Guild Wars 2

emkelly.2371:

Spartacus.3192
looks good and will hit hard while having great sustain but im concerned with the lack of stability and condi clears.
I know you dont really want too much stability since you want to proc rousing resilience but i do think Eternal Champion is better overall since there is so much CC out there you will still have decent chances to proc RR. With Scrappers and Druids plus Rev Staff 5 you will have lots of opportunities to use RR even with pulsing stability from Eternal Champion.
On condi clear you only have Brawlers recovery and bersker stance/Heal Signet. If you come across a lot of burn warriors plus mesmers you might be overwhelmed. I found having sigil of generosity on GS and purity on mace/Shield set helped against condi heavy teams.
Otherwise i like it and have been a fan of skullcrack for a long time.

He’s right. And besides you don’t want to waste your time in berserker breaking stuns. you want to lock them down with your 2 second burst skills. The great thing about headbutt is that you can stun yourself then enter berserk, which will proc rousing resilience. then you can spend your time in berserk bringing on the pain. For condi cleanse you need an answer because you don’t have cleansing ire.

Actually, for some reason if you go Berserk after using Head Butt the Taunt doesn’t seem to override the stun.

Spartacus.3192:

looks good and will hit hard while having great sustain but im concerned with the lack of stability and condi clears.

I know you dont really want too much stability since you want to proc rousing resilience but i do think Eternal Champion is better overall since there is so much CC out there you will still have decent chances to proc RR. With Scrappers and Druids plus Rev Staff 5 you will have lots of opportunities to use RR even with pulsing stability from Eternal Champion.

On condi clear you only have Brawlers recovery and bersker stance/Heal Signet. If you come across a lot of burn warriors plus mesmers you might be overwhelmed. I found having sigil of generosity on GS and purity on mace/Shield set helped against condi heavy teams.

Otherwise i like it and have been a fan of skullcrack for a long time.

Yah EC is another solid choice, I swap it out depending on the enemy team comp. If you do that I would actually probably go with Endure Pain over Outrage just because you can save Berserk for the main Stun Break.

As for condis, I haven’t been having too much trouble because of the regen we have now from Adrenal Health. So long as you properly use the Resistance you have you should outlast most condi builds.

The problem with ANYTHING involving defensive stats and condi is that unlike power you only need to invest in condition damage to do effective damage. With power builds, a combination of power, ferocity, and precision is needed. The occasional condi trait and sigil benefits from precision, but it’s rarely a must have.

Amulets like Settler allowed for some builds to both be tanky and deal decent damage. While Mercenary is semi similar, not having healing as a stat at least limits its ability to also be highly supportive, it also has no precision or ferocity so the power stat is just more of a side benefit than anything.

IIIIITTTTTTTTT’SSSSSS BAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKK!

let me start by saying that while technically this build was possible last season, the changes to the Defense Spec and the inclusion of the new Demolisher Amulet has brought this build up to a more viable level.

Skull Cracker: The Revival

Skull Cracker: The Revival: Cleansing Ire Version

The New Demolisher amulet is great for this build. It plays off great with Blood Reaction, you will have a high crit chance and decent Ferocity despite being fairly tanky. Your damage is decent, your sustain is decent, but neither are incredible. However what this build excels at is DISRUPTION. This build has six different types of CC, one of them being instant and with Signet of Strength all of them are potentially unblockable. Now, you can swap the Signet for something like Stomp or Bull’s Charge, but there’s so many blocks that I feel being able to simply ignore them is more important. You could also go Double EP but honestly it didn’t feel necessary. I’m messing around with Sundering Mace but the limits on it make it mess attractive. If hitting CC’d foes in general caused Vulnerability then it would be pretty great and it can be nice for squeezing some more damage out.

You could actually swap the Mace out for Axe or even Sword, heck with a few trait changes you can use any weapons with this this since the main concept is just the synergy between all your stun breaks, Rousing Resilience, and all of the buffs that came with the patch to Defense. While Mace might seem an odd choice since Skull Grinder is focused on condi, the damage on it is decent (3k), and it is also majorly disruptive. Not only does it have a daze, but the blind means that you can really throw off any sort of counterattack after you connect.

I use Berserk in this build more as a way to wear down the enemy CDs than anything else, hence the use of Savage Instinct. Once you force them to use all of their stability and stun breaks, they are highly vulnerable to any sort of Head Butt/Skull Crack + 100b combo. Do it right, and you can have them stunned for and absurdly long time with the combo of Head Butt -> Skull Crack -> Shield Bash. If your team is smart and doesn’t use any junk CC that’s a death sentence for any build without a auto-trigger immunity.

One build I have found myself being effective against is Chronomancer. Now, let me say that getting hit by a Double Moa will of course probably kill you, but that kills almost everything. I’m getting better at predicting the Moa however so it’s becoming less of an issue. Outside of that, having a instant CC in the form of Taunt and the ability to totally bypass both the Aegis granted by Staff but also their block on shield can really cut into their sustain fast. They’ll be too bust using their shatters to use Distortion and playing defensive to mount a heavy offense if you time things right. Save your blocks and Berserker Stance for major shatters and they won’t be able to hurt you effectively. What also makes this build especially effective vs them is the fact that you can use a Arc Divider to kill all of their clones AND trigger Adrenal Health with almost no chance of missing. This means that you’re constantly having high regen where as vs a class like Daredevil they can focus purely on blinding your burst.

Will Warrior play a major role in the next season? Seems unlikely. That being said, much like the first time Mace/Shield + GS rose to prominence it does a decent job as countering something that is meta. Revenant is still god-tier in many ways but it lacks the amount of CC this build offers, so maybe there’s something there.

EDIT: Added an Alternate version that is based around Cleansing Ire and being tougher vs condis.

EDIT 2: Updated builds.

Okamikazi.8652:

Totally on board with this because it intuitively feels right. It’s easy to forget that stomp doesn’t proc it when every other movement spell does. Also, it should burst finish as well, but didn’t stomp have that? was it removed?

It did have the Blast effect, it would be nice to have it back as well because maybe some sort of Hambow build would benefit from it. Blast a ton of Might and put out a ton of CC.

I would say my main issue with Marks is that if you drop on on top of someone they trigger instantly. Unless I’m mistaken even if you stand still the Mark still triggers instantly. If you had to walk to trigger them it would add an interesting bit of counterplay where if you stand still you can time your dodges more effectively.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Basically, it means that if something is supposed to be immune to damage, you can’t life steal from it anyway.

It will still ignore armor and other damage reductions, but, for example, you won’t be able to harm a Ranger using Signet of Stone that way.

Unless I’m going crazy this hasn’t happened. I faced off against a Rev on my War and still managed to get my HP leeched while using Endure Pain.

dominik.9721:

Furajir.3815:

Let’s play a game. Which skills are passive and which ones are active.

Ready kiddos?

Natural Vigor: 20% Endurance Regeneration

vs.

Thick Skin: Bonus toughness above hp threshold

vs.

Adrenal Health: Hitting an enemy with F1 in order to activate a regen effect.

Take your time. I know it’s hard.

They are all passive imo.
EVERYONE also considered the scrapper heal-trait passive allthough you had to do actively something for it. Just accept that there are people with different opinions.

Take your time. I know it’s hard to read before typing full of anger.

You don’t get to change the definition of a word just because you don’t agree with the actual one.

Again, how would you give War better sustain via traits without tying it to Bursts?

Choppy.4183:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Honestly, the damage seems fine still. Yes, no more crazy 10-15k hits, but being able to take Signet of Might and have an unblockable AoE interrupt that deals good damage. Maybe if they had it do a bit of bonus damage if you interrupt them and that would get it down to a 10% nerf.

I feel the same way. Good move on damage, but the piercing change was a mistake.

I wonder if it was the product of trying to remove the double hit rather than something they genuinely felt needed to be toned down. As in, if not removing the piercing would entail a far more complicated fix. After all, Kill Shot didn’t lose the piercing.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the change was simply because they couldn’t figure out how to stop the double hit bug.

dominik.9721:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Guys, you are totally misusing the term passive. A passive is something that the player doesn’t trigger on their own.

Passives: Defy Pain, Adaptive Armor, Diamond Skin, Instictive Reaction, any of the traits that give bonus stats

These skills happen on their own without the player doing anything except being hit by the enemy. Having to activate a skill, apply a certain boon, or even just evading may not be difficult in some cases BUT IT IS NOT PASSIVE!

Adrenal Health triggers as a result of the player connecting with a Burst, hence not passive.

lmao.

You have to use f1 once to get passivly 500~ hp each second over 15 seconds.
That is everything but not an active gameplay-trait.
Call it whatever you want but for me it’s passive.

According to your logic Revenant legend-swap-dmg is also not passive because first of all you have to swap legend activly and the passive transfer trait of necros is also activ since you have to do a critical attack for it.

Maybe you just have a different definition of passive, Idk.

My definition of passive is the actual definition of passive. You can think certain skills are easy to use or just bad, but the word passive does not mean either of those things. you can dislike certain traits, but don’t try and change the definition of a word to fit your agenda.

I have also yet to hear any suggestions as to what would have been better than tying it to our class mechanics.

Furajir.3815:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Furajir.3815:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Guys, you are totally misusing the term passive. A passive is something that the player doesn’t trigger on their own.

Passives: Defy Pain, Adaptive Armor, Diamond Skin, Instictive Reaction, any of the traits that give bonus stats

These skills happen on their own without the player doing anything except being hit by the enemy. Having to activate a skill, apply a certain boon, or even just evading may not be difficult in some cases BUT IT IS NOT PASSIVE!

Adrenal Health triggers as a result of the player connecting with a Burst, hence not passive.

Are you suuuuure man?

Well, the relevant definition of passive is “not participating readily or actively” and last I looked pressing F1 is active participation. So yes, I’m sure.

It’s important to use the right terms. We can’t tell the devs “we want less passives” and then list a trait that isn’t passive.

Lol. giving you a hard time, I’m jesting at the folks who don’t know the difference and keep referring to this as a passive change.

Sorry, hard to tell these days because forum toxicity is at a all time high now.

Furajir.3815:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Guys, you are totally misusing the term passive. A passive is something that the player doesn’t trigger on their own.

Passives: Defy Pain, Adaptive Armor, Diamond Skin, Instictive Reaction, any of the traits that give bonus stats

These skills happen on their own without the player doing anything except being hit by the enemy. Having to activate a skill, apply a certain boon, or even just evading may not be difficult in some cases BUT IT IS NOT PASSIVE!

Adrenal Health triggers as a result of the player connecting with a Burst, hence not passive.

Are you suuuuure man?

Well, the relevant definition of passive is “not participating readily or actively” and last I looked pressing F1 is active participation. So yes, I’m sure.

It’s important to use the right terms. We can’t tell the devs “we want less passives” and then list a trait that isn’t passive.

Guys, you are totally misusing the term passive. A passive is something that the player doesn’t trigger on their own.

Passives: Defy Pain, Adaptive Armor, Diamond Skin, Instictive Reaction, any of the traits that give bonus stats

These skills happen on their own without the player doing anything except being hit by the enemy. Having to activate a skill, apply a certain boon, or even just evading may not be difficult in some cases BUT IT IS NOT PASSIVE!

Adrenal Health triggers as a result of the player connecting with a Burst, hence not passive.

I would make use of the daze and make the skill do extra damage if you interrupt your target. The pierce should come back imo, but I guess they wanted it to be different from Kill Shot.

Passive means that it requires no action on the player in order to trigger. Defy Pain is passive, you just have to be hit for it to trigger.

Like I said, what else could they have changed to make it active? Landing a burst is the only thing all builds can take advantage of. Heck, I suggested a similar mechanic on Defy Pain many times only it would give reduced damage from power and condi and it would stack higher.

Honestly, the damage seems fine still. Yes, no more crazy 10-15k hits, but being able to take Signet of Might and have an unblockable AoE interrupt that deals good damage. Maybe if they had it do a bit of bonus damage if you interrupt them and that would get it down to a 10% nerf.

Idk if you can really call the trait passive since it does require you actually landing a burst to get the effect. Unless you run LB a skilled enemy can deny you from landing your burst.

Passive would be if you got a stack for being hit like Adaptive Armor. I don’t see any other way they could have implemented this without tying it to a specific weapon which would have been bad. We’re still one of the least passive classes in the game post HoT.

Standout Changes:

Dual Shot: It wasn’t the damage that was the problem, it’s the projectile speed. I guess it just reinforces the fact that the Longbow is actually for short/mid range?

Gun Flame: We all saw this coming, going to have to see if the sustain changes are enough to outweigh the changes here. I’m going to miss the piercing a lot. Imo that was one of the more skillful elements of the weapon.

Balanced Stance: At least this makes it feel more like a stance and less like a passiveless Signet.

Stomp: FINALLY! This will make the skill way more useful for clearing points in PvP. I could see some clutch Hammer plays where you knock everyone off the point then continuously stun and knock them back.

All the Defense Stuff: Might help, I would have liked to see a more creative change to Defy Pain. Something like what they did to Adrenal Health.

I’ve said these suggestions for War many times but I’ll says them again.

I have always loved the concept behind the Warrior that they get more dangerous as the fight goes on. I also enjoy the simplicity behind the class mechanic.

Defy Pain: Gain a stack of Defy Pain per bar of Adrenaline used in a burst. These stacks will give a bit of toughness and reduce the damage taken by conditions by a small amount as well. Note that you can only get a max of 3 stacks per burst, no getting 9 stacks for a AoE bursts that hot 3 guys. These stacks should last for a decent amount of time. This means that the more Bursts you land will make you even harder to kill. It’s also skill based as well.

Physical Skills: Peak Performance should reward landing Physical skills. Maybe have a few seconds of a flat % damage reduction? Make Mending a Physical skill and the heal might actually be worth using.

One last change is that I would make the bottom line of Berserker traits affect nearby teammates. Eternal Champion would have to pulse out the stab at a lower rate for allies but a AoE stun break and a bit of a heal while you’re berserk would give the class some sort of support.

I would consider Mace/Shield the stronger set over LB. M/S gives you more sustain and Skull Grinder is a much more powerful burst. The one benefit the LB gives you is more access to fire fields. It’s a decent benefit but imo not worth losing the sustain over.

Everything else is fine, but it’s also the exact same setup that many have been using since HOT came out.

I actually find myself still preferring Pack on Warrior. The extra critical hits you get from it I find much more useful. Yes the might duration is nice but if your attacks aren’t critical then that might isn’t as useful.

The one argument for this system is that ideally you should at least be familiar with other classes so that if you get teamed up with 2 other of the same class you can swap to round out the team comp. Now that I reached Legendary on just Warrior this season I’m going to probably be at least duo classing.

Playing every class for at least a few hours, even if just in PvE, will help you to understand how every skill works. Not to mention maxing out another class in this game is absurdly easy for most.

That being said, FORCING players to multiclass to get the achievements is debatable. Although, achievements are also totally optional.

I feel like a soft safety net could work. By this I mean you can lose, say 3 matches at the first pip of a division before dropping back down.

This will hopefully keep players in a division that represents their skill level. Almost as important though, it’ll keep troll that have already reached Legend from trolling too much because they run the risk of dropping back down to diamond. It’ll only help a little in some cases, but the fact that you can reach Legend, then go around screwing people over is not OK.

let me begin by saying that this season i managed to make it to Legend by only playing Warrior. I am aware that Warrior CAN do well in PvP as a +1, but I know that I and many others don’t play the class for that reason. Also, this post is going here because these changes have a PvP focus and also because the Warrior forums are sadly way less active than they used to be.

In concept I love the idea of Elite Specs, but I don’t love the implementation. The Berserker does not feel like “a new way to play,” it feels like playing Warrior but with a new mechanic. The only thing I lose by going Berserker is another vanilla trait line. To make Berserker feel more unique from base Warrior, I would remove the normal bursts entirely while using the Elite Spec.

The New Berserk: You will still have to gain a full adrenaline bar to go Berserk, but until then you have no Burst skills. Once reaching a full bar, you go Berserk and you gain access to your burst skills and the boons you currently receive.

From here I have 3 ideas:

1. You start with a fixed time in Berserk mode, however connecting with Burst skills adds a few seconds to the time. May need a maximum time because this could be OP in PvE.

2. Instead of landing bursts increasing the amount of time you spend as Berserk, your Primal Bursts don’t cost adrenaline and are purely CD based. As you go Berserk your Adrenaline bar starts to decay. To stay berserk, you have to continue gaining Adrenaline. The longer you stay berserk, the faster the Adrenaline decays to the point where you can no longer keep up.

3. You have a fixed time in Berserk mode, but the current CD is reduced to 10 seconds by default.

I like idea 2 the best. It sounds very thematic.

Primal Burst Changes: Because you lose out on your normal burst skills now, some Primal Bursts will need damage adjustments. The CD of Primal Bursts may have to be changed. Some, like Gun Flame and Arc Divider seem fine as they are. Other Primal Bursts are just weak in general and need changes.

Rapturing Smash: Hammer is a weapon focused on CC, and Warriors have wanted a pull for a long time. Another cool option would be giving it a ring effect like Guardian’s Hammer but with a shorter duration,

Scorched Earth: The line of fire effect is cool, but underwhelming. I would say keep the trail of fire, reduce the damage caused by the burning from it, and make the initial shot have a fireball that moves straight ahead and deals a decent amount of Burning and Power damage. Landing that fireball would be fairly skill based but would make it actually useful in PvP since at least you can get some initial damage since no one with a brain is going to stick around in that narrow trail of fire.

Decapitate: Maybe make this the reverse Arc Divider. Have it deal more damage to foes the higher their health is. Something that would be more fun imo but unlikely to be even possible would be that if you drop someone to 0 instead of downing them you kill them instantly. You could combine this with the first idea and have Decapitate do very little damage to foes that are low on health so that you would have to time it perfectly to get the “decapitation” effect.

Flaming Flurry: The purpose can stay the same but if you’re going to have a skill based off of Zealots Defense it would be nice if it worked the same way. Have the fireballs travel through the air, I rarely see them actually block projectiles as they currently are. Also, the get stuck on terrain in weird ways.

Making the bottom line of Traits offer team support: This is a big one. One of Warriors’ biggest weakness atm besides sustainability is the fact that they bring no really support. What’s nice is that the last line of Traits could be repurposed to offer a bit of team support.

Savage Instinct: have the stun break and condi removal be AoE for up to 5 nearby teammates.

Dead of Alive: If any nearby teammate hits 0 while you’re going berserk, they get healed. Would need a ICD.

Eternal Champion: Nearby allies get pulsing Stability as well, but at a much slower rate than the Berserker does.

The one thing I do like about Reaper is that when you play it, it does actually feel like a different playstyle than vanilla Necromancer. The majority of Elite Specs however just feel like the base class + a new mechanic. This makes it harder to balance and also limits future Elite Specs as well. I hear it said often that Berserker is balanced, and maybe that’s true compared to the other Specs, but it is still just Warrior+.

I agree that Warrior/Berserker is a very strong +1 and if you play with that in mind you can be successful. That being said this is also a role few Warriors probably wanted. In my case I want the class to be the sturdy class that deals decent damage but isn’t as good as other classes at being a bunker or a burst class.

In addition to that, we need to be able to bring some form of offensive support to the team. Even if we go back to say, the Hambow days, with how PvP is today it just wouldn’t be enough. While I want to decrease power creep, Warrior needs to bring something to the team that only it can. Making the bottom line of berserker affect nearby allies would be a good example. having Savage Instinct be a AoE stun break would be cool, and having Eternal Champion pulse out AoE, but at a slower rate on allies would also be something fairly unique as well. Tactics could also do with being un-gutted as well.

Banners could also do with being tweaked so that they have a use in PvP. Having them be like a sort of kit like what engineers have but with a passive AoE effect would be interesting if balanced right. Make the passive lower than it is currently but have the 2 skill on each banner be a skill that boosts that effect or has a more powerful active than it does currently.

I’m going to be sticking on Warrior because it’s the only class that I don’t feel like my build is playing for me. HoT made almost every other class feel easymode.

I reached Legendary, finally.

In actual game time it probably didn’t take me that long, but my work schedule and the fact that it takes an annoyingly long time to get a match made it seem like it took forever. Never once did I play anything other than Warrior, and I would say around 80%+ of my matches were using Glass Rifle. I tried to play condi but while the burst is good I feel like no variation does anything better than Reaper or a Condi Mes. The ability to do a little more condi burst doesn’t make up for the weaker sustain and lack of utility.

At least with Glass Rifle I have Signet of Might and an attack that can do really high damage that makes me a good +1 and allows me to quickly take down classes like Druid and even Tempest if I time the burst right.

Those of you still trying to make it, I suggest finding a good Tempest to Duo Queue with, it’ll make your life way easier. I just started asking people I found to be good to party up after a win and so long as you were good that game they’ll hopefully be willing to join you. Good luck!

Time to take it easy and relax…

Mightybird.6034:

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

going far is not a bad idea, specially if they know what they are doing. mesmer and scrapper are very good at going far, because of being great at 1v1 or even 2v1, a mesmer can drop portal having someone sit and wait at far till portal is gone. same with scrapper, has very high sustain that it can tank and delay 2 players at a given time. that being said if someone go far and fight someone there. that would be 4v4 at mid. unless u guys sucks so bad u all wipe before the home guy has a chance to run to mid.

+1

For all we know that guy said no one go far because he was 2v1ing the whole game and carried you guys.

Nope, was watching the map, didn’t deny them from capping home, ran at the first sign of trouble, couldn’t decide whether they wanted to be mid or far and as a result ended up being late to every team fight.

Mitch.4781:

Salamander.2504:

I think I speak for the entire community when I say that the consensus is to *nerf the elite specs already.

NO! You DON’T speak for the entire community. Quite the opposite. Why the F would you want nerf’s? Who want’s to feel like they have the power of a wet noodle?

I enjoy the Elite specs. Buff those that lafg behind. Don’t penalise those that are already in a nice spot kitten .

Buffing Warrior beyond some QOL updates would just lead to more QQ on the forums about the class and it’ll get neutered again. We’ve seen it since the launch of the game. I’d rather be the underdog than be the class that everyone hates because it’s “easy to play.”

All buffs are going to do is perpetuate the cycle of the game getting easier. Having easy to play Elite specs does not help the game. When the next Elite Spec comes along it’ll have to do something even just as powerful, when instead they should offer a new way to play or slightly improve the weaknesses of the class.

Any changes to Warrior/Thief/Guardian should come from mechanical changes that reward skilled play, not just lowing the skill ceiling like most of the elite specs that are just flat upgrades that are easy to use.

Pinkunicorn of Dethecus.3217:

not that anet cares, but i’ve had 3 games in a row that people have admitted to trolling/losing on purpose to troll teammates because they don’t care. And it’s not like reporting them actually does anything

This is the reason why I’m still not Legendary despite getting close many times. I’ve learned to never say how close you are cause it’s apparently asking for someone to intentionally throw the game.

Lord Hammer Hand.4815:

going far is not a bad idea, specially if they know what they are doing. mesmer and scrapper are very good at going far, because of being great at 1v1 or even 2v1, a mesmer can drop portal having someone sit and wait at far till portal is gone. same with scrapper, has very high sustain that it can tank and delay 2 players at a given time. that being said if someone go far and fight someone there. that would be 4v4 at mid. unless u guys sucks so bad u all wipe before the home guy has a chance to run to mid.

They didn’t accomplish even a cap denial and I never saw a useful portal once the whole game. Also, it’s totally on them when they say for no one to go far, only to go far themselves. It was only close because of mob stealing, the Mes was hardly present for any team fight.

I would take a even fight on mid over one player pushing far 9 times out of 10 if I get minimal communication before the match starts.

I’ll maybe peel off mid to decap far but I won’t try and take the whole thing because it takes so long. This mes would just let us get murdered at mid while sitting far then have to run or die and lose it in seconds.

This happened a few days ago, but at the time it was just really annoying. Now, I still haven’t reached Legend because of one rude teammate and I wanted to rant a bit.

As some of you know I play mostly War. I used to play almost every class but HoT has made me despise the gameplay of every other class. I occasionally get heat for being Warrior but I also have plenty of players I see consistently that like having me on the team for my high damage. Getting dissed is fine, but when you’re 3 points from winning the game that would get you to Legendary and a Druid intentionally refuses to support your Lord while it’s being rush purely because I was a Warrior is probably the worst case of BM I have ever experienced.

But it gets worse, I got teamed up with that same player THREE MORE TIMES that play session, even with taking breaks. Every match after that first one he would just go AKF. I faced him a few times and then he would play, and he wasn’t even that good despite being Legendary. I don’t have a ton of time to play so just quitting for the night wasn’t what I wanted to do.

I am now stuck around 6 pips from Legend because every time I start getting on a win streak I suddenly get paired with players that make the worst decisions. I’ve had a Mes say “no1 go far,” which was the right choice, AND THEN GO FAR RIGHT AT THE START! SO of course we lost the mid fight purely due to the numbers disadvantage. What’s worse is that while I was able to make it a fairly close game via mob stealing, that Mes kept going far the whole game.

Even when I team up with people I know are good I always get at least one player that thinks that going far at the start is a good idea. I’ve also gotten more players that don’t even try, once again based purely on me being a Warrior, and then we end up having a fairly close game but by the time they start trying it’s too late.

Yes, I am perfectly aware that Warrior is not the best class, but giving up or not trying just because there’s a War is the most dumbfounding thing I have ever experienced in this game. I’ve won games where our team had 2 Warriors and a thief against a full meta team because of smart play. Going 3 far 2 home when you have a comp like that is great, but it worked because we agreed to do it. It’s when you say “no one go far” and then someone does it anyways is when you lose games that you shouldn’t.

So yah, this is just a pointless rant and I’m sure I’ll get plenty of “it’s your own fault for being War” or “lol [Vial of Salt],” but I just want to get it off my chest. I all want is to get to Legendary and take a break and play PvE. Unfortunately, it’s likely that the players doing this aren’t on the forums. This frustration turns me into an unpleasant and whiny person, so a big thanks to those who have been partying with me.

Salamander.2504:

Furajir.3815:

I was making a point at how vastly different the 2 are. If you’ve played warrior for more than 5 minutes you’d understand how vital it is for us in the current meta to have double EP.

We can both point that out: you’re locked out of all of your skills using elixer S, unlike EP. I’ve played warrior for much longer than 5 minutes, and I still feel that defensive passive procs should be removed from the game. It’s not like I’d delete the trait and leave it empty!

Also @ Denaria above, this is not a “balance warrior thread,” and shouldn’t be merged with anything. The title is a loss leader.

Endure pain isn’t a true invul like Elixir S is. I can use Endure Pain while stomping but I can still die to condis (which everywhere) and also be effected by life steal. Endure Pain isn’t really that great of a skill these days. Signet of Stone is better because of all the passive sustain Druid has. They can make huge recoveries that a Warrior can’t while using it.

I actually don’t use Double EP. I not only hate the passive nature of Defy Pain, but the effect itself isn’t that useful and it’s more about delaying the inevitable. With the Auto Elixir S you’ll probably have some sort of defensive skill or heal off of CD by the time it ends so it’s way more useful, you just have to make sure to not being using something when it triggers.

I personally like the cleanness of the new system, it’s just that merging some traits together led to major power creep. Certain traits should have just been abandoned and replaced with traits that serve a role and compete with other perks on the same tier.

Having only 3 choices for each level should in theory make the game much easier to balance. It’s the level of passivity and the fact that some traits have multiple powerful effects that’s the problem.

Every class in the game should have its traits simplified so that they do one thing well while cutting out the unused or rarely used traits. I despise traits like:

Warrior: Defy Pain, Last Stand

Engineer: Protection Injection, Self Regulating Defense, Automated Medical Response, Adaptive Armor

Necromancer: Plague Sending

Revenant: Radiant Revival, Soothing Bastion

Elementalist: Diamond Skin, Soothing Ice

Guardian: Hunter’s Determination

Ranger: Instinctive Reaction, Protective Ward

Those are just the ones that you see commonly used. I didn’t even bother with the minors but there’s so doozies there as well. This is half the problem with classes, not the new system. The other problem are merged traits that take two decent traits from the old system and blend them together without nerfing any part of it.

What makes the elite specs really bad is that many of the new weapons/traits/abilities have effects that are just flat out better than things that already exist in the game. A Herald has almost everything a Warrior does only with way better sustain and way less risk. Why wouldn’t you play Daredevil? It gives you an additional dodge, no other line is going to give you something that useful. The Dragon Hunter Virtues are just objectively superior to the vanilla ones. Hmm, do I want to have a Function Gyro that makes both stomping and reviving easy…or not? What’s that? I also get absurdly easy sustain and a weapon that deals both good damage AND has blocks and reflects!? Oh look, the Reaper Shroud is just a better version of the old one! Sure I’ll take that line!

The ONLY elite spec that actually just feels like a new way to play and not necessarily a direct upgrade is Berserker. Now, let me preface that by saying that with things like Gun Flame it does make some playstyles just flat out better, but you can still run a theoretically strong Warrior build without taking the line. Also, I don’t think this is intentional, it’s just that weapons like Hammer, Axe, and Longbow got Burst skills that are fairly weak in PvP. If all the Burst skills were good there would never be any reason to not use Berserker either.

OK, I’ve ranted long enough.

In summation, the game needs to go back to basics! It is now a bloated mess and has been dumbed down. ANet seems to think the average player isn’t good enough to play the game without assistance from traits, attacks, and utilities that do most of the work for them. I’ve been seeing plenty of Legendary players that don’t really play that well but their build makes up for it.

Yah, I don’t wanna get salty over a April Fools joke, but it almost seems dismissive. It’s like they’re saying “you silly Warriors think you’re weak, but we know better and your class is fine.”

Josh Davis.6015:

Agemnon.4608:

Snip.

RE: DotaCoach -> that’s a pretty slick website – thanks for sending it over. I’ve seen some initiatives like this run on our forums in the past. I’ll mull it over and see if there’s something a bit more structured we could do.

RE: Balance -> Contrary to popular belief, the PvP team (or wvw, fractals, raids, etc) doesn’t actually handle profession balance. There’s an entirely separate team dedicated to handling balance for all core areas of the game (appropriately named the Balance team). The PvP team (and the other aforementioned teams and more) gives regular feedback on balance issues, but the balance team is ultimately in charge of maintaining the design vision across the game.

For reference, the PvP team is focused on infrastructure -> PvP Leagues and maps, for example.

Re: visibility -> agreed!

Edit: heading home for the evening. Will check back tomorrow.

Is this balance team full time or are they spaced out across multiple areas?

It seems crazy to me that we would only see such minor changes every season if this was a full time team.

Crimson Shi.5047:

Some people tend to diss warriors but tbh I found them kinda useful. Paired up with one I was on my ele, we had 3v2 on mid against a thief/mesmer/DH. He pretty much killed em piece meal while I kept him alive. The rest were free to 3v2, and keep home. I don’t think a thief would be able to pull that off. Too squishy. So while if I do see a thief/warrior/DH I make a face, but bite my tongue while secretly hoping they do well. Only asking if anyone wants to switch to ele for sustain, and if noone does then I will.

Warrior is now like the hard carry of GW2. Our sustain is low but potential damage is high. Paired with any sort of support they will be able to stay alive and pick off a target and then take advantage of the great cleave potential.

The class is in a poor state, but if the team is able to make use of them they can help carry the team to a easy win. It’s when I get put into games with only Reapers, Scrappers, and other classes that don’t bring hard support that I feel worthless. I’m pretty good at 1v1s so long as I have stances but I can’t really “carry” like I could on my Scrapper.

Thieves can also be really good if paired with a Warrior, it’s hard for any class to tank that much damage. Also, if they aren’t a mobile team the thief can focus purely on back capping and whatever PvE mechanic the map might have and be useful.

I keep trying to find an alternative to GW2, but as someone who’s not big into mobas because of the excessive PvE elements there’s not much out there. I’m more interested in facing other players than killing mobs that are running in a straight line and that much of the skill comes from killing them effectively and out gearing your enemy. I know that’s a oversimplification but my point is that I want my personal skill vs the other persons skill to be the main focus. GW1 had modes that were heavily focused on AI but you still got those great team fights and 1v1 moments. The actual gameplay is also really good, it’s the balance and overblown particle effects that annoy me.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

inb4 two players rerolled for war achievements

Nope, we got crap from the non-Warriors before the match. It started off terribly but we suddenly started just crushing the enemy. It helped that I was power and the others were condi (I think both were, I know 1 was).

One of the other enemies was a Rev, it’s been a few hours now and I forgot what the other 1 was.

…I don’t even know…

Moving stances to the F keys is not only waaaaaay too similar to Engi, it would also demand that they create a new set of utilities to replace them. That’s like asking for a mini elite spec.

It makes way more sense to work with what we got when it comes to our class mechanic.

I can confirm that it is not Search and Rescue, I’ve seen it happen in matches with no Rangers/Druids.

It has actually costed me a game because I was unable to make a stomp that would have turned a team fight in our favor. I’ve seen it happen to Revs mostly. I think me being a Rifle War with Signet of Might and downing them during skills like Surge is causing it to happen more frequently.

You can sometimes find where the “true” body is located and stomp, but what’s weird is that your character is aiming at the running body when you try to damage them.

I haven’t been able to play much recently, but I’m in Diamond atm so hopefully I’ll be joining that club soon. I’ve played the entire season on Zerker Rifle War for all but like 2 game where I tried to play condi but I just found it much less rewarding.

Warrior is still bad, it doesn’t bring much that another class can’t do while bringing more team support in the process. That being said we’re good at spiking with either condi or power and we have good cleave. I miss the old core concept of being a bruiser though. I’ve come to consider myself the cleanup crew, come into the fight just a bit late, then pick off one target and cleave it while their team try and res and die in the process.

Drew The Brave.6403:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRApe8fnMdAtkiVhAmdAEliFiA7N52cnuIngXwKwIA8B7ZA-TJhIABcs/wQlBg9FAAwRBAA

here’s my build.

See, I’ve run something similar but now run yolo Rifle and I’m in diamond, but I can’t get over the fact that:

A. This build is really, really slow. You using Bull’s Charge can help a bit, but it’s still an incredibly slow mover.

B. No Fast Hands

C. Your Crit chance is so low that you’d rarely proc the free fire aura from King of Fires.

D. You have 2 of the same sigil on each weapon, I assume that’s a mistake.

E. I can’t get over the fact that this is basically just a wanna-be Reaper. Speaking of Reaper, they got a crazy amount of transfers and corruption that this build doesn’t have. Yes, you can kill people waaaay faster than a reaper, but without the other useful stuff that they bring.

Not saying this build is bad, I’ve seen it used plenty of times, I’m just not a fan. While my rifle build has a ton of weaknesses, no other class can put out the kind of direct damage I do while being unblockable so consistently, not even Thief. It’s a niche that only a Warrior can fill.

I used to play a lot of Engi but now am back to exclusively Warrior because it’s less passive. It’s crazy that a class that used to get so much hate for basically one trait and one heal is now on the low end of passive play now. In fact my build that has gotten me to Diamond doesn’t use Defense or Healing Signet so it’s probably the most active build you can play in this power creep hell.

Modern Scrapper plays more like the old Warrior than Warrior currently does. I miss the old Static Discharge build that had very active sustain. I don’t even have to play well on meta Scrapper is PvP to be successful. I like the new trait system in theory, but the execution has done nothing but make the game easier. I want to live because I used my skills correctly, not because something auto triggered when I messed up.

I would rather it just a more obvious tell. Warriors still set the gold standard for having well designed tells. Even if the attack becomes easier to avoid you still get the benefit of the evade. Sadly in HoT some of the best attacks have some of the easiest to miss tells. A lot of this comes down to the fact that they still need to tone down the visual noise of many skills. The game has some beautiful animations but they’re often too overblown.

Small flashes and small but very detailed skills will make the battlefield much easier to read and from a Esports aspect it would also make it more watchable.

My changes focus around making Burst skills more reliable and rewarding to land. I also make some changes to make Warrior more dangerous as the fight goes on, as that is supposed to bebe one of the core principals.

Defy Pain: Auto-activate passives are boring. I would have Defy Pain give its own unique effect like Rousing Resilience. You get one stack of Defy Pain for each bar of adrenaline used. Each stack will give a small amount of toughness and the stacks will last a decently long time and stack up fairly high too (maybe around 15). This mans that the more bursts you land the tougher you get. Combine this with Rousing Resilience for a tough bruiser, no need for Protection.

Leg Specialist: Move this to Strength. Swap it with Restorative Strength. Add Cripple to both Pommel Bash and Smoldering Shot. This will make it easier to set up burst skills.

Add a minor Trait that removes blind on Burst use: I would say get rid of Thick Skin or Building Momentum. Neither of these minors are very useful.

These 3 changes would be a good start. I would eventually like to see a Stance revamp that make it so that you can only use one stance at a time but have the stance effects not be just boons and have shorter CDs as well. It would become about being able to use the right stance at the right time. I would also get rid of the passive aspect of Last Stand.

I want to start off by saying that yes, I am fully aware that Warrior is in a terrible spot. That being said, with a decent support behind it a Warrior running something like this can totally destroy certain builds. Scrappers and Dragon Hunters are heavily reliant on blocks for their sustain, and Reapers without Shroud also die quickly.

The problem I’ve been running into in Ruby is that I can’t count on having someone watching my back in team fights. I’m fairly strong in 1v1s and have great downed cleave. I’ve attached a screenshot from gw2efficiency showing my W/L rate. Note that that’s the accumulated total from 3 years but I figured it gives you somewhat of an idea. I would actually say I’m around 65% win rate this season and I only started this trend of back and forth recently.

I have a mic and all of the VoIP software there is.

I feel like you can easily combine Gear and Class into Build.

I would also say that while rotations are important, if you can’t win team fights because the game threw you into a team with 3 Thieves or Warriors (coming from a Warrior main) then the best rotations in the world probably won’t help you. Sure, you can swap or ask people to swap, but many people aren’t comfortable with multiple classes or simply just don’t want to play something different.

So I would say Matchmaking>Build>Skill.

You can be the most skilled player in the game but if you’re playing certain builds you can only do so well.

My problem with Bloody Roar is that while you get that slight damage boost you also lose the Stun from Head Butt if you use that to gain your adrenaline. I don’t think Signet of Fury is worth it when HB has a similar CD to Signet of Might. That stun will make you able to land two Gun Flames if you use Blood Reckoning before the stun ends, although I often do HB > GF > BR > Rifle Butt > GF while walking forward > Swap to GS > Arc Divider.

I actually can win 1v1s with my setup but it all comes down to having stances off CD and saving the Head Butt for the right time like during a block so you can combo it with Signet of Might.

Stochastic.1398:

None of the bursts should be telegraphed. They are way, way too easy to dodge.

I 100% disagree. The telegraphing is what makes landing them worthwhile and impressive. Make them too fast and we become like Revs. The real problem with Burst skills is that there are too many easy ways to avoid being hit by them even if you time them properly. Making Burst skills more RELIABLE but not EASIER is way healthier imo. You can do this by:

1. Swapping Leg Specialist with Restorative Strength. Almost all War weapons have a cripple and when comboed correctly makes landing Bursts like Evis and Earthshaker much easier. I would also give cripple on Mace’s Pommel Bash and Longbow’s Smoldering Arrow.

2. A Minor trait that removes blind when you use your burst (and possibly make you immune to it for the channel). My suggestion would be scrapping Thick Skin.

3. Revert some of the damage nerfs on Earthshaker and Combustive Shot. They don’t need to be as good as before, but atm Longbow is basically worthless because it is a hybrid weapon that doesn’t really do much real damage outside of Pin Down.

These changes would still make burst skills take some though and timing to land, but still be counterable by blocks and dodges.

The game needs more telegraphs and less passive defense. Lets not perpetuate the skilless gameplay we already have.