Guild Wars 2

While I’m definitely impressed by your survival skills, I’m quite underwhelmed by your build’s damage output. While it seems to be enough in 1vs1 situations, you might often find yourself in a situation where you can’t finish someone off before enemy reinforcements arrive, thus ending up in a >2vs1 situation. But hey – it all depends on one’s play style. I prefer high DPS with just a pinch of survivability, while you seem to be focused on stuns and heals. Nothing wrong with that Could you share your build?

Urk… This thread wasn’t yet up when I started typing the info on my new build. Oh well.
Build: Mobility DPS
Forum thread

This build is all about dealing high raw damage, while staying as mobile as possible, even retreating, if necessary. This is done by utilizing endless boons, condition removals, and Savage Leap (<3)
More info in my thread.

Hello there. I thought I’d share my current build with you folks, and ask for your insights and opinions.
Linky here: http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.2.3.3.21.15.5.0.4.0.28.36.39.38.50.2.2.26.80.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.126.129.132.140.141.145.10.0.0.30.30

What makes it so interesting is that, from what I’ve observed, while the sword/warhorn combo is typically used with condition builds, I’ve built a hybrid, using my leftover glass cannon gear. Yup – all my gear is purely berserker stuff, oriented towards crit damage. In the end, what this build is about is being a highly-mobile DPS machine, focused on evading&retreating in tight situations, rather than blocking.

Highlights:
-Permanent Fury, Swiftness, and Might

-The CR is 35+20(fury)9(trait)=64% in PVP, should reach 70% in PVE, since the armors/weapons provide additional stat&CD boosts. I’m still wearing sub-80 gear, so I can’t provide exact maximum PVE figures.

-The CD is 60+5(rune of rage #6)=65% in PVP; should reach 90+% in PVE. Yup, nearly x2.5 damage on crits

-Lowered warhorn & signet cooldown for increased healing, boon stacking, and condition removal capabilities. This makes the healing signet more viable for active usage in “oshi-” moments.

-While MH Axe would provide better DPS and add another AoE skill, I fell in love with Savage Leap the moment I first used it. Even with the altitude bug, it’s still very useful for closing/widening the distance, so I consider it a must for this mobility build. Skill 3 also cripples opponents, so it becomes even easier to run circles around them.

-Every boon, of which you’ll have at the least 3-4 active at any given moment, increases your damage output. Nifty!

-Somewhat high HP (at least for a DPS oriented build) provides a larger time window for retreat during nasty situations

Things to consider altering:

-Changing Healing Signet to Mending (during PVP). While the reduced cooldown brings the signet to stand almost at equal footing with Mending burst heal-wise, an additional condition removal is a very beneficial thing to have.

-Changing “For Great Justice” to Frenzy. Considering the fact that I’m using the Rage runes and signet, FGJ becomes redundant Fury-wise. However, you get an additional heal, plus 3 stacks of Might for 32 1/2 s on a 20s cooldown. This can result in quite a few stacks of might, given time. On the other hand, activating Frenzy, Savage Leaping into the midst of enemies and activating Whirling Axe can result in quite an awesome sight to behold. This is actually my biggest dilemma with this build. What do you folks think about having BOTH FGJ and Frenzy, but leaving out “Shake it Off”?

Weaknesses:

-No defense means one needs to master dodging to survive. The high amount of health, while beneficial, won’t protect one for long. On the other hand, this build IS focused on mobility, so as long as one utilizes the now-quite-scarcely-used technique called “tactical retreat”, this is an issue that can be overcome fairly easily.

-Not using the Signet of Rage makes the boon stacking strategy fall apart. Sorry, but please don’t expect me to use the elite banner.

-Since the sword burst locks one in place and makes one lose the CR and damage trait boosts, using it is a strict no-no. Hence you have one less skill to use.

I guess that’s it for the moment. I am still tinkering with this build, especially the utility skills and trait point allocation, so it isn’t final. However, I am enjoying it quite a lot, and think it should be viable both in PVE and PVP, since during the few PVP matches I played, I mostly finished as #1 on my team, and during PVE, I can stack boons as much/long as I want before venturing out.

On a side note, I keep a backup rifle in my inventory intended for WvW siege situations.

So there we are. Please share your experience and point out my mistakes, or anything I might have overlooked. Cheers!

I actually find the warrior to be more fun than any other MMO warrior I have played as for a very, very long time. It finally feels like even warriors can be useful, rather than being cannon fodder for the mages/archers. Oh, and to the nine hells with greatswords. I love dualwielding, and will not use two-handers as my main weapon out of sheer principle. It’s not like all the other weapon combinations are weak, or anything. You just need to build your character around what you’re trying to use. Having this wide of a weapon variety at our disposal and being able to reset our traits for pennies, thus letting us conveniently explore numerous set-ups definitely isn’t what I would call “boring”.
Well, to each their own, I guess. Perhaps the GW2 warrior is too radical a change for you. Try the other classes, perhaps you’ll find something else that floats your boat.

Ah, that’s simple. When you go down, you get 4 skills to choose from, right? The first one causes slight damage, the second one knocks down your foe, the fourth one channels health… What you’re experiencing is the effect of the third skill. When you use it, you are revived for 15 seconds. When those 15 seconds are over, you die. However, after every enemy you kill in that state, there’s a chance that you’ll rally, i.e. won’t die after the time limit expires. It’s good for life-or-death gambles, finishing off near-dead foes, or positioning yourself in a more convenient spot for potential resurrection. Check out the description of the third skill when you go down next time. Most likely you kept using that skill without checking what it does and thus got “fake” resurrections.

@Shadowgurke: That’s a bit outdated. My OH axe skills often trigger the fire sigil, even though it’s in my MH sword.
@Redscope: One proc effect every 2 seconds? This just got even more confusing. My fire sigil can trigger once every 5 seconds, so you’re saying a second fire sigil(or,say, an air sigil) could trigger after 2 seconds have passed since the first one’s activation, not 5? The only sigil I’m aware of that actually has a 2 second cooldown is the lifesteal one…

I see, so two identical sigils increase the proc chance… How about different ones? For example, If I used an air sigil and a fire sigil, could I trigger both in quick succession, or would they share cooldowns?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I really question the usefulness of the sigil you mentioned. Being already at around 50% critrate (unbuffed, level 80), I would get a 1/2 chance of dealing a crit after swapping anyway. I very much prefer a constant increase, which I already have.
I’d really appreciate more suggestions and a proper explanation on which sigils work/don’t work in offhand.

I’m currently confused on which sigils can effectively be used in offhand. I’ve heard the sigils that proc should go into the MH weapon, and the OH should only contain passives… But the old BWE discussions indicate various changes throughout development.
Anyway, at the moment I’m using an MH sword/OH axe combination; the sword contains a Superior Sigil of Fire (30% for a fire AoE on crit every 5 seconds) and the axe houses a Superior Sigil of Accuracy (5% critrate). Would it be viable to go for an Air sigil on the MH and a Fire sigil on the OH instead? Would both of them proc, or would the OH one be wasted? Do you folks have any better sugestions for a crit build?

Mobility is precisely why I can’t bring myself to ditch the MH sword. Savage leap is just too useful – both in PVP and PVE (especially when gunning for certain vistas and in jumping puzzles). You could try adding a little bit of speed by using the Warrior’s Sprint trait (Discipline), but that isn’t really much help, to be honest. Another solution would be the Furious Speed trait in the Arms line. 10% chance of 3s swiftness on a crit. Yet another thing you could try would be using a sigil that grants swiftness on a crit/kill. In all of these cases, though, you’d be sacrificing potential DPS. Nevertheless, try them out. Perhaps you’ll find something that suits you.

Earnix.4021:

My berserker! I wish I could keep the look a little bit longer but it’s almost time for some upgrades!

You can always use transmutation stones to combine the visual looks of your old armor with the stats and runes of your new one~

Cafesoneca.3548:

anyways you just wouldnt swing one sword while the other one stand stills.

did you ever play when you kitten kid if wooden sword, i loved to use 2, and i could atk realy fast withou leting my friends hit me or if they hit me i could just block the atk with 1 hand and use the other one to counter atk.

Your first statement is invalidated by your second one, which also supports my previous post. As for my real-life credibility… Well, I did Kendo for nearly 2 years, and while I didn’t dualwield myself, I did went up against a dualwielder a few times. And yes, one sword was always used for attack, the other one – for defense.

Cafesoneca.3548:

the dual sword skill are bad, the riposte does’nt work, it should be a passive chance for bloking or a buff that you put on for a time and you should get retaliation or protection when you put that on.

the rip and impale are useless realy, is a slow ranged atk, and a very easy too dodge move,evem impale is easy to dodge, take it out,give us some sword of bust,debuf skill that is not ranged, we already got leap and lot of ccs, so give us burst/debuff evem a stun or imobilze.

You’re only focusing on the OH sword variant, though. OH sword belongs to the bleed build; if you want pure damage/high damage+versatility, go for dual axes, or MH sword+OH axe (I chose the latter option).

I read a discussion on this exact matter somewhere, and the conclusion reached was one I completely agree with. Think realistically – when dualwielding, one of the weapons should be used as a parrying tool. Not only would attacking with both weapons severely limit your attacking trajectories and possible points of impact, it would also make you lose balance, as well as leaving you open and defenseless. While dualwield does indeed open up more attack patterns, one of the weapons pretty much always ends up being used defensively, and there isn’t much way around it.

If you prefer defending and prioritize survivability, I’d suggest going for a Guardian. If not, start practicing your evasion. This isn’t a blind button mashing fest. You need to pay attention not only to WHAT kind of attack is coming, but WHERE it’s coming from as well.

Oooh, reinforced scale, huh. Good taste!
Over here, it’s the banded scale model as the chestpiece, while all the others are pit fighter’s stuff.