Guild Wars 2

I feel like that rendering issue is what really makes them a bit imbalanced in addition to the speed of their attacks and how often they can use it. People complain about 100b wars but that build requires AT LEAST 2/3 of your utility skills and you always SEE the warrior coming and bulls charge is an ez dodge. While thief burst does have counters it basically REQUIRES having one of those skills. If you want to run burst as a warrior you are VERY exposed and it is just a fact that thief burst>Warrior burst.

Running a warrior geared for survival will have little trouble with thieves, but a more damage based war will have a lot more problems. I have a set of Berserker armor and like to run a burst build now and then especially in WvW where movement speed is important and running around with a hammer and CC build won’t kill people so fast 1v1. Thieves may be squishy but got so many tricks that setting up their burst is much easier than a warrior.

I agree with just replacing it with an offensive shout with around a 60 sec C/D. Maybe a AoE stun or knockdown like it’s been suggested but maybe a buff like retaliation or protection for a time. Warrior definitely needs more variety in terms of elites.

Yah, I considered that, it’s just so much fun reflecting Killshot or rangers attacks. I used to run the shield trait but I felt that the extra dmg when you stun them is a nice little burst.

I have seen yours before, I do like it. Is mine OK build wise? I’m honestly not as good at build making yet as I was in GW1, as even there Wars had more viable builds that could counter the meta.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNAS8encOEFcyDOPwEZAB9AL4CBUVgOSPKD0INA;TsAA1CtoyyklILbWuskZtEZIyGEA

As many of us who play warrior in SPvP atm know that our build choices are pretty limited if you want to as effective as possible in a PUG environment. Most commonly now we see healing shouts with full soldiers runes for it’s survivability. Unfortunately, this survivability also comes with much less damage. My version of the build focuses on gaining Might and keeping might to deal a bit more damage without having to spec out of Defense and Tactics. It’s not insane damage like glass cannon GS but with the 10 stacks of vulnerability and at LEAST 8 stacks of might at any one time. I still can’t decide if I like Mighty Defense or Inspiring Shouts more. Mighty Defense is AWESOME if you use it at the right time, in a brawl you could find yourself with a full stack of Might especially on thieves/100b wars. I use sword/shield set because I feel sword is a great distance closer so I can use 3 shouts and still be mobile and have a counter to burst.

So, what variants do you guys use? I’m looking for maybe a more damage oriented Hammer build because all the CC isn’t worth jack if NO ONE ON YOUR TEAM FOCUSES ON THE GUY YOU HAVE LAID OUT ON HIS BACK! deep breath. I like SPvP but hate it because of the people on it who think 1v1 performance is the most important thing. The need to reward much more glory for wins so much that people actually go for it.

It is a very annoying skill to use if you are using it to attack. They need to allow you to cancel it easily, make it able to run up small obstacles….like slight bumps in the terrain, and make it swing as soon as it’s in range.

As it is not I only use it to chase or to escape. On that note, they need to make skills like Savage leap and Rush only chase targets if you are locked on or make that a option in settings.

I used Axe/Warhorn a lot on launch and really like the survivability of the whole thing. However, on your build rather than having that 10 pts in Defense into Discipline and get Sharpened Axes for that extra dmg and still keeps with your fast adren gain idea. I would go with Rifle for a ranged option and with volley and Kill shot that’s a good amount of burst dmg (If they fixed Bolas that + Killshot I find is pretty deadly). Rifle also has a good emergency knockback on it’s 5 skill. Honestly, I’d even have maybe a full set of Runes of Rage and lean more towards a build that is more about damage with a good amount of health with a good crit chance that gives you more survivability than your average glass cannon GS user.

Personally, I just inherently knew that there would be a low chance of certain skins, especially the best looking ones. ANet has ALWAYS loved making things like these skins rare items. To them, they want everyone to feel cool but reserve the AWESOME looking stuff for those willing to put forth the effort.

Yes, they should have provided detailed stats of your chances, but honestly when I saw the word “chance” I knew it be a rare drop. I bought around $30 worth of chest and got the medium shoulders only, but I wasn’t mad because I knew that there was probably a low chance to begin with.

Buyer beware, I do not feel misled and appreciate them adding a second chance in the form of the Mad King Chests.

The game doesn’t have a monthly fee, so look at it this way, if you don’t buy gems for the next few months you’ll still have paid less than your traditional $15/month MMORPG.

Edelweiss.9815:

The score in sPvP games doesn’t mean much, I’d even say that it means you’re underperforming if it’s too high.

To achieve the highest score you just need to circle-zerg with your team, killing outnumbered defenders and getting 20 points for every killed player plus 20 points for every capped point. That’s what all PuG sPvP teams are doing at the moment. Can’t blame people for doing that, that’s what the game rewards you for, a winning bonus is 25 point, it’s just not worth it.

There are different Thieves. The “experimental” types that run evasive SB, P/P, P/D and other unconventional builds and the cookie cutter Thieves that mastered the broken laggy Stealth and crazy scaling attacks. You won’t have much of a problem with the first ones, generally speaking, but it’s the second type that will destroy you. More and more people are learning correct rotations with their Thieves. Next time you’re in PvP try taking a mental note of what Thieves are you fighting against, see the death log and you will start noticing Backstab and Heartseeker numbers being on top quite often.

Axe/Axe is alright, but it offers a steady flow of damage, and being in melee doesn’t allow you to constantly stay on the target. OH Axe is also a bit weak in terms of the damage it provides, Dual Strike is quite weak and doesn’t deal a lot of damage, and we still have SoR and other sources of Fury, so the secondary effect isn’t good; Whirling Axe is a very low damaging ability, it’s main strength is combo triggering, which is difficult to use in disorganized PuG PvP. GS is so good because it doesn’t leave any room for defense or retaliation, you knockdown and execute 100b in 1.5 seconds, the target is now dead and a 3v3 became a sure-win 2v3.

I’ve been having success with said cookie cutter thieves by listening for the BS/HS sounds that comes just before they strike or just seeing them stealth. The second I notice either I dodge then switch to Axe/Shield and pop shield stance. It’ll either force the guy to back off which means you hopefully catch them unstealthed, or they’ll attack and blow their combo. When they do this a shield bash followed by switching back to GS and doing your burst combo prob = dead thief. If it’s a smart thief it seems smarter to just Rush out of the area and again look for the unstealth or hope it goes for someone else at which point you can interrupt them.

SItuation permitting you could eat the backstab THEN shield stance for an almost guaranteed block of most of the combo and they’ll be left open for your burst, but that’s really risky but good thieves running the build just assume that they win when the first strike hits.

You can hit like a tactical nuke and a GS+Mobile Strikes with “Shake it Off”(As opposed to Sig of Str) and if that isn’t doing it for you Mending with the Restorative Strength perk if you REALLY have snare issues and you’ll have most of the burst damage (Tad less because no Sig) that the copy/paste GS wars have but have much more survivability. Bring an Axe/Shield alt set to counter enemy spikes. Honestly with all that cond removal you could possibly afford to bring the Healing Surge which heals for a good bit more. People in Pugs will still insult you for being a GS war but a bit of creativity will show them that you’re not just another chump. I like to throw 10 pts into tactics for some extra HP and grab Leg Specialist for both GS 4 and Axe 3 to snare. Also used on other melee bursters with leaps that 1 sec imob can totally ruin their combo or make retreat harder.

People are used to the same old GS war build so when you pullout a few different tricks it can throw them for a loop. Especially since so many have a offhand hammer which they waste a burst skill when a shield with a rune of hydromancy and a quick evis then a bash to stop a heal has the same effect but with the perk of Shield Stance. Just my personal experience because I ran a defensive heal shouts hammer build and in Pugs so few are willing to help take down the guy your CCing.

Oh god…you could get pit fighters from Karma…..I spent a lot of $ buying the exotics for the skin. I hate myself now. The woes of an incomplete wiki.

I’m starting to see people finally getting wise to Bulls+100b. As a result I’ve been trying Axe/Warhorn and rifle. There’s a perk called Quick Breathing that has horn skills remove conditions and replace it with a boon. Coupled with mending conditions are much less annoying. I need to test this more but I’ve been trying to run utility skills similar to 100b but using Bolas+Frenzy with a rifle with a sigil of intel to hit a fast, buffed Kill Shot volly. With axehorn you’re also very mobile (although prob not as good as gs with that rush). Thieves/mesmers are what I have the most issue with.

I tried to run a dual sword build that applied massive bleed. It worked in theory but against tanky builds or burst damage builds, especially thieves, it just didn’t match up. I switched to GS after it and it’s simply preferable in a PUG to be able to instantly take someone out. Perhaps the spec would be better in organized PvP where teamwork actually happens. This is why I dislike how “Burst” builds work in this game. In GW1 burst damage could do MAYBE 75% of a targets HP, it was meant to SUPPORT another guy doing steady damage. ATM if a burst thief and burst warrior meet whoever reacts faster just wins. In PUGs running any sort of supportive build like KD hammer will keep the opponent pinned but the damage is so low you need someone to actually assist you. Until then PUGs will just be half thieves/Mesmers running high damage builds.

I’ve been noticing a trend whilst playing SPvP. I have found several builds that could be called Viable, meaning that the setup of the build is optimal. All the perks/armor/weapons/runes/sigils are best set up for that build. One such example is a double sword build that focuses on crit and bleed stacks. While this build works, it simply loses out to current Meta builds (mostly thieves/mesmers, of course they beat most things atm). It feels that no matter what build I set up that ISN’T a GS 100 Blades combo build just doesn’t match up to said build. it does feel that without that build or a pure KD hammer/mace build with healing shouts you are hurting yourself.

Personally, I don’t enjoy GS all that much. I’d really like to see some of the other possibilities such as condition based builds either brought up to that level, or all the current Meta builds for every class that uses quickness brought down (honestly the only fix I can think of is outright removal). By the nature of SPvP atm it is preferable to run a build that does massive damage and kills an enemy outright than to run a build that has a more steady output of damage.

I see a lot of potential builds, but I have still yet to find any that stand up to the 100b builds. Also, I find that build not to poorly balanced due to the fact that it honestly isn’t that hard to dodge, but that chance to insta-kill someone for an early lead makes it more valuable. If they don’t remove quickness than they may have to just nerf ALL burst damage builds on every class otherwise it’ll be GW1 all over.

XD That would require a lot of Asuran heavy machinery.

No big deal just a missing “to.” IDK if this has been pointed out before but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to let you know.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.2.8.4.0.21.0.0.0.0.29.31.35.34.50.2.2.26.78.85.0.91.97.101.0.0.0.121.129.0.0.0.0.20.30.0.20.0

The basic idea is that the popular Greatsword crit builds deal a lot of damage but have much less survivability. By having the rifle as the main weapon you avoid being in the fray as much. While you sacrifice some damage because you put points into Tactics, the ability to remove conditions and gain boons and having some extra HP helps increase survivability further. If it’s PvE you can swap Bolas and leg specialist for something else.

Basically, I went Berserker because it’s the armor that basically all dungeon sets have so I can have the armor I want no matter what. Some dungeon armor has stats for more tanky builds…but doesn’t look nearly as cool as CoF armor XD.