Guild Wars 2

Ok, I’ll no doubt get moaned at here but I have to say this it’s been bugging me for a while. I have spent a lot of gold building a warrior class that can atleast compete in a 1v1 situation, zerk condition build, tank build, you name it, done it.

I have come to the conclusion that there isn’t any viable 1v1 build that can compete. This is just a desperately weak build that’s far too vulnerable and it’s main attacks can be nullifed with frightening ease.

Bull Charge: If using a GS or any melee weapons you need to land hits. This skill can be nullified by a simple dodge or even if you hit, the player can stabilise themself instantly before you unleash 100 blades for example. Almost doesn’t deserve a place in a warriors skill set. A thief can just cloak, only a bad player imo can get caught by this.

Bolas: Again, most players have either a shout, condition remove skill that will render this completely useless.

If these are cancelled out you’ll be chasing (even with warriors spirit) with a melee weapon hitting lumps of nothing but air, it’s quite difficult to pattern mirror someone’s run and keep smashing them over the head with a close range weapon, and that’s assuming you yourself aren’t crippled, frozen, stunned etc.

Recently I spent time as all out gank, ascended everything legendary GS, I’m dealing as much damage and pain as the game will allow but everything depends on me smacking the player to the floor and 100b him that’s assuming I haven’t been taken down by a thief cloaking on me and cutting me down in what looks like one instant death blow. Interestingly with 3k armor I still get cut to ribbons by a thief.

Look what the poor warrior is up against, if you’re a condition warrior the thief cloaks and hides and has a ridiculously high level of survivability. Deciding when and how to land on your face and chop you up, then hide away again if it goes wrong.

Mesmer – ridiculously overpowered in 1v1, it’s an ‘I win’ setup, clones that regenerate in seconds, superb tank, superb ability to flee if it goes wrong, super insane damage. Constant damage from medium ranges.

So that leaves a warrior exposed, limited ability to flee (unless GS), offensive weapons that are easily countered in your average 1v1 builds, meaning he runs around like a chicken trying to smack the player over the head. Is it me or am I the only one with a melee build slowly being chipped away while chasing players like a kitten? It’s too easy to recover from knockdowns, and even if bolas is used, then I have no other slots to have any versatility whatsoever..

Lastly, the F1 function on the GS is a JOKE, arcing slice….totally useless that again, depends on your pinning them down. Show me a player that can be held on one spot and wait to be smashed into mush by a warrior? No one does that unless their stupid.

This build is just awful 1v1 and too easily countered, I know may may disagree but if they expect a warrior to bash someones brains in with a mace, axe or GS, atleast make him able to run faster so he has a chance of dealing some sort of consistent steady damage.

I don’t expect an ‘I win’ build but competing with other players in a 1v1 is the least that should be expected. I’m bored of being pistolled to death at range, cloaked on and diced by a thief that can kill me even when invisible, or fighting an 3 man army in the form of a damage dealing, range uber zerked mesmer.

I consider warrior being the second best class in 1v1, If your having trouble try to change your build.

You have insanely powerful skills like berserker stance that allows you to literally faceroll condi classes during those 10 seconds.

And against power users like thieves just use a longbow , spam combustive shot the thief won’t even come close. Against mesmer I don’t know , I myself always get rekt by mesmers but 1 class out of 8 I don’t give a kitten.

Best dueling builds

2/0/6/0/6 Axe/sword + longbow triple stance ( this one I think is used by either Tarcis or Hman, best warrs NA)
4/0/4/0/6 greatsword+longbow triple stance or bull charge

Try those builds with pure zerk you should be able to kill anything before it kills you. Just stack the might, around 20 stacks start to burst .

There’s always troll builds that you probably won’t be able to kill so just ignore them like PU mesmer and P/D SA thief.

longbow + shout healing + apothecary gear = no problems with mesmers / thieves. you might not kill a good thief because of his many escape tools, but he wont kill you either. generate adrenaline with the shouts and stand in your fire combo field.. use warhorn 5 to reduce his damage and stack might with lb 3, warhorn 5 and FGJ, leap to get the fire shield. if you land a pin down while they are in firefield = death, if they use shadow refuge you put a combo field on it or use fear me, try to not expose your back against thieves (turn around constantly, “expect them” and dodge at the right time, you can even stand with your back towards a cliff so a thief cant backstab or shadow step you) and try to apply constant pressure on mesmers and become a good judge to what are the illusions and which is the mesmer (watch the movement). i usually run with mango pie because its cheap, but when kitten hits the fan i use +40 condi duration and master tuning crystal, thats a load of condition damage.

since they nerfed ferocity (and buffed shout healing) i dont think there is anything that can beat this build anymore, except maybe a full zerker hammer / gs warrior or a skull cracker. build is in my signature, though i changed it around a bit and not really updating the thread anymore with precise instructions. pm me ingame for tipps or info.

hint: the key to 1v1 is NOT damage in the first place. other classes got a lot more escapes and “tricks” then warrior, the key to winning 1v1 and 1v2 is survivabiltiy, sustain and control (heal, cleanse, toughness, cripple & immo). this can only be achieved by condition bunker builds.

im strictly talking wvw here though. in spvp this is not true.

Although I agree with some of your points, it seems the problem may stem from the fact that you are focusing on gs. gs has excellent mobility but is not the be all and end all weapon choice for 1v1. In fact there are much better options available to you.

Great advice from a t s e about dealing with thieves. They do not like combustive shot at all and if you can maximize your hits to keep it on the ground consistently they are going to have to work to get you down. As for Mesmers use terrain to your advantage and kite their clones around objects to ball them up and kill them.

depending on the opponents build, warrior is like #1 at dueling. the most versatile dueling build that works on most classes is settlers condi/shout healing build.

against non-condi builds, mace/shield gs still works great.

if you really think warriors are bad at dueling, then you either dont know how to theory craft, or just plain suck at the class

I agree with Malevolent. I don’t know if you’ve considered our other weapons; the GS is a great secondary weapon for chasing and escaping, but honestly I don’t find much other use for it. Consider a hammer; it is very powerful, comes with a targeted jump stun (that will also break immobility if you trait for it!) and comes with a shockwave cripple (and 1s stun if you get Leg Specialist). Perhaps you’re focused on GS because you invested in a legendary GS?

Try using a non-great sword in a hybrid condi+power build (Carrion or Rampager gear), paired with either a Shield or Sword for defense/moar conditions? It’s a lot harder to run from someone if you’ve got a sword in your back racking up Torment. You might want to let them catch up so they can pull it out.

Sword 2 gives you mobility exceeding that of a greatsword, and Sword 4 keeps enemies from escaping without you needing to catch them. Sword 1’s 3rd strike also either cripples or immobs, depending on perks. Swords also have crazy-high crit rates, coupled with awesome speed.

Wow. Warrior is great 1v1 imo. If you have trouble closing gaps you should consider GS/LB. It’s really mobile and great vs thieves since you can keep pressure up on great range still, and in rare cases catch them with #5 immob.

OP….

Please learn to play your class.

That is all.

a good player who knows how awful telegraphed is warriors skills, should never lose to one.

Boldor Aran.8543:

I don’t expect an ‘I win’ build but competing with other players in a 1v1 is the least that should be expected. I’m bored of being pistolled to death at range, cloaked on and diced by a thief that can kill me even when invisible, or fighting an 3 man army in the form of a damage dealing, range uber zerked mesmer.

Here’s a few tips:
- Use your sorroundings. Hide behing rocks, pillars everything while you wait for your cooldowns to recharge.
- Sword/shield is amazing. Great brust when enemy is below 50%, leap, stun, block. I just can’t PvP without it anymore.
- When in doubt, spec hammer. With the right setup, you can crit on almost every hit without having to get zerk gear.
-Play different classes in sPvP and learn what they can do. I used to think that thieves were extremely overpowered, but then I tried one and learned how to counter them. GW2 is probably the only MMORPG in the world that lets you do competitive PvP with a class at level 1, so why not take full advantage of it.
- Observe your opponent and count how many times they dodge roll to keep track at their endurance. Look at their boons and hold back your burst when they have protection.
- You can win the fights by doing your best to stay alive. Don’t just rush headless into fights that you obviously can’t win.

Juba.8406:

a good player who knows how awful telegraphed is warriors skills, should never lose to one.

A good warrior knows how to count cooldowns to be sure the burst isint evaded even if its telegraphed .

a t s e.9614:

Juba.8406:

a good player who knows how awful telegraphed is warriors skills, should never lose to one.

A good warrior knows how to count cooldowns to be sure the burst isint evaded even if its telegraphed .

I love just running straight into people without attacking and they dodge 2 times then I just kill them

Few things I will clarify for you…. first off, warriors are the biggest pains in the kitten to catch. While a thief or mesmer might stealth and maybe get lucky enough to run away without getting clipped with stacking immobs, a warrior just doesnt even get bothered by it and perma leap skills away. There is no mesmer that can catch a warrior unless that warrior is just really bad.

Now, you can keep most classes locked down permanently with some hammer rotations as I’ve had other warriors do to me on my mesmer. Ofc it’s not difficult to get out of as a mesmer, but a theif or meditation guardian without stability will have a really tough time with a hammer warrior that keeps you knocked down/stun locked.

Take no pain is ridiculously op and ive seen a lot of warriors use it very well. I would say warriors are generally top 3 as you can trait for more or less any kind of build. You should be able to tank a lot of the thief’s dps esp now with the backstab nerf. Condi thieves are annoying, but just run anti condi builds…. you can still out put a ton of dmg.

your problem is relying on 100b in a 1v1…. it’s the most predictable burst. Better to use things that allow you to attack while moving like axe, mace, and sword (shield bash in to eviscerate can be brutal). I dont believe I have ever once had a problem with a GS warrior regardless of the class I’ve played. There’s not enough mobility unless you’re running away and using whirl to increase distance. Also, if you ever get immob and someone is at close range… using whirl does a ton of unexpected dmg plus gives you evade. I think it’s just coming down to your rotations and the way you’re anticipating the fight to go.

You need to look for queues of big hits coming up. For ex condi mesmer “blocking”, 1s after you’re hit with 5 stacks of torment…so either you dodge the torment after you see the word “block” pop up, cleanse it, or range him/her without moving much because your avg condi mes will drain you for 10k hp on torment. Other than that, most of the other conditions dont really bother you with healing signet on + shouts or warhorn. Shatter mesmers are rare and hard to play, so expect an opening when they mess up. They usually have a single burst, while immobilized for the ileap combo just use whirl, or take no pain.. as soon as it finishes start stomping lol.

Thieves is more of a matter of patience.. dont lose your cool.. I recommend hammer and axe or sword with shield off hand (btw shield is fantastic on the warrior).

Necros – lol there’s nothing to say about these guys.. they just spam conditions and rely on an extra health bar. Given the structure of their class, it doesnt require a lot of thinking so it’s rare you’ll run into any problems 1v1

Guardians – I think this could be a problem depending on the type. Meditation bursts are tough to deal with because they’re also fairly tanky, but once they use up their rotations – you’ll be able to burst down very fast. It’s a matter of timing, to dodge things like their greatsword whirl.

Rangers – even bigger LOL unless it’s a condi ranger, you shouldnt have any problems. You can tank pretty much everything. Otherwise just use -40% duration food

Eles – This is entirely based on the skill of the ele.. no particular strats, since they all rotate pretty well… Just try to save a burst after they’ve just switched out of water since there’s a few seconds cd on it

Engis – Condi engis, just try to avoid fields.. you can shout off most of their condis plus warhorn. Very predictable set of moves… just be patient and stay out of their zones (turrent and supply crate areas) force them to come to you

Warriors I take it you should be fine dealing with

I hope you aren’t looking for a one solution will dominate all build because that wont happen. And even if there was one, there’s always a way to defeat it. It’s important to you the weaknesses of your own build – probably more than knowing the strengths of someone else’s build.

Oh, and a final tip – if you dodge roll… do it toward the enemy not away..things that move in a straight direction (beams, projectiles) will continue going and you’ll need to use a second dodge, and even worse they’ll be in a position to attack you again. So dodge toward them (hopefully you can get behind, interrupt with a shield bash or bulls charge and dps away).

I don’t main as warrior but ham/bow setup is extremely powerful in 1v1 and is fairly simple to use. Like said already, longbow is an effective counter for thieves. My backstab also takes like maybe 1/5 of your total health, which isn’t a lot when your Healing signet still heals you while you’re applying pressure with longbow aoe. Couples with endure pain, a condi-immune stance, a shout condi removal, and Cleansing Ire and it more or less do come down to a learn to play issue.

Stop relying on the GS for damage in my opinion.

Tachii.3506:

I don’t main as warrior but ham/bow setup is extremely powerful in 1v1 and is fairly simple to use. Like said already, longbow is an effective counter for thieves. My backstab also takes like maybe 1/5 of your total health, which isn’t a lot when your Healing signet still heals you while you’re applying pressure with longbow aoe. Couples with endure pain, a condi-immune stance, a shout condi removal, and Cleansing Ire and it more or less do come down to a learn to play issue.

Stop relying on the GS for damage in my opinion.

Hammer is more for sustain than damage. You can’t burst somebody down with a hammer unless they don’t dodge anything. 1 whirlwind attack from GS does more damage than backbreaker and its an evade so…

Hammer is over rated , but people forget that the typical hambow setup is a team build and not a solo build.

Overrated perhaps, still better than GS imo.

Depends who you fight against, but so far I think the most balanced out build I have made for my warrior is the Hammer / GS build. Hammer gives nice control and damage, while GS offers utility and decent damage if timed well.

For me GS brings a lot into the game. The whirlwind is awesome evade that actually can do good damage if you aim it right and wait for a good moment. Rush in close range can deal really nice crits and blade trail is a nice skill to lure out a dodge from them. Blade trail → they dodge → bull rush = sure stun and half rotation of 100b.

But it’s really what you are used to, to be honest. Some people don’t like GS in pvp and I don’t try to prove it otherwise. I like it because it offers me a good way to reposition me during the fight (don’t mean resetting, but more like moving the hell out of the big damage or close to your enemy).

For me GS is one of the best utility weapons there is for Warriors