I’m a bit annoyed seeing posts in the forums and people inside the gaming the argument that Warriors are OP’ed because of their popularity. It actually brings me back to the release of Guild Wars 1, of people asking for Warrior/Monks(Wammos) getting nerfed. It was of course pure stupidity. They were extremely popular because they where easy to play and easy to understand, but it was not a qualified justification to change the class because it worked.
The difference here is experience, and unlike in GW1 where the angry masses just blame everyone but themselves, the situation in GW2 with mainly the healing signet and the Hammer Warrior builds are featured in other threads.
What this thread is about, why Warriors are popular. Or rather why they have always been popular. Short answer is; Because they are extremely fun to play. Longer answer;
I’ve played a Warrior since day 1, and I feel that I saw a lot of Warriors everywhere back then as well. The preveleance of Warrior has changed. I recall that early this year Guardians started becoming popular, and I remember Mesmers suddenly being the class I saw most people play as. Then there was the Thief armies in WvW.
Warrior is a great class because there is a lot of ways to play. The Axes are great and fun. The sword is awesome for utility. The Warhorn is great. Many people have different views on the longbow and the Rifle. The Greatsword is legendary, and the Hammer is the current Flavor of the month. Mace is solid too! In fact it seems to me that the only weapon that doesn’t work that well in some circumstance, is actually the Shield.
But if you look at it in an overall perspective, it means that there is a lot of really great way to play Warriors. If you look at Ranger as an example, you are looking at a class with a lot more problematic weapon sets! Guardians come close to Warriors in build variety as well.
Another reason is that one of the main things about guild wars is the action combat. No other class than Warrior and Thief really facilitates that level of action and swordswinging mayham that well. Warrior really gives you that sense of swinging a weapon like it was a console action game. That’s what that class brings to the table. If you compare it to a Guardian weapons like Sword and Greatsword gives you a lot more instant action weapon attacks.m there are fewer cast bars, less of strained animation. You just get this fluid mess of PRESSING BUTTONS.
It makes Warrior an easy class to play, a good class to get variety as. I’ve run all sorts of builds. From bunkers, to shout healing warrior, to bleed condition, to shout cleanser, to banner buffer, to zerg stomper to zerker single target. It’s just a class that works and it’s a lot of fun to play.
Even the utilities mostly works. and every warrior I know runs their own thing. In fact, at any point in time I think Warrior in GW2 is the most fun class I have played in any MMO. Since Everquest and WoW and DAOC, what this class embodies is all I ever wanted. I was sick of sandwhich combat from day 1 and hated the wack-a-mole.
TL;DR – Warriors are not awesome because they are Warriors. Warriors are awesome because awesomeness is the epitome of the Warrior way of life.
