Guild Wars 2

I was wondering how people would feel about a competitive tournament in a solo queue fashion. Here’s the basic idea:

- Have a set pool of players, lets say 80 for starters
- Everyone who’s made it on the leader board can apply on first come first serve basis.
- teams play best of 3, the winners advance to the next round.
- maps are random (excluding Skyhammer, Spirit Watch and Capricorn)
- every new round teams get mixed up into new teams based on the remaining player pool

I think it would make for a different game dynamic than team tournaments and there would be probably greater build diversity.

Not allowing VoP would make it more solo queue like, but that could be easily circumvented, so instead the organisers could provide a TS server or an equivalent with dedicated rooms for each team.

Opinions? Suggestions?

4116 is the highest armor you can get on a warrior to my knowledge – Banner of Defense, Dolyak signet, traited Shield, Toughness runes (your pick) and Shamans Amulet/Jewel. (Unless I’m missing something) He was running warhorn however which would mean 3965 which is still pretty high though.

Anyway I think you need to find a balance between healing, thoughness and condi damage to make it work. I agree with Steelo that you will be able to put out more pressure going the condi route than if you go for power, because you only have to rely on one stat, instead of three really. Then again with the CC you’ll bring other things to the table, especially if you stick to team fights. It depends on what you role you want to play I suppose.

@Daecollo I’m not quite sure who your comment was addressed to, but in my case with warhorn, cleransing Ire and zerker stance, plus the high HPS, condis are not the biggest issue at all. High burst damage and hard CC is much more dangerous imo.
I think we’re in a good spot right now and we might not be in the guardian spot yet, but we’re moving more and more to a bunker warrior being an actual option rather than a gimicky build imo. It’ll be interesting to see how Steelo’s build will work with the changes to shouts as well.

Looks interesting. I’m running a condi banner warrior the last few weeks in solo queue and I find it pretty effective:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBjYDbk0p9NFSGCHOAge8VVbdKkU6RYstGA-TsAg2CpIASBkDIDQSgsANEZJyeBA

Personally I find bunkering much easier with a ranged weapon and Cleansing Ire works much better with LB than anything else. With the runes and the traited Warhorn you actually have a pretty good up-time of protection. The weapons synergise well and you can put out quite a bit of pressure with the bleeds and burning, while having access to plenty off soft CC.

I’ve also been experimenting with Forge runes and Banner of Defense, but I think this setup is working better. The root (it’s basically like the ranger elite without the bleeding) can actually be quite annoying for people and they normally don’t expect it at all it and likely waste a condi cleanse on it only to get immobilized again shortly after with bow 5 or Flurry.

If you add in mace and shield you trade it off for any real mobility except earth shaker. Thus you can be kited all day long.
The devs have said that they wanted to give warrior the ability to stick to the target and that once he/she’s on there they would become the most dangerous. To me that sounds indeed like it’s working as intended.
Moreover, the only change affecting the availability of diasables on Hammer has been the change of brawn to burst cd reduction in the discipline tree. That was a major and much needed change and I doubt it will leave anytime soon. You were able to stun lock people with hammer since launch. How is this mechanic suddenly OP when it’s been in the game all along?

Correct me if I’m wrong but that GS/Maceshield combo looks suspiciously like Longbow, Sword and Warhorn…

You can easily look it up or better yet test it yourself in the mist.
A max healing power build would have 1558 HP. (30 points in defense AND tactics, Cleric Amulet+Jewel, Healing Power runes, Banner of Tactics up)
That equals:
470 hps for the healing signet
325 hps for regen
and max of 195 hps through adrenal health (585 every 3 seconds)
altogether that makes 990 hps not 1,2k.

If you sat on 3 bars of adrenaline (which your opponent wasn’t) to gain this max hps constantly, you would die because neither can you pressure your opponent nor can you cleanse as many conditions as you need to.

Judging by the bleed damage you received and the weapon he was using your opponent most likely ran a shaman amulet and not a cleric. With a Shaman Amulet and Jewel and the above setup, its 909,33 hps (452+280+532/3) at full adrenaline. Hardly 1,2k.

And this is still in total disregard of the fact that he actually used combustive shot and flurry all the time, wiping his adrenaline in the process and thus lowering his effective hps.

Even if you throw the Sigil of Leeching he was using (847 every 10s at best) and a heal with the banner #2 skill EVERY 10s for 919 Hp into the equation you won’t get to your 1,2k especially not on the setup he was running.

The way I see it. You were outplayed by a condi bunker build in a drawn out 1v1 fair and square. Bring lots of poison (especially when he’s on bow), burst him when he’s poisoned and don’t attack when retaliation is up or steal it (like you did) and he will have more trouble.

But please don’t spread false information because you lost and think that’s unfair.

Seems like you didn’t get the memo that this was confirmed as a typo shortly after the patch notes were published

I’m with Fenrir on this. Maybe 2 Lyssa runes. Gives you 25 precision but also 10% condi duration.

Rune of undead and rabid amulet perhaps? Just bare in mind you won’t have much vitality.

I can see the benefit of mixing regeneration with shout heals as opposed to either regen (banners) or shout heals with condition cleanse (soldier runes). Not sure if the condi cleanse as it is, is enough but healing signet + regen will mitigate a lot I’m sure. I found the 5% skills on runes to proc quite reliably so I can imagine this actually working.

You shouldn’t have two weapon swap sigil on sword and war horn though, since they share the cool down and will cancel each other out. So best choice imo would be a condi duration sigil or either corruption or life. Although I’m not sure how much kill stack sigil will be worth since your not exactly a killing machine, maybe bleed duration.

My bad I meant inspiring shouts which gives you adrenaline when using a shout (not the cool down reduction trait) It can be used quite well to set up a burst skill and might be helpful since you don’t really have a reliable source of adrenaline gain.

While I see your point about defy pain not being as effective when your healing is so good already, it would give you a nice window of steady full heals at a potentially crucial point, when your HP does get low.
Personally I find last stand really helpful, although the cd is pretty high, since it’s an automatic stun break with stability.
I definitely see where you coming from with needing another source of damage though.

I can definitely see it work without fast hands and points in discipline, but in my experience whenever I try a bunker build I always wish I wouldn’t have to sacrifice fast hands, hence the suggestion.

Since you only have 29% crit chance with fury I’d say weapon swap sigils are the better option, espeacially since you don’t have fast hands. You could go hydromancy if you really want that chill (it’s also a longer chill on a shorter cd) or leeching for more heals.

Retaliation scales with your power so it is already weaker with cleric amulet but with shaman (which seems the better option here) it becomes a waste of a grand master trait imo. Last stand or defy pain as an alternative springs to mind.

I would also consider taking 10 out of arms and 10 out of defense and putting them into discipline. You’d get fast hands and could get vigorous shouts and signet mastery. Combined with the cd reduction on burst skills this would mean you can apply more pressure with lbF1 and have more uptime on condi cleanse via cleansing ire. Plus fast hands gives you more reliable acces to wh for cleanses.

Not sure if you’re trying to troll or just can’t be bothered to read.

You should take your time and have a look at the skill description.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Bull%27s_Charge
Bull’s charge is a knockdown not a stun (which also means that neither unsuspecting foe nor sigil of paralyzation have any effect on it). Yes it removes immobilize IF you have mobile strikes traited, but it’s still effected by chill and cripple just like any other warrior movement skill except savage leap.

On the other hand rocket boots remove all three conditions, without you having to trait for it.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rocket_Boots

…

Now another version with more base damage and higher survivability, but with 13% less crit chance (-5 from 10 points less in Arms, -8 from not using precision runes), less crit damage and no vulnerability stacking is this one:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRAne5XjcOpwtQyQMxBA0jrqarTBlUPmzt4A-TwAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwGhJCA

Armored Attack actually gives you 89 power (94 with traited shield) which is a nice bonus. At the same time you can invest in defy pain for another 4 sec of invulnerability. The benefit of Hoelbrack runes are the additional might and obviously the condi reduction.

Alternatively you could go for Melandru for even more tankyness and survivability. (I haven’t tested this one yet):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRAne5XjcOpwtQyQMxBA0jrqarTBlUPmzt4A-TwAA1CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNIYRwGhJCA

The traits that are essential imo are Unsuspecting Foe, Cleansing Ire, Axe Mastery and Burst Mastery. The optional ones are Defy Pain, Rending Strikes, Shield Mastery and Warriors Sprint.

If you prefer to run Signets instead of stances (bar endure pain which I think is essential, since it’s a melee only build), than Signet Mastery would spring to mind. You could also go Vigorous Focus, however I feel warriors sprint makes you much more mobile when SoR is on a 60 cd.

Shield master could be switched for Missile Deflection, Dogged March or even Sure Footed if you go all stances.

Defy Pain relies on the initial setup and would be an alternative to rending Strike (which seems the best option for the Arms master trait for me.)

In terms of utilities battle Standard would be an alternative if you run with an organised team instead of solo-queuing. In that case you might need another reliable source of fury though (Furious Reaction springs to mind). So far I’ve been going with Healing Surge, because you can gain Adrenaline fast enough to get the full heal in most cases, it might work better with Healing Signet if you go for Signet Mastery, but I’m not sure there.

In terms of Sigils, the Paralysation ones are mandatory imo, the Accuracy are there to achieve the 100% crit chance, it might be more beneficial to go for something else since 95% is still really high and the burst skills would be at 105% anyway due to Critical Bursts. (that is only on the first version of course). Maybe Sigil of Fire on Axe and Bloodlust on Mace would be better, or Minor Accuracy on version 2 and 3 as 25 stacks would bring give you back another 12% crit chance.

Anyways thanks for reading and I’m looking forward to your feedback.

PS: I’m aware that the sustained crit chance is not as high as above, but I have the ideal situation in mind, i.e. fury and dazed/stunned foe, because that’s where the build would be akittens best. In also chose this for ease of comparison.

I’ve been working on a few variations of the skull crack builds that are floating around and would appreciate some feedback.

Basically I wanted to find out if Axe can become an alternative to sword because eviscerate would be on half the cd of Final Thrust and you would hit like a below 50% FT on every hit. (It’s also slightly harder to dodge) The obvious trade-offs are that loss of mobility and control (cripples, immobilize, knockdown). However I find the damage increase makes up for that.

So the main setup is Ax/Sh and Ma/Ax. So far I’ve come up with a few variations depending on runes and traits. The first build has the perk that as long as you have fury up every hit on a stunned or dazed opponent is a guaranteed crit. While testing it I’ve noticed that Unsuspecting Foe works with the daze of Mace 3 as well. (Tested it on a dummy with fury up (50% crit chance) – every attack during the daze crits. Easiest way to check is using dual Strike. If Unsuspecting Foe wasn’t proccing you should get roughly half of them be non-crits. Instead when I tested it, both attacks did crit every single time.)

With this in mind here is the first variation.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRAne5XjcOpwtQyQMxBAkirq6oQJqUPmzt4A-TwAA1CnIwRhjDHDOScs4MIYRwGhJCA

The ideal rotation would be:

Pommelbash (-> Dual Strike if you don’t have Fury up) -> Skullcrack -> Whirling Axe -> WS -> Shieldbash -> Cyclone Axe -> Eviscerate -> a few autoattacks to gain adrenaline till WS is back up -> Skullcrack -> Mace auto

I’m aware that most people think Ax oh is useless in PvP, in this scenario however it serves multiple purposes and thus I think it’s worth considering. With the combination of the crits and the stacks of vulnerability you apply you can get over 7k from whirlwind. It also fills up your Adrenaline bar and the vulnerability stacks remain long enough for eviscerate to hit even harder.

Thanks to the Sigil of Paralysation Pommelbash and Shieldbash give you a 2s window. So when you hit shield bash you can throw in Cylcone Axe to stack more vulnerability and then Eviscerate. After that you still have the Axe auto attack critting about half of the time, giving you decent damage and adrenaline gain until you swap back, to hit another skull crack.

The downsides of using 20 in arms and eagle runes is that you get less base damage and less survivability. In exchange you get the 100% crit chance on dazed/stunned opponents. I’ve tried it with Valkyrie runes as well to get higher Crit damage, but found that Soldier Ammy increases your survivability drastically and thus is the better option for me.

Didn’t see you edited the response. I would agree that the potential to pull of a full CC chain increases the smaller the fight.
However I don’t think it is ever getting close to OP because he still has to rip through your protection and regen to actually kill you within the duration of the cc-chain and with the reduced damage that comes with those weapons, that is a very unlikely outcome.

And a bucket load of condis can kill you in less than 9 seconds.
It is also unlikley that you will get a full skullcrack every 7 1/2, because you will have spend adrenaline on the other weapon (for the effect or maybe just to get some conditions off) or because Skullcrack was your first attack and your weapon swap isn’t even back after 7 seconds.
Besides how long will the warrior be able to stand right in front of you in the middle of a team fight and “spam” you with CC while damage and condis and CC are flying around all over the place? Realistically, I reckon not even a full stunlock rotation.
Now in a 2v1 and maybe even a 1v1 it’s a different situation, but in case of the latter the warrior will likely not outdamage your heals and defense.

I agree to disagree. If you’re speaking about a team fight, the same situation applies for CC, a guardian can use shouts with stunbreakers to get you out and give you stability, your team mates can blind the warrior and focus him down. I have a feeling were running in circles here.

And not I don’t consider skills on 30, 25 and 20s cooldowns spammable in a situatin where you swap weapons every 5. If you want cooldown reductions on those you need to heavily invest into the Defense tree, which lowers your overall damage output significantly. (it is also more advisable to use other traits there) In oder to get burst skills on a 7 1/2 cd you need to invest another 30 points into Discipline, effectively giving you 10 more points which you pretty much have to invest into unsuspecting foe, in order to give you a half decent chance at benefitting from the crit damage you just heavily invested in, BUT only as long as your opponent is stunned, not knockbacked, not knocked down, not dazed.

So there’s a lot of sacrifice in order to get into the situation in the first place.

Your argument has hardly any legs to stand on.
Warrior CC isn’t spammed and they work best on rotations. Half of those skills are on high cooldowns (Shieldbash, Tremor, Backbreaker and Staggering Blow), they also have obvious animations and thus can easily be dodged, blocked or blinded. Earthshaker and Skullcrack (while potentially on very low cds) also depend on the amount of adrenaline gained and are much less effective without full adrenaline.
Warriors have to factor in all of the above plus, stunbreakers and stability if they want to effectively stunlock someone.

On top of all that Warriors have to put themselves right in the line of fire in order to be able to attempt to carry them out in the first place, making it a high risk manouever.

As pointed out above this is a completely different situation to ranged condition spamming and in my opionion the same would apply to burst spamming out of stealth (thief) or swarming you with pets while spamming auto attacks from distance paired with evades/teleports on weaponskills when they get close? (ranger/mesmer).

There are multiple counters to warrior CCs:
precautionary – blinds, kiting, stability
active – dodges and blocks
reactive – stun breakers which can be followed by any of the above.

How is this the same situation as with the accessibility of massive condition pressure and the limited accessibilty to its only hard counter – condi cleanse.

Besides that, for the longest time warriors had to try and balance their offensive potential with all the defensive capabilities they could get hold of just to be able to get into the fight, at which point they were still at high risk and considered a free kill by almost everyone (even other warriors). Utilityslots and even weapon slot are usually filled with defensive skills like stunbreakers, condi cleanses and whatever else they can get their hands on to make sure they get into the fight in the first place and then don’t get killed instantly. It’s only fair they can finally bring something to the table that forces the other classes to also consider counterplays.

The amount of CC a Warriors have at their disposal hasn’t changed. The only thing that has changed recently is the increase of 1s on Skullcrack, which makes perfect sense, because why would it have the same length as Earthshaker which is a gap closer and AoE attack, and the potentially decreased cooldown of burst skills in general. (And Rampage I guess but it’s still subpar)
So how has it not been a problem before?

In addition to that Rangers rely heavily on range attacks while Warriors who want to make use of CC need to get into melee range to use and to land any attacks. If the ranger manages to kite the warrior he’s rendered useless, if the Warrior manages to close the gap and manages to CC that is simply the counter play to the kiting tactic and exactly what the Devs said they want Warriors to be able to do. Close the gap, stick on the target and apply pressure.

I would assume that Rangers have less stunbreakers and access to stability by design, because they have a ton of evasive skills and kite potential. In the situation there needs to be an achiles heel for both. Keep the Warrior at distance you win, if he gets on top of you, either you get the heck out or he wins.

Sounds good. Thanks for the response Evan.

But that would mean that roamers and burst builds are severely advantaged over point defenders. Because they get a significantly bigger amount of points through back capping and getting points through cleaving. Even though the point defender contributes just as much maybe even more to the match and a possible win.
If the tourney win points counted it would at least close the gap a little. Alternatively you could make point defenders’ score tick while they hold the point, not with every tick of course but maybe every 3 or every 5 ticks.

All on crit Sigils have a cooldown. Sigil of Earth has a two second one: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Earth

Edit: The bleed proc through Precise Strikes doesn’t though as far as i know, maybe you were mixing those up?

My mistake. I remembered it wrong which is likely due to the fact that both (Guardian Rune and Mighty Defense) do proc when you block a ranged Aoe like Barrage. In the heat of the battle it seemed they proc on all ranged attacks. My bad. In that case I guess the loss in condi damage isn’t worth it.

What I meant about the Sigils is that Earth and Doom interfere with each other. In most situations Doom will proc first. While it is on cd, Earth won’t proc. Likewise if Earth happens to proc a bit less than 2s before your weapon swap, doom won’t proc either. Imo Sigil of Earth on a 9s cd (more often than not) is a waste of a sigil slot or two in this case.

Have you considered using Runes of the Guardian + Mighty Defense? They synergise pretty neatly with missile deflection and make give your blocks even more utility (reflected damage, burn and might stacks) Also your Sigils cds will interfere with each other, I’d stick with Doom, swap one Earth with Corruption and the other with a condi duration one mayhaps?
All in all though in my experience a build like that is saidly not working that well, bow is just too strong an alternative. But who knows maybe it’ll work for you.

I’ve only played a few matches with a setup like the OPs (although with Signet of Stamina instead of Beserker Stance, Shield Mastery instead of Dogged March and Leg specialist instead of Shrug it off)

Imo it is actually pretty strong, although it’ll probably need more testing. 2v1 I only went down after what felt like an eternity and with a lot of condi pressure. And I could hold out 3v1s for a while.

Yes you don’t have protection except the rune proc (which does proc relatively often though), but you have other ways of mitigating damage, mainly the huge amount of CC. Stunned, knocked down/back or dazed opponents can’t do damage. And if you stun-lock someone, you tick for 795 per second (470+325 based on 1558 Healing Power) + Adrenal health (would be 585/3s at full adrenaline), while pounding away at them and meanwhile they are unable to hit you (obviously that’s a different story with more than one opponent but still good). In addition to that you have Weakness on a relatively short cool down on Hammer, the blocks, Defy Pain, the heals on swap (although energy might be better in the long term) and the heal on the banner itself, which can actually be a great fall back if you do get low on health. Condis can be a problem, but unless you’re blinded Earthshaker helps a lot, Skull Crack a little less due to single target and Signet of Stamina is on a pretty low cool down too.

It would be interested to see how this performs with Valkyrie/Cleric and 0/10/20/30/10 with Unsuspecting Foe instead of Defy Pain. I used that in a previous attempt at a warrior bunker spec and I found it better because you could actually take people out, granted you’d be less tanky and would get less regen. (but it might still be enough)

I’m also wondering if Rampage could factor into it. If you would use it as an opener on a far point assault to get a decap, that might work. Not sure though, since you lose the utilities and all your access to condi cleanse. Signet of Rage or Battle Standard are probably still the better option.

I would also say go for banner regen if I were you, i.e. swap Empowered for Inspiring Battle standards.

I’d also swap Dolyak Signet for Balanced Stance since you don’t have Signet Mastery and the CD is 20s longer (than Balanced Stance) because of that.

If you want to keep 10 in Strength, than I’d go for restorative strength, because so far you don’t have any condi cleanse apart from mending and it will make it almost a complete condi clear on a 20s CD.
Staying on the condi cleanse topic, why no Cleansing Ire? Especially with bow, much better investment than Vigorous Return imo.

As for your runes, the regen on the sixth only gives 30 health per sec, so I would at least change the last one for a Rune of Divinity.
Alternatively, with your support role in mind, you could try runes of Mercy, although that is probably a bit gimicky (you already have the #2 bonus through determined revival). Maybe Rune of Earth (for Protection) or Warrior (Power/Vitality + -1s weapon swap CD).
My 2c

If they do stack it would make you actually immune to condis for the duration though or not (more so in WvW of course)? If you throw in endure and/or defy pain if you need to and get rid off any remaining condis with cleansing ire (you get loads of adrenaline for the duration anyway) this could prove pretty difficult for condi spammers (hypothetically).

Does it stack with Melandru Runes and Dogged March? Also 10s traited might just be enough of a window to burst down that necro, no?

How about using Dogged March instead of Reflective shield and swapping Bullscharge for Endure Pain or Beserker Stance?

As far as I know if it has a password or more than 2 reserved slots, “no progression” is triggered, i.e. you can’t gain any rank/glory from playing. This is to avoid exploiting custom arenas for rank/glory farming I assume. Makes sense if the same applies to dailies based on that.

I can’t say much about how viable it would be (I tried something similar but much more tanky in spvp once, which was fun in hotjoin and an utterly failure in tournaments against any half organised team), but you’re definitely wasting to Sigils.
Condi duration Sigils don’t stack so the two Sigils of Agony on the same weapon set only give you 10% no matter what.

And since all Sigils with an ICD share the same ICD, you won’t be able to get any procs for the Sigil of Battle for kitten anytime Sigil of Rage procs and likewise, since Battle is on weapon swap, the likelihood is that it will almost always proc before Rage, which then is on a 10s cooldown and likely to not proc at all, since you’ll have probably swapped back by then. Sigil of Rage has the least compatibility with other on-crit or on-swap Sigils by far.

I’d switch one for Corruption and either change one of the Agony Sigils to the other weapon set or change with something else. you could also consider using Sigils of Doom if you want access to another condition.

ArtemisEntreri.4138:

Anyone tried Furious + Sharpened Axes to see if we are looking at 4 times as much adrenaline regen (when you crit) ?

Seems to be working for me.

This is build is definitely a lot of fun.
I switched Endure Pain for FGJ, for more fury uptime (and might stacks.) and shield mastery for Dogged March.
Seems to work too, although I might have just been really lucky.

As far as I’m concerned, if we weren’t trying to push the class to it’s limits by coming up with as many builds as possible and testing all their pros and cons, our arguments about what needs to change would lose all their credibility.

If you just sit there and say “Warrior is crap, change it!” It makes you sound like a spoiled child. How is anyone going to take you serious? Let alone the devs, who need constructive feedback to work with.

Whereas if you test things out [lets not have the test server argument] you might even find some of the things they intended with these new changes and find them to be an improvement. From there you can still criticise, point out the flaws and make suggestions for changes.

Excellent! Thanks!

Based on Cleansing Ire’s explanation if you have both traits, you should only be able to cleanse two conditions per Burst skill use, as you never use more than two bars at once.

Has someone tested if this is actually the case? I would find it rather unfortunate if this was to be true.

Daecollo.9578:

So basicly, to be kind of like a guardian.

I need 20 points in my tree, burning a healing skill, runes and specific weapon sets?

Why not just play a guardian and do more damage, have more buffs?

Personally I don’t find it very unreasonable to invest trait points into a defensive trait line to take advantage of a defensive utitility. Just as much as I expect damage oriented utilities in an offensive trait line. (by utilities I don’t mean utility skills btw.)

Naturally there are a few options that give you a offensive bonus in a defensive line (i.e. empowered, merciless hammer…) and vice versa (i.e. Restorative Strength, great fortitude…), but IMO these are more crutches if you decide to invest fully in either offensive or defensive. (and not necessarily always great ones)

And if you want to delve deeper in certain direction, you go for certain runes/weapon sets etc, that’s kind of what they there for. You know like using power and crit damage runes to do more damage.

Of course it’s not like a guardian would use Soldier runes perhaps to increase his condi removal… oh wait.

Anyways I see the potential for warriors not so much in the damage, but in the CC you can potentially dish out with them. I certainly feel that the whole idea of the warrior is to either go CC or Damage or combine them, just have a look at Burst skills and how they scale with adrenaline (4 scale in power, 4 scale in CC and bow scales in power and condi damage).
Other people might want to combine condition pressure with CC or damage or go all out bursty. I hope the patch gives us a little more room to really explore these routes and find viable options. I think the potential is there if the leaked notes are accurate.

PS: I know it’s kind of your catch phrase, but I don’t want to play a guardian I want to play a warrior.

Just a wild guess:
Melandru Runes + Dogged March + cleansing Ire + Restorative Strength (with Mending if you need to), equip new Beserker’s Stance.
Use Longbow + Sword and Warhorn / Hammer / Axe/Shield
Maybe that’ll work.

If I understand correctly you mean to reduce the burst skill cool down by 2% per trait point, right. (correct me if I’m wrong)

First of, I’m all in favor of getting rid of the negligible damage buff and replace it with a cd down reduction, BUT 2% per trait point? You can’t be serious.

Think it through, with 20 points invested (which is probably the average amount invested into discipline to get mobile strikes) this would then mean that every 6 seconds you can eviscerate / kill shot someone, stun someone for up to 3/4 seconds (granted mace gets the leaked buff and sigil of paralysation remains as it is), AoE stun for up to 2-3 seconds with Hammer, immobilise for up to 4 seconds (plus whatever condi duration you’re running), etc.

With 30 points and Burst Mastery (as it is now) you could do all that every 3.2 secs.
That wouldn’t just be OP. It would be game breaking.

IMO unless the change to Burst Mastery mentioned in the GW2hub patch notes are legit, 1% would be too much (because of Mace and Sword alone). However if burst mastery now means less adrenaline spent and more damage inflicted, it could work.

I was wondering that too, but I suspect it doesn’t, since it would render Mending pretty much pointless in comparison. But you never know, it doesn’t specifically say “when you using a burst ability”…

As I understand it the bunker is really a role in tPvP. the problem with the warrior is still the limited access to condi cleanses and heals (which will hopefully change with the next balance patch). The closest I got to a viable cc bunker build are these:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS5ejcOJvNPyQMxBE0DNkLEQVB7I9QMGw0A-TsAgzCmIySllLLTWyssZN+Y9xGBA
Hammer/mace/shield with cleric ammy and soldier runes

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS5ejcOJvNPyQMRCEkCNkLOFUCVB4I9QMGw0A-TsAA0CmIySllLLTWyssZN+Y9xGBA
Hammer/mace/shield with Valkyrie ammy and soldier runes.

With the clerics you get a little more than 2k with each shout (you have 3) and the maximum from healing surge (using both shouts before healing surge ensures higher adrenaline and thus a better heal). I found the damage is pretty weak though, albeit the cc can make a difference.
I prefer the Valkyrie version, since it gives you noticeably more damage and crit damage while your shouts still heal more than 1.6k and healing surge is almost as good.

Having said all that with the current (im)balance you’re still not as good a bunker as other classes unfortunately, but we can dream.
I doubt either of these builds (or any other bunker build for that matter) would translate well to WvW or PvE, but who knows. Hope this helps.

If you wanted to go full on might stacks, maybe something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBHhNakzJ5N4RGiJOAYUU0RqH21WcJFAwGA-ToAg0CnI0RFkLIjOycs5MEZJC

Personally it’d probably be to glassy for me (I used to run a similar build wit Lyssa runes without fgj and signet of stamina and bulls charge and endure pain instead and empowered to have a damage spike when using the elite).
Anyway for stacking might (for you and your party) as far as I can tell combining signet of rage (traited) with fgj, triple might runes (60% might duration+20% boon duration from tactics), with sigil of battle (3 stacks on swap essentially every second swap) plus versatile power (one stack every swap), and then chaining (thanks to burst mastery) combustive shot (fire field) → arcing arrow (blast = 3 stacks) → call to arms (blast = 3 stacks) → eviscerate (leap = fire shield = 1 stack per attack per second) + the odd 3 stacks from short temper would give you maximum stacks in a PvP environment.
I suppose sword would work just as well, but I always thought of the amount of damage eviscerate does with 10-15+ might stacks outweighs the utility of the sword (then again you also get the condition damage bonus and could pull points out of discipline if you don’t rely on both burst abilities as much.)
Whether or not this is viable is a different question, but worth testing. My 2 cents anyway.

My guess would be that if you’re going for the immobiliser burst mastery + sword gives you a 2 -4 sec immobiliser every 8 seconds whereas Lb 5 gives you three sec, every 25. Additionally it seems to bug out quite a lot in my experience.
By no means I’m saying the longbow is not a good weapon for warrior. On the contrary really, but bow 5 is certainly not the main reason for that. (IMO it’s the aoe burns and the ability to stack might.)
I think it’s hard to deny the utility the sword brings for certain builds and by using a one handed weapon you free up space in your of hand which allows for diverse builds using shield, war horn, mace etc plus a second sigil.
Anyways it’s no reason to dismiss a build in this manner without trying. We’re all in the same boat for now and the more we share our builds the better chance for us to make the class worthwhile despite the disadvantages.

[EDIT – Response to Exedore.]
Glad to see more people appreciating the Warhorn in PvP.
As for your comments I’m not trying to imply my version is the be-all and end-all, but I would have to disagree with most of your points.

• I believe Balanced stance is far superior to shake it off, because not only is it a stun break, but it provides stability. Shake it off only removes one condition so if your stuck on bow, it would be your only condition remover with that setup. (I actual think Shake it off is a waste of a utility slot, unless traited while running full soldier runes – but at what cost…)
• I don’t think it’s wise at all to run Healing Surge if you don’t have Restorative Strength. Restorative Strength just makes it an option next to Mending imo.
• Additionally I don’t think Axe Mastery is necessary – You already have 45% crit damage which means (when fury is up) you will hit about half of your Attacks with 195% damage. I don’t think another 10% damage increase on half of your Axe attacks outweigh the ability to remove up to 4 very restricting conditions on a heal or as I think of it remove conditions AND heal.
• Now the Lyssa Runes (the empowered effect aside) in my view are just a great way to free up a utility slot which otherwise be reserved for Signet of Stamina. So if you decide to neither equip the runes nor Signet of Stamina, have restorative strength and/or Mending that puts you in very uncomfortable position when you’re stuck on bow imo.
• Personally I don’t think you need vigorous focus at all on this build. Since you have access to 12s of Vigor every 16s, plus Vigor is one of the boons you get more often from boon conversion than others, namely from bleeds (probably the most common condi) and chills (although the latter would not work with Charge as I understand it). I would say go for Signet Mastery even if it’s only for the Fury up-time through SoR.

I don’t really disagree with the other points, but I have the following comments.

• I like the idea to shoot Combustive Shot when your trying to get away to get another evade, although I would probably stay on Axe-Warhorn on a retreat to have swiftness, vigor and condi removal handy.
• Runes of the Pack don’t actually look that bad, but mainly because of the fourth rune effect and 100 Precision on top of 165 Power, not so much because of swiftness duration. Charge gives you 12s swiftness every 16s, should SoR be off cool down that’s another 36s and if you convert Cripple or Immobilise with Call to Arms that’s another 9s.
• As for the Sigils, what I meant was I don’t think it’s viable to have weapon swap sigils and on-crit sigils in the same set at all, because they share the same internal cool down according to the wiki. Based on the setup you linked, if you swap from Axe to bow and your Sigil of Fire procs it activates the 5s internal cool down. If you now swap back to Axe before the 5s are over, the Sigil of Battle will not proc. Likewise if Battle procs you are on a 9s cd during which both your Fire Sigils are useless.
  So as I understand, it it makes more sense to either use on-crit Sigil on both weapon sets (unless one of them is Sigil of Rage…) if your Crit chance is high enough to make them reliable or to use a weapon swap Sigil instead (or two if you want to make sure to get the effect as often as possible.)
• I kind of agree with the Bolas comment, but at the same time (correct me if I’m wrong) most guardians will run shouts traited with Pure of voice which means the convert conditions into boons. So they would most likely counter it with the same skill that they use for a stun since two of their shouts are stun breakers. I think the great thing is that you can use it as a ranged attack and you can keep kiting for a while longer.
  Regardless though I have a feeling that should I stay on Zerker amy I will lean to BC as a retreat option.
• Never really gave Beserker Stance a go as I found Endure Pain and Frenzy much more helpful, but I’ll check it out.

I hope the above makes sense and thanks again for the input.

Thanks for the suggestions! I’ve been trying zerker amu (with soldier jewel) for starters and the increase in damage is definetely noticeable. As is the Sigil of Fire so thanks for that!
Pretty squishy though so I might have to bring EP back as a panic button.
With the Zerker gear on-crit Sigils seem the better option (Sigil of Fire’s 5s icd and Battle’s 10s icd will also likely create a bit of a mess). So I’m thinking Strength for migght or Blood for some heals.

For some reason I’ve always ignored the Adrenaline recharge on Healing Surge. I’m trying this at the moment to see how it works.
How are you finding Signet of Fury as third utility? I always thought it was a bit of a waste because I didn’t play an adrenaline build before, but with the passive buff giving about 9% crit chance and the active giving back your 12% damage and 9% crit chance, plus enough adrenaline for a full Eviscirate or Combustive shot, it look much more interesting now. Thinking it could be really helpful at the beginning of the match as well and the 24s cd is pretty low.

The thought behind Bolas was to have another root while Bow 5 is on cd (and to have it ready when using the Axe), but I do agree that bullscharge is just as helpful. I think what made me lean towards bolas was the ability to use it twice as much as bullscharge and the longer duration of the skill itself.

@Artaz: Which runes would you suggest if you weren’t going Lyssa on this and bowstrings instead of empowered?

I agree that Necros aren’t the worst opponents it’s just they can ruin the SoR effect in a heart beat. I find Thiefs and Rangers to be most annoying actually. Because of their evasive capabilities. Since there’s no way I can kill a bunker on my own with this, I either wait for back up, try another node or just harass them and see if I can lure them off the point (which wouldn’t even be an option at high end play I imagine)

Amulet, Sigils and Utilities
Currently I’m running Soldier/Beserker amulet (mainly because I don’t trust my abilities to survive long enough without the added toughness), but I will test how viable Beserker/Soldier is for the average skilled player (like myself), since the crit chance increase combined with Fury would mean a lot. (Link for comparison)

Sigil of Battle – because more might is great and the crit chance (on Soldier / Berserker) is not good enough for on-crit sigils anyway.
Sigil of Bloodlust – because 50-250 power make a difference and it has no internal cooldown that could interfere
Sigil of Force for more DPS on the bow.

For Utilities I’ve tried different settings, currently using the following:
I believe Balanced Stance is a must to deal with CCs and for stomping players.
Frenzy works great right after you use SoR, since it’s less devastating for you with protection and retal up, and you can make the most of the 6s window. (plus you get another stun breaker)
I currently combine it with either Bulls Charge or Bolas to get some CC into the mix, currently favouring Bolas because of the lower cool down and the fact you can use it offensively or defensively (if you need to get away quick), but Bulls Charge is obviously great as well.

Other options I’ve tested are:
FGJ works great as another way to get more might and can close the “fury” gap between SoR activiations.
Endure Pain works great as well, giving you another few seconds of damage mitigation, although I do prefer Frenzy for the additional damage output.
Signet of Stamina is not really necessary imo, because of multiple sources of vigor and alternative condi removers, but another full condi removal can’t hurt you either.

Cons and Problems:
Not a max damage build.
A Necro can royally ruin your game plan when they corrupt all your boons at once.
Warrior with Destruction of the Empowered does generally more damage to you and could get dangerous.
Condition removals tied to the Warhorn are naturally not available when you use the Bow, so you got to be careful about that.
While it certainly has good roaming potential, and works great in a roaming duo with another player, you are not as mobile as with Sword, Greatsword or both.
Naturally you will not bust a bunker with this build.

If you read this far I shall thank you for your attention. Hopefully you will have a go at it, but I’m also thankful for any comments, suggestions and thoughts.

Recently (especially since the last big patch that included the changes to the Discipline traits) I’ve seen quite a few incarnations of what I suppose are new takes on Defektive’s Longbow build (both in game and in the forums.)

Since I’ve been running another variation myself for a while and I believe it brings a few different things to the table, I’d like to share it with you. Feel free to comment and/or criticise and I apologise for the length of the post and potential spelling errors (English is my 2nd language).

Main aspects and pros of the build are:
- Might stacking – a lot! (through fire field combos, weapon swapping, Signet of Rage and if used FGJ)
- Boons
- Use of Adrenaline and both Burst skills

- Good condition removal
- Good mobility (almost constant swiftness)
- Good offensive support (swiftness, endurance, might, fire field and multiple combo finishers)
- Good damage output (especially for not going all into Arms and Strengh)
- Decent Condition Damage (when Might is up)

Traits: 20/0/0/20/30
Restorative Strength – to make mending and even better condition remover
Beserker’s Power – to increase damage based on adrenaline and make up for less trait points invested into Strength.
Empowered – Since you only have one cripple on the Axe mh, leg specialist is not viable. Empowered however synergises excellent with the traited Warhorn and the Lyssa Runes. Providing an average damage increase of 6+% (Fury/Swiftness/Might) for most of the time and spikes of up to 16% when you activate Signet of Rage (16 not 18 because Aegis will be gone within a blink).
Quick Breathing – This makes both Warhorn skills AoE condition removers (charge is even better this way) on a 16s cool down. Through the normal boons (Swiftness/Vigor) you gain or maintain 2% damage increase, besides the obvious benefits of both boons. Additionally you can gain 1 additional boon each, based on the removed condition (which then also provide the damage increase).
Heightened Focus – To make up for the trait points not invested in Arms and make use of your Adrenaline.
Signet Mastery – To bring down the cd of Signet of Rage, but obviously applies to all other Signets you might use.
Burst Mastery – This brings the burst cd to 8s, but for example it also allows you to pop eviscerate after a Bow F1+3 combo, to get the fire shield and do decent damage burst damage.
(I believe Burst Mastery is the better choice but haven’t really tested Destruction of the Empowered much)

Lyssa Runes
Not only do they provide the much needed precision buff the build is lacking otherwise, but they turn Signet of Rage into a powerful tool that cleanses all your conditions, while giving you maxing protection (retaliation, stability, protection, aegis) and damage output (8boons = 16% damage) on top of the 36s of Might, Fury and Swiftness you get from the normal use of the signet.
This 6s window after triggering Signet of Rage can be a game changer in a fight. (5s+1s from boon duration)
They also slightly buff Mending, since it will apply a random boon.

Might Stacking
While in battle you will gain 1 stack of might (13s) every time you switch weapons and another 3 every time you switch back to Axe (26s).
Signet of Rage will provide the usual 5 stacks (plus another for 6s).
Setting the Fire Field on with a full adrenaline bar will give you (if you’re quick and coordinated enough) 3 stacks (AoE) from Arcing arrow, 3 stacks (AoE) from Call to Arms (both 26s) + however many stacks you get out of the Fire Shield you can proc with the following Eviscerate (1 stack for 13s per incoming attack).
FGJ would provide another 3 stacks (AoE) if you decide to use it.
Bring in another team member and you will reach 25 stacks in no time.

Weapons
I chose Axe over Sword because of the higher DPS and greater Synergy with the Longbow fire field (a leap, whirl and projectile finisher). I also prefer the ranged cripple to the melee cripple on Sword. On the downside this means less mobility and no immobilizer. The conic AoE of the auto attack and the AoE of Axe 2 lets you dish out damage to multiple enemies though.
The benefits of the Warhorn should be clear from the above.
The Longbow gives you the ability to kite, while being able to root your target and gives you multiple AoEs. Most important however is the F1->3 combo ideally followed by warhorn 5 and/or Eviscerate.

Currently open on Sea of Sorrows.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

This game lack of basic core functions at 7th month (lfg just to mention one, or culling or unplayable content when too many people are near you, like dragons), and a proper programmer leadership and management community oriented (like this thread, completely ignored by the team, the only one reading this thread are mods ready to ban us). Go figure.

I really have no clue how a community rep not responding to a thread/question, which had already been directly and constructively answered by members of the community, can act as any indication of said community rep not caring? Just because they don’t reply, doesn’t mean they don’t read and pass on feedback (which is one of their main responsibilities).
As for the moderators, normally they may or may not take action after a post has been reported (if the report actually had some substance), but to sift through the whole forum to find violations would just be a complete waste of time and resources, especially since the comm reps already check the forums and will report violations against the rules. I’d be suprised if ArenaNet was handling their forum much different.
And lastly to think that a company is not caring about the one product that is the backbone of their whole operation (and probably their lifeline), is beyond me and simply a sign of ignorance IMO. We have the almost unique situation where the company can actually focus all their attention on this game, but nevertheless things take time. Why can’t people be patient I wonder.

@ OP, I’m sure the above posts gave you some ideas as to how to deal with such elitist behaviour, I would simply ignore it as well. There are plenty of players who couldn’t care less if you run in full zerker or naked, as long as it’s fun. GW2LFG or even better your guild is the way forward. I hope you have more fun on your dungeon runs in the future.