Guild Wars 2

Hey all,
So I’m kinda new to warrior build making and wanted to make one compatible with small group roaming.
Please keep in mind that I’m just trying to do something here and would appreciate some constructive opinions.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRBHdxG2ITHU5hdhgVIwJiFyAT5DM52AvJ2FblNJCEAWAA-T1CBQBc4IAoPtCMSJYe0FoQ1fwoSsNcQA6x+De4BAAgTAAWUeAA-w
That’s the link, would appreciate any improvements you guys can make
Greetings, Blue

I think there are more optimal builds out there, but this should be serviceable. Meaning, you should have ok results.

I’d personally recommend dropping Tactics for Defense, Strength, or Arms (in that order), and replacing SoR and the shout for Headbutt and Outrage. If you insist on running Tactics (for the group benefit), I’d still recommend switching the skills and selecting Phalanx Strength instead of Vigorous Shouts. The group and personal benefit of the shout just isn’t as good as what PS will give you, especially given your rune choice.

If you haven’t already bought the gear, I’d also recommend switching your Battle sigil for a Strength sigil. You have a really high crit chance, and you’ll be camping your axe set as long as you can to maximize damage and defense. That means you’ll get more out of Strength sigil, and the benefit to the party will be better if you do switch to PS too (though again, I personally favour dumping Tactics for other lines).

If you do drop Tactics, consider swapping in Pack runes to boost the swiftness, fury, plus a little might to you and your party.

Finally, I suggest dumping your accuracy sigil for a cruelty sigil. You’d benefit more from additional ferocity (or power) in this build than from additional precision. Cruelty sigil is cheaper.

What choppy said. Although I would invest in bloodlust sigil over cruelty for wvsw…hacking power translates better for the mode (i.e. you can’t crit objects).

Sigil of battle doesn’t make sense to me. You already have a high crit…so strength is gonna give you way more than 2 stacks of might over 20 seconds. Even then I don’t think I’d take strength though. I mean the build looks like it realizes how much might is lost by not going Gs and seeks to makeup for it by using a utility slot (for great jsutice) and sigil of battle and some boon duration buffs. That doesn’t seem effective to me at all to go that route but its a different way to play and that’s your choice.

I would consider replacing the tactics tree with something else as well. I mean it ONLY applied to group situations lets just put it that way. In solo or small man fights where you got less than a 5 man party going its gonna hurt you more than it helps imo. I think warrior warhorn is stupid and ruins a player’s weapon slot.

Get rid of signet of rage. It is redundant in this build. You already have swiftness…you already have might..you already have fury. And you say its meant for small group partying….so banner is likely what you should choose. If you don’t need to support your group with a rez banner then headbutt for yourself is a good idea if not something else entirely.

Also I don’t see the point in having sigil of hydromacy on your sword/warhorn. You will only be pulling that out to chase an enemy or do a final thrust (sword 3). Given that final thrust is the only ability where the enemy is actually inrange of the sigil it seems unlikely to be paying off. If it is working and hitting the enemy when you are fighting i would still consider removing it. I mean I use Gs+sword/shield with sigil of hydromacy on my sword/shield. I find it very useful there, the difference though is that I have the shield for defensive capabilities. It works well because I switch to it for offense (sword 3) AND I can also switch to it for defense (shield+run away), and my defense also doubles as offense with the reflection skill and the shield 4 (2 second stun). Plus my other sigil on my sword/shield is leeching…which does damage and provides me with health. In other words switching to my sword/shield provides defense and offensive capabilities so it is always beneficial for me to switch regardless of the situation (whether i need to attack or defend or flee). Yours on the other hand is there for chasing and blowing the warhorn which really only serves as condition removal for the group (while in combat anyways). The defense offered is next to null. The offense you get is also next to null outside of sword 3 and the ability to chase your enemy in swiftness all the time without being crippled/chill/immobilize impeded….the chill does a fair amount of damage when it hits but it has to hit and your horn can only be used to clear after the chill has already gone off.

Drastic changes: would remove warhorn and replace with an axe/sword/mace/torch/anythingelse. Then remove the tactics trait line and replace it with defense for an extra endure pain, a automatic stability, and shield mastery which is DEFINITELY worthwhile (it will help with getting you might stacks as well).

All great advice from Cerby.

I recommended the Cruelty sigil over Bloodlust because (a) it’s cheaper and (b) it moves the build closer to the theoretical maximum damage on the following chart (bottom right corner).

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2vjoef/balancing_powerprecisionferocity_based_on_ep/

A Bloodlust sigil is still better than an Accuracy sigil for this build, and the build will be short on power to be optimal no matter which sigil is chosen. The exception is if you had max cruelty stacks, a lot of might, and a few more pieces of Berserker gear.

Thx guys, I’ll try to put your changes to good use

So I changed some things, including the arrangement of my weaps.
But I wonder if I’d be better off if I switched sw/a for sw/sh and m/a?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRApe8XnMdAlkidhAWhAElilrATJH06qBIBgEQB4d0WaftA-T1SGQB1T9HZ9AAAwRAAG7PQGdDDR5hBOBAlTLwdUCOQlYR7gAAA-w

I’d go back to axe mainhand instead of mace… mace has value, but the damage pressure from the axe is better.

As for your other set, I’d personally go gs. It has about the same mobility as the sword, but the damage is stronger and the primal burst Arc Divider is crazy good on a power based build. There’s even a case to leave your other set as m+sh with a gs on your alt set, though a+sh is also a good choice.

If you definitely want the sword though, they’re probably all about even. Sword will give you an extra block that will work with your shield trait (and is great for blocking projectiles) and Rip does solid damage. Axe can be fun if you find yourself in a cluster of baddies (especially in a combo field) and nobody’s attacking you, mace has vulnerability and an aoe knockdown, etc, etc. I still prefer gs.

gs it is, thx alot for the help.
Now just need to put my sigils in and my build is done

If you go greatsword, I was gonna recommend the inclusion of the strength traitline for ‘forceful greatsword’…..but on second thought lacking any of the other traitlines just takes too much away from the build. So you really just need to learn to live without the shorter cd’s and might stacks.

If you wanted to avoid the Gs route I’ll comment a bit further on the build you updated to:

Bluestrike.6154:

So I changed some things, including the arrangement of my weaps.
But I wonder if I’d be better off if I switched sw/a for sw/sh and m/a?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRApe8XnMdAlkidhAWhAElilrATJH06qBIBgEQB4d0WaftA-T1SGQB1T9HZ9AAAwRAAG7PQGdDDR5hBOBAlTLwdUCOQlYR7gAAA-w

To me this looks like a vast improvement over the previous build.
Sigils could be changed if you find they aren’t of use, but on paper they look like they would work well. Sigil of impact for example you might consider replacing depending on how often and frequent you land your 3 stuns on that weapon set (I mean sigil of night is perma +10% but just at night, and sigil of force is +5% perma all the time). Just consider that mace skills ARE slow, and the rest of the things available while that sigil is active are also rather slow followup to any of your 3 stuns…limiting the damage increase to 1-2 attacks per stun likely. It is also dependent on what your party runs, stuns are killers if your party spams then. You might consider sigil of leeching (i really love leeching) or hydromacy again, or even an “on interrupt” sigil if you are really proficient with your stuns/fighting.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Sigil_of_Draining (not sure if it has a cd or not….doesn’t say it has one though, in which case you might really consider this sigil. It is stronger than leeching (which again I love that sigil) and you could use it 3 times consecutively against a caster.
It is also dependent on what your party runs, stuns are killers if your party spams then.
Other options might be sigil of doom for poison which will negate enemy healing power and is another condition for them to clear, very useful if your party lacks poison application.

I haven’t run offhand axe in a while so I’m not gonna comment on it (my problems had to do with axe 5 survivability and speed, but you have swiftness and more tank that I run). On paper though offhand axe looks good, since it gives you stuff that a Gs would. Whether you want axe/shield instead of mace/shield is also a point of debate…but then again you could go axe/axe+sword/shield or really any combination of axe/sword/shield/mace (wouldn’t recommend offhand sword tho lol).