Guild Wars 2

sorrychief.2563:

Just learn to play and dodge through marks. I’m glad necro got buffs and I don’t even play the class.

Marks would be better if they gave you a chance to dodge after they are triggered, much like Counterblow or Illusionary Counter. The problem with marks is that when they’re dropped under your feet you don’t get any real chance to avoid them. That be OK if that was difficult to do but let’s be honest it isn’t anywhere near as difficult as grenades.

There are a lot of “skill” based abilities in GW2, unfortunately those abilities have become totally overshadowed by condition spam skills that require little more effort than rolling your face on the keyboard. Rather than simply nerfing the effectiveness of conditions, why not make them more difficult to use? As an example I’ll use Necro Marks and how they can be made more skill based.

Marks are very easy to use as all you have to do is point and shoot. They may have a 3/4 second casting time but they are still not difficult to land. I have 2 ideas to make them more skill based.

1. Give players a chance to dodge the effects of the mark. Block skills like Counterblow or Illusionary Counter give you a chance to dodge their effects after the block is triggered and this is similar in concept.

2. Don’t have the marks trigger when placed directly under a player. Basically it means you have to somewhat predict where your opponent is going to move. This would make Marks a bit more like Engineer’s grenades.

This concept could apply to many AoE skills, try to make as many of them be skill shots. A game that does this well is SMITE, almost everything in that game requires timing and precision to use correctly. There are still many, many skills that require nothing more than targeting your foe and pressing a button. Seeing more skills made into skill shots, especially AoE, would go a long way in making running conditions a more skillful exercise than it is currently.

I’ll say it once and I’ll say it a million times more – Warriors would be a perfectly viable class if AoE was toned down in PvP/WvW. Buffing us will simply add more power creep to the game.

Changes like giving Marks an activation time after being place to allow for dodges, or making it so that placing it directly under a target doesn’t activate it so that they have to be place where their target is GOING to be, making it more like Engis grenades would make Condis require more skill you use. Most hard hitting condi abilities should be made skill shots so that it’s more difficult that simply hitting tab and rolling your face on the keys.

Stances are some of the most used utilities for warriors, especially with the recent changes to Berserker Stance. That being said Sure-Footed is an incredibly underwhelming choice considering in that same 10 point slot we have traits like Dogged March, Shield Master, and Missile Deflection. Personally, I’m tired of boring effects like simple duration increases or CD reductions.

These are just some suggestions off the top of my head (actually they’re from the inside of my brain).

- Keep the 25% duration, remove one condition on use.

- 3 Seconds of Stability on Stance use. (This one could potentially be OP, although it fits the trait name and most stances have a long CD)

- Having a unique effect for each each stance on use, similar to Kit Refinment.
—Berserker Stance – Slight knockback (less than staggering blow, maybe a heatwave/shockwave animation)
—Balanced Stance – 2 second block
—Endure Pain – Remove all movement impairing conditions

I really like the idea of unique effects on use. The effects should be subtle, Zerker Stance would help set up attacks like Backbreaker, Earthshaker, or Skull Crack. Endure Pain is basically Charge from Warhorn, just another attempt to help us not be so easily kited. Finally Balanced Stance is just a shorter duration Shield Stance, another small little boost to sustain. I doubt we would ever see something like this added, I just thought the Kit Refinement trait as an interesting concept – before it was nerfed to the ground.

Feel free to post your ideas as well, with running all 3 stances being worthwhile now it would be nice to have this perk be worth using.

Kravick.4906:

Velron.3729:

I added a suggestion in the suggestion forum a couple weeks back, not even asking for nerfs to Necro damage or any of that – but just a short maybe 1second activation time for the marks. Similar to the way an Engineer bomb must have the 1second before it explodes and applies the condition.

They already do. It takes 3/4th of a second to cast marks.

He isn’t referring to cast time, I believe he means that once the mark has been placed and it is triggered, it instantly applies the conditions/effect. What would be better is that after you step on it there was a slight delay before the Mark activates. It would give you a chance to dodge/evade.

Jayce.5632:

I main a Necro and I have to say that people love to complain about things they do not understand. I die more to direct damage or power as the OP stated a lot more than I do to conditions. Keep in mind that this is a condition heavy meta right now and I equip at least 3 condition removers myself. I would need at a minimum, 6 seconds of cast time just down an afk’er (12-30 seconds when they fight back) from 100 to 0 through conditions. Did I mention (incoming sticker shock) that I don’t use the staff? Power can drop me in half that time that it take for me to kill 1 through conditions alone.

The reason you see teams with 2 or 3 Necros is because they want to do the job 2 and 3 times as fast. It’s the same reason you see 2 or 3 Mesmers, Thiefs or any other power based team composition. With my current condition defensive build, am I vulnerable to power? Yes. But I’m a Necro and I’m used to it by now. It’s why I keep insisting on more access to the essential defensive options that we probably won’t ever get. At the same time, I do not go out to rally up supports to the nerf this other class campaign.

The last time I checked, Power (including it’s AOE form) didn’t corner the market on the focusing of a single target.

If Necros were given more defense options they would become unstoppable. They lack defensive options because their offense is so potent. As a warrior I finally feel I have a role to play because having a Mace or Hammer is the best way to counter Necro. I still want to see a better balance between Power and Conditions. Currently you can have a lot of sustain AND good damage output via conditions, which is not OK.

I would be OK with more defensive options for Necros but ONLY if they have their current meta toned down. Constantly applying so many conditions isn’t good and it also doesn’t take much skill or effort to do either.

I simply want to see the spamability of conditions reduced, either with shorter duration or longer recharges. I’m not interested in Power > Conditions or Conditions > Power, i want to see Power = Conditions. Of course perfect balance is unlikely but so long as both are viable. Condition removal is starting to become decent even on warrior, it’s just that conditions themselves are so insane that they cause problems.

YuiRS.8129:

GS/Mace Warrior is a free kill for Stab/Blind/Block spammers. So Thieves, Necros, Engineers, Guardians and some Eles. But yeah, other than that, you’re fine ;p

Stab: Endure Pain and Shield Stance, use them wisely to counter large Spikes.

Blind: Berserker Stance, the 8 second duration is more than enough time to lock down a thief by using Shield Bash, then when they use their stun break hit them with Skull Cracker and it’s over.

Block: Learning how Guardian Block skills work make it easier to simply wait them out or trigger the bock then dodge right after to avoid any damage. I spent a few days playing as a Guardian and fighting them became much easier. Not to mention you have blocks of your own on a rather short CD to avoid leap of fait and Ray of Judgment (which with reflect Projectiles makes the Guardian blind himself).

It’s all about knowing the meta and how the skills work. Other classes don’t necessarily have to know other players builds because they have so much spam it doesn’t matter (although knowing the builds make things easier for them as well) but it’s a MUST for warriors. Using your Stances wisely means that Condition spammers are unable to harm you for 8 seconds, Reflect on Counterblow and Shield Bock can be used to screw Rangers and Engis over, and Endure Pain keeps you safe from spikes.

Yes, there will be times when your skills are on CD and you get destroyed, but that’s true of most classes. A ele with Armor of Earth or Mist on CD is a tasty meal for your Skull Crack. This is even more true for Necro with their lack of mobility or ways to counter CC. This build will have the most trouble 1v1 with mesmers that play smart and stick to wearing you down. This is mostly due to Blurred Frenzy being the bane of a warriors existence. It got nerfed vs retaliation but that doesn’t help us much.

Basically, we are slowly starting to become more viable, and the Zerker Stance change helped a great deal. Cleanses aren’t really the best choice imo when conditions are so easily reapplied, but being immune to them for 8 seconds is pretty fantastic especially when you’re also cleansing 3 condis frequently with Skull Crack.

naphack.9346:

Hoelbrak, if you are stacking loads of might(i.e. if you are a bullrush frenzy 100b freekill)

Melandru, if you are part of the 2% who don’t have some weird greatsword fetish and do not stack might from other sources aswell.(My only source of might is warbanner anyway)

Right now, I use neither, tho. Unsure whether I should grab melandru or respec to SoR and grab Lyssa Runes. Because My Hammer build is rather low on might stacks, Hoelbrak Runes are not that good for me.

Most warriors only use GS for mobility and to combo 100b with the buffed Skull Crack:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwpQyQMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9AP2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

GS has the best synergy with Skull Crack and makes up for Mace/Shields lack of mobility. Far from a free kill. The might is also just a matter-of-fact synergy, it’s mostly for the strength because too much toughness (which if you’re running hammer means you’ll have a good amount of) makes you a bad Guardian with less survival and less damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOtwpQyQMxBE0DsoK4C1D8YDjjUBxA-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxGCA

Running that with Hoelbrak at least allows you to dish out some damage, I find the utility from the stances and Shield Block go a lot further than stacking Tounghness and Vitality. Not to mention that in 1v1s and small skirmishes you have a better chance of coming out on top.

I personally prefer Runes of Hoelbrak these days: helps with conditions, doesn’t take a hit on my damage, and they synergize well with Forceful Greatsword. Mel runes are good don’t get me wrong but I run builds that have their sustain from things like Endure Pain, Counterblow, Shield Stance, Zerker Stance, and whirlwind attack. With 20 points in defense and a bit of Valk armor tossed in you’ll have a nice balance.

Considering he seems to respond to my posts on his threads and mine as well, preeeety sure he’s still around.

I keep on seeing people using offhand Axe because the patch says that Axe 5 got buffed, but the skill is still terrible.

Having a GS for mobility/100b to chain off Skull Crack makes a lot more sense than having axes. Axe 5 will deal less damage than 100b and with Burst Mastery 100b will refill adren just as much as Axe 5.

I had 2 threads dealing with the build:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/PvP-Build-Skull-Cracker/first

I made a updated version with Zerker Stance because I love that skill now, the thread got buried because there’s be a ton of them being made recently and I posted it at a poor time:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Skull-Cracker-Zerker-Stance-Post-July-9th/first#post2384714

Defektive.7283:

Or, if you’re like me just bring both.

My utility lineup is:
Endure Pain or Berserker Stance / Sig of Stamina / Dolyak or Balanced Stance.

Just choose them based on your opponent composition.

Yah you could certainly do that, I just like having Endure Pain to avoid those Thief/Mesmer Spikes. The build has been surprisingly effective even 1v1. I can beat Rangers, Thieves, other Warriors, Ele’s, and even Necros consistently. Engis and Mesmers are difficult but honestly is anybody surprised by that?

Warriors actually have the option to become the new Necro meta’s natural enemy. Running Zerkers stance and something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwpQyQMxBEkCsoKOKUilQ9AP2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

…means the Necro can’t do anything for the duration while you lock him down. I actually feel like I have a role when I join TPvP as opposed to a third wheel.

Rampage is actually fairly decent now considering the recent CD and after cast reduction. If you use it with a Hammer or Mace/Shield you can unleash a constant stream of CC that can be pretty useful. The problem is most people can’t stand parting with SoR considering its effects.

While Staggering Blow is a bit buggy you don’t use the skill on its own so it isn’t a big deal. The basic combo is Backbreaker → Fierce Blow → Staggering Blow → Hammer Shock → Earthshaker. You can also go Hammer Shock with Leg Specialist into Staggering, basically you should never use the skill on it’s own.

I will say it could do with dealing more damage if the target is weakened considering it’s still a fairly underwhelming skill in its current form.

So this is a bit more than just a minor update, because I would like to defend one of my new favorite skills – Berserker Stance. Many warriors are having trouble deciding between Signet of Stamina and this Stance. The signet has a shorter cooldown and a cleanse, while the stance gives you 8 seconds of immunity to all unmodified conditions. While Signet of Stamina is a good skill I now feel that the Stance is a stronger choice.

Why is this? Well with the buffs to Necromancer having a cleanse or two simply delays the inevitable in most cases. However, if you activate Zerker Stance with Balanced Stance that is 8 seconds that the Necromancer can’t do ANYTHING major to you if they are running conditions. It’s important to START the engagement with the skill activated so that they have no way to slow you. This will allow you to close in quickly and start using your Mace and Shield to lock them down. Eight seconds doesn’t sound like long but it’s long enough to deal significant damage and in some cases take them out.

Here it is:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwpQyQMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9AP2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

I’m still debating if Sure Footed is worth taking over Deflect Projectiles. It does give you 10 seconds of Zerker Stance but having Counterblow keep blocking after a projectile hits can be invaluable. I suggest messing around with both and see what works best for you.

Leo G.4501:

BurrTheKing.8571:

You obviously haven’t faced a necromance/engineer that can spam so many cripples or chills in necros case that even with Mel/Hoelbrak runes and dogged march you’ll still get kited to death.

Shield Bash can easily whiff while affected by cripple/stun. Same with Bulls Charge. It also doesn’t help that when you reach the target you rub against them before actually connecting.

Also, I’ll have you know I was never riding my kitten to begin with.

It’s as if you don’t think people should be able to kite a warrior. If you increase the bulk of movement skills, you’re pretty much removing the opponent’s fighting chance to stay alive.

PS: I do think they could improve Kick though by improving its range.

Even with these changes things like teleport, stealth, block, blind, and of course Immobilize/cripple/chill AFTER you use the movement skill. Currently in a 1v1, only someone poor at their class or highly unfamiliar with what the warrior is running will lose. A thief can use a shortbow to teleport constantly and dagger/pistol to stealth. An Engi has tons of conditions and decent mobility in addition to often having both Elixir S and the trait that uses it as well. Guardian has tons of blinds and blocks and if managed right you’ll never do decent damage. Mesmers will stealth and avoid fighting you as much as possible then shatter you while using Blurred Frenzy to avoid damage.

Whenever I beat these specs I know it’s not that I outplayed them or that my build is better, it’s because they UNDERESTIMATED me. They figured I’d be an easy kill because I’m a warrior and as a result didn’t use their skills as wisely as they would against another class. So if you think making it slightly easier to stay close to the enemy you’re sorely mistaken.

ProxyDamage.9826:

BurrTheKing.8571:

You obviously haven’t faced a necromance/engineer that can spam so many cripples or chills in necros case that even with Mel/Hoelbrak runes and dogged march you’ll still get kited to death.

Shield Bash can easily whiff while affected by cripple/stun. Same with Bulls Charge. It also doesn’t help that when you reach the target you rub against them before actually connecting.

Also, I’ll have you know I was never riding my kitten to begin with.

If you’re getting KITED by a Necromancer you’re doing something horribly wrong. Beaten I can understand, given so few people seem to know how to fight them, but kited? Necros have the worst mobility in the game.

Engineers have better mobility, but less cripples/chills.

Necros “kite” by crippling and chilling you then applying every condi in the game, and if you cleanse, they simply apply them again. If you don’t have a sword to leap to them you’ll never reach them with Rush and Torment will punish you for trying. It’s not kiting like Rangers but if it keeps you from reaching them through cripple/chill/fear it’s still kiting.

ProxyDamage.9826:

Get off your kitten…

The only 2 skills I can agree with are kick (because it’s a very short range move that can whiff easily as is, it wouldn’t really give a warrior more mobility, just make the move a bit more reliable) and Earthshaker (because it’s in a horribly low mobility weapon, it’s already very predictable and easy to miss, and it’s not exactly long range mobility either).

GS has 2 high mobility movement skills.

Bull’s Charge is a high mobility utility skill (“stacks” with your weapon skills) that cause a huge knockdown.

Shield bash is a stun that also has a bit of extra range to make it more reliable. Not a skill to use for mobility.

Warriors are already nigh immune to immobilizes, and already had high mobility. If you’re getting kited by anything that isn’t a thief, you’re doing it wrong.

You obviously haven’t faced a necromance/engineer that can spam so many cripples or chills in necros case that even with Mel/Hoelbrak runes and dogged march you’ll still get kited to death.

Shield Bash can easily whiff while affected by cripple/stun. Same with Bulls Charge. It also doesn’t help that when you reach the target you rub against them before actually connecting.

Also, I’ll have you know I was never riding my kitten to begin with.

Zerker CoF P1 clearing warrior is still popular from what I’ve seen, the build has just undergone some changes, It’s been a while since my last visit to PvE but I believe it’s still something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOtvtQyQMxBCzDjAk/fZQFmoPgHA-jwxAEEYySgSeFRjtNUENWdNmylIq2eXEtaA-e

Now, for certain dungeons Knights might not be a bad choice but if you have a Guardian you probably won’t need much sustain on your own.

I don’t really see a reason to try to run survival in PvE, people still prefer GS with Axe with 30/25/0/0/15 with all Berserker. You’ll kill most things before they kill you and most parties won’t take anything else.

Skavian.9863:

I’m sort of curious why you wouldn’t go 30 Arms for Adrenaline triple crit – not only does it allow you to spam Burst more but it also gives you native condition damage and precision for the trait points as well. The extra burning from Strings is nice – unkitten on Duration is needed to keep stacking Might – in which case stacked might when roaming solo is pretty awesome and easy to keep up I might add.

You also get Attacks of Opportunity in Arms which is a flat 10% damage against bleeding foes as well – and both weapons apply bleeds with the Arms 5 trait (swords does naturally, Longbow 5 too) – you can take Sword 10% Crit which is great as well if you’re confident landing Final Thrust – it hits hard. You also get to choose between Rending Strikes or 50% longer bleeds – so a condition cover that’s great if they don’t cleanse or longer bleeds.

Either way, thanks for the video.

edit: I just figured out Burning Arrows tooltip is bugged. I guess it’s pretty much just a matter of preference. Might stacking would be so easy/fun with the reduced CD.

I’ve done a little bit of testing with 30 in arms vs 30 in dis. With Burst Master Combustive Shot did more damage on average while gaining adren just as fast AND with only a 7 and 3/4th second cooldown.

You could get silly and go super might stacking like this :P

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhNakzpFO4x4hJOgcUkETh6hdshxRShYwGA-TsAg0CnI0RFkLIjOycs5MEZJyECA

naphack.9346:

Rush maybe, but leave whirlwind as it is.
It’s fun when you get more damage ticks because you spin through your opponent in slow motion.

That can be fun but most of the time I’d much rather have the ability to consistently stay on an enemy rather than that 1 in 10 fights where that happens.

I honestly don’t see it as being viable currently, Longbow actually has better direct damage especially with Arcing Shot.

loseridoit.2756:

salvage leap have a horrible after cast time. It very hard to make a dynamic play style under 300

kick is much shorter after cast

The after cast and overshooting your target is a problem, but it’s still the best gap closer besides Whirlwind but that is effected by cripple/chill and that’s what makes Leap better, it isn’t affected by anything.

I still don’t like rifle. It seems confused as to what role it wants to fill. It appears to be the opposite to the longbow, direct damage as opposed to AoE. However Bleeding shot runs directly opposite to that. If it applied Vulnerability I could understand but there’s no reason for it to apply bleed. I have yet to see a build that isn’t just set around landing Volley and Killshot. All those videos you see don’t show all the times it misses or doesn’t crit and deals terrible damage.

Solo.9027:

Written in stone.

That’s certainly a good one, maybe replace it with Deep Strike because that trait isn’t seeing much use anymore.

I’m sorry to say but your weapon choices are terrible. Offhand axe is still bad because Whirling Axe still has lower DPS than most auto attacks and with Cleansing Ire, Furious, and Burst Mastery being popular traits gaining adrenaline is easy so it loses even more worth. It may give 360 AoE but nobody is really dumb enough to just sit in it. If you want to go AoE longbow is still king because it has a larger area, lets teammates stack might, and if traited properly does good damage as well.

Also, if you want to run Shouts Fear Me is now a must because it has a good CD when traited. I know you use OMM for Rifle but honestly I’m not a fan of that weapon either because even with Killshot if you don’t have the rifle traited it won’t pass through multiple people. You also have healing shouts but don’t have soldiers runes and the condi removal is one of the best parts of shouts.

I don’t even like mainhand axe anymore. All the damage has been loaded onto the last strike of triple chop which is easily dodgeable. It looks like you want to support so I’ve butchered your build and am showing you what I would consider running:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhNakzJ5t6x5hJOggUohVhSBcshpHkBakGA-jExAJvioxWZLiGruGT5SEVDA-w

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

This or expand “mobile strikes” to not remove immobilze only, but chill and cripple too.

That would be a decent compromise. Not as good as this but I sure wouldn’t complain if we got it. That, or a trait were it removes it on dodge with a slight internal CD so it’s only every 2 dodges. Having it always remove would probably be a bit too strong.

Cond remove on dodging won’t remove always chill and cripple. Those 2 conditions affecting melee-ranged builds really heavy, because it denies you to actually stay in melee range. Even with gap-closer it’s not enough to compensate the slowing speed. Or give warriors more access to cripple and chill instead of eles.

No I’m saying it will ONLY remove cripple/chill on a dodge. That would assist in keeping in melee range. Maybe put it where Thrill of the Kill is because I’m fairly certain nobody uses that useless trait. The problem is that kind of makes Dogged March pointless so I doubt they would ever do that anyways.

How would you do this though? What would be the mechanic behind it? Also, Anet doesn’t want warrior’s to be the Bursting Class, they appear to want us to be sustained DPS that is tougher than a Thief but with less damage while dealing more damage than a Guardian but less tough. So far they haven’t done a great job at it but it’s an end goal I agree with. We only ran burst because we had no decent sustain at launch. It’s gotten better now but we still lack because we’re so easily kited and can’t remove conditions fast enough because EVERYONE is running them.

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

This or expand “mobile strikes” to not remove immobilze only, but chill and cripple too.

That would be a decent compromise. Not as good as this but I sure wouldn’t complain if we got it. That, or a trait were it removes it on dodge with a slight internal CD so it’s only every 2 dodges. Having it always remove would probably be a bit too strong.

Zietlogik.6208:

No….they don’t….really they don’t (not until they fix the issues with leaps + Z axis anyways)

Rush: Make it something else…like "For 5 seconds you move 50% faster, and your next strike deals an additional 25% damage and your speed boost ends.)….example

Whirlwind Attack: Don’t change this….this is a skill that needs to stay how it is, it is a gap closer/escape we can actually CONTROL the direction of.

Bull’s Charge: It is a good skill already, the only issues I have with it is that it homes in on a target, and runs straight into walls/rubble and stops you completely. Maybe make it similar to the Rush idea: For 5 seconds you move 50% faster and knock down foes moving away from you.

Shield Bash: For 5 seconds you block income attacks. If you block a melee attack, you charge to foe (same range as current) and stun them for 1 second.

Kick: make it similar to tremor from Mace offhand. Envoke a powerful kick that launches foes in a cone in front of you. (short range)

The GS skill Whirwind attack already has an evade btw….

And Earthshaker is fine, they just REALLY need to fix the Z axis issues.

Rush is much more reliable post patch, a few pathing errors now and then but if you know how it works it’s a decent skill EXCEPT for how much it is hurt by cripple/chilled.

Bulls Charge WAS a good skill until Necros gained the ability to just spam the ground with marks and simply walk backwards out of range. Even at close range they can slow you so much I stopped putting it on my bar.

Shield Bash, hell no that change would suck. Shield Bash is a skill for setting up attacks and interrupting blocks. making it a counter would defeat the whole purpose and people would simply hit you and dodge, making it miss.

I’d be OK with kick getting a cone and affecting everyone in front of you rather than just 1 guy, it would be an option to run with hammers to force people off the capture point.

If you think Earthshaker is fine you haven’t used it enough, and I use hammer fairly frequently. Even with leg specialist the skill is so slow there’s plenty of time to pop off a blind or even a cripple/chill and laugh in the users face because said blind/cripple/chill recharges as fast as Earthshaker does. Evade would still make it dodgeable and blockable, but with that + cripple/chilled not effecting it they other player would have to actually put some effort into countering it.

Any PvP in a MMO that has viable melee has gap closers that actually let you stay in melee range. You know why longbow is more popular now, because we can’t be endlessly kited with it. Condi classes stack so much +duration that even with Dogged and Mel/Hoelbrak runes you’ll still be gimping around like a moron.

And yes, I know Whirlwind has evade, I meant Rush at the end there but I did word it funny so I’ll fix it.

Scoobaniec.9561:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Scoobaniec.9561:

Its so funny that yesterday i been fighting a guy using gs+mace/shield in spvp. It is pretty easy to counter tho, but its seems that it worked as ppl had no idea what to do.

Easy to counter how exactly? It’s pretty much impossible to avoid every Skull Crack and even guardians/eles eventually run out of stun breaks/stability at which point they’re dead. Now 1v1 yes you could do the same old kite fest but then you can just switch to dogged and mobile strikes. Skull Crack on an Asura is also almost impossible to see cause the animation is so small.

Experience ; ) I been running mace/mace pre patch, and i still runs it. And i actually enjoys that. Ive noticed before that skull crack+chain does pretty nice damage to bunkers, and deadly to gc, as it stand now i can skull crack+chain+tremor>switch to rifle>volley+butt. When i manage to get full adrenaline again (matter of seconds) i usually use stomp to set up ks. Thats works ofc olny if ur enemy is out of stunbreaks.
Somehow i actually managed to get decent healing too (healing signet heheh).

Log combat from 2 necros..dumb ones but yeah..

I’m sorry, but the fact that you’re saying you’re using rifle AND Healing Signet in PvP makes me question how much you actually understand the class. In WvW I could see a use for rifle to Killshot zergs, but I’m talking about TPvP here. Even if it was WvW Healing Signet is just a inferior heal altogether. I also don’t think Mace/Mace synergies as well as Axe/Mace (although Axe is much harder to use now) because mainhand mace is a very reactive weapon while mace offhand is a very offensive weapon. Mace/Shield with Reflect Projectiles synergies well and Shield bash and Skull Crack also go well together.

The key to beating a Necro 1v1 with Mace/Shield + GS is to use Whirlwind to avoid their cripple/chill and get in close then start CCing the hell out of them, they have no real counter to it so it will quickly overwhelm them. Hammer is also pretty good but blind is a big problem because Earthshaker is so slow.

Here’s the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-j0xAklARIATgFRjtCWENWdNmylIq2eXEtaA-w

It allows you to constantly use Skull Crack on cool down, you can switch out Reflect Projectiles for Dogged March or Shield Master based on your preference.

Warriors actually do have some fairly decent gap closers, but Savage Leap stands above they all. Why is that? Simple, it’s the only one that isn’t horrendously slaughtered by movement impairing conditions. I had made a post in the past saying that many gap closers should be given Evade as another form of damage mitigation. I wanted to expand upon that idea and go one step further because after this last patch simply adding a few evades won’t cut it.

ALL gap closers need to be like Savage Leap so that warriors are not so easy to kite.

The skills in question are:
- Rush

- Whirlwind Attack

- Earthshaker

- Shield Bash (Which should have its range slightly increased to 400. Also PLEASE make it land instantly upon reaching a foe rather than just rubbing against them giving them ample time to dodge/blind)

- Bulls Charge

- Kick (Not really a “gap closer” but movement impairments make hitting with it more trouble than it’s worth)

I also still believe that Savage Leap, Rush, and Earthshaker need to still gain Evade, especially Earthshaker. It will still be dodgeable and blockable, but it’s the easily spammed AoE blinds that really keep me from running hammer over mace. Also, since Mobile Strikes doesn’t keep you from being immobilized mid skill it will help with that as well.

Being able to stick on target for a few seconds would go a long way in combating the current meta that comprises of little more than defensive condition spam. Rather than over-nerfing the Necro (Some things post-patch are simply too good to leave alone), give warrior the ability to build themselves as a counter to them. Perhaps then we would see more serious TPvP teams bring a warrior around.

P.S: I know I’ve been making a ton of threads recently, but it appears that ANet really does pay attention to this forum, so I feel inspired as a primary warrior in PvP to offer suggestions on how to improve the class.

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

redslion.9675:

Melandru reduces condi duration by 25%.

And actually the only stats that has to be taken into account is power. Between 1839 and 2000 you have a 10% flat damage increase.

Does that outweight the crit chance and the crit damage you lose? Dunno. Probably not.

However, the objective with soldier’s amulet is to being able to hold a point for some time by yourself and to deal enough burst to kill enemies.

But the most important thing you can achieve with a warrior is a convenient balance, so soldier’s amulet is not mandatory to reach this goal.

For instance, here is a good compromise, even if I didn’t test it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejgOFvBPuQMxBA0DsqarjClYSpwO6A-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsYhwGCA

Mighty defenses can be easily changed for Mobile Strikes or DotE. I just tought it could be fun with all the blocks we have.

High armor, good crit, only 10% less crit damage (only 5% less damage), and 1900 power. We can spend up to 35% of our time not taking ranged damage without dodging (2*4 seconds of 0 damage thanks to endure pain and defy pain over 60 seconds, 3 seconds of blocking over 33 -you have to count the fact the skill goes on cooldown after the block ended- and 1.5 over 11.5 seconds with the mace block). Without counting the mace block, we are at 22%.

Yah that was a mistype on my part about the amount of reduction, it was like 5am after a midnight shift so such things happen :P.

The problem with that version I don’t think Skull Crack would be up nearly as often because you lose Burst Mastery. The build revolves around constantly using it and not to mention makes it’s cooldown roughly the same as 100b. Also, with Forceful GS and Unsuspecting Foe makes every hit of 100b critical, which gains you Might, so the increase of damage during the attack would be greater than 5%.

The adrenaline loss issue is actually something I’m unsure about. That’s why I said it should be tested, because I never had a problem with landing skull crack every time it was off cd. The question is: will GS let me stick enough to my opponent to gain 3 bars of adrenaline in 8-10 seconds?

Hopefully the enemy will help me with Cleansing Ire, though…

And I gain more out of burst damage potential.

I got a time to mess around with both, I was using Skull Crack A LOT LESS without Burst Master, which for me is a big negative.

redslion.9675:

Melandru reduces condi duration by 25%.

And actually the only stats that has to be taken into account is power. Between 1839 and 2000 you have a 10% flat damage increase.

Does that outweight the crit chance and the crit damage you lose? Dunno. Probably not.

However, the objective with soldier’s amulet is to being able to hold a point for some time by yourself and to deal enough burst to kill enemies.

But the most important thing you can achieve with a warrior is a convenient balance, so soldier’s amulet is not mandatory to reach this goal.

For instance, here is a good compromise, even if I didn’t test it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejgOFvBPuQMxBA0DsqarjClYSpwO6A-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsYhwGCA

Mighty defenses can be easily changed for Mobile Strikes or DotE. I just tought it could be fun with all the blocks we have.

High armor, good crit, only 10% less crit damage (only 5% less damage), and 1900 power. We can spend up to 35% of our time not taking ranged damage without dodging (2*4 seconds of 0 damage thanks to endure pain and defy pain over 60 seconds, 3 seconds of blocking over 33 -you have to count the fact the skill goes on cooldown after the block ended- and 1.5 over 11.5 seconds with the mace block). Without counting the mace block, we are at 22%.

Yah that was a mistype on my part about the amount of reduction, it was like 5am after a midnight shift so such things happen :P.

The problem with that version I don’t think Skull Crack would be up nearly as often because you lose Burst Mastery. The build revolves around constantly using it and not to mention makes it’s cooldown roughly the same as 100b. Also, with Forceful GS and Unsuspecting Foe makes every hit of 100b critical, which gains you Might, so the increase of damage during the attack would be greater than 5%.

Jonwar.9205:

I still find myself running gs/longbow, maybe it’s just an old dog thing.

mace/mace+hammer, haven’t tried it but seems like it’d work better than mace/shield as mace 5 acts as a gap closer of sorts. Might give it a try later though the lack of damage mitigation/escapes seems like a rough direction to go.

I personally dislike Mace 4 and while Mace 5 is good the synergy Shield block and Counterblow have with Reflect projectiles and in addition to Shield Bash having a stun that’s good for baiting breakers before you go for Skull Crack is too good to pass up.

Sometimes when I look at certain trait I go “man would I love to have that,” here’s some of my top choices. Please note that these changes focus on PvP, not WvW or PvE.

Evasive Purity: This Ranger trait removes poison and blind when you dodge. I have this first because it is the trait I most want as a warrior. The most important part of this one is the blind removal, because post patch I can’t find a good reason to put points into strength so that I can cleanse blind with a dodge roll. Even with that minor trait it often doesn’t remove blinds often enough. Now I don’t want a carbon copy of this skill so it would need to be made more for warrior, perhaps remove blind and gain adrenaline when dodging would fit the class.

Purity: This Guardian skill removes simply removes a condition every 10 seconds. Cleansing Ire is probably intended to be the warrior version of this skill but because of the current meta it still isn’t enough to stop conditions from overwhelming us. Perhaps rather than just removing a condition it could reduce certain conditions duration like bleed and poison by 33% similar to dogged march. Of course the problem is with Mel runes and Lemon Grass I’m sure some people would consider this OP in WvW. In anticipation of that perhaps it should be placed in the Masters slot of Tactics or be made the minor grandmaster trait so that to get the effects from both you would need heavy investment in both defense and tactics. With a Hammer and Mace/Shield it might actually make Warrior bunker a possibility, sitting on point with a banner providing regen. Its killing power would be low as a result making it similar to a mid point Guardian Bunker.

Static Discharge: Calm down, I know Warriors don’t have tool kits. The idea behind this trait is giving a bonus for using your class mechanic. I’d would like to see some sort of offensive bonus effect when I use my Burst skills in order to discourage sitting on the adrenaline. What kind of bonus I’m not sure yet, I’ll keep thinking about it.

As a side note, having mending be similar to Consume conditions where you get extra healing for each condition removed would be amazing.

I’ll update this later, just got off a midnight and I have to get some sleep.

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Skull Crack has become a good counter for Necros and Engis because they lack the amount of stun breaks/Stability that other classes have while still being useful against other classes. Only 1 I have major issues with 1v1 are Mesmers because of Moa basically being a “I win” button. Even without Moa Mace/Shield + GS I no longer have the power to kill a clone or phant in 2 hits so eventually you get overwhelmed. They ARE beatable but only if they misuse a skill or otherwise slip up. A smart mesmer that avoids you as much as possible you probably won’t beat.

I learned one thing: there are some places in the map that are mesmer killers by themselves. Narrow spaces where their teleports won’t let them create enough gap to kite you forever. There, you stand a chance.

That is certainly true, because good mesmsers space out their clones and Phants so far apart that you can’t take them out quickly enough. Falling back into a strategically advantageous location can help with mesmers but unfortunately on capture points they tend to be very open and if you’re defending they’ll punish you for staying on point too much because you have no ranged weapons.

Some points are actually better than others, for this. Henge, Keep, Waterfall, Clock Tower should be the best by this point of view. But I agree, mostly you should try to press on their confidence (and mesmers have a TON of it.XD) and lure them in places where YOU have the upper hand.

But it’s still about punishing mesmers for their mistakes, while seems like we are punished by them for just trying to fight back in all the other occasions.

Shatter would be a hell of a lot less annoying if the phantasms didn’t instantly attack when they are created, the berserker can take a 4th of your health instantly and you don’t have much time to react to it especially with all the other particle effects on the screen.

I agree that we have to focus on punishing mistakes rather than actually countering their build. I know shatter is one of their only viable builds but that 1 build is very easy to play and is insanely strong. I know they need ways to avoid taking damage but the low CD on Blurred has saved so many mesmers when they bork up using their other skills.

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Skull Crack has become a good counter for Necros and Engis because they lack the amount of stun breaks/Stability that other classes have while still being useful against other classes. Only 1 I have major issues with 1v1 are Mesmers because of Moa basically being a “I win” button. Even without Moa Mace/Shield + GS I no longer have the power to kill a clone or phant in 2 hits so eventually you get overwhelmed. They ARE beatable but only if they misuse a skill or otherwise slip up. A smart mesmer that avoids you as much as possible you probably won’t beat.

I learned one thing: there are some places in the map that are mesmer killers by themselves. Narrow spaces where their teleports won’t let them create enough gap to kite you forever. There, you stand a chance.

That is certainly true, because good mesmsers space out their clones and Phants so far apart that you can’t take them out quickly enough. Falling back into a strategically advantageous location can help with mesmers but unfortunately on capture points they tend to be very open and if you’re defending they’ll punish you for staying on point too much because you have no ranged weapons.

redslion.9675:

BurrTheKing.8571:

So, I ran this in Tourneys today but used Mel runes. I managed to fairly easily kill the Ele home bunker which made our team take a huge lead and win the match. The reduced damage made the fight take longer but because you are spamming Skull Crack so often it still have good killing power.

That same game I rushed their home point at the start and held off 3 of the enemy team for around a minute, I died but that delay in them being able to cap their home point also gave us an early lead.

Timing the stuns correctly will reward you with making bunkers pop all their anti-cc skills and you’ll be cause to take them down because once you land a full combo Guardians and Ele’s low HP means they’re doomed. Still not a fan of Soldier’s Ammy, makes me feel like a watered down Guardian and killing things while having it is a chore. The point is to have just enough sustain to not be overwhelmed while having enough DPS to punish them.

With Melandru runes you can afford Berserker’s Amulet. But you lack power, right?. With soldier you have to use mace to create pressure with Pommel Bash et similia.

But I played only once with this build, didn’t have the time to try all the tweaks.

Power still wasn’t too bad, you can still go Skull Cracker → 100b → Whirlwind → Skull Cracker. The duration and frequency of the stuns kinda make up for the reduced power and make it harder for confusion shatter mesmers to overwhelm you before you exhaust all their damage mitigation skills. Blurred Frenzy is still a pain because of its low cooldown. With my current version I have 2849 attack, 41% crit chance, 2808 armor when Dolyak signet isn’t activted, and 50% crit damage. With Fury and Unsuspecting Foe your 100b will all crit as well. I tried Sword/Sword and it was OK but man do you start to miss Whirlwind attack, not to mention making Impale+Rip and Final Thrust land as consistently as 100b does is tricky.

I’m working a ton of hours but you could try testing this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAA1CnICSFkLITQygsBNQYZx0CA

You’ll have higher base stats but at the cost of crit chance and crit damage. Although with Fury and Unsuspecting during 100b it’ll still be 87% crit chance. Honestly it might even out either way. Soldiers and Mel would appear to be counter-intuitive because you would start to see diminishing returns on toughness. Basically the Zerker with Mel has higher crit chance/damage with lower power and toughness and reduces condi duration by 35% while soldiers with Hoelbrak gives better power + Toughness + HP but with much less crit chance/dmg and reduces condi duration by 20%. Both are pretty balanced builds that aren’t exactly glass but aren’t bunkers by any means.

My biggest issue in SPvP is the lack of incentive to actually WIN the game. I for one am willing to get less points by back capping the zerg and hardly seeing combat if my team wins the match, yet people treat you like a moron for doing so.

In GW1 you always went for the win because the rewards were terrible otherwise. Now you can just go around as a Mesmer shatter spamming or ganking in a zerg as a Thief and get more glory that way. Not to mention 8v8 servers just shouldn’t exist or maps need to be adjusted to account for the larger player count.

I like conquest in TPvP, it’s more interesting than the old TDM, but in SPvP capturing points comes second to getting kills. adjusting the points given for kills would go a long way in encouraging good play. Maybe give bonus chests for having the highest capture score rather than a little glory boost.

I’d actually say with the buff to Skull Crack and Necros being OP atm warriors may actually have a place in TPvP. Necros have few ways to counter being stunned for so long so often, I’ve fought Necros 1v1 and have locked them down so bad they never even got a chance to use any skills.

Skull Crack has become a good counter for Necros and Engis because they lack the amount of stun breaks/Stability that other classes have while still being useful against other classes. Only 1 I have major issues with 1v1 are Mesmers because of Moa basically being a “I win” button. Even without Moa Mace/Shield + GS I no longer have the power to kill a clone or phant in 2 hits so eventually you get overwhelmed. They ARE beatable but only if they misuse a skill or otherwise slip up. A smart mesmer that avoids you as much as possible you probably won’t beat.

I’d like to see if simply reducing the duration and increasing the cooldown of many condition skills would be a simple way to start trying to make the meta less condi based while still keeping them viable.

As a warrior I DO have ways to mitigate conditions, the problem is the conditions are reapplied so fast I eventually find myself overwhelmed by them. Cleanses would be a lot more useful if I knew using it means I have a bit of time to counterattack, but currently it just means I’ll be overwhelmed slightly slower.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

In PvP power creep implies over buffs. People say class X is weak, so class X is buffed. Then later Class Y. Then Class Z. All to bring them up to par with Class W. Now you have 4 stronger classes then before. When simply Class W could have been toned down to the levels of the other weaker classes. If everything was brought down to warrior level in terms of specialization, game would be much slower paced.

I’ve missed the slower pace of GW1, it managed to be tense but had a good interrupt system that is much less important in GW2. Hammer was good in GW1 because you could “Quarter-Knock” with practice and ranger’s were practically designed to be a counter to casters. GW1 was very Rock-Paper-Scissors but GW2 feels much less like that because so many builds are good against most other builds and are only consistently beaten by equally broken builds.

In GW1 you could have a warrior to counter Monks, a mesmer to counter the warrior, a ranger to counter a mesmer and so on. I think they could have kept that design philosophy and still have removed the dedicated healer.

I do think power creep occurred, especially when you look at beta PvP game play where fights were a bit more drawn out, but as a result there was a lot less “spammy” gameplay. I think it be wise of ANet to look back at the earlier stages of GW2 and find a way to even out the pacing more. By doing that they would also make it easier to make the game an esport because it’s much easier to commentate on what’s going on when things aren’t over in an instant.

Warriors have to know the meta builds of other classes because they are forced to play in a reactive nature. However mesmers and thieves don’t have to worry about this as much because their combos will remain the same regardless of what the enemy does. Now they can still benefit from knowing their enemies build but it isn’t as important to them.

JETWING.2759:

I use frequently use Axe #5 for raw dmg, but adrenaline raises fast Helps in Adrenal Health.

In Skull Cracker build basicaly stun with f1 and chain Axe#5, the dps are realy high.
Are a combo with 16s CD, much better than Bull’s Charge or Sheld Stun + 100b. And without need cast utility slot or swap weapon, even if foe BS, you can repeat the combo in few seconds, and the foe’s skill will be recharging

Axe 5 DPS is lower than mainhand Axe 1 and like I said with my traits adren gain is fast enough as it is. The Skull Crack + 100b is a cheap gimmick but it works way better than Axe 5.

Kaga.7629:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Kaga.7629:

With some of the people populating this board, I feel no need to share builds . I’ll also mention that most of those begging for builds right now are the very same scrubs that said any gameplay other than fullzerk wasn’t worth the bother. Which goes to show…

I’ll leave the one tip that’s the most important in this thread tho : 1200 longbow is CRITICAL because it turns your basic shots into 100% finishers.

…..Stronger Bowstrings still reduces Dual Shot damage by 10%…

And you still dont get it. Shoot 2×100% finishers thru combushot and every #1 puts 2 fireprocs on the guy. Fan a guy at closerange in combushot and you effectively can put up to 12 seconds of burn on him (3 shots doing 2sec burn + 3 combos for 2s burn).

But no. OBVIOUSLY I’m the nub because the pewpews themselves do 40 less damage ?

Get real. 1200 bow is key.

Those 20 points in Tactics are too big a investment. Bow’s strength is being able to “spam” combustive shot, so the optimal load-out would be like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejcOtwBPGPMxBEkiroKOKUipQ9wO2w4A-TsAg0CvIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsYRxGBA

I suppose you could run something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejcOtwBPGPMxBEkiroKUPsjNMOSKODzA-TsAg0CvIMSZkzIjRSjsGNsYRxGBA

…but I still can’t say the range is all that important. Arcing shot is easier to hit at close range and Fan of Fire is best in melee range as well. We’re warriors, not rangers and while the range is nice I can’t say it’s worth the investment.