Guild Wars 2

EvilSardine.9635:

Harper.4173:

ens.9854:

It’s so wars can’t start a fight with adrenaline ever.

Makes sense now.

Why is it that necro’s death shroud doesn’t drain when leaving combat then?

Death shroud is incredibly difficult to build and is a large part of the only damage mitigation they have.

People are overstating the buffs, yes.

Ranger needs a buff though. Anything. If it turns out to be broken, the QQ will get it dealt with.

I’d just like to see them played to greater effect at least for a little.

Hold on.

Is this whole wall of text because they reduced Hundred Blades damage?

you’re speaking about PVP-Changes ruining the PVE aspect of the game, right? Only two classes have gotten a nerf so far because of issues with PVP content.

I’m probably crazy, but I squeezed that whole wall down into “Damage has been nerfed into the ground, PVE is now boring because it’s more friendly to newcomers.”

Even though:

Ranger got a buff
Warrior got a buff that almost supercedes the hundredblades nerf.

The rest is fluff.

…We’re getting LS updates every two weeks, and its L80 only. There will be bugs, Tyria is huge, and they constantly have to update large swaths of it with every living story update.

I’m hardly uptight regarding your complaint, but more confused as to what the nature of it is.

Astral Windform.2016:

Have noticed lately that a lot of people seem to be running a Thief. Is it because they can stealth like crazy? They seem pretty untouchable. Personally i feel they need a re-balance. Pretty tired of them stealthing non-stop, and i don’t think i’m alone. ANET for the love of Dwayna re-balance them please or i hate to say it, i’m finding a new game. Sad to say since i have played Guild Wars 1 since the beginning as well as beta in Guild Wars 2. Love guild Wars but make it fair, re-balance the classes or you will lose more than me, ( you already have)…

First thing.
Quit trying to make people feel bad for you.

Second thing.

As a warrior, I have only met one thief that I could not hunt down to the point of finishing, and only a handful of thieves that made my life a living hell. in both situations, the thieves were heavily refined and adept at playing (or, in the case of one, a very annoying but respected gunner that picked me off with a pistol by giving away her position only when I was under 50%) , and it was obvious that they were putting in a lot of effort to drain my HP.

The stealth isn’t broken. 90% of the time if you know a thief is around, they’re behind you, and the 10% of the time they are not is mind-games/disengage. They’re far from untouchable, and you can radar for them with AA. you can even -down- them while they’re stealthed if you can read them well enough.

Coming from someone who absolutely -hates- fighting them because -of- that mechanic, It is far from broken. it is almost mandatory.

DrDivine.5378:

Elegie.3620:

Hello,

DrDivine.5378:

I use LB/ sword and axe and the new changes attack a lot of the utilities and stuff I use, I understand balance, but do you think this will severely hurt warriors?

Honestly it’s hard to tell without testing. My thoughts for now:

• In PvE, the challenge has shifted a long time ago from clearing obstacles to clearing them as fast as possible. If anything, the changes can only introduce new inter-classes rotations to accommodate for better DPS. As for the warrior retaining his prominent role in these, only those bothering to min/max could tell – and of course they’d need more info about the changes to come for other classes – but I cannot see the warrior thrown out of an optimized party yet.
• In PvP, it’s harder to predict. The change to adrenaline suddenly makes burst errors less forgiving against good players, so I’d say things could become harder for mid-level players. High-level players might not see a change, because they already manage their bursts well. However, note that Conquest Mode heavily relies on the longbow, with its burst being legitimately preemptively activated on nodes as often as possible, so it’ll actually depend on whether shots not hitting opponents still trigger Cleansing Ire (i.e. still allowing for automatic condition management).
• In WvW, it would depend on your roles. I suspect that frontline warriors won’t see too much a difference because it’s harder to miss when in zerg melee, and a miss can somehow be compensated by the performance of teammates. Roamers, on the other hand, could see some change, because they’re bound to fight duels or small-scale combats, where missing is more critical. Again, good players already manage their adrenaline and prepare their bursts, so this would primarily affect less experienced players.

IMHO, and that remains to be tested, the changes look good on paper, because:

• They somehow require that the warrior now manage his adrenaline in a more subtle way than simply attacking as much as possible. If warriors could eventually come to active management of conditions and health, then things would become even more interesting – we’re still not here though, despite the patch.
• They try to improve underused skills, thus increasing build diversity. Still, these changes sadly remain very minor – for instance when compared to introducing a secondary class system…

Regards.

I will say though, one change I really like is when you miss your burst attack, it does not use the adrenaline. Combine that with the fact that signet of rage grants 50% adrenaline and I think it will still work, its more of just skills that got shifted around.

You may have made a typo.

Missing a burst attack -does- cost you all adrenaline.

if you whiff a burst, you lose your adrenaline and any chance at proccing cleansing ire.

You’re right though. with signet of rage building adrenaline twice as fast, we have compensation for it.

Can’t tell how that makes me want to use [Rampage] though.

Theory:

It rarely appears hot in the citadel.

According to the Tyrian map, There are snowy peaks just west of the Citadel.

http://i.imgur.com/qIKYf.jpg

It’s probably very mild, if not cold, there, especially if there are winds traveling west. Which would be fine, since the Charr have built in winter coats.

Or..yknow. they can wear boots. idk.

dday.9532:

i use both energy and vigorous focus.
no such thing as to many dodges imo lol
and its 18 seconds of vigor because you have 3 stances

Good on ya, then. Sounds like it would be a solid build. I’m assuming balanced and berserker for condi control.

It seems like you’d be at a loss if you got conditions piled on your when you werent prepared with berserker stance though, but that could be remedied with playstyle.

Alright, so it refreshes, with a maximum of 8 seconds now.

Not bad, not bad.

Noted on balanced stance.

Esplen.3940:

It adds a buff to you that looks similar to Spotter, Empowered Allies, etc (shows trait number). Because of this, it acts like an Aura where you gain the effect, but any time you regain it, it refreshes to it’s maximum duration as opposed to stacking (either duration or intensity).

At least, that’s what it SHOULD be doing, unless Anet forgot to make it inline with other Professions, which isn’t too farfetched, sad to say.

if there is an icon that can tell me when I have it, that works just as well.

[very gently modifying original post for shhhh secrets]

[Superior Sigil of Energy]

6 seconds of vigor when you use a stance as opposed to an -instant dodge- when you switch weapons seems a bit mediocre to me.

you locking someone with (hammer) and he gets too much backup for you to handle? Evade – > Swap to something with mobility leaves you at least one mobile skill and both of your evades.

[Eternity Alchemy]

With the upcoming buff to Rousing Resilience, I have some questions. regarding it:

My current understanding is that “Rousing Resilience” procs when you:

*Use Balanced stance

*Break a stun, pull, knockback, knockdown, fear, etc.

With that in mind, I’d like to confirm the following.

1.) Is there an internal CD on Rousing Resilience at all?

3.) Is Rousing Resilience treated as a boon? ("If so, boon duration affects it? if not, unwipable/not affected by Desc. of Empowered?).

Anet is saying “play hambow”, yes.

Either play hambow or have a useless F1 skill against players with eyes, unless Greatsword, where your burst will be AMAZING but outside of that you will do relatively nothing.

Healing surge is now “Telegraph that you want to burst by shouting and gaining HP. Or don’t, use the burst anyway and not heal at all.”

All that has to happen now is another healing signet nerf.

The nerf has simply moved the damage you would get from 3bar Adrenaline immob + HB /Frenzy into an 360 degree AOE.

Same adrenaline, less buttons, wider range, less cast time.

I don’t see what the problem is.

We didn’t actually get a nerf, people are just panicking because they see “damage reduction” and go OMG NO-

GS Arcing slice CLEAVES now. That would have been enough. it still grants fury and everything else. If you keep chaining slices, perma fury, with bonus against weakened enemies.

almost guaranteed fury in a 1vX since you’re bound to hit someone unless you’re blind.

Hardly a nerf IMO.

Bonus: It looks like it would hit everyone trying to cap a point in PVP if the warrior stood in the middle.

If anything, the issue will be getting used to having adrenaline spent if we whiff evisc or earthshaker.

Here’s my tribal warrior harp-playing Charr, Zarin Mistblade.

Anything the Ranger can do to make them formidable in a combat situation, coming from a warrior, is welcomed.

I enjoy being surprised by a Ranger that can put up a hard fight.

Domzz.1260:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Not even a week.

an -hour-.

He’s formulating an opinion of the class based on an hour of playing.

The class isn’t OP at all. you just cannot deal with it as you would other classes.

Warrior is very frontal, and very powerful. Trapping a warrior or otherwise removing their line of sight to you brings them to their knees, on higher playing fields.

it has a low skill floor because at the beginning of the game, everyone is playing like “walk up to player, mash 1 HARD”. Warrior just happens to do that by name of its profession, so it shines on lower skill matches.

Once people get into conditions, strategy tailored to their classes, and stealths, blinds, turrets, “Walk up to player, mash 1 HARD” doesn’t have as much effect.

Duh, anything else obvious you’d like to throw up and serve on a platter?

That doesn’t change the fact that warrior is really strong and OP — in the right hands, even against conditions and higher ground, a warrior is strong — but that’s where the skill comes into play. Of course if you’re going to sit and faceroll you will get wrecked. Tons of access to Crowd Control, condition immunity, mobility to exploit LoS.

A mesmer or thief plays dirty by using stealth and mobility in combat — that doesn’t mean a warrior can’t play dirty either by putting on the pressure then resetting behind LoS with faster regen only to come back — has faster cooldowns and greater burst.

Just because I’ve been playing warrior for a couple weeks doesn’t change the fact I’ve been playing the game since pre-beta — as well as Guild Wars 1 for several years.

Go educate yourself, you’re not as good as you think you are.

Easy now; I’d hate for you to take my comment personally.

Regardless of how long you have played, the fact remains that you are forming your opinion of a class based on first experiences with it.

Sure, Warrior is ‘OP in the right hands.’ as you said though, skill comes into play to make use of where Warrior is strongest.

But that applies to every class (except ranger in some cases, unfortunately.)

your original post came off as “facerolling warrior immediately gives you a higher win ratio than most”. I am against that opinion, and the above post is why. Other than that, I have no disagreement with what you’re stating, especially since you are an experienced player otherwise and brought that with you to the warrior class.

Renny.6571:

It’s a large fan infront of your character and has a surprisingly long range. I expect scaling issues with asura and that no one will care because greatsword is still subpar in pvp.

Incorrect.

It is now a 360 degree attack that does increased damage to users under 50% hp.

It also cleaves. 5 targets.

Beautiful.

simply beautiful.

I certainly was not expecting that rework. Excited to try that out once the patch lands.

Hello. I am a relatively new player to this game. (coming up on six months of playing.)
I have not experienced every class, and the only class I care to play is warrior.

Even so, I have experienced lots of WVW and PVP (although I am not ranked), and would like to express my -limited- thoughts on what I have seen through fighting the other classes. Forgive me for being blunt, I do not know the ins and outs of other classes yet, and my suggestions are based on fighting less skilled as well as highly skilled players of each profession.

Rangers:

*need a large buff. Their damage should not depend on AI. Rangers should have the option of completely forgoing their pet (as impossible to implement as that might be),
or have the majority of their damage come from themselves, with conditions and CC left to the pet.

Guardians:

need a short range, moderately-low-cooldown mobility buff. They are the only class that cannot disengage at the moment, apart from Necros.

Torches need a buff.

Warriors:

The complaint about having large mobility in greatsword is valid. Carrying a large sword does not make you fast. Rush range being reduced is a good fix, as is longer CD for running so far. (Both would be viable as well, but there should be a buff/fixing to the skill itself to allow it to be used as an attack, instead of what it is now (which is a mess of pathfinding uselessness).
Balance the lower mobility of GS with savage bleeds for GS auto attack. Being hit by a big kittening sword should have the effect of ‘being hit with a big kittening sword’. vulnerability on AA doesn’t reflect that.

Lighter weapons for warrior have a surprising lack of mobility. Something should be done about this.

Hundred blades is useless in pvp without an immob/frenzy. Something needs to be done about it, although I am not sure what.

Sword/mace/warhorn/other obscure weapons/offhands need impressive buffs to encourage variety. Dual wielding Agility is a nice concept, but it is not as rewarding as it needs to be.

Hammer needs a nerf in terms of power. CC duration is fine.

Longbow is fine as it is.

Whiffed bursts for Warriors should:

*Cost Adrenaline, but condi clear.

*Not cost adrenaline, but not condi clear. (including the fire field for lB.)

Necros:

Need a buff. Death shroud is a nice concept, but Necros do not have enough mobility or disengage to be incredibly potent. giving them the option to -fake their own death- would probably be a nice foundation into giving them mobility/disengage.

Their damage is fine, and they make up for slow attacks with boon stripping. they just dont have many options for retreat once targeted, unless you count fear after a stability corruption.

Elementalists:

Are fine (now), but are incredibly potent at the moment. I’d tentatively say they are balanced, but only based on current matches with them.

Engineers:

Are fine. Pirate rune, however, needs a nerf specifically because of them.

Thieves:

Are tentatively fine. There’s no need to add reveal to anything they do, at the moment. They have too much to worry about to be potent at the moment, and a nerf would just add to that. Perhaps in the future, a Reveal being applied to them for 1s for being struck while in stealth would be a good plus, but only if they receive an armor buff to withstand the potential hazards that would create.

Mesmers:

Need a large nerf to the PU build and distributed buffs to make other builds more viable. Mesmers should not have to utilize only one build to be formidable in PVP, that’s wasteful.

“Warriors have weakness in the form of largely telegraphed attacks.”

Killshot.
Eviscerate.
Shield Bash.
Pin down.
final thrust.
EarthShaker.

Most, if not all of the stupid-high-damage moves can be avoided by simply -watching the body of the warrior you’re fighting and saving your dodges for those moves, while using Stealth/Stonearmor/whatever mitigation you have to endure any auto attacks they may land on you in the meanwhile. Dodges should be used to avoid both the stupid-high-damage moves and the set-up moves that would enable the stupid-high-damage moves.

It isn’t hard. This MMO requires you to recognize when a big hit is coming, and dodge it when it -does- come.

Crucible of eternity frankly -trains- you for this.

Not everything is in the numbers.

“Cant kill it with my auto attack, it’s too strong.”

If anything, coming from a Warrior that has fought guardians often, they need a BUFF in the form of mobility so they don’t have to sponge everything like that.

They can teleport right to someone, why cant they get a shorter range blink to disengage?

The rest seems solid, on the outside looking in.

Not even a week.

an -hour-.

He’s formulating an opinion of the class based on an hour of playing.

The class isn’t OP at all. you just cannot deal with it as you would other classes.

Warrior is very frontal, and very powerful. Trapping a warrior or otherwise removing their line of sight to you brings them to their knees, on higher playing fields.

it has a low skill floor because at the beginning of the game, everyone is playing like “walk up to player, mash 1 HARD”. Warrior just happens to do that by name of its profession, so it shines on lower skill matches.

Once people get into conditions, strategy tailored to their classes, and stealths, blinds, turrets, “Walk up to player, mash 1 HARD” doesn’t have as much effect.

Lazuli.2098:

I think mesmer fits that description.

Mesmer and Thief are the only classes that fit that description.

I play oddly.

I use WASD and Up, down, left right, along with Q and E for strafing.

If I’m using skills that dont need an implicit target (green circle), I move with Up, down, left right.

if I use a skill that needs a target or need to alter my camera (green circle), I -switch my movement to WASD while I aim with the mouse. -

Not for everyone.

Siamak.8126:

I’m still torn between the Guardian and Warrior. can folks who played them both extensively comment on their fun factor and general experience with both classes in PVE environment please

Here’s my take on it.

Guardian: Less Mobility, Less Damage, Higher Support, Higher Damage Mitigation.

Usage Tendencies (from [most] important to [least]:

Small Group Support
Zerg Spearheading
Roaming

Bluntly put: Guardian has high survivability, but only average damage. Roaming fights when alone TEND TO take longer due to this, which could be a bad thing as it allows targeted enemies / scouts to call for backup.

When Guardian is paired with [insert class here], damage potential, survivability, and effectiveness increase largely for the pair/group.

Guardian is Average Effectiveness, Minimally volatile (Guardians can deal with anything, slowly.). Pair with DPS class for ohgoddestruction.

Warrior: Higher Mobility, Higher Damage, Less Support, Less Damage mitigation.

Usage Tendencies (from [most] important to [least]:

Roaming
Small Group Support
Zerg Spearheading

Bluntly put: Warriors have high damage, but average survivability. Roaming fights when alone TEND TO be quicker, but are also more volatile (you can lose easier) because Warriors have less condition and damage mitigation than Guardians.

When Warrior is paired with [insert class here], damage potential, survivability, and effectiveness increase modestly for the pair/group. Warriors often have to be specifically traited for above-average group support.

Warrior is High Effectiveness, Moderately volatile (Warriors can easily devour other classes, but are at a loss if overwhelmed with conditions). Mostly used for Frontline Zerg and Roaming, due to independence.

Warrior if you like doing things yourself, with the occasional Party.
Guardian if you like doing things as a group, with the occasional solo.

both Warrior and Guardian can be hard-traited and armored to pseudo-emulate their opposing roles. Warrior can be traited in defense and Armored in Toughness to simulate Guardian Tankiness at the cost of raw power, and Guardian can be traited in power and Armored in power at the cost of some tankiness.

I only play one character. the other two are reserved for leveling with friends.

I would have this problem if I didn’t resolve to pick one character and stick with it if it was not completely unplayable to me for any MMO I played.

Once you start questioning how you’d do as an X (especially with little time to explore that venture), It’s already too late.

New heal?

…Defiant..stance?

am I missing something?

Kill shot:

Damage Level 1 damage: 869 (2.25)?
Damage Level 2 damage: 1,063 (2.75)?
Damage Level 3 damage: 1,256 (3.25)?
Combo.png Combo Finisher: Physical Projectile
Range.png Range: 1,500

He also Procced two sigils on his rifle.

The conditions he met to wreck you were you standing still for the 1.75 seconds it took for him to channel the move/not dodging.

Watch that mining next time. Kill shot is famous in WVW for 1shot sniping out key players. It has horrible drawbacks for most any target that is moving. If you’re immob’d or unaware though…

Seems like what you said about being meant to play the class may have a glimmer of truth.

You went from an average guardian dedicated to support, to a 1v1 oriented Warrior that frankly didn’t give a kitten about support and started winning.

Mayyybe you need to spearhead more, instead of buffing PuGs.

Juba.8406:

no one should ever be able to kite you successfully, you need to pressure them, be all the time in their faces, give them no room to breath, even P/D thieves will find it hard to kite you.

This.

For squishy harassment oriented classes like Thieves and Mesmers, the solution is to be so obnoxiously on-their-kitten that they burn their CDs trying to get you to stop.

Savage leap is your friend.

Try gearing for Flurry(cancel)-hundredblades if you can too, with fast hands. That four second immob is a death sentence for a trapped (insert squishy here)

mPascoal.4258:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

The Warrior is a riskier guardian. You’d be trading damage mitigation and condition mitigation (and some team support) for power and mobility.

Tanky/Support <Guardian> <————————————-> <Warrior> Speed/DPS

I mostly played my Guardian with Meditations in PvP, not bunker, but now I’m playing bunekr with it

There’s a lot of overlap between Warrior and Guardian. It really boils down to if you favor DPS/Mobile over Support/SOMANYBUFFS.

You may not feel much of a difference between them both. Warrior may feel a bit more “to-the-point” to you, as previously stated.

My thoughts:

“I have nothing against you using hammer wherever you feel like it except for dungeons, because I have other things to do and cannot spend excessive amounts of time clearing them because a player is adamant about not using (insert any other weapon here) for ten minutes.”

PVE overworld? sure!

Wvw/Pvp? Even better!

In a dungeon? Come on bruh. It’s like you’re telling me you like wasting time.

It’s comparable to running Full Giver’s in Organized WVW blobs because you can rev people faster. The tradeoff comes at everyone else’s expense.
This game is about cooperation. When people depend on you, you play what they need.

The Warrior is a riskier guardian. You’d be trading damage mitigation and condition mitigation (and some team support) for power and mobility.

Tanky/Support <Guardian> <————————————→ <Warrior> Speed/DPS

OP does not speak for the majority.

There is nothing OP about Warriors having skills that allow them to escape.

Most of the other classes also have escape skills (including stealth) with the exception of the Guardian, and they make up for not being incredibly quick with astounding damage mitigation.

Warriors would be QQed out of the game by now if Anet listened to all of this nonsense.

A warrior is not supposed to be kite bait.

I’m currently running the below build for WvW roaming/havoc groups as a Warrior. As of late though, I’ve felt the need to improve it a little.

It’s a modified shout heal build, with leanings toward bunker (And furious speed because 100% uptime in combat with Tactics boon duration.)

Are there any large gaps that could be patched up with a little tweaking (or is it just absolutely terrible, I’d like to hear those opinions too)? I normally disengage thieves with this build, but I’d like to start eating them while still remaining somewhat mobile.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJIQNAscTjMdUGalHeewJagqgC9iHAb9pOO9J01pAA-T1SDwAzUXxnSMYqUQVZhXlgPVKASfAz9HG8IAAYiRyZAgMAmbB-w

Thaddeus.4891:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

scirocco.9805:

And now 1 year later from the last post, warrior is still massivly op in pve and pvp.

you know what?

You know what? He’s right.

They -ARE- over powered. That is their selling point. They are supposed to deal incredibly high damage. they’re supposed to burst you down to 0 HP if they touch you. They’re -supposed- to be the leading or front-line soldiers in WVW zergs. That’s their shining point, that’s their playstyle; and for that reason complaining about “guuh, warrior hits too hard~” is frankly, ignorant.
.

But they are not hitting that hard. ELementalist and Thief got between 10 and 35% more DPS depending on each build and guardian have about the same dps depending on the situation.They got the best passive defense, almost no active defense, average dmg and the best offensive support capability. Warrior are not op, they are balanced.

This too. Elementalists and Thieves do hit incredibly hard.

whichever way you take it, they are far from being gamebreaking or insurmountable.

Juba.8406:

WvW roaming is no where like PvP, Hambow is not gonna work there, you need mobility since you already picked LB a slow weapon with no movement skills then picking hammer alongside it is a death sentence.

GS/Lb is viable.

^ This. You don’t want to be caught anywhere near a zerg or blob with no mobility.

Veckna.9621:

Don’t try to facetank a thief with pistol offhand instead make them come to you, overextend themselves and overspend their initiative.

This. A thief will fight only as long as they think they can win. Against a good thief, your mentality should be to force him to disengage unless you have backup; you will rarely find an opening to down a thief unless you lure them into spending all their initiative and then devour them, are specifically geared to burst them so completely that you sap their entire HP pool before they have a chance to run, or have someone with you.

That being said, you cannot tank them. be a moving target, and CC as much as you can.

Personally, I use Sword/Sword vs thieves when roaming on a soldier/knight armor build. Bleed and Torment put pressure on thieves, and often forces them to burn their Hide in shadows to cure large stacks. Torment follows them even if they use Hide in shadows.

scirocco.9805:

And now 1 year later from the last post, warrior is still massivly op in pve and pvp.

you know what?

You know what? He’s right.

They -ARE- over powered. That is their selling point. They are supposed to deal incredibly high damage. they’re supposed to burst you down to 0 HP if they touch you. They’re -supposed- to be the leading or front-line soldiers in WVW zergs. That’s their shining point, that’s their playstyle; and for that reason complaining about “guuh, warrior hits too hard~” is frankly, ignorant.

That being said, they are very easily outmatched in PVP and WVW by classes that know what they are doing. Warriors depend heavily on weapon choices and being able to actively locate their target to be of any use. If their target knows how to -dodge-, or worse yet is a thief, they’re in trouble.

And they have no gimmicks and very little damage mitigation. you lock onto a warrior and you avoid their cc, and the fight is yours.

They are not taking content. The closest they’d be doing is using content as a basis for new content creation.

As long as the creators of the original content cannot (or wish not to) send a cease and desist letter, it is not a problem. Even if it was purposeful, shoutouts help the game that has their content used as inspiration.

Allo, everyone. In an effort to further enhance a bunker/regen warrior build that I am experimenting with for WVW and PVP to handle/resist X v 1, I’ve begun to consider slotting a Sigil of Water in several of my weapon sets due to the recent buffs.

As of now, It seems that Sigil of Water now has around 400-ish heal with my current build, which means that, potentially, a battle in WVW or PVP could heal allies for around 400HP every 5-7 seconds. A Duel would proc 400HP on you every 5-7 seconds, on top of heals from regen+signet+adrenal+etc.

My question is to other players that have done testing on the new revised Sigil of Water. Of those that have, what are your thoughts? Does it seem viable enough to include in a pvp/wvw build(particularly for a commander)?

And, since the AOE is now apparently focused on the target, does it mean that damage done at range (with a rifle/longbow/pistol) would be too far off to heal the attacker?

Right now, the only ways to make other builds “remotely viable”(as in, why not zerker) in PVE are:

• nerf dodging
• Add special conditions to mobs (silences, unavoidable X attack, etc)

etc. where “punch it in the face” is not the sole objective required to win.

(of course, this probably wont be received well. Any content that veers from “punch it in the face” is outright ignored in many cases. i.e. Ghost Eater Path)

As much as I wish that there would be a way to mitigate or change the mindset of “power is all you need”, it seems that people that actually think that way either have nothing alternative to challenge that claim or refuse to do anything that challenges that claim.

Or both.

Its a losing battle to overturn a meta. Play how you want. You’ll find people who play like they want. Let the Zerkers Zerk. You’d be surprised, many people who choose full zerker appreciate a bunker in their party that can stand in AOE circles and rev them when they down. Less vitality = faster rev.

Optimal is optimal, there’s nothing that can be said about that. punchitintheface is optimal.

Your objective is to have fun though.

To be honest, I am impressed with the new sigil of water. I only have 300 HP on my shouthealing warrior at the moment, so my base heal for the water proc is only about 400. However, in a build that provides a lot of regeneration besides, that 400 is a welcome addition.

Add that to the fact that it will proc against marauding stoneheart elementalists, and it’s a reasonable alternative to the on crit blood sigil.

It synergizes well with sigil of life too. Put it on a commanding guardian’s sword, and life on his/her shield, and you have a formidable WvW weapon, assuming he/she is properly built.

plus, now the cooldown is 5 seconds, which is the same as blood.

I don’t know about more DPS oriented builds, but water works for me.

I’ll be blunt here. It isn’t as deep as its being made out to be.

People use zerker because it melts bosses fast, which is actually a pretty good reason to use zerks.

You don’t have to.

My Warrior is 80/20 Knights warrior with bloodlust and shout heals. I’ve never been chided by a Zerker that was out of endurance at the wrong time when I was revving him/her. I use that same gear for WVW and spearhead Zergs, and I do well in Duels as well.

Play how you’d like to. If you can tank as a warrior, do so. If it helps get the job done, it helps get the job done. If you don’t do as much dps as (X build), and players want to criticize you for that, especially if you’re the most likely candidate to save their butts when they trip, then you probably shouldn’t be partying with them to begin with.