Guild Wars 2

Sagramor.7395:

Sword is a hybrid weapon that’s great for staying on target and keeping pressure on. Long duration bleeds and Cripple on the auto-attack, Cripple and Leap on #2, and #3 hits just as hard as a full adrenaline Eviscerate if target is <50% health. So while it may not appear to do much damage, when put in the right build it can be pretty potent.

Shield may look pretty vanilla, but consider what it offers. #5 is essentially one second shy of Endure Pain without the stun break on half the CD. #4 is both a stun and leap finisher. So not only is it a great hard CC to stop a heal, burst, rez, or stomp or setup for a Final Thrust/Eviscerate, but if you use it in a field you get a nice bonus.

Sword is probably the most under-appreciated Warrior weapon. I mean soft CC (that can be buffed with a minor trait), a gap closer on a low CD, and a high damage finisher on one weapon? Yes please. Let’s not forget that the burst isn’t bad as well.

As for not wanting to use LB, I get that. I don’t like it either. It feels like training wheels, much like double Endure Pain. Taking Sword n’ Shield over it does make you more mobile so there’s still an argument to be made for it.

Narkodx.1472:

I mean that build is just straight horrible man no wonder you can not kill anything

If you do not use the Longbow with its superior cleansing and AoE damage how the heck you think you’re gona kill turrets – USE THE BOW

The Warrior is not a melee class there are no melee classes everyone has ranged and melee weapons

Half the longbow skills are best used in melee/medium range it is not a long range weapon – Fan of Fire for example is best used at point blank melee range

Try Hambow or Shoutbow don’t try and reinvent the wheel especially since you are new

What I posted will kill just because of the combination of the sigils on the hammer and the trait. Swap to Hammer → Earthshaker → Backbreaker → Fierce Blow will outright kill some builds. Follow up with Staggering Blow → Shield Bash → Final Thrust and they’re either dead or kitten close. The trick is you use your weaker CC’s like Staggering Blow and low adrenaline Earthshakers to make them pop their stability and stun breaks before going for the big combo.

The AA on sword doesn’t hit super hard, but don’t forget that it’s also fast and with Leg Specialist you also keep them soft cc’d with cripple and immob.

BlackTruth.6813:

nickcosta.8256:

What’s his rifle build about? I wanna try it too

choovanski.5462:

Crash.5362:

a guy just posted this on a post of mine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90L5Rw1YdwQ

Its pretty cool the hexastance stuff XD

that ‘guy’ was the god and legend known as Schwahrheit. i’m testing his rifle build on my warr, and gosh…

I’ll give it to you.
Axe+Mace Rifle
62006 or 62024

Pick traits that maximize damage, crack shot on arms, leg specialist if you plan on using 2 tactics and Warrior sprint for mobility

Defiant Stance, Fear me, Balance Stance, Berserker Stance, Frenzy, Rampage, signet of might are all good choices. Definitely use Zerk Stance + Defiant stance as a constant.

I question the use of Axe/Mace. I would think something like GS or Sword/Shield would give you some mobility and an evade or block. With a build like this, you want to be able to gtfo of town if you get focused. Of course, you could also take the 2 axe traits that give you more damage and adren.

This is what I run. Defiant Stance is still a bit too risky imo, but still fun when you time it right.

If you’re opposed to using melee weapons and GS then there’s only a few “viable” options. A warrior build has to have access to 3 main things (generally):

1. Reliable adrenaline gain.
2. Some sort of gap closer.
3. Reliable condi removal.

Based on your limitations, I came up with this.

Some things are up to you:

• You can swap Endure Pain for something like Bull’s Charge.
• Mobile Strikes for Destruction of the Empowered (note that many Rangers run Entangled now though).
• The second Sigil on sword can be Fire/Air, Hobbling if you find that you still have issues keeping enemies in range, Generosity for additional condi removal, Battle if…
• you swap Runes of Mel for something like Hoelbrak.

It probably looks like I have dedicated A LOT to anti-condi, but believe me you’ll need it if you don’t have a Longbow. If you miss your burst, you can easily be overwhelmed. If you get hit by a Pin Down and have no adrenaline, you want to have Brawler’s Recovery so you can get rid of those bleed stacks. Same with anything a Necro may throw at you. It’s also useful for blind spamming builds.

Sadly, the only advantage this build has over typical Hambow is the ability to deal a huge finishing blow and it has the block. The sigils on the Hammer will still allow you to do massive damage if they don’t have stab or a stun break, so it makes up for all of your defensive traits.

I use it on my Skullcracker build now, which with traits means that if I combo the CC it’s all going to be crits that hit like a truck. It’s also good for when all the hard and soft CC starts overwhelming you.

It could definitely do with being a Physical Skill, it’s a big investment to take that trait.

I went with “Ben the Annoying” since I generally play CI Interrupts.

I find that if you want a easy name just pick a first name and a “title.” I like symmetrical alliteration as well, my Engi’s name is Bad Hat Ben. Names that that flow well.

Because CI lockdown is the closest you can get to the old GW1 interrupt Mesmer (Power Block doesn’t seem that great atm) it’s the build I started playing Mes with. Now, I feel pretty kitten confident with it (I can generally beat teefs if they don’t catch me w/o CDs), but when it comes to Shatter I’m actually kinda rubbish at it in comparison.

The build also just feels…complete. With Sword/Focus GS you have strong DPS, a skill that can give you and your team swiftness which in addition to Blink means your mobility isn’t too shabby. The damage if you consistently interrupt seems on par if not greater than Shatter. I feel way more valuable when the time comes to save a teammate than on Shatter.

The one weakness is that you have to play well, and that you don’t have room for Portal. That is probably the largest drawback. At the end of the day though it’s a build that is fun to play and you’re not totally screwing your team over when you use it (like when I run a all Physical War) and once mastered can put you on par with Shatter.

Brigg.6189:

BTW does kick work as a decent setup for most burst skills? I haven’t actually tried using it like that, more just as part of a stun juggle.

It’s a pretty darn good setup. Going Kick→Swap→Earthshaker is basically unavoidable without a stun break.

So, I messed around a bit more and refined the gimmick.

This has gotten me the best overall results thus far.

The Hammer/Mace build lacked mobility, solved here by having a GS. The Hammer/Sword had more mobility but could still be ranged and also lacks in the damage department, solved by the Bull’s Charge + 100b or Earthshaker + 100b. I like Brawler’s Recovery because of how unreliable CI can be without bow. Between that, your runes, and sigil of Generosity you should be able to deal with condis well enough especially if you land your CC.

Just remember to save your adren for a near guaranteed hit by combing it with Kick or Stomp. Try to always save at least one control skill for their heal. I goofed off in duels for a while and the biggest threats are other Warriors with double Endure Pain. Unlike other classes you can’t interrupt their heal. When it activates just try to go on the defensive with GS. Medi Guards were also challenging, it would come down to the wire without Rampage but opening with it or using it after their elite is used is almost a guaranteed win. The build actually has a decent skill level required because you don’t have any training wheels like EP. This can really suck in TPvP, I suggest not being the first one in or if you are open with Rampage so that you take less initial damage.

Still a shame that I can’t ditch the Heal Sig no matter how hard I try.

Wanna make people mad? Run a Turret Engi with a Shoutbow War. Condis are no longer an issue and the turrets are even more difficult to take down. Unless I’m mistaken I think another Engi with traited Tool Kit can also heal allied turrets as well.

Many posts here seem to look at Turret Engis as a singular entity and not as a part of a team.

I said this the last time a dueling thread came up but I’ll repeat it here. Dueling does not seem to fit with ANet’s vision of the game. Everything is designed around teamwork and cooperation. Even though PvP breeds a more harsh environment it’s still around working as a team.

The only kind of dueling I would be OK with is maybe converting an area of the Mists to have little arenas that 2 players can enter and fight. I want nothing to do with open world dueling. Even if a auto-deny feature were added, it’s very existence could lead to obnoxious players following you around spamming “why u deny? U scareded!? Fight me bro!” and other such nonsense. The reason you see it so much less text abuse in GW2 than other MMOs is because it’s designed to not be competitive.

Confining it to one area of PvP would also make them able to make clear boundaries. If you’ve ever joined a dueling server you’ve probably run into “that guy” who just runs out of the arena or kites around corners when they start losing. They could also limit/disallow elites if they wanted.

As other have said, it’s not that Rangers are OP, but the way they are generally played. The majority of the damage comes from a single skill that has a low CD.

As a GW1 player, the Ranger is an incredibly disappointing class. I always loved to play interrupts, and while there are some traits and skills that are similar to that sort of play style but it’s nowhere near as rewarding imo.

I always feel “spammy” as a Ranger no matter what I run. Even with a cool combo like getting a interrupt with Concussion Shot -> Pet Immob -> 150% dmg Maul when I’m not doing that I’m just pew pewing. With LB it’s even worse because it all comes down to 2 skills.

There’s also the fact that Ranger now has what is basically their version of Endure Pain with no real investment, long CD or not it’s still basically a “get out of jail free” skill (I don’t like EP either).

Simon.3794:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Juba.8406:

moving Physical Training to Adept + making Mending a Physical skill is what really needed.

It would help, but I have a feeling the reason it is where it is because they don’t want celestial Physical builds that have both reduced CDs, increased damage, AND with the capbility to bring Distracting Strikes as well. In WvW I mess around with a Soldier/Rabid mix with Perplexity runes and the results can be pretty funny. Heck, even with straight power you stack enough confusion that it’s still super painful.

With the current trait setup, I have to sacrifice Physical Training or Cleansing Ire. In WvW I could make up for the lack of condi removal with food like this (I don’t have full ascended stuff, this is just an ideal version).

I keep trying to come up with a way to make Defiant Stance work. It’s not bad, but super situational. If it was instant like every other stance you could activate it the second you get spiked, but that short cast time really gums up the works. I want to try out something like this with the newly added rune of Scavenging. I need to find out how much the 4 bonus heals you for, because maybe with it + a leaching sigil iy may heal you enough to offset how low the Mending heal is. With Restorative Strength you basically have a cleanse every 20 seconds. Hopefully between Dogged March and Mobile Strikes you can stay in range. You would be some sort of crazy Brawling Vampire.

What’s nice about these builds though is that they don’t require a lot of adrenaline use. You only need 1 bar of Earthshaker, just start in the Sword set, Kick, swap, and ES into your hammer combo. If you wanna be pro wait just long enough after each attack so that they can try to use a skill and you can interrupt them.

the runes probably wont heal much as i’ve tested other heal bonus runes before trying to make mending or surge viable, but it was too little.

I tried it, wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t the worst thing ever…but I did better with Healing Signet and any other rune set.

Isn’t that Warrior heals in a nutshell?

inhearth.2038:

These days I won a match against 5 turret engies with a random team with a basic comp. We just knew what to do and where we needed to rotate. Imagine a point with 2 supplies crates plus their normal turrets everywhere.

Seriously, nowadays people that lose to turret engies just have the classic l2p issue.

Turrets =/= Decap

Decap only has 1 turret. They were the main threat. The pure turret engi was worth having though because he could just mix their turrets in with everything else the decaps had.

XGhoul.7426:

BurrTheKing.8571:

XGhoul.7426:

BurrTheKing.8571:

hihey.1075:

Any team with brains, a Mesmer and a Thief would just camp side points and get an ez win against that comp. Thief nullifies Ranger, Mesmer nukes the point holders without even being pressured. Throw in a D/D Ele and any other bunkerish specs (Warrior, Guardian, even Engi) and you get a gg.

To answer, they simply move the Ranger to wherever the Teef isn’t, put the Shotbow on the other point, and leave the pure turret engi mid. They can delay you at either point for a decent amount of time and just rotate to wherever they need to keep 2 points. The Pure Turret Engi could also leave turrets mid, go to wherever help is needed, drop a crate/CC a bit. gg.

kitten , if an engi can crate AND leave a pt, he still wins it pushing out?!, someone call the balance police and arrest this build pls.

I think you misread. The engi would leave the utility turrets at mid, and crate at wherever it’s needed. If you pay attention to the map you can just pop the Thumper active as soon as someone tries to decap. The exception of course is Graveyard, but that has the advantage of you being able to place turrets in annoying to reach spots, forcing any attackers to either kill them first or have to deal with them while taking the point.

I always wonder what kind of turret engis people are facing when they say they’re no good in organized play, being able to have a presence in multiple parts of the map is always good if you have something like a Shoutbow along.

From your response, yes, I did misread, but can somebody explain the suboptimal turret engi build? because as far as I know the build is (still) complete trash and still unviable competitively. i.e. Once an engi burns their crate (especially a turret engi) they will have little to no sustain if they leave their turrets burning on other points, let alone a stunbreak, the build can be easily outplayed by any class in this game (assuming a pure competitive environment and they leave 1 of their utils to troll 800 dmg for no reason on a pt)

I’m still baffled how people consider turret engis a problem (this is my personal and biased opinion)

The turrets themselves give boons to you and your party when traited with Experimental Turrets. You get Vigor from the Healing Turret and Protection from Thumper. Personally, I found that those boons + Protection Injection and Self Regulating Defense with Soldier’s ammy and some sort of defensive rune (Mel or Grove) is all you need. Heck, I’ve gone Zerker and still found my defense to be adequate.

Turret isn’t hard to play, but you go have to be clever about placement and when to activate the main attack of the turrets.

Even VS Mesmers I find that with Rifled Turrets you have 1,500 range so it’s not like they’re going to be out ranging you. So long as your turrets aren’t right next to each other and you position yourself so that they can’t AoE them you force them to either focus on the turrets or you. If they focus you they may down you, but stomping you before your turrets down them as well (at which point you win) is a tall order. If you’re not there but Thumper is in the middle of the point and your Rifle and Rocket are outside you still have to deal with the Thumper at least before getting on point because otherwise the Engi can just knock you off and activate the other turret’s attacks as well (from what I’ve seen the range of Thump is the entire point if placed in the center). Most bad turret users group them too close.

What made the comp work is that the boons from the turrets made the Shotbow even more powerful due to boons and his heals let him help keep the Engis and his turrets alive but even solo the turret engi had enough staying power to hold off any single player. They at one point also dropped all their crates on one point which with that + Accelerant Packed Turrets made for a pretty funny moment (only funny in hindsight though).

Also, Turret Engis do have an emergency stun break if Thumper isn’t down in the form of Rumble. It even gives around a second of Stability to prevent immediate follow up control. The more clever Engis wait to actually put down the thumper until after they use Rumble. Of course, if they’re standing next to it when they get stunned they could also just Thump you away.

Turrets are weird, you can’t say that it takes skill to play the build itself but there are ways to play it wrong.

XGhoul.7426:

BurrTheKing.8571:

hihey.1075:

Any team with brains, a Mesmer and a Thief would just camp side points and get an ez win against that comp. Thief nullifies Ranger, Mesmer nukes the point holders without even being pressured. Throw in a D/D Ele and any other bunkerish specs (Warrior, Guardian, even Engi) and you get a gg.

To answer, they simply move the Ranger to wherever the Teef isn’t, put the Shotbow on the other point, and leave the pure turret engi mid. They can delay you at either point for a decent amount of time and just rotate to wherever they need to keep 2 points. The Pure Turret Engi could also leave turrets mid, go to wherever help is needed, drop a crate/CC a bit. gg.

kitten , if an engi can crate AND leave a pt, he still wins it pushing out?!, someone call the balance police and arrest this build pls.

I think you misread. The engi would leave the utility turrets at mid, and crate at wherever it’s needed. If you pay attention to the map you can just pop the Thumper active as soon as someone tries to decap. The exception of course is Graveyard, but that has the advantage of you being able to place turrets in annoying to reach spots, forcing any attackers to either kill them first or have to deal with them while taking the point.

I always wonder what kind of turret engis people are facing when they say they’re no good in organized play, being able to have a presence in multiple parts of the map is always good if you have something like a Shoutbow along.

hihey.1075:

Any team with brains, a Mesmer and a Thief would just camp side points and get an ez win against that comp. Thief nullifies Ranger, Mesmer nukes the point holders without even being pressured. Throw in a D/D Ele and any other bunkerish specs (Warrior, Guardian, even Engi) and you get a gg.

To answer, they simply move the Ranger to wherever the Teef isn’t, put the Shotbow on the other point, and leave the pure turret engi mid. They can delay you at either point for a decent amount of time and just rotate to wherever they need to keep 2 points. The Pure Turret Engi could also leave turrets mid, go to wherever help is needed, drop a crate/CC a bit. gg.

So far, the most effective/infuriating comp I have seen so far is 2 decap Engis (I believe it was FT, Bomb, and Thumper though I think they might have had different variants), a pure Turret Engi, your standard “press 4 then 2” LB/GS Ranger, and a shoutbow Warrior.

It seems to be an absurdly easy comp to run. One decap harasses far constantly, the other rotates between mid and home with the Ranger (who generally just pew-pews off point before going in for the GS finish), and the pure turret Engi sits in mid with the shoutbow Warrior who keeps all his stuff up. I can’t even say that they played particularly amazing, it was just that unless you are a Warrior with both Balanced Stance and Last Stand or a Guardian with enough blocks/stab there is almost no way to stand on point forever. If you can counter OC Shot, Thump, Air Blast, and the push back from both the Healing Turret and the Turrets from the Supply Crate and not leave point AND live, you are way better than I am.

The only way I can think of to beat this comp is massive amounts of Stability, and a glass Staff/Icebow Ele for nuking down the turrets (and I guess having a decap of your own and playing it better). The issue there is of course KNOWING that they’re running this and also having enough time to to change your own comp. We had a good amount of CC and while it was good for not being killed, with how many auto-triggering traits they had from Protection Injection and the like they had it wasn’t good for denying the decap.

This highlights once again the issues with the mechanics of conquest. I think a system where the cap should be given priority to whatever team has the most players on the point would make more sense. As a result, when you are dealing with a decap attacking your home you have the option of sending 2 people so that even if they do get the decap you can still take your home back by the way of numbers. since most of the push skills are single target.

This is the millionth time I have said that. While I still enjoy PvP I think it can still use improvement in terms of both some of the mechanics and map design when it comes to the capture points themselves (tiny, no terrain, just tiny flat circles).

Juba.8406:

moving Physical Training to Adept + making Mending a Physical skill is what really needed.

It would help, but I have a feeling the reason it is where it is because they don’t want celestial Physical builds that have both reduced CDs, increased damage, AND with the capbility to bring Distracting Strikes as well. In WvW I mess around with a Soldier/Rabid mix with Perplexity runes and the results can be pretty funny. Heck, even with straight power you stack enough confusion that it’s still super painful.

With the current trait setup, I have to sacrifice Physical Training or Cleansing Ire. In WvW I could make up for the lack of condi removal with food like this (I don’t have full ascended stuff, this is just an ideal version).

I keep trying to come up with a way to make Defiant Stance work. It’s not bad, but super situational. If it was instant like every other stance you could activate it the second you get spiked, but that short cast time really gums up the works. I want to try out something like this with the newly added rune of Scavenging. I need to find out how much the 4 bonus heals you for, because maybe with it + a leaching sigil iy may heal you enough to offset how low the Mending heal is. With Restorative Strength you basically have a cleanse every 20 seconds. Hopefully between Dogged March and Mobile Strikes you can stay in range. You would be some sort of crazy Brawling Vampire.

What’s nice about these builds though is that they don’t require a lot of adrenaline use. You only need 1 bar of Earthshaker, just start in the Sword set, Kick, swap, and ES into your hammer combo. If you wanna be pro wait just long enough after each attack so that they can try to use a skill and you can interrupt them.

Kraljevo.2801:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Simon.3794:

if they add runes like use physical skill remove condition i bet it would be more fun

Or moved this trait to adept..

That would be cool.

The Rune of The Warrior could use a change. Slightly faster weapon swaps aren’t that interesting. I think simply removing a condition is a bit dull though, what about transferring? The CD’s are long enough where it wouldn’t be too game breaking. Another effect the rune could have is increasing the range of every Physical skill.

So, I’ve sworn off the longbow. Of course, this severely limits my options. Instead of trying to be “viable” I’ve opted to go for “annoying as hell.” What’s the best way to be annoying? Absurd amounts of control. So far I have 2 versions:

Pure CC, can either hardcounter someone or be totally stomped.

Still a lot of CC, but has better adren gain, condi removal, and mobility. Thinking about doing something funny with the rune like Infiltration, that Final Thrust synergy.

I’ve noticed that being the first one into stealth (as a CI as well it’s going to be Decoy) and getting out your 3 clones first is very important. Without a target, they can’t make phantasms while you can. You put them on the defensive from the start.

Decoy -> Zerker -> Mirror -> Wave -> Diversion. If you hit that first, even if they break from the wave that means your clones are going to show up at different times and either interrupt multiple times or at least keep them from doing anything. Then, I swap to Sword/Focus and do Curtain -> start to cast Warden -> about halfway through use Into the Void. If that lands an interrupt (the fact that you didn’t immediately pull means that they generally panic dodged or just didn’t dodge) they’ll get immobed in the Warden’s spinning attack which means you follow up with Leap -> Swap (still immobed) -> Mind Wrack + Blurred.

Of course, it won’t always go that cleanly but if it does, they’re dead. Save your Power Lock for their heal or Mass Invis. Also, if it’s CI vs CI, then only use your heal/invis while Distortion is up if they have Power Lock up.

What annoys me is that rather than fixing the animation, they just sped it up. It looks odd.

All I want is a modified version of the current underwater spears but wielded with the proper 2 handed stance. As opposed to the GS, it would be less mobile and focused on pulling them in and spiking for high damage. Most Warrior weapons are designed around sustained DPS, it would be nice to have something designed around spike damage.

Skills 1 through 4 could remain mostly the same, but Tsunami Slash is too similar to Axe 5. A skill shot that looks like a straight line that makes you quickly charge and hit all targets in the way would be cool, maybe reduce the CD by a few seconds for each target hit (imagine ZvZ). If you wanted to get silly have the first target hit get speared and carried with you for the remainder of the animation with a short knock down. Imagine having a low health enemy, pulling them out of the fight and spearing them away from the rest of their team. I want more skill shots so maybe make 3 be a cone skill that you have to aim as well.

The burst is also too similar to Earthshaker/Skull Crack. Perhaps it’s time for Warriors to get access to another combo field. I think a Lightning Field would make sense. Have it be a fairly small line or circle field that you place, passing through it dazes enemies for 1 second. Make skill 5 a leap finisher and the pull on skill 2 a projectile and you have some interesting synergy.

To explain it lore wise you could say the Warrior moves their spear as fast as lightning or something. Don’t have to consider it magic (how do we make fire arrows out of mid air?). There’s hardly any Lightning fields in the game and it’s a field that won’t be game breaking if Warriors had it (unlike a smoke field, imagine placing one then swapping to Sword/Warhorn. Hilarious).

I see no reason to waste all the spear skins in the game, many of which look really cool, by having them hardly be used. I would totally make Kamohoali’i Kotaki if I could use it on land. Sadly, I think we’re more likely to either not get any new weapons, or get polearms that will have a different look than spears.

My Warrior has the most weapon/armor sets AND world completion…and I can’t be bothered to play it any more. The idea was that while it is mechanically simple, the tells are so obvious that you much become good at counting dodges and using just enough of your abilities to bait out countermeasures without depleting all your attacks.

Now, while that is still somewhat true specs that rely on such things aren’t that amazing or simply have no place outside of dueling or roaming. Good luck competing without crutches like Endure Pain or LB (I used to like it before we were tied to the hip to it). Anything that is semi difficult to play isn’t that good. The more fun abilities hardly work. This class used to have The highest number of viable builds, and while there’s still more than most, the differenced between them are generally a couple trait points and a weapon.

I’m hoping for maybe a semi-viable Rifle build post patch at least.

So, I wanted to see if I could make the build even sillier….I came up with this.

Literally CC hell.

Hi, I’m said Engi (Bad Hat Ben). I would say that yes, the buffs on Slick Shoes was a bit too far. I would maybe keep the tool belt CD as is (because Engis need a low CD stun break to avoid being chained to death) and keep the 3 second oil duration (it’s supposed to be area denial) but only make slipping on a puddle have it disappear. I think the double slip is what makes it silly. Now, if you use it smart you can lay the puddles in a way that you are likely to recover then slip again, but you’ll still have a way to respond.

I maintain the OC shot is needed in its current state. It is the initiator that sets up the other more difficult to land CC. It doesn’t even need a tell, if the Engi is closing in, prepare for a OC shot. If you’re closing in, they’re probably going to OC shot. As others have said, missing the OC shot is punishing. Your suggestions would turn the weapon into something hardly worth using and all it would do is change the meta from it to Pistol/Shield (which has 2 CC skills and one can hit multiple times).

Dirame.8521:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Dirame.8521:

BurrTheKing.8571:

This is pretty similar to what I have in my sig. I replace the Goggles with Elixir S and get rid of SD depending on the situation. I should try out adding 409 to see how much it helps with condis. Between the Healing Turret, Hidden Flask and the toolbelt throw it would certainly be useful. This would give you more solo sustain, my version is more damage based.

The problem these builds always have is how random Mine Field is. Sometimes you get all of them on your target and then other times it goes all over and only a couple hit when you do the Magnet + MF combo.

That’s true. It’s really saddening when that happens. That’s why I think they are increasing the hit radii/trigger radii of all the mines.

Oh btw, something you may want to test out is whether the bomb from the Runes of the Citadel are affected by explosives traits. I like using Citadel with my bursty setup (which is pretty reliant on having a support with you. You can do crazy damage to melee enemies just by dodging away.

Already tested it. The only thing wrong with it is that it creates the bombs at your location whilst Rune of Air strikes targets no matter where they are and the Parrot is an extra body that some could mistakenly target, inadvertently missing their burst.

Yah, it’s more if you want to fully commit to the gimmick.

Dirame.8521:

BurrTheKing.8571:

This is pretty similar to what I have in my sig. I replace the Goggles with Elixir S and get rid of SD depending on the situation. I should try out adding 409 to see how much it helps with condis. Between the Healing Turret, Hidden Flask and the toolbelt throw it would certainly be useful. This would give you more solo sustain, my version is more damage based.

The problem these builds always have is how random Mine Field is. Sometimes you get all of them on your target and then other times it goes all over and only a couple hit when you do the Magnet + MF combo.

That’s true. It’s really saddening when that happens. That’s why I think they are increasing the hit radii/trigger radii of all the mines.

Oh btw, something you may want to test out is whether the bomb from the Runes of the Citadel are affected by explosives traits. I like using Citadel with my bursty setup (which is pretty reliant on having a support with you. You can do crazy damage to melee enemies just by dodging away.

This is pretty similar to what I have in my sig. I replace the Goggles with Elixir S and get rid of SD depending on the situation. I should try out adding 409 to see how much it helps with condis. Between the Healing Turret, Hidden Flask and the toolbelt throw it would certainly be useful. This would give you more solo sustain, my version is more damage based.

The problem these builds always have is how random Mine Field is. Sometimes you get all of them on your target and then other times it goes all over and only a couple hit when you do the Magnet + MF combo.

ArrDee.2573:

Throw Mine received a nice boost but it’s still pretty inferior to everything else and will still be only taken for one trick pony burst builds which are extremely rare anyway (because it’s bad lol)!

Them’s fightin’ words, Minegineer is great I tell ya!

My issue with Warriors is how the Adrenaline system was implemented. In GW1 adren was the secondary resource used for MULTIPLE skills and attacks. You had to decide whether to save up that adrenaline for a big chain or set up a build that uses many cheaper skills.

Rather than all utilities being CD based, why not give some skills a short CD but be powered by adrenaline that is separate from your F1 burst? Having ONLY CD based skills and nothing interesting like Engi kits makes the class feel bare bones.

I’m a bit bummed that there are few buffs to underused specs (I want a viable gadget Engi QQ) but at the same time I’m glad that you’re not totally destroying hybrid builds. Celestial ammy might still have too many stat points but might was certainly the biggest offender for imbalance and hopefully this will lead to a good balance between specialized and hybrid builds.

Seriously though, six months and this is all we’re getting? I’m no expert but we did get MUCH more frequent balance changes in GW1. If you want the PvP community to grow not only do we need more game modes but also more frequent updates. Variety is the spice in a game like this and right now if you want to be competitive you’re stuck with 1-3 builds per class for the most part.

The amount of changes isn’t the problem, it’s how infrequently they come.

Dahkeus.8243:

Yea, I’m kinda sad to see this since it just kills off a bit more counterplay. This is particularly sad when you look at something like the necro downed state.

I would say that a Necro can be really dangerous when downed if they are speced for downed damage. In a close fight even if you go down first you’ll have a decent chance to down them as well and you’ll probably win that downed fight. I’m not saying it’s amazing, but that’s probably what the balance team considers when they think about buffing the Necro downed state.

Simon.3794:

mace is a strong weapon both m/gs msword/lb, i don’t know what you complaints are.
the only thing that’s holding mace sword/lb back from being a 5v5 build is the lack of AoE.

mace build can reckt almost every warrior build in a 1v1, that probably includes shoutheal as well.

mace will reckt hammer so hard, because mace can block two of the CCs, while hammer can only dodge. and mace 3 is so undodgeable.

stab is pretty much the only thing that can counter this build, yet if skull crack removes stab as well, no warrior build will win against it in a duel..

side note, warrior is the class that relies on stab the most, you pretty much just call a counter on yourself by yourself..

Solution: Wait to use Stab until after the Skull Crack is used. Which you generally do anyways.

Also, ANet doesn’t balance for duels. Why would you in a team game? Not to mention you see a lot of Shout Wars with a short CD stun break now which would do fine against a mace.

I posted this a while ago but giving the mace perk give Skull Crack the ability to strip Stability would give the weapon an interesting role in PvP. In PvE you could maybe have it strip more stacks of Defiance. It would need to be testing but maybe have the Stability strip come before the stun which means you would basically smash right through it. However, that might be viewed as OP but lets not forget how obvious the animation is. It would be great for saving teammates in PvP/WvW and also for giving the weapon some use in PvE.

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

If there is problem with syncing animation/target then just change it to teleport like skill which actually hits (if you have target – if not it should just work as teleport 1200 forward) and I will be happy…
ofc to do not make it OP there should be a delay in teleport with exactly same length as is now the animation.
It is really quite annoying to have the skill with longest recast working with RNG to hit.

I suggested something similar with Bull’s Charge a while ago…you would be surprised at how resistant some are to the idea even though I stated multiple times that it would look and function the same but just work differently under the hood.

Also to the one above, the skill didn’t always miss like that. The overshooting with almost all gap closers is a more recent development and you can see it on other classes as well. Before this started happening the skill would only miss on moving targets because you root yourself for the attack after you reached your target.

ukuni.8745:

BurrTheKing.8571:

ukuni.8745:

Stability on AED fits quite a few purposes, getting a stomp under enemy fire, getting a res under enemy fire, running into enemys to apply damage in a reliable manor, utilizing the stability to ensure you eat enough damage to get the big heal.

You still wouldn’t be able to deny follow up control skills because A.E.D has a cast time. With it being on Slick Shoes You can either pop both the tool belt skill and the utility to both break the control and deny a follow up or you just eat the first one while again denying the follow up.

While it wouldn’t be useless on A.E.D there are plenty of enemies in ANY game mode that have the ability to chain control skills which means you would be totally out of luck in those situations.

EDIT: In fact, it makes even more sense from a getting a res standpoint to have it on Slick Shoes because you can use the active and surround your teammate with oil so they can’t stomp w/o stab themselves.

By that logic lets just not buff anything and stick with healing turret

They can swap it to a long lasting Vigor which gets you sustain you can still take advantage of after the A.E.D ticks down. I’m not sure what Rocket Boots would get, but someone did suggest Swiftness and have it make you launch yourself farther.

ukuni.8745:

Stability on AED fits quite a few purposes, getting a stomp under enemy fire, getting a res under enemy fire, running into enemys to apply damage in a reliable manor, utilizing the stability to ensure you eat enough damage to get the big heal.

You still wouldn’t be able to deny follow up control skills because A.E.D has a cast time. With it being on Slick Shoes You can either pop both the tool belt skill and the utility to both break the control and deny a follow up or you just eat the first one while again denying the follow up.

While it wouldn’t be useless on A.E.D there are plenty of enemies in ANY game mode that have the ability to chain control skills which means you would be totally out of luck in those situations.

EDIT: In fact, it makes even more sense from a getting a res standpoint to have it on Slick Shoes because you can use the active and surround your teammate with oil so they can’t stomp w/o stab themselves.

I feel like while the overlap is there, it’s supposed to allow for a variety of combos. You probably shouldn’t take Rocket Boots and Slick Shoes together but you can do (theoretically) effective combos like:

• Ram, Mine, Shoes

• Mine, Rocket, Goggles

• Ram, Rocket, Goggles

In these set ups you get a damage skill, a gap closer/maker, and a stun break. If SD worked properly with all the tool belt skills DPS wouldn’t be as big of an issue. Depending on what setup you use you’ll either have steady DPS or a more bursty role. The current SD builds got damage but generally fail in terms of sustain which if you want something to be viable in this meta is a must.

Without invulnerability or stealth gadgets are going to have to rely on boons like Medi Guards.

Maybe we could see a new trait someday that reduces condi duration for each Gadget equipped.

Hearing this whole Shoutbow thing as being “new” after being gone for a few months baffles me because I remember using something very, very similar a long time ago. I guess that’s what happens when you nerf everything else Wars have. Really sad to see everything be “Cele or bust” though.

FinalJustice.5824:

Honestly, these are the changes that I’d like to see:

-Change Gadgeteer Boon: A.E.D. from Retaliation to Stability (5 sec).

-Change Gadgeteer Boon: Slick Shoes from Regeneration to Vigor (10 sec).

-Change Gadgeteer Boon: Rocket Shoes from Vigor to Swiftness (10 sec).

-Increase Static Shock’s range to 400. Increase Stun Duration to 1.5 sec.

I wouldn’t want to give A.E.D. Protection as we WANT to die when we use A.E.D. and protection might prevent our death.

I know adding Swiftness to Rocket Boots is lame because of our perma-swiftness, but this way we can choose to take Speedy Gadgets instead of Speedy Kits while still having a way to gain Swiftness. Also, Swiftness increases the travel distance of Rocket Boots :^)

You’re right about the protection, however Stability doesn’t really help much either. I mean it’s primary use is for stomping or denying follow up control. I don’t see you getting much use out of that.

I would say Stability fits Slick Shoes best in terms of CD and the fact that it has a stun break. Maybe a longer duration Vigor on A.E.D since we won’t have the high uptime that kit based builds have?

Goal: Brainstorming ways to make Gadgets something you would actually want to run. Personally, my suggestions are going to focus on making an All-Gadget build viable. As a result please feel free to point out any potential OP synergy. Note that what I list are just some possible options and I’m not suggesting all of them be added, because some overlap or would be OP.

I’m going to start with the traits:

Gadgeteer: The idea behind this trait is great, the execution was not. Not only is the duration too short, most of the boons aren’t that helpful. Due to how they’re designed, Gadgets are intended for use in a power based build with the option for a ton of CC. Chances are you aren’t going to have much healing power, so Slick Shoes giving regen means that you get a tiny heal from a skill with a long CD (even when traited). The only boons that do help with sustain is Aegis on Throw Mine and Vigor on Rocket Boots. What Engis lack in general is Stability, so why not give Slick Shoes that instead? Putting Protection a long lasting Vigor on A.E.D may also help with sustain but that may be too strong if paired with Protection Injection and Protective Shield or it may be just what the build needs.

Speedy Gadgets: It’s a simple CD reduction skill, but that’s pretty important with CDs as long as these. However, a major issue pure Gadget builds have is that they really stink on the mobility front. Sure, Slick Shoes has super speed but that’s on a long CD. Since the word “Speedy” is in the name why not also make it give a a small passive speed increase for each Gadget? Nothing too major, maybe 3-4% per gadget. It would still be slower than a Engi with Speedy Kits but it will at least make them a bit more mobile.

Static Discharge: This isn’t a Gadget trait but it could synergize well with some changes. The most annoying thing about this skill is that unless the tool belt skill directly targets an enemy the discharge just shoots into the dirt. It should head towards your target or the nearest enemy if you’re not consistently. Thie would probably require a small tweak to Mine Field though because atm placing and detonating causes a discharge and that may give a bit too much DPS.

The skills themselves:

A.E.D: I’m starting with this one because while the recent buff made it a bit better, it’s still not good. I like the high risk high reward aspect, but losing your condi cleanse on a class with so little already really hurts. Perhaps give it a passive removal every now and then when you have Gadgeteer instead of a boon/in addition to a defensive boon (I mean that IS a long CD for a heal even with the potential payout).

As for Static Shock, the range on it is terrible and landing it is unreliable. Instead of a stun I would much rather have a shot of lightning with something like 900 range that dazes for half a second of something. It would synergize with SD better and keep the CC theme while not being super strong.

Utility Goggles: No real complaints, a stun break with Fury and blind immunity in addition to a tool belt skill that applies vuln and reveal.

Slick Shoes: If Speedy Gadgets was buffed as suggested the CD wouldn’t be so bad and the skill is fun and effective.

Personal Battering Ram: I really like the idea of this skill and it’s fun to use. That being said it feel REALLY unreliable because once again the range is way too short. A range of 400 (same as Overcharged Shot) might make it worth using since the tool belt skill already synergizes with SD.

Rocket Boots: Another skill that’s fine as is except for it occasionally spitting you back the way you came. This wasn’t a problem before some hopefully it gets fixed eventually.

Throw Mine: A pretty cool skill, with a buff to the Ram’s range you could chain CC pretty effectively by tossing this on your launched target and mid air detonating it. The boon removal is also nice.

The problem with Mine Field is that the way it deploys is generally random. The pattern should be consistent so that it doesn’t screw the user over.

That’s all I have for now. If I had to pick just 3 of my changed I would go with Gadgeteer giving better defensive boons (it’s the number 1 issue), the Mine Field pattern being consistent, and either range increases in Static Shock or Battering Ram. I can do without the Speedy Kit changes because Power Shoes does exist and I can fit it in a build.

The actual mechanics behind Gadgets are the most original and fun in the game imo but currently they simply don’t give you enough sustain or the skills themselves are too difficult to hit (why would you want to be in melee range).

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

Caedmon.6798:

Accept it,they will never be fully fixed..Weve been playing over 2 years now,and never have they been able to Fully fix these skills.It won’t happen.

actually, it was fixed for quite some time, but then they broke it and then now they never bothered to fix it again. i bet they dun even know it is broken.

Yah, it worked pretty well during Skullcracker’s heyday. Rush on the other hand, never worked due to its design.

Purple Miku.7032:

They should just fix the kitten skill so that it stops bugging at the end of the animation. That’s all they need to do.

I don’t think It’s even a bug though. I think they designed the skill so that you had a “tell” on the attack but the problem is that the Rush itself is a tell. Combine that with the animation stopping you in place and you got a gap closer that doesn’t close the gap.

The issue with your suggestion is that it makes the skill even more gear towards running away. I for one would rather have it do what it’s supposed to and just act as a gap closer. Also, what if you don’t want to go 1,200 units?

For it to do this however the actual attack animation needs to change. The reason it doesn’t hit is because once you reach your target your character stops and “charges” an attack. What it need to do is be more like Leap of Faith in that the attack launches as soon as your in range.

If you wanted to actually make GS a weapon used to help keep you in the fight rather than running away from it I wouldn’t be opposed to making it like Ride the Lightning in that the CD is greater if you don’t connect, but in exchange it should remove cripple and chill.

This turns GS into a weapon used to keep you in the fight and not something just to run away when things look bad. You can still do that but it won’t be as effective.

Personally, I think you’d be better off running with Shout Heal + Soldier Runes. You’re build literally has no condi cleanse which in WvW would be a huge weakness. Of course, a Shout build lacks Stability but there’s always going to be some sort of weakness.

Unless I’ve overlooked it, nobody has pointed out how rare it is to see a power-based sword Warrior. Axe you see a good amount of but Sword? Pretty rare. The AA isn’t super amazing unless you take Leg Specialist.

Not that it’s a bad build. I used to have some decent success with this build. It would be really good vs Thieves due to how much Immob it has and landing Final Thrust would be much easier because even if Shield Bash misses you still have the AA or your leap which gives you just enough time to land FT. If you wanna be even more annoying you can drop Endure Pain for Bolas. Just make sure to chain it with another immob because it sucks on its own.

This Skullcracker build…she looks familiar -_-.

JK, glad to see that it hasn’t been completely forgotten. I SHOULD remove Bull’s Charge but I just really like the skill even if it has such a high failure rate. I’ve messed around with Brawler’s Recovery but I felt like without both UF and FG your DPS drops a noticeable amount.

Skullcracker can still be pretty solid. It’ll be an uphill battle vs some builds but if you get good at landing your burst (and don’t lag as badly as I do) you can generally beat most duel builds.