Guild Wars 2

Yes Fast Hands should be made baseline, for all reasons cited by other posters, it already brings so much to the warrior, yet the class isn’t close to the top in the various fighting modes.

Yes it might be too powerful, because you’d get Reckless Dodge, Building Momentum, Might Makes Right, Adrenal Health and Cleansing Ire/Last Stand along with an elite spec, i.e. a brutal and agile tank. Might Makes Right might however be nerfed soon though (probably with an internal CD), given all the whining there’s around, so it could even end up just fine.

Beezlebub.1538:

Also, lightning field? Why?

When you leap into a lightning field, you create a combo and get an additional daze effect, which is consistent with the spec. The daze can proc Dispelling Force and No Escape, so the combo enhances leap skills like sword #2 and dagger #2.

However, the fact that Winds of Disenchantment already remove boons decreases the potential of the combo: Dispelling Force should trigger only if the opponent is outside the field.

Hi,

zinkz.7045:

No dear, you apparently don’t understand what balance means, balance would in terms of your “counters” would mean every class having a similar number of counters, that won’t happen, because the game is not balanced or designed for 1v1 duelling, you will simply have certain classes that are way stronger at it than others, being able to choose those stronger classes does not constitute balance.

I think you missed the intent of the OP, so I’ll put an illustration below. It’s not necessarily what the OP has in mind, just an example.

You register yourself (e.g. queue) as a Marauder Ele. You indicate you want to fight Marauder Ele only. The system finds you a match, and you fight. You indicate that you want to fight either Marauder Ele or Demolisher War. Same thing. You indicate that want to fight without restrictions. Same thing.

So basically, the point is to find a partner which fulfills the criteria you have set up, and to duel. There’s no ladder or whatever, just a bet to spice things up (if you like). You don’t want to fight a certain class or amulet? You tick/untick some checkbox, and there you go.

That’s all there is to it really, it’s the same as duel servers with their rules, except the rules are enforced by the system, and you can bet gold. The server can even track your record against certain class/amulet, and try its hand at some matchmaking to give better fights. Or you can have players kitten their opponent manually… or whatever.

We all know that the game is balanced for 5v5 Conquest – but the step further is to disregard that, and say “so what”. PvP can be competitive (that’s the structured part of it), and it can be lot of other things (understand: other modes). WvW is the most unbalanced thing ever, yet it has hundreds of players in it every day.

I would love it. You could make it a learning experience as well as a challenging one. Plus adding a spectating / betting feature on top of it could make for a pretty good experience.

IMHO ANet really needs to reflect on their approach to PVP, their stern attitude truly cripples their options. 1v1s, 2v2s, 3v3s, 10v10v10s, all the usual PVP modes… The fighting gameplay in GW2 is so great, yet they do not manage to make it shine or expand it, because of their concerns about balance or matchmaking or whatever…

Just offer game modes already, don’t think too much about it, and make sure to provide proper and easy access to players (unlike what you did with Courtyard and 2v2s, which cannot be played even by a willing player). You’ll draw so many players in the end, it’ll be easy to collect data and adjust accordingly, it’ll create full a positive feedback loop… unlike the current state of PvP.

Please! Or at least talk to us. Sure, the forums are full of immature and angry people, but there are also players willing to listen and provide feedback… and maybe the problems you think you have… are not really problems (no offense).

Same

I mostly play core power warrior too, the standard axe/shield/GS has benefited from the last patch, and it’s even more powerful and enjoyable now. I love GS/bow power warrior as well. I have some expectations for Spellbreaker though (hope they buff the spec a bit).

Aside from core warrior, I usually roam in S/D daredevil, the mobility and evade of the build are just insane, it’s plenty of fun.

Hello,

cptaylor.2670:

Will it ever be toned down and actually balanced?

Adrenal Health has been toned down already, and the Berserker spec has been very recently nerfed in terms of PvP/WvW (limiting the effect of adrenaline bars). The core warrior did get a recent buff, exchanging damage for sustain with Might Makes Right (but you have to play vanilla). Is that what you’re talking about?

In general, what do you mean by sustain? Only base health, armor, regeneration? Or do you include elements of gameplay such as blocks, blinds, boons (aegis, protection, resistance), evades, stealth, teleports, mobility, soft/hard control? IMHO, all of these should be relevant to surviving, and the warrior is deprived of many of them.

What class / build are you playing, and against which warrior builds do you have issue (condi/power, core/berserker)? Maybe you have too high exceptations in regards of how your class/build should counter that kind that warrior? Don’t hesitate to share, we may have tips to give!

A warrior has innate resilience and stances, telegraphed attacks, and depending on the build, zero or average mobility (mace condi vs. gs power, possibly with bull’s charge). So basically, the default strategy to fighting a warrior is simple: it is a matter of mitigating burst attacks (learn the animations of the F1s and the way they’re setup), of kiting (do not exchange blows at melee), and having him waste his stances (CD is high, and warrior is a free kill after his stances have been used).

I only play power warrior, don’t know about condi warrior, so here go the matchups for the power warrior only:

• loses against dragon hunters (but can slot the Signet of Might to help a bit) and mesmers,
• is at disavantage against druids, power revenants and power eles, and all sort of condi builds who know how to kite Berserker’s Stance,
• cannot kill nor be killed by a scrapper or a support ele (obviously),
• usually dominates necros and thieves, unless the thief knows to read and deal with CDs (patience is key).

If you enjoy duelling, I suggest you go scrapper, or to a lesser extent, mesmer. These are very good at fighting 1v1s.

HTH.

Hello,

First, thank you for giving us this beta week-end. I’ve played many hours with the Spellbreaker, and would like to submit this initial feedback.

To put it in a nutshell, I feel that the specialization offers an interesting gameplay, but lacks too much impact to be relevant yet. I however believe that after some buffs, it should be playable and enjoyable.

The positive things, which made me enthusiastic about the specialization:

• The full counter mechanics is nice. I like that it adds a new survival option, plus does unblockable damage and may remove one boon with Dispelling Force. It feels like a good use for adrenaline. The tell is obvious, so should hopefully allow some counterplay. Congrats on that design!
• The elite allows a nice area control, and I had some fun using it in WvW. However, I believe it should bring more to the table, in terms of buffing allies.
• Rewarding hard control feels good, especially now that we can remove boons. I hope that stability will always be removed first, so that we can benefit better from our builds. I believe that further enhancing hard control would be interesting (besides Dispelling Force and No Escape).

There are many shortcomings though, which cause the specialization to be lacking:

• One has to trade too much damage, survivability and mobility in order to get the debuff capabilities. I am firmly convinced that some buffs are in order here.
• Reserving one bar of adrenaline for counter is fine, but limiting the burst to one bar of adrenaline is not. All burst-enhancing traits lose too much value. In my opinion, burst skills should be able to use up to two bars of adrenaline.

In terms of builds, we have some choice to make, which is good. I do belong to the “Fast Hand Mandatory” faction, so will not play without Discipline, especially for a power warrior. I have tried power warriors based on:

• Defense / Discipline / Spellbreaker, using dagger/dagger and sword/shield. The point was to be resilient, so as to make full use of debuff capabilities during the fight. The build did a correct job, but I would have loved more damage/mobility on the dagger set. This would open new alternate weapon options (especially hammer-based builds, which have so much potential).
• Strength / Discipline / Spellbreaker, using GS and dagger/shield. The point was to play aggressively, but in this regard it felt a bit inferior to the core warrior, even with the debuff options. The gameplay was however enjoyable.

Let us review daggers:

• #1 is fast enough I guess, but the damage is too low. I would recommend a damage buff of around 50%, and/or would consider granting might on all three attacks of the chain.
• #2 is okay, the “Slow” somehow compensating for the lack of damage. However, I would buff the range of the skill from 300 to 450 (or even 600), to improve the mobility of the weapon set.
• #3 felt weird, as mixing utility with average damage seems to be lacking in focus. I would change the skill completely, for instance: evade all attacks, and daze your target after evading. This would improve the survivability, which we are in need of.
• #4 was underwhelming. Even with the damage boost, the overall damage is too low. Considering it requires a setup (hard CC), I would buff the damage by at least 50%.
• #5 felt weird as well, again mixing utility and damage. The skill loses a lot of value when facing non-projectiles attacks.
• Dagger F1 is definitely good. I liked the unblockable attack with a 450 range.
• Counter F2 is excellent, as previously stated.

I’ll review skills and traits I used thereafter. Those I do not mention, I did not try because they looked either underperforming in regards of other skills (Natural Healing, Break Enchantments, Guard Counter, Enchantment Collapse), or downright underwhelming or irrelevant (Sight Beyond Sight, Imminent Thread, Pure Strike). One has to remember that Spellbreaker does not bring mobility, damage or survivability – only debuff – which introduces many build balance constraints.

About skills:

• Featherfoot Grace was not bad at all, but worse than expected. Even with the added stun breaker and the superspeed (both of which being very good), it feels inferior to Berserker Stance, with its pulsing resistance and adrenaline generation. However, I have to say I did not pay enough attention to all the new condition attacks, and may have taken more hits than I usually do (condi-bombed).
• Winds of Disenchantments was very nice, both in WvW and PvP. I do feel that it lacks a little something for an elite, ideally a one-time buff to allies (which could be addressed by introducting a meditation trait, see below).

About traits:

• Dispelling Force is a very nice minor trait. It is something that was once discussed in this forum as a potential buff to physical skills, so it is nice to see it come to life now. Thank you.
• No Escape was interesting, as it somehow help neutralize stun breakers (of which the game is rich). However, I would extend the application of the trait to all hard CC effects, and not just daze and stun (especially for Bull’s Charge).
• Loss Aversion, Slow Counter, Sun and Moon Style: I tried all of them, but do not have an opinion thus far. More testing is in order.
• Revenge Counter was opay, but similarly I did not really perceive the advantage it brought. More testing is in order as well.
• Magebane Tether was useful and enjoyable, like an automatic DH F1. I liked it very much.

Some additional suggestions:

• It would be nice if we could have a meditation trait granting a boon on use, to self and allies (e.g. stability or resistance). Meditations are a bit too weak in my view, and this would improve the overall survivability.
• Also, it would be great if we could further enhance hard CC. For instance, I would love a trait granting a 100% damage boost to the attack following any hard CC.

Cheers for reading, hoping to play with a new Spellbreaker soon!

Never mind, there’s been some updates recently, and I think my computer is messed up. Sorry for the post, I guess the problem’s on my side

Hello,

Since the latest update, the mouse sensitivity seems to have changed – the slower you move, the less the character turns. It’s quite frustrating, need to move the mouse super fast to have the character make a simple U-Turn. My sensitivity is already set to the max, and changing the one of Windows does no have any effect (so this comes from GW2).

Any tip to fix this? Is this a bug introduced with the way mounts works? I was told that mounts would automatically change direction based on where your character looks at.

Thanks.

That is an interesting trait for sure, tried it and liked it, it helps the sustain part and it’s easy to fuel – plus it synergizes nicely with the dodge-based gameplay.

Strength warrior nearly feels like an elite spec now, aside from that trait the relocation of Axe Mastery is great, plus the enhancement of physical trait and skills (especially Bull’s Charge, just wow) feels very good. I had tons of fun playing tonight.

Quite eager to get spellbreaker now that STR has some sustain option. Maybe STR / DIS / Spellbreaker will be playable…

Also, food for thought:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bowl_of_Orrian_Truffle_and_Meat_Stew

I went WvWing as:

• GS hydro/leeching / Axe bloodlust/ Shield energy
• Mostly Zerk / durability
• STR: Peak Performance / Forceful GS / Might Makes Right
• DEF: Shield Mastery / Defy Pain / Last Stand
• DIS: Warrior’s Sprint / Brawler’s Recovery / Axe Mastery
• Healing Signet / Bull’s Charge / Berserker’s Stance / Endure Pain / Rampage (yay)

Now that’s a bit harsh. You’ll be able to run Defense / Discipline / Berserker or Defense / Discipline / Spellbreaker. That’s plenty of options

On a serious note, I’d love Fast Hands made baseline. The skill alone brings so much in the gameplay, yet even with it a warrior is not overwhelmingly stronger than other classes. This actually tells a lot on the warrior, as Fast Hands would make the basis of any very fine elite spec…

Vegeta.2563:

Right now when 2 or more Zerg (or Blobs as some call it) fight each other you end up getting 3-5 seconds of delay between skill use. Making impossible to determine what skill to use next. Is there ANYTHING being done to fix this issue?

It’s been like that for years already, they know it, but they never fixed it – which means it’s either not fixable, or not worth the investment. They don’t communicate much on that topic.

I suggest you just switch maps when skills start lagging like that. You’ll avoid lots of frustration. Of course, if you happen to have a zerg fight without any lag, stay on it – it’s super fun!

What do you mean it’s in trouble? I’ve started roaming / zerging again since a few weeks, and I’ve seen a decent amount of warriors around me (EU Jade Sea). Plus I’ve found that it wasn’t bad at all, in both submodes, although it’s the best class in none.

Compared to some other classes, especially necro and thief, it is true that it is has less overpowered features – but I’d rather have these classes nerfed a bit, than the warrior buffed unreasonably. Also, stances are still super strong, and it’s kind of annoying as one cannot really take anything else.

Hi, sorry for the late answer.

Choppy.4183:

You definitely shouldn’t be noticing a damage advantage with axe mastery because it’s much worse than berserker’s power on that score. Better adren generation for sure, though.

Well on paper you’re completely right. In practice though, I think it’s a bit more complex. Berserker’s Power works on both weapons but requires a burst to hit, while Axe Mastery works out of the box, but for axes only. So basically, it’s a matter of gameplay, and how long you can get and maintain Berserker’s Power while fighting.

In terms of damage, I still think that my eviscerate is bigger – I suspect it’s because one would get Berserker’s Power after the hit, while Axe Mastery would be active for the hit.

The adrenaline generation is indeed superb. I play with Last Stand and not Cleansing Ire (I think you do too), so I need more adrenaline, and Axe Mastery delivers nicely. I can burst quite frequently, and usually don’t wait for more than on bar of adrenaline to do so. The benefits of bursting are just too good (Damage, Might/Fury, Adrenal Health, Building Momentum).

CrashTheGrey.1492:

Does anyone like running Armored Attacks over Defy Pain? Running Mace I feel a little starved for damage sometimes and I’ve been running that with Bloody Roar for some huge numbers and enjoying it.

When the update got out, I did want to try it in PvP, for the reasons you stated, but ended not having the courage to queue after some previous disastrous experiences (season 4’s nightmare). I’ve started playing WvW again recently though, and I’ve kept Defy Pain – unnerfed, I have found that it’s still good in the usual outnumbered fights.

As for damage, I play the vanilla flavor of the power warrior, not the berserker one. With the Strength line, damage is never an issue, and I don’t even run full zerk (commander armor with durability runes, zerk trinkets and weapons).

I did change Berserker’s Power to Axe Mastery (running GS/Axe/Shield), and found it definitely superior. The damage boost is noticeable, and the adrenaline generation allows for more frequent bursts, with the usual advantages: more fury with GS F1, regular 10k+ damage with Axe F1, faster stacking of Adrenal Health, better endurance regeneration with Stick and Move, thus more aggressiveness with Reckless Dodge…

The new Shield #4 gives me conniptions.

Hitman.5829:

He was able to do 23+K with 100 blades. I have experimented with many many gear and sigils and no build I have tried can reach 23K. I am extremely zerker that even a leaf falling from a tree can kill me.

Video is at about 10:40, it’s as Choppy as said, full zerk gear with power-based runes, Strength / Discipline / Berserker (no Defense). This brings you things like Stick and Move, Berserker’s Power and Bloody Roar, plus a good source of might, way enough to reach this level of damage.

Selecting the traits isn’t enough, though. You need to play a bit differently when you equip the Strength line, using dodges offensively for Reckless Dodge and keeping your damage modifiers up with dodging/bursting. It takes some work – maybe record some of your games, and check if you’re doing it right?

FWIW, I regularly inflict between 15k-20k damage in PvP with HB, with the Demolisher amulet (not even berserker), using Strength + Defense + Discipline. The strength line really makes the warrior a true beast.

Each time I join EBG as a vanilla warrior, the other servers get the outnumbered buff.

Courtyard was never given a chance in the first place: you couldn’t play it even if you wanted to (because it was in the Conquest queue), and if you rolled for it, you hadn’t the right build for it. That was so unfortunate.

There are been many times where I failed to understand decisions by ANet in terms of PvP direction. Building new things but not allowing players to play them (CY…), removing things that players enjoyed (8v8…), not providing things that players requested (build templates…).

It feels like PvP has to be a very serious thing for very serious players, and cannot exist otherwise. I’m now a disappointed player, waiting for the next expac in the hope they bring something new and cool (and do not remove it afterwards).

Once, my guild mates thought I was too kitteny on my vanilla warrior and told me to solo our next GvG fight.

That was an easy win. Even got a precursor.

aerodynamique.5267:

Maybe if they had some sort of checkbox that could let you queue as, like, a DPS, or as a support, that could work, but then they would have to artificially determine some sort of 2dps/3support or 3support/2dps meta, excluding the fact that self-sustaining bunkers like Warriors exist, a class that fulfills a different role depending on who you actually ask.

I agree that role is what matters most. However, while I’d prefer that players themselves state which role they’re queueing for, I suppose that beyond classes, ANet could simply have used the equipped amulets to further balance the matches.

Depending on what amulets are available in the pool of players currently queuing, they would not seek to reach some artificial meta, but rather seek to balance the number of DPS/support amulets across teams (possibly even taking into account other build parameters, e.g. condition vs. power).

That would not be difficult at all from an algorithmic point of view (which is why they proposed it), and this would definitely lead to a better matchmaking – but to longer queues as well, depending on the size of the pool.

According to metabattle, the optimal hybrid build for PvE raids / fractals is the following:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAT8fnckCtkiVeAefAEliFoA7t1Wb3tJrgUQu7IBGASZA-TRSGQBATJSBuIApT3AAeCAfUJIb2fwXqgkQlX5T9jAAHA7ub6W3gxHf8xHf82d3d3d3dLFwiKrA-e

I’ve never played the build, and never measured DPS before. AIUI, it maximizes DPS on the condition side with Condition Damage and Expertise and on the power side with Power and Precision.

The combination of viper / sinister gives 67% critical chance: with the ranger’s Spotter (7%), the Banner of Discipline (8%) and Fury (20%) you’d reach 100% critical chance.

I suppose that if you have another warrior in the group, you can make adjustments to improve your personal DPS, as some traits and skills might become redundant.

Healing is only a small part of sustain in general. Besides healing, sustain includes total health pool, toughness, in-combat mobility, blocks, access to defensive boons (protection, aegis, regeneration, resistance…), access to impairing conditions (blind, taunt…), stealth, teleport, condition clear and its variations, combos, class-specific mechanisms – and of course the CD of skills and traits, enabling effective skill rotations.

Comparing healing capabilities only across classes is unfortunately pointless, as it is of too limited a scope. Comparing builds is more useful if they’re supposed to fulfill the same roles, in which case some classes will emerge stronger than others at certain roles – sometimes by nature (e.g. cannot argue too much with thief’s evades and mobility) and sometimes by lack of balance.

And we’re not even talking about team comps and synergies between classes / builds, which provide significant bonuses the larger the fight becomes.

I’m afraid the community will not be considered seriously by the company, until players start to put in a decent amount of effort in making strong analyses – the least of it being stating contexts (classes, builds, comps) and efforts (hours spent in understanding a nemesis, by playing it in ranked games, duels and other skirmishes).

I don’t think I could ever choose Berserker in place of Discipline, but why not give it a try indeed. I’ve yet to install the update.

The first thing that crossed my mind after reading the patch notes was to re-use some WvW shout frontliner in PvP, with mender amulet and soldier runes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNBMhJaknDKDxOPwyDoDxgWQhBwAM66Mc6FQWCT9HA-TpBHAB1XGA3DBQBHBAAeAAEcCA6Z/BA

Balanced Stance, Shake it Off and Shrug it Off always worked well with Rousing Resilience. Fierce Blow and Call to Arms might work with Cull the Weak. The build can be tuned towards defense and support (Brawler’s Recovery, Dogged March, Sigil of Renewal, Sigil of transference) or CC and attack (Destruction of the Empowered, Cull the Weak, Sigil of Impact, Sigil of Paralyzation).

Edit: didn’t mention it, but one reason that let me think back to that build is the change to light fields – blast into them for frequent cleansing, similar to what we used to do with water fields in wvw fights.

Its too bad ANet does not explain clearly the consequences of the vote, in terms of balance and matchmaking, so people are a bit lost about what they want. I think there’ll be some mighty disappointment later, whatever it is you voted for.

I voted for profession locking, because in my understanding:

• This will allow people to play classes at a different level, instead of the level of their stronger class. As a result, it will lead to a more accurate matchmaking. Most players do not play at the same level on different classes – and the role/composition expected improvement when switching classes is often unknowingly counterbalanced by the lack of mechanical skills on the new class.
• This will allow to better tackle the class-stacking issue by including it from the matchmaking algorithm on – something which is not really possible to do if you allow players to change before the game start. Although I’m not convinced that class-stacking is such a bad thing, as long as concurrent builds exist for a given class… I’d rather have ANet introduce the notion of “role” when queuing, and match teams around it.

The duoQ hate is a bit strange. ANet has already acknowledged that there’s a bug in the matckmaking, which lead to 2+2+1 vs 1+1+1+1+1 in the last season – something they said they’ll fix in the next one. I think people also overestimate the impact of duoQ – two bad players communicating together will not magically make better decisions. And people concerned with cheating should be concerned about how to punish effectively, rather than removing a whole feature.

As you have noted, the warrior has no stealth and no teleport. Considering its attacks are highly telegraphed, this makes it quite kitable, by almost anything.

Stances have a 60s CD. Double Endure Pain means that during 52s per minute, the warrior has no physical invulnerability at all. Resistance is another matter, to maintain a good uptime of resistance the warrior must activate the healing signet regularly, losing a significant part of his regen. As for Adrenal Health, it can only be gained when hitting the F1 skills successfully (except for the LB, but this is interestingly not a point you’ve mentioned in your criticism).

Also, there are many other things the warrior does not have, among which:

• No full invul: check.
• No protection: check.
• No aegis: check.
• No chilled: check.
• No poison: check.
• No boon removal: check.
• No AI: check (but thanks).
• Combo fields: bow F1 (thanks) and torch #5 (useless).

The balance is made of all the things a class has, and has not. Eventually, if you want to focus on 1v1s, there are hard counters to any class and build – warrior included of course. If you could state (1) the class you’re using, (2) what build you’re using and (3) why you think it’s supposed to counter a warrior, then we could maybe provide some useful pointers.

@mrrauls: the bow is (was) used mostly because the F1 procs all burst-related effects as long as its projectile is not blocked, destroyed or reflected. This is an unfortunate mechanics, which has been criticized many times on this forum. The fact that it remains is probably a technical limitation.

I never thought about trying that, it looks awesome, thanks for the vid

You can use GW2’s API.

EU: https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/pvp/seasons/A54849B7-7DBD-4958-91EF-72E18CD659BA/leaderboards/ladder/eu

NA: https://api.guildwars2.com/v2/pvp/seasons/A54849B7-7DBD-4958-91EF-72E18CD659BA/leaderboards/ladder/na

DuoQ accounts for 60% of the fun I have playing PvP, since I can discuss and coordinate with a friend while playing. Forcing me to go solo on ranked? Wouldn’t even bother playing, game’s way too frustrating to be enjoyed anymore, with all the powercreep and the immature/toxic players lurking around.

When you lose a game, you get a MMR decrease and 4+ pips. When you win a game, you get a MMR increase and 10+ pips.

The MMR variation, based on win/loss factor and the MMR of other participants, looks fine. However, I think one could change the pips policy. Namely, I think that tying the pips to the score could be interesting. For instance, if you win by a large margin, you get bonus pips – and if you lose by a small margin, you get bonus pips a well.

The goal of this policy would be to improve the game quality: more people would be motivated to play to the end (as there would be more reward to do so), so we’d have less AFK, less global frustration and more fighting spirit, so possibly better games for everyone.

Hello,

I’ve never really enjoyed the Berserker specialization, so often go back to vanilla power warrior. Here’s a short montage of me having fun with it – no great plays whatsoever, as I’m simply an average casual player, just some happy PvP fighting.

Hope you like it.

There was a way before to enter this area by positioning yourself at a certain place, then disconnect and reconnect. Maybe they considered this a bug, and chose an easy way to fix it.

There are many bizarre areas in the map where you can go. I like it very much, but would love for them to add more stuff to do. Typically:

• one or three jumping puzzles,
• 1v1 areas (like in the Queen’s thing, no need to create an instance).

Hi,

Welcome on the warrior forum.

Shaogin.2679:

From what I could tell, most of the condi damage comes from the mace primal burst skill and longbow fire field. Is that a correct assumption?

Somehow yes, but it’s a bit more complex than that. Basically, in terms of damage, you should pay attention to the following:

• Skull Grinder (Mace F1) and Scorched Earth (Bow F1) as you’ve read. These can only be used in Berserker mode. A warrior may still use Combustive Shot (vanilla Bow F1) in emergencies I guess, e.g. to cleanse conditions.
• Pin Down (Bow #5) will do good damage and immobilize you. The immobilization can be used to root you for other skills, such as Scorched Earth (Bow F1). It has a specific tell though, so you can usually mitigate it.
• The combo swap-to-bow at melee for Geomancy/Doom proc (cannot underestimate that) -> Fan of Fire (Bow #2). Tentatively dodge if you anticipate it (e.g. the warrior is on mace, not berserker mode, and is coming to you). Remember that a warrior can swap weapons every 5s.
• The combo Shattering Blow (damage + stability) -> Headbutt (proc Krait, stun and fill adrenaline, no self-stun because of stab) -> Berserker Mode -> Skull Grinder.

You may find some people using Strength instead of Discipline. They lose Fast Hands so their weapon rotations become much slower, so it’s basically an inferior version, but it does add a bit of damage:

• Hard control of the mace and the shield will now inflict bleed thanks to Body Blow,
• Interrupt will inflict confusion thanks to Distracting Strikes.

Finally, I suppose some players could choose to play something else than Krait, such as Guardian. In that case, blocks will now burn you.

Shaogin.2679:

Also, what is the best way to keep the warrior from building adrenalin and condi bursting? I was thinking kiting and attacking from range would be effective?

You cannot really prevent a warrior from building adrenaline. In the standard macebow build, he’ll get adrenaline when he hits you (e.g. with the bow) or when you hit him (thanks to Cleansing Ire). Headbutt will grant 3 full bars of adrenaline, and Shattering Blow will give a bit too.

Kiting a macebow warrior is possible, because the build has a low mobility. However, it has a tons of blocks, and all blocks are traited to reflect thanks to Shield Mastery, so the warrior just has to use LoS or reflect your damage. You cannot die to a condi warrior should you kite him, but you cannot kill him that way either.

Aside from the damage elements listed above, pay attention to:

• Berserker mode. It has pulsing stability, which may negate some of your attempts to control / interrupt (and is very useful for rez/stomps). It also has Dead or Alive, although you may not care much about this one (warriors do try to enter Berserker Mode when dying, to have that ultimate helping hand).
• Lots of blocks/reflects: Counterblow (Mace #2, CD 10s), Shield Stance (Shield #5, CD 20s traited), and Shattering Blow (CD 15s). Prepare to stow weapon if you see the warrior reflecting your projectiles – or interrupt the blocks with unblockable skills.
• Vengeance of course, especially with Berserker mode which will provide stability (Eternal Champion).
• All kinds of bursts (=F1 skills). Bursts proc Adrenal Health, which significantly contributes to the warrior sustain. Never take on the Skull Grinder, not sure if you can do something against Scorched Earth though (Interrupt maybe? Combustive Shot can be blocked / reflected / destroyed, but don’t know for Scorched Earth).

Shaogin.2679:

I’m messing around with power Reaper atm and I was only running consume conditions and staff for condi clears. Thinking of maybe swapping out Spectral Armor for Plague Signet to help with that.

I don’t play necro, so cannot really tell if more is required here. Just remember that a warrior has Endure Pain (free 4s physical immunity CD 60s) and Defy Pain (4s physical immunity at 50% HP CD 60s), so 8s of physical immunity every minute, during which you may want to kite.

Sorry for long post, good luck.

pelle ossa.9705:

and then in mid gold you find a ranger trapper that spent all the time on forest trying to kill the beasts and trashtalk… , but it’s too much asking to have in my team and in the enemy team ppl who care about the match?

I was watching a recent stream of Sindrener. He had a condi thief in his team, who insisted on doing all the beasts of the game. That wasn’t mid-gold, that was top legend.

That condi thief, despite his choice of build or tactical play, still made it to the top, and must have carried his fair share of games to get there. He obviously cared about the match, otherwise wouldn’t have this ranking.

What matters is that people that seem to make strange tactical decisions don’t make it to bother you – they make it because they think they can win that way. I admit it’s not easy to accommodate these non-standard choices, but most of the time there should be a road to victory, however hidden it is.

Rewards bring in new players, and PvP is in dire need of new players. How can that be a bad thing? New players learn, and if skilled, raise.

Many veterans complain about being matched with players under their skill level. I’m no stranger to this myself (although I’ve long painfully realized I’m an average player). I believe there are two reasons for that:

• Players overestimate their skills, because they never had a true measure of it. Coming to that realization can be quite hard, but is necessary for one to progress. For me, watching some replays of my games really helped. I would love if players posted more of their replays on the forum, so that others could learn from it, or help point areas of improvement.
• Some players may not know how to carry a game. Carrying a game does not mean playing like usual – it means overplaying, i.e. taking more risks because you know that opponents are too weak to punish you. If you play like usual, you’re not taking full advantage of the skill difference, and it shows when you lose the game in the end.

He’s talking about badges, not MMR. ANet have correlated them, but one could envision a system where MMR decays as it does now, but badges show how high you got during the season (it’d be different from a division then).

Romgaard.1965:

this is what im using atm.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAU3ejMdQdHWFCehAnIWqCMleQjLHgUAaABg3Rbqd2C-TpQSABMXGAg9HAA

I kind of hate GS and dont want to ride the bandwagon ( metabattle)
Advise about my build is apriciated :-)

It looks like a dueling spec. I think it’s fine in that regard, but I don’t think you can carry with it – not enough mobility. You’d stick on an area, and wouldn’t be able to decap or +1 fast enough. Plus you would not be able to disengage when focused (in PvP, dying means you’ve messed up big time in the game, good sacrifices are not easy to setup).

To carry, I believe that the (current) warrior firstly needs damage and mobility, then to a lesser extent cleave and hard CC. At first I hated playing GS in PvP, because I didn’t understand it. Let’s go through a quick overview, in a PvP perspective:

• #1 is bad,
• #2 is average, highly circumstantial,
• #3 is the best skill in the game,
• #4 is average to good,
• #5 is good to excellent,
• F1 is okay in vanilla, excellent in Berserker.

If this is what you had in mind, then you truly don’t like the GS. If not, then give it some more chance, you may find out new things that could change your mind

As far as I remember, the bow has always been meta for the warrior in PvP, since Cleansing Ire has been introduced: hambow, axebow, shoutbow, macebow… When they’ll allow to equip two weapons of the same type, each with their own CD, we’ll probably be plagued with BowBow

I’ve played GS/Bow on a vanilla power warrior (Strength, Defense, Discipline), it lets you maintain Berserker’s power and Adrenal Health at max level. Big damage, big sustain, ranged and AoE pressure make it a good fighter – but no blocks and few stun breakers still make it vulnerable. It’s fun to play.

While the bow nearly guarantees all F1-procs – unless your projectile gets blocked, destroyed or reflected – there are some other bursts that are not bad at all in that regard. Arc Divider, for instance, has a large radius. It is one of the reasons (with Headbutt and Eternal Champion, and to a lesser extent Outrage) people tend to prefer Berserker to Strength for a power warrior.

Adrenal Health works by stacks. You can build it progressively during the fight (1+1+1, 1+2, 2+1, 3). In other words, as long as you burst as often as you can and do not wait for 3 bars of adrenaline, you can have it maxed quite quickly. Those playing Berserker have a big constraint though: Berserker requires you to build 3 bars before being activated (then each berserker burst is equivalent to a 3-bars burst), so you cannot burst as you like. Fortunately, some skills/traits help you gain adrenaline fast (e.g. Headbutt).

I play a vanilla physical warrior – good damage with decent mobility, this allows me to be decisive in group fights, and mobile enough to +1 fights or decap nodes. This is enough to win games at the level I currently play at (low gold).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR3ejMdQZHWFCehApIGICKLAigBQ/ipfKwT4FWBA-TpxHABCcBAUZ/B7LDQwRAIgHAAAHEAA

I’m sure it won’t work at higher divisions though. I’ve just started the season and am just going on with the flow, playing a build I enjoy rather than the macebow I abhor.

Some thoughts about the gameplay:

• As a Strength power warrior, dodge into your opponents, and dodge a lot. Your damage output is significantly increased that way.
• Burst as often as you can, even level 1 adrenaline. You’ll build Adrenal Health stacks progressively, and will always have between 10%/20% additional damage with Berserker’s power.
• Hard CC your opponents when they have no aegis/stability/block, then either use Hundred Blades or the Axe AA. You’ll have quickness with the Rage sigil and Heightened Focus (50% HP, which can you sometimes anticipate).
• Call and focus targets in group fights. Identify quickly squishy opponents, and focus them through the game.
• Never hesitate to use Rampage, but wait a bit until the opponents’ defensive CDs have been used. If possible, use it when you have 3 bars of adrenaline, getting resistance before (Berserker’s Stance or Healing Signet activation).
• Good damage combo: start on axe/shield, dodge into your opponent (triggers Reckless Dodge), swap to GS (triggers Hydromancy and Leeching), GS#3 to go through him out of his camera angle, GS #5 to come back and hit from behind, then F1.
• Use mobility (GS#3, GS#5 and Bull’s Charge, with auto-targeting disabled in your options) to outnumber enemies, or to quickly decap nodes. Do not engage equal fights, or fights where you’re outnumbered yourself – play like a wolf.

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

I also mentioned that I can beat warriors on my engineer. The skill level and requirement to do good with a warrior is very low in my opinion and I can not understand how Engineer got so many nerfs to defence and healing while Warrior heal so much that I usually have top healer (From healing myself) in the end of the match.

I play warrior, and I think I can explain why you can get top healing – it’s because a warrior takes a lot of damage by nature. You cannot teleport nor stealth, so are always visible to determined attackers. You don’t have access to protection, so get the full part of physical damage each time. The mobility of a warrior is very low in the meta build, and barely passable with a GS (power build), so you can get pursued efficiently. So all in all, a warrior is bound to take damage, and his high base regen is here to offset that unfavorable start situation.

This is also why warrior is easy to play as a beginner – you can endure a few hits before you go down, so if the opponent makes as many mistakes as you do, you still stand a chance, because a warrior hits hard. At higher level, a warrior is very readable and kitable, so it becomes harder to play. You’ll never die fast – that’s an impossible thing – but you’ll never kill fast either, unless your opponent makes foolish tactical decisions. Fortunately, the game is full of players that make such decisions every second.

[PvP perspective only]

I don’t think our current physical skills are bad. I run a vanilla power warrior in PvP, with Bull’s Charge and Rampage, mostly unranked and hotjoin, but currently starting the new league. It has good mobility and burst potential, plus you have a more offensive gameplay with Reckless Dodge.

From a PvP perspectice, the problem with physical skills are:

• Firstly, a warrior cannot live without Berserker’s Stance and Endure Pain. This, in itself, is a major problem, and leaves only one utility slot available. This slot must be dedicated to stability if you don’t have any passive one such as Last Stand or Eternal Champion, and may be used for anything if you have one. In short, you may only use two physical things: Rampage and whatever you like – and it requires you to take Last Stand in Defense. Eternal Champion is not available, because…
• On a larger scale, a warrior cannot live without Defense, and be effective without Discipline – so this leaves only one trait line available. Berserker has a lot of trash skills, but also brings Headbutt, Eternal Champion, Skull Grinder, Arc Divider and Shattering Blow – which can shine in PvP. Strength is a great line as it is, but it pales a bit versus the aforementioned skills.
• The essence of physical skills is hard control – not damage or anything else (Bolas being an oddball, but immobilization has become very unreliable now). Most classes have lots of passive effects that mitigate it (blocks, stability, special CC reflect), lots of active way to clear a hard control (break stun), and finally lots of other ways to manage it (invulnerability, dodge, evade, blocks). In short – even when you try to prepare and time your usage of a physical skill, then you’re likely to be ineffective.

Thus, the problem with physical skills lies within their essence: hard control is great, but is more easily countered than it was in the past. To me, reviving physical skills would therefore require some change:

• add utility to Peak Performance. Remove the damage thing, and make it so that physical skills grant a boon (e.g. quickness or regeneration or vigor, as was discussed months ago on this forum), or even remove a boon (stability).
• add a rune dedicated to physical skills, would be usable by both warriors and thieves. It would be similar to the soldier rune, which have shouts clearing conditions. One could have the sixth effect for anything useful (e.g. interrupting with a hard control putting the opponent’s skill on double CD and so on…).

Rampage can be great, and I have reasonable success with it – but mostly because players aren’t expecting it. It can be easily countered (conditions even if you precast resistance, moa, hard CC because one stack of stab is not enough…) or kited. I’m not sure what could be done to improve it without making it too strong. The hard CC and big damage is splendid, worth the long CD, but it still lacks something.

DTATL.9641:

This is a great post that a lot of the people on this forum needs to read. Paired with the post it replied to this is pure forum gold. People should have to read this before posting.

+1, both posts are well-articulated and thoughtful.

Apparently, the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 has broken the combo Realtek/Nahimic (among other things). After uninstalling the Realtek driver and Nahimic that I had, then installing Realtek 7960 and Nahimic 2.3.8, everything’s okay again.

https://nahimic.helprace.com/i95-nahimic-hotfix-is-available

Thanks for the suggestion, hope this post can help someone else.

Will try, thanks for the help!

Hello,

The game sound has some issues since the latest Windows 10 update. Depending on what driver is running, I may have no game sound at all (HD Microsoft Driver) or an ugly distorted one (Realtek 280).

If you’ve faced the same problem, then I’d be happy to hear what you did to solve this.

Thanks.

Wouldn’t that be indicated by the variation of the MMR, or more precisely, the extent of this variation? After a few matches, you’d get used to these variations, so would be able to decipher the match context. A big increase after a win would mean a victory against odds, and so on.

Incidentally, I’d love to track my MMR in time, to see how I improve (or not).

Adrenal Health is an unfortunate and lazy compromise brought in to provide the warrior with a bit of sustain, without changing the trait lines too much. Ideally, the warrior should have access to more diverse healing options.

It’s unlikely Adrenal Health be nerfed without some sort compensation. Even with Adrenal Health, the warrior is now barely competitive in PvP – and we’re just talking about selfish condi/bunker, which is the easiest type of build a class can make to be viable.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Is there any build that is easier to learn for a new warrior? Does not need to be the strongest, but maybe a build that carries a new warrior easier. Appreciate if you include the full build including runes/sigils/armor/weapon/traits etc.

Condition warriors are easier to play than power warriors. As you’ve stated you’re primarily interested in power builds, I won’t elaborate on this.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Is Greatsword mandatory for roaming? Just about every warrior I encounter in WvW roaming was using a GS.

For power warriors, yes it is. The GS offers lots of mobility, which is of paramount importance to a warrior. Don’t forget that a warrior cannot stealth no teleport, thus is always visible to the opponent. Mobility is key to survival, especially in WvW when you can get very easily outnumbered.

The GS is great, because it packs lots of interesting skills. GS #3 is probably one of the best skill in the game: high damage, evade, mobility and immobilization removal when traited with Warrior’s Sprint. The Berserker F1 has a range of 450, so as long as you’re not blocked / evaded, you can trigger all F1-based effects easily (Adrenal Health, Cleansing Ire…).

The GS can be paired with almost anything, offering different gameplays each time, which can also explain its popularity. GS/Axe+Shield, GS/Sword+Shield, GS/Hammer, GS/Longbow… are all played differently, and are fun in their own regard.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Is Sword+Board effective in the current meta for roaming? What are its weaknesses and strengths? Who does it struggle to fight against?

It’s not bad at all. Its main strength is mobility, although warriors are way less mobile that they used to be, when compared to other classes. The sword offers interesting combos, F1 can be used to immobilize into a burst (GS #2, sword #3), although classes are now more immune to immobilization than they used to be. Its weakness is the damage: both GS AA and the sword AA are bad in terms of damage, unlike the Axe AA which is great (especially with quickness).

I mostly do PvP these days, and the power warrior has become weaker I think, compared to other classes. Good players can read you easily and neutralize your stances and bursts, so it might not be an easy road for you to walk. It’ll be a fun one though.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Does anyone actually use dual one-hand weapons? like Sword/Shield + Axe/Warhorn or Axe/torch + Sword/warhorn

Many things are playable, but not as strong as setups with a GS. I’ve played sword/axe + mace/shield, and sword/warhorn + axe/shield for some time. These were fun, but less punchy than a GS.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Is there any good recent video of a sword and board warrior roamer I can watch and learn from?

Recent, none that I know. Hollts did some nice vids as “The Swordmaster”, which you may enjoy (latest from 8 months ago). The builds he uses are provided in the description of the videos.

As for learning some of the GS tricks, I’ve always liked Obindo’s “Warrior is beautiful”. It’s from before the enhanced “Adrenal Health”, so people don’t really play the traits anymore (I still play vanilla warrior in PvP!) – but the techniques he shows are completely fine.

Warrior here. Pretend to jump down from somewhere, turn mid-air and watch your pursuers jumping down… Bonus point when I help them with fear or push back

These days, I use this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJARSnMdAlhgVhAehAElilqATpHE7yBILuGQA4d02antA-TVyHABtr+DAHBAv0FA/hAQgLAQAPAAmUCG++D9o8jUAZuMC-w

I’ve preferred Commander rather than Marauder for the armor, because I like the toughness and boon duration more than vitality and crit damage. Coupled with durability, I’ve had enough sustain for my taste (weapons and trinkets being full berserker).

In terms of food, the Plate of Mussels Gnashblade is too good to not take. As for the other one, it depends on the price. I usually go for cheap 6/4% or 5/3% additional power, but if you can afford better, don’t hesitate.

In terms of traits, I use a PvP template, works nicely. Destruction of the Empowered rather than Brawler’s Recovery is certainly an option to consider, and possibly adopt. I like Head Butt because of how it fills adrenaline, however the War Banner has always been strong in group fights.

As sigils, I’m happy with Energy/Draining on the hammer, but would probably reconsider Hydromancy/Leeching on the GS (I have them because I roam a lot, Bloodlust somewhere would be good).

Oldirtbeard.9834:

I’ll just have to Git Gud, are there any gear choices that might help me more like Valk ( I figure as long as I’m stacking might and bringing banners and staying alive most people will be happy)?

Dungeons have their own mechanics. I think that understanding these comes first. You need to discern attack patterns of enemies, and build proper tactics to deal with it (dodge, block, evade, cleanse when needed, use terrain to your advantage and so on…).

Do you know that most dungeons can be solo’ed? It does not require any particular advanced gear to do so, and the exercise of solo’ing (or duo’ing) can help you gain experience rather quickly, both about the dungeon and your class.

As for the group, stacking might, providing banners and empowering allies should certainly be expected – but you’re expected to DPS as well. Killing fast, i.e. killing before you don’t have any dodge, evade or friendly Aegis remaining, is often the best way to stay alive.

Actually, killing fast is one of the most popular strategy in GW2 (love it or hate it), and in this regard, any player in the group not participating in the DPS might have his team mates killed, especially when these are average players in terms of skills.