Guild Wars 2

I’m creating a WvW build primarily for use in small-scale fights and roaming, so take this into consideration. Also, I’m curious on how the gear setup will be after Ferocity is introduced. Here’s the setup:

Axe of Force / Shield of Paralyzation (Berserker) + Hammer of Impact (Knight’s)
0/0/30/10/30
Cavalier armor with 6x Lyssa
Zerker trinkets with 6x Zerker jewels

I’ve been running Axe/Shield + Hammer to great effect in zergs, but with PVT and 6x Soldier runes, with Zerker trinkets. I don’t have too hard of a time surviving at all, so I considered dropping the PVT+Soldier for Cavalier+Lyssa. But, is Lyssa optimal even in zergs and small group fighting? And will Cavalier be useless after the introduction of Ferocity? Perhaps, taking Ferocity into account, Knight’s may be a better option.

Give me your thoughts!

Great with everything, except you have absolutely 0 mobility. Try either axe/GS or hammer/gs

Sooo.

For roaming, your weapon choice is poor because too slow in my opinion. Your traits choice is in general really good when involving hammer and the use of both your burst skills, even tho it’s really generic for wvw roaming.

Now the problem I have is your armor choice. Full cavalier is a waste in my opinion. You lose quite a lot of power and you being that slow, you better hit like a truck. Extra toughness isn’t going to save you once your body gets swarmed. What I personnaly use is a very specific mix. I use Knight’s Helm, Zerker shoulders, gloves and pants, Cavalier breastplate and valkyrie’s boots (consider that I run mostly greatsword longbow tho, and have to trait for great fortitude as I go 20 deep in strength. With bloodlust and one piece of valk, I just reach 22k hp, you can swap this one to knights or cavalier or whichever you like best).
Going deep into cavalier is really good but you have to bank on trinkets for that. I use cavalier amulet, backpiece and both accessories, with zerker rings. And zerker weapons. You get insanely high and well distributed stats in my experience with this mix. Also, adding dolyak signet on top of that could be a good idea. You can reach 2k+ toughness this way, with crit dmg around 100ish and 40ish crit chance (I’d advise taking signet mastery and warrior’s sprint instead of vigor on stances and destruction of the empowered, the stats increase already give you plenty of damage). Hf.

How effective will that stat distribution on trinkets and upgrades be after the Ferocity patch? The armor setup looks fine and seems considerably less affected by the patch, but crit damage jewels got hit hard. Would you suggest Knight’s jewel upgrades over Cavalier upgrades for trinkets afterwards, on the Cavalier trinkets?

Thanks.

Also, what would an ideal trait setup be for Axe+Shield / Hammer? I have a feeling mine is terribly bad, but it serves the purpose I want it to at the moment. I changed my mind about roaming; I’m not going to really be roaming on this build, but I’ll be focusing more on small group fights and the infamous T1 zergs, so Axe+Shield / Hammer has served me well so far.

EDIT: This is what I’m currently looking at for zerging: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIAQNAneSjMdU5ZnHOewJaAA94Ku2S9gO7iLVQMA-zECBYfCi0yQUBAECg5oFRjtKqIas6aYKXER1AA-w

Zerg fights =/= roaming.

You need to be able to kitten off when the situation turns dire. Greatsword is really good at that. Sword is also good but this weapon is less popular because it doesn’t offer the same damage and is more controlled oriented. A fun roaming build that I really like is sword shield hammer ; 0 25 20 10 15 (furious speed and unsuspecting foes in arms, cull the weak or dogged march or shield mastery and merciless hammer in defense, leg specialist obviously in tactics and signet mastery in discipline).
You don’t get cleansing ire, and use bullscharge instead of zerker stance. So obviously it’s not as good as other builds, but it’s way more fun and not bad regardless for the format. Same gear as the mix I posted above. It might get hit really hard after the Lyssa Runes nerf however. But your mobility could possibly still keep you alive. If you’re overwhelmed by condis, just use lemongrass poultry soup and be careful with positionning. The disabling combos you can do with those sets are incredible and can wreck condi classes that tend to run with few, high cooldown stun breakers. Overall, you can’t stay in the fray all the time, but have “windows of opportunity”. Rly fun, I recommend.

Well, I just heard about the Lyssa rune nerf and that sounds like kitten for a build like this. What other alternatives would you suggest? Also, this:

How effective will that stat distribution on trinkets and upgrades be after the Ferocity patch? The armor setup looks fine and seems considerably less affected by the patch, but crit damage jewels got hit hard. Would you suggest Knight’s jewel upgrades over Cavalier upgrades for trinkets afterwards, on the Cavalier trinkets?

Most power roaming builds are 0/0/30/10/30 either cavalier with lyssa runes or and zerker weps/trinkets or zerker everything with melandru runes. This gets you 2100 power, 3k armor, 47% crit chance, 100% crit dmg, and 20k health. This build will actually be hit less by the ferocity nerf than other classes because of the 2 sigils on 2handers