Guild Wars 2

I’d really like to give the Warrior a try (I’ve only played the Guardian briefly to ~level 17), but everywhere I’ve read, it seems like they’re held in such low regard in WvW, or PvP in general. is it that terrible?

since I’m still relatively new, I don’t really know how to design their trait choices or gear choices, either while leveling up, or for PvE / PvP. so I’m struggling with that if I end up playing one.

what exactly makes them so disregarded in PvP? is it something that can be rectified through a style of play? or am I better of selecting a different class?

and to save making a new topic, one side question: if I wanted to level 2 crafting abilities with a warrior, would cooking and armorsmith be good choices (for food buffs, bags, & specific armor upgrades)?

Actually in WvW a warrior is one of the best classes, at least for large group play.

30 in tactics allows cripple to causing immobilise (synergy with hammer 3, guarantee a hit in wvw), warhorns to covert a condition to boons and grant aoe swiftness, weakness and healing shouts are grand too. The hammer allows AoE control really, and you’re a major meatshield too.

In lower numbers yes warriors tend to fall back a lot. 1v1 they’re just the weakest class of them all. Its to do with obvious animations, lack of condition removal and the trouble to stay on top of someone.

If you’re looking for 1v1’s outside of WvW, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Avoid warrior for sPvP. For food and buff, I would say chef and Tailoring for making Master Oil(since you’ll need this a lot for crit chance).

If you try to set up your warrior for tanking… your gonna have a bad time.

If you try to build your warrior for sustain… your gonna have a bad time.

so it sounds like if I want to PvE a lot, and dabble in big brawls in WvW, I should be ok with a Warrior? they just kind of fall short when singled out and isolated?

and cooking and tailoring? is the end-branch of tailoring worth it over armorsmithing? I ask because I’d probably level the crafts up as I level as well, so I could use some of the low level items crafted from armorsmithing.

The Double Axe + Longbow build is pretty uncommon, but I’ve had a ton of success with it in PvE and WvW with the same build. The Swirling AoE Axe attack is awesome in big WvW fights, along with the fire conditions that you can get off from the Longbow, you’d be playing a very deadly support technically. The build is 30/20/0/0/20. You can add me if you’d like to know more about it: Equius.4356

I will preface this with my own experience: I have played the Warrior class since 3 day head start. I also played Warrior in Guild Wars 1 (as a main) in PvP (real PvP) and PvE. The Warrior in Guild Wars 2 is no where near the Warrior in Guild Wars 1.

I will also assume you mean sPvP when asking about PvP because WvW is not PvP in the slightest. It is a giant mob. Case closed.

Marz.7498:

what exactly makes them so disregarded in PvP?

The reason for the Warrior class being down trotted in PvP is because of how this game works. With the mentality of “Heavy Armor & High Health” came the decision to give the Warrior nothing but a few stop gaps for survival utilities and traits. This has effectively killed the Warrior as a class.

The Warrior has trouble closing gaps and staying on top of decently skilled people. Most people will complain about the Warrior’s damage being too high, but it is actually not that outlandish in comparison to most other classes. Most of our “gap closers” are … how do you say… crappy at best. Rush is suppose one of the said “gap closers” yet it is completely nullified by cripple/chill/immobilization which most of every other class has very easy access to.

This brings us to the next major problem: Condition removal. Warriors have a lack of condition removal.
Removes one condition:
Skill:Shake it Off
Trait “Shrug it off”
Trait “Quick Breathing” actually converts one to a boon
Trait “Mobile Strikes” only removes immobilization on use of movement skill.

Removes Multiple Conditions:
Skill: Signet of Stamina
Trait: Restorative Strength

As you can see the Warrior has a few options, but in this game conditions are applied so easily and readily that even all of that will not stem the tide of what the other professions can throw at you. Mesmers/Rangers/Elementalists do not even have to spec into conditions to apply them constantly and actually make use of them.

Our basic lack of any type of sustain (which was slightly addressed with the new trait). Healing is okay, but this style of PvP is not based on face tanking damage then out healing (although some professions can do this and shouldn’t be able too). It is based on the denial of damage. This is where Warriors fail to live up to the other “bunkers” in this game. Take Guardians for example. They are hard to kill due too…
Permanent vigor (through Vigorous Precision a 5 point minor trait)
Passive blocks every 45 seconds or one on command (30 seconds if traited into)
One true invulnerably (Elite skill: Renewed Focus)

The biggest culprit is the permanent vigor. Other classes have this as well for almost the same ease. Elementalists/Mesmers are the other two. Rangers and thievies have different traits that allow them to dodge quite a few times more as well but nothing can match the permanent vigor. The ability to use dodges to get into a better position and use to evade attacks is huge in PvP. The fact that Warriors have 2 evades pre-loaded then 1 every 10 seconds afterwards is what kills our sustain. Where as Guardians/Mesmers/Elementalist and to lesser extents Thievies/Rangers can dodge to a hearts content. Very rare is it when those professions find themselves without a dodge.

Not to mention the fact that they also have protection (not the Thief, he has stealth instead of protection) and other boons to cover their backs which the Warrior lacks. The only boons Warrior can stack effectively are Might/Fury/Swiftness. Two of those (Might/Fury) do nothing if you can’t hit your target. Meanwhile most other professions have most of the boons to play with.

To cut this short: TO LONG DID NOT READ
Warriors have only one viable way to trait and that is Damage. This is due to other classes being more effective at clearing conditions and fighting sustained fights. This puts us at a huge disadvantage because the Warrior profession has nothing that is tricky nor class defining. All of our attacks are highly obvious and easily dodged. Meanwhile, even if we land a full combo all other professions can either full heal or run away easily.

To all of you “hot join hero’s” that beg to differ… please spare me the arguments. Everyone knows the Warrior is in a horrible position. You will only kill not so good/afk people with a Warrior. Fighting decent people is a death sentence on a Warrior.

If you want build advise I can give you two of my favorites. One of which is a dueling build and the other is a “mob ball” build used for WvW.

Edit: Needless to say, I can not write everything that is wrong nor address all the facts in one post. I will give you more of my opinion if you want but message me in game for that.

Vanthian.9267:

good analysis

This is an excellent analysis. One more thing I’d add is that the warrior is good in WvW because we have access to food to reduce some of our downsides (-condition duration) and our stats are generally higher. Warrior’s have access to a lot of %damage increases which scale very well with better stats.

Vanthian makes a lot of good points but I’d just like to cover a few missed items:

Removes Single Condition:
Shouts (requires 6 rune pieces)

Removes multiple Conditions:
Heal – Mending: Removes 2 conditions
Trait – Restorative Strength: removes Cripple, Immob, Chill, Weakness on heal
Warhorn – Charge: Removes Cripple, Chill, Immobilize

A warrior CAN effectively remove conditions, but only if they spec for Warhorn, Take Mending and Spec for removal as well. This costs them both in offensive power and effective heals. Or it pigeonholes them into a rune set.