Guild Wars 2

I cant decide which traitlines use with upcoming berserker ES.
Defense grants almost immunity to conditions but lacks mobility.
Discipline grants high mobility, decent condi removal (a little better with sigil of cleansing on 1 or both weapons).
With 5s cd on primal bursts Defense seems most reasonable but then we cant maintain swiftness/25% movement speed unless we go for rune of traveler

For PvE?

Strength/Arms/Berserker probably. Defense is useless in PvE, and Discipline has mostly PvP benefits (Warriors Sprint, DotE/BR, and the adapt+GM minors). The only thing you get out of Discipline is 5s weapon swap and Heightened Focus.

For a more generic build that doesn’t focus on DPS, I’d swap Arms -> Discipline purely for the utility. 25% movement speed+immunity to immobs and the very low risk, on demand condi clear is very nice for world content. Defense is complete overkill, no mobs apply that much damage or condis to necessitate things like Defy Pain or CI.

edit: For PvP and WvW I’m still undecided. Def/Disc are so good and required. Not taking Strength is around a 35-40% damage decrease though. I could see some glass builds without Def work for WvW, but sPvP I’m not sure.

PvP-wise:
Zerk Def Disc, then on the zerk tree definitely take the stun break on F2, Dead or Alive, and the taunt on F2. Definitely take headbutt for an elite and practice landing high casting times. This is the zerker/soldier build that can hold a point and can duel. I will probably use Mace/Shield + Hammer or Axe/mace for this version though.

As for a condi build, you may sadly end up still doing Zerk Def Disc to make the most out of it. Or Maybe Zerk Def Tactics for the long bow trait wouldn’t sound too bad since I think Long Bow is THE best source of condition damage for Warrior. I feel arms won’t be strong with zerker even then unless they buff certain signets like Fury and Might.

Str Zerk Disc is too risky but I can see it working. Just make sure to take the stability on zerker mode though instead of Taunt cause you’re going to need stab since you’re using zerk instead of defense.

PvE:

W/e is the fastest clear I guess.

Actually, Berserker will encourage me to try builds without Defense.

I will never play a build without Fast Hands, so Discipline is the only mandatory traitline for me.

Then I’ll take Strength for the third one for both power and hybrid builds.

Berserker actually gives us what seem to be a few viable surviving options. Dead or Alive is particularly good, but even the stability procs in Berserker might open up a utility slot for something else. Condi clear will be manageable, in fact, I have already been dropping Cleansing Ire in favor of Balanced Stance. Brawlers Recovery does a good job already. And as for Adrenaline build-up, it’s fine as long as you get Berserker Stance, and the new traitline adds even more adrenaline gain.

Pretty much what you said nick.

I don’t know if DOA is better then Auto-EP, obviously it’s better against conditions though. My guess is that it’s a little weaker against direct damage. But I overall really like to see where this trait is going.

hhahaha ima love this berserk spec

I dont depend on defense line, i dont even use it. I roam and zergbust/gvg on my warrior and i always use the same traits. Strength arms and discipline.

I can easily replace arms with berserk spec.

Okay, i’ve decided to run Strength/Discipline/Berserk.
Sigil of cleansing on secondary weapon does wonders when we have to clear more than 1 condi. As stated before, Defense tree is really underwhelming now and the only real profit from it is CI… which is wasted if you are blinded, enemy is making evade or is pushed back by some1.

As for adrenaline we have signet of fury (30s cd, full 30 adrenaline gain instantly), Berserker stance (duration 8 sec, 24 adrenaline gain over time) and new elite, which has 1 fatal flaw.

Fury… As we saw in PoI, gs primal burst creates firefield INSTEAD of giving us fury. So no, i wont drop my signet of rage since FGJ has too short duration. Remember we are not using arms line so no signet prec.
My open world pve build would be then:
Str: Death from above (just for explo), Forceful GS, Berserker’s power
Discipline: Warrior’s sprint, Brawler’s recovery, Heightened Focus (Right now Burst mastery is better because we can maintain BP buff all the time with it, even on single target but in berserk mode we will only get 3 points of adrenaline)
Berserk: Savage instinct (extra stunbreak, condi cleanse), Blood reaction (dps wise, atm i have 2200 precision. In berserk mode thats + 308 ferocity which equals 19%cd) and Eternal champion for stability.
Utilities: Healing signet, FGJ, Signet of fury, Outrage, Signet of rage

I’m surprised anyone would find Defense underwhelming, tbh. It’s clearly not indispensable anymore, and that’s a great thing, but it has value beyond CI.

But, yeah, Def is definitely the one to drop on a direct damage oriented, and at least one condi oriented, spec.

Defense/Discipline/Berserker for me.

Good adrenaline gains with the core condition removal from Defense and Stun breaking from Berserker and then add Fast Hands (and more Adrenaline gains) tied to a higher use of Burst skills via Versatile Power.

In PvE, the GM traits of Defense (Rousing Resilience) and Berserker (Eternal Champion) every single time you use the Elite on a 20s cooldown, Head Butt is too good to miss with a no internal cooldown on RR. An extra 1000 toughness plus 100 Power from Armored Attack makes it a suitable damage enhancement. The extra 1000 near-on-demand toughness means that more emphasis can be placed gear-wise on power/precision as well (and let’s be honest, allows for even sloppier play).

In and outside of PvE, I fully expect that Always Angry will become a staple for many Warriors similar to Fast Hands. And it’s mainly needed because of the Adrenaline nerfs back in September 2014.

The torch is a try it to find out kind of thing. I have a general feeling that the cast time with those cooldowns are going to feel too long. I’d prefer a cast time reduction but maybe Anet/Roy will swap 4 and 5 after the beta feedback which might make more balance sense. The range on Blaze Breaker is just … odd.

Defense – Discipline – Zerker

The seems some uncertainty on whether or not berserk-burst skills get the level 1 or level 3 affect; but either way discipline’s burst mastery will be very powerful. (Insane if it gives the level 3 affect), but versatile rage (+5) and burst mastery ( +3 or +10) mean non-stop zerk-burst attacks.

Combine with defense where you can have dogged march + warriors sprint… really hard to stop. With the stun from the zerker elite, perma stability, stun removal on zerking, and insane condition removal (on swap, potentially on finishers, on zerking) OR extra healing and armor ( + attack power ) on rousing resilience: you’d be a tough guy to stop.

It’ll be a very, very tough combo.
(Strength-Discipline-Zerker would also be very strong)

I have a hard time looking beyond Defense/Discipline so the basic setup for me is going to be Def/Disc/Berserker.

Berserker just syngergizes too well with the other traits that I don’t see any other alternative.

Cortano.5419:

Defense – Discipline – Zerker

The seems some uncertainty on whether or not berserk-burst skills get the level 1 or level 3 affect

I thought it was pretty clear on the POI. There is only one level for Berserker burst skills and it requires 10 adrenaline to execute. The downside is Berserker skills do less damage than regular Burst versions but can be used more frequently (also 5s base cd compared to base 10s).