Guild Wars 2

Like many former-Warrior players, I’m at the crux of moving on to Revenant (or Dargonhurrdurr), because Warrior has been nerfed and ignored into the ground. I had a lot of thoughts that wouldn’t go well in disparate threads, so I’m giving it a shot and brain-drooling them here.

Weapons
Weapons need a revision so there is more than Greatsword. Start comparing weapons across classes to establish a new baseline, including effects, defenses, and cooldown times. Change the nature of closing skills, so they actually work. A lot of base Warrior weapon skills are based on 3-year-old design ideas, and they need an update.

Traits
Could do with some reorganization and tweaking. Without going into huge detail, the trait structure right now supports Phalanx/Greatsword and ShoutBow with little else really working. Given that some players have tried their hand at complete re-writes, it might be time to re-evaluate where Warrior is in PvE/PvP and sort traits accordingly.andsomethingaboutbaselinefasthandsthatpeoplewant

Skills
Shouts Decent, but lacks the new taunt mechanic that could give Warrior solid purpose in the ‘tank’ role. Leaving that for Berserker feels empty and shoehorned into the elite spec. (There isn’t even a Rage skill with a taunt..)

Banners Unique benefit, which is good for synergy and buff stacking, but the 30 second gap between the banner ending and the cooldown closing is unsatisfactory. I realize the reason the trait was nerfed was to prevent near-100% uptime, but 75% uptime has me looking for more reliable skills. I recommend a 75sec effect/90sec cooldown split, leaving only 15 seconds in between. Banners might be in a decent spot then.

Signets. Haven’t really used these since my early Warrior experience, except the heal/elite. Decent options, and I wouldn’t begrudge someone using them, though they’re a bit self-oriented.

Stances. Some suitably effective and nifty abilities, but the cooldowns are too long, even after being traited. I would say a minimum of 20% uptime should be the goal: Balanced (OK), Berserker (17%), Endure Pain (…8%), Frenzy (12.5%). Even traited, Stances fall short of decent utility time.

Physical. Oy. Again, cooldowns are too long, and the closing skills need fine tuning to actually work. Perhaps if the skills did more damage (Peak Performance is a disappointment), it might be worth the longer cooldowns, but really, each skill is a grab-bag of mediocrity. At least Rage skills show more consideration in being pseudo-Physical skills. (Even if Headbutt sucks.)

Adrenaline decay
My concession would be still have decay immediately after combat, but much slower. As it is now, it’s hard to build up the hits necessary, since most regular mobs are dead by the time a warrior tips enough for a burst skill.

Sustain/Defense
Healing skills need some fine tuning, mostly upward. Healing Signet is in a good spot, but most of the others seem lackluster. Mending as a Physical skill.
Warriors get very few active defenses (little/no access to blind, evade, minions to draw aggro, stealth, repositioning, block, reflect, stability, resistance, protection), so they must rely on active interrupts spread out among their weapons and Physical skills. Excellent in PvP, but in PvE, those defenses get ignored more often than not.
If Warrior is going to feel like a bruiser-tanky McBadKitten, it needs better access to self-buffs for Stability, Resistance, and Protection (and maybe more Retaliation), so it can withstand the hits most other classes use tricks to evade. Stances are actually fairly good for this, aside from the uptime issue noted above.