kitten kicked by Sword/Dagger + Shortbow Thieves with huge Poison uptimes. My excuse is that I’ve pretty much never gone against those in a structured environment so I was not at all prepared for them. (Also Condi Reduction Runes and Food would’ve been way better than Lyssa Runes against Poison and Larcenous Strike.)

But yeah, that’s how I’ve been roaming this month. Hopefully you guys will find some pleasure in the delicious tears that come from winning fights with this.

It’s you! You’re the guy i played on my Flamey Elementalist Charr :P

Dont feel bad Dr. Kong… Warriors really should be losing to smart thieves and of course the all mighty mesmer… well at least I suck vs. mesmer… I get too into my own head trying to figure them out. Also SKULLLL CRACK JUMP IS AWESOME

I hear you, Wilson. PU Mesmers are nasty nasty nasty to fight against in a 1v1 situation with food. The Stealth isn’t even tough to deal with, it’s their in-fight mobility and the way they can use our cleave against us.

I got D/D and S/D Eles down, my main focus right now is figuring out the proper way to counter those thieves then I’m diving right back into PU Mesmers. :P

Lol at OP stating skullcrack still has success.Yes against pv mobs and totally clueless players.So does my rifle lol.MAce is useless now for interrupts or anything else not pared with shield stun 1st increasing the skullcrack cd by 300% or bull’ds charge.Combat is not fluid anymore and you cannot interrupt thieves using sword anymore even though they have the initiative,range teleport and the dodges while you can only sit stillwaiting for them and play flawlesly.Having one weapon skill to only rely on utility is total BS.Other classes can stun you from 1200 range for 2 seconds and with a lot faster animation.I still cannot see the balance here.

Chopping game play. Using main abilities when opponent has there massive telegraphed skills happening. Not great but I can see what your getting at.

mini.6018:

Lol at OP stating skullcrack still has success.Yes against pv mobs and totally clueless players.So does my rifle lol.MAce is useless now for interrupts or anything else not pared with shield stun 1st increasing the skullcrack cd by 300% or bull’ds charge.

I can understand how you could feel that way if, but if you read the guide or watch the videos I cover how to make the build effective even when you actually have to try to land your Skull Crackers.

I have used this build in more than just random roaming situations against uplevels. I’ve tested it against higher-level players of every class in roaming, fight clubs, and even sPvP. It is still effective and it can still be successful, it just requires some actual effort and the ability to surprise your foe with unpredictable movements.

If you want more proof I can give you more proof.

So what your saying is that you think this build in a more skilled persons hand can accomplish great things? I don’t need proof, there’s little doubt it’s still decent. However there are other builds that trump it pretty significantly, mainly condi builds at the moment. I can see where your going with it, but it requires you to execute skills to perfection, if not, as your video points out, your sitting round waiting.

Condi builds are really good at pressure. The video actually draws on it’s downsides more than it’s upsides.

KarlusDavius.1024:

So what your saying is that you think this build in a more skilled persons hand can accomplish great things?

Yes, this is not a build for fotm Warriors who only touched the class after they got significantly buffed.

KarlusDavius.1024:

Condi builds are really good at pressure. The video actually draws on it’s downsides more than it’s upsides.

I had very little condi management in the variation I was running during those duels. I typically prefer to run Hoelbrak/Melandru + Lemongrass when running this build. If I were the Poison uptimes would not have been any problem for me.

The only reason I was running Lyssa that entire time was because I’m too cheap to waste Lemongrass on 1v1s. >_>

Also,

KarlusDavius.1024:

Chopping game play. Using main abilities when opponent has there massive telegraphed skills happening.

I didn’t quite understand what you were trying to tell me here, can you rephrase?

The use of jumping to un-telegraph your skill use, interesting. I hadn’t thought of that before.

robocafaz.9017:

mini.6018:

Lol at OP stating skullcrack still has success.Yes against pv mobs and totally clueless players.So does my rifle lol.MAce is useless now for interrupts or anything else not pared with shield stun 1st increasing the skullcrack cd by 300% or bull’ds charge.

I can understand how you could feel that way if, but if you read the guide or watch the videos I cover how to make the build effective even when you actually have to try to land your Skull Crackers.

I have used this build in more than just random roaming situations against uplevels. I’ve tested it against higher-level players of every class in roaming, fight clubs, and even sPvP. It is still effective and it can still be successful, it just requires some actual effort and the ability to surprise your foe with unpredictable movements.

If you want more proof I can give you more proof.

That is very generous of you but i main mace main hand paired with bow in spvp since a long time and i believe myself to know every small little gimmick the weapon can provide against any other class/build/scenario out there.In the end skullcrack vs sword thief it was all reduced to pure math,time between evades and teleports,interrupts are shorter than 0.5 seconds on most classes and especially on thief hence the weapon is impossible to use as a counter anymore.Actualy no weapon can provide a counter anymore and warrior are forced into the booring stances just to be effective since that is their only defence available.Endure pain for everything is just lame and poor game design.No options is bad gamedesigh. Ranged cc’s that have less obvious or no animation in comparison with skullcrack melee single target are lazy design.

In the endthey only succeeded to take out the skill out of any few skilled warriors out there and keep it exactly the same for average wich they always only landed their skullcrack after a BS or SB.Animation is useless if you are stunned or knocked down so after trying so hard to take out low skill factors from warriors they ended up doing only the opposite.Hs still there,sBS/SB>skulcrak still there.Hambow still there STILL taking no damage because cond meta in wich toughness is useless unless you fight oher warriors.

i can only compare to this to make a point how uterrly useless and unneeded this change was.Why is fear still instant nd has zero animation with huge range?Heck everytime i open my deathlog in spvp i see 20-30k damage from UNBLOCKABLE ranged fear.Take that skillfull gameplay.

Oh, yeah, I definitely agree with you there, but us life-long Warriors are used to our rollercoaster of balance. The only thing constant in the Warrior game is that people think we’re OP regardless of what state we’re in. :P

And honestly, I don’t really mind if there’s class builds out there, whether they be Shortbow Thieves or PU Mesmers, that can consistently beat this build. That’s what counter-play is all about. In fact, our ability to counter-play things like Condi Cleave Necros is what got us into sPvP again.

I don’t need to tell you that there isn’t a Warrior build out there that’ll let you beat everyone 100% of the time, but I am quite happy with the state of this Skull Cracker variation and I hope that others will find some pleasure in it as well.

I really enjoyed watching the video if you want some advice though(you’re a better warrior than I am, but still) I feel that when you were fighting the thieves, you weren’t aggressive enough when they got low. Like, when you got the thieves down to around 50% and you still had a good 75% I felt like you should have went for it rather than run back and regroup and heal. But still, enjoyed the video, love the build

where do you get the cavalier weapons at?

.#1 e-celeb lol
/15char

Alatus Rufus.5461:

where do you get the cavalier weapons at?

I honestly have no idea how you get the inscriptions outside of the TP and salvaging existing Cavalier’s weapons. Not sure where they drop from. Probably Fractals.

Regarding the flashy animation of skull crack… ever heard prediction? If you play a lot you get a feeling for situations where your enemy is going to do something insanly stupid/predictable and you abuse that.
But you don’t even have to predict a lot! If you know the animations and how long they last you can start using your skull crack to hit directly after he finished his evade. Especially sins that rely on their sword evade are “easy” targets. Wait till they are doing their “180° degree turn” when using the sword evade and start using skull crack. your skill should land about the same time the sin stabs you…
Just some tips for still landing your skull-crack.
Also after seeing your video I can say that you weren’t that much into real PvP before, right? I don’t want to offend you here. I just saw you doing a lot of stupid “beginner” mistakes like wasting dodges and using skills at times where it wasn’t useful at all. Without them you could’ve killed that thief!

Celeste Lightblade.9253:

Regarding the flashy animation of skull crack… ever heard prediction? If you play a lot you get a feeling for situations where your enemy is going to do something insanly stupid/predictable and you abuse that.

Yes, that’s actually how I play most of my fights. I’m less reactive than I am proactive. Unfortunately I’ve been finding the past few days that I don’t know thieves as well as I thought I did.

Celeste Lightblade.9253:

Also after seeing your video I can say that you weren’t that much into real PvP before, right? I don’t want to offend you here. I just saw you doing a lot of stupid “beginner” mistakes like wasting dodges and using skills at times where it wasn’t useful at all. Without them you could’ve killed that thief!

No, and none taken. I see absolutely no point in uploading frag videos like some people like to do. I always try to include my failures so I can learn from them and get input from honest people like you. Even if 9 times outta 10 the feedback is “lol ur kitten trash ked”