Guild Wars 2

Joxer.6024:

I don’t see using the new elite in a raid anyways, so headbutt still a thing maybe.

Headbutt requires Berserker meaning you can’t swap it in as a Spellbreaker.

Agreed, the spec is underwhelming and far too niche. WvW zerg seems to be the only place it’ll shine since it lacks enough of mainstream strengths – and because it causes us to lose one of Strength/Defense/Discipline without making up for the loss.

Short answer: No.

I’m a launch player who was originally heavily into WvW. About half a year ago I rolled Warrior and I played a LOT of PvP as Warr during the pre-HoT hype – as in, nothing but PvP for a couple of months straight – and consistently did pretty well, with a win rate above 60%. After the expansion dropped, I played more PvE than PvP but had fun tinkering with some gimmicky Zerker builds. Still, I could see it was lacking, so I decided to wait til the inevitable balance patch. That patch has now come and gone and I’ve tried getting back into it. I now completely understand all the frustration expressed in these forums.

I know I’m not the best player out there but pre-HoT I could easily hold my own. I felt like my presence on the team was very noticeable and that when an opponent saw me, they were getting ready for a serious fight on their hands. Now, I feel outclassed. I feel like I have to choose between the gimmicky Gun Flame zerker, which is EASILY countered, or I have to go with the standard Strength/Defense/Discipline build from pre-HoT. Even then, I feel like a liability on my team. Warrior now seems to bring nothing to the table when compared to other classes.

Revenant: Can go bursty with decent sustain while still providing heavy utility to the team. Basically replaced Warrior’s role as melee brawler with skills that stick to the target or just have better reach. I can handle them 1v1 but they can stall long enough to have their teammates assist, but that’s with me going a build with NO team utility whereas they bring plenty.

Mesmer: In a 1v1, about the same as before. Annoying as hell, can dance circles around me and stall indefinitely with stealth and illusions. Now with Wells for extra kiting power and even more team utility.

Engineer: Scrapper is obviously overtuned right now. Basically a better warrior in every way with more utility and cc.

Thief: I used to stomp these poor guys, but now they got the buff they deserved. Scary amounts of burst in a 1v1, and kitten near impossible to catch, but that’s their role and that’s fine by me. I basically have to drag them into a teamfight where they’re less dominant, and that’s all good.

Elementalist: Tempest brings great team utility but I can handle them in a 1v1 fine. They probably shine more in teamfights though, where I don’t contribute anything better than any other class.

Ranger: UGH, I hate Druid. You can’t start reintroducing the trinity without making them sacrifice something for their new focused role. Heals for days, blinds for days, damage immunity, pet taunt, some stealth thrown in too… I can pretty much never kill them now, and that’s in a 1v1. As a healer they’re meant for team fights so I don’t think it’s okay that they shine so much in a 1v1 situation too.

Guardian: They were good before and they’re phenomenal now. Those traps are too powerful considering almost every PvP mode is a node based game. Imo the cooldowns on their traps need to go up so it’s not as much of a trap spam fest on a contended node.

Necromancer: Basically counters me in every way with Reaper. I’d have to go Shoutbow to clear the condis at the rate they apply them, and then I would have no DPS and would still end up with too little sustain to keep up with other classes. Oh, and then I’d have tons of boons which the Necro would just convert anyway. The only way to beat them is Gunzerker, which has no other realistic application.

I dunno, maybe I just need to learn to adapt to the new elite specs better, but when I’m at the point where my own elite spec feels like a liability where everyone else’s was a MASSIVE buff and change in playstyle… something is definitely wrong.

I wouldn’t really call it a counter, more a happy coincidence if the stars align. You need too much setup time to even get to 30 Adrenaline and by that time any decent thief will have either already used their Backstab and got their 200 Power buff from Revealed, or gained the distance to make the 300 range meaningless. If you’re running Headbutt, you can’t even use it on the stealthed thief to generate the Adrenaline. The alternative is Signet of Fury, which has a cast time on it which makes it, in line with all decent Warrior skills, enough of a telegraph for your opponent to dodge.

All in all, I find the taunt to be fairly useless since half the problem with Warrior is getting into melee range in the first place. Good thing there’s a sweet 10% damage buff on it though!

The problem isn’t just in sustain in terms of HP/toughness/condi removal, it lies in a general ease of being countered due to lackluster utility. Even with your changes, Warriors will still be easily kited, blinded, blocked, immobilised, escaped by blinking to another platform etc. all too easily with no tools to fight back against them.

You can survive all you want but you can’t do DPS – or anything at all, save Shoutbow – if you can’t reach your target.

The fire field on Arc Divider was removed in exchange for the extra execute and radius.

I’ve been trying something similar, but with Rampage as my Elite because it’s too good to drop, Signet of Fury instead of Balanced Stance since Zerk has Stability already and we need something to replace Headbutt, Dead or Alive since the heal is worth more to me than the Ferocity, and Cleansing Ire instead of Last Stand, since the condi clears are handy with you constantly flinging bursts around.

I find the increased AoE on the spammable Arc Divider is great, especially for big skirmishes and Minionmancers. It definitely feels less durable than the standard Warrior but feels more aggressive. I do really miss the movespeed and immob break on Discipline though…

It’s -a- build, and it’s fun, but I certainly wouldn’t call it meta, or even viable in a competitive environment. For casual unranked, it’s all good.

That screenshot is out of context. You likely had a lot of Might stacks and the mob likely had a lot of Vulnerability stacks from a large group’s input, because Arc Divide does not hit that high normally. If you’ve happened upon a SOLO build that hits that hard, I’ll be more impressed.

I’m going to assume we drop Discipline for Berserker. No more Fast Hands. That means we need to adapt a build around just one weapon since we’ll be less capable of swapping when we need to. Obviously, for most, that weapon will be greatsword. The problem I have now is that the +15% attack speed boost is actually HURTING your rotation because you’ll run out of skills to use and be stuck on autoattack. You could just go Axe/Mace instead, and sit on autoattack with +15% Berserk boost and +15% dual wield boost, but that’s such an awful and boring play style.

What I think Berserk (the F2 skill, not Berserker, the class) needs for fluidity’s sake is an equal amount of ALACRITY. To make this feel even more like a raging Berserker ramping up in intensity, I’d suggest starting at 0%, and then every second gain 2% attack speed and alacrity, which tapers off over 3s after Berserk ends. After 15s of Berserk, you’ll have 30% attack speed and alacrity for an instant and then, as your control over your rage falters, you’ll lose a stack (of 2%) every 0.2s. When your character yells “NO!” you’ll feel it too.

This will allow ANY weapon to continue its rotation better, it promotes condi and power builds equally, it applies to melee and ranged weapons equally. It evens out the loss of Discipline – which has a pretty decent amount of Quickness uptime too, remember!

Alacrity is a new mechanic launching with Heart of Thorns. Why not make use of it outside of just Chronomancer? It won’t be stealing their thunder since it won’t have any team utility and it won’t be the full +50% boost. This also makes Berserker feel so much better than it does currently.

That said, it’s almost certainly way too late now for it to happen. Still, wishful thinking. We can only give you our ideas, ANet. Please make the spec feel like a true Berserker, at the very least.

The most Elite Shout I can think of is…

“AND THIS… IS TO GO EVEN FURTHER BEYOND!”

From the small amounts I’ve played so far, the only reason to take Berserker right now is for a condi Sword/Torch, Longbow build (which admittedly is AMAZING right now due to the strength of burns in the current state of the game).

However, most mainstream Power builds are probably not going to make use of Berserker. It destroys too much synergy. Remove Arms? No more Signet Mastery. Remove Strength? No more 20% damage buff or Greatsword. Remove Discipline? No more Fast Hands and 25% melee movement speed/immob breakers. Rage utilities are still underwhelming for Power builds, though loving them for Condi.

I realise the aim of this WAS to make Condi Warrior viable – and it has done that amazingly. I’m loving the amount of condi damage I can dish out while still being fairly sustainable. It just feels like an outright nerf for other specs though, and that’s why people are not that excited for it, especially considering that the majority of players in all Professions are Power builds.

EDIT: One suggestion I’d make is to revamp Bloody Roar. King of Fires already functions as a condi damage trait in this tier, so I’d like to see King of Fires become a Power based trait instead. A taunt also feels very out of place, thematically. Who attacks an intimidating avatar of rage? This should really be a Fear instead because when you see a dude go berserk, you run. Make the 1.5s Taunt a 1.5s Fear and make the Bleed into an explosion that deals direct, power based damage, and it’d be worth picking up.