Guild Wars 2

JETWING.2759:

I thing Mace are good in this way(close in 90% crt chance after stun):

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJAp3igOuOMRCE0DNEMqCThh4UQJUKsD3A-ToAA1CnIqRVjrGTNyas1MKYSA

In free weapon set can play longbow fo AoE + condition. Then you will have condition + cc + dps + aoe + cleanser only in weapon set.

Offhand Axe is still a sub-par choice, the DPS is still garbage, and Fury is up most of the time anyways. The hits from Axe 5 can gain adren fast but that isn’t a problem either with Burst Mastery and Cleansing Ire.

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.

JETWING.2759:

One more CC + 100b build.
Useless :/

Just one more free kill in PvP.

Have you played it?

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%…

Shar.3402:

I really don’t get warriors.

You got a 20 point trait that allows you to remove 3 conditions every 8 seconds (if you use Defektive’s LB/SS build, that is), no class can remove conditions with the same speed while still doing damage. On top of that you can get PLENTY of condition removal either via traits or with Mending or with Lyssa runes (since you got a low cd elite to spam).
You can also get insane CC builds by running hammer and mace/shield (or mace/mace for the lolz)
Poor warriors have to spend points in defensive trees to be viable? welcome to the real world, where some classes already run with almost no points in offensive trees, just to not die horribly.

Make a warrior and try it out, you’ll find that conditions are still a huge problem because they are constantly reapplied.

If I was said warrior I’d run something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAT8ejcOtwBPGPMxBEkiroKOKSipQ9wO2w4A-jEyAYLBZySgIEwJwioxWBLiGruGT5SEVbvLiWNA-w

Your bow is what you’ll be using most of the time so I feel I can afford To be more damage oriented. It’s a decent build to be sure, but I’ve never been a fan of people refusing to share builds, especially since it isn’t like it’s that hard to figure out if you’ve ever done Warrior theorycrafting.

Bikkan.4605:

I tried this out yesterday in tournaments and it was the most satisfying build so far for me, after the patch. I’d like if you could test out the dual sword instead of GS and tell the results. Thx

Thx for the feedback! Yah I want to try out dual swords but I’m on my 3rd Midnight in a row and have another tonight so I haven’t had much time for game playing. I do feel like Skull Crack followed by Impale+Rip and Final Thrust could be a solid combination and Riposte is yet another block to make ranged attackers cry.

The problem I have with longbow is that putting 20 points into Tactics narrows your choices, especially since you’ll want 30 in Discipline for Burst Mastery. So basically you’re either forced to run 0/20/0/20/30 or 0/30/0/20/20 if you want to lean towards conditions. This is why a lot of people would rather just put 20 into defense instead of tactics to get Cleansing Ire. I also haven’t checked to see if they fixed the Stronger Bowstrings bug that reduced Dual Shot’s damage by 10%.

Your ideas are in the right place, but you Utilities, Runes, and Sigils are off.

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

This will give you stability and sigils that don’t overlap, not to mention having a Mace and not using a Sigil of Paralization is a crime!

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

its rock paper scizzors condition damage based characters won’t do good on those who have alot of cleanses while those who focus too much on cleansing conditions won’t do as good against those with lots of crit burst damage.
As for removing conditions:
melandru, trait that shortens condition duration + sigil that lets you remove conditions on crit.
Quite honestly you won’t need much more condi removal.

As for a longbow warrior being more scary than a melee one.
in comparison:
light armor, lowest health, average damage, mediocre mobility elementalists having to go D/D since Staff gets them killed.

This game isn’t like other games, you got a longbow and it works? then use it.

Most condition based builds have so much +duration that Mel runes still don’t reduce the duration enough to not be overwhelmed by Necros or Engis. Also, I’m pretty sure no one uses Sigil of Purity because it has a 10 second cooldown. Even if you ran everything you listed it wouldn’t be enough, and not to mention your DPS would be so poor you would still lose because their sustain would still be better.

Also, didn’t staff get buffed? I seem to recall encountering more of them in PvP recently.

cymerdown.4103:

BurrTheKing.8571:

The buff to blind has made running hammer a nightmare against anything but Necro. Not to mention this last patch buffed several already good specs and pushed them over the edge, in fact last patch had very few nerfs overall. It’s also a major kick in the teeth that they were fine with just making Necros OP in one patch yet seem so scared to buff warriors because it might make them more OP in PvE! That’s just ridiculous because who really cares about PvE balance? Just make PvP only changes and you can balance them in both areas. Some classes like mesmsers may be forced into certain builds for PvP but at least they HAVE a viable spec, even longbow warrior and their AoE isn’t really that great and while I like my Mace Shield lockdown build it’s still difficult to make a convincing argument to have that over say a second Necro.

The last patch did buff Necros quite a bit, I’ll admit that, and certainly more than was necessary. But they were in need of some help, it’s just that they got a bit too much. I’m just saying that the overall trend hasn’t been to always buff thus inducing power creep, it’s more often to nerf things that are broken and support the things that are weak. They tried to do the same for Warriors, but they didn’t do it in the right way. They are trying, though. Class balance is not an easy thing, and they’re struggling with it, as you can see. Hopefully they’ll begin to get it right.

The reason they haven’t gotten closer is because they haven’t made a PvE/PvP/WvW split. They want to balance it between all 3 areas but it will never work with warriors.

cymerdown.4103:

BurrTheKing.8571:

It doesn’t matter either way, everyone who looks at the game objectively know that warriors are only “bad” because there’s so many OP builds in the current meta due to power creep. Normally I’m not for massive nerfs and would rather have weaker things buffed up instead but that has obviously not worked out. Also, that last paragraph sounded just a bit…odd.

That last comment sounded a bit… vague. What was odd about it? Seems like normal English to me.

I wouldn’t say there’s that much “power creep” in the game, as you’re saying. Most classes have actually had traits and skills nerfed since the launch of the game, not buffed. I could name a TON of changes where that’s true, actually (mesmer shatter trait gives 1 stack might instead of 3, repeated nerfs of signet of undeath, guardian sanctuary trait nerf, engi elixir r nerf, quickness nerf (this is the point where Warrior became bottom tier, but it also affected Ranger and Mesmer pretty hard), thief c&d dancing dagger and mug nerfs… I could go on, but actually the trend has typically been nerfing the powerful things in other classes, not buffing them as the term “power creep” suggests. If your suggestion is for them to bring down the power of other classes to the level of Warriors rather than bring the Warrior up, well, they’re kinda already doing that (while trying to bring the Warrior up at the same time).

The buff to blind has made running hammer a nightmare against anything but Necro. Not to mention this last patch buffed several already good specs and pushed them over the edge, in fact last patch had very few nerfs overall. It’s also a major kick in the teeth that they were fine with just making Necros OP in one patch yet seem so scared to buff warriors because it might make them more OP in PvE! That’s just ridiculous because who really cares about PvE balance? Just make PvP only changes and you can balance them in both areas. Some classes like mesmsers may be forced into certain builds for PvP but at least they HAVE a viable spec, even longbow warrior and their AoE isn’t really that great and while I like my Mace Shield lockdown build it’s still difficult to make a convincing argument to have that over say a second Necro.

cymerdown.4103:

BurrTheKing.8571:

OP, spoken like someone who hasn’t actually played warrior for any significant period of time. Post the builds that make us as good as other classes in TPvP and I’ll believe you, otherwise I’ll just view you as someone who just looks at the warrior from a distance and decided everyone has just been doing it wrong for a year.

LOL awkward… that’s Black Bry Banger, one of the top NA warriors and one of the first I saw using LB/GS to good effect in tournies. I just think he’s trying to say Warriors don’t need the massive amounts of help that the number of threads on this forum would suggest, and there are certain things they do very well such as body cleave, both points that I would agree with.

It doesn’t matter either way, everyone who looks at the game objectively know that warriors are only “bad” because there’s so many OP builds in the current meta due to power creep. Normally I’m not for massive nerfs and would rather have weaker things buffed up instead but that has obviously not worked out. He also doesn’t talk like a warrior expect considering Cleansing Ire may be a decent perk but it’s far from being the ultimate counter to conditions. Even with that and Signet of Stamina, Runes of Mel, AND Dogged March you can still be easily overwhelmed by an Engi or Necro and even some ranger specs. This would also come at the cost of a lot of DPS – turning you into a wanna-be Guard. Also, that last paragraph sounded just a bit…odd.

And as for balance across all three areas of the game, the answer is so simple, SPIT THE CHANGES. Have PvE versions of skills/perks, WvW versions, and PvP versions. It worked in GW1 so I have no idea why they aren’t doing it in GW2.

OP, spoken like someone who hasn’t actually played warrior for any significant period of time. Post the builds that make us as good as other classes in TPvP and I’ll believe you, otherwise I’ll just view you as someone who just looks at the warrior from a distance and decided everyone has just been doing it wrong for a year.

For me personally, I’ve run the class since launch and also played warrior in GW1. I think magic, ranged, and stealth based classes are lame and I won’t change just so I can be considered “viable,” which currently means having an overpowered spec that doesn’t have many major weaknesses and can only be beat by a similarly broken spec. We have some “OK” builds, meaning balanced, so it’s still possible to do well. I still believe that warrior is the most balanced class amidst a sea of power creep.

Xsorus.2507:

Bsgapollo.5364:

1. You can remove 3 Conditions with Burst Skills by putting 20 points into the Defense line you have, I have to put 30 Puts in Wilderness to transfer 3 Conditions to my pet. You also have numerous other talents to remove Conditions not related to damage like Chill/Cripple/Immo so that your condition removal doesn’t remove those. You have Berserker Stance and Shake it Off, with Berserker Stance probably being the closest thing to the Ranger’s SoR ability. The only actual leg up i’ll say that Ranger’s have on Condition Removal vs Warriors is Healing Spring, which a vast majority of Ranger do not run.

2. Again, You have no Substain because you don’t gear for Substain, Adrenal heal will almost do 10k heal with full Clerics/Apothecary Gear…That’s the Equiv of my Troll Ungent…Generally you can use a Burst Skill to remove 3 conditions then Adrenal Heal thus giving you full bar again…. Which again can be used to remove conditions of have your substain heal going (which heals for around 500 or so every 3 seconds, Which is about the Equiv of what a Ranger can heal for every 3 seconds as well) However I will admit you will lose out unless you run Warhorn on converting conditions, Because that’s your only real way of getting Protection besides Rune of Forge (which I would consider on a Warrior for Sure)

3. You’re not forced into it, The people of your class just have a mentality for it…Probably from playing WoW.

4. You have vastly superior Utilities in this game compared to a lot of classes, certainly better then the Ranger.

5. You can’t hold your ground because you don’t gear or spec for it..

Again…..Ranger’s are not running around with Full Berserker Gear or Carrion Gear killing people….Ranger’s are running around in full Clerics/or Apothecary Gear…. Mostly because we’re forced into that role based on the lack of utility and burst damage…But we have to last in the fight, so we do that by gearing specifically for that purpose…

Your post shows a classic case of another class looking at warrior on paper and going “looks good to me.”

1. While Cleansing Ire is a decent new trait it is still inferior to rangers because of blinds. They are easily spammed and as a result only LB and Sword bursts are consistently good at removing said conditions. Berserker Stance is a good concept but it only lasts a pitiful 4 second and most importantly it does not remove the conditions currently on you. Most rangers don’t run healing spring? Now that’s a laugh and a half and is basically a downright lie.

2. Gearing for sustain huh? Guess what, no sane warrior would use “full Clerics/Apothecary Gear.” You know why? Because it reduces our DPS to pitiful levels while increasing our survivability very little. Toughness and healing power do not sustain make in GW2. Sustain comes from blocks, protection, teleports, and evades. Warrior lack most of these things in any major capacity. With “full Clerics/Apothecary Gear” It would = your Troll Ungent WITHOUT YOU RUNNING “full Clerics/Apothecary Gear.”

3. Yes. We are forced into Zerker Ammy because as I said before warriors can not relay on stacking burning, poison, bleeds constantly while our pet also supply additional DPS. Longbow and sword can only apply 2 conditions, and they can’t apply them nearly as often as other condition based builds, which means we can’t run a build in line with the current meta.

4. Superior Utilities? Rangers don’t rely on their utilities to survive because they have such good weapon skills. Warrior utilities in no way make up for our inherit deficiencies.

5. See 2.

In conclusion, if you haven’t played warrior for a significant period of time, don’t comment on how everyone who has been playing a warrior for the past year is bad at the game and doing it wrong. If you have some magical build that those of us n the Warrior forum have somehow managed to overlook, please, share it with us. And that applies to EVERYONE saying that we’re doing it wrong, give us this build that will suddenly make us 100% TPvP viable.

TheGuy.3568:

BurrTheKing.8571:

I don’t really think Skull Crack is a 1 button “I win” considering how many teleports, blinds, stun breaks, and stability skills there are in the game. The only class this build can just destroy is Necro because they don’t have a lot of ways to break out once they are locked down. This is actually kinda cool because if people are going to keep running two necros on teams than having a class that can lock them down might make us appealing.

Not to be too rude but you said yourself, “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.”

I could say the same about a thief missing their first back stab but know fully if it lands anybody is sol (easy counter however). In this case because its a stun you fully sol. 10 second CD on a stun that long with that quick of an animation. I would call that an “I win” button in most cases.

That doesn’t mean they can’t easily kill me first before any of my Cracks ever manage to land. I have decent sustainability for a warrior but if I lose a fight it’s typically because of a lack of sustain or just not being able to remove conditions frequently enough. If ANet re-nerfed Skull Crack and didn’t give something awesome in return I would probably just quit PvP because the more they try to encourage build variety the more we find ourselves forced to run at least 20 in defense and 15 into discipline. New mace might finally be our chance to have SOMETHING good to add to a team. Combustive Shot on LB is good but locking down a currently OP Necro is much more useful.

I don’t really think Skull Crack is a 1 button “I win” considering how many teleports, blinds, stun breaks, and stability skills there are in the game. The only class this build can just destroy is Necro because they don’t have a lot of ways to break out once they are locked down. This is actually kinda cool because if people are going to keep running two necros on teams than having a class that can lock them down might make us appealing.

redslion.9675:

And use Soldier’s or Valkyrie Amulet. You need time to find the perfect occasion, and with armor you are sure to live to that moment.

I’ve NEVER found Soldiers to increase survivability more than a few insignificant seconds, not to mention it means your killing power is cut in half. This build’s survival comes from the use of Blocks, Whirlwind, Endure Pain, and the extra dodges from Signet of Stamina. With Soldiers I’ll just see diminishing returns and end up being a wanna-be Guardian.

naphack.9346:

I ran something similar to this like 2 patches ago in wvw…
I don’t really like your setup, tbh.

While I admit, my build was more of a #YOLO type of build, utilizing the likes of bull rush and later even experimenting with kick, there is one thing, you need to keep in mind:
You WILL get kited.
An opponent can easily pin you down with ranged attacks and while you may power through with dogged march and hoelbrak runes, you more often than not will simply bleed out without ever being able to as much as touch that guy.

The Greatsword can only bring you that far against ranged opponents, so what I’d suggest is: Try to scratch up some points in defense from somwhere. Get that missile reflection. You got two blocks on your main weapon set. These absolutely LOVE reflection. Make your opponent uncomfortable at range while constantly pressing into melee. That’s what relection is there for.

Kiting can actually be avoided more so with Reflect Projectiles and it was a mistake that Dogged was there as the default. Starting off with counter blow is several seconds of the enemy hitting themselves, then rolling or canceling their attacks. By then you can Bladetrail then Rush in or Whirlwhind in and after that it isn’t too terrible so long as you switch back to mace and use counterblow/ shield stance. If I get spiked by traps/wells (though if I’m smart I’ll Whirlwind through them) you still have Signet of Stamina to cleanse. I could even see Sword/Sword being a substitute for GS because Savage Leap isn’t affected by movement impairments and Riposte would be yet another way to reflect projectiles. Although doing this wouldn’t have the whole synergy between Skull Crack and 100b though a Impale/Rip with Final Thrust combo might do roughly as much…I’ll have to mess around with that.

TheGuy.3568:

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.

A strong blind build should be able to do it. A bomb build Engineer or any condition overload build should be able to do it. If there is no cover/obstructions any decent ranged build should be able to do it.

The main issue with this build is the fact you know the warrior needs to close the gap and is going to double stun. If you blow your stun breaker on the second stun there isn’t much the warrior can do to counter. That being said if you get caught it is likely over. I don’t think Ill run this much. Stun lock to me is just….. Either way more power to warrior who run this. A win is a win on this class more than any other. It would be nice to see one warrior QQ thread like the old days.

Well that being said when I see a bomb Engi I’d probably play defensive till I knew he had used the best bombs because the CD on those things are pretty long. I haven’t fought many engis that use bomb kit for more than Big Ol’ Bomb and Glue for running away though. I will say yes the fact that you have to get in close is a problem but that being said a warrior running a longbow build would probably also lose to a Engi and I can’t think of a build that would really counter it well and still be viable vs other specs.

SharadSun.3089:

Burr, a friend of mine uses the build, but with Valkyrie Amulet + Shout heals instead. It’s a total bomb in PvP and an excellent homepoint-defender variant.

I can’t bring myself to use shouts still, Fear me when traited is nice now but I feel I need to go all shouts if I’m putting 20 points in tactics which means no Balanced Stance/Dolyak which means 20 in Defense for Last Stand which leaves me feeling like a baby Guardian. If he can get it to work that’s great but my vision of warrior is the in-between of Thief and Guardian and whenever I make myself tough I still fell inferior to guardian. Mace and GS gives us both mobility and CC with a good “burst” (not using Frenzy so idk if stunning them for 3.5 seconds and using 100b+Whirlwind counts as a burst). I felt this build does something not many other classes can do, provide CC like a guardian but with enough mobility to roam.

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.

Rez.2578:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/2-Videos-Matale-8-WvWvW-1vX-and-Duels/first#post2328937

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/In-search-of-the-first-skillful-warrior-I-met/first#post2338904

Here’s some other posts if your interested in Mace/Shield & Greatsword with Unsuspecting Foe trait.

Yah I’ve seen those, but considering those were WvW I figured I’d post the S/TPvP variant.

I came to this thread after making this PvP based thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/PvP-Build-Skull-Cracker/first#post2351885

It sounds like we’re running a similar build, although I’m guessing he’s tougher than mine is considering that’s more important in WvW. I used GS with Mace/ Shield for a while and I’m happy it got buffed amidst all the nerfs we indirectly received last patch. I posted my build as kind of an update because it is a totally different beast post patch. Still wouldn’t call it as amazing in TPvP when you see what builds Rangers and Engis can run but warriors are slowly creeping towards viability. That being said I don’t like WvW dueling because Food can heavily make up for warrior’s shortcomings.

Do you like bashing your foe over the head over and over again? Yes? Good.

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

May I present the most annoying build a warrior can run. The basic premise is very simple, lock a single target down – and destroy them. This build forces out stun breakers and stability skills better than any other build I know of. Run with a boon stealing thief and watch the enemy cry. Try to bait out stuns with Shield Bash first, if they don’t break chain it with Skull Crack for an absurdly long stun that in a coordinated spike spells instant death. This is one of the few builds where it’s OK to frequently use Hundred Blades, with Unsuspecting Foe almost all your strikes will be critical hits. This means that you’ll also gain might as you hit them with Hundred Blades further increasing the damage done AND the might will last longer due to the Runes of Hoelbrak. Burst Mastery and Cleansing Ire go together wonderfully and Hundred Blades will almost instantly refill your adrenaline. You can take your pick of the 10 point Defense trait because Dogged March, Shield Master, and Reflect Projectiles are all strong picks.

Why Mace you ask? Why not Hammer? Well for one thing having a shield offers you much more utility than hammer – another thing is that Skull crack is much harder to see coming, making it much less susceptible to blinds. Pommel Bash is also fantastic to stop heals or to be used right after a stun to keep them from using any pseudo- stun breakers. Hammer also necessitates the investment of 30 into Defense if you want to keep Cleansing Ire but you can afford to skip out on the mace trait considering you are mostly using it for its burst.

Now obviously this builds greatest weakness is excessive stability, but if you learn your opponents build you’ll be able to land it when you need it between cooldowns because you’ll almost always have access to Skull Crack on cooldown. Blinds can still be a problem but are much less so here than with hammer. Aim to land Skull Crack right after a dodge for best success.

Have fun being the biggest pain in the butt on the battlefield!

P.S: Here’s a potential variant if you’re more of a stances guy. Berserker Stance is still iffy for many people but when activated with Endure Pain and Balanced Stance that’s 4 seconds of being almost indestructible. I could also see Runes of Mel being viable in order to further mitigate conditions, but note this will come with much less damage as a result.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwpQyQMxBEkCNsKOKUCmQ9AP2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

EDIT: After further messing with the build I’ve decided that you get more sustain with Runes of Melandru, You could also also decided to focus more on single target damage and use Sigil of Air.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeRjcOtwBPGPMxBEkCsoKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAg0CvIMSZkzIjRSjsGNoYRxEBA

EDIT 2: Another Variant using soldiers runes and Hoelbrak:

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

peter.9024:

On the defense side maybe adrenal health could move to 5pt and last stand to 15. That would leave more room for taking the weapon traits.

That be pretty interesting, staying in the fight is important for us and having this would just make us have stability around as often as a guardian, which seems fair.

So, I’ve been thinking about the build and I’d like someone to run the math for me. If you were to take 10 points out of arms you would lose the 10% damage increase vs bleeding foes, but if you put said points into Discipline and got Burst mastery and ran this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAseTjgOtwBPGPMxBEkiroKOKUipQ9wO2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYZxEBA

…would you end up dealing more DPS due to increased critical damage, 10% more damage on Combustive Shot, and using said shot more frequently? It’s just something I’ve been wondering.

EDIT: With this you could also drop Deep Cuts for Unsuspecting Foe so that the Shield Bash+ Final Thrust combo has a 100% chance to crit, which is really nice for ensuring that it actually finishes them off (adjusted build).

EDIT 2: So I tested the variant and indeed did see greater damage on Combustive Shot and actually was able to use it more frequently.

While we are seeing some positive changes trait wise for warriors, they have now all been jammed into the same few tiers.

Defense 10 points: Dogged March, Shield Master, Reflect Projectiles. Having to choose between Dogged and shield is a painful decision, especially since having a shield is very common for warriors. I have Reflect Projectiles here as well because with a mace/shield you can make ranged fighters cry as they have their best attacks thrown back in their face. I think combining Shield Master and Reflect Projectiles would make a lot of sense.

Defense 20 points: Last Stand, Cleansing Ire, Merciless Hammer, Sundering Mace: It was annoying enough having Last stand and the weapon traits in the same tree to begin with, but now the new Cleansing Ire is all but forcing 30 points into defense if you are running hammer or mace. Ire could be moved into the Strength tree, perhaps even as a 10 point skill because it is so essential to warrior sustain. If you are going to force us into 30 points of Strength in order to get Berserkers Strength at least give us some sustain in return.

Discipline 20 points: Destruction of the Empowered, Mobile Strikes, Sweet Revenge: Before it wasn’t to difficult a choice between SR and MS, but with DotE thrown in things have become complicated. I would have Mobile Strikes moved to adept tier and just remove Thrill of the Kill because it is literally the most useless trait warriors have.

We are starting to get better perks to assist with sustain but when you toss them all into the same few slots it’s impossible to properly utilize them.

While we’re on the topic of Traits I might as well bring up how totally worthless some of the minor traits are, specifically the Tactics line. While reviving is important in PvP no one wants perks revolving around them. Preferably it be nice to see minor traits dealing with condition mitigation because even with cleansing ire the current meta of “tough and conditions” will always manage to overwhelm us. I’d love to see an Adept minor trait that allows us to resist one blind every 10 seconds, it seems a reasonable request after the massive buff to blinds. Another good trait would be reduced damage taken the more conditions you have on you, it would still keep conditions viable without being the total face roll they are now.

I’ve been using this post patch:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejcOtwBPGPMxBEkCNsKOKUCmQ9wO2w4A-TsAg0CvICSFkLITQygsBNsYhw2CA

I actually used it pre-patch but it’s actually been buffed since then. You get around a 3.5 second stun on Skull Crack, which on someone with their stun breakers on CD means death. You’re able to use it frequently as well so it can be a great choice for setting up bursts in team fights.

Of course this isn’t about the Mace but the GS. I have to say I’m starting to consider using Sword/Warhorn instead of GS. Savage Leap is a much more reliable and having an additional way to remove movement impairments is never bad. The thing that makes GS good with mace however is that Skull Crack into 100b means if they don’t break stun they’ll eat the entire attack. I’ll keep testing with both and see which one works out better. Final Thrust hits so hard now the extra utility from having a warhorn may end up being superior.

Jonwar.9205:

even if the sure footed trait simply reduced cooldowns by 20% instead of a 25% bonus it’d be an improvement I think… especially considering:

1) there are some stances you don’t want to last longer (yes, I’m looking at you frenzy).
2) it doesn’t effect balanced stance (unless they changed this in the last patch, not sure as I haven’t even looked at this trait in ages).

That would be a nice change, because yah no one wants frenzy to last as long as it does and currently it hardly manages to get you more than a second more, not exactly overwhelming.

Dodging backwards and dropping a Combustive Shot/Arching Shot will pretty much instantly destroy clones/phantasms. Actually, mesmsers are so weak to warrior LB they don’t register as a major threat anymore.

The concept behind the new version of Berserker Stance is exactly what the warrior class needs to stay on target. When combined with stability the warrior becomes basically unkiteable, you can’t CC them and you can’t slow them with cripple, chill, or immobilize. You also can’t blind them which is the main draw of this skill.

The Stance needs to either have increased duration (preferred), or a reduced cooldown. It also needs to remove the conditions you are currently affected by.

Gmtsai.6349:

These days, after the patch, I saw many warriors theory-crafting new builds because of the new trait “Cleansing Ire”; It is a good phenomenon. The only thing I don’t like is that these warriors whoever just start playing warrior believes that the “Cleansing Ire” will make warrior stronger, and it is laughable. Even Anas Tarcis is playing without any condi removal skills, I believe he can still survive longer than those warriors whoever trying to run mending, signet of stamina, and Cleansing Ire. And those warriors whoever running those condition removal skill will just done nothing in a team fight but die.

Again, it’s good to see the theory-crafting phenomenon, but it is pathetic to see poor warriors to show up and says “my build is viable because I have more condi removal than you.”

The current meta is conditions, so if you don’t have some way to reduce/remove conditions there is no way for your warrior to stand a chance against a condition heavy build. How can a warrior be expected to survive on a capture point without some way to remove the AoE conditions being spammed? You could run him with a shout guardian I suppose but even then it wouldn’t be enough and it limits what the warrior can do for a team. 20 points to get Dogged March and Cleansing Ire isn’t a bad investment considering Combustive Shot doesn’t suffer from blinds like hammer or any other burst skill.

0/30/20/0/20 is starting to seem like the optimal perk setup because it allows the warrior to do something useful, spam AoE damage with a bit of burn. There are better classes that deal better DPS and don’t require using most of your utility skills in order to deal said damage. Sword/Shield is starting to see like a better choice than GS considering landing Final Thrust isn’t kittence you learn to set it up with Shield Bash or Flurry. You also have Shield Block so you can drop Combustive Shot on point then how off multiple people for a long enough time for your team to arrive especially with Endure pain being on your bar as well.

It seems ANet does not warrior to be a bursting class anymore and rather a moderately tough source of steady DPS that lies between Guardian and Thief. I support this the problem is they keep buffing things like blind that continue to make like hell for warriors because we don’t have a way to resist blinds or passively remove conditions in general. I personally would like to see a buff to Zerker stance that either increases its duration or significantly reducing its cooldown. It has the potential to be a great skill because having that and stability up at the same time means NOTHING can stop you.

From a PvP standpoint we have been nerfed INDIRECTLY. I know that moving Zerkers Power may seem like a big blow DPS wise but with the changes to sword and the addition to Cleansing Ire we were mostly buffed.

The problem is, the changes to blind and the buffs to already overpowered builds indirectly nerfed us.

I simply disagree with your updated version of the main build. It has no condition removal in a condition heavy meta. Something like this I find to be a better middle ground:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjgOxuBPGPMxBEzDjgIKijCqgJUKsjNE-ToAg0CnICSFkLITQygsBN+YZB

Restorative Healing and Signet of Stamina at least manage to give up a decent amount of condition removal. Runes of Hoelbrak synergize well with Forceful GS while also reducing Coni duration. I can’t decide if I like the flat damage increase of Slashing Power or Physical Training that gives me a Bulls Charge that recharges 8 seconds faster and deals more damage but I’m leaning towards Phys Train.

All this considered it’s still a mediocre build but it’s not like we really have any amazing options anyways.

Lets not fool ourselves, in GW2 your armor class means very little when it comes to survival and sustainability. Unlike traditional MMOs your survival is based on mechanics such as Protection, Aegis, Blocks, Blind, Stealth, Teleports, and Evades. Now what warriors are painfully aware of is just how lacking we are in terms of having access to these mechanics. Now, I do not want buffs such as Protection and blocks because it would feel out of place and would make us even more guardian like which isn’t a good solution. What wouldn’t be out of place is to give warriors more skills that have evade tied to it. Here’s my list of weapon skills that would benefit from evade.

Sword
Savage Leap: This is one of the best gap closers/escape skills that warrior has. However, once you have used this skill to close this gap there isn’t much reason to use it after that. The guardian skill Leap of Faith not only closes the gap but helps with guardian sustain because of the blind it provides. Giving Savage Leap evade would give warriors a bit of sustain and avoiding that awkward situation where you get immobilized part way through the leap and Mobile Strikes won’t break it.

Flurry: Most of the time when warriors use this skill they cancel it just to get the immobilize effect, it deals poor damage and the bleeds it applies are short lived. Giving this skill an evade would make it a interesting cross between Blurred Frenzy and Rangers sword abilities and would give warriors a reason to use Flurry for its full duration.

Greatsword
Rush: The reason most warriors love GS is because Whirlwind has warriors only evade. What makes Rush such an annoying skills is that it is easy for foes to simply cripple, chill, immobilize, or even blind you and make the skill a poor gap closer. Adding evade would make staying on your foe much easier and once again keep immobilize from messing you up mid skill.

Hundred Blades: While many the ignorant player thinks this skill is good us warriors know it is a highly situational skill. I would gladly take a great reduction of damage if in return you gain evade. Even with that change it would still be weaker than Blurred Frenzy, which teleports and makes Mesmers invulnerable all while doing decent damage. Hey, maybe make it not root us anymore, I would take a even bigger hit in DPS because it would STILL not be as good as Blurred Frenzy.

Axe
Cyclone Axe: Fairly straight forward, it will give just a bit more sustainability to a weapon that frankly got screwed over last patch because all of its damage was given to the last attack on Triple Chop.

Hammer
Earthshaker: This is the skill I personally and most interested in seeing have evade added to it. The main issue Shaker has is that with blind being so easily spammable actually landing the skill can be nearly impossible if you’re the main target. The evade would make the skill as powerful as it deserves to be.

Having more evades won’t magically solve warrior’s sustainability issues but it will make it easier to stay in the fight without making us even more like pseudo-Guardians. It would still maintain the flavor of the class and would be yet another step in the long fight to make warriors TPvP viable.

EDIT: Extra thought, useless traits like Great Fortitude, Vigorous Return, and Thrill of the Kill need to be changed. Give us a trait that allows us immune to a blind every 10 seconds or further reduces the damage of certain conditions like bleed and poison the more stacks you have on you. I like being the class that is supposed to simply “power through” everything, but ANet has to give us the power to do so first.

You know what kinda kitten es me off, I’ve been running sword and longbow for a while now and had recently given up on it I had the same points placement and everything, then ANet decides sword is the new Axe, I mean Final Thrust is better than Evis now…of course this path proves that ANet does listen at least partially to forum feedback and there were quite a few of us posting builds like this so perhaps they decided to encourage the spec.

In summation, stop playing with my heart ANet.

Warriors need a passive minor trait that allows us to resist a blind every 10 seconds. The condition completely destroys Hammer even though hammer is nearly useful now. It doesn’t require “skill” to use blinds every few seconds seconds as a thief or a guardian, or a necro….or an engi. So many other classes have some passive condi removal so being able to resist ONE condition isn’t much to ask.

XII.9401:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Defektive.7283:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Defektive.7283:

It’s ok guys let me get home from work and get my hands on it.

I’m sure theres a build somewhere in there.

I’d say your 0/0/30/10/30 Hammer and sword build actually got buffed if we do some modification.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOxupQyQMxBE0DNsK4C1j5oOijUBxA-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNQY9xGBA

25% run speed Warrior’s Sprint and maybe using DotE instead of Mobile Strikes. No more AoE Leg specialist but with hamstring, dogged, and Sprint I think avoiding being kited might be a thing now.

Berserker’s Stance may be my new Sigil of Stamina because it’ll make Backbreaker and Earthshaker easier to land.

I’m pretty sure it got buffed as well. Let me play around with the numbers and get back to you on that. I’m thinking swapping out shield for Warhorn due to Weakness being so strong now.

The only problem that remains is how overly spammable blind is, Zerker Stance is now good for ensuring spikes land which is nice. The CD is a bit higher than i think it needs to be or duration needs to last longer.

Signet of endurance is on a 36-45 cool down and removes all conditions with passive endurance regeneration.

Berserker stance is on a SIXTY second cool down , does not remove all conditions -some ppl spec into increased condition duration or in wvw: runes/food- and only grants 2 bars of adrenaline.

I really fail to see how berserker stance is better than signet of endurance..Are you really that starved for 2 adrenaline bars for every minute? Those 2 bars won’t help you much.

You’re forgetting how much blind hurts our ability to combo, Zerker Stance means you won’t be blinded while trying to backbreaker or Earthshaker. The CD needs to be lower but the skill still has a purpose.

Defektive.7283:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Defektive.7283:

It’s ok guys let me get home from work and get my hands on it.

I’m sure theres a build somewhere in there.

I’d say your 0/0/30/10/30 Hammer and sword build actually got buffed if we do some modification.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOxupQyQMxBE0DNsK4C1j5oOijUBxA-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNQY9xGBA

25% run speed Warrior’s Sprint and maybe using DotE instead of Mobile Strikes. No more AoE Leg specialist but with hamstring, dogged, and Sprint I think avoiding being kited might be a thing now.

Berserker’s Stance may be my new Sigil of Stamina because it’ll make Backbreaker and Earthshaker easier to land.

I’m pretty sure it got buffed as well. Let me play around with the numbers and get back to you on that. I’m thinking swapping out shield for Warhorn due to Weakness being so strong now.

The only problem that remains is how overly spammable blind is, Zerker Stance is now good for ensuring spikes land which is nice. The CD is a bit higher than i think it needs to be or duration needs to last longer.

Defektive.7283:

It’s ok guys let me get home from work and get my hands on it.

I’m sure theres a build somewhere in there.

I’d say your 0/0/30/10/30 Hammer and sword build actually got buffed if we do some modification.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8ejcOxupQyQMxBE0DNsK4C1j5oOijUBxA-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNQY9xGBA

25% run speed Warrior’s Sprint and maybe using DotE instead of Mobile Strikes. No more AoE Leg specialist but with hamstring, dogged, and Sprint I think avoiding being kited might be a thing now.

Berserker’s Stance may be my new Sigil of Stamina because it’ll make Backbreaker and Earthshaker easier to land.

Sword is not a condition weapon, shocking I know. Everything on the sword scales better with power. The bleeds are more of a source of extra side damage rather than the focus. Of course a power based skill like Final Thrust is going so deal poor damage on Rampager gear because it has no Crit damage. While the internal cooldown of Leg Specialist is a bit lame it still means that if used with sword you’ll be getting use of of if frequently. The synergy with Opportunist is kinda lame because it means either going 30 in Arms and also grabbing the sword trait or just not using one or the other. I do think sword got buffed overall because with Warrior’s Speed and the immobilizes staying on target will be a bit easier now. It’s just a shame we lost the ability to do AOE immobilizes but I can manage.

Assuming the leaked notes are true (I’m leaning towards them being at least in part true) the games meta will drastically shift. With Berserker’s Power and Heightened Focus being turned into Grandmaster Traits if we want to run DPS we’re forced into 30 strength. That being said, I can’t say that you’ll have any sustain by doing that. Because Mace’s Skull Crack with a Sigli of Palatalization will give you up to 4 seconds of stun and with Cleansing Ire encouraging Burst skill use it may not be all doom and gloom (though the patch may very well put the final nail in the warrior coffin).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejcOxuBPyQMRCAkCsqyUwojClYSpYu6A-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSus1MIYhw+DA

Replace Defense I with Cleansing Ire. This build won’t have massive DPS but as I stated earlier Skull Crack will be great for either baiting Stun Breakers (Although I’d be using Bulls or Shield Bash to try to do that first) and if they don’t you might as well get off a full 100b while they sit and watch.

Another build I could see myself running is something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAseSjgOxuBPyQMxBE0DNsK4C1j5oOijUBxA-TsAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGN+YhwEBA

I still keep Leg Specialist on because it is still a good way to snare your foe, and with Hamstring being moved on to sword 1 you’ll be able to get that snare every 5 seconds.

Bas.7406:

Jzaku.9765:

Are you going to discuss problems or is this going to be a long session of trying not to step on Arenanet’s toes?

Well either way I’d still watch it.

If you have seen any of our previous weekly profession specific podcast, you would see that when it comes to the profession specific podcast we focus on two things. Bringing great content, and doing it positively. We will discuss the major issues that are preventing the warrior in pvp, as well as it’s humorous PVE reversal and neutral wvwvw position.

We will talk about stupid blocks (Mace 2). Bad traits, skills, animations, extended and easy to spot charges, and so on. The profession is on the warrior itself warts and all. However, we constantly stress to our podcasters that their is the forum way to present things and their is the sittingonacouch way. We believe in being positive about a class even when it is in a bad place, because in the midst of all the issues there are bright spots (maybe not in pvp). So there won’t be bashing, but there will be a legitimate discussion on the pluses and minuses of the Warrior as a class.

Mace 2 with Reflect Projectiles is the best thing ever, just saying.

Caedmon.6798:

Taran Redleaf.7912:

If the patch notes were “leaked” intentionally, then it is for the purpose of soliciting feedback before the patch goes live. So, “complaining” and “praising” are part of the feedback ArenaNet will need before these changes are implemented.

So “stopping complaining” is tantamount to not giving feedback (which would defeat the entire purpose of the “leak”). The Devs need to know what we think of the changes, good and bad, so this game can be the best that it can be.

Giving feedback on Real patchnotes…not on patchnotes that could have been written by anyone..Hence wait for the Official patchnotes,so you can give Proper “Feedback”……

What else are we supposed to do before the patch…..?

Lightsbane.9012:

BurrTheKing.8571:

echo.2053:

LOL after all the months of patches, were you really expecting anything to be different? Even if we did get something worthwhile itd be nerf virtually the next day. I don’t know about you but I choose to switch to Engi to have a natural handicap. not saying im a good player, im more like a regualr below average player :P. BUTTON SMASSSSSSHHHH!!!!!!!

Anet can nerf us to the point where not using any weapon would be the more effective, well then id be out on the battlefield mooning the enemy to death. Anet cant nerf pants onto this body!!!!

Natural Handicap? Engis have one of the most broken builds in the game that allow them to be have some CC, apply tons of conditions, and have the ability to fight 2 foes at once and WIN, they can have both DPS and toughness. I used to consider Mesmer the most Overpowered class but in this build it’s a toss up between Engi and ranger and I’d lean Engi because Ranger isn’t as good in team fights.

not sure if thief player troll or just stupid. do you know how much toughness i have to stack just to slightly mitigate a thief’s backstab? i have 1800 toughness on my engineer pal. only reason i’m able to fight them is because i’m not a 2 spammer.
you must only play with shortbow tryhard 1 spammer rangers if you can come to this kind of uneducated conclusion.
>fights one good engi and loses
>class is OP

>Plays Engi
>Knows said build, involves tool kit and bomb kit, stopped using because of how broken it is.
> I don’t play Ranger but it is probably the only class that can consistently match or beat the build 1v1 simple because of their ability to remove conditions and massive regen. However that build is weaker in team fights. Said Engi and ranger builds are probably the best 2 in the game because they both manage to be tough while dealing good DPS. Having both Elixir S and Self-Regulating Defense means if you are a target of a spike you can have 6 seconds of immunity in addition to Gear shield and the stun/knock back of your regular shield to escape and drop down your Healing turret and detonate it for a good heal. All this while constantly applying conditions and Pry Bar for good damage. The build is such an all rounder it’s not weak to much.

echo.2053:

LOL after all the months of patches, were you really expecting anything to be different? Even if we did get something worthwhile itd be nerf virtually the next day. I don’t know about you but I choose to switch to Engi to have a natural handicap. not saying im a good player, im more like a regualr below average player :P. BUTTON SMASSSSSSHHHH!!!!!!!

Anet can nerf us to the point where not using any weapon would be the more effective, well then id be out on the battlefield mooning the enemy to death. Anet cant nerf pants onto this body!!!!

Natural Handicap? Engis have one of the most broken builds in the game that allow them to be have some CC, apply tons of conditions, and have the ability to fight 2 foes at once and WIN, they can have both DPS and toughness. I used to consider Mesmer the most Overpowered class but in this build it’s a toss up between Engi and ranger and I’d lean Engi because Ranger isn’t as good in team fights.

Taran Redleaf.7912:

If the patch notes were “leaked” intentionally, then it is for the purpose of soliciting feedback before the patch goes live. So, “complaining” and “praising” are part of the feedback ArenaNet will need before these changes are implemented.

So “stopping complaining” is tantamount to not giving feedback (which would defeat the entire purpose of the “leak”). The Devs need to know what we think of the changes, good and bad, so this game can be the best that it can be.

I was initially skeptical about the authenticity of the notes, but the fact that it got the name of the new Torment condition correct that makes it seem pretty legit. So yes, the feedback is very important because if we give a ton of negative responses they have time to adjust. It also means that forum users can help change the game with ideas which is cool.

Wreckdum.8367:

WTF does “aftercast” mean?

When you use a skill or attack there is a period of time where you can’t activate another skill, which is the “aftercast.” Hammer has fairly long aftercasts so reducing them would make it easier to combo the CC and lock down your target even more effectively.