Guild Wars 2

From a PvP standpoint, I’ve been messing around with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAscTjcOtwBPGPMxBEkCNsKOPSipg8UKmD7A-TsAAzCpI+S9l7LzXyvsfN6Y1x8AA

What makes Longbow fun is what you can do with the Combustion Shot. Because this build focuses on condition Arching shot isn’t as useful for dealing damage as it is for Might. Drop it on yourself in the field and you’ll get might, but the fun doesn’t stop there, Sword 4 gets set on fire when you throw it through it and deals more burning and Sword 2 gives you a Flame Shield. The weapons complement each other almost perfectly. It’s just that Mace/Shield atm is a way for us to counter Condi Spam and that’s the preferred choice currently.

Hunter/Excal: It astounds me how you can simply ignore the counter points I have presented, it makes me think you simply have no good answer.

I’ll ask again, how is a build that can at most work against a single target be OP? Sure you can Shield Bash one and Skull Crack another, but the guy that got shield bashed isn’t stunned for very long, in fact using Shield Bash for anything besides setting up a Crack or stopping a heal tends to be a waste. Never in any part of the game will I be doing massive damage to more than one person. The only reason 100b is damaging is because of Unsuspecting Foe, anyone else caught in the 100b will take poor damage because my crit chance won’t be nearly as high. Not to mention if someone is foolish enough to stand in 100b while not CC’d…well there’s not much hope for them. Locking down a single target isn’t overly important as in GW1. In GW1 there were Monks and most Warriors were used as a means to lock them down so they couldn’t heal their team. In GW2, especially in TPvP, however if I lock down one guy I’m not as useful as the Necro or Engi that just applied a ton of conditions to multiple people or the Ele that spiked down a target and stomped them. Most 1v1s vs non-glass targets take a while to end so it’s not optimal for far point attacking, in fact 1v1s vs similarly build classes may become a stalemate where neither can win, which helps neither team. The most kitten ing piece of evidence is how Warriors are still not seen frequently in organized TPvP. You can build for having this spec on your team but most won’t bother.

Another point that as far as I can tell you also largely avoided responding to is the predictability of this build. If you see Mace/Shield Warrior you KNOW what his plan is, to wear down your defenses and go in for the 100b. Things to look out for is a Shield Bash that is probably either there to try to trick you into using your Stuns/Stability or to set up a Crack (I actually wouldn’t recommend doing this btw, good players wait for the Crack so you can actually deal more damage by getting out a Mace 1 combo). You also know how often they can use the Crack, just like in old Halo games where people would keep track of weapon spawns you can roughly know when the skill is ready again and save a simple dodge for it. Skull Crack actually does have a unique animation, a horizontal swipe that when compared to the other mace attacks looks different. I know it’s not an easy thing to see but just like how I can now time a Mesmers Blurred Frenzy or how soon after a Thief will attempt a backstab after using Heartseaker through a blind field you too can “feel” a Crack coming. Actually a lot of builds in this game are very predictable, it;s just that certain builds make up for this by being more spammable than even Skull Crack.

I have my money that either you will claim that this post “isn’t worth responding to” or you’ll repeat the same nonsense you have been for over 12 pages. I honestly don’t know why I even bother.

Xsorus.2507:

redslion.9675:

Xsorus.2507:

You’re not magically kicking butt because its all skill mate…You’re doing better now because the overbuffed your class

We also have evades on your weapons like you have Block on your shield, Because you have Heavy armor (and more HP) you get less Evades then us…

I mean did you look a the class list there, You have one of the best heals in the game now with no investment.

Oh myyyyy… +200 armor + 3k health! That makes us unstoppable juggernauts of doom! Who needs to dodge anymore? Sorry, evading is still much superior.

However, it might also be that warriors had to play with really sub-par tools for a LONG time. It might be that the work needed to be “decent” with other classes still made you a free kill as a warrior.

It might be that it was YOU who mistakenly tought you skillfully outplayed warriors when you killed them before.

It wasn’t skillfully out playing Warriors before, Everyone knew Warriors had terrible condition removal and most didn’t go for sustain at all.

I just recognize when something was overbuffed, which the Warrior was, just like the Necromancer (which I also have)

I’m sorry you’re getting a taste of overpowered, and think magically they patched in skill to all warriors, I’m sorry you can’t look at things objectively because its the class you play (I honestly wouldn’t expect most rangers to do the same thing, or any other class)

Take spirit rangers, I personally think all the whining about them is silly, But I can also see how they could be overpowered in Structured just based on the fact they changed them recently (When your spirit abilities were on cooldown when they died, they didn’t fire off, now you can pop for example the call lightning ability, have it hit for 3k damage, then have the spirit..cause lets face it, it will, and it’ll pop again for 3k damage) Now out in open world that might not be over the top, however standing on the point is not a huge area you can move from, so you’re going to get hit.. Run 2 spirit rangers and that’s 12k damage to everyone on the point.

But anyway, that’s me looking at my class objectively and seeing that there are some issues with it being overpowered in some situations.. But you continue telling yourself that the Warrior is just up to par now, and the fact that a vast majority of Warrior are now running mace/shield with great sword running the exact same build is just coincidence

You’re still just flat out wrong in saying we got overbuffed. We are now fairly strong in 1v1s, yet still lose to Mesmers and some Thief specs. In team fights the most we can do is lock down a single guy or stun 2 people for a shorter duration. You don’t see TPvP teams suddenly running double Warrior like you see double Necro. If a team wants a warrior they have to build around having them and most don’t see the point. I can attack their home and probably beat their light bunker but if they have 1 skill with Stability, a Stun Break, or Protection, I won’t be able to kill them in a timely manner even if I don’t miss a single skill, giving backup for them plenty of time to arrive. As for WvW it’s not a bad solo roaming build but in a zerg fight stun locking one dude isn’t exactly going to shape the battle.

Also, saying a build is OP because most warriors are running it is BEYOND funny. I guess Shatter Mesmer must be MASSIVELY OP because that’s all they run. We run it because it’s generally the strongest build we have, especially in PvP. However, because I can’t lay down mass AoE or push people off points makes me a OK support but hardly the guy that’s going to be “Numba 1 MVP.” In fact I’d probably be more useful running Fear Me and hammer.

Xsorus.2507:

Player Character.9467:

Xsorus.2507:

redslion.9675:

Well, as far as I recall in ANet’s stating it was said BM wasn’t OP (AFAIK they were extremely strong 1v1, but they died quickly when focused), BUT they wanted to give more damage potential to the ranger than to the pet. So it’s more like they are in the middle of a process: if this is true, then I think dev’s intention is to make sure Rangers remain strong. So they should expect buffs, right?

They nerfed their damage because they said they increased the pets survivability a ton in a previous patch (they didn’t)

They gave them like 50%hp buffs and 20% dmg nerfs, oh no! now they do more b4 dying but they aren’t as stealth and spike!

They didn’t give them 50% hp buffs

In fact most pets seem to have less HP then their vitality should suggest (Drakes have 24k or something, when their vitality suggest they should have 35k)

Gee I wish WARRIORS could have 35k HP…because this is a WARRIOR thread in the WARRIOR forums…hint hint.

teg.1340:

Your ideas sound interesting, but personally I’m totally fine with rifle as is. All skills have pros and cons but thats how its used to be.

Bleeding shot: Although rifle is a burst weapon, I’m totally fine with the bleeding effect. Even if you dont spec for condition damage, the bleeding damage is a nice addition when your target runs out of sight. And the synergy with 25 Arms Minor is much better than switching bleed with vulnerability. 10% more damage on bleeding targets is equal to 10x vulnerable, but harder to purge.

Aimed shot is ok for me. With Leg Specialist it prevents the opponent to dodge the first second of a Volley, which is quite nice. Or combined with Kill shot it reduces the chance for your opponent to run out of sight during the long casttime.

Brutal Shot: IMO the casttime should be reduced to 1/2s.

Rifle Butt: The only problem I have with rifle butt is that it misses too often. IMO the range could be increased to compensate for that.

Kill Shot: I love kill shot as it is. Huge damage and range, but hard to land. You have to use it wisely, e.g. when target is distracted or CCed or after target dodged twice. Its an integral part of the game, that the most dangerous abilities are telegraphed to the opponents, so they can react accordingly.

The problem is, rifle in PvP is basically worthless. There’s no situation where you would want to have it over another weapon…almost any weapon in fact. I think if you went into a TPvP match with rifle at least one person will just instantly rage quit, and they wouldn’t be totally unjustified.

(This is all from a SPvP/TPvP perspective)
Rifle is one of the cooler weapons in GW2, too bad on warrior it’s pretty much universally considered to be terrible. Even in WvW it’s only really useful for sniping uplevels or overly-glassy foes. This also requires you to be glass as well which as a class we’re currently moving away from.

The biggest problem with rifle in my mind is that it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be. It appears that it wants to be the opposite of the longbow, a single target ranged weapon that focuses on damage. The problem is, only 1 skill actually deals decent damage and the burst – while hard hitting is so obvious that only fools or the unaware get hit by it. Here’s a breakdown of what I think of each of the rifle’s skills:

1: Bleeding Shot – This is my biggest problem with this weapon. For a weapon that seems to be focused of power based damage the auto attack not only deals low damage but also applies BLEED of all things. It’s like the weapon is trying to do two things but as a result does neither well.

This skill needs to have bleed removed (and a name change) and either have its damage buffed…kinda boring… or have it apply vulnerability instead. I’ll explain why I like this idea in a bit. One more side option would be to make it the reverse of Ranger’s Long Range Shot, it deals more damage the closer you are.

2: Aimed Shot – This skill isn’t terrible, but it is very boring. Again, I’m going to steal an idea from Rangers, Crippling Shot, that would make the skill more interesting. Reduce the Cripple duration and make the next 3 attacks apply Vulnerability, you see where I’m going with this?

3: Volley – This is fine as is. It deals a good amount of damage which is what I think the weapon was intended for. If chained with the proposed change to Aimed Shot it would also mean that the first 3 shots would apply Vuln.

4: Brutal Shot – The buff to the skill was what gave me the idea to make rifle a Vulnerability stacking weapon. As it is currently it’s still a pretty lackluster skill especially considering the cast time. If the skill were to remain unchanged with the proposed changes it would fit in rather well.

5: Rifle Butt – Again, not a bad skill but pretty boring. It’s basically just to keep foes at arms length and that’s fine. If I had my way I’d give it a longer CD and make the user hold the rifle like a baseball bat and give the skill a launch.

Kill Shot – Here’s the big one. I have several ideas about this, although some may be far too complicated to implement. The simplest would be to reduce its damage and to make the cast time shorter. Another would be to turn it into a ranged version of Final Thrust, dealing more damage to foes below 25% HP. My other ideas revolve around stacking Vulnerability and giving Kill Shot a unique effect based on the number of stacks they have. For example applying 1 second of daze per stack of 5 vuln with a max of 3 seconds. The problem is this effect would only be able to happen at 3 bars otherwise you’d have people using it at 1 bar. It’s most likely that this kind of skill isn’t possible to add in the current game.

What I would like to see is having rifle be a weapon that starts off with low dps but deals more and more damage as you stack Vulnerability. Your other set would probably need some sort of junk cover conditions, maybe offhand sword for constantly applying Torment so passive removal gets rid of that instead of the Vuln. Either way I think that some of these changes would make rifle much more enjoyable to use than it currently is.

Player Character.9467:

Xsorus.2507:

redslion.9675:

Well, as far as I recall in ANet’s stating it was said BM wasn’t OP (AFAIK they were extremely strong 1v1, but they died quickly when focused), BUT they wanted to give more damage potential to the ranger than to the pet. So it’s more like they are in the middle of a process: if this is true, then I think dev’s intention is to make sure Rangers remain strong. So they should expect buffs, right?

They nerfed their damage because they said they increased the pets survivability a ton in a previous patch (they didn’t)

They gave them like 50%hp buffs and 20% dmg nerfs, oh no! now they do more b4 dying but they aren’t as stealth and spike!

Can we keep the discussion about Rangers on the Ranger forums please -_-"

Azrhaell.1724:

Warrior or Hoelbrak Runes?:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOxupQGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w6A-T0Ag0CnIuSdl7KzVyrsXNQYZxpgJCvCA

Hoelbrak are great because with the +Might duration it synergizes with Forceful GS in addition to getting decreased Condi Duration.

I made this thread to avoid Hunter and Excalibur…so much for that.

Phaeton.9582:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Phaeton.9582:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Phaeton.9582:

Daecollo.9578:

Ashanor.5319:

The amount of OP claims have possibly surpassed even the old Ele D/D build debate.

They really haven’t. It’s just the same 6-7 players who come into only our forums saying exactly the same thing over and over in every thread. They don’t post it in sPvP or WvW forums because then they can’t use their argument that warriors are just defending an overpowered build and are all bad players looking to hang on to an overpowered build.

There is no compromise needed because the build is fine as is.

Warriors need a way to better sustain themselves and more builds.

I think warriors just need a trait that makes skull crack 1 second more stun if they use Sundering Mace.

Mace stun is fine. 100 blades needs to be made a burst skill however.. the developers are aware that the design for the GS class mechanic is bad yet people aren’t voicing the obvious stuff.

As for warrior sustain… well anyone in yolo qs tomorrow will get to see how much sustain you can get out of a dps cc war aha

There’s nothing wrong with 100b, it has limited uses and needs to be combo’d with other skills in order to be useful. Taking away the synergy between mace a GS would just further push warriors back into obscurity. Skills like Protection Injection make the combo deal at most 4k with an entire 100b, not exactly game breaking. The only specs the build punishes is glassy condition spammers. In TPvP I’m already finding myself lackluster because one or 2 skills just make me “eh.”

Yeah don’t think I’m clear here.. I actually think mace GS is slightly underpowered (I run much stronger builds). The problem is at low level play (where people don’t anticipate attacks) the skill floor is a little low in comparison with other builds, and the skill cap is a bit restrictive.

So what I’m suggesting is make it a little tougher to pull off then make it more rewarding when you do.

I think the game could use a bit of a skill ceiling increase, too many of the best builds require very little skill to land. The game takes a lot from DotA and LoL but oversimplified it. I’d like to see more skill shots like in Smite.

Mace hammer has the highest skill cap of any viable warrior builds I know of.. other warriors on NA are only starting realise this now strangely, and hardly seen any EU.

I like the idea of it, but the limited mobility is a major problem for me. In PvP I like to be able to quickly get to any point and I simply can’t do that with Hammer and Mace. You can use Earthshaker as a leap but that’s about it seeing as you’ll probably be running banner for your elite as well.

Not to mention anyone with a lot of stability makes you all but worthless.

Phaeton.9582:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Phaeton.9582:

Daecollo.9578:

Ashanor.5319:

The amount of OP claims have possibly surpassed even the old Ele D/D build debate.

They really haven’t. It’s just the same 6-7 players who come into only our forums saying exactly the same thing over and over in every thread. They don’t post it in sPvP or WvW forums because then they can’t use their argument that warriors are just defending an overpowered build and are all bad players looking to hang on to an overpowered build.

There is no compromise needed because the build is fine as is.

Warriors need a way to better sustain themselves and more builds.

I think warriors just need a trait that makes skull crack 1 second more stun if they use Sundering Mace.

Mace stun is fine. 100 blades needs to be made a burst skill however.. the developers are aware that the design for the GS class mechanic is bad yet people aren’t voicing the obvious stuff.

As for warrior sustain… well anyone in yolo qs tomorrow will get to see how much sustain you can get out of a dps cc war aha

There’s nothing wrong with 100b, it has limited uses and needs to be combo’d with other skills in order to be useful. Taking away the synergy between mace a GS would just further push warriors back into obscurity. Skills like Protection Injection make the combo deal at most 4k with an entire 100b, not exactly game breaking. The only specs the build punishes is glassy condition spammers. In TPvP I’m already finding myself lackluster because one or 2 skills just make me “eh.”

Yeah don’t think I’m clear here.. I actually think mace GS is slightly underpowered (I run much stronger builds). The problem is at low level play (where people don’t anticipate attacks) the skill floor is a little low in comparison with other builds, and the skill cap is a bit restrictive.

So what I’m suggesting is make it a little tougher to pull off then make it more rewarding when you do.

I think the game could use a bit of a skill ceiling increase, too many of the best builds require very little skill to land. The game takes a lot from DotA and LoL but oversimplified it. I’d like to see more skill shots like in Smite.

Ashanor.5319:

The amount of OP claims have possibly surpassed even the old Ele D/D build debate.

They really haven’t. It’s just the same 6-7 players who come into only our forums saying exactly the same thing over and over in every thread. They don’t post it in sPvP or WvW forums because then they can’t use their argument that warriors are just defending an overpowered build and are all bad players looking to hang on to an overpowered build.

There is no compromise needed because the build is fine as is.

You’re probably correct that it’s only a vocal minority, I don’t hear a ton of complaining in TPvP aside from the occasional “Man those stuns are annoying” and this isn’t even saying it’s OP. However, considering how ANet has apparently been taking suggestions from the forums when it comes to balancing I felt there needs to be an opposing opinion as it’s own thread for greater visibility, considering those vocal few just ignore facts and just spout off the same nonsense constantly.

Phaeton.9582:

Daecollo.9578:

Ashanor.5319:

The amount of OP claims have possibly surpassed even the old Ele D/D build debate.

They really haven’t. It’s just the same 6-7 players who come into only our forums saying exactly the same thing over and over in every thread. They don’t post it in sPvP or WvW forums because then they can’t use their argument that warriors are just defending an overpowered build and are all bad players looking to hang on to an overpowered build.

There is no compromise needed because the build is fine as is.

Warriors need a way to better sustain themselves and more builds.

I think warriors just need a trait that makes skull crack 1 second more stun if they use Sundering Mace.

Mace stun is fine. 100 blades needs to be made a burst skill however.. the developers are aware that the design for the GS class mechanic is bad yet people aren’t voicing the obvious stuff.

As for warrior sustain… well anyone in yolo qs tomorrow will get to see how much sustain you can get out of a dps cc war aha

There’s nothing wrong with 100b, it has limited uses and needs to be combo’d with other skills in order to be useful. Taking away the synergy between mace a GS would just further push warriors back into obscurity. Skills like Protection Injection make the combo deal at most 4k with an entire 100b, not exactly game breaking. The only specs the build punishes is glassy condition spammers. In TPvP I’m already finding myself lackluster because one or 2 skills just make me “eh.”

So, the last couple of weeks has been rather heated when it comes to the Mace/Shield GS builds that are now popular for warrior. The amount of OP claims have possibly surpassed even the old Ele D/D build debate. However the main difference is that the d/d build is that it actually was just a little too good (although it was over nerfed). Our Mace/Shield build on the other hand only appears to be as strong as it is because it is countering the current meta.

The spec is strong 1v1, however 1v1 strength isn’t overly important in GW2. The same is true for Mesmer, it is very strong 1v1 (can frequently beat the Mace build), but just OK in team fights. The mace build can be good for either stopping a stomp or locking down a single target, but that’s about all. Even now warriors aren’t the fist choice for high level TPvP, because when the goal is to capture points classes that can lay down large amounts of AoE damage or classes that are able to withstand pressure from multiple foes. This build can do neither.

As for WvW, it’s the same deal, in a fight between 2 forces of large amount of enemies a warrior stun locking a single one isn’t going so somehow manage to shape the outcome. One Necro with Epidemic is far more deadly than multiple Mace warriors. Warriors can not burst as fast as a Thief or Ele, we can’t spread as many conditions as Necro or Engi, and we can’t withstand pressure from multiple enemies for an extended amount of time like Guardians. Warriors lie somewhere in between now, decent damage but not as much as a thief or the survivability of a guardian.

The idea that something that is not only counter-able by such things as : block, blind, dodging, Stability, Stun Breaks, Teleports, and Protection (dramatically reduces the damage 100b does). While Skull Crack can be used frequently, missing it means over 7 seconds of being very vulnerable. Healing Signet is only good because when a target is stunned or you are blocking you are regening HP, and sort of continual pressure makes Healing Sig useless.

The best compromise I could see is making Skull Crack a 2.5 second stun at max adren, reverting it to pre-buff would making it a lesser version of Earthshaker that’s only slightly easier to land. I still don’t see it as necessary because as I said the build is limited in its uses and people who have fallen victim to it are only looking at it from their personal views and not the overall picture.

Authority.6145:

sinzer.4018:

Authority.6145:

If I wanted to pick Valkyrie or Cleric which one would I go with considering the buff on healing signet?
Is it ever worth using Arcing Slice over Skull Crack?

According to the patch notes:
At level 80, this skill goes from 392 healing per 3 seconds to 467 healing per 3 seconds with 1500 healing power.

I dont think it’s worth the drastic decrease in damage to go clerics.

as for the topic at hand, i’ve given my own variant of this a go but to be honest i much prefer to use sword due to the added mobility and i swear loads of people don’t realise they’re immobilised until its too late.

So basically with 1.100 healing power I assume 420 healing per second every 3 seconds = total 2.3 total heal every 16 seconds

Interesting.. Now I am starting to get why some people said that it is better sometimes not to use that signet and just let the passive do its job unless its a standard S.O.S case

Yah you should probably never use the signet active because the passive heals for more. That being said if someone is constantly applying poison and a few bleed stacks your healing will be negated, so it’s a good heal but by no means perfect. It’s strong 1v1 because of all the stuns and blocks, but it’s not this ungodly healing machine that people are making it out to be.

HatSimulator.9362:

In fact heres the Freaking build right here
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOpwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwEBA

didnt even know this was mainstream

Ohey dats my build. My thread just passed 7k views 0.o".

But in all seriousness, the build is in no way OP, especially in WvW. The reason being that it can only lock down a single target at a time. In a Zerg vs Zerg fight locking down a single target isn’t going to dramatically change the outcome. A necro with epidemic can have a much bigger impact than any one warrior.

Authority.6145:

BurrTheKing.8571:

This build is more reactionary than most other classes. Instead of focusing on your own combo you’re more interested in disrupting theirs. You can chain Shield Bash – 1 mace swing – Skull Crack – Switch to GS – 100b – (wait for the dodge that typically follows) – Whirlwind – Bladetrail. Typically though, the first Shield Bash will bait out their stun breakers/stability. It’ll probably take a Bash and a Crack before you can actually use the full combo however.

Thanks a lot.

I like this version of it.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOpwBPGPMxBAkirq6oQJmUPsbu4A-TsAA0CvICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwEBA

So I have got a couple more questions.

If I wanted to pick Valkyrie or Cleric which one would I go with considering the buff on healing signet?
Is it ever worth using Arcing Slice over Skull Crack?

Honestly I’ve never tried anything other than Soldier in WvW so I can’t say for ceratin there. As for Arching Slice you will probably NEVER use it considering it’s useless effect, although if you say used Skull Crack + 100b (from now on I’m just saying Skull Blades) and have full adren and still have some annoying conditions left on you you could use it purely as a cleanse.

Hunter.4783:

So, lest see, apart from the personal insults I have received which are sort of funny considering some people had to go through my entire post history to come up with em (lol) I have noticed a few things

1) Some people not only claim this build is not OP but heal sig needs to go up to 500 hps
2) Other people claim this build makes warriors now “competitive”
3) And there is a minority that claims this build is OP and might need to be toned down a bit. I am not referring to me and Excalibur

Also, the fact that in less than a day this thread has grown to 5 pages and the sheer diligence in some posters to throw down insults left and right in order to back up their claim kinda hits at the fact that underneath all this charade, everyone knows this build is OP and will get nerfed. People just want to ride the OP train for as long as it last because as some brainless CoF camper put it, its about time for also warriors to be OP.

I mean really, people, you have a build with High sustain, high DPS, near complete immunity to conditions and CC, ability to stun up to 50% of the time and you STILL claim thakittens balanced. Yeah sure food and melandru runes have their own share in breaking this build but the fact still stands this build HAS NO COUNTER.

I’ll ask again that you defer to my previous post, the build DOES HAVE COUNTERS. The fact of the matter is that people are so comfortable with their easy to play condi spam builds that they don’t want to run anything to counter it. However, already I see necros building to counter me. Everyone wants to run all offensive Utilities, now this build is forcing innovation in the meta even if it’s only in Hotjoin SPvP.

The biggest proof of this build not being OP is the fact that we don’t suddenly see TPvP teams running 2 warriors like we did when Necro got buffed. It’s similar to Mesmers, strong in 1v1 but just good in team fights. Necros and engis are still far more useful at capping points. As for WvW it’s the same deal, Mace is a single target weapon and considering most of WvW involves Zergs of people you can hardly call it OP. Locking down a single guy is a zerg isn’t going to drastically change the tide of battle. As for 1v1 duels, it be pretty ridiculous if we balanced a team game around 1v1 engagements now wouldn’t it? Once again that’s why I’m OK with mesmers, their strong 1v1 but that doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things, especially since mesmer is still by far the best dueler.

Authority.6145:

Can someone please give me tips and tricks with this build including rotations? I want to be able to play two classes really well since soloque leaderboard is coming up so I want to start practicing as soon as possible.

This build is more reactionary than most other classes. Instead of focusing on your own combo you’re more interested in disrupting theirs. You can chain Shield Bash – 1 mace swing – Skull Crack – Switch to GS – 100b – (wait for the dodge that typically follows) – Whirlwind – Bladetrail. Typically though, the first Shield Bash will bait out their stun breakers/stability. It’ll probably take a Bash and a Crack before you can actually use the full combo however.

Fenrir.5493:

Khenzy.9348:

The stun uptime since the Skull Crack and Burst Mastery buffs is maybe a little too much for such a strong hard CC. If you fail it, you can do it 7 seconds later, you don’t lose the adrenaline, there’s not much risk for such a strong reward.
Even widely percieved weak classes can have possibly unbalanced mechanics, but that’s not something that justifies having them.

I’m not sure if Healling Signet got overbuffed just yet.

You want a no risk class, try thief.

Also, you need to understand this, if you fail skull crack (which is a very short range skill and very very easy to fail because of that) you are screwed for another 10-7 seconds in wich you cant do a kitten, because this build relys completely in doing 100b and that is the weakness, dodge/stun break skullcrack and you win.

This is true, if we are being pressured hard and fail the Skull Crack, which sometimes fails when you think it shouldn’t, suddenly our regen becomes a lot less worthwhile. What makes Heal Sig good on this build is that during the Stuns/Blocks we don’t have damage being dealt to us and it lets us regen. If you miss that stun not only will your DPS lessen significantly but so will your healing. The sig is also good for shortbow evade spamming thieves because they eventually realize they won’t be able to wear us down. Mesmers still have the edge vs this build and good thieves running consistently high damage can also make the healing worthless, most just waste their good stuff of blocks and then they get greedy and find themselves stunned.

I believe the reason Skull Crack feels so OP to non-warriors is because for nearly a year if a warrior wanted to do well, especially in PvP, they have to play SIGNIFICANTLY better than their opponent. Now that we’ve been brought up to competitive level those long time warriors have gotten really good at timing their skills correctly.

peter.9024:

bambam.7243:

Hey, nice work on this, tested it out on spvp and it was pretty good. I was wondering since I like WvW a lot, how would you apply this build to WvW roaming? Would you go soldier’s gear with hoelbrak runes + zerk trinks?

I run this with hoelbrak + zerk armour and a mix of zerk + cav trinkets. I like to keep my crit chance around 50% as I’m running warrior sprint

I feel like that’s unnecessarily glassy though, if it works for you that’ fine but I think a Mix of Soldier armor and Zerker/Soldier Trinkets would give you good survival while still having a strong offense.

I would be in favor of some very obvious effect around the player when they are under the effect of Stability. It would have to be obvious enough that it’s immediately apparent when they use it, but shouldn’t further obscure the battlefield more than the current amount of particle effects.

Perhaps a circle under their feet with the same pillar symbol that the boon has.

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Velron.3729:

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Shield Bash 2 sec stun
Skull Crack 4 sec stun
Pommel Bash 2 sec daze

All of the above WITH sigil of paralyzation.

Sigil of Para does not affect daze.

Remove 1 sec on the Pommel and thats still essentially 7 secs of stun on an insanely low cooldown.

It also isn’t a 4 second stun, most “facts” about the build are overstated for dramatic effect. Just by adding one or 2 skills with stun breaks/teleports/stability/stealth gives you more than a fair chance against the build. Mesmers and thieves can hinder you a great deal in team fights. Warriors run to counter conditions, so maybe people should learn to bring a counter for warriors.

It still makes me laugh so hard that warriors got buffed so much less than Necros yet the amount of QQ has been even greater. Necros Dhuumfire nerf is only temporary, they didn’t want to stream a tourney with every team running double Necro.

Heal Sig works well with Soldier’s Ammy and Mace/Shield. Every time you block/Stun someone that’s time they aren’t doing damage to you, which mean that’s free time to regen back to full. Sometimes I feel a bit like Wolverine, only mesmers are a huge threat 1v1 and I can hold out 2-3v1 for a decent anount until help arrives.

Chances are this is a temporary phase of the meta. I post the updated version of the Mace/Shield GS build because it does such a good job at countering the brainless meta that is Condition Spam. Hopefully, players will simply start moving away from pure conditions into power or hybrid builds, which will force warriors to make some changes as well. You don’t HAVE to use a GS, Sword/Mace is a good alternative considering Final Thrust after Skull Crack can be a strong finishing blow. GS just happens to synergize so well with Unsuspecting + Forceful GS + Hoelbrak runes.

You could run:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRApe8ZjkOpwBPGPMxBAkCsq6oQppUPmzu4A-TwAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwGiJCA

or

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQRApe8ZjkOpwBPGPMRCAkCsq6UQJ1j5sLuUBxA-TwAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwGiJCA

First off, chances are this is the build:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Skull-Cracker-V-3-0-The-Counter-Meta/page/2#post2522773

As stated before the stun on Skull Crack is at max 3.45 seconds. Chained together with Shield Bash you’ll still only have around a 5 seconds of stun total. This build does have the ability to hit around 9-10k with a full 100b on glassy targets. The dps outside of that burst is much lower.

The build has the ability to go toe-to-toe with most builds in the meta currently that focus on conditions and tend to be fairly glassy. It can also do well against tougher opponents if the player uses their stuns/daze to keep the target from healing.

The truth of the matter is that the build is by no means OP. Builds in the past that were considered OP were believed to be so because there was few to no viable ways to counter them. However, this build has some very obvious counters such as:

Mesmers, they have enough teleports, stun breaks, and stealth that locking them down 1v1 long enough to actually deal damage before the Mesmer wears them down is difficult.

Waiting until Berserker Stance is over before using conditions. Any condi based class can do this, just avoid combat for 8 seconds by using block/teleports/evades/etc and you can set the tone for the fight. Now, the Trait Missile Deflect is there to help minimize that threat but non-projectile based spells will work just fine.

Power based damage from thieves or ele spikes work well because 2 out of 3 utilities are based around conditions. If the meta shifts to power as a result of builds like this then Endure pain can replace Zerker stance.

Now for the most obvious counter, STUN BREAKERS AND STABILITY! Seriously, for too long the meta classes have been able to bring mostly offensive utilities while warriors had to generally use defensive ones. Just one fairly low CD Stun break can half the effectiveness of the build. If you’re having trouble with this build than it’s because you refuse to bring any counters to it. The build is designed to counter the current meta, so it only makes sense that the way to beat the counter is to COUNTER IT. You don’t need to go all stun breakers and stability, you just need to outlast us long enough to apply your precious condi spam, at which point you have a fair chance at victory.

In conclusion, the build is not OP because there are very clear counters. It isn’t the users of this builds fault if you get destroyed because you don’t want to bring anything to avoid it.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Gmtsai.6349:

IMO, skull crack is over-estimated, and it only can pressure a bad player that didn’t get used to it. (Nerco who did not bring any stun-breakers or thief who spam their shadow-step for no reason.)

You don’t always have your stun breaker up. If you use it for something, then you can’t use it for something else. This sort of warrior can usually build it’s adrenaline up fairly quickly, so you can be hit by a skull crack every 10 seconds or so. If you don’t make the proper reads against this kind of build, you can end up eating the 100b.

Some stun breakers don’t offer immunity or movement either. I’ve used this before to do shield bash on a guardian, put in some filler auto-attacks, and then I hit him with skull crack the moment he used save yourself. Then he took the 100b because he had already expended other defensive utility due to fighting earlier.

All your saying is that the person who makes the better plays will win, which is a fairly general rule of thumb.

IMO the biggest disadvantage to this sort of build is that it has no ranged capabilities. That’s why I like to use warrior’s sprint on it. It makes it hard for node control in sPvP as well if your enemy decides to just sit outside, so it’s probably better to use it as a node attacker instead of defender, especially since your allies can capitalized on your long CCs with their own burst.

You’re pretty much correct with everything you’ve said. Skull Crack is able to be used practically on CD, it will eventually overpower most stun breakers. The only build that has enough stun breaks/teleports to counter it is a really greedy Mesmer that isn’t running Illusion of Life and Portal. It all comes down to using your skills correctly. A good rule of thumb to give Skull Crack the greatest chance to hit is to use it right after they dodge roll. Unless they have a skill that blinds or blocks without a cast time they’re going to get hit and be forced to stun break. You shouldn’t always go for the 100b, if you know they have more stun breaks then you should follow up with a shield bash and THEN 100b, you won’t hit it all but it’ll force any remaining stun breaks and build adren for the Skull Crack that should allow you to unload.

Oh, I also prefer to just skip that last long slash of 100b in favor of Whirlwind and Bladetrail. It tends to have a higher damage output. The lack of ranged is an issue, but with Missile Defect it’s lessened because their projectiles become yours. I wish Counterblow had a long of channel time as Riposte.

On another note I’m going to try swapping runes to something more offensive like Scholar or Ogre. I want to see if I really need that 20% reduction between Healing Sig, Zerker Stance, Sig of Stamina, and Cleansing Ire. Because hitting with 100b after a stun refills your adren and you’re under heavy condi pressure you can always use GS’s burst for another 3 condi removal.

Forestgreen.7981:

redslion.9675:

Forestgreen.7981:

I have to agree, this weapon combo has always been around since even pre mace stun buff. The variations are endless. The counter meta thing been there forever, its just that some people prefer zerker dps because if a random guardian comes along and decides to pop stability for 4 of his teammates you’re not going to do much until the buff is gone.

If people think the bull charge->HB->eviserate etc blah blah is too easy to read this is even worse because its long to setup.

But you can do it again quickly, and you are protected by something more than toilet paper.

Seriously, I saw a warrior with that old build. I didn’t even need to dodge. I could just stand still and soak all his damage. In my opinion, that build has always been kinda weak.

I have noticed that build isn’t as good anymore, since then I’ve switched to GS+LB running 5 signets. As troll as it seems, wow does it hurt since I got around 95% crit chance or something with fury.

I would say in a 1v1 you can play on players expectations and throw them off. For example, you could stick in GS then suddenly switch to Mace and instantly Skull Crack and just auto attack. Good players won’t expect a Crack right after switching because you can’t switch back to GS. Sometimes they also wait until you start 100b then break in order to capitalize on you being rooted, so you could go Whirlwind → Blade trail instead. You can use warriors predictability to throw people for a loop by not doing what they expect you to.

I goofed off with a Evis build the other day and did well by just randomly using it because everyone saves their dodge/stun breakers for the Bulls or Shield Bash. You run the risk of it not criting but the unpredictability is a good tradeoff. You can also just swap weapons mid Evis leap to mess with them even more (Same with hammer).

I’ll second this, it’s funny what a difference just a few healing buffs make.

I personally would rather see either 1 handed Javelins or 2 handed polearms. I would lean towards polearms because the longer range would make staying on target in PvP easier. Apparently there’s a chance of it happening because some skins classified as such have been found in the game and were apparently useable in early stages of development.

I’ve said this before but I’ll restate it here, GW2’s pacing is too fast for an esport. GW1 was slow enough to the point where you always knew what was going on, combat wasn’t as cool but the activation bar meant you were never in the dark about that was happening. Hard hitting magic users had long cast times and Classes like Ranger/Mesmer/and warrior were adept at interrupting them. The long cast times made Hammer on warrior Viable because if they wanted to deal any damage them has to insure they wouldn’t be knocked down.

For both better gameplay and better shoutcasting (the casters themselves are fine it’s not their fault it’s impossible to speak as fast as the action happens on screen) there needs to be longer casting time on spells (at least in PvP) and a activation bar so that it is easy to see what skill is being used. Make it moveable like GW1 so it can be placed right towards the middle of the users screen so they can focus both on dodges and what skills they’re using. I get that animating a unique animation for every spell is difficult, but for skills like Marks there’s no way to tell what mark is being used and as such which one you should be dodging.

Because adding a activation bar would make dodging skills easier, as a tradeoff the default recharge rate of endurance should be increased so that you can dodge less often. Vigor should make you recharge at the current unmodified rate, maybe even a bit less. This would force players to choose WHICH skills they think are the most important to dodge.

Using the Hammer as an example again, mostly because it’s a good weapon but not overly viable in PvP due to pacing. “should I dodge this Staggering Blow or wait for the Backbreaker?” Meanwhile I as a warrior need to decide if I should dodge twice to avoid an ele’s stuns, or let myself get hit once so I can dodge the Updraft? A slower pace would not only be more skillful but would make watching skilled players much more interesting and would give commentators a chance to give a play-by-play rather than a recap after it’s all happened.

GW1 had some of the most solid PvP in terms of design and pacing, even though it always had a clear meta due to some questionable balancing decisions. Which reminds me It’s good to see more PvP types such kitten, it be nice to see game types introduced in factions such as Fort Aspenwood (in a new form of course) brought back.

Ashanor.5319:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Yamsandjams.3267:

Vanthian.9267:

Black Teagan.9215:

I hope the nerf it, thiefs have rly no chance against this and they are already weak.

Very funny day when a Thief complains about being weak when they have some of the cheapest builds around. You don’t even have to try as a Thief to kill a Warrior. Just use your Black Powder and stand in it. You have basically just destroyed the effectiveness of this build with one skill.

Although the warrior can just back up and then they have to come out of their black powder. So they’ll HS out, use the backstab, drop another black powder, and the warrior will back up again. If the warrior gets a stun in, the thief has to use a stun breaker… basically, it’s a drawn out battle between the two that relies on someone making more mistakes than the other.

But I do agree, d/p thief can be a bit more problematic with this build due to no real ranged attacks (though the GS toss can sometimes hit a bit hard).

If you start with Zerker Stance you can charge the powder and they will be caught off guard. you can at the least make them waste a stun break and with that build taking just a few hits half way kills them. Optimal thing to do is Shield Bash into the Powder, which most of the time hits before the blind. They stun break, then do the Zerker stance and you can destroy them. Not really worth it though because the timing on backstab is so obvious that it’s better to let someone else handle them while you block/evade.

Yes, this will sometimes work, but you have to admit that fighting a GOOD blind spammer thief is an uphill battle you are likely to lose in many cases.

I tend to find that in a 1v1 against a good, non predictable thief that it becomes a stalemate where it just becomes pointless. Only build I struggle with is selfish Mesmers that have Sig of Illusions and other offensive utilities rather than the Illusion of Life and Portal USEFUL Mesmers use. I actually had some Mesmer saying I’m trash because I wouldn’t spend 5 minutes fighting a build I’m not even designed to fight. If I had Endure Pain and Bulls Charge I’d be able to make him waste all his stun breaks but with the Utilities in this build a Phat Spam Mesmer will just eventually overwhelm you because 2 of your utilities aren’t effective because at the most they’ll apply some low damage confusion. It’s amazing how dense some players are, I find myself wondering how they even managed to install the game without deleting c //windows/system32.

Also had a blind spam thief accuse me of running away too much when literally all he did was Powder – Shot – HS- Fail Backstab (because I can feel it coming at this point because they always do it a few seconds after the HS stealth because of it’s short length) and then stealthed and ran away every time I got him low. It’s actually kinda funny how many people in hotjoins are becoming bitter over the fact that we aren’t free kills anymore.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Vanthian.9267:

Black Teagan.9215:

I hope the nerf it, thiefs have rly no chance against this and they are already weak.

Very funny day when a Thief complains about being weak when they have some of the cheapest builds around. You don’t even have to try as a Thief to kill a Warrior. Just use your Black Powder and stand in it. You have basically just destroyed the effectiveness of this build with one skill.

Although the warrior can just back up and then they have to come out of their black powder. So they’ll HS out, use the backstab, drop another black powder, and the warrior will back up again. If the warrior gets a stun in, the thief has to use a stun breaker… basically, it’s a drawn out battle between the two that relies on someone making more mistakes than the other.

But I do agree, d/p thief can be a bit more problematic with this build due to no real ranged attacks (though the GS toss can sometimes hit a bit hard).

If you start with Zerker Stance you can charge the powder and they will be caught off guard. you can at the least make them waste a stun break and with that build taking just a few hits half way kills them. Optimal thing to do is Shield Bash into the Powder, which most of the time hits before the blind. They stun break, then do the Zerker stance and you can destroy them. Not really worth it though because the timing on backstab is so obvious that it’s better to let someone else handle them while you block/evade.

doc phil.8015:

So first of all I’m really new to PvP since I only used to play WvW and I don’t really know a lot of people that do PvP. But for a week now I started to play it and also used the skull crack build. I really liked the build and the concept of PvP as well so I guess I’ll be playing it more and more. I’m curious though, has anyone tried using Sword/Sword instead of the the Greatsword with this build?
I thought about swapping Forceful Greatsword for Blademaster and with Sword 3 you’d also be able to do nice damage plus 3 blocks with the missile deflect seems pretty cool as well.
I’d probably miss my GS 3 evade and the AoE of it but well you can’t have everything.
Just wanted to know the thoughts of some of the more experienced players about that.

in my mind what makes GS better than S/S is the Forceful GS trait. After you stun them and use 100b you will gain a ton of Might and the next few attacks will hit much harder. I haven’t tested mind you but I feel S/S DPS would be much lower. Not to mention Whirlwind Attack is a life saver.

Black Teagan.9215:

redslion.9675:

Black Teagan.9215:

Try this, you are are already stuned and Shadowstep on CD and special if two of them attack you.

Sooo… you want to survive a 2v1.

Warriors die against 2 thieves, too. And against one, just spamk evades with daggers, or use shadow return with s/d.

Who said, that I cant fight and win against two persons?
But two CC Warrior are a big problem for me

2 of any class should be a problem for any non-bunker if the 2 are both decent players. It’s not like thieves are intended to be able to consistently win 2v1s.

I would agree, while a 50% nerf is pretty heavy-handed this tourney will probably be watched by either people who played GW2 but weren’t interested in PvP or people who haven’t played GW2 yet. If they were to see team running 2-3 Necros it would probably make some people a lot less interested in trying PvP out.

From a warrior viewpoint, this is the most balanced the game has ever felt, there’s no class that is totally worthless to bring. Perhaps I’m wrong in that assumption but it seems like even post nerf (which is a temp nerf) Necros can still fit on a team.

I’ve been winning quite a few 2v1s in Hotjoins but without fail there is always a weak link that I can easily take down or simply ignore. I can’t for instance beat a good Engi and Thief because if the thief is power based and I’m built for Condi counter then of course he’ll give me issues.

In the past it didn’t matter how good of a player you were, you probably wouldn’t be able to win a 2v1 if even one of the players was competent. Now with the healing changes it’s possible to beat multiple opponents IF YOU ARE BETTER THAN THEM. I’m not going to lie I felt pretty OP earlier today, then I realized that I had been playing a sub-par class for almost a year – and now that they’ve been brought up to a competitive level I realize I’m actually not a half-bad player. Now I just wish I had done more tourneys but before if you didn’t have a team people just raged the second they saw a warrior on their team (even though I generally did the best on my team).

Black Teagan.9215:

I hope the nerf it, thiefs have rly no chance against this and they are already weak.

Notable counters: Blind Spam, Evade Spam, Burst after forcing us to use our stun break, teleports, stealth spam. The build can still beat a good thief but you can’t miss a stun or you’re probably screwed or you’ll just fight forever. I find that certain Thief, Mesmer, and Ele builds that are similarly tough are so equally matched that it comes down to who messes up first. That’s a pretty good sign, it means that after a year of balancing things are starting to come down to who’s the better player and not who has the most OP build.

Ashanor.5319:

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Granted it’s only slightly lower but also I used to run Endure pain until I realized that it was only really useful for Burst Thieves/Eles, which you encounter much less often then Condi builds.

Well, it’s just that I tend to have a very weak sense of danger, so I often end up keeping enemies occupied alone. The 2nd endure pain often helps me survive long enough to pull out a stomp or things like that.

But I admit I realized I can kill things even with soldier, while being almost unstoppable. I’m just a bit less aggressive.

Main problem is 100b damage is 10-15% lower, I think. That’s the difference between downing a guardian with some luck or not, I guess.

I look at M/Sh GS more are, a pressure/control build. I apply constant pressure and cc. I don’t really consider it a burst build. I mean, it can feel like a burst build if you fight a glass cannon with no stunbreaks, but otherwise it feels like pressure/control.

My goal when I fight someone 1v1 is to exhaust all of their resources to escape, then catch them in a serious of stun chains and damage before they come back up. That is why I feel soldiers is the better choice (even before this latest patch). I am more likely to live long enough for that opportunity with the added survivability. That is also why Mesmers are still so tough vs this build, they have so many outs that it is pretty much impossible to keep up.

It’s definitely a control build but it also has a steady stream of DPS. I feel a little bit like the Mesmer of Melee classes now. We apply a steady steam of damage with a good amount of survival. In a team fight though a Skull Crack + 100b could be considered a bit of a burst because you can deal 10K+ damage with it. Even in un-coordinated teams if I call a target they know a stun is coming and chances are that guy is going down.

Ashanor.5319:

I agree with Defektive. I have been going back and forth between Soldiers and Berserkers since the patch last month. I even asked him his opinion between the two in game a couple weeks ago and got the Soldier response. Since then I have been using Soldiers the majority of the time and feel that it is the better of the two, even before this last patch.

Healing Signet works so well with a stun build because while they aren’t attacking while stunned you’re just healing up, that in my mind warranted a update because I haven’t seen a ton of warriors trying that yet. Most still use Healing Surge or Mending – which are both good but Healing signet just makes the most sense.

I don’t know about that. I have messed around with healing signet a bit since the patch. While it does feel much better, I am not sure it can be considered a replacement for Healing Surge currently. I’m not saying it is a bad choice however, just I am not sure it is the optimal choice.

In my mind it just makes sense. If they’re stunned they aren’t hitting you, and while you’re hitting them you’re regening whatever damage they’ve done to you. Today I’ve won fights against Rangers, Thieves, Eles, Necros, and other warriors while hardly losing any health. With Reflect Rangers become more cautious, when Thieves stealth they allow me to heal, eles tend to run something similar in concept to this build wich is tough with a steady stream of DPS, but they run only 1-2 skills with stability with long cooldowns. Mesmers and this build tend to take ages to kill one another because they have so many escapes but the shatters are easy to block/evade/dodge that they don’t damage me that much. In team fights tho Mesmers aren’t hard at all because chances are other are making them use their escapes which lets me lock them down.

I’ve been surprising myself by being able to win 2v1s, only issue I have is if there’s a thief in the mix simply because I’m ill equipped for power based damage but like I said they’re much less common than Necros and Engis. I can beat bunker guardians but it takes a while to make them use up all their stability but if you don’t miss a Crack they drop rather quickly.

Issues.5789:

Current Meta: Dots, Dots, more DOTS guys, MORE kittenING DOTS DOTS DOTS DoTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This actually seems likely to change soon because now that warriors can totally counter that spam of conditions and lock them down. They have to start bringing more stun breaks or they’ll just keep getting stunned over and over.

The issue I see with that first build is that if you compare them the only stat that is higher on yours is crit chance, which isn’t that significant. Granted it’s only slightly lower but also I used to run Endure pain until I realized that it was only really useful for Burst Thieves/Eles, which you encounter much less often then Condi builds. Having perma Vigor with Signet of Stamina until you need to use it is also a big sustain boost. Having 2 skills with a 60 second CD has also hurt me a lot in the past if you get jumped while their down, with Stamina you at least have a cleanse every 36 seconds.

You’re builds aren’t unviable, I’ve just decided for myself that after running almost every variation of this build I decided running to totally counter the meta is the best way to shift the meta into something new.

@Defektive My old version used all stances and Zerker, which worked fine but the healing changes make it a lot more effective in my view to run Soldiers because it actually makes the sustain feel more noticeable than it did previously. Pre-Patch too me I felt like there as MAAAAYBE 10 more seconds gained by having Soldiers vs Zerker while at the cost of more DPS than I was willing to give, but now with Healing Signet I feel like I’m Wolverine (just went and saw that btw) and just heal up from most things thrown at me from a single enemy. The only class that’s annoying to 1v1 now is Mesmer and it’s mostly because neither of us can kill each other in a timely manor.

Healing Signet works so well with a stun build because while they aren’t attacking while stunned you’re just healing up, that in my mind warranted a update because I haven’t seen a ton of warriors trying that yet. Most still use Healing Surge or Mending – which are both good but Healing signet just makes the most sense.

Ashanor.5319:

Nothing really new in that build other than adding healing signet. It’s virtually identical to to build I have been running since the patch that changed skull crack. Except I use Dogged March or Shield Master instead of Missile Deflection. I also prefer Sigil of Fire over Accuracy, personally. I rotate out bersker (endure pain, stomp, berserker stance) depending on map and what classes I am up against. Everything else is 100% identical.

(No offense intended)

None taken, that said the old version used Zerker Ammy, this uses soldiers. Before it wasn’t really worth taking but now with the healing changes our sustain is a lot better and you can actually win 1v1’s with soldiers now (useful if you wanna tackle home bunker solo). The soldiers however gives you much lower crit chance, which is offset by Unsuspecting foe but I feel that because you were doing most of the damage while they were stunned the Fire sigil only prots maybe once so I figured just having the extra crit chance was a better investment.

I decided to make a new version post because I thought the Ammy and Heal/Utility changes were fairly significant since it doubles the sustain it had before. I finally feel like a warrior now, not a thief that lacks stealth or a guardian that lacks protection.

As for Daecollo, the build is intended to force Necros/Engis away from conditions, so if this build does actually force them to run a counter to me then that’s fine, we can switch up some of the utilities, conditions Like Chill mean nothing if for the first 8 seconds of a fight they can’t use them, and after than you have signet of stamina to cleanse any Condi spikes. Only necros I have issue with now are minions because they aren’t condi based, and builds like this are the reason some went to minions.

As for putting the extra 10 points in Arms instead I don’t agree with. Burst Mastery not only makes Skull Crack hit harder, but the extra crit damage offers much more than having that 10% to bleeding foes (which forces you to just hope that your crits are lucky enough to apply enough stacks to get a consistent benefit from the trait) and increased condi duration, when the build doesn’t have any condis that are affected by it besides the bleeds. Also because with soldiers we have much lower crit chance you will gain the adren MUCH slower than with Burst Mastery.

Velron.3729:

Lue.6538:

Velron.3729:

Makes me laugh so much that basically the only thing that changed for Warrior this patch were some buffs to the heals and now Warriors are apparently super OP murderous demigods.

This forum is always good for a quick laugh.

I agree, your post for example, which downplays the amount of changes the warrior recieved.

Not saying they’ve gotten a complete overhaul that made them into the most OP thing ever, but people are trying new builds now and those are quite strong, something I find far more hilarious is the amount of people who suddenly complain about mesmers being underpowered all of a sudden, when they were buffed in the latest patch.

Go read the notes, this patch was mostly just changes to Rampage, Sig of Might, and Healing buffs.

If you’re talking about the 1 second increase to Skull Crack – that was a few patches ago.

Berserker Stance increase? Also happened in prior patch.

Yes, we’ve been slowly getting some love….and I didn’t even feel weak before because I was experimenting with other builds instead of just trying to run old ones and crying that they couldn’t compete.

This patch though? Pretty much only Healing buffs and now people are complaining, mucho funny.

The healing buffs were a MASSIVE change. A full Healing Surge is half of our health now, Mending can be used on more damage focused builds and with Restorative Health it’s practically a Cleanse, and Healing signet with Adrenal Health means that thieves can’t just stealth and leave you alone while they heal, because you’ll be back to full as well.

With this build we can totally counter the current Meta:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOpwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwEBA

Most condition based builds are a joke to that – not to mention you still deal decent damage while using soldiers because Unsuspecting Foe with Skull Crack and Fury is 92% crit chance. ANet has won me over, it was a frustrating year but they slowly brought us up to par.

Lady Warriors and Gentleman Warriors, the promised day has arrived. With just a few buffs to our heals warriors have gone from the laughing stock of PvP to a force to be reckoned with! I present Skull Cracker V 3.0:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOpwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNIYRwEBA

This build is designed to counter the current meta known as “lolz condi spam.” Stat-wise this build has few weaknesses, High attack and armor in addition to a perk that makes our low crit chance jump by 50% when a foe is stunned. Use your utilities wisely, Zerker stance is best used just a fight begins so that you set the tempo for the fight. Don’t waste Signet of Stamina on a few stacks of bleed and poison because Healing Signet with Adrenal Health will take care of it, wait for a big condi spike then laugh as you make it disappear.

Now before someone comes along and claims this is OP, it isn’t. Why it seems so strong is because it is designed specifically to counter the current meta, so if you want to beat it you’ll want to start running something else. A power based spike can still take this build down because 2 of the utilities will be useless against it. Hopefully this build could help shift the meta away from where it currently is (if this was ANets plan it’s genius).

The build is very flexible and you can adjust it to fit your playstyle or your teams needs. I rather like Healing Signet now but if you prefer Surge or Mending all of our heals are decent now. It’s better to actually not Activate Sig of Healing because the passive is so good. You could also go with all Stances and Vigorous Focus if that’s more your style.

Now go fellow Warriors! Rejoice! That mythical goal known as “Viability” has finally arrived!

EDIT: It’s been pointed out there isn’t a significant change and while I feel that the change in Ammy/Utilities were important but also I think it’s good to have solid builds on the front page post patch so new warriors have something to try out/build from.

EDIT 2: Just a note that if you find yourself being kited/out run feel free to replace DotE with Warrior’s Sprint. In fact, if you find anything to not fit the situations you’re facing (hopefully because people are finally building to try and counter) the build is flexible.

Mijo.3274:

Maxhzalot.2301:

Whats your build then….? CON or shouts or?

this is my build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjkOxutQGPMxBEkCNsKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNQYZxUEA

AH! It’s a variant of the build I posted but I actually for once agree with Soldier Ammy now. Before it hardly added much sustain but combine it with our buffed healing it’s much more effective. I like Dogged March but I find it hard to let go of Missile Reflect. Keeping Rangers at bay and making Thieves guild and Phant Duelist kill themselves is very useful. I’m going to keep messing around with both because they both fill the same role of allowing us to close gaps, although now Reflect has the amusing side bonus of giving us stealth when Rangers use Hunters Shot.

Yaki.9563:

BurrTheKing.8571:

they made toughness only useful up to a point, you see diminishing returns before long.

When will people stop with this ignorance?

When it stops being true? The math is in and no amount of toughness makes up for Protection.

…I was 100% joking with that build, haven’t actually used Rampage post patch. Changes seem interesting but not sure it’s worth using over SoR/Banner.

Defektive.7283:

We fought a team last night for our mistleague matches that brought a bunker Warrior as their primary bunker.

He ran a similar build to the ones listed above.

The end result was 500-30, 500-80 in our favor. We just demolished the Warrior, he couldn’t bunker much of anything, even the regen was bad against poison.

Still not viable imo.

I still like you, no1 takes little ol’ me srrs. QQ

Steelo.4597:

which is what i said all along. though generally have had no problems dealing with thieves so far, not lost a single duel against thieves yet. but yeah like i wrote.. not good against bunkers and tanky condition classes. but i guess you havent tried the build at all and thus didnt understand it in the first place.

I wouldn’t really run a build that is weak against what half the playerbase plays though…