Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing warrior for a while now, and the axe is by far my favorite weapon. Lately I’ve been using the warhorn with it as well because the the swiftness is nice and the blast finisher has been tremendously helpful. This is the build I’m running atm:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNBHhN6kpDq8wOPwUQ4ExA/Ai5AFacaV6pLrC-ThAPQAA1f67PAA-e
If it makes a difference, I mostly do fractals with the occasional dungeon or Orr grinding. I really like healing shouts. I see a lot of “zerker only” pugs, but no matter how much I try, I just can’t stay alive in a group with zero healing. So to compliment the healing shouts, I’ve been using runes of the trooper to also get rid of conditions. But all in all, I feel a bit lackluster, so I’m looking for tips to improve the build, or maybe totally rework it. I’m willing to try just about anything as long as it includes my lovely axe, but my main goal is a build with fairly good damage and some decent survivability.

Generally speaking, your survivability should come from popping appropriate stance at right time, blocking, dodging, reflect walls from guards/mesmers, blindness from guards and thieves.

While passive heals are allright, the problem with going triple shouts is that you sacrifice a large increase in precision (up to 220 depending on the “level” of the instance) through Signet of Fury+Deep Strike, large increase in group-wide ferocity and precision from the Banner of Discipline, and in some cases Power through Banner of Strenght, which is absolutely not worth giving up.

Healing can be somewhat managed by blasting (offhand warhorn, banners) water fields your party’s elementalist or engineer can put down, if you have one.

The condi clease is nice, but again, it is something your party’s guardian should be managing. Besides, using your cyclone axe skill (#2) in a light field gives you some cleansing bolts, which perfectly work as a condi cleanse.

All in all, the benefits of running tripple shout heal are heavily overshadowed by the loss of considerable group offensive support (which is one thing Warrior is desired for in dungeons) and/or personal survivability for some extreme scenarios. I recommend reading quite old DnT Nike’s post on guildwars2guru about the concepts behind Warrior “build building” for PvE (you will understand why tripple shout is subpar, if you haven’t already): http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80223-warrior-builds-success-and-failure/

As for builds, there are two types:
- Pure axe
- Fast hands

Pure axe runs axe mainhand in both sets, usually mace (for vulnerability and aoe CC) and sword (strong torment+high damage power attack and on-demand block) offhands, and warhorn for swiftness for trashruns and blast finisher for stealth/might stacking.

Fast hands, use both Greatsword and Axe/Mace, alternating between GS’s DPS rotation (100b, whirlwind, bladetrail if not near wall, rush) and then switching to Axe set for application of vulnerability (Axe 2 + Mace 4) and high damage Axe autoattack chain, until weapon swap and GS rotation is available again.

As for builds:
- Pure Axe ones:
With Berserker’s Power
With Empower Allies

- Fast hands builds:
From Metabattle (sort of a miniguide)

Special note about utilities: BE FLEXIBLE!

Foe example: Your group capping on might, but has only 15 stacks of vulnerability on the boss? Switch your “For Great Justice!” for “On my Mark!”

One warrior in the party already? Split the banners. One carries Strenght, other carries Discipline.

Most important thing about choosing utilities is knowing the encounters and what you’ll need

Infact, go read the whole guide here

Happy Dungeoning.

Wow, that was a way more helpful reply than I was expecting. Thanks.

most part of staying alive is knowing the encounters or fights. I’ve been in my share of bad pug groups and at some point you done a content enough times with enough diff groups that you figure out you are dieing because the pugs in your group are bad and your party comp is bad.

I have ran warhorn before in special fights or content, but not tripple shouts with shout runes. Sometimes u need to slot specific shouts but you never need to slot 3 or use shout runes. As a rule of thumb the meta build and meta party comps are all you need for most encounters.

BTW even warrior WvW or PVP shout metas do not use more than 2 shouts.

Another alternative is to run Phalanx Strength build. This gives you the extra Vitality from 6 into Tactics. Then on your utilities take endure pain and dolyak signet. The latter will give you extra DR while the former speaks for itself. Using sword offhand with your axe not only gives you good dps from torment and rip but also has a handy block. If you’re worried about condi try Hoelbrak runes instead of Strenght/Scholar for the – condi duration. Extra might from that is nice too. Then you can take healing food – I personally use Slice of Candied Dragon Roll which combined with my 100% crit chance (only with Fury and Banner of discipline) gives me healing 2/3 of my hits.

From then it’s just a question of learning the paths you do in fractals and dungeons, and knowing when to block/dodge/endure pain. Eventually you’ll get good enough that you won’t need to take Dolyak signet at all