Guild Wars 2

I really like this build, gonna try it for sure.

P.S. Healing Signet & Signet of Might combo can be useful. All these medi guards just die in few sec, since you are immune to blinds(resistance) and they can’t block :>

Just wondering is Mace/Mace viable now? The shield grants a stun and a block, but mace has a KD and vulnerability. Is this a matter of taste or is shield that much better?

DresdenAllblack.1249:

Just wondering is Mace/Mace viable now? The shield grants a stun and a block, but mace has a KD and vulnerability. Is this a matter of taste or is shield that much better?

the block from shield synergizes much better with the build thanks to shield master

plus shield bash removes immobilize and sets up for skullcrack

Quick question….i was messing around with using a sigil of rage in my GS with sigil of fire instead of the Fire/Air combo and i found the rage procs almost always during 100b after the skull crack which means i have a quickness 100b and if i get them under 50% hp heightened focus also procs for more quickness.

Has anyone else tried this?

The downside to this is that its a 30s CD whereas the FIRE/AIR combo is available every time you switch to GS.

Spartacus.3192:

Quick question….i was messing around with using a sigil of rage in my GS with sigil of fire instead of the Fire/Air combo and i found the rage procs almost always during 100b after the skull crack which means i have a quickness 100b and if i get them under 50% hp heightened focus also procs for more quickness.

Has anyone else tried this?

The downside to this is that its a 30s CD whereas the FIRE/AIR combo is available every time you switch to GS.

I have, and I think it can work, but many didn’t agree so I changed it and made it just an option instead.

The problem with Rage in my opinion is that you need GS to do any kind of sustained damage. When fighting a mesmer, for instance, they will GS auto attack you to death if you are on mace, so you have to utilize GS more. Getting the Rage proc on a bladetrail sucks. This makes Rage inferior to AirFire IMO.

Also, Rush with quickness is stupidly bad.

And yet rush with slow condition synergizes pretty well

So, after messing around with almost every version of this build you can think of, this version is what I’ve been having the most success with

Yes, only having the traited stability can be a problem. The thing is, there was so many Mesmers with mantra running around that as soon as you use your Stability it gets stripped anyways. With Frenzy you have a stun break and it makes landing Skull Crack right after getting CC’d much easier. It’s rare that someone actually sees it coming.

If Mesmers do get hit with the nerf bat then perhaps going back to Balanced Stance might be fine. For now though, I feel better off with 2 stun breaks.

I’ve been playing this build for a while now and need some advice on when to attempt the Skullcrack/100b combo against the different classes. I’m landing Skullcrack much better now, but even if I do most of the time opponents escape the stun immediately or after 1-2 seconds. Some classes can also easily tank the 100b damage, even with Quickness, or immediately heal back to full health after the stun wears out. I never played any other class than warrior, so understanding what the opponent can/will do is my greatest weakness.

I tried axe instead of mace and still prefer the mace, not so much for the Skullcrack though but because of the block . Do you guys regularly kill opponents with the combo? How do you do it?

nay but scare them and make them waste their dodges / blinks / stunbreaks so i can mow them down better with my GS! there is always the odd guy not having a stunbreak or whatever ready.. but as a rule, no..

Well.. you know stun duration depends on how much adrenaline you have, right?

@all: Anyone up to date on the Para sigil? What does it do exactly these days? I know it used to round up to next second.. is it exact now / rounding down? Only want confirmed infos, no guesses..

I like Skull Cracker build on my war but i have to say if I come across a double stability warrior (balanced stance + Last Stand trait) it can be a real headache fighting them.

Any tips on this?

Spartacus.3192:

I like Skull Cracker build on my war but i have to say if I come across a double stability warrior (balanced stance + Last Stand trait) it can be a real headache fighting them.

Any tips on this?

Use Mace 3 to proc Last Stand and put it on its 90s cd, fight him with your gs for about 10s, fight him like you’d normally fight a warrior.

But a full stance warrior is going to have a bunch of stun breaks beyond this, possibly including Endure Pain, Defy Pain, and Frenzy (i.e. 5 stun breaks). Patience is really what it’ll take. Do your normal rotations, and be prepared to abort if he breaks the stun in case he’s setting you up for a burst.

Choppy.4183:

Use Mace 3 to proc Last Stand and put it on its 90s cd, fight him with your gs for about 10s, fight him like you’d normally fight a warrior.

But a full stance warrior is going to have a bunch of stun breaks beyond this, possibly including Endure Pain, Defy Pain, and Frenzy (i.e. 5 stun breaks). Patience is really what it’ll take. Do your normal rotations, and be prepared to abort if he breaks the stun in case he’s setting you up for a burst.

Thanks Choppy

Steelo.4597:

Well.. you know stun duration depends on how much adrenaline you have, right?

@all: Anyone up to date on the Para sigil? What does it do exactly these days? I know it used to round up to next second.. is it exact now / rounding down? Only want confirmed infos, no guesses..

Of course. I always make sure to use it at full adrenaline not only to max out the stun duration but also Berserkers Power.

Duration with Para sigil on max adrenaline feels like ~ 4 seconds. The rare moments when someone is stunned for the full duration seem to be very long indeed.

The amount of stunbreaks people tend to carry now makes it frustrating to use Mace at the moment, because when you do manage to land a nice Skullcrack, the victim usually breaks out immediately.

Plus the 25% duration nerf on Rampage really hampers the raw killing power of this build. Besides Rampage, most of the damage came from Greatsword anyway, which GreatHam builds can take advantage of more reliably.

It really is tempting to switch to GS/Hammer, but the block/reflect potential of Mace/Shield always brings me back. It really satisfies you to reflect a Rapid Fire back at a Ranger, then Skullcrack him and open up a nice 100b.

I might try BurrTheKing’s Last Stand + Frenzy modification of this build, but I tend to use Bull’s Charge frequently. Losing that seems like a big sacrifice, because even if it can be unreliable to land, it is still a nice setup move for a Skullcrack.

Thuggernaut.1250:

It really is tempting to switch to GS/Hammer, but the block/reflect potential of Mace/Shield always brings me back. It really satisfies you to reflect a Rapid Fire back at a Ranger, then Skullcrack him and open up a nice 100b.

I agree here. I do like GS/Hammer but traited shield for the reflect and might stacking plus reflect with mace 2 is just sooooooooo good against the rangers who blindly hit rapid fire. Plus i like the shield when im in the middle of a big fight on point and a guard goes Whirling Wrath. I can decide to use Shield 5 to block it and gain might stacks or shield 4 to interrupt.

Since this has been getting more attention, I’m going to post the newer version I’ve been focusing on. In a way it’s actually an old version that I’m just using in this new system:

Mighty Skull Crack

The changes aren’t crazy, but it’s crazy how many stacks of Might you can get is nothing short of crazy. When you land the Skull Crack + 100b, even if you don’t kill them if you follow up with a Arcing Slice it’s likely to land for a crazy amount of damage.

Also, if you’re dealing with classes with a lot of stun breaks, learn to use Shield Bash and avoid using 100b for a split second. If they stun break, you can wait for the almost inevitable dodge then Crack em’. If they’re wise enough to wait for the Crack, swap to GS and just do a WW Attack or 100b to FORCE it. Even with just a Bash you can do a ton of damage and the Hydromancy Sigil will keep them close for that extra 3/4ths of a second if they don’t teleport.

Mes and D/D Eles will be hard, but you can beat them. CC an Ele just enough to bait out Armor of Earth and Flash, wait for Water, then Crack em’.

Mes will often use Blink just to escape GS damage. If they’re power, avoid using Berserker Stance until you’re actually ready to spike to avoid all that blind BS.

I gotta say the sad fact is that atm your most reliable combo is simply swapping at close range and using WW Attack. That skill hits so hard for such a low CD it would be OP if not for how underwhelming the rest of Warrior is.

Happy Crackin’!

Thanks for the tips! Will have to pratice more with the build. I played H/GS again for a few days and things are so much easier. It feels like with H/GS there’s always something ready to keep up the pressure while on M-Sh/GS there’s always something missing to land your combo (adrenaline, swap cd, opponent dodges/stunbreaks, distance…).

Why does it use shield? For the defence on 5? You could use thundering mace and cull the weak instead? Or get dogged march.

Wolfric.9380:

Why does it use shield? For the defence on 5? You could use thundering mace and cull the weak instead? Or get dogged march.

Shield 4 is a stun which helps you land the SkullCrack which then sets up the 100b combo.

Shield 5 is amazing for might stacking and reflect and of course blocks.

mace 5 is a knockdown up to 1200. I feel its better than shield 4. But i agree that shield 5 is much better than mace 4 :-). Reflect + Might sacking with trait is great. Guess its also a bit matter of taste.

I can’t get this build to work, must be high skillcap or something lol

Kited too easily + skullcrack hard to land

Mace 2 and 3 aren’t very useful, and shield is shield, which is good but I’d rather go sword or axe

I really love this build. After using it for a while now, I’m actually finding that I’m winning more of my fights. It requires more strategic gameplay than Sword imo, and it’s just kind of satisfying stunning someone for close to 4s and HB’ing away. I’m using all stances as my utils, but I’ll swap endure pain out for Signet of stamina if I know I’m about to fight a condi necro or so. In general I’d say the most important part of the build is patience. You generally can’t just walk up to someone and land a skull crack, as you need to blow through their stunbreakers, which isn’t really that hard to do. The block on mace 2 is actually amazing, and incredibly useful. I actually had it hit a thief for 6k yesterday which finished him off. Knowing when to use that block helps a lot I feel. Like if you’re fighting another warrior, just wait for them to use their GS 3 when they’re close to you since all warriors will do this, pop mace 2, block it and land a nice 4k hit (usually what it gets for me). Another important thing is being able to cancel your skullcrack which truly does improve your gameplay (still working on this- takes a while). I am using a cav amu, and sometimes swap in knights or cav rings also. That extra toughness helps a lot in general. I’m also loving the air + fire on GS as I’m finding it really amps up your burst, which I find especially useful on GS 3. The build can have issues with kiting, but it really depends. My advice with mesmers is just to save your GS 5 and 3 for when you really need them (mesmers are just a pain in general atm though so this is to be expected). Necros actually, surprisingly enough, can be difficult too. With condi necros just be aware when their condi burst is up (signet etc) and be prepared to deal with it. Also be wary of chasing them when they have all their staff skills up (duh). Also just be patient. I’m going to say it again, but patience is really big here.

Quakeman.9378:

I really love this build. After using it for a while now, I’m actually finding that I’m winning more of my fights. It requires more strategic gameplay than Sword imo, and it’s just kind of satisfying stunning someone for close to 4s and HB’ing away……………….Also just be patient. I’m going to say it again, but patience is really big here.

Great summary/info there.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Since this has been getting more attention, I’m going to post the newer version I’ve been focusing on. In a way it’s actually an old version that I’m just using in this new system:

Mighty Skull Crack

The changes aren’t crazy, but it’s crazy how many stacks of Might you can get is nothing short of crazy. When you land the Skull Crack + 100b, even if you don’t kill them if you follow up with a Arcing Slice it’s likely to land for a crazy amount of damage.

Also, if you’re dealing with classes with a lot of stun breaks, learn to use Shield Bash and avoid using 100b for a split second. If they stun break, you can wait for the almost inevitable dodge then Crack em’. If they’re wise enough to wait for the Crack, swap to GS and just do a WW Attack or 100b to FORCE it. Even with just a Bash you can do a ton of damage and the Hydromancy Sigil will keep them close for that extra 3/4ths of a second if they don’t teleport.

Mes and D/D Eles will be hard, but you can beat them. CC an Ele just enough to bait out Armor of Earth and Flash, wait for Water, then Crack em’.

Mes will often use Blink just to escape GS damage. If they’re power, avoid using Berserker Stance until you’re actually ready to spike to avoid all that blind BS.

I gotta say the sad fact is that atm your most reliable combo is simply swapping at close range and using WW Attack. That skill hits so hard for such a low CD it would be OP if not for how underwhelming the rest of Warrior is.

Happy Crackin’!

After testing this version over the past few days, I found that it works better than the original version posted at the beginning. Last Stand really helps by extending those stances, and having another Endure Pain helps to secure stomps. I find that I really don’t miss Cleansing Ire that much, because you land fewer bursts on this build anyway. It is a bit difficult to close gaps without Bull’s Charge, but after awhile, you don’t miss it that much.

A+ this modified version is pretty tight.

is there any actual play video of this build? I really wanna watch

I’ve added the updated version of the build to the OP. I would agree that it is the superior version.

I’m also playing it with strength runes and Last Stand, but with air and fire sigil on GS, paralyzation and battle on mace/shield. The vigor on stance use allows enough dodges I think, and air/fire is a huge damage boost.

I also run Frenzy instead of Balanced Stance most of the time and only switch it when the other team has too many CC-heavy classes. It adds a second threat to the build so you don’t rely on landing skull crack too much (or helps landing it a lot). And of course it’s great for rezzing and channeling the important buffs in Temple of the Silent Storm.

Kind of OT, but is there a fix for viewing people’s gwskills.net builds on iPhone /iPad? I get a semitransparent pop up like thing that prevents me from interacting (like switching to English) and the build never fills in.

Knight’s variant with banner i’m running atm:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR5ejMdQVIWACOeAnIGKCKtLaiowGgHIAwSYvDBA-T1CEABQcEAsZ/hoUidnmBCuAAdpE0gHAgUKPaTHAAHEgGV/hUALpMC-w

Damage is a lot better then you’d expect (armored attack, sigils) and with 4k armor this build can take a serious beating. Not too strong against condition spam – melandru, food, cleansing ire & zerker stance doing all the work here, healing signet if you still eat a condi bomb. but then again which warrior build is good against that after shoutbow was binned, seems you have to stack every last condi cleanse now to keep up with the spam