Guild Wars 2

When you run the dungeons and you play a tanky character, you can eat attacks. That means you are never forced to learn the boss animations and timings. On the other hand when you play a berserker build, you cannot eat boss attacks so you must learn the animations and timings in order to dodge.
In short, now you have to actually learn the dungeon encounters and practice damage mitigation.

Aha! I think you’re the person that actually made that build, if I’m not mistaken? Well, I appreciate the feedback, from everyone. I guess there are some difficulties you just don’t appreciate until one good hit can down you! XD Welp, time for practice practice practice…

So, this is probably going to sound like something of a simplistic question, but…Does anyone have any tips for staying alive in berserker mode? I’ve found myself in something of a quandary.

After looking at many different sites, forums, etc, I’ve managed to find what seems to be an excellent damage build for berserker. http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/83915-axemace-dps-build-for-dungeons-and-fractals-101513/

Now, I don’t have full ascended gear and scholar runes and such, but that doesn’t really play into my dilemma, which is this—

How in the kitten do zerker warriors manage to stay ALIVE?! I mean, cripes. I’ve done dozens of dungeons (mostly as a bunker shout tank) and while I can appreciate that being a pure dps glass cannon has intricacies associated with it that I may need to learn through playing, I still don’t understand how most zerker warriors can live long enough to get through a boss fight without getting downed, much less make use of scholar runes or stacking sigil bonuses.

Is it group composition? Skills? I use healing surge, signet of precision, the precision/crit damage banner, and for great justice. I find that conditions are frequently what do me in, but I’ve found that switching to mending only makes my survivability worse.

Now, I usually do pugs, so what occurs to me is that glass warrior builds only really WORK in dedicated groups that have water eles/guardians/etc to help strip off conditions and keep them healthy. Am I correct in assuming this?

If I’m not, could somebody experienced with this build perhaps give me some tips, aside from “L2P noob”, etc? Because while I acknowledge that there’s an experience factor, I’ve done plenty of dungeons, fractals, and the like. I regularly use my dodge button, and I avoid the red circles. But time and time again, I just can’t seem to keep myself alive. And so I turn to you, my warrior comrades, to give me some wisdom! It’d be greatly appreciated!

I think the issue he brought up, Remix, is that while the mace may have comparable DAMAGE to an axe, its attack interval is nowhere near equal. That last hit on the mace takes a LONG freaking time.

Funnily enough, I’ve never actually slotted endure pain as an active…Although maybe I should make better use of it, that’s another candidate to replace “On My Mark!”

So Axe is another viable candidate as well? That was my initial impression, the only trouble I can see with axe, from a control/tanking standpoint, is the fact that you only get the one AoE (the circle attack, and the auto-attack has some as well). Sword -might- have better aoe potential, but I’m not sure. Have you ever experimented with sword/hammer, Shinki?

Also, I’m curious…Why Valkyrie jewelry?

Well, Shake it Off has the benefit of being a stunbreaker, which could let you get up from a knockdown so you can pop Dolyak Signet…Although I do see the benefit of using balanced stance instead, as it accomplishes both at the same time.

I’ll fool around with Hammer/Longbow and Sword-Shield/Longbow….Hopefully that will help with what ails me. If anyone else has any helpful tips though, that’d be great!

Idly, I hope Mace gets -some- kind of buff in the future. It’s a shame, it seems like a classic “tanky” weapon, but the windup time on that last blow really, -really- hurts it, seems like.

Oh, additionally, what are your guys’ thoughts on the use of the Dolyak Signet? I know it’s been buffed considerably (even if 180 toughness pales in comparison to the -10% damage the guardian signet has) but it offers some utility by providing stability for annoying situations like the Molten Core facility, while providing a passive benefit when you don’t need the stability (unlike balanced stance.) Somebody earlier mentioned the use of the signet of fury…Any thoughts on that? I would say that, of all three shouts, you could more or less safely swap out on my mark for a signet…But I’m not sure which signet to swap it out for, if any.

Also, am I right to think healing signet isn’t especially useful? I just feel like healing surge has more benefit…Although, that was when I was using the mace build (where I rarely, if ever used my burst skill), so the more frequent spending of adrenaline on bursts might warrant a different heal…Although I suppose healing surge -also- refills all adrenaline.

Aah, I didn’t realize healing had no effect on mob hatred. That’s useful information! I didn’t realize that mace/shield was such a poor combination, either.

Funnily enough, according to the wiki, which players are using shields actually factors into the threat table…But the use of shields/how much toughness a character has is apparently considered -after- the ones who are closest, which ones are dealing damage, and the people dealing the greatest damage.

So, it seems like I need to try out both hammer and sword/shield…The only sad thing is, with the defense/tactics primary traitlines, there’s nothing that you can get to actually benefit the sword. Also, what stats/sigils am I going to be looking for on the sword hammer? Sentinel, Berserker, Carrion? Some builds suggest using the superior sigil of water/life…

I’ve thought about using longbow as a weapon of choice, yeah. The problem is (and this is again from experience, but I may just be doing it wrong) I notice a rather stark decrease in my survivability when I switch to my longbow. That does make me wonder, though, if switching the 10 trait points I have in power so I can get the trait that gives you adrenaline on shout use…That could help keep the longbow fire field up.

I had thought about using sword before (and I’ve been experimenting with axe some, too). But wouldn’t you need to stack condition damage for the bleeding from the sword to be effective? The main reason I use mace, honestly, is because it can apply weakness to multiple foes. Those glancing blows can really soften the damage you take, though I suppose it’s a moot point if the enemies aren’t attacking you. XD

I’ll think about adding in signet of fury…Might be worth cycling out a shout for, we’ll see. Thanks for the tips so far! Hopefully the increase in vitality I’ll get from switching to sentinel gear will help keep threat. Any more tips?

Also, I don’t agree with the notion that warriors aren’t designed to, or can’t tank. Now, I may be a bit crazy (I loved deathknight tanking before there was actually an established tanking talent line, etc) but I love tanking, and I love warrior. I don’t think tanking is impossible, I think you just need a bit more out-of-the-box-thinking to warrior tank.

Sword does seem like it would have its tanking merits, though (being able to immobilize a small group of enemies could be incredibly helpful) but I wonder if axe might be a bit more effective without stacking condition damage. Thoughts?

All right, I know the subject is somewhat controversial at the moment, and I recognize that in some respects, warriors are less suited to tanking than guardians.

With that being said; I love warrior, and I’m trying my darndest to make a tanking build work. I’m going with a classic shout build: 30 in defense, 30 in tactics, and 10 in strength (in order to get the great fortitude trait.) I go with dogged march, shield master, and endure pain; and then empowered, lung capacity, and vigorous shouts.

I’ve got my warrior slotted up with the karma items from orr (all power/toughness/vitality), with a full set of soldier runes. Then, I’ve got all my jewel slots filled with exotic sentinel jewelry, in addition to the soldier’s spineguard and Thackeray crest.

My mace and shield are currently slotted with azurite orbs (which likely needs to change, but eh). I like to use the mango pie for dungeons, as it gives +70 vitality and regeneration comparable to what the guardian gets from their virtue. I like to use healing surge for my healing skill, since I don’t need mending for condition removal (due to the soldier runes) and experience has taught me that the healing signet isn’t especially useful for dungeons.

Now, with all -that- being said, I seem to have something of a hard time keeping aggro/hate off of my party members, or even other players in PVE. I’m not entirely certain what it is I’m doing wrong. My main strategy is to try and hit as many people with the shouts as possible (to generate hate via healing) while mixing in stuns/dazes/the small aoe afforded by the mace-thwack-attack. What kind of strategies do you all use to keep hate off of your party members? Is there something I should change? At some point I’m going to swap out to full sentinel gear, which should help with survivability, but I’m mostly worried about keeping hate off of my party members. This was a major issue in the Molten Core dungeon (all of those knockbacks/knockdowns/stuns really made it hard to do much effectively. Maybe include balanced stance instead of “On My Mark?”)