Guild Wars 2

Happy Wintersday my fellow warriors!

I wrote a very long guide seeking feedback on my current WvsW build. I thought it was a bit too long, so I wrote an apology at the end and posted…..and it logged me out and I lost it. SO here’s a shorter version!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJEQNAR8ejMdQXIWFCOeAnIG6BKtNC/wwCgPICwaYxzBA-TVDEABQcQAy+IAY3+DPpEjJlDdpEkF1faSJhHaECRTQH6YO4CAAwDAAA-w

Travelers runes. Originally thought they were terrible. Tried them again but with more toughness on my trinkets….they have now replaced my previous build

Most of my work is pve. But plenty of pvp and dueling (1v1, 1v2) occurs along with group fights.

-At night I’ll switch in a Gs with sigil of night and accuracy. unless i have 25 stack of cruel
-When I have to outrun something (blobs) I’ll trade berserker stance for bulls rush while OoC.

Armoured attack vs defy pain in the defense tree: I have an addiction when it comes to choosing armoured attack which is about +125 power…..help me!

Death from above is a must-have trait imo currently. Although my damage output is lower in pve, it saves my skin countless times in pvp and increases my mobility. It’s also an easy way to win pvp fights you are ‘strategically retreating from’….yes many people think they can survive the falls that I survive, they die instantly.

I run vanilla warrior. if you have HoT you can easily swap out the discipline tree for berserker. The only real loss would be ‘fast hands’ (5 sec weapon swap).

Axe/shield has never worked for me.

My crit rate stats look low but I barely notice a difference between 50 and 60 base except when I’m using sword 3.

Build lacks endurance regen. Sigil of energy would interfere with my pve damage and take up a sigil spot.

Any critique is welcome. Please specify whether your feedback is based on personal hands on experience or whether its based on data analysis/meta material. i.e. Looking at the stats and saying your power is too low based on meta or whatever vs. having tried builds with that kind of power level and deciding they were too low.

Thanks!

edit: umm the wiki ‘indicates’ warriors sprint and rune of traveler +25% don’t stack…which is contrary to my own experience ingame. Can some1 confirm? I recognize a small speed difference when i toggle the runes from 5-6. Placebo effect might be taking its toll though.

It’s very similar to a build I’ve been running for a while (there are differences though). As for feedback:

• The Traveler runes make no sense to me. The capstone for Traveler’s is the +25% movement buff, which you’re already getting from Warrior’s Sprint (they definitely don’t stack), so it’s an expensive choice for some sub-optimal benefits. Strength is probably your best choice by the numbers, giving you +45% to your might duration (you produce a lot), some might on hit, a +5% damage buff, and a bunch of power. If you don’t like those, or want something cheaper, there are loads of other options listed in another recent thread.
• Your crit rate is actually nice and high. I’m not sure what you’re used to running, but that’s probably even higher than you need. Leave it though… it’s not that high.
• Your build build actually has decent endurance regen, but I’d personally advocate in favour of dropping Dolyaks for either Balanced Stance or Frenzy (I prefer the latter) for even more Vigor than you have now, and slotting Energy where you have Hydromancy now. Your sword set just doesn’t need the chill, though you could swap your Ice for the Hydromancy if you still wanted chill. The net result is your dps would be higher (if you go Frenzy) or you’d have better stability (if you go Balanced), and you’d have more dodges, which is better than the armor from Dolyaks for defense, offense (Reckless Dodge)..

Otherwise, the build’s fine and I probably have a couple hundred hours with it in wvw (roaming and havoc). Axe swaps in nicely if ever need more damage pressure and less mobility, but I normally roam with the sword. I also run glassier with higher power and prefer Intelligence on the sword set to guarantee some occasionally frightening Final Thrusts (which cleave), but to each their own.

As a solo roamer myself, I feel that WvW roaming builds are more of a matter of personal preferrence over strict efficiency due to the simple fact that there’s no telling what kind of situation you’ll find yourself in out there. In other words, the best build is usually the build you are most comfortable with or works the best with your playstyle.

That said, I personally don’t like some of the choices you’ve made here, particularly because they lower your combat effectiveness against other players, and right now a warrior will need all the advantages it can get. I’ll try to be brief.

Consider switching out Dolyak Signet for Signet of Might and Armored Attack for Defy Pain. Doing this will net you a larger boost in power (Signet of Might gives +180 vs. the +125 you currently get from Armored Attack), easy access to unblockable, and increase your survivability (Endure Pain > 180 Toughness). Last Stand should provide you all the stability you need for short engagements, anyway (and with warrior’s sustain in the state it’s in, most of your engagements will be short).

Traveler’s runes are unnecessary in this build. You already get + 25% movement speed from warrior’s sprint in addition to breaking immobilize when using movement skills.

To answer your question, I’ve tried using Traveler’s and Speed runes in conjunction with warrior’s sprint before and they did not seem to stack for me. The game only uses the largest boost you have. For example, having warrior’s sprint (+ 25%) + traveler’s runes (+ 25%) + swiftness (+ 33%) will net you only + 33% movement speed.

I highly recommend using Defender runes instead. Those will provide you with much needed utility and survivability, even in zerker gear. If you’d rather have damage, Strength/Hoelbrak Runes (or Pirate Runes, if you can’t afford them) are a better option.

If you prefer getting your passive movement speed increase from runes (I wouldn’t recommend it, though), I find Runes of Speed to be the better option. Again, most fights with warrior will be short, so I feel the increase in vitality is more useful than the increase in boon/condi duration. If you give up warrior’s sprint, though, you should switch one of your weapon sets to Rifle and go for Crack Shot. You’ll be giving up a lot of mobility, but you’d be surprised how useful a well-timed volley or killshot can be, especially against players that expect to be able to kite/outmaneuver you. I won’t go further into this because that would be another build entirely; I’m just saying it’s something to consider.

Cerby.1069:

Travelers runes. Originally thought they were terrible. Tried them again but with more toughness on my trinkets….they have now replaced my previous build

Most of my work is pve. But plenty of pvp and dueling (1v1, 1v2) occurs along with group fights.

Armoured attack vs defy pain in the defense tree: I have an addiction when it comes to choosing armoured attack which is about +125 power…..help me!

Death from above is a must-have trait imo currently. Although my damage output is lower in pve, it saves my skin countless times in pvp and increases my mobility. It’s also an easy way to win pvp fights you are ‘strategically retreating from’….yes many people think they can survive the falls that I survive, they die instantly.

I run vanilla warrior. if you have HoT you can easily swap out the discipline tree for berserker. The only real loss would be ‘fast hands’ (5 sec weapon swap).

Axe/shield has never worked for me.

Any critique is welcome. Please specify whether your feedback is based on personal hands on experience or whether its based on data analysis/meta material. i.e. Looking at the stats and saying your power is too low based on meta or whatever vs. having tried builds with that kind of power level and deciding they were too low.

Thanks!

edit: umm the wiki ‘indicates’ warriors sprint and rune of traveler +25% don’t stack…which is contrary to my own experience ingame. Can some1 confirm? I recognize a small speed difference when i toggle the runes from 5-6. Placebo effect might be taking its toll though.

Well congrats on a decent warrior build.

Some of the things you are saying don’t make sense from a WvW roaming perspective, as well as some of the build choices being very sub-optimal.

Traveler Runes is the main culprit here. I won’t know if you need them for PvE, as it seems you are trying to use a one-build-fits-all (which is always sub-optimal), but they just don’t add anything to your build really. The small stat increases are not noteworthy compared to other rune sets (like Defender or Strength), and the 25% movement speed is a complete waste when you already have Warrior’s Sprint. They don’t stack, the placebo is strong with this one. Even if they did, it would be a bug and you could expect a fix.

Armoured Attack vs Defy Pain – in the current state of warrior it is a no brainer; Defy Pain wins every time. Also allows you to ease into more Berserk gear. And it has great synergy with Last Stand. 125 power is only a ~5% increase in damage for this particular build – hardly worth the loss.

Death from Above is nice I guess, a lot of fun for sure, but I only use it when defending a tower or keep tbh. I only roam in EB these days, the lack of height difference on that map makes DfA less useful then Restorative Strength IMO. Not a big difference though, up to you really.

Tbh, your remark about swapping out Discipline for Berserker where ‘The only real loss would be ’fast hands’‘, made me giggle. This really shows a lack of experience playing warrior in either PvP or WvW, no offense (really, I get it). But Fast Hands is a warrior’s strongest trait out of PvE. One could argue that all warrior weapons have cooldowns tailored to this single trait. You would do well to slot Sigil of Energy like Choppy suggested, and Fast Hands has amazing synergy with on swap sigils.

Other then that, seems alright to me.

Choppy.4183:

It’s very similar to a build I’ve been running for a while (there are differences though). As for feedback:

• The Traveler runes make no sense to me. The capstone for Traveler’s is the +25% movement buff, which you’re already getting from Warrior’s Sprint (they definitely don’t stack), so it’s an expensive choice for some sub-optimal benefits. Strength is probably your best choice by the numbers, giving you +45% to your might duration (you produce a lot), some might on hit, a +5% damage buff, and a bunch of power. If you don’t like those, or want something cheaper, there are loads of other options listed in another recent thread.
• Your crit rate is actually nice and high. I’m not sure what you’re used to running, but that’s probably even higher than you need. Leave it though… it’s not that high.
• Your build build actually has decent endurance regen, but I’d personally advocate in favour of dropping Dolyaks for either Balanced Stance or Frenzy (I prefer the latter) for even more Vigor than you have now, and slotting Energy where you have Hydromancy now. Your sword set just doesn’t need the chill, though you could swap your Ice for the Hydromancy if you still wanted chill. The net result is your dps would be higher (if you go Frenzy) or you’d have better stability (if you go Balanced), and you’d have more dodges, which is better than the armor from Dolyaks for defense, offense (Reckless Dodge)..

Otherwise, the build’s fine and I probably have a couple hundred hours with it in wvw (roaming and havoc). Axe swaps in nicely if ever need more damage pressure and less mobility, but I normally roam with the sword. I also run glassier with higher power and prefer Intelligence on the sword set to guarantee some occasionally frightening Final Thrusts (which cleave), but to each their own.

i’ve been running the exact same build choppy is talking about for month. it works pretty well even in spvp for me – well, what you can say ‘works well’ when talking about warrior in spvp. -.- anyway, this build is good.

weapons: sw/sh+gs
slot skills: triple stance (endure pain, berserker, frenzy)
elite: signet of rage (spvp: rampage with peak performance over restorative strength)
gear: full zerker with strenth rune (spvp: rune of the pack)
sigils: rage or air + energy on gs and air and hydro on sw/sh

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR8ejMdQXIWFCuhApIGICK9Lm+pwCgIYAwT4FWBA-TpBFwAPeAAMOCA12fYxFAoaZAAHEAA

Yes the travelers runes will likely have to go…unless i go 5 and something else. I thought about replacing the discipline tree with something else, maybe the signet recharge decrease to 40….and then I could have my ultimate constantly on….I could switch to leadership runes (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_Leadership). But I’m running melee and since my primary damage comes from my GS, fast hands, and movement skills breaking immobilize are likely too important to not have. If I switched to axe or something more dps instead of sword mbe I could make a new build that way. Regardless the travelers runes must go.

I like the general boon duration buffs in terms of what it does for movement speed and fury though, as opposed to just might duration buff.

I kept thinking frenzy had the old take 50% more damage while active thing, but that’s long gone so your right it makes sense to try it over dolyak and to get endure pain instead of armoured. And if I don’t like frenzy I can just choose signet of might…which will be very very useful against dragon hunters and revenants. I will try those things, thankyou.

Using rampage as your ult was interesting….especially with the cd decrease and dmg buff.

Cygnus.6903:

Tbh, your remark about swapping out Discipline for Berserker where ‘The only real loss would be ’fast hands’‘, made me giggle. This really shows a lack of experience playing warrior in either PvP or WvW, no offense (really, I get it). But Fast Hands is a warrior’s strongest trait out of PvE.

People run different things with berserker such as bow and gunflame. If they don’t need to break immobilize from movement skills, then “the only real loss” is fasthands.
It is definitely a real loss….thus I said it was…
I’m sure some ranged builds can get away with not having it, but it’s great for everything and for melee it’s pretty much required unless you get the other ‘weapon swap cooldown decrease’ thing into your build. This really shows a lack of experience in reading posts in either Gw2 forums or reddit, no offense (really, I get it). Hopefully we’re on the same page now.

@Cerby
The only real boons you have going are might, fury, and 25s of swiftness from SoR.

Between SoR and Arcing Slice, you’re guaranteed to have permanent uptime of Fury without any boon duration buffs, and using Strength (and to a lesser extent, Hoelbrak, Privateer, etc) will give you a much better buff to might duration than you’ll get out of Traveler’s or Leadership (plus they’ll give you other, more useful benefits).

So that leaves a +20% bonus to your swiftness as the only real thing you’re getting from Traveler’s, which works out to 30s per minute instead of 25s. And since swiftness doesn’t stack with Warrior’s Sprint, it just means you’re going 33% faster for those 5s instead of the usual 25% faster. Totally not worth it.

Sword vs axe. As mentioned, I only swap axe in for specific purpose (certain duels, circumstances where melee dps is more valuable than mobility). As for breaking immob, remember that Eviscerate (even at stage 1) is a movement skill as well, so axe and sword are both roughly equal on that score.

In case you’re interested, there was a whole thread and video about this build (with a few differences) a while back. Here’s the link:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Vid-The-SwordMaster-WvW-Roaming

EDIT: I guess the other key boon you have running is Vigor, which is amazing and an oversight I didn’t mention it initially. Even then, though, the boon duration bonus on either of the runes you’re looking at aren’t worth giving up much better options for a +20% buff to your Vigor duration. It’d only be a total of +6s once you’ve used all of the stances on your bar and in the Defense line.

Cerby.1069:

Happy Wintersday my fellow warriors!

I wrote a very long guide seeking feedback on my current WvsW build. I thought it was a bit too long, so I wrote an apology at the end and posted…..and it logged me out and I lost it. SO here’s a shorter version!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJEQNAR8ejMdQXIWFCOeAnIG6BKtNC/wwCgPICwaYxzBA-TVDEABQcQAy+IAY3+DPpEjJlDdpEkF1faSJhHaECRTQH6YO4CAAwDAAA-w

Travelers runes. Originally thought they were terrible. Tried them again but with more toughness on my trinkets….they have now replaced my previous build

Most of my work is pve. But plenty of pvp and dueling (1v1, 1v2) occurs along with group fights.

-At night I’ll switch in a Gs with sigil of night and accuracy. unless i have 25 stack of cruel
-When I have to outrun something (blobs) I’ll trade berserker stance for bulls rush while OoC.

Armoured attack vs defy pain in the defense tree: I have an addiction when it comes to choosing armoured attack which is about +125 power…..help me!

Death from above is a must-have trait imo currently. Although my damage output is lower in pve, it saves my skin countless times in pvp and increases my mobility. It’s also an easy way to win pvp fights you are ‘strategically retreating from’….yes many people think they can survive the falls that I survive, they die instantly.

I run vanilla warrior. if you have HoT you can easily swap out the discipline tree for berserker. The only real loss would be ‘fast hands’ (5 sec weapon swap).

Axe/shield has never worked for me.

My crit rate stats look low but I barely notice a difference between 50 and 60 base except when I’m using sword 3.

Build lacks endurance regen. Sigil of energy would interfere with my pve damage and take up a sigil spot.

Any critique is welcome. Please specify whether your feedback is based on personal hands on experience or whether its based on data analysis/meta material. i.e. Looking at the stats and saying your power is too low based on meta or whatever vs. having tried builds with that kind of power level and deciding they were too low.

Thanks!

edit: umm the wiki ‘indicates’ warriors sprint and rune of traveler +25% don’t stack…which is contrary to my own experience ingame. Can some1 confirm? I recognize a small speed difference when i toggle the runes from 5-6. Placebo effect might be taking its toll though.

Hi mate. Yep the others have already covered the issues with using travelers runes. I some times run vanilla war in WvW instead of Berserker. WvW dueling is all I do and I don’t touch PVE anymore. I probably duel for and roam for about 3+hours a day.

In light of traveler runes being sub-optimal I’d suggest either hoelbrak,Strength or Defender runes being the way to go.

I don’t use SoR and instead use rampage to add extra pressure once my opponents below 50%. Utility choice will always include endure pain and zerker stance and usually SoS.

I’ve tried every feasible build combination since launch and would happily recommend defender runes as being the best option with the current meta. Disc is mandatory with Vanilla Warr otherwise you’re screwed. If you have the coin get and run a separate pve meta gear set.It’s the only real way to go.