Guild Wars 2

Tbh, having high survival in WvW isn’t very useful. Sure, you don’t die as often, but it’s not like you’re really defending anything like in sPvP and most of the time you’re in a real fight, you’re fighting a zerg, so survival isn’t really an option unless you run like a kitten. IMO, you’re better off going glass cannon and playing smart.

- Only run into the actual skirmish when you have your defensive CDs up.
- Pick off people on the forefront of their forces.
- Used range weapons appropriately, only use a greatsword for mobility and when you know someone is going to go down from a 100b and they can’t escape (awesome to use when people are trying to rez someone.)

With so many people being up-leveled in WvW, a warrior in full exotics can absolutely DESTROY a group of lowbies and is a veritable force to be reckoned with even when there are a couple 80s in the mix. Warrior, and for that matter melee classes in general, have to play with a little more caution than a ranged for the simple fact that once you’re in range to do what you’re meant to do, you’re also in range of getting owned in a matter of seconds. Play smart, pay attention to your surroundings and use those ranged weapons.

You’re right, Plague. There was another thread where someone was complaining not that ANet isn’t doing anything about balance, but rather that they were taking too long to make changes that they already intended to make. ANet knows, for example, that thief and mesmer need to be looked at, same thing with bunker builds, but they are waiting weeks upon weeks to implement these changes. The meta game, as a result, shifts to emphasize the use of these “Flavor of the Month” classes. It’s why when people queue into a hot join match, they see the rosters of 16 people, with 8+ of them being thieves/mesmers. The changes just need to be made quicker. And before people start crying that I’m QQ’ing about thieves and mesmers, I’m just using them as an example as they are the current FotM and are actively shifting the meta.

Plague, you hit the nail on the head. People suggest that you stack vitality in order to survive, but forget to consider that that’s all your doing, surviving. You can’t actually kill anyone when you stack these traits, SoS is fail because of the absurdly long CD as well as the fact that any good condi player will just reapply after you remove them. I’m running a similar build to what you’re suggesting, with soldier runes and the healing shout skill at the end of the tactics tree. I’ll have to look into trying dual mace.

I think the main issues with the suggestions thus far are:

1.) I already have 29k health and am running soldier runes. Stacking any more defense will mean kittening my dps more than it already is.

2.) Switching to a Great Sword isn’t going to help except for movement. Hundred Blades is arguably garbage and is only really a gimmick/noob spec. Hammer provides utility with knockback, stun, AoE slow and vulnerability application.

I think the real issue at hand is that the removal of conditions is worthless. Once they’re removed, they’re instantly reapplied. After your removals are popped, you’re a sitting duck. At best, you bought yourself a few seconds before all conditions are reapplied.

How are you supposed to deal with them? As a melee (Warrior), I have a couple condition removals, but honestly, what’s the point in using them? I remove my conditions, then they’re immediately back on me. If there is more than one condition class fighting against you, you have no real shot of winning. They DoT up and kite until you get close, then either use an escape/root/stun and put some more distance in between you. You will die eventually, not because you have played incorrectly, not because they are doing obscene amounts of damage, but because when you get hit with their bleeds/burns 100+ times, you can’t do anything about it and that combined 30k+ in conditions is beyond what you can deal with.

So what am I, or any melee for that matter, supposed to do in order to fight condition builds? Also, before anyone asks, I’m not a hundred blades warrior. I run hammer/axe/mace.