Guild Wars 2

The nerf in and of itself is reasonable. And is one I’ve been thinking they should have done ages ago. The problem is that instead of doing that for the past 2-3 balance patches, they’ve been nerfing warrior sustain in other ways. Aka, Adrenal Health and Healing Signet. So, now that they’re finally nerfing the correct thing… They aren’t buffing what they shouldn’t have nerfed.

It’s definitely making core warrior more appealing, which is good on a balance side of things, but yeah… This is a pretty hard nerf to a class that’s already taken some big ones.
If Healing Signet and Adrenal Health can get a buff again, things won’t be so bad against power. And we could definitely use another buff to deal with condis.

One thing they should definitely do though, is make it so going berserk counts as spending two bars of adrenaline. Since you do when you go berserk.

So, I definitely have to disagree with everyone who’s saying Warrior is unplayable right now. I’ve solo queued to plat with it, and am doing all right with it there. (Generally speaking, I’m finding it to be my own, personal skill that’s holding me back, and not my class.)

The main things I’ve noticed is that the Warrior no longer shines super brightly in 1v1 situations. I’ve been most successful in matches where I’ve been in 2v2, or larger fights. (I’m running GS/Mace Shield) In large fights, you’re much more able to land headbutt, by just waiting for a bit, until people are distracted, and have used dodges. Same goes for shield bash.
End result, in those situations, I’m able to quickly go berserk, and proceed to lock down the group’s target, as well as provide high powered AoE pressure with the GS.

You also need to play a bit more cautiously, avoiding those circles, even if you need to wait a little bit before you can really go in. Try to avoid burning all of your defensive cooldowns on engage. Try to save them for securing kills when there’s high amounts of pressure. Or, for when you’re getting focused, and need to focus survival. Well timed stances, and blocks can enable you to last a fairly long time, if you’re waiting for backup to arrive, or just need to sustain while your team runs amuck, doing the damage in the team fight.
I’ve noticed that at this level, Necro is mostly for the teamfight damage, and as such gets focused instantly. I feel like Power Warrior is in a bit of a similar place. Perhaps a bit less damage, but it exchanges that for more CC, durability, and steadier pressure. (Been a while since I last dusted off my Necro, and this has been my first season in Plat, so apologies if I’m off by a bit on my knowledge of Necro roles.)

So, Warrior isn’t unplayable anymore. But you need to play it differently than you used to. So, to the OP… Try to avoid being the first person to enter a teamfight, and hold onto your stuns until the fight has really started.

Sun Lian.4075:

If you were trying to make some smart points, that hashtag ruined it.

• Shield Bash: Was never a problem
• Headbutt: Was never a problem
• Bloody Roar: Was never a problem

…

And yes it is hard to kite a warrior when you can’t CC, but they can endlessly CC you instead…

And there we go, the confirmation of what I’d been theorizing. Warrior CC was one of the large things on your list of “OP Nerf NAO.” And yet, when we point out that it’s been nerfed, you claim that oh, those were never an issue.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to describe this entire thread in four words. “Troll post is troll.”

Sun Lian.4075:

Whining? Warriors do need a nerf, a big one.

You know when I see something OP about necro, I’ll usually agree that it needs to be nerfed, it’s pretty sad that other people can only reply with “l2p” when it’s about their own class.

There is no cleansing this ridiculous burst damage of warrior, or removing their boons. OR doing something about their survivability.

Because they’re PULSES, you can only cleanse so much.. I don’t get why this is so hard to see and I’ve already said this 2 seasons ago too, it needs to be 1 BOON from start with stacks.

Otherwise any boon remove and any cleanse after the PULSING resistance is up again is totally worthless. Basically warriors don’t need to time kitten and everyone else needs to wait for that pulsing to be over and THEN you can try to counter, if you still live.

On top of that, there are 3 buffs on warrior that can’t even be removed because they’re not freaking boons, this also needs to change.
What’s the value of a skill that’s supposed to remove buffs cause that’s what boons are, when some of the most important buffs can’t even be touched?

The reason why there’s a chorus of “L2P” is because 90% of the complaints about warriors being OP can be solved by simply adjusting how you fight them. Especially recently. And well… Your issues are completely solvable, by adjusting how you fight against warriors. People have already given good advice, so I’m going to limit my post to the claims you just made.

First off… No removing warrior boons? I’m a little shaky on what’s currently classified as the warrior meta build (since the previous one got nerfed. And I generally don’t pay too much attention to meta, since I enjoy crafting my own builds.), but generally speaking, the only boons getting constantly reapplied without utilities are might (and if its being stripped, not too many stacks) and fury.
The boons from going berserk are once every 10 seconds. Two of which last for 3 seconds, then there’s fury, which lasts for 6. If they’re running Eternal Champion, then some might and stability will be being reapplied, but only if you stun them first. Then there’s three stacks of stability right from the get-go. So, yeah. That’s some pretty good stability uptime. But, keep in mind, since the introduction of HoT, there’s simply been a lot more CC being flung around, and similarly, a lot more stability.
So. Those are the boons you’ll see almost always. They aren’t getting constantly reapplied.
Next up, we come to Berserker’s Stance, which is the thing you seem to be really complaining about. And I’ve really only got a couple of things to say on this matter. “60 second cooldown.” Yes. It’s long resistance uptime. But it has a huge cooldown. Chances are, it won’t get used more than once in a fight. And if used at the wrong time… It can lose fights.
Now, your claims that it’s impossible to strip… Let me put it this way. Resistance is the first boon to get stripped. It gets reapplied every 3 seconds. Necro scepter auto-attack cycles every 1.5 seconds. You do the math. You just need to get one cycle through every three seconds, and your condi bomb will keep ticking. (Oh, and if you think cycling through one full auto attack cycle is excessive to be super effective, then I’d like to point out that axe warriors have been doing this since the beginning of the game.)
There’s also healing signet’s resistance, which is one application, in exchange for a large portion of the warrior’s sustain.

Next up, let’s take a second to appreciate the claim that warriors don’t need to time anything… Warriors have just returned to the era of needing to bait dodges. Because if they don’t, then they probably won’t land headbutt or shield bash, unless they’re in a big fight, with lots of handy distractions. Now, if you’re just talking about berserker stance’s timing… Then just reread my comment on how long its cooldown is. I’ve popped it on a smaller condi bomb before, and as such, died to the huge, full scale condi bomb, about 12 seconds later, once the cooldown was off. The person who I was fighting just kited me for the 9 that it was up. Timing is crucial for berserker stance. Done correctly, it can win a fight. Done incorrectly, it can lose the fight.

Having large buffs which aren’t boons is an aspect of this game. And if you think warriors are the only ones with them, you’re ignoring a lot of classes. Because, well… Signets are buffs, which are not boons. Distortion is a buff which isn’t a boon. Spectral walk is a buff which isn’t a boon, every single guardian virtue is a buff which isn’t a boon, Tempests have Harmonious Conduit, Druids have Grace of the Land… The list can go on. It’s an aspect of balance, and an aspect of flavor for each class, that’s been around since the beginning of the game. It enables Anet to give classes flavor, without being stuck solely with the 11 boons in the game. (Also, it’s worth noting that when they add a boon to the game, that does something which a non-boon class feature did, they change that class feature to fit the boon. Berserker stance being the example, once Resistance was added to the game.)
… I’m honestly not sure how to answer your question there. Because the answer is pretty self evident. Boons are powerful. There’s a reason why there was the “boonshare meta” in WvW for a while, before the boon corruption condi meta ended up overcoming it. Just because you can’t strip away every single buff a class has, doesn’t mean stripping away a bunch of the buffs isn’t useful.

There. A full scale explanation of what warriors are actually capable of, and in the case of one of your biggest problems, the solution to it. And as Choppy suggested, go ask the necro mains how they deal with warrior, and I’m sure they’ll come up with much better class specific advice than I can. (As I’ve only played my necro a little bit.)

One of the things about Vengeance is that you are taking a calculated risk whenever you use it. That risk is what makes it balanced. It’s very much so an all or nothing sort of skill. When it works great, it’s incredible. Just going back into the downed state would remove the entire risk factor from using it.
A more reasonable adjustment would be to increase the chance of rallying if you kill someone. As things stand, when Vengeance works (which is rare), both sides normally lose. Which is a bit of a weak outcome to justify how crappy the rest of the warrior downed skills are.

I zerg command with a classic shout warrior. The current meta has a lot of condis, so having strong condi clear which you’re in control of is huge for your survivability.

I run something along these lines (Forgot to put it into the build, but I’d suggest running sigils of energy in your weapons): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNBiYDbknD68wKPwMEoDxQVQhLeDEAaPE7PQ+CfQKA-TlRWwAA2fwgyDS6GCq+zAlYTUCCA-w

It’s quite durable, has good CC, and its DPS isn’t too terrible, for such a tanky build. And, again, it deals with condis very, very well.

Cynz.9437:

So basically give up point and lose match because there is no other way around it. Great solution man. Thanks for calling us idiots for trying to keep point which is what pvp is about.

As far as DHs go, engis and eles can sit on point with DH…

fyi, blind spam doesn’t work due to high uptime on condi cleanse and resistance

still waiting on build/class that can deal with warrior without external help and without losing point for 2+ min

… You realize that there’s a difference between decapping a point and taking it, right? Decapped is when the point is gray, and no one is getting any points from it. Because you apparently missed that distinction. Because I never said to “give up the point.” And a point being gray is neutral, not loss. SPvP is a team game, and is also strategic. If you’re not able to be flexible with your strategy, you’ll lose. Sometimes you need to pass up the net gain, and replace it with neutral, to ensure that you’ll go back to keeping the point, while the enemy is forced to respawn, and come back again. You’ll get much more points doing that, than by dying to keep gaining points for five more seconds.

Sure. Both of them also build to be tanky. Their damage is lower to be able to survive in that heavy DPS. That’s generally the case when it comes to high DPS. The people who can stand in that DPS are going to be tanky, and will take a long time to be able to cap and point and take it, because they win through attrition. And during most of that period, the DH will be holding point. Not a particularly ideal trade off, if you’re attacking a point.

Blind spam doesn’t work? You, um, don’t play warrior much do you? The resistance… Isn’t something that warriors really want to fling around causally. Either they burn Healing Signet, which hurts their sustain a lot, or they pop Berserker’s Stance, with its 60 second cooldown, which they really want to save for full scale condi bombs. If they need to pop one of those because of blinds then that’s not a small sacrifice. As for the condi cleanse, they can swap weapons to remove one condi, or they need to land a burst skill. Which you can’t do when you’re blinded, FYI.

2+ minutes? Good grief, you really didn’t read a single word I said, did you? You’re spending maybe 8 seconds off of point, and then trying to finish it all, on point, before a minute is up and they have their invulns back. And also, before they actually take the point.

Cynz.9437:

Dear OP, tell me what class/build can deal with warrior without external help and without losing point. According to you it is a l2p issue so teach us, noobs, how to deal with war.

So, from statements you’ve made, I’m guessing you’ve made a few assumptions about the sort of warrior that you’re up against. Aka, likely the metabattles GS Mace/shield build. So, I’ll make my response from that sort of perspective.

You are asking, what class can spend 8 seconds, able to deal no damage, standing right next to a high damage dealing class, and still win in the end. When you think about that, you’re more or less asking what class can play stupidly against a warrior and still win.

The simple fact is that some classes have abilities which can force people off of point. Invulnerabilities with good DPS, and high AoE DPS are two of those. DHs for example, are more than capable of forcing entire teams off of point, until the traps are done.
Yes, warriors have long cooldowns which enable them to stand in these… But what forces people off has half the cooldown as the warrior’s abilities to stand in those points.
So, yes. You’re up against the standard meta warrior, and he can almost certainly force you off point, and can decap. But you can force him to burn most, if not all of his long cooldowns. And you’ll be able to engage again, when he doesn’t have those skills available.

In short… If you play like an idiot, the warrior will kill you. So, don’t play like an idiot. When people burn their cooldowns to make it so you can’t stand on point, you don’t stand on point. Especially in the case of the warrior, who’s running all melee. He needs to choose between remaining on the point, and decapping, or leaving point without decapping, to kill you while taking advantage of his invulnerabilities.

EDIT:
But I’ll also list off some of the better counters to warriors. Blind spams, chain CC (that’s only one stack of stability from Eternal Champion. So just double CC.), and evades. Thieves and Mesmers are two classes which are harder for warriors to fight.

iKeostuKen.2738:

Its obviously not the fact that warriors burst like thieves with a good amount of damage mitigation on top of stability + movement speed increase with good passive healing…

… Burst like thieves? What kind of thieves have you been up against? Thieves burst much harder than a warrior. There’s a difference between good burst damage, and extreme burst damage. Warrior is the former, thief and mesmer are the latter.

Yes, our passive healing is good, to help make up for the fact that the primary long term survival trait of the warrior is being a sack of hitpoints. (Because being a sack of hitpoints didn’t make much of a difference before they buffed Adrenal Health) It means you don’t try to beat warriors by playing an attrition game. If you’re trying to do that, then don’t be surprised that you lose.

As for the damage mitigation… We have really long cooldowns on all of those skills. You just wait them out. If you have to fall back from point to do so, then so be it. It’s sorta like not standing on point in the middle of a DH’s traps. Just wait it out.

Warriors are finally not in a terrible place, and are actually balanced. You just need to fight them intelligently.

It depends entirely on who you’re up against. If you’re up against much boon removal, then you’d likely want Balanced Stance, since it keeps on applying. However, if you’re up against large quantities of CC, then go Dolyak Signet all the way. I’ve definitely been in situations where boonstrip made Dolyak Signet not super useful… And I’ve also been in spots when Balanced Stance’s stability stacks get cleared faster than they’re applied.

So, in the end, it rather comes down to know your enemy. In high tiers of WvW, there’s a fair bit of boonstrip going on, (especially if you’re fighting Mag) so that’s why a lot of builds take Balanced Stance. But if you’re not finding troubles with boonstrip… I’d say go Dolyak Signet. The toughness from it is nice, and it definitely gives you enough stability to do whatever you need to do. (Though, if you take Last Stand, then, yeah, go with Balanced Stance. The trait buff is pretty awesome.)

When commanding zergs, durability takes priority over DPS. This doesn’t mean run a full nomads or sentinels stance warrior. You’re still a member of the zerg, even if you’re leading it, so you should run something that works pretty well for the zerg. Just focus on getting your defensive stats up first, and then put effort into improving your damage.

For a warrior zerg commander, shooting for something like 3K armor and 24K health before traits would be a pretty good target. If you’re facing a lot of pin sniping you might need to go up a bit, but I’ve found that in general those sorts of stats work fairly well.
I normally run the old fashioned shout warrior build for commanding, but that’s mostly because I pugmand, and it makes sure that no matter what comp I end up with, I’m going to have enough condi clear to stay alive. However, you could definitely command with a more standard DPS warrior build, provided you get your survivability up enough first.
So, for trinkets, maybe something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQFABA-TlhXABEo0AW1fEd/BHUCCgysP0BEA4AwyLv8yLvcLv8yLv8yBA-w

I went with the assumption of full ascended gear. If that’s not accurate, then adjust as needed to get that 3K armor, and 24K health.

I haven’t personally run that build myself. However, looking at it, I’d say it looks like it’s a decent hybrid between the berserker warriors people are normally running now, and the old fashioned support build that was run pre-rev.
In a fully comped group, you might be better discarding the support and going full scale DPS, (GS, or offhand axe is popular) but in less organized groups I think this build would be pretty solid. Again, I haven’t actually run it, but I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work fairly well.

emkelly.2371:

Shout Warrior? Really? wow, okay, listen, tell your guild leader to Read my Warrior 101, and maybe also review the patch notes for the last, i don’t know…2 years? Shouts were nerfed a long time ago to the point where they are useless. Also, the shout build was never meant to be a zerg build. It was great for Commanders, because it allowed them to stay alive.

It depends on how well comped up your group is really. If it’s completely unorganized then shout warrior with Rune of the Trooper is actually pretty effective. (And just to make sure there’s no misunderstandings, I’m also assuming the presence of a traited warhorn, since that’s part of the standard build) It’s one of the more steady condi cleansers in the game. It’s not perfect at it, but if you don’t have anyone else covering that task… It’s pretty solid.
Hammerstun Shout stopped being meta in high tier WvW with HoT, but that’s mostly because pre-comped guild groups are solving their condi issues with other classes. (Mostly with Revs and Eles. Though Guards with Cleansing Flames are involved as well.) Not because the build itself doesn’t work anymore. Other things are just outshining it.
Running pure soldiers is extreme overkill though. You can easily replace a lot of your trinkets with zerker gear. 3.5K armor and 30K health is extreme even for a commander. Unless they seriously need those banners dropping.

If you’re having trouble surviving while rolling a PS build, you could always drop to the old fashioned core warrior PS build. Strength, Tactics, and then just take Defense. Your DPS might go down by a little bit, (though, you’ll be rolling with permanent fury uptime on yourself, so that’ll help balance out the DPS) but well, you’ll still be getting 25 stacks of might for your party, which is the main point.
And well, there’s the old saying “Dead DPS is no DPS.” So, yeah. I’d suggest, that if you’re having trouble surviving running a berserker PS build, then just go and run a core warrior build. Better to be alive with slightly less damage than to be dead with more damage while you’re up.

Are you running as a core warrior, or as a berserker? I’ve actually found that if you take Signet of Rage, the limiting factor on my primal bursts is the recharge speed, not the adrenaline gain. I haven’t tested it with core warrior, and normal bursts though.
I don’t know what you’d normally take for your elite, but if you take Signet of Rage, you should be pretty free to take Warrior’s Sprint. If you’re taking Headbutt, to instantly go berserk, consider Signet of Fury, or Sundering Leap for your adrenaline spike.

Yes. Very much so, yes. Warrior support (bar Phalanx Strength), is quite frankly, something that needs buffed. And I think that would be a good start.

My main concern would be, that it would make using all banners a lot less viable (than it already is). So, perhaps just a buff to the boons would be good. More might, possibly even stability or quickness. (These are likely all either/or possibilities)

I also like the idea of bringing in “We Shall Return” for a rez. Because, seriously… Warriors need an elite shout.

Warrior commander works perfectly well. Just have two Guardians in your party for stabo, and you’re set. If you can’t get just two guardians in your party, then, quite frankly, you don’t have a frontline. And if you have no frontline, well, that stability help isn’t as important, because you won’t survive a melee push.
Personally, I just run my normal frontline WvW build for commanding. Either a shout war, with sword/warhorn and hammer (running mostly soldier’s gear), or a hammer/rifle berserker. Zerker armor, soldiers accessories, knights weapons. Utilities are outrage, sundering leap, dolyak signet, and banner. (Yeah. It’s a weird build. I initially made it because I got sick of those I was following killing me off in DH traps. Or just pirate shipping so much that I spent most of my time doing nothing. But I have a lot of fun with it, so even with the meta changing, I’m still running it)

Which one I run depends on the situation. If there’s a huge amount of condis, flying at you, then the first one might be better. If you’re in a situation where you’re needing to apply a lot of ranged pressure, or simply need a bigger melee bomb, or the other team has huge amounts of stabo… The second build could definitely work better. (If you’re just wanting to increase your melee DPS though, you could definitely drop the rifle for another weapon, like a greatsword, or axe/something.)

I would strongly recommend though, that you take the banner as your elite. As the commander, you should be one of the last people to die. Therefore, you ought to have opportunities to get up your frontline again, by dropping a banner on them. With the rally changes, that banner is far more critical than ever before.

I’ve taken to running my own version of the classic Gunflame build that so many Wars are running these days. The big difference though, is I’m not running as glassy. I’m instead taking the Paladin Amulet. This lets me actually be in the thick of the fighting and to sustain through close range fights.
At first I ran it with hammer as my second weapon, concluding that with rifle being high damage, I could afford to take utility for my second weapon. However, I’ve since dropped the hammer, in exchange for Sword/Warhorn. I run Rune of the Pack for the increased swiftness duration, to further increase that mobility. The end result is I have a fairly multi-purpose build. I can move faster than most classes, enabling me to roam the entire map, I can sustain long enough to withstand even up close fights, and I still find myself hitting hard.

Here’s the build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNBkYD7koDokUsuDwwDgTEsUFYKZtYXOAZx1ACAvj2U7sF-T5AHABts/w9lBA4IAAA

I’m not saying this is perfect, but I do enjoy it.
I find I don’t do well with Healing Signet, so I’m taking Mending for some additional condi clear with my heal. Signet of Endurance is my “ohcrap” button when I’m up against a condi build. This skill has been the one that’s changed the most on my build. It’s alternated back and forth with Steady Stance. But I’m currently finding myself facing down more condi spamming builds than lockdown builds.

The sigils I’ve left blank here, because I don’t remember off the top of my head what sigils I’m running. I do remember though, that the sword has Sigil of Intelligence. This is almost entirely for final thrust, to be used after berserk mode has ended, and volley is on cooldown.

Juba.8406:

Anet Fixed Defiant Stance

Renamed it Infuse Light

Gave it to Revenant

o_O

Yeah, more or less. Exact same amount of healing, only it’s instant cast. Not to mention it has some added utility in the form of, the Rev gets to have a second heal skill, in case the situation doesn’t arise where it’d have much of an affect. So, it gets to be completely superior to Defiant Stance, and has a backup, in case it’s in a spot where it wouldn’t work.
Yes, the backup comes solely from class mechanics, and I don’t really object to it. But the fact of the matter is, Defiant Stance and Infuse Light are both gimmicky heals. Either they’re wonderful, or they’re absolute garbage. So, quite frankly, the class that is risking its life on this gimmicky heal with no backup should by no means have the straight up inferior version.

My build has fluctuated somewhat, quite recently. But it still has the same concept.
Sword/Warhorn and then either Rifle or Longbow.

The concept is simply, I’ll use sword and warhorn to be one of the fastest people on the map, and then I’ll do most of my fighting with my ranged weapon. When I knock them before half health, then I swap to the sword, and hit them with final thrust, and finish them off from there.
Previously I was running Vipers, with the longbow, which had another advantage. I could blast plenty of might with the firefield, and then leap in, to keep on applying more burning to my target. Then, I’d land final thrust, and hack at him a few more times until he bled and burnt out.
Right now though, I’ve been finding that the pressure of the longbow isn’t doing it for me, so I swapped over to the rifle to be able to land some more burst hits. I’m currently running marauders, but I think I’ll likely try out zerkers with it as well. So, it’s very much so a work in progress, but here’s what I currently have.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNBkYDbknD68wKPwxD4ExwUgdDwAQrLnBhtWgGEqd1AA-TpxAABzXGQgHAQGHBAr2fIiLAAAHEAA

I’m running a shouty build for a couple of reasons. 1: Rune of the Trooper is a pretty tanky set, which is nice if you’re running a fairly fragile amulet. 2: If I want my warhorn traited (which I do for movement speed) then the best grandmaster available to me is the shout one.

So, yeah. Work in progress, but it’s been working fairly well for me, including in most 1v1 situations. I can get across the map pretty fast with it, and keep points flipping. It might not be the best build for taking on someone 1v1, but it’s still working out reasonably well for me. Most fights that I lose were at least close.

I greatly approve of all of the proposed changes… Except the last ones.

“The number of players who can rally off a single kill has been reduced from five to one. Players will also no longer be able to revive defeated players while in combat. "

The problem that I’m seeing here, is you’re eliminating an important tactical decision that takes place in WvW. Do you bunker down for a second, despite the fire, to revive your dead, or do you make the push? Do you drop the bomb on the enemy downed, or do you regroup and recover, hardrezzing your own downed?
These changes would remove that tactical element from WvW to a great extent. The first one would be removed entirely. The second one would still be there, but with far less ramifications if you make the wrong call. Currently, if you make the wrong call, you find that all the downed you were going for are back up on their feet, and are hitting every escape skill under the sun to get to safety. With this set up… Okay, a few of them got up, and we’ve now permanently lost the same number. I mean, that’s noticeable, and it hurts… But not anywhere near to the same extent. Effectively reducing the effect of good tactics.

Then, as people have mentioned, commander sniping is most definitely a thing. But what I haven’t noticed anyone mention (I only read slightly over half of the pages here, so my apologies if someone already brought this up) is the fact that the new squads don’t let a replacement pop his tag, if he’s in the squad. So, it won’t matter if you have a second commander in your force. No one will be able to find him, and rally to him, to keep on fighting. Once your commander is out, you can’t substitute him, and use the squad system. They’re mutually exclusive. Not to mention, if the substitute is just in an individual party, if he tags up, the party gets messed up. So, end result is… Your new squad UI is highly unfriendly with the new setup you’re proposing.

I absolutely intend to take my Warrior into ranked arena. I always have in the past, and I have no intention of stopping. Will I play Warrior exclusively? No. But that’s because I have fun with my Necro’s build. I have fun with my Engi’s build. I have fun with my Guard’s build. And I want to get better with my Mesmer. But I will mostly play my Warrior? Absolutely. It’s been my main since the beginning, and I want to continue to get better with it.
There’s also a case of professional pride. Some people upon seeing some of the advantages other classes have over Warriors, shift over to other classes, and are just frustrated that their Warrior isn’t as good. Me? I just take the route of “Okay, I have the shorter end of the stick here. Now excuse me while I still win with this.”
Is it possible I’ll lose more than I’ll win? It’s definitely possible. Will that stop me from learning from my defeats? Will that stop me from playing my favorite class, at the most competitive level that I can manage? Absolutely not.

@Choppy: Thanks. I’ll definitely give those a shot. … Some of those things were definitely not things I had thought about previously.

Choppy.4183:

@The Not so Evil Overlord
Yes, your build is highly confusing. I don’t see how you wouldn’t be positively wrecked by a condi bomb (presumably the second if you use the hs active), heavy ranged pressure, heavy cc, and both strong kiters and melee bursters.

The trait choices in the lines don’t even look optimal to me. for example, Last Stand over Cleansing Ire when you have one stance on your bar and a longbow equipped makes no sense to me. Same with Axe mastery over Berserker’s Power.

By any chance are you mostly playing hotjoin?

Don’t get me wrong though, I’m pro-fun 100% and completely support you playing whatever works for you. I’m just not clear how your build supports the claim that warriors are very viable in spvp.

Starting from the bottom.

I was mostly posting the build as an example of breaking away from meta. And also because one person earlier made a comment about wanting to see some builds, due to metabattles not matching his playstyle.

It is true, I do play hotjoin. Almost exclusively. So, I’m not going up against experts. (I’ll also make no claim to being an expert)

Condi builds utterly destroy me. Basically every time. Burn guards, since they just toss out one condi, I can deal with. Necros and engis though? Not so much.
Heavy ranged pressure… That’s where the immob, and well timed dodging comes in. Along with using the terrain as much as possible. The immob to keep him from maintain distance, the dodge to avoid the main damage skills.
Heavy CC, it’s mostly about knowing what times I need to pop my stun breaks.
Kiters, I’ve got enough cripple and immob to definitely hit them with at least one of them. They’re definitely not easy though.
Melee bursters… Those fights are definitely interesting, since, well, it’s melee burst on melee burst. Then it really comes down to a match of who can spot the burst, and dodge it the best.

The traits… I took Last Stand not only for a longer Frenzy, but also for having some, even if unreliable, form of stabo, in addition to making Defy Pain more effective. I also am not the greatest at thinking about using Cleansing Ire to clear my condis.
Axe mastery I took, mostly because of the way my spikes work out. It’s not that rare for Eviscerate to not be charged when I begin my spikes. Which means one good chain, at least, of my axe auto-attack isn’t helped at all. Whereas it is helped by all the ferocity I’m getting from having two axes equipped.
The longbow is taken to help deal with the pesky kiters, and to keep on pressuring people like Dragonhunters, until their traps have expired. I should, perhaps, reevaluate it however, since it’s something I’ve been using for a while. I might be taking it mostly out of habit. Perhaps sword/mace or something like that.

That was my reasoning though. I likely should test it out with those modifications however, and see if that’s more effective for me. Thanks for the comments.

Personally, I’ve found my warrior to be very viable in SPvP. Each time I lose a fight, I can always point out the critical moment where I messed up. The critical moment that decided the difference between victory and defeat. The loss isn’t because I had no way to win. I’ve never found that to be the case at all (barring encountering my hard counter). The loss is because I messed up. I feel very comfortable engaging in 1v1s. 2v1s… I’ll get slaughtered each and every time, but then, I run a kill one target sort of build. A very unorthodox one. This is about it. I might have gotten the sigils messed up a bit, but the main things are correct.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAnXTj8cQnH21BuhAnIG+BKNNy9uwWgAoAwbPHqBA-TpRBABxXGYjTAQHHBAJOEAWt/AAPAAA

Yes. This build is completely crazy, and I know violates 90% of what people put down as conventional warrior wisdom. But quite frankly, it seems to me that people being too focused on sticking with conventional warrior meta is the cause of a lot of the trouble people are having. Be willing to branch out! Be a thinking player, who creates his own builds, using the advice of others, but is not enslaved to that advice. Does the classic meta work best for you? Then play it! Does it not work at all for you? Then for pity’s sake, don’t play the freaking meta! Play what works for you, and do not be bound to the meta.

Okay, with that little rant out of the way, I’ll explain the why for this build.

The axe auto-attack has some very impressive damage, especially in the later parts of the sequence. It rivals 100 Blades, and has two advantages. 1: No cooldown. 2: Mobility while using it. You can chase someone, chopping with your main DPS. With a GS, you can’t. As such, I chose it to be my primary weapon. I liked those advantages, and to be fully honest the absence of them on the GS makes it a very hard weapon for me to use.

Offhand axe… This I’m guessing is the most controversial part of this build. But I’ve found both skills on the offhand axe to be very useful for this build. The 4 skill is my source of fury in this build. If I want to have fury when I spike, I need the offhand axe.
As for the 5 skill… Trust me. Nothing is funnier than popping it when a melee thief decides to stealth on you. Furthermore, it’s good for quickly building adrenaline. Then, sometimes in large fights for points, I use it to put some hefty pressure on a lot of targets at once. Along with, say, maybe clearing out some engi turrets and the like. I don’t use it much in a match, but when I do use it, it can be very, very effective.
I like it, but I’ve also toyed with the idea of using something like offhand mace instead. But in the end, I just really like what the offhand axe brings to the table for this build.

Longbow. This is for a few purposes. The first is, the five skill can force a dodge out of people. If they don’t dodge it, then it means that I have an immobilized victim. Giving me a nice chance to swap to axe and go crazy on them.
Then, if someone is kiting, and manages to avoid all my slowdown, and I can’t catch him, it gives me a chance to keep on pressuring him, and making his life uncomfortable. Also, the burst skill is good for making a point very uncomfortable to be standing in, and the 3 skill can let me stack up some might in the process.
Lastly, when you’re up against another melee powerhouse, it lets you just kite them, shooting them up, and letting them burn their bursts. DH? Step out of his traps, and shoot him with arrows. Yes, your DPS might not be as high as his at ranged, but at least you’re dealing damage, while still surviving. You’ve avoided his main burst. Wait for it to go away, and then land yours. A warrior running the meta? Wait for him to miss with 100 Blades, and then counterburst.

Utilities:
I use “To the Limit!” as my heal, because it’s the heal I’m the best with. I’ve tried Healing Signet, and it quite honestly doesn’t work for me. I’m best with a spike heal. And “To the Limit!” does the job quite nicely. Along with tossing more adrenaline around, which never hurts.
“Shake it Off!” Shortest recharge stunbreak, and its also a condi removal.
Throw Bolas… It’s wonderful for stopping someone from kiting. It gives me a nice chance to land Eviscerate, and then get a few swings in with my axe as well. If they don’t have a condi clear ready, then, well… That’s four seconds of a warrior melee burst hitting you. Most people don’t survive that too well.
Frenzy. This is to make the burst hurt even more. A lot more. In the end, I’ve concluded I want that over stability. The damage is simply so useful, and I can survive without stabo.
Signet of Rage: This build has fun with adrenaline already, and it couples perfectly with “To the Limit!” As such, I go with it. It’s by no means set in stone though, and could be easily swapped for the banner, or, if it’s your style, Rampage.

As for the traits, I found Strength, Defense, and Discipline to be the most useful for me.
Strength: Peak Performance: This enables me to dish out smaller versions of my spike more often. Yes, it won’t be done with Frenzy, but 4 seconds of Warrior melee burst still hurts, even if it doesn’t have Frenzy. Also, if bolas were dodged the first time, it gives you another shot. Great Fortitude: This is the only useful trait for me in this line. The others don’t apply at all to this build. Axe Mastery: I’m a little up in the air as to whether or not I should use this trait, or Berserker’s Power. I can see the advantage behind both of them. The ferocity gained by using two axes gives you plus 20% Crit damage however, which is noticeable. Then I like the reduced cooldown on the skills. I also have a tendency to start the spike without adrenaline fully filled, which means I wouldn’t take full advantage of the bonus damage gained after using Eviscerate. Either one could work quite well however.

Defense: Dogged March: Neither of the other traits is really applicable. Defy Pain: This can be useful in prolonged fights, though if you’re good enough, Armored Attack could prove to be more useful to you. Last Stand: This is to make Frenzy last longer, but it’ll also make the Defy Pain more effective. Oh, and having A source of stability never hurts. Cleansing Ire is a trait I’ve used here as well.

Discipline: Warrior’s Sprint: Immob can kill you very dead, and also, it’s really nice to have when you’re chasing someone. And getting to points faster never hurts. Vengeful Return is nice though, if you find that you often end a fight with you and your opponent downed. Because it does basically hand you the victory on a silver platter. Destruction of the Empowered: In SPvP where you’re more likely to encounter lots of boons, I like the bonus damage. Brawler’s Recovery is another real possibility though. But personally, I don’t swap weapons enough for me to consider it worth while. Finally… Heightened Focus: That quickness is seriously epic. Seriously epic. Frenzy can carry me to the point where Heightened Focus gives me quickness the rest of the way. And it’s great for finishing the fight with a quickness stomp. If you find most of your damage coming from Eviscerate though, then Burst Mastery could be worthwhile.

I use Marauder’s Amulet for having good damage, while also helping me survive a bit. Same for using Rune of the Fighter.

Yes. This build is highly unorthodox, and I make no claims to it being perfect. I will however say, it works dang well for me, and I like it a lot. I for one, have definitely not given up on Warrior, nor do I ever expect to. It was my first class, and I love it dearly.

Yes. Vengeful Return is sometimes bugged and doesn’t always work. Living Story missions for example, I found that it rarely triggered.
Basically, most enemies you’ll rally off of with Vengeful Return. But there’s some out there, that randomly, you can kill, but you won’t rally from it. Fortunately, these are the exceptions. On average, with that trait, if you kill something, you’ll get back up again.

So, I’ve kind of just been reading this thread and snickering. Because I’ve found whirling axe to be extremely viable in SPvP. Extremely. For multiple purposes. Adrenaline building is one of them. Killing thieves who just stealthed is another. Smashing up the squishies flanking you, along with the turrets that engi just dropped is another. (Because autoattack can’t hit people along those angles)

In short, there’s more utility uses that this skill has that you guys are pretty much ignoring, and you might want to factor that into the discussion.

So, upon telling the people “face forwards and smile for the screenshot” I was told that I should post this on the forums. So, for simple forum practicality, I figured I’d make this topic a bit more general purpose, simply for posting screenshots of your party looking epic. And, as I wasn’t finding a topic for this anywhere, so, I figured I’d just go with this.

This group right here, (also known as the Pyromaniacs) is the group I was fighting Pyroxis with, when we got a silver for the Boss Blitz for the third time in a row. And also managed to hold him for eight solid minutes until all the other bosses were ready. Suffice to say, this group was seriously epic.

Not pictured is Alucard Sornbreaker, who had to log out before I noticed our nice lineup, and took the screenshot.