Guild Wars 2

So recently ive felt like playing a Sword/Sword class and am having a hard time deciding between a Warrior or a Mesmer.
A little background about myself..

I’m someone that’s very experienced with the game have have 6 80s already (one of them being a warrior already the only ones that arnt 80 is Mesmer and Engy). I don’t mind recreating a warrior on a different race though. Mesmer on the other hand is someone that I have @ 20 currently and the only reason is because of the Birthday gifts (cant get rid of those things!) As a player I’m a part of a part of a hardcore WvW guild but the character here would be more of a PvX character that I would use when not running together with the guild. So it would be a fair balance between roaming in WvW to sPVP and some PVE content.

What I would like to get opinion on is how the community feels about S/S on a warrior vs S/S on a Mesmer.
I would like to get peoples input on the
-effectiveness of S/S builds in each category of the game for either class
-effectiveness of the skills themselves and overall synergy that they have.
-overall usefulness @ level 80 content (PVE,WvW,sPVP)
-overall fun of S/S on one class over the other.

Also… would you say that a dual Infinite light would look better on a warrior or a Mesmer? o.O

CountzuCrytus.7256:

So recently ive felt like playing a Sword/Sword class and am having a hard time deciding between a Warrior or a Mesmer.
A little background about myself..

I’m someone that’s very experienced with the game have have 6 80s already (one of them being a warrior already the only ones that arnt 80 is Mesmer and Engy). I don’t mind recreating a warrior on a different race though. Mesmer on the other hand is someone that I have @ 20 currently and the only reason is because of the Birthday gifts (cant get rid of those things!) As a player I’m a part of a part of a hardcore WvW guild but the character here would be more of a PvX character that I would use when not running together with the guild. So it would be a fair balance between roaming in WvW to sPVP and some PVE content.

What I would like to get opinion on is how the community feels about S/S on a warrior vs S/S on a Mesmer.
I would like to get peoples input on the
-effectiveness of S/S builds in each category of the game for either class
-effectiveness of the skills themselves and overall synergy that they have.
-overall usefulness @ level 80 content (PVE,WvW,sPVP)
-overall fun of S/S on one class over the other.

Also… would you say that a dual Infinite light would look better on a warrior or a Mesmer? o.O

I have to say mesmer. Swords on warrior are pure condi, thus making them bad for any PVE content other than open world (but “OP” for WvW and pvp). Dual sword for mesmer is very close to the PVE meta(just have a focus in your swap) and dual swords work great in phantasm builds for pvp or WvW. Infinite light also looks cooler on mesmer.

S/S makes a viable hybrid build as well, using extremely high critical strike chances to buff you power damage and and proc extra conditions at the same time. Downside is it relies heavily on the autoattack and has limited utility options.

Mesmer on the other hand is a totally different playstyle- you learn to use clones and phantasms and love them, or you suck at your class. So if you like the direct approach, go war. If you like micromanaging, go mesmer.

Warriors S/S are not in bad n PVE. In fact they are excellent. I have one and nothing I cannot do in PVE. I event tank temples, except Grenth and Balthazar. The rest is piece of cake. Veterans and below die within seconds and I don’t even wait for them to die. I just let them bleed to death while I move to the next one.

S/S is beast on a condi warrior

Sw/Sw is useless on a warrior for PvE while it’s pretty much one of the best combos in the game (out of all classes) for mesmer. Sw/Sw mesmer is one of the highest DPS setups and is super tanky, it’s kinda dumb. I’m hoping it gets nerfed soon so enjoy it while you can.

Sword/X + GS works pretty good for a power build too for warriors, but I probably wouldn’t run offhand sword. Basically, you wear them down with sword, immobilize with burst ability, swap to GS and hundred blades them while they are rooted.

Sword/sword works best as a condition weapon set though for warrior and can be quite nasty with the right setup.

I’ve done sword/sword on mesmer some too, and it seems quite viable, though I haven’t played much of it. I think it comes down to personal preference in the end. I’d play what you find more enjoyable.

My problem with Sword/Sword mesmer is that I didn’t really feel like a sexy dervish of death, but like I was a guy casting illusions that just held swords for some reason. You don’t really have any attack animations with your off hand except to parry with it and… that’s it. Otherwise you just wave it around and make illusions. Warrior on the other hand throws the thing, slashes with it, and ALSO blocks with it. So there’s that.

As far as actual play, I use something like this for PVE:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJAscjkOJvFPCPMxBE8BN8yIJmC1j5wOaDA-ToAA1CqIKSVkrITRyisFNIYSA

Soldiers for a more tanky bulldozer, or Berserkers for a more classical glass cannon are both viable for this build depending on what kind of hi-jinks you want to get into. I prefer Power over Condition as Critical Hits don’t actually do anything for condition, and since this build focuses so much on crit chance it made more sense to do it that way.

This build has more crit than is readily apparent; ‘Heightened Focus’ and ‘Blademaster’ are giving you 25%, and then fairly constant Fury upkeep from “For Great Justice!”, “Signet of RAGE”, and “Lyssa’s Whatever Here Have All the Buffs”, are giving you another 20% for a total of 45% added to your base critical hit chance. Swords probably don’t need ‘Sigil of Accuracy’ if you’d rather go for damage, but I refuse to actually do math to figure out which is better; I just know that I always want ‘Final THRUST’ to critical so that the spike damage makes it worth using.

Personal survival is very high, especially if you rock soldiers. You’ll have a bunch of health regeneration from ‘Healing Signet’, ‘Adrenal Health’, and FOOD. You have a lot of health and a lot of armor, so neither power or condition damage is going to phase you too badly. “Movement-based” conditions are actually good for you as they contribute to your stupid wolverine-level regeneration thanks to ‘Dogged March’.

If you DO need to remove conditions you can either pop ‘Signet of Stamina’ or ‘Signet of RAGE’ to get rid of everything that is currently bothering you. I tend to go through ‘Signet of RAGE’ first as it gives me a bunch of buffs due to Lyssa’s which helps me turn the tide of battle in a glorious way; exactly the kind of thing you need when you’re being hit with a lot of conditions.

‘Doylak Signet’ is great for further increasing damage reduction and popping it for stability (telling great-hammers to suck it). ‘Signet of Agility’ gives you enough endurance regeneration to make dodging a thing you do. You’re not going to suddenly be a Sword/Dagger evasion thief, but you’re going to be pretty nimble for a guy who dances around in plate-male. ‘Riptose’ is always fantastic for it’s aggressive bleed damage and blocking an attack. I suggest you get good at Riptose’n.

Your damage output should be extremely high even if you do go Soldier’s. The trait ‘Deep Cuts’ gives your bleeds a long enough duration that the damage they do is still very appreciable even without placing a lot of focus on Condition Damage. ‘Attack of Opportunity’ is a 10% damage buff for whenever the enemy is bleeding, which is pretty much always. ‘Percise Strikes’ is an extra 220ish damage for just beating the hell out of things, which is always welcome.

Auto-Attack on Sword is honestly pretty kitten good; I don’t tend to switch out of S/S unless I need a utility from my other weapon. ‘Impale’ followed by ‘Rip’ is your first spike thing, then ‘Final THRUST’ when the enemy starts to get low usually finishes most things off. ‘Riptose’ should be used offensively as often as possible as the bleed damage it does is pretty phenomenal.

‘Savage Leap’ is kind of an addicting gap-closer, and it works really well to use ‘Impale-Savage Leap-Rip’ together. For whatever reason I feel like the animation of ‘Rip’ is reduced by using ‘Savage Leap’ first.

‘Final THRUST’ has a kind of long animation whose damage happens near the end. Keep in mind that you can still run during the animation, so it’s good to start it a bit early if you’re running at someone so they have less time to react to it.

Oh RUNNING you say? That’s right, this build is good at that too. ’Warrior’s Sprint’ is another effective trait that gives you a 25% movement speed buff provided you are using melee weapons (which every true warrior SHOULD). This is nice because it means you don’t have to mess around with Swiftness and it allows you to stick to your target much easier (like when you are chasing them around with ‘Final THRUST’. Nothing sucks more than thrusting at someone and being to slow to keep up.)

For more “you are never going to get away from me, ever” action, pair up S/S with Greatsword. Between ‘Savage Leap’, ‘Rush’, ‘Whirlwind Attack’, and ’Warrior’s Sprint’, you will be flying all over the map like the armored razor-blade of death that you are. Also I think it’s comical that my back up weapon is MORE SWORDS.

So yeah, there you go.

Warkupo.1025:

So yeah, there you go.

Thank you sir, that was an enjoyable read.

I have decided to stick with the warrior, and my current warrior to be exact (Charr Powa!) Something about T3 charr heavy armor… and the animations for a Charr look so much better than they do on a human(savage leap looks so graceful!). But if I do make a Mesmer im sure I will have a fun time, whenever that comes.