Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure where to begin, but I’d like to play a S/S and GS warrior. It’s a style preference so I’d rather not change the weapons if I can. I haven’t seen any builds utilizing these weapons though.

Any suggestions? I was looking at doing something with x/x/6/x/6? But is that a good start? What about gear traits? Celestials? Mix? And what about Skills?

This would mainly be a WvW (solo/havoc/zerg) and open world roam build.

Thanks for the advice.

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS_S/x_Roamer

This is what would fit you the best. As offhand Warhorn or Shield would be better, but its not that big of a deal if you adjust it for Sword if you prefer that style.

Keep in mind that it a Roaming build for WvW. Won’t be that good for Zerg or Open World. For Open world, that’s not a big deal (everything can work there). But for zerg, you probably gonna have to adjust the build more.

Thaddeus.4891:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_GS_S/x_Roamer

This is what would fit you the best. As offhand Warhorn or Shield would be better, but its not that big of a deal if you adjust it for Sword if you prefer that style.

Keep in mind that it a Roaming build for WvW. Won’t be that good for Zerg or Open World. For Open world, that’s not a big deal (everything can work there). But for zerg, you probably gonna have to adjust the build more.

I was just about to post that link in the thread and ask if that was still considered good but you beat me to it.

You mentioned I’d need to change things up a bit for zerg play, what do you recommend?

Lonewolf Kai.3682:

I was just about to post that link in the thread and ask if that was still considered good but you beat me to it.

You mentioned I’d need to change things up a bit for zerg play, what do you recommend?

I recommend you to play a Hammer shout frontliner build in zerg. The GS + S/X build is a roaming build. You are good at single target, and have limited amount of toughness, healing, condi removal, making you easy to down in a zerg fight.

If you really want to keep GS + S/S in zerg fight, then I don’t have much to recommend. Maybe using soldier gear. There is something else that we call destroyer warrior. It use GS + S/W in zerg fight. But it’s an anti-periphery build. Basically, you do the same job as a thief in a zerg. You stay out of the melee and pick Elementalist and Necro one by one. It is also a great scout in front of the zerg because of all the mobility and speed that GS + S give you. That’s great if you have a Zerg guild that work together, but that’s pretty boring and frustrating if you try to do that in a pug zerg.

I do not like that build for a few reasons

Power Sword build is better with arms IMO – specifically 5 points into arms is actually very useful as you should always have your enemy bleeding so nice extra 10% damage – You can then grab Forceful Greatsword and Hoelbrek Runes – Better than Melandru

Burst Mastery? Not necessary in my opinion – You want sword burst into hundred blades you use arcing slice when opponent is low on health you do not fully depend on your burst for damage only for control/condition cleansing all of your damage is mostly from GS skills 2/3/4/5 with the occasional final thrust if it crits and lands it is a true beast – swiftness up time is low you gotta roll with warriors sprint not signet mastery with all the leaps you will escape any bad situation

This one is better

Try something funny;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAseRjMdUGaXImdwJaAmgCbnPBnT7AYA09EA-TVSEwAAeAADOCAaVCW4QAsU53K1f4oPA2+DOOBABAOAY4hHe4hHuUAMpMC-w

Absolutely destroys people.

More balanced is something like this;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAseRjMdUGaXImdwJaAmgCdnPBfw10OA09EA-TlCEwARVqQ4IAsVJohDBATlVsU/pj+AAPAgY7P84EAEA4AghHe4hHe4SBwkyI-w

Bit more toughness, defensive traiting and more power at the expense of quickness and crit chance/damage. If you insist on using double swords, which, from an aesthetic point of view I can totally understand, swap out Dogged March for Missile Deflection. Reflect OP, yo.

Try this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAscRjMdUGaVIehwJagkgC9onBlw1A4A0VFA-TVSDwAvV/ZyhAot+gEHBQJYXlfReAAAMBN4EAQb/hAAIAszdezbezkCgJlRA-w

I have a lot of fun with this build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAseRjMdUFaZHmhwJagqgC9iHAJg6jIIyhUbAA-TpBEwATOCAGOBA52fAwhAIbZACPAAA

There’s quite a few combos worked into it. Leg specialist with savage leap sets up flurry well, then swap to 100b on immobilize. If they break out of it hit whirlwind in their direction followed up with an arcing slice if they’re under 50%. With burst mastery there’s enough adrenalin to follow up even after a flurry. I prefer shield over offhand sword for the shield bash > final thrust combo.

I’ll also use bladetrail (gs throw) to proc leg specialist before using bull’s charge to try and give it a bit of extra reliability. Seems to connect more often if the target can’t move.

Rage sigil on gs to get more 100b hits in, fire and air to supplement sword auto attack. Pack runes for extra precision and perma swiftness/fury. Last stand for extra stability. Bull’s charge can be swapped for signet of stamina/dolyak if flurry is enough to set up 100b or if you just don’t like it.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I’ll figure something out with these.

So this is the build I sort of settled with:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAR8cjMdUGalHehwJaAmAB9pNfOGJgynTB-TVDEABps/wTKViSJFmqBQwDAYLlgGcBAYSZgEHEAPV9pDNDtpDAgjAQAAEgbezAwRP6RP6RPa38m38oH9mlBwcMA-w

I know one of the first responses are going to be:
No CI or Dogged March?! Although conditions are annoying, I find immbolizaion the worst. With that eliminated more or less, I don’t mind the other conditions so much. I’m still debating on putting on CI and/or condi-reducing food, but I find a lot of times I’m missing my Burst hits or I want to save my Burst hits for more opportune times, such as landing sword’s burst for target immob, or waiting for the target’s health to reach less than 50% for GS burst.

Next people are going to see that Zealot armor, but please don’t concentrate on that too much, it’s just a handy-me-down, and seems to work well with the build so far. Plus it’s got the Strength Runes in it.

Then there’s the Utilities. I’ve haven’t really settled on #7 and #8 yet. Healing Signet, Endure Pain, and Signet of Rage pretty much are permanents. I switch the other two quite frequently with Bolas, Berserker Stance, and Frenzy. I’d like less switching on these but can’t figure out which I like to use more often.

I’m also having a problem with Adrenline. Wish I could get a quicker build up on this, but hate to lose my traits, and I like reserving Berserker Stance to block condi’s.

Overall thoughts/advice please on the build?

I dont really have any valuable feedback atm.
But I’ve wanted to look at the new sinister gear for a while now.
Maybe that is something you have not thought of yet.

A S/S setup with sinister gear atleast sounds kinda awesome. However, I have no idea if its any good in reality ?! Maybe you want to play around with that a bit. If you did not know yet, ascended sinister accessory can be aquired for free upon finishing all the achievemnts in some of the new story parts.

Thx for the input Flitzie. I’m wondering too how Sinister would work, but my only issue with that is that I’m not seeing a whole of of conditions with GS and S/S. LB and S/S probably would greatly benefit from Sinister stats though.

With that said, I’ve modified the build again to go more along with the other earlier suggestions in this thread:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAR8cjMdUGalHehwJaAqAB9lFPOFQ9vh7A-TVDEABps/wTKV0THQUKpwUNACeAAbpE0gLAATKDk4gA4pqPdoZAgjAQAAEgbezAwRP6RP6RPa38m78oH9mFC40YA-w

I like this for keeping Adrenaline up. It jsut feels better.
My only hang ups are where to put that remaining 2 points for traits. Strength or Arms? Above I’ve got it in arms just for the critical hit applications of bleeding/vulnerability. If I put it in Strength, I get more Power and slightly more Vit or 5% more damage with the S/S.

The food would also depend on the build. I’ve decided that I want at least 50% base crit chance. With 2 in arms, I’ve got a bit more flexibility with what food I use. With 2 in Strength, I’ll need to stick with a 100 precision food.

Any thoughts here anyone?

Ok, let’s give this another try, shall we?
You seem pretty serious with your build, I LOVE build-crafting and got some time to kill

List of guildelines for this build:

• WvW Roaming/Skirmish group – Open world PvE
• Must be GS/SS

If we take a look at the weapons it becomes clear it is going to be a full power build. No condi.
As much as I would love to present you a condi or even hybrid build I think It would never reach close to its full potential with the weapon choice.

The reasoning is rather simple. If you dont utilize a longbow you can forget about conditions.
And if you go Condi the GS looses a lot of its power and is useless.
A hybrid build is rather weak aswell. GS needs as much offensive stats as possible to be any viable and Sword bleeding wont even be close to enough to justify the investment into condition stats.

However, as we both realize a LB/SS warrior, possibly with sinister gear could be pretty decent. Hell, I’ve even seen people solo arah with that.
But lets scrap that idea, its not your preferred weapon choice.

Now, in PvE everything works, but zerker stats (especially for the warrior) are overall the most useful. So you’d want to get something like that, but also make it work in WvW.

If you like theorycrafting you should take a look if there is any ‘Base’. A ‘must have’ that you need to slot no matter the build.

Since we talk power-builds it would look something like this for WvW:
http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQNAR8siMdwJKgqgC5iHAA-TFgYAYC-w

The obvious signets – 2 obvious traits and the most effective buff food.
(I’ve tried other buff-food, the entire stock almost. Nothing comes close to the anti-condi food. On non-LB builds its a must have for roaming)

The Next obvious step would be to take a look at what the meta for roaming is:

• Full zerker (Some toughness gear if personally preferred)
• GS/Axe+Shield
• 04602 or 4060Traits

This setup rocks.
I am using a modified version of the meta that pushes my crit chance to 90% (100% on burst) with a cost of a sigil slot and push the armor by 500 up to 3000 for the cost of 9% crit damage.

Today, I took my setup and changed the Axe+Shield to SS.
It works just as great, and If I were not such a bad player I think it would be even better than the Axe/?? meta.

Now, it ultimately comes down to comapring the two weapon sets:

1. Eviscerate and final thrust is pretty much the same, except for the higher cooldown on final thrust. If you miss you are punished.
A long cooldown or having to build up adren again.
Its likely that adren will generate quicker than 15 seconds of cooldown.
And the low cooldown can be a game changer against outnumbered odds.
Pro Axe

2. Sword has better in-combat mobility and if played correctly can replace the melee blocks on the shield. Sword blocks only once in melee range but its still just as effective against a rangers rapid fire for example.
The mobility can be a game changer though. Noone will catch you.
For overall survivablitly I’d say:
Pro Sword

3. Setting up the burst is always a problem. On the one set you use shield bash for eviscerate, ALWAYS. Dont even try without it. The final thrust therefore must be set up with either Bulls charge or flurry. Which is totally doable. As its overall less fluid and clunky to use and requires more skill I’d say the axe is in favor but in reality is up to the player.

4. The fact that the sword torment actally hits really hard and is often used even on non condi specs speaks for itself. Its around 3100~ damage if they move around.
Pro sword

I’d say both sets work very well, but the Axe+Shield combination is just SO much easier to play. Thus its often preferred.

Enough the talk, lets see the builds!

Offensive WvW roaming setup:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJEQNAR8cjMdU2ZXImhwJaAmgCdnPBfwx0OAU+EfOA-TVCFABVfQAa4CAAwDAoQ1fuSJISK/ST3QL7PswRAIAACwNvZ2sNDG6QH6QH6Q7m7coDdnLnMAMLA-w

Balanced WvW Roaming Setup
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJEQNAR8cjMdU2ZXImhwJaAmgCdnPBfwx0OAU+EfOA-T1CFABVfQAa4CAskSjmUiAwDAoQ1fQSZUWKBTT3wCHBgW2fIAACwNvZ2sNDG6QH6QH6Q7m7coDdnLnMAMLA-w

In my very own opinion the balanced version is a best in slot gear setup. I am running exactly this, Except with Axe/shield and a Perception Sigil in place for the Air Sigil.
(You however dont need the perception stacking sigil since you dont need to push the 100% crit chance for burst skills because you dont run Eviscerate. Its better to take the Air Sigil to get a bit of the lost damage back that you are missing on the Sword auto attack compared to the Axe Auto.)

For PvE you can stick to whatever you chose of the above but change the traits to the standard: 65003 – with FGJ, Banner and Signet of Fury.

Final notes:
I assume you know all of this already given you’ve been around for 2 years but it might help some others lurking this:

The mobile strikes trait that you chose looks great on a first look.
Realistically if you take the runes, food and traits I presented to you, you wont need it since you sit at -93% Immobilize duration, lol.
Better take DotE. Yay, more damage.

You might have noticed the base power on those builds is pretty low.
Don’t be dissapointed. ‘Forceful Greatsword’ is the essential heart of your damage source. It pushes you well over 3k power easily! And you get to keep your high crit chance.

Bulls rush overshoots sometimes. If you think it happens to often, try bolas. But dont use it at range. Leap in with the sword and throw it in melee for an easy 100b.

If you do not face a condi enemy, do not panic if you go low on HP. You have the passive endure pain pumping any moment.
(I see way to many warriors at 30% life run away from my half dead ranger only to waste their full endure pain while I can easily catch up and pew pew with LB)