Guild Wars 2

Great thread. Thanks for the diligence and discussion. I’ve had a lot of trouble with theorycrafting because of the hidden delays in this game, this helps.

Slight hijack though: has anyone here checked sword dps rotations? I do my theorycrafting for pvp, but I was surprised at the autoattack dps from sword when you include bleed damage (even in zerker gear). For pve do you normally assume capped bleeds and discount this?

That’s correct. The simplest, best thing you can do at low rank is carry with strong aoe dps.

I think spirit ranger is an exception because it’s strong all around. Good 1v1, decent dps, good teamfight utility, doesn’t rely on other players.

Couldn’t the guardian use #2 to interrupt the pet heal?

A couple nice fights in there, but maybe next time less ganks and downstate cleaving if you’re going to make a highlight video.

Just fyi, I know several people who are consistent pvpers, that don’t have their 10 matches yet. Combination of doing the new pve content and wanting the MMR to settle out some before playing.

I’d expect the number of players on the board to keep growing for a few more weeks.

Well, it’s a nice original build. How do you feel it compares to spirit ranger? Have you considered taking banner elite + banner cd reduction?

Consider trying LB/(GS or sw+sh). LB can be used to set up melee attacks (#5 immob), but also has great aoe damage with the burst and #3 abilities. GS and sword are both mobility weapons with good damage, which allow you to engage/disengage efficiently.

to make up for 6 crappy months of warrior play

kitten , give matchmaking like a week to start working. People made these threads the last time they messed with the matchmaking.

Also, statistically you should be getting as many noobs on the enemy team as your team. That means by playing well you should be able to carry the team easier.

Warrior traits are in great shape. Pretty much every trait line is viable up to grandmaster level, for a decent build. That’s probably the best customization potential I’ve ever seen in an mmo, where there’s usually only 1-2 very obvious customization paths.

Most other classes aren’t near as strong on that though.

Changing utilities and weapons is enough for me to customize to the map/enemy comp.

Just pair with GS or Sw, great weapon and suitable for power or condi builds.

Tier S:
=Necro
=Ranger

Tier A:
+Engi
+Thief
+Guard
=Ele

Tier B:
=Warrior
=Mesmer

Despite low rep on mes and warrior, I think they’re pretty close to viable. If the condi cleave in the game is just toned down a bit, it would go a long way.

It only really matters for some classes. Trying to play hammer warrior for example, dramatically easier with an asura.

wolfpaq.7354:

Linnael.1069:

wolfpaq.7354:

Turamarth.3248:

Do you think sustain is only about the hps you have?

Nope. Please quote me exactly where I said sustain is only about HPS.

Oh I never said that? Nice strawman, troll.

Neither of you are quite right.

Mathed out from back when I was playing one.

Over 40s, with clerics gear, 0/0/10/30/30 elementalists can achieve above 50k healing in 40s, popping all healing cooldowns on demand.

Over 40s, with any gear they want, x/x/x/x/x warriors can achieve 16k healing in 40s, popping no cooldowns.

Balanced? Not quite, but not the best sustain in the game by a longshot.

Thanks for mathing it out, but I should have been more clear. Best HPS in the game from a healing skill. Easily the highest HPS in the game without using a single skill. With 0 healing power.

I have no problem with elementalists utilizing their combo fields & finishers and water attunement & cleric’s gear to attain high levels of sustain because that requires a certain level of skill to do especially in a high stress environment and they give up a huge chunk of damage potential to achieve that.

Throwing your signet on the bar and then never using it giving 400 hp / second regardless of your healing power and gear and skill is ludicrous.

In your opinion, would an all-at-once heal (interruptable) be more balanced than a HOT like signet, given they have the same HPS?

A big reason I take surge is to start fights with full adrenaline. I also like having the choice between adrenaline and healing mid-fight.

Doesn’t synergize the best with ire though; when you’ve got poison on you and need to heal, it’s kind of a no-win.

LB is a good weapon, but just understand that the autoattack dps is much lower than a melee weapon. You don’t want to be using it as a primary source of dps.

This is my surprised face = |

Does shield stun allow a full axe rotation?

Good discussion, made me remember I missed having schwar around on the forums. Where is that dude?

Yeah, survivability has improved so it’s opened up a lot of different war spec options. IMO double melee weapons was not tournament viable (only LB builds) before these patches, now there’s a lot to toy with.

A couple notes:
Bunker warriors will be a strong 1v1 bunker. High health, medium regen, good condi removal, shield block and endure pain. You should be able to slowly burn them down and eat up the cooldowns, but it’s going to be tough just like bunker guard. The real weakness is that the healing is low, so that in prolonged fights and against multiple opponents, they won’t be able to keep up.

LB builds you just need to be diligent about staying out of the fire field and dodging arcing arrow. Also be ready to cleanse the immob/bleed.

<3. Thanks to the devs and all the continued work. It’s not perfect but it’s getting better every update imo.

I’d really love to see some character model size normalizing, like in SAB. I know it seems like not a big deal, but it really would help.

Maybe they can cash in those plane tickets considering Teldo can just carry them to Seattle. (jk jk)

zone.1073:

Condition warrior works but it’s extremely difficult. Conditions from warriors are easily countered, and there is no “burst” condition potential like how Necros and Engineers can strangely pull off. Conditions on warriors is what you’d think conditions would be: damage slowly over time.

Much much simpler to just play a CC heavy warrior. Point and click to stun targets all day while your team does all of the damage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQh0p4GyNp8

Somewhat agree with this. You can get a decent bleed burst by going pin down → sword flurry.

And with CC warrior that’s kind of the trick. It’s strong 1v1 against some classes, but where it shines is with good teamwork. It’s not a great solo queue or inexperienced team spec imo. I kinda like it like that though.

This is a strong build, especially 1v1. I think it’s tournament viable, but the big thing you’re missing compared to engi and necro is the range and aoe on your condi. Yes, you have fire field, but that’s only the half of it. I think it’s going to be a little bit weak in team fights (especially when there’s aoe condi removal flying).

Any cc war without zerker stance up should be easily kited/blinded also.

Since when is utilizing weapon synergies and comboing abilities a gimmick? I think it’s good design. Your strongest dps should require comboing or teamwork to make full use imo.

Mace, sword, hammer, and LB can all be combo’d with 100b. Making 100b a burst would kill 3 of those synergies though. Seems like a step down.

Rush could use some animation polish or upgrades, F1 needs to be better or more interesting. Everything else on GS is fine.

Greatsword just needs a decent burst ability imo. I think the rest of the weapon is fine.

dug.7368:

i’d like to see that mace/shield + sword/mace build

I’d like to see that also

Consider running zerker stance instead of kick

I guess the dilemma is between the warrior community trying to get dev attention vs. creating a helpful community for other warriors. I understand that some people think the squeeky wheel philosophy is what the warrior forums need, but it just makes for such a terrible experience for players that come here to learn about their class.

I feel like what we need is a more constructive and organized way to give feedback to the devs. Right now these forums seem like an absolute mess of complaints; while there’s a few good points and ideas overall it’s tough to get through, and it’s really hard to get any kind of good discussions on how to make the most of what we have. Thanks to Defektive, Anas Tarcis and others for at least trying though.

I like it, just doesn’t seem tournament ready. My main problem is how small the laser platform is; it’s just a little too cc friendly. The rest of the map is fine.

I tested and confirmed double para does not increase skull crack past 4s last night.

Yeah, what I want in a leveling build is high damage and high speed. I’d highly recommend greatsword or sword (or both) for those reasons. Axe is also very high damage, and longbow has great aoe damage and the inherit advantages of being ranged. Here’s a couple ideas to try and see what you like:

GS/Sw+X
GS/LB
GS/Axe+X

Sw+X/LB
Sw+X/Axe+X

Good choices for X in pve would be warhorn or mace.

Also, the signet build trait has been nerfed for low levels, I can’t vouch for how good it is now.

Strength, Arms, and Discipline all have good trait options for damage for leveling.

Because unfortunately for warrior, warrior was designed well.

Someone might make the argument that warrior armor/health pool makes up for lack of evades or escape moves, but I think we’ve beaten that to death: it doesn’t.

Sword leap, gs whirlwind, and BC all have nice movement and feel. I love chaining warrior movement skills.

Here’s two good options:
Burst Mastery (Discipline XI)
Furious (Arms XI)

Furious is fantastic with longbow aoe critting multiple targets rapidly, and even better if you have good crit chance. Burst mastery is a solid alternative. Maybe give both a try to see what you like.

Power will be better than precision for you as a secondary offensive stat, but it’s alright to mix in a little bit of crit to help with on crit procs if you’re using them (like furious). Sword and LB both have pretty decent physical damage components to them.

Where’s the notes?

The only thing you might be “required” to be zerker for is CoF farming. Otherwise it’s not really an issue.

So the tough thing about warrior condi builds is you can’t cover conditions well. Bleed stacks will be easily cleared by anyone with active condi removal. It’s going to be a very tough fight against guards, engis, eles, necros, and thieves.

I’m willing to give it a shot, but I’m worried about the emphasis on condi. Most classes should have no trouble clearing bleed stacks or fire.

Ehh, once again it’s the way abilities should be designed. A hard hit like that should be telegraphed. It just doesn’t hold up for other classes so much.

I’d agree it seems out of line with anti-condi traits from other classes. But then again, maybe this is the kind of trait that would make bunker engi a reasonable option over guardian for bunkering against condi teams.

I’m not sure that’s a bad thing, especially considering direct damage classes have had to accept not being able to reasonably burst bunkers 1v1 for pretty much the whole game. Also at 25% just having a warrior or thief around to sneeze on the engi should be able to finish him.

Yeah, the 1st defense box is not very exciting. I’ve tried stance duration some, but usually take dogged march.

I’ve tried:
30 0 20 0 20 – Hits really hard, but you’re always hurting for adrenaline, feels like I’m wasting the 15% damage trait a lot.
0 30 20 0 20 – Adrenaline on crits and might stacking is strong, but noticeably less damage.

Haven’t really decided what I like better. I think Anas Tarcis has some decent ideas as well, I forget what he runs but he’s got a thread out here.

^I’d agree this is mostly equivalent to a pre-patch GS/LB build.

It’s an unforgiving build with no sustain, and you need to understand how to play it. But if you can work with that, the damage, aoe, and mobility is all very strong. The prepatch build got me to rank ~270 solo. Rank obviously doesn’t mean everything, but I think that at least says it can be competitive at a high level (and I think it’s superior to axe/gs that you occasionally saw in tournies).

So actually, let me throw something in about playstyle: the most important thing about playing this style warrior is to understand you have no sustain. You need to either score a kill, or gtfo and reset the fight.

Solo, the build can open very strong for quick kills. I tend to go LB burst, LB #5, LB #3, GS #3, BC/fr/100b. Against good players you’re going to need to adjust for their reactions, and potentially iterate a few times trying to land LB#3 and GS#3 before going for a BC kill.

In group fights, you need play extremely conservatively and rely mostly on LB damage and advantageous positioning. Look for the opportunity to set up either a LB#5→100b kill or BC→100b kill. If you get caught with aoe and conditions without scoring a kill and gaining the advantage… it’s over, you have to reset.

The last point is why I’ve grown to like the burst condi clear. It’s a sacrifice in the very important kill scoring power of the build, but it’s a lot more reasonable to maintain your health in a team fight. I feel more comfortable getting some melee hits in and dodging back out to LB range, and I think that’s benefiting the team more.

So tl;dr: I think the build is still effective in the classic warrior playstyle, but my preference right now is to make use of the new condi clear.

This build can be played to good effect, but it’s completely reliant on not getting focused. In my experience that’s not really a problem in pug matches with sub ~90% players, but once you get to ranked opponents you’re going to be actively focused.

I might try this out tonight for the fun of it, but I’ll probably stick mobile strikes in instead of DOtE.

Oh wait, I’ve played with you, you do play well. Maybe consider sacrificing a little dps to pick up the new condi clear, it’s really nice. Something like 30 0 20 0 20.

^Just because pve in this game is not very competitive.

Veritas has the right build idea, but for group play I’d be running a banner and probably FGJ still.

YuiRS.8129:

Brigg.6189:

If it wasn’t for necro buffs warrior would be in great shape this patch.

I have to disagree. The biggest part of our kit is really weak and we only happen to do fine with the Longbow, because it’s our only AoE ranged weapon. There’s a deep rooted problem with the game, it favors just spraying effects on the battlefield and not directly engaging enemies, unless if you have crazy powerful defenses, which we don’t sadly.

We’ve seen some positive changes, that’s for sure. But I think we still need a defensive buff to make our melee kits useful and not just a supplement to the Longbow.

Ok yeah, “great shape” was an exaggeration. LB builds would be competitive, but melee only builds would still be tough.