Guild Wars 2

I’ve played warrior before, and while it’s not generally “my thing”, my guild is very “squishy-heavy” and so I’m trying to push my warrior up to 80 mainly for small group roaming in WvW. Can anyone recommend a good build for me to start with? I’m currently level 50 or so but I’d prefer a level 80 build, which I will adapt downward while I continue leveling.

Since the point here is to offset the many casters/thieves/rangers that everyone usually runs, I want something tanky.. but not too impotent to deal damage at the same time. Group support would also be great. (And yes, I know I might do better with a guardian, but a couple of others are leveling guardians. )

Thanks!

ETA: If it matters, I am currently running GS/Hammer with Warrior’s Sprint for mobility. I love mobility. GS seems really handy in WvW and hammer sorta speaks for itself.

From experience with group comps, my advice to you is if you don’t have enough warriors guardians to have a front line play your warrior so it works with the rest of the group.

Group comps are about synergy meaning each member of a group is bringing something that benefits the whole and their abilities play off of each others abilities and that the strength of the group is better because of it.

Your group is only as strong as your weakest component. Also if you have professions that are running 100% selfish builds they are not helping the group. Buikld should be atleast 70-80 self 30-20% Group synergy. So if your goupd is 10 and you only have 2 Front line you are only going to be 20% effective as a front line and 80% effective on a back line. In this scenario it is better for the frontliners to pick up ranged weapons or play in a way that is more beneficial to the back like then you are at 100% of 1.

In zergs where it is 50% from line 50% back line also remember you are only 50% at each. So something to consider. It is best in your case to run strats that don’t rely on front liners until you reach a critical mass of front liners which is generally at least 10 if you want to run a melee train.

Laslty if your group is mostly range and they are failing that is because they are not utilizing call targeting. Range classes need to be in parties with each other and using call target take target at all times and no one should ever be trying to 1v1 and all should be focus burning the same targets, It is much more efficient for 5 people to burn down a target then move on to the next than to have 50 people all trying to solo their own targets you will get no where as a group if you do that.

Ctrl T and T is your friend. Have one person per group be the only person calling targets and everyone else should just be attacking what they are attacking. Then when u got somone down either keep attacking till the die or have someone go for the stomp. Then move on to the next. If people go to rez thier downed mate and u continue to fire at the downed you going to be piercing and aoeing all the people that went to rez them.

My build would be perfect for you. It’s very mobile but doesn’t use GS. S/Sh + Hammer. The support it brings is really damage and banner. But you have to stay mobile ALL the time. Use your stability and damage blocks wisely.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIEQNAS8ejkOVvxQuQ4wBE0DNsK4iLjkQJ0HmDA-jkyAYMBZCSgoPwZvpxmADSZsIas6FMdZSVuCy+ElVpAWSZE-w

In action:

Takes a bit getting sued to, but it’s very good. You can even swap out the banner and go signet for solo roaming.

Qae, I’ll give it a shot. Considering what you said about being tanky and supportive, but deemphasizing damage, here’s what I have found works for me:

Zerker Sword & Warhorn
Why? Warhorn 4 and 5 can be traited to clear conditions nicely. Warhorn 5 has a blast finisher that has obvious advantages for giving might and regen when fields are dropped.

In zergs, I run Hammer because it’s more or less a requirement of my guild. I absolutely hate the hammer in smaller roaming groups.

I run dual shouts in my slots (FGJ and SIO). These are traited for healing and provide good group support and help keep me up and moving, along with my healing signet.

I like balanced stance as my third slot, but i think you have some room to match your style here. I run in a zerg and usually need the stability.

I alternate between Soldier’s armor and a 3/3 or 4/2 mix of Solder’s and Zerker depending on how squishy I’m feeling. I use Soldier runes for tankiness and because it gives another condi clear. I’m using Cavalier trinkets and rings. This gives me, unbuffed, over 25k hp 1950+ toughness and great survivability and party support.

For traits, I have settled on 0/0/30/30/10 with dogged march and inspiring shouts to keep moving, cleansing ire for condi clear and Defy Pain. Lung capacity, Quick breathing, and Vigorous Shouts are support and healing traits.

I have found this build to work well for me, as I remain alive much longer in a big group. I have less experience in small roaming groups. I’m sure others could help with that.

This is one I’ve used before, and I’ve liked how it works:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhNak0p4tFSACHOggeohVhAeKkEpHhBbsGA-jEyAINBRaBAVBi8AmDLiGbZsIasqbMdMRUtMALzB-w

The warhorn is great for group support as you can remove condis from your allies as well as give them helpful boons, in addition to giving the enemy weakness. The sword gives you enhanced mobility with the leap, and you can slow your opponents down with the cripples it provides. The flurry burst skill is useful when you want to immobilize someone (so allies can focus or just to stop them from attacking your allies).

The longbow is useful in that you can administer AoE damage to enemy groups while providing a helpful fire field, and the pin down ability is great for causing enemy targets to be out of position (letting your allies focus them) or prevent people from escaping. It also allows you to contribute to attacking stuff on top of tower/keep walls and to just fight at a distance in general. It’s also great for procing your own cleansing ire. A simple combo you can do is open on an opponent with pin down while closing in on them, and swap to your sword when you get near them to hit them with the geomancy sigil. This alone would result in 9 bleed stacks on the opponent, and more can then be applied with the sword.

The traits allow you to support people with your banners as you’ll be giving them constant regen as well as their normal boons. Spiked armor also allows you to get extra damage on your opponent, which can sometimes be very effective since you’ll likely be sitting on the frontlines during battle and being hit by lots of people.

I’d usually recommend either banner of defense or banner or banner of discipline for group support, although you can always swap it out as needed. You can pretty much have the banner deployed at all times (although you’ll have to remember to pick it up if you need to move). Battle standard can be used to save downed allies.

You also have a lot of durability and anti-CC with healing signet, dolyak signet, runes of Melandru, dogged march, cleansing ire, and high toughness. The soup also gives you extra condi protection, although it’s an additional investment.

Endure pain is also listed on the build, but that can be swapped for another banner or any other kind of utility (i.e. FGJ) if needed. I find endure pain to be kind of like “training wheels”, although it can definitely save your butt if you end up being in danger.

The damage is condi-based and mostly focuses on a single target, which might not be optimal depending on your group comp and size. A sword/shield + hammer that was power-based instead of condi-based would likely be more optimal for your typical large-scale zerg. However, the condi-based build I linked above can still work well, especially in smaller scale battles, and I like the options presented by the longbow.

It might also be better to swap out some or all of the rabid gear in the build for dire gear. The crit chance is useful in this build for extra bleed procs, but dire would definitely increase your survivability. Rabid gear is just more readily available compared to dire, so it’s easier to gear out in rabid if you don’t have the resources to acquire dire gear. Other sigils can work out well in this build too depending on your preferences, such as sigil of leeching for extra self-healing or sigil of energy for more dodges.

This can also be easily reconfigured to a shout build instead of a banner build by swapping the banner traits for shout traits, and changing the utilities accordingly (although you’ll probably want at least two shouts). This also opens the option of using soldier runes for additional condition removal, although you would lose the benefits from the Melandru runes.

Hey guys, thanks for all the responses!

I’m probably going to start out with something that’s a blend of many of the ideas in your various builds. I’m currently leaning towards Sword/Warhorn + Hammer, with Longbow in reserve for when I need to range. Probably shouts-based with the elite warbanner, and for gear, soldier’s armor and both soldier’s and berserker’s trinkets that I’ll swap around to see how much defense I feel like I need in the mix.

Then I’ll adjust seeing how it goes.

I’ll miss the GS but it does seem like it doesn’t offer a lot in the way of support, and the sword #2 is better for mobility than I realized.

Thanks for these and any further suggestions.

i think shout + meat shield build = a must for you. Since many of your team mates are squishy, you will find yourself alone front line a lot of time. Shout build heals. Hammer is a must i say because with a tanky build you wont dish out a lot of dmg but the stuns can help. GS is only great if you have the dmg to support it or you use it to run.