Guild Wars 2

Greetings fellow warriors!

In my quest to find the perfect WvW build for my own playstyle, I’ve been messing around during my streams with different builds that you could say are “out of the box” for us warriors. After a great number of tests, tweaks, and back-to-the-drawing-board moments, I’ve come up with one that I really, really like. In fact, I like it so much, I want to share it with the rest of you!

Warning: This build uses a high risk/reward playstyle and is only recommended for advanced players of the warrior profession. It requires high awareness of boon durations, cooldowns, enemy tells, and environment while fighting, as well as a good amount of practice using the build.

Now, without further ado, I present to you: The “Ninja Warrior” build!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKVP0g4oK-60;9;4J-9JJ28;21;008-49-5-k64;16TsW6TsWo-FW0-g290;0Vp-wWz12Z8_Ea-30C-2i;5F18ZF18Z;9;9;9;9;84-6n

Overview
The idea behind this build is that it allows the warrior fight using high evasion, rather than high vitality or toughness. Additionally, it allows the warrior to engage and disengage from any fight as they see fit. Both of these aspects are achieved through both high-mobility weapon sets and through high Vigor uptime.

This build assumes full Berserker’s stats, Melandru runes, and Lemongrass Poultry Soup and Sharpening Stone consumables.

Offense
This build uses the greatsword as the main source of its damage, with the sword primarily being used for catching and controlling the target, although Final Thrust can be put to good use during combat as well. Additionally, Bull’s Charge is another source of control and damage. Both Bull’s Charge and Flurry can be used as setups for the traditional lockdown/Hundred Blades combination; while this is the optimal source of damage, any of the greatsword’s skills will hit hard using this build.

Defense
The real key to this build’s prowess is its use of evasion for survival, rather than high health, armor, or healing. Through Call to Arms from the warhorn and the Vigorous Focus trait, this build can achieve a very high uptime on the Vigor boon, allowing for more dodging in combat than would normally be possible. In addition to dodges, the evade provided by Whirlwind Attack on the greatsword and the gap-creation potential of Savage Leap on the sword and Bull’s Charge give the warrior further evasion capabilities. On top of all of this, the warrior has permanent Swiftness uptime from the combination of Charge! and Signet of Rage, and the ability to get out of Immobilize with the Mobile Strikes trait.

When evasion of the enemy’s attacks doesn’t quite cut it and the warrior does get hit, Balanced Stance and Endure Pain have their moment in the spotlight. Not only do Balanced Stance and Endure Pain have their normal defensive capabilities, but they will also act as yet another source of Vigor, allowing for more evasion. Also, this build applies Weakness through Call to Arms, further reducing the incoming damage.

In regards to how this build handles conditions, the combination of Melandru runes, Lemongrass Poultry Soup, the Quick Breathing trait, and the inherent high evasion of the build will effectively make conditions a non-issue, provided you’re not facing down three necromancers or something similarly ridiculous.

In regards to Quick Breathing in particular, not only will it remove conditions, but it will convert them into useful boons for the warrior; through this conversion, the warrior gains access to Aegis and Protection, two boons we normally have no way of gaining through our own abilities. For reference, Aegis is converted from Burning, while Protection is converted from Vulnerability.

Weaknesses
Just like anything, this build has its counters. Primarily, the warrior is rather squishy, hence the need for evasion and stability/burst-immunity (this can be geared around, but the loss of damage may be too large to warrant doing so). Additionally, being chain-CC’d while Balanced Stance is unavailable can lead to bad things for this build, hence the need for high awareness of your enemy’s attacks and your own environment.

Group Performance
This build performs well both during solo roaming and small-team skirmishes. Due to computer limitations, I haven’t been able to test this build while zerging.

Videos
All of these videos have been taken from my stream highlights section. I do not have a YouTube at this time. These videos show different variations of the build as I was testing it, with the last video showing the current iteration.

Open-field fighting: http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2516485
2v2 mirror match: http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2516498
1v1 against a similar warrior: http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2524848
Current iteration: http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2535621

F.A.Q
“Why take Mobile Strikes when you have 98%-reduced immobilizes?” – This is a fail-safe to ensure the warrior is able to get out of harm’s way. Any enemy using increased condition duration boosts will counteract the reduced durations of this build, thereby making Immobilize a threat.

“Why use Great Fortitude?” – This is a sort of cushion to help mitigate the inherent squishiness of the build, as the trait gives the warrior roughly 2k health that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

Can I use this build in sPvP?
I wouldn’t advise this build in sPvP unless you plan to constantly be roaming or team-fighting. Without consumables, this build loses a large portion of its defense against conditions, thus exposing the low health pool and toughness of the warrior. That being said, you could potentially run with a more tanky stat amulet to counteract this.

Can I use this build in PvE?
For open-world PvE, I wouldn’t recommend this build, simply because you don’t need all the extra evasion. It would be much better to replace this build with a more damage-oriented one.

For dungeons and Fractals, this build could see a bit more justification for the extra evasion, plus you become a powerful group-supporter through the warhorn. I haven’t tested this build in dungeons or Fractals, but I could see it being useful in that aspect of the game.

I’ve had a lot of fun testing this build on my streams, and my viewers have seemed to enjoy the playstyle involved with it. Here’s hoping the rest of you find this build as entertaining as I feel it is!

- Arajal, a.k.a. Shinryuku_ku

Hi first of all thanks for taking the time and write a guide to your build. I tried around with something like this as well but I prefer more crit chance. So I use a build like this now a lot
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbE0JGuFS5hJSggKohXGJBToPgHJFiBbA-j0yAEEAyDEVAO5VEN2yYR0YVLYqTYlrgq+Fxbg5PglBgZBA-w
With the sword and the Sigill of Geomancy enemies bleed most of the time so you always do 10% more damage when they bleed. Also you’ll be able to have perma fury and your GS cd is 20% less. The build editor isn’t really that good and my stats are actually a bit better than shown in the editor.Probably it is because of world bonuses or maybe I forgot something.I have around 80% crit chance all the time.
Running in a zerg like this isn’t perfect but i’d advise you to change leg specialist and try empowered since you’ll have a lot of boons which means extra damage.
You also shouldn’t run directly in front of the zerg with this build since when you’re focused you’ll go down pretty soon.
If I run in a zerg I usually play it like this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbE0p2tFS5hJOggZohZxlRSwEJFlBbA-j0yAEEAyDEVAO5VEN2yYR0YVLYqTYlrgq+Fxbg5PglBgZBA-w
You’ll be able to run in front of the zerg and still deal decent damge.
But thanks again for your build since I really love the weapon choice and after trying around a bit those weapons are the ones I always come back to. I just thought you might try out the precision stuff and see if you like it

I actually did try out the first trait allocation. The reason I didn’t stick with it is because I lacked the fail-safe of Mobile Strikes and felt I didn’t need reduced CDs on the GS, since I had more than enough mobility in the current iteration to be effective. Additionally, I felt the vitality boost and straight GS damage from the Strength line was more reliable than the might stacks and reliance on bleeds present in the Arms line. It’s still an effective alteration; just not one that suited my personal taste. That version would be a good one to run if you constantly have a group to run around with, especially considering you swapped out Bull’s Charge for “For Great Justice!”. I typically run around solo while roaming, so I place heavier emphasis on more reliable traits and control.

Your zerg variant is interesting, but there’s one thing that bothers me about it: without Fast Hands, you won’t be able to swap back and forth between your weapon sets, thereby opening up the potential for being caught in a bad situation without your mobility tools ready. As mentioned in the guide, I haven’t tested any zerg variants due to playstyle/computer reasons, but those are just my thoughts from looking at it on paper.

I actually am looking at trying this blended version that takes mobile strikes as a safe fall, loses dogged march (which further stresses the need for mobile strikes), picks up hoelbrak runes for further offensive, and utilizes opportunist for perma up time of fury with leg specialist. That to me means I can drop FGJ and pick up something like shake it off for another stun break and condition removal in deep situations where I don’t have time to rely on the warhorn.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBhYDbkzp5N2x4hJOAcekETLpUYXdJFixGA-jEzAYLBZCCA5BiKAn8UYTgCaVwioxqWwUlK1KXANMk3YZ1yAwsAA-w

EDIT: Forgot to drop warrior’s sprint since you don’t rely on it with perma swiftness from the horn. So picked up signet mastery and dolyak instead of balanced stance to give you a bit more toughness.

Yeah Arajal I kinda figured out you probably had tried some things as well and I was curious to know why you put the points in strength since I usually don’t put points there. I will definatly try it out since you’re absolutely right, the foes won’t bleed all the time and I loose my extra damage.
I use fgj basically so I can have my fury up all the time and bulls is somewhat unreliable in my opinion but since you use it with mobile strikes it fits in well in your build.
Of course fast hands is a very nice thing but when i’m running in a zerg I don’t fell the need for it as much as when I’m running solo. Yeah sometimes I end up in really bad situations and lie in the dirt but that’s quite often just playig bad on my part.
Tyrions build looks interesting as well but I guess I won’t be able to test it soon since I don’t have the money to buy a new knights armor with hoelbrak runes. It looks a bit like Avlis new build.

@Tyrion: Your setup looks like the extreme-offense version of my own, Tyrion. My concern with that build is the lack of Vigor uptime from the lack of Dogged March and the possibility for being snared/stunned for longer. In regards to using Dolyak Signet over Balanced Stance, I actually did test the build using the signet for a while (as can be seen in some of the videos); the main reason I changed it was for the synergy Vigorous Focus has with the build, and because I didn’t like having to sacrifice 200 toughness to gain Stability.

Nevertheless, I could definitely see your version being very effective in small-group and zerg situations where you’re not the focus.

@doc phil: One thing I’ve found throughout my testing has been just how versatile this build can be. The builds you and Tyrion have come up with so far have further proven that fact to me, and that this build can be tailored to an individual’s playstyle very easily while still retaining the core gameplay.

I’ll see if I can’t get some more gameplay videos up soon.

Trying some slight tweaks myself but this idea of high mobility and vigor out the kitten is amazing….also condi conversion giving us access to aegis and protection is a breathe of fresh air.

Yeah as Arajal said,if you take the basics of this build and adjust it a bit to the personal playstyle it just works amazing. I’ve been trying around the last couple of days with longbow+sword/warhorn and mace/shield + GS builds(absolutely amazing right now,just auto attack off the blinds) and they can be pretty crazy as well, but I guess I’ll always come back to Gs+S/Wh because it is so effective and supportive as well. The final cherry on top would be something like a knock back or stun with warhon 5. But yeah then I woke up and still had a nice build

Here are a couple more videos with the current build:

Longer clip of various team-fights around a tower – http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2560540

1v1 against a spirit ranger – http://www.twitch.tv/shinryuku_ku/c/2568839 (I wasn’t playing very well during this clip, but it still serves as a showcase of the build.)

I did some more testing on this build using the reduced GS cooldown from Forceful Greatsword (used 0/20/10/20/20), and my results gave me a very clear picture of how that trait affects this build. In a nutshell, I’ve found that going 20 into Strength (the linked version) provides a more reliable source of damage and more in-combat resilience (plus opening up the option for Death From Above), but not quite as reliable of escape options. On the flip-side, going 20 into Arms provides a much more volatile build with faster escape cooldowns and more opportunities for Bull’s Charge/100 Blades mid-fight, but doesn’t quite hold up as well if you become the focus.

In other words, the 20 Strength variant lends itself more to solo-roaming, whereas the 20 Arms variant lends itself more to team-fighting and havok groups.

The problem with quick breathing is that with reduced condition duration the duration of the converted boons is also reduced. Therefore i think its a little bit ineffective except when you are fighting against classes with increased condition duration like e.g. necromancers. Many conditions applied to you are running out very quickly therefore granting boons which will last very short. Although the reduced cooldown on warhorn 5 and the additional 10% boon duration make this choice still very viable. My build is similar to yours:

Arms 25 (V,X): i prefer rending strikes over deep cuts because with bleed on sword autoattack and precise strikes you are able to maintain bleeding on your foe almost permanently for additional 10% damage. The reduced cooldown on GS greatly helps with escaping and might stacking is also very nice especially when youre using runes of hoelbrak with 20% might Duration.

Defense 15 (II): adrenal health is quite useful in my opinion

Tactics 10 (I): i just love leg specialist even after the silly nerf

Discipline 20 (VI, VIII): reduced cooldown on signet of rage and dolyak signet; destruction of the empowered for nice extra damage although sometimes (but rarely) i miss mobile strikes as you mentioned when fighting against classes with increased condition duration. But it´s so rarely that im stuck in a movement skill because of being immobilized that i prefer destruction of the empowered by far.

This is not a critique of your build just my personal opinion and i like your vid´s youre a skilled player :-)

Sorry for poor english and greetings from germany

Quick Breath are good, but the cost are too long…
Ninja never used GS and WH. If u want a ninja make a thief
But…
You want near glass focusing in evasion and condition removal(wh will help to get protection and aegis) I recomend this:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4VK-N0e4ZL-60;9;4E-JJE1;318-18-2;05-F44;16TsW6TsWo-FW0-g290;0Vp-wWz12Z8_Ea-30C-2i;5F18ZF18Z;9;9;9;9;84-6i

Just spamm burst to cleanse conditions and recharge some endurance, with signet stamine you will get constantly dodge, but you need atack all time and hits the burst

@Bryndis The boon conversion is more of a side-benefit of taking the Quick Breathing trait, as its primary purpose is to reduce the cooldown of Call to Arms to increase Vigor uptime. (Your English is fine. )

@JETWING The “Ninja Warrior” is a pun on the evasiveness of the build and the fact that it’s a warrior doing the evading; it has very little to do with actual ninja themes outside of that. As for the build you suggested, I see a few problems it has when compared to mine:

• The build seems to have too much condition removal. The reduced duration provided by Melandru runes and Lemongrass Soup already mitigates conditions, so they won’t last long enough to make use of all the condition clears available in that build. Also, Cleansing Ire still has the issue of Blind preventing the proc.
• Using Mending instead of Healing Surge deprives you of a lot of healing, and you lose out on the adrenaline generation for setting up Flurry immobilizes.
• You lose the emergency defense and stun-break provided by Endure Pain by switching to Throw Bolas (which is already made redundant by Leg Specialist and Flurry), leaving you in a bad position if you get focused or controlled without Balanced Stance available.
• The endurance regeneration from Signet of Stamina doesn’t stack with Vigor, and any gaps in Vigor uptime are very short with this build. Also, the signet only provides 50% endurance regeneration as opposed to Vigor’s 100%.
• Not having Slashing Power in the Strength line hurts your damage output greatly.
• Using Warrior’s Sprint instead of Vigorous Focus takes away from overall Vigor uptime, since you would otherwise gain Vigor when using Balanced Stance or Endure Pain.

hey arajal I’ve tried to use the mace more and wanted to know what you think about it. Since I swapped out the GS and lost its evade and mobility it is not that close to your build anymore but being able to block twice seems to work out fine as well. I wanted to be able to dodge a lot, block and be able to set up sword 3 for the finish.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRBJdxG2InTybLkMETkABVQDPFUC1D8YDjjkCxgNA-jkzAUEI6DMVAkQAk8KiGbZsIasqFMVJq6ER5GINMs3A1dg5PQkBgZBA-w
I have to test it a bit more but so far it seems to work fine. I guess you could use bulls insted of fgj and mobile strikes for your own taste.

@doc phil That’s definitely an interesting variant you posted. High-damage Skull Cracks on shortened cooldowns, damage from the sword/mace auto-attack chains, Weakness from the mace and warhorn, Final Thrust access…all on top of high Vigor uptime…definitely one to think about.

I could see that build working well in more close-quarters fights where you don’t have the space to move around as much. All else the same, have you considered swapping FGJ for Bull’s Charge to use as further control? That build seems to be oriented more around control anyway, so it would be a fitting choice in my opinion.

I’ve tried around with this build but i’m having problems with the lack of AoE. It is great for 1on1 but if 1 or 2 other players join it is too hard for me to win it. You might be able to make it work pretty good but I guess if I use the mace i’ll go for mace/shield + GS.
1on1 I can kill every class(of course we know most players in wvw aren’t that good) but if there is more then one opponent the GS starts to shine. I guess i might be a bit frustrated now by being killed by 5 or 6 people everytime I tried to find someone to test this build
And yeah i’ve considered to use bulls and mobile strikes. I should give it a go since I usually kill the pve mobs until i have 25 stacks precision and then I can roam anyway. I’m just not sure whether it is better to just use something else than that sigill because if i die i loose a lot of precision.

or it can be a play style, i used to run gs/lb zerker, shooting arrows in the shadow, and rush in for a quick kill with gs and hide again. its also good to ambush or surprise attack an enemy. well… only pre nerf..

I’ll be updating this build ASAP if I find any need to after these recent changes to warrior.

After extensive testing with the new changes, I can say with certainty that the original build posted here has not changed.

It’s just gotten more awesome!