Guild Wars 2

Hi! In order to get some fresh air after my main’s build got smooshed, I decided to go ahead and finish leveling my warrior. As I’m approaching 80 I’ve been tinkering with builds and this is what I’ve arrived at: http://tinyurl.com/os5n2rr

This is to be used for ZvZ. I’m on a t1-ish server, and I’m currently running with my guild that fields 15-20 a night along with whatever pugs that decide to tag along. We typically face zergs with similar numbers or more.

Some questions I have about it:

I’ve looked at other ZvZ builds and literally every one I’ve seen has been using melandru or soldier runes. Is hoelbrak just flat out a bad idea?

Does Empower Allies apply to me as well as the people around me?

I’ve heard a lot of people say that endure pain is bad. If you feel this is true, what would you suggest to put in place of it? I was thinking of: stomp, signet of stamina, or shake it off.

And lastly, healing signet. I know it was buffed recently and more people run it now. But for a warrior with 300 healing power, would it be better than healing surge?

Thanks for any advice!

-Don’t take soldier runes if you don’t go 30 deep in vitality. Melandru is for running solo or small scale, I don’t like them in zerg fights. In my opinion soldier runes with shout/heal is best for WvW for group sizes of 15 and more. Hoelbrak runes don’t bring anything for your group, raiding is a group thing. Everything should be focussed on helping others and you’ll win. And hoelbrak doesn’t fit into that philosophy.
-Empower Allies also effects you. Great trait =).
-I dislike endure pain, to long cooldown and can’t rely on it. I wont ever use it. If you go shout/heal, definitely shake it off. Stomp is also an alternative or fear me.
-I actually really like healing signet, it requires a different playstyle than healing surge does. You should play with focus on sustain. But oh boy, healing signet synchs so nice with healing shouts. So if you don’t have adrenaline problems, I suggest to take healing signet.

Hope.8612:

1. I’ve looked at other ZvZ builds and literally every one I’ve seen has been using melandru or soldier runes. Is hoelbrak just flat out a bad idea?
2. Does Empower Allies apply to me as well as the people around me?
3. I’ve heard a lot of people say that endure pain is bad. If you feel this is true, what would you suggest to put in place of it? I was thinking of: stomp, signet of stamina, or shake it off.
4. And lastly, healing signet. I know it was buffed recently and more people run it now. But for a warrior with 300 healing power, would it be better than healing surge?

1. It’s not that Hoelbrak is bad, but that Melandu comes with -stun duration%, which is massive in WvW.
2. Dunno. Most people take it because it’s a team-oriented bonus. 150 Power, that’s slightly more than 4 stacks of Might.
3. The thing with Endure Pain is that it doesn’t block conditions, so in WvW, where you’re taking every type of damage, it might not be a top choice. And it’s most likely not going to save you anyway
4. It’s a personal preference. I’m running with Mending for the extra condi clear. But in terms of purely hp/s, Healing Signet is the current top. Difference is, of course, that Surge is a burst heal whereas Signet is consistent.

Can’t do anything else but agree on the Endure pain. I would also lose the trait for Defy Pain. The cooldown is too long, spiked armor gets triggered more often and you can often lol at people when they still keep attacking you while you have retaliation.

I ran healing signet before it’s buff. With warrior’s healthpool it’s a good sustain skill. It takes a while to delete all that hp, and while they are trying to whittle us down, we are slowly regenerating it back. With enough toughness I often regen faster in a 1v2 (with dodging/blocking the incoming burst skills ofc, dont stand afk!) than they can deal damage to me.

And about replacing endure pain… I guess I would suggest Shake It Off. You will keep the 3rd stunbreaker and instead you will also get a condition remove (since you seem to lacking that in your current build).

Those are my 3 cents.

Thanks for the feedback! It’s quite helpful!

While I do agree that team support is quite important, I’m just not a big fan of the shout skills compared to the ones I have selected here. I also don’t have much trouble with stuns on my main, but as this class/build is more aggressive I’ll see how much trouble it gives me, and then decide what runes to use.

I can see why people don’t like endure pain, now. If I understand correctly, it doesn’t stop conditions from being applied, even during the duration? I’ll experiment and later decide which skill to put into that slot.

The same goes for the healing signet, I’ll just have to see which heal I prefer after some experience at ZvZ on the warrior.

As for replacing defy pain, my first instinct is to get cleansing ire for even more condi mitigation than I already have, but if condis prove to be less of an issue than I believe, then I’ll go with spiked armor.

Again thank you for your thoughts and opinions.

I’ve only used full Pirate runes so my experience is limited, but I imagine Hoelbrak’s -20% condition duration is handy.

Empower Allies does effect you as well as your allies. I don’t know where you land in the 5man cap though. You can test this by falling from a ledge and taking damage to activate the trait.

Endure Pain has only been useful to me when trying to get into a besieged keep. I pop Endure Pain, Berserker Stance, and Balanced Stance- get inside no problem. Other than that I don’t care for it much. The best synergy I can image with Endure Pain is the trait Desperate Power (+20% damage under %50 HP), but I haven’t messed with it too much. As for a replacement, I think Signet of Stamina stacks intensity with Warhorn’s Vigor.

I’ve always liked Healing Signet. It’s great until you get focused. Without burst healing it’s hard to come back up to muster after a bombing. Also it isn’t greatly effected by Healing Power.

Sorry to go on! I meant to just mention Empower Allies, but I couldn’t help myself.

Also a lot of people complain about Retaliation, so it’s probably good. I run it and it’s always fun to see that fist doing its thing.

Hope.8612:

Hi! In order to get some fresh air after my main’s build got smooshed, I decided to go ahead and finish leveling my warrior. As I’m approaching 80 I’ve been tinkering with builds and this is what I’ve arrived at: http://tinyurl.com/os5n2rr

This is to be used for ZvZ. I’m on a t1-ish server, and I’m currently running with my guild that fields 15-20 a night along with whatever pugs that decide to tag along. We typically face zergs with similar numbers or more.

Some questions I have about it:

I’ve looked at other ZvZ builds and literally every one I’ve seen has been using melandru or soldier runes. Is hoelbrak just flat out a bad idea?

Does Empower Allies apply to me as well as the people around me?

I’ve heard a lot of people say that endure pain is bad. If you feel this is true, what would you suggest to put in place of it? I was thinking of: stomp, signet of stamina, or shake it off.

And lastly, healing signet. I know it was buffed recently and more people run it now. But for a warrior with 300 healing power, would it be better than healing surge?

Thanks for any advice!

endure pain: depends on how aggressive your commander is and how tightly the enemy clumps up, can be good when comboed with whirling axe if your on the front end of a mele train and want to take the enemies mele train head on… if either you or your enemy are not running a mele train then its usefulness drops off dramatically

healing: depends on the time length wise of your average engagement, the longer it is the more you care about the raw heal per second and less about how much you can heal quickly, in general though surge is still pretty good

Shouts: if your going to run shouts, run FGJ, SIO, 30 points into tactics for shout heals and soldier runes, if your not going to run shouts, dont run 30 points into tactics and run melandru runes instead, do not try to mix and match. running fear me would also be nice with the shout build but its tough now days to run it sucessfully unless u got alot of guardians giving you alot of stability arround

yes empower allies empowers you as well

Hope.8612:

Hi! In order to get some fresh air after my main’s build got smooshed, I decided to go ahead and finish leveling my warrior. As I’m approaching 80 I’ve been tinkering with builds and this is what I’ve arrived at: http://tinyurl.com/os5n2rr

This is to be used for ZvZ. I’m on a t1-ish server, and I’m currently running with my guild that fields 15-20 a night along with whatever pugs that decide to tag along. We typically face zergs with similar numbers or more.

Some questions I have about it:

I’ve looked at other ZvZ builds and literally every one I’ve seen has been using melandru or soldier runes. Is hoelbrak just flat out a bad idea?

Does Empower Allies apply to me as well as the people around me?

I’ve heard a lot of people say that endure pain is bad. If you feel this is true, what would you suggest to put in place of it? I was thinking of: stomp, signet of stamina, or shake it off.

And lastly, healing signet. I know it was buffed recently and more people run it now. But for a warrior with 300 healing power, would it be better than healing surge?

Thanks for any advice!

Are you looking to be a front liner or a back liner? Front liner: Soaks damage/attracts the stupid zergs attention and CCs mainly. Backliner: Dmg

The build you posted deals horrible damage. You will be a cc/condi removal bot only. It doesn’t reach the full potential of CC as you didn’t get a burst mastery. A good front liner would get off the 7 sec AOE stun almost all the time making fighting two front liners annoying as their cluster has only 1 second break every 6 seconds of stun.

-Hammer has to have sigil of paralyzation to maximize cc for your friendly zerg to work with.

-Yes..our endure pain is inferior to ranger which have it on 6 second -without speccing into anything to get it like that!- and they have it on a 48 second cool down if they take a MINOR trait to drop the cool down to 48 seconds. Sadly BM rangers are tankier than us. Endure pain is helpful when being a front liner and 2 of them might be needed.

-Healing surge when fighting a zerg is more important and it fills your adrenaline bar.

-You need a way of replenishing your adrenaline if you find that your bar is not full by the time your burst is up. Cleansing Ire is what you should go for if you find your self lacking on adrenaline. Another way is to use the precision signet with a short cool down if you have signet mastery but then you wasted a valuable utility slot.

-Sword/warhorn should have sigil of hydromancy and sigil of superior chilling so when you AOE stun with hammer, u switch to get out and you inflict a chill. It helps maximizing your cc.

-Always put stack sigils on extra exotics or rares, stack up when you leave spawn then put those stack weapons in your bags. 2 stack weapons (2 axes with sigil of blood lust) stack twice as fast so you don’t have to spend a lot of time killing coyotes etc. Lotsa ppl don’t know this.

-With that build you might want to stack precision rather than power as I think the critting attacks will be higher. The stacks give 12% precision and 5% from the oil I think?

If you are still interested just message me on this forum.

Faranox.4217:

I’ve only used full Pirate runes so my experience is limited, but I imagine Hoelbrak’s -20% condition duration is handy.

Empower Allies does effect you as well as your allies. I don’t know where you land in the 5man cap though. You can test this by falling from a ledge and taking damage to activate the trait.

Endure Pain has only been useful to me when trying to get into a besieged keep. I pop Endure Pain, Berserker Stance, and Balanced Stance- get inside no problem. Other than that I don’t care for it much. The best synergy I can image with Endure Pain is the trait Desperate Power (+20% damage under %50 HP), but I haven’t messed with it too much. As for a replacement, I think Signet of Stamina stacks intensity with Warhorn’s Vigor.

I’ve always liked Healing Signet. It’s great until you get focused. Without burst healing it’s hard to come back up to muster after a bombing. Also it isn’t greatly effected by Healing Power.

Sorry to go on! I meant to just mention Empower Allies, but I couldn’t help myself.

Also a lot of people complain about Retaliation, so it’s probably good. I run it and it’s always fun to see that fist doing its thing.

With the food and maybe cleansing ire I think ppl are moving away from condi reduction runes to something that would benefit their build more.

I have a question. I run the builds and gear been discussed however I’m unsure about sigils on my secondary weapons. I have sigil of restoration on my hammer and I’m currently testing sigil of life on my sword for the extra healing power on the shouts, but I’m really clueless about what to put on my horn. Any recommendations?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I’ve been contemplating switching my build up from a Hammer + Axe/Shield Unsuspecting Foe build to a Hammer + Sword/Warhorn build very similar to this. So I figured I’d share.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIQQNBiYDbkzJGu2x4hJOggeohchAqUYHbYShYwGA-jUyAoLBZqBE5Ag+An9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUt7oIa1yAssFA-w

Already have the Soldier armor with Melandru Runes, so in the interest of saving some cash (and not killing my existing build) I was hoping to stick with the Dogged March/Melandru/Food method of condition handling along with some extra from Warhorn (namely for dealing with Torment).

I too am kind of stumped on the Sword/Warhorn sigils. Gonna give Life and Energy a try. Any other tips?

Looks like a decent build, good stability uptime, triple stunbreaker. Real strong. Only get some crit chance in it. I get sad panda when I see 4% crit chance unbuffed. Aim for 18-20% unbuffed. So you can produce some numbers.

I do prefer the shout/heal with soldier runes for a hammer/sword-warhorn build. But yea, this would work. Altho, I would go Cleansing Ire instead of Merciless Hammer.

Well if I kept my current trinket setup (zerk trinkets and soldier back with exquisite ruby jewels) as opposed to that in the build I could get to 20% crit chance.

Calc > 20% crit > Current build
Attack: 3302 > 3268 > 3092
Crit: 4% > 20% > 31%
Armor: 3380 > 3140 > 2973
HP: 27952 > 24632 > 22372

I’ve never really played my Warrior at this end of the tank spectrum so I’m not sure how big of a hit 240 armor and 3320 hp is to get up to 20% crit? I suppose it would be a gain over my current Unsuspecting Foe setup.

KarlusDavius.1024:

I have a question. I run the builds and gear been discussed however I’m unsure about sigils on my secondary weapons. I have sigil of restoration on my hammer and I’m currently testing sigil of life on my sword for the extra healing power on the shouts, but I’m really clueless about what to put on my horn. Any recommendations?

I run hammer, Sword/warhorn

Hammer – Fire
Sword – Stacking/Force – unsure been playing with a couple – water at the moment
Warhorn – Restoration.

You will proc the AoE flame more on the hammer than with sword since it has the better AoE attacks (more targets to hit = more chances to proc)

Sagramor.7395:

Not trying to hijack the thread, but I’ve been contemplating switching my build up from a Hammer + Axe/Shield Unsuspecting Foe build to a Hammer + Sword/Warhorn build very similar to this. So I figured I’d share.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIQQNBiYDbkzJGu2x4hJOggeohchAqUYHbYShYwGA-jUyAoLBZqBE5Ag+An9KiGbZsIas6FMdJRUt7oIa1yAssFA-w

Already have the Soldier armor with Melandru Runes, so in the interest of saving some cash (and not killing my existing build) I was hoping to stick with the Dogged March/Melandru/Food method of condition handling along with some extra from Warhorn (namely for dealing with Torment).

I too am kind of stumped on the Sword/Warhorn sigils. Gonna give Life and Energy a try. Any other tips?

Are you a zerg warrior?

If so…

Remove leg spec – nerfed real hard. Pick up either Empowered (2% damage for each boon on you) or Empowered Allies (150 power to you + 5)

If running Signet Mastery – run Healing Signet. Works wonderfully with Adre Health. Shortens the CD to 16s.

Having both Dolyak Sig and Bal Stance – never needed both on my bar. I run SIO, EP, Dolyak. If you want to stay with this, make sure you pop Bal Stance 1st since it has the shorter cooldown. You will have stability + the 180 toughness from DolSig, then pop DolSig if you still need it.

If running Merc hammer – pick up either Sigil of Fire or Sigil of Impact (10% to stunned foes)

I wouldn’t run healing stacks – only helps very little per second for AH or Signet, I would pick up Prec stacks and swap to Maintenance Oils, with stacks and oil you’ll be at 24% crit + Fury which will get you to 44% which uses your 38% crit that you have from traits and trinkets a little better. With your low crit chance and “decent” dmg I would run a little more crit (personally but up to you)

250 more HealPow gives you only 300 HP on your heal, over 30 seconds… on HealSig it gives you 13 HP per second.

These are my personal opinions based on what build I currently run and have run as a pure melee/hammer train warrior. I pack a little more Crit on my build, >50% chance, 60 damage, but I still rock in at 2300 Toughness and 27k HP.

I don’t normally run with a Zerg, since my when I’m playing usually doesn’t line up with the ZvZ action. But I’d like to transition from my current build which is decent for solo, and pretty nice for small groups to something that’ll be better in larger scale fights without going full shout healing. I think what you suggested may work.

Switch to oil.
Impact on Hammer
Perception on Sword
Restoration on Warhorn

Balanced Stance is only in there because I really don’t know what else to slot. In my current build I’m running Dolyak, Bull’s Rush, Stomp/Signet of Fury. I don’t need Bull’s Rush now that I have the Sword, and I really want to transition from Signet of Fury to Stomp. I’ll mess around with what to replace Balanced Stance with. Possibly EP or SIO.

Sagramor.7395:

I don’t normally run with a Zerg, since my when I’m playing usually doesn’t line up with the ZvZ action. But I’d like to transition from my current build which is decent for solo, and pretty nice for small groups to something that’ll be better in larger scale fights without going full shout healing. I think what you suggested may work.

Switch to oil.
Impact on Hammer
Perception on Sword
Restoration on Warhorn

Balanced Stance is only in there because I really don’t know what else to slot. In my current build I’m running Dolyak, Bull’s Rush, Stomp/Signet of Fury. I don’t need Bull’s Rush now that I have the Sword, and I really want to transition from Signet of Fury to Stomp. I’ll mess around with what to replace Balanced Stance with. Possibly EP or SIO.

Well kitten don’t listen to my advice.. I only run melee train spec.. I don’t want to mislead you. I only roam on my thief sadly which means diddly squat here

Those 4 items are a good starting point and I hope my suggestions don’t put you out too much Gold. I’m sure one of these other great warriors will be able to further advance your roaming build.

On second thought I’ve never been crazy bout stacking sigils in WvW. Instead of a stacking sigil what about Emerald jewels instead of Beryl with the oil of course? Would bring stats to:
Attack: 3082
Crit: 19% (20% dmg)
Armor: 3470
HP: 27052

Sagramor.7395:

On second thought I’ve never been crazy bout stacking sigils in WvW. Instead of a stacking sigil what about Emerald jewels instead of Beryl with the oil of course? Would bring stats to:
Attack: 3082
Crit: 19% (20% dmg)
Armor: 3470
HP: 27052

Stacking sigils are better. Orb is such low stats for what you are replacing. 250 prec or 20 power 2 % crit 14 vit..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIQQNBiYDbkzJ5t5RGiJOggeohZxWcKoEpHiBbkGA-jUyAYLA0VkJHBi+An9KiGbltIasabMlLgKeR1yAwMGA-w

Here’s what I use. I find that if your group runs tight you don’t need as much HP as people tend to stack. nearly 26k HP with 3.1K armor is more than enough as long as guardians are doing their job. What I like about this build is the amount of explosive power it brings. When your hammer stuns connect you dump tons of damage on target thanks to the 53% crit damage.

Leg specialist is still good. You can still lock down 5 people with a hammer shock, as long as you are mindful of the last time you ran through your sword chain. The timer on weapon swap is a nice reminder of when leg specialist is off CD.

Healing signet is nice, but having healing surge as a burst heal is clutch in those moments when you get caught in an enemy damage dump. There is already a lot of retaliation going around from light fields and guardians, so I find that spiked armor can easily be traded for Defy Pain. That trait choice is up to you though, it can go either way.

Naturally those sigils of restoration are after you’ve built stacks. There’s just not really a stronger option than that when you’re facing large odds. Kills become even more of a momentum shift.

As for food, that can be swapped for your prefence. I use saffron bread often due to the -20% damage when stunned and the -20% condition duration (Honestly don’t know why it isn’t more popular. It’s dirt cheap on the TP) or omnomberry compotes when building stacks to keep that healing on kill.

It’s really a standard kind of warrior build, nothing too flashy there.

Thanks for even more help! I’ve altered the build I started off the thread with, considering some of the tips you’ve all given.

http://tinyurl.com/pxg4tl9

In this I’ve ditched endure and defy pain, and replaced it with cleansing ire, and either fgj or shake it off. (Still deciding.) I’ve worked more crit chance and crit damage in at the cost of some pvt. I’ve changed the hammer sigil and will carry a prec. one on a separate weapon. Annnd I went a bit out of tactics trait line and into discipline for burst mastery.

This build should regularly have ~10 might stacks and really high fury uptime to get more crits, so I’m hoping that this is a good mix of survivability, damage and CC.

Hope.8612:

Thanks for even more help! I’ve altered the build I started off the thread with, considering some of the tips you’ve all given.

http://tinyurl.com/pxg4tl9

In this I’ve ditched endure and defy pain, and replaced it with cleansing ire, and either fgj or shake it off. (Still deciding.) I’ve worked more crit chance and crit damage in at the cost of some pvt. I’ve changed the hammer sigil and will carry a prec. one on a separate weapon. Annnd I went a bit out of tactics trait line and into discipline for burst mastery.

This build should regularly have ~10 might stacks and really high fury uptime to get more crits, so I’m hoping that this is a good mix of survivability, damage and CC.

Looks good. I would DEF use a Perception Sigil to get stacks and then switch after 25. Paralyzation wouldn’t be my first choice though. The 15% boost on a 2s stun is 2.3 seconds, not making it long enough to count for an extra tick. With 60% Crit damage, 31% crit (with Fury) isn’t that great.

Why run warhorn without Quick Breathing?

I am planning on running this in wvw (zerg vs. zerg)
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fIIQNAS3ZjkOxwNPKPMxBEkCNsKUKsjNM9gMQj0A-jkyAYLBZCEERAmQAk9KiGbltIas6FM9rQqKOyeDMZAYWAA-w

Offhand could either be mace (knockdown pairs well with earthshaker) or warhorn. I do prefer the axe over sword.

Any feedback would be welcome as well.