Guild Wars 2

Warriors has ironically has gone from being a class with no viable builds to a class that has more viable builds than most. Now, some of these builds aren’t that useful in a condition meta, but seeing as that meta is starting to gradually shift I can see good builds for most of our weapon, with the exception of 2.

Warhorn and Rifle haven’t seen much use in PvP. The Rifle in particular is a very clunky weapon to use. Kill Shot may be decent in WvW for 1 shotting uplevels in blues, and sometimes can even be used to blindside a light armored target but generally it’s just not worth using. I’d like to see Rifle Butt changed to be more like Banish, give the skill a longer CD than it does now and make it incapacitate them just long enough to land a Kill Shot if they don’t stun break (the user should also wield the rifle like a baseball bat). I don’t want to actually change Kill Shot all that much, and if rifle butt had a 25 or so second cooldown it wouldn’t be like you would be able to do the combo that frequently. Having blind not affect it or making it unblockable would help make it more of the “sniper” skill that it seems to be intended to be (because who is really going to take Signet of Might?).

Bleeding shot doesn’t make sense, while it could synergize with Attack of Opportunity, you are investing 25 points into a tree that focuses on condition damage on a weapon with only 1 condition that is affected by it while the rest of the skills are all power based. Crack Shot and Distracting Strikes should switch places, where they are currently neither trait benefits from the stats the tree provides (although Distracting Strikes still probably won’t see use outside of gimmicky WvW builds). It would be better if Bleedshot was renamed and gained either a large damage boost or a moderate damage boost and apply vulnerability.

Aimed Shot is a bit boring, but it can keep cripple up for a long time so it’s not bad; Volley is also fine as it is. Brutal Shot could use a cast time reduction but I like the focus on vulnerability.

As for Warhorn, it’s odd because it’s not bad it’s just hard to find a reason to use it over shield. It has the ability to cleanse movement impairing conditions and when traited it converts a condition into a boon. It also gives a high uptime of vigor and applies weakness. It’s certainly not bad at all for WvW but for PvP it still doesn’t get used. It’s hard to say what would make it see more use. Perhaps giving Charge some sort of minor offensive ability. However that would mean it cleanses, buffs, and does some sort of attack which could be seen as overpowered. If it was something minor like a knockback that deals no damage with a short range it might not be too bad. It’s a tricky one because looking at it it doesn’t seem bad but I still don’t wanna take it.

It would be cool to be able to run a vulnerability focused DPS build like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBHhR6E0hogbhQGCmIDAmHGFURKF25WSRZsB-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNKYVw8DA

Using Cyclone Axe, switching to Rifle and using Brutal Shot then sending them flying with Rifle Butt and following up with “OMM!” and Kill Shot would be a pretty cool spike that it punishing but avoidable. Of course Axe 1 should be changed so that most of its damage isn’t all on the final strike of Triple Chop.

As for other Warrior changes there as still some pretty useless traits such as:
Great Fortitude (all traits like this need to go imo)
Powerful Banners
Vigorous Return
Thrill of the Kill

…and a host of others that could potentially be useful but need changes to be worth bringing. Many Grandmaster traits have 1 that is usually simply better than the other. While I like to keep classes as original as possible it would probably be easiest to modify traits from other classes to replace the useless ones.

So, that’s just me throwing out some ideas. Keep in mind I’m no game balancer so some things might be OP but I tried to keep things in perspective as much as possible. What would you guys like to be said…and don’t say to give us Protection cough.

One final note, if you want to discuss why you feel Warrior is OP take it here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Warrior-Discussion/page/6#post2823913

…and keep out of this thread that is designed to be constructive.

EDIT: The lack if immediate response goes to show that the people here appear to be much more interested in negative discussion about nerfs rather than more positive areas of thought.

EDIT 2: If the “leaked” patch notes are to be believed the trait Quick Breathing is being made an adept trait, if true then it will probably be great for power builds lacking in condi removal.

warriors in a pretty good state atm even with the two weapons you listed.
rifle volley amazing dps and if traited with crackshot pierces doing a form of aoe damage.

kill shot does wicked damage although it takes some time in that regarud i’ts a little like 100 blades.

aimed shot plus leg specialist puts a 1 second immobile on you opponent constantly plus the mentioned cripple making it great for control useful against kiters and delaying people approaching you.

riflebut can be used as a interrupt is a knockback and can send you foe back to square one if they are not careful. (distracting strikes will add 4 confusion to a interrupt) this skill has only a 15 second cd can be very useful to get some breathing room.

warhorn great mobility can turn conditions into booms as well as apply aoe weakness and a blast finsher. (interesting note warhorn and hammer = perm weakness)

wildfang.9670:

warriors in a pretty good state atm even with the two weapons you listed.
rifle volley amazing dps and if traited with crackshot pierces doing a form of aoe damage.

kill shot does wicked damage although it takes some time in that regarud i’ts a little like 100 blades.

aimed shot plus leg specialist puts a 1 second immobile on you opponent constantly plus the mentioned cripple making it great for control useful against kiters and delaying people approaching you.

riflebut can be used as a interrupt is a knockback and can send you foe back to square one if they are not careful. (distracting strikes will add 4 confusion to a interrupt) this skill has only a 15 second cd can be very useful to get some breathing room.

warhorn great mobility can turn conditions into booms as well as apply aoe weakness and a blast finsher. (interesting note warhorn and hammer = perm weakness)

You’re really overstating the usefulness of Rifle, there’s a reason nobody uses it in any serious PvP. Sure for Hotjoin it can be good for a laugh but for SoloQ or TPvP you’ll just be screwing your team over by bringing it as it is now.

As for Warhorn if the leaked notes are true the trait Quick Breathing is getting moved into the 10 point slot in which case yes, it’ll be fine. Part of the problem was the hefty investment which may now be negated.

15 point Tactics Trait swapped with something like …

Intimidate
Burst Abilities inflict Weakness on nearby foes (3 Seconds)

Changes i would like to see:

Increased Healing Stat Scaling for Adrenal Health and Healing Signet.
(Maybe combined with a Base Decrease. Making it better for Healing Warriors than now, and a bit less effective for offensive Warriors.)

Traits in the Tactics Line to be more of general Purpose / Usefullness.
(Dont think the Design to be only useful for Revives is a good one.)

New Elite Skill. A defensive Shout or something along that line.

Hammer: Cast Time reduce for Backbreaker (and maybe Fierce Blow) and Hammer Skills shouldnt be telegraphed so obviously.

I enjoy my rifle quite a fair bit, but I’m also aware of it’s limitations.
However I’d have to disagree with your Rifle Butt suggestion. Aimed shot and that work pretty well together in keeping your enemy at bay, a longer cooldown would break that worse than it would be helpful, especially when there’s better alternatives.

What I’d like to see for the rifle is its projectile speed increased and cast time reduced. Like most of the warrior’s attacks, they are far too readable and the rifle suffers the most for it in almost all regard.

Looking at the difference between lb and rifle..

Dmg wise? Similiar. Aoe? Lb hands down. Single target? – A rifle? with current casttime i don’t think so

Utility?

-Lb: has burn, bleed (strong), immo, #1 does actually solid damage along with #3 and F1(if they standing in it)

-Rifle: weak #1 with bleeds, cripple, vul (1sec casttime rll?) knockback

Melee and long range situations:

-Lb

in curent state is a solid weapon in range due to #1 and the immo to reach/keep target into combu shot or to simply chain it with #3. Also due to flying arrow bug real range is 1250 untrained.

In melee range that weapon getting stronger and has defensive utility which forces target to get out of melee range by fire field if they want to stay alive, also #2 actually hits all three hits which is a lot of damage on low cd. #3 is much easier to land too, we got a fast blind to defend urself for example evi, skullcrack. On top of that #3 and f1 are aoe

-Rifle

Outside of killshot that is nearly impossible to land without any cc that we don’t have in rifle skills and volley, rifle damage is pathetic in ranged fight. The fact that volley alone is a multi hit doesnt help and i found many times that even with 53% crit chance i barery does any decent damage as most of it simply don’t crit. Howered when all of it do crit damage is pretty similiar to killshot.

Rifle in ranged fight is used volley, possibly killshot that will be dodged anyway and switch. #4 takes too long time to cast for what its does decreasing our dps. Due to weak #1 it inst a good weapon to try pressure anyone and if we decide to keep fighting with rifle its will end bad. Other ranged weapons outdps rifle.

To prevent anyone coming to melee range to us we got a single target cripple which inst really something strong and in many cases getting cleansed easily. Even with cripple on while we pressing S they slowly reaching us. Once they reach us we got short knockback on 15 cd untrained which tend to miss all time if target dancing around us, also after we used our #5 they will be back to us in 2seconds. Unlike lb, standing in melee range with rifle is dangerous, and if u dont want to be destroyed in matter of seconds we’re forced to switch.

Rifle simply lack sustain dmg in melee range as well in ranged fights, also its doesnt have any defensive tools to actually force us to move out of melee range from us.

Summany:

Utility: Lb
Ranged sustain dps: Lb
Melee sustain dps: Lb
Defensive options in melee range: Lb
Burst damage: Rifle

I was going to make a long post yesterday, but it got lost when I hit submit. So here’s version #2

I would like to see the tactics tree revamped for several aspects:

-Build synergy + Accessibility/Flexibility

The longbow traits feel very misplaced in tactics and stronger bowstrings almost feels worthless. Most longbow builds will get more out of investing in other trees. Shout builds and warhorn traits don’t mix well. Some traits just need to be moved around.

-Better support capabilities

Things like healing shouts are really cool, but they often feel like a sub-par choice. I think that the self healing on these are fine, but I think that the group support and synergy could be greatly improved. There also seems to just be a lack of incentive to run a tactics support build.

-Those minor traits have to GO

All of the minor traits are worthless and need to be changed.

-

Some of my ideas:

-Leg specialist – added effect – 5% more damage to immobilized foes
This makes tactics more attractive for an offensive build and also synergizes well with the longbow

-Stronger Bowstrings – either needs to have an added effect(increase arrow velocity), or be combined with burning arrows.

-Quick Breathing – Moved to Adept-Major
Gives more flexibility to support builds

-New Master-Major Trait – Powerful Lungs – Warhorn skills briefly stun nearby foes.
this adds a little bit of offense and defense to the warhorn, making it more attractive vs shield

-Inspiring Battle Standard – added effect – banners heal nearby allies when summoned.
A band-aid for how clunky banners are. Their long cooldown makes this just a small heal that improves group support

-Vigorous Shouts – added effect – for each affected other ally you gain 1 second of vigor(cooldown 10 seconds)
this adds a personal benefit to using your healing shouts to their maximum potential

-Minor Traits – changed to:

-Adept – Determined Revival – Gain protection when reviving an ally
This makes more sense than the way it currently works and would make tactics feel more like a support tree

-Master – New Trait – Tenacious Healing – Increases healing for every condition affecting you
I think that there should be some incentive to invest in tactics over defense, and this helps make up for the lack of condition removal in the traits.

-Grandmaster – Empowered – moved from Adept-Major
Again helps incentivize damage oriented builds to invest in tactics.

-

The last change I would make that would make tactics a better tree

-Fast Hands – Moved to Adept-Minor
This would lighten the stress on the warrior trait tree as a whole, but tactics would be much more accessible if you only had to invest 5 points to have access to fast hands.

I would love to see Banners having a redesign, actually have minor traits in tactics worth something, and the Strength tree being viable outside of glass cannon or PvE builds.

Warhorn is an excellent offhand and it is more of a trade off than anything. Shield is more of a selfish choice for extra durability and extra hard CC while the Warhorn is excellent for crowd mobility and crowd condition removal while applying weakness. Shield is just popular right now for focusing targets and for targets defocusing you. If Lung Capacity goes into the tier 1 of tactics I will actually consider using Warhorn.

Warhorn is more of a group/zerg oriented off hand or for roaming with the intent of disengaging from enemy zergs. While shield is better suited for smaller scale battles which seems to be a preferred playstyle for most people. That is all.