Guild Wars 2

Personally I find the warrior to be one of the most interesting classes to play. I find the warrior is what you make him not what is given to you. I do however would buff many of their skills to make em more useful.

Banners: They were the reason I originally wanted to be a warrior, the idea was unique and over all great for party support. But their cool and area of effect is so small specially for a game where kiting is a most. In a WoW like scenario where every melee hugs the boss with the tank and all the ranged is op this would be a good range but here we need a way bigger aoe to compensate.

Shouts: I find them good yet their AoE is so small they should be called whispers. I go FOR GREAT JUSTICE !!! And only people in melee seems to hear me and get buffed. Fear me makes me need to go on melee to make people fear me. Is like if I needed to call em in the middle of battle to whisper something in their ear so it takes effect. If anything they should work similar to Diablo 2’s barbarian who buffed everyone in the screen. Well not as far as everyone in the screen but a rather wide area imo. With the exception of Fear me which shouldn’t be all that huge for balance purposes.

The physical utilities which is what I use at the moment seem to be quite good, no complains on this one.

The signets I personally don’t use them at all. I find these to be an excuse for n00bs to feel like they can do something. I do use all of them under water since oh…barely any of my utilities work under water …

Elites: Yep..if the banner had better AoE range I would say is my favorite elite on the game. Juggernaut needs to actually make us a Juggernaut not just a slow pushing machine. The signet well is the one everyone seems to favor due to buffs and cool downs.

Servanin.5021:

Its because utility and traits in GW2 tend to be incredibly underwhelming, especially if you came from WoW but also if you came from any other recent MMOs. They have high reuse and very weak effects.

Its not just WoW…although I’m sure there are tons of MMO neophytes out there who can only relate to that game. All other ‘structured’ MMOs have multiple classes with a plethora of skills on shorter cooldowns that grant similar, if not longer, benefit times.

GW2 is very different. It has a highly balanced PvP structure in mind and CC effects on another player are extremely powerful. All they did was balance the PvE around longer cooldowns.

Anet has taken a big, bold step in the new direction of MMOs. They’re leaving the button-mashing playstyle and favoring a more twitch-oriented, skill-based combat mechanic. The nature of what is happening is that the combat is going to have to get much more involving for classes like the warrior but it doesn’t have to change very much for classes like the elementalist.

When you cast a spell in GW2, you’re essentially doing the same thing you’ve done in all other games. Sure you’ve got more mobility and have to take into account timing and trajectory a little more, but its nearly the same; watch the enemy, cast your spells, react to the situation accordingly. Your spells are usually long-duration, long-cooldown, high-damage or CC effects that you gear up for and use sparingly and when needed. And they usually look amazing.

As a warrior/guardian/thief/etc things have changed quite a bit. In these other types of games, you’d close the distance and start spamming all of your weird, wacky, flashy moves until the monster was dead (of course, using specific skills as needed). Because combat is not engaging in other games, you’re essentially a melee-distance spellcaster with shorter cooldown skills for visual effect.

In GW2, you forgo the constant barrage of crazy, jumpy, spinny moves for a more engaging combat situation where you have to react consistently and often. You use less skills but at more meaningful times. Its a different ballgame. Since the skills work relatively the same, however, it FEELS like you’re doing less. Lets face it, pressing 1 in GW2 is the same as pressing 1 in any other game: You’ve pressed 1, congratulations. What it does and why you do it has no bearing on that physical fact.

Its not perfect, and this evolution is by no means complete.

Let me finish by repeating that I do NOT find my warrior boring, but I can see where the OP is coming from. His point is not lost here. This is a change that will take time to perfect. GW2 comes way closer than almost any other game in existence right now.

Wow, really?

The warrior is one of the most fun and exciting classes to play imo. And I’ve tried thief (also loved), elementalist (also loved), guardian, mesmer.

I love the fun of broadsword+double-axe swapping and running in and out and all around the mobs. Just cutting them to shreds. So fun!

And my 7-0 skills just add to my mobility and cc to make it even more powerful and versatile.

Underwater I simply destroy with my spear. Pull out and hit mobs with my speargun when I start to take damage.

Totally fun!

I’ll openly admit that the Warrior does have some uninteresting skills, but they’re far from the broken boring mess that a lot of players make them out to be.

It would behoove ANet to have a fresh look at the Warrior class now that the game is complete. Since they were completed so early in development compared to other classes they do need some re-tooling as the game itself has changed around us. Our Elite skills are kind of dull or are impeded by ridiculous cooldowns. They’re not as fun as they should be. Rampage needs to go back to the drawing board entirely.

However, there’s plenty of things ANet could do without totally going back to the drawing board to make Warrior more interesting. One of the best suggestions I could make would be to expand on the master of weaponry idea. Warrior was originally supposed to be the only class that could weapon switch as I understand it, now everyone can so we lost a very unique class trait.

Grant Warriors a 3rd weapon swap slot. This would give Warrior’s a bigger arsenal of tools to choose from at any given time. Since the cooldowns of weapons are balanced pretty well for the two weapon setup, adding a third option wouldn’t overpower the class. It would just give us more options.

With this, we’d have to actively decide which weapon to switch to, not because we’re currently on cooldown on our main weapon, but because we want access to the tools that particular weapon gives us.

If they gave us 3 weapon sets they’d probably have to remove/change Bursts. The amount of CC I could chain using Hammer,Mace/Shield,Sword/Shield plus Physical skills would be stupid haha.

Ragnar Dragonfyre.1806:

Funny how I see so many Warrior’s complaining we’re not flashy, boring and have no options… yet, I so rarely see any Warrior’s taking advantage of all our options. It’s not the class’ fault if you choose to use a build entirely consisting of passives.

Early on in my Warrior career, I had some second thoughts, but then I played with more weapon combo’s and practiced more with my Banner and there’s always something for me to be doing.

I rarely see other Warrior’s using their Banner’s actively in PvP (or at all). Keeping everyone buffed, picking them up when the cooldown is done, rebuffing… using the 5 skill for Blast Finisher’s on fields, etc. Picking up your Banner throughout an engagement is VERY important. For me, the Banner is the most important aspect of the class and I find it highly enjoyable. There is a tactical aspect to using and choosing which Banner to use in various scenarios.

As far as I’m concerned, Warrior’s are one of, if not the most mobile class in the game. There’s never a situation where I don’t reach the fight first, unless I choose not to. I can almost permanently keep Fury, Might and Swiftness up on me and my party which has turned many a fight from a stalemate into a steamroll.

If you think the class is boring, then try a different weapon combination. Every single time I needed to upgrade weapons I tried a new weapon set. I tried them all until I settled on Axe/Mace and Longbow. Try a different utility build. Don’t think Warrior’s are flashy? You realize Warriors’ CAN self combo right? There are more options than you think, you just need to get out of the limited mindset that other MMO’s have burdened you with.

If all else fails, roll a different class. Play games to have fun, if you’re not having fun either play another game, or change how you play the game. There’s nothing wrong with that.

You don’t see people using them because they aren’t effective. Getting +90 condition damage is cute but it’s not actively doing anything. It’d be different if enemies took damage per second near banners, or they repulsed enemies, or similar. That’s the Warrior’s problem – their skills are all just generic number buffs that don’t do anything other than add a few numbers to an invisible stat.

Note that the skills people DO use – balanced stance, endure pain, bull’s charge, actually do something. More importantly, they do something that’s necessary for a class that focuses heavily on melee yet has no utility in its primary weapon skills. That’s why no one uses lesser known Warrior secondaries. Those other skills are junk in 80% of situations, whereas the others actually work when YOU want them to.

Plague.5329:

Ragnar Dragonfyre.1806:

Funny how I see so many Warrior’s complaining we’re not flashy, boring and have no options… yet, I so rarely see any Warrior’s taking advantage of all our options. It’s not the class’ fault if you choose to use a build entirely consisting of passives.

Early on in my Warrior career, I had some second thoughts, but then I played with more weapon combo’s and practiced more with my Banner and there’s always something for me to be doing.

I rarely see other Warrior’s using their Banner’s actively in PvP (or at all). Keeping everyone buffed, picking them up when the cooldown is done, rebuffing… using the 5 skill for Blast Finisher’s on fields, etc. Picking up your Banner throughout an engagement is VERY important. For me, the Banner is the most important aspect of the class and I find it highly enjoyable. There is a tactical aspect to using and choosing which Banner to use in various scenarios.

As far as I’m concerned, Warrior’s are one of, if not the most mobile class in the game. There’s never a situation where I don’t reach the fight first, unless I choose not to. I can almost permanently keep Fury, Might and Swiftness up on me and my party which has turned many a fight from a stalemate into a steamroll.

If you think the class is boring, then try a different weapon combination. Every single time I needed to upgrade weapons I tried a new weapon set. I tried them all until I settled on Axe/Mace and Longbow. Try a different utility build. Don’t think Warrior’s are flashy? You realize Warriors’ CAN self combo right? There are more options than you think, you just need to get out of the limited mindset that other MMO’s have burdened you with.

If all else fails, roll a different class. Play games to have fun, if you’re not having fun either play another game, or change how you play the game. There’s nothing wrong with that.

You don’t see people using them because they aren’t effective. Getting +90 condition damage is cute but it’s not actively doing anything. It’d be different if enemies took damage per second near banners, or they repulsed enemies, or similar. That’s the Warrior’s problem – their skills are all just generic number buffs that don’t do anything other than add a few numbers to an invisible stat.

Note that the skills people DO use – balanced stance, endure pain, bull’s charge, actually do something. More importantly, they do something that’s necessary for a class that focuses heavily on melee yet has no utility in its primary weapon skills. That’s why no one uses lesser known Warrior secondaries. Those other skills are junk in 80% of situations, whereas the others actually work when YOU want them to.

So you think being able to grant infinite Fury and nigh infinite Swiftness to you and your allies is “cute but not actively doing anything”. Riight… I’ll just let you go on thinking that.

Dreadspectre.3456:

If they gave us 3 weapon sets they’d probably have to remove/change Bursts. The amount of CC I could chain using Hammer,Mace/Shield,Sword/Shield plus Physical skills would be stupid haha.

You’re still limited by swap cooldowns and Adrenaline. By the time you swap between the first and second weapon, your first weapon burst is off cooldown. I haven’t done the math, but you’d have to spec for 20% faster Burst cooldown to benefit at all. I don’t think any DPS gains would result from this.

Warrior has very cool weapon skills, but the skills that we get the option of choosing, aka the Utility/elite/heals just all seem lame compared to what other classes get.

I hope Anet takes a page from WoW’s Warrior here, and Rift’s Warrior here in terms of interesting skill design for unique ideas.

I think some combo fields and a better spread of combo finishers would help with some of the problems being noted here. As I’m looking, axe, rifle, and longbow seem to hold the monopoly on combo finishers, with only a few others being seeded throughout our weapons — hammer doesn’t even have any. And combo fields are entirely nonexistent.

I think that warriors are just fine.

I currently run a Power/Compassion/Toughness+Vit build with LB/Hammer. I use healing sig, For Great Justice, Banner of Strength and Banner of Tactics, and banner elite. With LB burst, I can grant myself huge stacks of might thanks to banner blast finishers, Switching to hammer and laying down a ton of damage and control on many enemies at a time. I’m also regenerating health, and can pick up the tactics banner to put more regen on myself and allies.

Need a gap closer? Pick up a banner. Need to spike? LB burst with 1 bar adrenaline at your feet, drop banners, shout, and it’s hammer time.

This isn’t a boring play-style and is as flashy as any other class. I wear many hats moving from support to damage to control. I have no idea why you think warriors must be “boring.”

As a 2x Axe + Longbow warrior I personaly ain’t so stupid to play with only one set of weapons. I ignite the ground with longbow and whirl over it to combo myself and to deal alot more dmg than just one weapon set would do. Finishing with eviscerate the enemy should be already down (especially in pvp). For my build which is maxing out +crit dmg% with 50-80% crit rate it is VERY important to keep switching the weapons. I never need to keep waiting CDs to go off, gain more adrenaline and doing so much more damage.

Ofc There is the greatsword warriors with their hundred blades…. “it does nearly 12k dmg”… HAH. Hard to land fully on anything else than a normal monster (your knock down doesn’t work on other warriors who has endure pain, or other class with similar skill, Frenzy just helps the enemy warrior if they used endure pain too soon). Eviscerate, 9-12k dmg. Whirling axe, 7-9k dmg. Bouth combinet with 4s root, blind and burning ground(800-1000dmg/s). Greatsword is for mobility not for dmg (hundred blades are only good dmg skill on greatsword). Rifle, 15k+ dmg with kill shot. 9k+ with the Volley.

Boring skills? Freaking combine those boring ones in mystic forge to get epic combo bonuses and damage bonuses.

Signets for crit rate (traited), use em for condition dmg while using ulti to give even more crit rate, damage and condition damage.

Banners. Yea… I don’t know what to say. Works on world bosses as you can buff ALOT of people. I use em mostly when I travel trough maps, gathering or just runing. Also the +10% crit dmg allowed me to deal over 1 million damage on a rabit Poor rabit

Not that it matters, but I play a Hammer/Mace+Shield spec for sPvP. The damage is laughable even when gemmed and traited completely offensively, but I just can’t stand how the Greatsword plays, and I don’t feel that Axe/Axe damage is good enough to justify its squishiness. I like the way I can tank multiple people with my build; to me, a high-damage, high-durability class is what the warrior should be, with the ability to swap either offense or defense for heavy mobility by use of traits.

I’m not arguing against banners, or shouts. I like them, I think we should have more of them. But I do agree with the OP inasmuch as nothing of mine seems “warriory.” I think of warriors as the leaders in battle, the experienced front-line soldiers who cause mayhem and discord in enemy ranks because they’re just that good. They epitomize the concept of “weapon masters.” And I just don’t get that sense from the class or its abilities.

Guardians are just as masterful with their weapons as we are, and they also have better defenses, to boot; they can put out almost as much damage if specced offensively as we can in a Greatsword build, while being just as tanky as a Defense warrior. There’s something wrong with that.

The only thing I see that really says “master of weapons” to me is the Discipline trait tree, with the reduced cooldown and bonuses to weapon swapping. I think that’s a great concept, but I don’t think it should be a trait line, and it irks me that it’s in a trait line almost no one uses for anything. I include 30 Discipline in a lot of my builds because I think the 5/15/25 bonuses are some of the best we have, and there are good traits for every slot; but in doing so, I’m often kittening myself because of the fact that other trees, notably Strength and Arms, just offer passive bonuses that are so much better it’s not even worth bothering.

I want to feel like a Warrior when I play a Warrior. I want simplistic complexities of play, where it’s easy to learn but difficult to master, and I want there to be a meaningful reward for mastering it.

Someone mentioned that the simple things like dodges affect us the most. That’s true, but only in a negative sense. We’re the most punished by missing a dodge, which is fine, but that means that executing a well-timed dodge should benefit us the most, as well. We shouldn’t have to put 20 or 30 points into a trait tree just to make our weapon choice useful; traits should enhance our weapon choices by making them do something interesting, not just increase damage and decrease recharge, in a way that we’re balanced around already. Traits don’t make our weapon of choice better; they bring it up to par.

The class has good bones. Its concept is excellent, and elegantly simple. It focuses, in theory, around weapons and maneuverability, being inherently tanky and powerful; trait allocations, theoretically, involve our weapon choices to make them even better and allow us to shift the focus from a balance of defense and damage, more toward one of the three extremes: defense, damage, and mobility.

The problem lies in the execution. I don’t feel like a warrior right now. I feel like a kittened Guardian. And something is wrong with that.

If something is truly difficult to master, do you think you’ve discovered the intricate complexities and developed the appropriate meta after 2-3 weeks?

I most certainly feel like a warrior when I go thumping around a battlefield.

Wow, really? Gim.ped is censored? What’s the logic there, AN?

Also, to clarify, I don’t think warriors are broken, or even boring. I just think they’re not as engaging as they should be, and they lack class identity.

Edit: Earlier in this page, two things that I fully support were suggested. One would be to give us an extra weapon swap set, which I think would fit the class perfectly (I also feel the Disc 15 Fast Hands should also be baseline) and the other was for AN to take a second look at the class now that the game’s released. Since we’ve bled a significant part of our flavor to other classes, some tweaks and touch-ups in the class identity department are warranted.

I agree with this.
I quit my Warrior at lvl 60 because his skills do nothing interesting at all.
I’m having a ton more fun on my Guardian.

I’ll be back on this char when they make it more interesting.