Guild Wars 2

So I am rank 30 and most of that was spent as a warrior with some Engi. I like being a melee class but I’m tired of being an inferior roamer compared to a thief or ele so I’d like to give guard a try. If you guys could give me the most up-to-date builds for TPvP I’d appreciate it. I know bunker is the main role for guardian but after seeing what burn machines these guys are I wanted to try to make a build focusing on it, I’m still new to the class though so I’d like to know if something like that is viable.

People seem to be getting confused as to what form of play we are talking about. I personally don’t even consider WvW to be PvP, more like PvE with PvP elements. The key difference is that in WvW you can use food to make up for warrior’s shortcomings. Not to mention if you are fully geared out with Exotics and Ascended gear then of course you will do better than even multiple foes. Spoiler alert, most people in WvW don’t have great gear. The people who spend time on the forums like us tend to have invested a good amount of time into our characters and therefore we don’t hear from the majority, who tend to be more casual or at the very least haven’t optimized their build.

In SPvP there is no food, and this is where warrior is the weakest. Can you do well if you are more skilled than your foe? Of course you can. Will you lose the majority of fights 1v1 vs. a similarly skilled (even slightly less skilled) mesmer, ranger, or blind thieves, most likely. I just started to play guardian and already I’m see just how much better designed the class is as a whole. I see a whole lot less perks where I go “that’s useless,” which I do constantly with warrior. The traits also have a lot more synergy than warrior, so many that give additional buffs when you use aegis or different ways to apply burn or have interesting effects like boon stripping.

Meanwhile, warrior’s traits are much less interesting and more importantly don’t synergize anywhere near as well. In TPvP warriors don’t really “fit” into any role that another class couldn’t do better. You CAN bring one as a roamer but then you’re team will probably have to build around having one. The one advantage they have is that if they run GS/Axe+Shield with full glass they can kill mobs like Svanir/Chief faster than anyone else. But when it comes to being able to jump in and out of fights thief is better and when it comes to staying in the fight ele is better.

As for why Axe+Shield? If you take the unsuspecting foe trait a Shield Bash followed by Eviscerate is basically 100% crit chance which vs light classes can deal some 9k damage.

Sil.4560:

Rock/paper/scissors is lazy and unimaginative. Especially when they kitten it up so bad that one greatly outclasses the other two.

There’s plenty of games that use this format and it makes sense for team-based games. In a perfectly balanced TPvP your team would each have a person that was built to counter another role. Currently, there are too many builds that can fill any role and makes them more appealing, and most of them are bunkers or bunker-like.

Zagerus, thank you for having something constructive to say instead of adding to the “War bad war always be bad” circle jerk.

Forzani.2584:

I agree with the rock/paper/scissors theory. The problem is I can’t think of a matchup that favors the Warrior in any 1v1

It depends on the build, with the one I posted you can beat most thieves builds that aren’t blinding powder. Rangers are beatable unless it’s the super regen/prot Beast Master ranger. Guardians it actually comes down to skill so long as they aren’t super bunker. Mesmers, Shatter is pretty easy because it’s only deadly when you don’t see it coming. Confusion mes is manageable, phantasm is pretty much unwinable. With my build ele can actually be really easy, rare I have trouble with them. Other wars it depends on the build, if they’re running something like conditions you may lose. Like any fight with your own class it’s generally all skill.

The problem is, so many people run the…screw it let’s call them what they are… overpowered builds that it makes warrior even look worse.

Fist, let me say that GW2 is not a game balanced on a 1v1 basis. The concept behind many design decisions is much like Rock-Paper-Scissors. Sometimes you’ll find yourself against a class that is paper while you’re rock, and if the two of you are roughly of equal skill you’ll probably lose most duels against said build. The problem currently is that there are certain specs that are so diverse in what they do that unless you are running a spec that is similarly (im)balanced you’ll have a hard time.

Warriors currently don’t have many ways to counter certain builds. If the foe has a heavy condition based build unless you have Lyssa runes and sig of stamina with mending you probably won’t stand a chance. Problem is, if you do run that or say Shouts with Soldier runes you’ll be ineffective against a high direct DPS build. This would be fine balance wise if there wasn’t for those builds that allowed them to combat many different builds without any negative effects. Bunkers are currently the biggest offenders, some like the ranger bunker has such high healing, protection, and regen that as a DPS build unless they seriously screw up or you mange to interrupt their healing several times you’ll probably lose. That being said there are a few good 1v1 builds like this…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR5ejgOxu1QuQMRCAkCsyyUoojClYSpot6A-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSus1MIYhwWEA

If there was a sliding scale from Pure Bunker to Pure DPS with several specs in between that are more towards the center, it would be balance if the Pure Bunker and Pure DPS came down to who was the stronger player, but currently I don’t think that’s the case. Some bunker specs could eat an entire combo from a pure DPS warrior or thief and not dodge or use stun breakers, just having their toughness, protection, and regen and they would survive it. This build would be to the left of Pure DPS because it actually has some toughness and utility so it could actually stand a chance 1v1, If you wanted a 25/25/0/0/20 with all DPS gear you would take out a enemy fast if you caught them but so many of the combos are slow and predictable even with frenzy and any foe that is any good will simply avoid the spike. What maces mace/shield useful is that it can let you bait out stun breakers so you can actually land your spike then stop any attempt to heal afterwords. Deflection is also awesome because it lets you counter ranged spikes and hurt your foe at the same time. Still, really good condition builds, bunkers, or semi tough mesmers will generally wear you down. You could try to run a counter to those but that makes you very limited in terms of what you can fight and for me 1v1 is just practice for such situations in TPvP were you’re attacking a defended point solo.

As for weapons like Hammers, they can be a nightmare in team fights, hammer shock with leg specialist into an Earthshaker, but 1v1 the attacks are so slow and easy to dodge. Mace/Shield servers the same focus of CC and interrupts but is very fast and designed for one opponent. Not to mention having deflection gives it waaay more damage avoiding utility than the hammer could ever offer.

Wars will still find themselves on the losing side of rock, paper, scissors in a 1v1 than a Blind Thief, Bunker Ranger, or Mesmer ever will but that’s mostly because those builds simply surpass most others at this point. In 1v1 servers the only classes I see consistently beating those 3 classes is another of those classes running a similar build.

GW2 isn’t a 1v1 game, classes are balanced on how they preform in a team environment. Warriors currently lack on both fronts, there are strong builds, but they require much more skill to play well against some of the current easier-to-play meta we see atm (cough mes builds that require you do little more than avoid combat and let clones/phants wear them down and use stun breaks cough).

Drek Thalon.5490:

1. The reason most people don’t use Stomp is because of the long cooldown, and the fact it can be so easily negated with a dodge/block/balance/etc.

2. Berserker stance is garbage, but if you want a signet that refills your adrenaline instantly then use Signet of Fury. It already does that.

3. I agree Throw Bolas is hard to land, but changing it to a pull wouldn’t be a Bola. However, I do really like the idea of a long range pull ability like harpoon on land.

4. Shouts and banners are often used in pvp. A lot of shout builds utilize the healing trait and are very effective already. Banners just got a buff and are often seen in WvW.

It seems you missed the point multiple times.

1. Yes, that is part of it but the fact that taking Stomp also means that you can not take something else. Having a stun break would make bringing Stomp more viable in addition to it being more likely to hit, not to mention traiting it give it a cooldown comparable to Balanced Stance.

2. I just said it was garbage, which is why giving it a condi removal effect would actually make you want to bring it, and I said that there as a signet that gives adren better, I was referring to Signet of Fury.

3. The name doesn’t matter as much as the functionality, the could change the name for all I care but the fact remains warrior needs a pull more than another immobilize.

4. The banner changes are more for SPvP, in fact I hardly consider WvW PvP in the first place considering how close to PvE it is.

TheMaskedParadigm.3629:

BurrTheKing.8571:

I feel like the commentary would be smoother if the commentary was done in post, from what I can tell this was all done live. Doing in post lets you prepare what you want to say and it sounds more professional considering you can focus 100% when you are playing and 100% when commentating. Even better, if you mess up you just edit it out and redo it. You’ll also have less filler word like “uh” or “um” which again makes you sound more professional. I’m not trying to be mean if this comes off as it I just thought I would offer some constructive criticism. You should also make sure to format and edit the video so it fills the whole screen.

That’s something that I debated, but I thought I would go ahead and just yolo one-shot it to try and fit in as much cringe-worthy badness as I possibly could. I think I will experiment with post commentary in the future some, it probably would help things and make the videos more entertaining. I’ll also definitely look into formatting it so that it looks better in full screen, that’s not something that I thought about.

That’s good to hear. If you’re doing live videos to be entertaining it’s OK to be focusing more on what you’re saying and have the gameplay suffer cause that badness can make it funny, but if you’re doing an informative video presentation is everything. If I watch a guide I want something concise and to the point and have it be as professional looking as possible. I think you have to potential to do that if you get both your best gameplay and best audio possible.

Can you really say this is a big deal though? I play CS:GO and even on official servers if someone says “Knife round?” everyone in he server can agree to those gentleman’s rules. If the people in that server decided they’d rather duel it’s not like it doesn’t take less than 30 seconds to leave that server and join another one. chances are 2 friends went into an empty server to duel then as people joined they started dueling as well. I like to duel every now and then myself although GW2 is not a game balanced for 1v1, it’s balanced on a team vs team basis and there’s a lot of rock-paper-scissors aspect to the way specks work so sometimes you’ll find yourself out of luck cause you’re scissors and they’re rock.

I feel like the commentary would be smoother if the commentary was done in post, from what I can tell this was all done live. Doing in post lets you prepare what you want to say and it sounds more professional considering you can focus 100% when you are playing and 100% when commentating. Even better, if you mess up you just edit it out and redo it. You’ll also have less filler word like “uh” or “um” which again makes you sound more professional. I’m not trying to be mean if this comes off as it I just thought I would offer some constructive criticism. You should also make sure to format and edit the video so it fills the whole screen.

The warrior is a class that is heavily dependent on their gear and utility skills. Currently, most warriors only bother to use a few of our utilities: Bulls Charge, Balanced Stance, Endure Pain, Frenzy, and Signet of Stamina. You’ll see some builds that use shouts but those are more commonly seen in PvE. Why aren’t more skills used? If you ask me it’s because they aren’t necessarily bad, they simply lack any utility.

Stomp: This is a fun skill, there’s no denying it, but no serious warrior ever uses it. However, I would be happy to place it on my bar if it were turned into a stun breaker. This would maybe even tempt me into putting 30 points into Strength and getting Physical Training and having both Bulls Charge and Stomp on my bar, maybe even Kick just for the spamability of it.

Berserker’s Stance: I’m pretty sure this is the most under-used skills warriors have. Why have a skill that fills your adren over a few seconds when you could have a signet that fills it instantly AND has a passive. what would tempt me into adding this to my bar is if with every pulse of adren I gained it also cleansed a condition. This would make running an all stance bar viable and would end up choosing Sure Footed for an extra pulse of Zerker’s Stance over Dogged March or Embrace the pain.

Throw Bolas: This skill itself isn’t so bad, but the fact that your target has to basically be standing still in order for it to connect is. But rather than having it simply immobilize, why not make it a pull? Warriors current only have 1 pull and it’s on Spear (Which I would love to use on land btw). Having a pull would give warriors the option to pull a target out of a fight and focus on them or to chase down a running foe. This would make it a viable alternative to Bulls Charge and again would make Phys Training actually look a little attractive.

Banners: These guys have become decent in PvE but still don’t see much use at all in PvP. Due to their immobile nature they just don’t see a lot of use not to mention their lack of utility also makes them unattractive. Allowing the warrior to wear a banner on his or her back would greatly improve their usefulness. Simply add a F2 bind that drops the banner, perhaps even triggering the Powerful Banners perk (on a cooldown). While on the ground the banner would apply its current bonuses, but while worn would have reduced buffs (perhaps none) in exchange for a passive benefit every X number of seconds.
Banner of Strength: Every X seconds apply a stack of might.
Banner of Defense: Every X seconds apply a few seconds of protection.
Banner of Discipline: Every X attack is unblockable
Banner of Tactics: Every X seconds lose a condition

Shouts: These are current pretty well balanced, they have a rune set that allows them to remove conditions, have 2 that apply conditions, one that buffs your team, and a stun break on a fairly low cooldown that also removes conditions.That being said if the minor traits of the tactics line were improved I would be more likely to form a build around them.

These are the best changes I have come up with atm, I tried my hardest not to suggest anything that would make the warrior OP, although I am no game balancer so it be hard to say what effect these changes would have on the overall meta. I do know warrior has the potential to be a good PvP class but currently they don’t fill many TPvP rolls that would warrant them being on your team.

Warrior doesn’t have the flashiness of say a guardian or a mesmer but when it comes to variety in PvE they can be one of the more interesting classes. Although, you’ll probably always have a Greatsword for mobility and quickly killing mobs but that second weapon slot can be changed at will for variety. It’s also one of the quicker classes to level and most groups for dungeons always like to have a warrior around.

It would have been more useful if it gave you a period of time, say around 5 seconds, of unblockable attacks. With the current 3 attacks set up chances are you’ll end up wasting at least one of the attacks on a useless auto or a blinded attack. I like the idea of a anti-bunker spec but so far I see little reason to run Destruction of the Empowered of Signet of Might.

I had recently posted this on another build thread but I figured I might as well post these on their own as well. Ironically, warriors is probably one of the best team supporters along with guardian, but warrior does things a bit differently. If you run these builds with a guardian chances are the two of you will be unstoppable. These builds allow you to fulfill a useful role without feeling like a thief without stealth.

More Selfish but still has team support:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhN6kzhogTew5BmIDEnHJZKkXpAO1JpoMsB-TsAAzCpIySllLLTWyssZNCY9xsCA

Shots are used for team buffs/condi removal and you get extra buffs and removal with warhorn. Your big time team support comes from stacking might while removing conditions. Place down combustion shot and use Arching Shot where you are standing for might, then switch to warhorn and use Call to Arms for even more might. If your teammate have blast finishers of their own you’ll find yourself with a ton of might.

The less Selfish version:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhN6kzhogTew5BmIDAHFJNlSBc1leQGbpB-TsAg2CrIySllLLTWyssZNCY9xsCA

Same concept but you’ll be healing your teammates in addition to all the condi removal. Hard to think of a better support build, guardians have more survival but this build offers more team buffs and might stacks.

If you are going for team support I have 2 builds I like:

More Selfish but still has team support:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhN6kzhogTew5BmIDEnHJZKkXpAO1JpoMsB-TsAAzCpIySllLLTWyssZNCY9xsCA

Shots are used for team buffs/condi removal and you get extra buffs and removal with warhorn. Your big time team support comes from stacking might while removing conditions. Place down combustion shot and use Arching Shot where you are standing for might, then switch to warhorn and use Call to Arms for even more might. If your teammate have blast finishers of their own you’ll find yourself with a ton of might.

The less Selfish version:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBMhN6kzhogTew5BmIDAHFJNlSBc1leQGbpB-TsAg2CrIySllLLTWyssZNCY9xsCA

Same concept but you’ll be healing your teammates in addition to all the condi removal. Hard to think of a better support build.

Zagerus.8675:

What do you use in place of, Shake It Off for Bull’s Charge? Mending? Which runes?

Thank you for putting that up there by the way!

A popular option is Signet of Stamina with Lyssa Runes:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOxuBPuQMRCEUBN0eoIOPSCmg80HsDA-TwAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNsY9xpg3HA

I’m not a HUGE fan but it is a strong option (as strong us us warriors get, which is never that strong).

If you want to keep a source of stability you can drop 10 points in arms and get last stand.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOxuBPuQMRCEkCNMLsHKijikgJ0HsDA-TwAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNsY9xpg3HA

Less damage but more utility than your average warrior, this does make Combustion shot less spamable which could be a problem.

The problem I find with trying to get utility as a warrior is that if you want to do TPvP you end up not being all that useful because a mesmer or thief can do the job better, where as going full glass you can find yourself more appealing, at least that has been my experience.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOxu1QyQMxBEjiiAIOKSCmQ9oNqjNE-ToAg0CnIiRFjLGTMyYsxMoY9B

I wasn’t convinced by Runes of Air at first but if you’re putting the points in for Destruction of the Empowered it makes sense. Also with Sigil of Air it looks Kinda cool XD.

Here’s the build for the more visually minded:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJARTjcOxuxQuQMRCEUBN0eoIOPSCmg80HsDA-TwAg0CnIMSZkzIjRSjsGNKY9xpg3HA

Just my thoughts on Mel Runes, with the current meta of thieves and engis stacking tons of poison focusing on outright removing has served me better.

Brigg.6189:

It’s an interesting build you have there, looks fun to play. I like the idea of shouts without trying to be a shout healer and you made good use of those points.

As for your question though, I think axe+sh/GS is probably the best war dueling build. Leg specialist should be used to help land eviscerate. I prefer using LB/GS against mesmers (and sometimes thieves) 1v1, but that’s about it.

Also just to throw it out there: I agree 1v1 is important, don’t discount team fighting. I run LB/GS because I think it’s a better team fighting build compared to axe/GS. The build you have here might be alright 1v1, but it should be a menace in team fights.

I’ve never found shout heals to be a worthwhile investment, yes it increases your survival a bit but at a huge cost of DPS. You’ll still be less tanky than a guardian while dealing less damage. Maybe if they made the 25 point minor trait actually useful I could see going all in but currently, no thanks.

I have run the GS with leg spec a lot but a good mesmer will always know that if they get hit with it it’s time to block/blind/blink away. If you do manage to land that Evis you can do some 9k HP on a glassy mes but I would still say if both of you are similar skill level the mes will win most of the time.

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

This is a very tanky spec with minimal gap closers. I can see you blowing your shouts just to get in range. But I think I like this and may run with a variant.

You could run with say a sword for mobility but imho having the abilty to reflect projectiles with your 2 skill is very useful, you can even cause phantasm Duelists to kill themselves.

Hey everyone, recently I have doing a lot of 1v1 on my warrior. Now I know, warrior is a poor class to be doing this on but reguardless it’s my class of choice and I feel like practicing your 1v1 skills for TPvP is important. The problem is, while in team fights a GS/Axe build can be devastating in a 1v1 every attack animation is VERY obvious and as a result easily dodged. Now, the classes I have the most trouble with tends to be mesmers. They have so many blocks, blinds, or stun breakers/psudo-stun breakers that nailing down a good mesmer feels all but impossible. It can be doable if it’s a glassy mesmer because nail them with one big attack or combo and they’re doomed, but a more tanky mes has clones that are tough enough that they require a ton of hits to kill. In addition, this build tends to be very passive and they just whittle you down while avoiding directly attack you.

I really enjoy hammer as a weapon because with Leg specialist you can lock down all the clones and Earthshaker them but almost every attack is easily avoided by a good mes. Mace/Shield has good CC as well but with mesmers Skull crack loves to hit the clone to my right rather than the mesmer I’m facing and targeting.

So my question is this, is there a decent choice for warriors for 1v1s that can stand up against most classes rather than just one or two. Currently I can handle most other warriors, thieves, non-tanky rangers, and some eles. I do tend to have trouble with thieves that blind constantly and stealth for some 10+ seconds as soon as I deal decent damage to them. I feel like hammer with mace/shield does have the potential as a 1v1 build because of all the CC you have to interrupt heals, but getting said attacks to hit can be a big problem.

Something like this?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS5ejcOVvJPOPMRCAkCsyyewI9B4SKEDNA-TsAA1CtIySllLLTWyssZNQYhwWBA

Lighter.5631:

BurrTheKing.8571:

XII.9401:

I think the only way for a bleed condition build to work is:

1.Being able to escape while bleeding target: Thief
2.Applying it regularly with no need to close in: Engineer. You have to close the gap, engineers just keep shooting you the whole time so its a constant bleed on you. Also, they have lots of other conditions to help with it.
3.Introducing a new mechanic: You AND your group gets healed X% for the amount of damage you do via bleeds. Introduce bleeds on ranged weapons more effectively to have it up all the time.

The only warrior builds with condition damage in an mmorpg that I ever saw working effectively was using option 3.

Well, the advantage warriors have over thieves and Engies is the insane amount that you can apply. Ripost applies 6, Pin Down 6, Impale 4, Flurry 8, and lets not forget the stacks from perks, runes and sigils. I don’t think any other class can stack 20+ faster than a warrior can in addition to burning. I’ve been simply overwhelming classes with bleeds and have been winning a decent number of 1v1s and more importantly been a big help in team fights where I can constantly cover a capture point in flame making things very unpleasant for the enemy, unfortunately this means I get targeted down more often where with a normal GS build they may go for a guardian first.

Escape is also possible while bleeding because I have a Earth sigil on my bow, Savage leap out of range then kite till you can leap in again and apply another bleed spike.

hehe the insane stack of bleed that can get removed easily and hard to apply back again and only work on single target 2 at most

….With Burst Mastery it ISN’T hard to apply again which is what the build does. Typically at the start of the fight you can apply 20-25 stacks, when they get removed a fews seconds later you’re back up to 10+ typically. I suggest trying the build before discussing the ease of applying the conditions.

Ferawyn.6542:

XII.9401:

I agree with you with the bow. But that is one bleed attack on a 25s cooldown.

Longbow autotack has two shots, longbow 2 has three . If you use a high crit build, the arms tree bleed traits and a sigil of earth you get nice bleeds from lb 1 and 2 (use point-blank) as well.
Still, I think longbow is a little stronger in a power/crit build using the conditions as bonus. If you go 30 deep in arms and trigger signet of range you get 475 conditon damage without sacrificing anything in a power/crit build.

Riposte: Yea, meele-only sucks. How about using the reflect-on-block trait? Then you could use sword offhand from some distance. Then jump in with 2 and 3 and if he evades and tries to kite, you can already switch back to longbow. (Just throwing in the idea, I didn’t test this)

Ripost is good for thieves, they stealth, you pop it and they either attack and get bleeds or don’t and you get some time for skills to recharge. As for the easy of removal, because of how often Combustion and Flurry come off CD you’ll be reapplying them as soon as they get removed.

I tried Zerker because I thought I should try it as a direct damage build with bleeds as a side bonus. Sword’s damage is sub par however and the only place it shines is applying bleeds.

Oreoginal.1580:

BurrTheKing.8571:

Oreoginal.1580:

My build’s a bit tankier, but this combo still works really well.
Build: http://tinyurl.com/parmstick

Also Sigli of Para lasts way longer than what it claims from what I’ve seen.
I’ve always subscribed to the “kill them before they kill you” philosophy.

I wish this was effective in zerg fights where AOEs are thrown everywhere. :T

It is with organized zergs, I do it constantly. Just have Endure Pain and Balanced Stace, pop them, go nuts in the middle of the zerg, get out.

I want to see warrior become more like it was in GW1, a constant stream of DPS that wasn’t as damaging as an assassin but had much more survivability. In GW1 warriors also had access to several good options to mitigate or remove conditions. Currently in GW2 I feel like a thief without stealth, forced to jump in and out of combat because trying to run decent DPS with a bit of survivability just isn’t possible, you’ll find yourself only moderately tougher while taking a huge hit to your DPS, making you a wanna-be guardian.

I would GLADLY take a nerf in the DPS department if in return I got the ability to stay in the fight like a guardian just not as tanky.

Oreoginal.1580:

My build’s a bit tankier, but this combo still works really well.
Build: http://tinyurl.com/parmstick

I’ve always subscribed to the “kill them before they kill you” philosophy.

XII.9401:

I think the only way for a bleed condition build to work is:

1.Being able to escape while bleeding target: Thief
2.Applying it regularly with no need to close in: Engineer. You have to close the gap, engineers just keep shooting you the whole time so its a constant bleed on you. Also, they have lots of other conditions to help with it.
3.Introducing a new mechanic: You AND your group gets healed X% for the amount of damage you do via bleeds. Introduce bleeds on ranged weapons more effectively to have it up all the time.

The only warrior builds with condition damage in an mmorpg that I ever saw working effectively was using option 3.

Well, the advantage warriors have over thieves and Engies is the insane amount that you can apply. Ripost applies 6, Pin Down 6, Impale 4, Flurry 8, and lets not forget the stacks from perks, runes and sigils. I don’t think any other class can stack 20+ faster than a warrior can in addition to burning. I’ve been simply overwhelming classes with bleeds and have been winning a decent number of 1v1s and more importantly been a big help in team fights where I can constantly cover a capture point in flame making things very unpleasant for the enemy, unfortunately this means I get targeted down more often where with a normal GS build they may go for a guardian first.

Escape is also possible while bleeding because I have a Earth sigil on my bow, Savage leap out of range then kite till you can leap in again and apply another bleed spike.

Varonth.5830:

Unsuspecting Foe is 50% bonus damage vs. stunned foes.

Bull’s Charge is a 2s knockdown. Knockdown != Stun.

Like he said, extra 50% crit CHANCE vs STUNNED foes. I have been using this combo for a while and it is indeed very effective. You can run Sigil of paralization and Impact to devastating effect.

Example:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOxu1QyQMxBALjiC6yQJmUKarOA-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscNsYRwGBA

Sadly, no Sigil of Impact in PvP, but in WvW you could have it in place of Accuracy. You can choose whether you want the extra crit damage axe perk or the flat increase of the GS one, you’ll get the most devastating Eviscerate with the axe perk.

Edit: you would probably run something more like this for more utility, although losing the extra 10% dmg vs bleeding foes makes me a bit sad. As for conditions, kill them before they kill you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOxu1QyQMRCAjiiC6oQJmUKaruUBxA-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscNsYRwGBA

So, I like many warriors have attempted to make a sword+sword build. Every time I ended up discounting it as a pointless idea because of how many builds have passive condition removal. After last patch I decided to revisit the idea and ended up having a surprising amount of success.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAscTjcO1wBPuQMxBCThicekkpQe1D7Un4A-TsAg1CqI8R5jzHjPSfsjNCYVxsCA

Strengths: The ability to apply 25 stacks of bleeding in a few seconds, with each stack dealing at least 100 damage a tick. With Flurry and Pin Down you will also find yourself applying tons of immobilizes. Because you will be gaining adrenaline so fast you can constantly spam Flurry and Combustion shot which means you’ll be applying burns that deal around 550 a tick, for a grand total of around 3k HP a tick (…I think, me and math aren’t friends). While these stacks as I mentioned earlier are easily removed by several builds, because you apply them so often and so fast they will probably have all the stacks for several seconds before removing them. Builds that have poor condition removal will be chewed to pieces very quickly. What’s nice about Flurry is that you always get that 8 stacks of bleed even with 1 bar of adren. Another strength is that most players aren’t used to facing this kind of build, they are used to hard hitting but predictable GS/Axe builds. All of the sword attacks activate fairly quickly and aren’t as obviously telegraphed as other warrior skills. Also, dual swords looks cool.

Weaknesses: No sustainability. I have Signet of Stamina so that there’s at least a CHANCE that if you get hit by a big burst of conditions you have a chance to wipe and survive long enough to take them down first. The big weakness are builds that have a massive amount of condition removal. Your best chance is that you apply the bleeds and burn fast enough or keep them in combustion shot while kiting them and switching to sword to apply a fast Flurry+Impale combo. Even then, you may be better off retreating.

I can’t decide if it’s worth having that 30 points in Discipline, or if I should invest in another 10 points in Power for Dual Wielding and the extra condition duration. Rune wise I do think that the 5 Krait runes fit perfectly.

I have also made a tougher variant with a shield.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAseTjcO1wBPyQMxBCkCsclzjkMFyrUYn6A-TsAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNCYVxsCA

Similar concept, only you will be applying much less bleed, also doesn’t look as cool as dual swords. Save your shield stance for situations like a mesmer’s Illusionary Duelist spike and watch as the phantasms kill themselves or killshoting warriors dealing 7k+ damage to themselves.

I’m not 100% satisfied with either of these builds so any feedback would be great. I’ve tried using berserker ammy instead of rampager but the DPS actually seemed to be less and halved the bleed tick damage.

Assassin X.8573:

yes cant wait, but id rather use my VS looking spear from GW1 that i currently have now lol. miss my gladiator from aion lol

I actually think there’s a spear skin that looks like the Voltaic Spear from GW1, not 100% certain though.

Edit: Found it! http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Al%27ir%27aska

Furajir.3815:

http://www.gw2db.com/items/25664-whispering-polearm#

You may actually get your wish, there are weapons called “polearms” popping on on numerous sites including Reddit, gw2db etc etc.

Now that IS interesting, I do hope that the just make it spear with a few changes because the spear is near perfect for warrior as it is now.

Personally, I love the Spear and it would be fantastic to be able to use it on land.

Spear has:
Good DPS
A main combo that has a cripple
A PULL!
A block
A Cool AoE attack.
A AoE Burst that stuns and is a combo finisher

Having this weapon on land would be worthwhile for the pull alone. Tsunami slash would have to be changed obviously, maybe a charge while stabbing like crazy while you run towards your target. Having the cripple on the main combo is unique as well. The weapon is suitably different from other warrior land weapons that I think it would make a strong addition. Of course, this will probably never happen but there ARE enough worthless perks that if new weapons were added they could be replaced with spear perks.

The Daily Captures was a terrible idea, I would always be the first one to reach our first point but I would always have at least 2 or 3 other on point needlessly just so they could get a kitten daily category.

Anet needs to start awarding much more glory for winning the match and much less for getting tons of points because you ran around smacking people a few times and jumping on cap points instead of defending.

Daecollo.9578:

Its not effective and too situational, some enemies have stability or can stunlock multiple times or teleport out, infact most enemies you will be fighting do this.

Its mostly effective against other warriors.

Most smart warriors have Balanced Stance. It can be very effective if they pop the stun breaker after Bulls, just start on Mace+Shield and if they do stun break you can shield bash and skull crack THEN 100b them. You could even have a chance to hit with most of a un-frenzied 100b with that. Most things in the game are situational. Most people expect Evis so the much quicker skull bash can throw them off.

peter.9024:

Nickeloneon.8714:

peter.9024:

Ele:
DD bunker ele: with the boom hate, I can still win 70% of the fights. Early pressure will force the ele into a defensive mode, where you’ll eventually beat him down.
SD: win almost every fight. A lot of the skills are telegraphed hard.
Other builds: boon hate melts them especially those with lower protection uptime.
Oh, since almost no ele runs +condi duration food, you won’t get kited at all.

In a 1v1 situation, do you think the boon hate trait is mandatory to beat a good D/D ele?

I don’t think its necessary, as I was close before too. I think the big change with the last patch was that with dogged March, you can stick to the ele much closer and you no longer get kited by chill, cripple and immob. However I do like the trait, as on average you do between 9 – 15% extra damage (3 – 5 boons), which is quite significant against ele. Also the damage increase is pure damage and not added to critical damage, so it’s actually quite a lot of extra damage.

Running Destruction really limits your performance vs non-boon heavy builds though because those extra points into Discipline really hurt your DPS unless they have a ton of boons up.

GS+Axe Shield is one of the few strong builds in a zerg, the problem is is that it is highly predictable. I’ve taken to running Sword+Shield/Longbow with Rabid gear. Damage on attacks themselves are very low but if you lock them down in Combustion Shot with Pin Down and Shield Bash (if used with Savage Leap your flame shield will last a good while) You’ll be stacking both bleeds and burn. Not only that but it’s nowhere near as easy to avoid in SPvP considering the Shot almost totally covers the point.

Leo G.4501:

Lorelei.3918:

Greatsword has a huge massive con that makes it worthless for any kind of pvp.

Hundred Blades roots you and takes too long to complete. Greatsword dps is great on paper, but in practice people dodge, interupt, invuln, block, blink and leap away from it.

I’d preface that con with just requiring more set-up than other attacks.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Extra bow range sounds nice and with certain skills it is, but with the auto attack most arrows will not hit at range. In fact, the auto attack Dual Shot is fairly worthless in general. Burning Arrows make all shots a combo finisher and deal 10% more damage to burning foes, but you’ll deal more damage just being spec’d into Power, Arms, and Discipline. You also get some fairly worthless minor traits going into tactics.

You got it a bit switched. It’s Stronger Bowstrings that gives Dual Shots and Fan of Fire its100% combo. It’s not too harsh an investment, IMO but you can go without it as it’s a tad buggy.

Thanks for catching that, got it a bit messed up.

Lorelei.3918:

Greatsword has a huge massive con that makes it worthless for any kind of pvp.

Hundred Blades roots you and takes too long to complete. Greatsword dps is great on paper, but in practice people dodge, interupt, invuln, block, blink and leap away from it.

…one of the only worthwhile PvP builds is Bulls Charge → Frenzy→ 100b.

I’m not seeing the point of using Rampager’s armor, which has a lot of condition damage, when the only condition you are inflicting is bleed. Sigil of fire is good for the AoE of hammer.

Sword
Pros: The mainhand swords best skill is undoubtedly Savage Leap. It’s a great gap closer and escape skill. It is also good for stacking bleeds and its Burst skill has a immobilize tied to it. This weapon is a good choice as al alternative weapon set.

Cons: The sword is unable to stack bleeds as effectively as thieves and rangers and feels more like a bonus effect rather than a feature. Hamstring is very underwhelming, you must be in melee range for it to connect and while it lasts longer than other cripples it still isn’t all that useful and would benefit from having a few stacks of bleed attached t it. The offhand sword is also focused on bleeds but still manage to be an underwhelming choice compared to a shield. The lack of cover conditions also mean many classes will be able to remove these stacks easily. (The offhand sword also looks really silly hanging at your side because you don’t use it with your main combo, not important gameplay wise but still annoying)

Longbow
Pros: Longbow is a favorite for WvW for it’s AoE damage and its powerful Burst skill Combustive Shot. when traited for glass Arching Shot can hit for a massive amount of damage. Fan of Fire is actually best used at point blank to apply a decent amount of damage and fire. It synergies well with Sword since Pin Down applies 6 stacks of bleeding.

Cons: While the bow perks are all in the tactics line their usefulness for the investment is suspect. Extra bow range sounds nice and with certain skills it is, but with the auto attack most arrows will not hit at range, the perk also makes Duel Shot and Fan of Fire combo finishers but it can be buggy. In fact, the auto attack Dual Shot is fairly worthless in general. Burning Arrows makes you deal 10% more damage to burning foes, but you’ll deal more damage just being spec’d into Power, Arms, and Discipline. You also get some fairly worthless minor traits going into tactics.

The greatsword offers the greatest amount of benefits with the least amount of Cons. Even the weapons that have good Pros have one or more major Con that keep it from being considered as good as GS.

P.S I’m doing a midnight and was very bored.

I’ve been theory crafting constantly since launch, but every build I make that doesn’t contain a greatsword just never seems to match up to a build WITH a greatsword. I’ve tried almost every weapon combination I can think of, none match up with that hunk of metal. This list will list the Pros and Cons of each weapon in a PvP setting with a bit of WvW crossover.

Greatsword
Pros: Capability for massive damage in addition to two good movement skills make this the warrior’s bread and butter. It can a damaging ranged cripple that can hit twice in a row. The perks are also in good locations, neither require you to spec into a tree that would reduce your DPS.

Cons: Rush has trouble tracking and hitting targets, but it’s almost always used while not targeting someone and is used as an escape method. The Burst skill is totally worthless but most of the perks you use benefit from not using it anyways.

Axe
Pros: This is easily the number 2 warrior weapon behind the GS, which is why it is often used in tandem with it. It has a less damaging ranged cripple than the gs but it moves much faster. It’s main strength is it’s damaging main combo. If used with an offhand mace you can also stack a good amount of vulnerability. If used with a shield and unsuspecting foe you can land an Eviscerate with 100% critical hit chance.

Cons: Axe has no movement skills whatsoever. When used as an offhand it doesn’t bring much to the table. Whirling Axe is mobile but doesn’t deal that much damage and is easy to get out of range of.

Rifle
Pros: Rifle has some great potential for burst damage. This comes from volley and Kill Shot. It has your standard cripple and a knockback for keeping foes at range or interrupting heals.

Cons: Even with the recent buff, Brutal Shot is still a pretty meh skill. The basic Bleed Shot also seems to go against the main purpose of the weapon. Kill Shot also has it’s notoriously long channel time.

Hammer
Pros: Along with mace this can offer some the greatest amount of CC in the game. A powerful knockdown in addition to an AoE stun in the form of Earthshaker can be a powerful force in team battles.

Cons: The hammer is very slow but receives little payback for it’s slow speed. You can fake foes out by switching weapons part way through Backbreaker’s animation, but actually landing with it often requires you to set it up with a stun or ensuring their blocks or blinds are on cooldown. Earthshaker suffers from the same problem, it is so obviously telegraphed avoiding it isn’t that difficult. Staggering blow, while the knockback can be good for clearing people off points and sometimes setting up Earthshaker or Backbreaker. Most times however, hitting with it is difficult because it roots you and has a slow activation time. You may find yourself avoiding the skill in general.

Mace
Pros: The mace has a daze that is great for interrupting heals or other big attacks. If combined with the Missile Deflection Counter Blow will actually reflect all projectiles for its duration. This is probably the best strength the mace has to offer, especially against skills like Unload, Killshot, and Illusionary Duelist . Skull crack is a single target stun like Earthshaker but has a much faster cast time and is very good for 1v1 situations. Offhand mace is a very strong choice in general. Tremor is a ranged knockdown that can hit a foe twice if in close range.

Cons: The mace’s main combo is very slow, the mace is also a very reactive weapon, not an active one. most of your time will be spent using its very slow auto attack looking for the chance to block a big attack or interrupting a heal. Also, because of the placement of the perks if you want Mace and Shield with a Hammer, you generally must choose what trait you want to focus on.

Warrior should have been the class that stood between Guardian and Thief. The guardian is generally run very tanky and thief towards high spike damage. Of course, there are exceptions where thieves could be more geared towards mitigating damage or guardians could be more glassy (although idk why you would do this). Warriors SHOULD have bridged the gap between the two, less tanky than a guardian but still fairly tough while still dealing consistent DPS but not being able to do as high of spike damage as a thief.

However, warriors current;y lack any true sustainability. Against a heavy condition build we simply crumble with no real way to mitigate or counter them on a constant basis like other classes. Healing shouts with soldier runes can at the maximum remove 4 conditions at a time, it sounds decent on paper but in practice the conditions are reapplied so quickly they overwhelm you. Runes of Lyssa with Signet of stamina is another choice, this gives you 2 full condition cleanses and with your Signet of rage every buff in the game for a few seconds. You run into the same problem as shouts here as well where your cleanses are on long cooldowns and stacks of bleeds and poison end up destroying you.

Have a perk that removed one condition for each bar of adren used on a cooldown would go a long way to helping with sustainability in PvP. Speaking of PvP, there needs to be a full PvE/WvW/PvPs split. This would allow warriors to get buffs in areas like PvP without totally destroying the other two parts of the game.

vorpal.1497:

Defektive’s Longbow was good before the patch, but now with Burst Mastery it is slightly better. I vary from it a little on the traits he chooses, but he’s got a good template. Most successful and fun warrior build out there at the moment IMO, though I have never touched mace builds… heh.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Defektive-s-tPvP-Longbow-GS-Warrior-Build

I’ve updated it with the newest perk and put it in my builder of choice for the sake of consistency. I like this builder more just because of the layout.

I hope to turn this thread into a spot for S/TPvPers to post they most viable builds. It would be best if we focused on TPvP, builds that fulfill a role in a competitive environment. I know our choices are limited currently but with the changes with the most recent patch I figured having a spot to keep track of our best options would be good fore all warriors still suffering in PvP. Any build posted that people think is viable I’ll copy and add to the original post. Please be critical but polite towards others posts and offer advice.

My submission: Pure DPS GS Roamer

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOxu1QyQMxBALjiA6yQJmUKarOA-TsAg0CnIQShkDJDSSksINKYBxGBA

Your basic 100b warrior, designed to kill them before they kill you. no real sustainability but it’s very good at support roaming or quickly getting to a point and helping the bunker defend. It can also kill mobs like Chief and Svanir very quickly which helps prevent stealing or even committing the theft. To finish foes use shield bash followed by Eviscerate for 100% crit chance.

Defektive’s tPvP Longbow/GS Warrior Build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQJATRjcOxu1QyQMxBCThiceQFmQe1j2Un4A-ToAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscNsYZB

Similar to the GS with Axe/Shield only with longbow and an emphasis on constantly laying down Combustion Shot.

Whiling axe has sub par DPS even with with combo field. Dual strike is also pretty mediocre. Shield provides a stun to keep the foe in the field, and is perfect for interrupting heals. Shield stance also gives you some much needed survivability. In PvP anyone with a brain will simply back off when you start spinning.

Vanthian.9267:

BurrTheKing.8571:

fost.9167:

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

I would say zerkers is superior to say Rampager’s because while the extra damage on the bleeds and fire may be nice your damage will probably suffer in the long run. I would use a rune set that deals with conditions but still be focused on damage.

Or you could go full condition damage and have your Longbow 5 do 16k damage in bleed damage over 20 seconds. I have bleed many a noob in WvW to death just but hitting them with Longbow 5 and 3. Pretty funny.

Is it great? Absolutely not. It is funny to hit someone with one skill and watch them auto down because they carry no condition removal? Yes….

That seems to be the problem with warrior in general atm. We have many builds that are close to being good but always fall short to something another class has. After I changed back to greatsword I was top scorer almost every match again, most of them from kills.

fost.9167:

Bump, what gears are you using? Do you go full zerker?

I would say zerkers is superior to say Rampager’s because while the extra damage on the bleeds and fire may be nice your damage will probably suffer in the long run. I would use a rune set that deals with conditions but still be focused on damage.

I don’t have a clever name for it as of yet but here’s the idea.

You lose one condition for each stage of adrenaline when you use a burst skill. (Cooldown 16 seconds)

It would be fantastic if the conditions would be removed as soon as you launch the attack, the reason for this is so that if you have blind applied to you as you launch your attack it will be removed first. This does have some potential problems however, if you miss the conditions would still be removed. It should only be useable during combat otherwise you could run from combat and use it to cleanse conditions.

Realistically the conditions would only be removed on hit. I feel that a trait like this would fit really well with the warrior design seeing as it would encourage you to use your burst skills. As for the placement it would probably fit best as a minor tactics trait because all the minor traits in that tree are generally worthless. The cooldown is so that you can only use it every 2 bursts.

As someone who plays warrior as a primary, no. As someone who also plays an Engi, yes and no. The problem I have with conditions is that some classes have a much easier time than others. Classes that get passive condition removal or a way to cleanse with minimal investment can get a bit more creative with their builds. Meanwhile, if I want really strong condition removal as a Engi I need to have Cleaning Formula 409, there are other ways to remove conditions but none as strong as that on engi.

Warriors have it even worse. Running Soldier runes with a warrior will make conditions hurt you a bit less sure, but as a result you’ll find yourself saving that FGJ as a clense rather than spamming it like you should be. Running “tanky” builds on a warrior doesn’t bring your sustainability anywhere near as good as what say guardians are capable of and the hit you take to your DPS doesn’t make it worth it outside of MAYBE WvW.

Runes of Lyssa with Signet of Stamina can get you 2 cleanses but both are around a 45 sec c/d even when traited and a condition centric build basically gets a free kill. Lyssa’s primary stat is also precision which isn’t as useful as other choices.

Quick breathing with warhorn doesn’t work proper on charge still as far as I’m aware and even if it did it’s still not removing that many conditions.

Across all classes condition removal should be more evenly distributed across all trees so that you don’t become locked into one tree if you want any sort of strong condition removal. As for classes that get it passively or with a low investment I’m not really sure what should be done about that.

At the very least we now have a place in TPvP.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAR3ejcOtu1QyQMxBALjiA6yQJmUKarOA-TsAg0CnI4SxljLDXSuscNKYBxGBA

A thief can do it with a lot less risk but we can kill our mob much faster than a thief which can get your team an early points lead and reduces the risk of it getting stolen.

gfox.6501:

I find the suggested GS/axe+shield quick burst setup also to be the most viable, or the one that actually serves some purpose for warriors in spvp. I also think that a thief can pull off that same hit and run tactic much more reliably with a lot less risk.

I agree on the risk, we can still fulfill the roll and possibly do it faster than a thief but we have no real utility to speak of.