Guild Wars 2

I’ll add to some of the feedback in a similar manner. I played with Reaper for a few hours and then went back to my typical dagger/warhorn build (all in pve).

Before I begin, I’ll start by saying that the animations are frickin’ awesome. Loved it!

I had my first go as zerker with strength runes and force/night sigils with GS/Staff. Pretty similar to my main build but with a GS instead of dagger. I went with Soul Reaping, Spite, and Reaper…pretty much full dps with the “monster theme” line in reaper.

From an overall feel standpoint, I felt weak with the GS. It got a little better but struggled with survivability as I was interrupting my big attacks with dodges/movement and couldn’t put out enough dps. The GS attacks did seem weak, especially with how slow they were. I struggled with LF generation a lot!

Reaper was very cool – the abilities seem strong but RS1 seemed much weaker than a comparable DS1 even with the increased attack speed. Speaking of which, I stopped using the +15% attack speed trait in Reaper and didn’t really notice a difference either visually or with TTK.

I switched to using the top traits (shout cooldown, GS trait, gain LF/Health on boon) after that. I immediately noticed my LF problems drastically diminish and my survivability went up. Perhaps I was missing my blood magic siphons…but this seemed so much more fun. GS was still weak for how slow it was, but I didn’t feel like a wet paper bag anymore and my sustain was less problematic.

Overall, it seems like a lot of fun but needs some tweaks. GS needs to be stronger IMO to make connecting with a hit worth it. It also needs a little more LF gain than just #3/5. Perhaps add it to the 1st/3rd hits of #1. #4 has a weird feel to it and it’s too easy to interrupt yourself. I’d also expect #2 to be as strong as warrior HB with adjustments for the time to execute the ability.

I have an alt necromancer that I bring out to play once and a while – mostly a Guardian/Warrior junkie.

That said, I’ve tried out the power based spec that Spoj recommends for PVE and it is quite good – squeezing the most you are going to get out of a necro for dungeon running. I’ve also routinely used a 6/6/0/2/0 condi spec in full Rabid gear and enjoy that for open world, some FOTM, and WvW. It’s not as refined as Spoj’s spec, but it is a bit more forgiving if you aren’t used to being zerk and is still useful for blinds, trash mobs, and vuln stacking.

So, my recommendation is play both. The necro is a lot of fun even though it isn’t uber optimal and I’ve never been turned away from a dungeon because of it. Keep in mind that I’m not running 40+ high level FOTM or extreme sped clears either.

Exemplar.1479:

Yes, this is now the definitive Might sharing build. You can practically replace the need for fire fields by running a single warrior with this build.

My personal setup as soon as I unlocked the trait was thus:
Full Berserker Gear
Forceful Greatsword (for Might on crit with Greatsword)
Sigil of Strength (for Might on crit with Greatsword)
Phalanx Strength (anytime you gain Might allies do as well)
Full Runes of Strength (+45% Might Duration, 25% chance to gain Might when hit, and +7% damage while effected by Might)

This gives me a total of +75% Might Duration (counting the +30% from Traits), 2 stacks of Might for myself and allies per critical hit, along with the awesomeness of giving a quick 11 stacks from For Great Justice! and Signet of Rage.

You can literally maintain a perma 25 stacks of Might for the entire group off of ONE WARRIOR in a single Hundred Blades use + a few auto’s.

Unfortunately, I feel that my Guardian has been completely obsoleted in this patch…but I am REALLY enjoying the massively stupid damage boost for the entire party that is this simple, easy-to-maintain 25 stacks.

I ran this build last night for a bit and it works pretty much like you’d expect it to. EA was good, a practically constant 25 stacks of might for the whole party was great (didn’t feel like I was wasting stacks either at the rate it was ticking on/off), and banners.

I noticed my personal damage level was lower, of course, but it would be cool for some of the more number-crunching folks to see if it’s worth it (pug vs. organized fire field might stacking routines).

I’ll offer a contrary opinion. I love playing this game and if there is something that I see in the gem store that would be fun/look cool, I buy it. If I don’t see something I like…I don’t buy it. The one piece I don’t do is freak out every time something is added to the store that requires an RMT – no one is forcing me to buy it because my game play does not change as a result.

Ultimately, I feel that Arenanet is offering a service – for which I pay nothing for if they don’t show me something I like. In either case, that is not alienating anyone but rather running a good business model and giving folks choices on how to spend their money on cool stuff. Or…I can grind dungeons every day and make a bunch of gold to turn into gems. Again…options that I do like and do not feel compelled to do something about.

Pretty much what atse said. Get yourself a nice set of PVT armor and put some Dolyak runes in it. Keep your zerk trinkets on.

It won’t save your bacon from a bad group in 10+, but at pre-10, it makes it far less painful.

I’m almost finished with my Dungeon Master title and will be looking forward to running a lot more fractals pretty soon. Up to this point, I’ve used primarily a zerk 30/0/0/10/30 build with GS + Axe/Mace (zerk armor and trinks with scholars) with an occasional swap over to PVT armor with Melandru runes when I need some extra survivability.

While I’m fine trying this out in fractals, as well, I’m curious if there are any other good warrior builds that would be functional. Considered healing condi-warrior S/Sh + Longbow and full on support builds (shout heals 10/0/30/30/0). Anything the more experienced warrior folks would recommend? I’ve read through a ton of threads and fractal specific builds are few and far between.

Thanks for the replies so far.

Peter – I’ll try that out and compare it up.

Veritas – Yes, I’m PVE primarily but run a different roaming build for wvw with sword +WH or shield / Longbow. It’s really not too different from Defektive’s current builds and more PVT gear.

Callahan – I’ll try it out with a higher number in discipline. Makes sense that with a high precision amount already I could lose some in favor of more crit damage.

Kain Francois – no…it’s not October…and I did just say I was experimenting with a 5 signet build. Sounds like there is still a lot of stigma around them – even so, this is experimental and signets have improved somewhat in the last 6 months. Would appreciate your input and experience with it, even if it is “stay far away from it” with some good reasons. I wonder if the stigma is more that we were all still learning the game last October and there were a lot of beginning players running it.

Nicknamenick – Callahan above suggested I try out the 30 in discipline – will give it a go as it looks like you have something similar.

Thanks all for the feedback so far.

I’ve been playing around with a few different PVE build styles since the last patch and would appreciate some feedback from more knowledgeable warriors on the forum.

Here’s the one I’m playing with currently:

Greatsword (Berzerkers & Signet of Accuracy – +5% crit)
Longbow (Berzerkers & Signet of Fire)
Berzerkers Armor set + Ruby Orbs
Ascended Soldier/Soldier Amulet
Ascended Soldier/Solder Ring
Back/2nd ring/accessories are all Berzerkers + Exquisite Ruby Jewel

5 Signet build – +180 Power, +180 Precision, +180 Toughness, Health, and Rage

Traits are 0/20/30/10/10
Arms tree – +40 Precision for each signet & Forceful greatsword
Defense – Dogged March, Defy Pain, & the new condition clear when spending adrenaline
Tactics – Empower Allies for +150 power
Discipline – +25% run buff with melee weapons

A few key ideas – I wanted to try something that was a bit more survivable while still maintaining good DPS. All this without giving up condition removal of some kind, an Endure Pain emergency button, some party support, and maintaining a decent run speed. Without the traits for + crit or damage based upon keeping 3 stacks of adrenaline at all times with the greatsword, I was also free to use the GS burst skill to keep fury up at all times.

Here’s some rough stats:

Power ~2500
Precision ~ 2150
Toughness ~ 1650
Vitality ~ 1150
Armor ~ 2850
Crit Chance ~ 87% with Fury up
Crit Damage ~ +69%

I’m seeing some HB crits – before getting Forceful greatsword stacks of around 12-13k. Not terrible, but not the 20k I’m used to with a full berzerker set up – even so, it’s a lot more survivable for me. Overall performance is decent for PVE, ran COF P1 in this and didn’t have much trouble.

As I mentioned, would appreciate some feedback or to get some insight into how others are seeing/playing with these kinds of setups.

Thanks!