Guild Wars 2

Hey all. Pretty much my first post on the warrior forums since I tend to do my own thing without caring about the existing meta. I’d still like to see what other people think of my post-patch build and maybe see what others are doing that might be similar. Bear in mind this is a PVE build since I’m not much of a PVPer.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-s;4RKkM0Y4ZL-60;9;4J-J-T27;20;358A5JF0-JF0ytbUytbUm-kKNLw6-N_scn-u0xX0374Da51V-70HV8aNX8a;9;9;9;9;9;5E-6h

*Note: The Defense 20 major trait is Cleansing Ire.

Here’s the build. The basic gist of it is to engage a fight with Axe/Shield and fill up on adrenaline. Once that’s done I swap to Longbow and use my burst, giving me a fire field which I then use to combo with Longbow #3 and my Stomp ability, throwing my enemies back and giving me an immediate six stacks of Might. After that, I projectile finish with Longbow #4 and #5, swap back to Axe/Shield and use Shield Bash to give myself a fire shield via leap finisher. If SB is on cooldown I’ll generally have enough adrenaline to do a quick Eviscerate which fulfills the same purpose. Rinse and repeat, with Axe #1/#2 thrown in to gain adrenaline back up.

I’m still level 70 so I haven’t tested the build out in dungeons yet but it’s an extremely fun and active build that has proven to be quite different compared to my playstyle pre-patch. Like many people, I sat on my adrenaline for the nifty bonuses it gave, but I’m finding the burst potential of my new build to be much more engaging.

Anyone have any thoughts on the build, or feel like sharing their own burst-centric builds?

Are burst builds really that rare?

410 views and not a single post of feedback! Is it simply because I’m linking to a third-party website?

Here we go then:

STRENGTH – 20 – Great Fortitude, Physical Training
ARMS – 0
DEFENSE – 20 – Shield Mastery, Cleansing Ire
TACTICS – 0
DISCIPLINE – 30 – Signet Mastery, Sharpened Axes, Burst Mastery

WEAPONS: Power/Precision/Crit Damage

—Axe: Superior Sigil of Force
—Shield: Superior Sigil of Accuracy

—Longbow: Superior Sigil of Accuracy

ARMOR: Power/Precision/Toughness

—Sockets: Undetermined. Leaning towards Lyssa at the moment but could use some feedback on what might fit my build.

TRINKETS: Power/Precision/Crit Damage

—Sockets: Exquisite Ruby Jewels

BACK ITEM: Power/Precision/Toughness

—Socket: Exquisite Ruby Jewel

SKILLS

—Healing Surge
—For Great Justice/Shake It Off
—Stomp
—Signet of Stamina
—Signet of Rage

I’m at work right now, but I’m going to try this build out when I get home tonight. I’m only 67 right now, but I don’t see myself getting into any of the “meta” builds. I moreso like exploring and doing events, and this build looks like it would be a lot of fun. I’ve been looking for something to switch to after the cookie cutter leveling build and this looks promising.

If you’re looking for fun this is definitely a good way to do it. The changes to aftercast time on a lot of our abilities has made chaining attacks together much easier. I can’t speak for how optimal it is (nor do I really care. I think I pull my weight in dungeons well enough now that I’m at 80 and beginning to gear up) but it keeps me interested and engaged so I think it’s a success in that regard.

Yeah, I’ll take a fun build over the optimal build any day. I can see the appeal of being a glass cannon, but that’s not really my play style, which is why I want to try out this build. It looks like a good balance between damage and survivability. I also want a build that uses burst skills because they’re fun and, like you said, they keep you engaged.

Let me know how it goes! I’d like to hear what other people think about the build.

So, your only reason to take this over a more effective berserker build is:

“This is more fun.”

Then I don’t see the point in this thread. I cannot measure your fun. If you like it – good build.

But if we talk about effectivness, well, it’s obiously weaker to a full damage build. Any constructive critic would lead to one of those builds.

Stomp is not a good skill in dungeons, you want your enemys close to each other so you can cleave them. Use a banner, thats a blastfinisher, too. Warhorn offhand has also a blastfinisher. And both skills are more supportive for your team. Use shield only if you really need the block.

By that logic, the only build threads that should be posted on this forum are those that outline the same cookie-cutter berserker builds that everyone already knows about. That doesn’t stimulate discussion.

I’ve been tempted to replace Stomp with a banner, but I feel I’d have to go down the Tactics line in order to justify it. I don’t see much reason to rely on an ability with a huge cooldown when I get only a base benefit from it.

I made this thread to see how others are using burst abilities, and so far I’ve seen nobody willing to step out of line and offer another take on it. I’m not interested in discussing the perceived effectiveness of a build that ignores our core class mechanic: adrenaline.

Do you have to have Physical Training?

If not, 10 from Strength to Tactics and Empower Allies gets you 150 power and 1k HP. 5 more from Strength to Defense gets you another 77 power and 50 toughness.

So…
Current:
200 power
~1080 HP (Great Fortitude)

Suggested:
~277 power (50 strength, 150 empower allies, ~77 armored attack)
1000 HP
50 toughness
and a touch of boon duration

Just a thought.

I’ll try that out and see how it works. I mainly took PT for the cooldown reduction on Stomp, but if I end up replacing that utility I won’t need the trait anyway.