Warrior beyond greatsword
The game itself does not encourage passive defense, you need to learn to position yourself, move away and dodge at the right moment. This is key, no amount of toughness will save you if you don’t master dodging and positioning.
If you want group support (bear in mind that warriors only offer offensive support), go Phalanx Strength/Empower Allies build with Strength runes (max out Arms and Tactics and the remaining 2 points in either Discipline or Strength). However, this build usually camps GS – dunno if it can be made for Axe and still maintain its efficiency, but you can always try. The main reason why I think it wouldn’t work is because GS has an awesome interaction with PS in the form of the Arms Master trait Forceful Greatsword (Gain might on a critical hit with a greatsword or spear. Reduces recharge on greatsword and spear skills.). You basically apply partywide Might on every crit you land, and you will be landing a lot with this build. And, in the end, you will be sitting at around 25k HP due to maxing out the Tactics track for PS, so you will be tankier than your average selfish DPS warr glass canon. But, again, this tankiness does not matter much in a game where attacks usually one-shot you if you don’t dodge. When I run this build, I use GS+LB (it helps for might blasting).
As for offhand (if you wanna go Axe main), you can use w/e you want and the situation demands, as long as it’s not a shield. Maybe a second Axe is good for overall use, while swapping for Mace when facing tough non-boss mobs or Sword when facing champs.
As a last note, by all means play with the weapons you want, but bear in mind that many situations will ask for a different approach; if you are willing to adapt and change your weapons/gear/skills for certain situations, you and your party will only benefit from it. I always carry one of each weapons with me, and 2 Axes – it’s a tough world out there and you never know what you will need!
GL.
P.S.: these suggestions are for PvE only.
