https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Definite-WvW-Warrior-God-Build-GS/1187896
I have a sword~shield build that uses GS as the secondary set. It’s somewhere in that thread =)
sword/anything else. sword = mobility, decent dmg, cripple, immobilize burst skill, and all other offhands compliment well. Sheild gives slight invuln/stun, warhorn gives mobility/vigor and takes off some conditions or converts if speced for it, axe does great aoe dps, mace is nice aoe knockdown and vulnerability on single targets, and offhand sword is probably least favorited, but it can provide bleeds easily and rip does some good dmg (minus the long cast time). Your best bet are the first 4 with sword main hand. I personallly think sword is better than mace/axe as the second set when combined with GS, unless you want eviscerate, go axe.
Try a boon build out. If he went full P/V/T and mixed some Precision/crit dmg gems with this build foundation. He can still be tanky and do good dmg.
Similar to my build, Cheers. See if there is something you can grab from my build to help you
Sigils internal CD don’t stack, even if you switch between weapons, sure footed barely works and using endure pain isn’t worth it if your not using frenzy most of the time. If Earthshaker is to obvious, use bolas throw/bulls charge to start a chain lock of stuns/immob/knock before u use it. perhaps 10 into strength to make ur heal remove cripple/chill/immobilize, to better improve your odds of not getting kited, or using sword/warhorn to have a better chance against enemies who kite you. having multiple gap closers/immobilize would greater increase ur chance of keeping an enemy close to you. I personally run sword/sheild-GS for maximum mobility and utility with bull rush means almost 5 gap closers (sheild bash has a small gap closer but good pathing+stun).
I found that this really helps make it hard to get away from me. perhaps sword/warhorn-hammer would better suit you, since warhorn gives swiftness+signet of rage is almost perma swift, which is great for hammer, since it lacks mobility in itself besides earthshaker.
Just a Boon guide build i made thats for use with any weapon. It was a support/dps build that worked well with both Condition and power builds. Its a jack of all trades build that is really strong in PvE/WvW. Just figure u can look at it to get maybe some other ideas to help you perfect your build. I got two warriors, and one strictly runs this one with condition dmg, Sword-sword/Longbow. I can keep over 1700+ condition dmg up and perma swift with this build. My second warrior runs a strict sword/sheild dps build with GS for mobility. Both are incredibly fun builds imo.
Class designs were supposed to be balanced via tPvP wise, and warriors are practically non existent in paid tourneys. Not to mention even the Devs scoff at warriors and how no one wants one in their Team. They even mentioned some of the problems with the warrior, (cripple/kiteable skills) make warriors meat sticks in the middle of someones Aoe. You can always ignore opinions, but i think if even devs admit they need to give warriors something else to be more viable in tPvP than i think i stand sided with those wanting some way to get protection. It makes it so warriors can bunker or not get blown into pieces before getting kited around in any environment (WvW/PvP). PvE content is a whole other story, I just dont like how i can’t be a tank like a guardian and sit around 5+ mobs in fractals/dungeons and literally stay above 75% hp all the time. Heck id trade 75% of my dps just to sit around and do that.
Please try to play a warrior in tPvP before you guess why so many offers for protection boon be made to warriors. Unless you got another idea as to how to make warriors viable for competitive play, or should warriors just stay as PvE content?
For the first build you posted, if you have stamina signet and signet of rage, i suggest getting signet mastery over shouts giving adrenaline. 12 seconds from signet of rage and 9 seconds from signet of stamina, is nothing to ignore. Especially since i assume you will be activating them often. More uptime on them, is better i think for both dmg and survivability than shouts giving adrenaline, so long as u switch weapons constantly and hit stuff, and since u traited for getting hits gives you adrenaline, you should have more than enough adrenaline gains before the cd of your next burst skill come up.
Im guessing the only really strong use of it would be to kill shot or eviscerate as your opening move. Or try to maximize the adrenaline traits early. Personally i think it would make kill shot a one shot wonder in roaming status around wvw and be a tad too strong. Idk really what else it could affect beyond that.
If you ask me, #1 problem is kiteability factor of warriors…. its obnoxious…. melee warriors of course. Cripple, immobilize, chill. Its the fact that its so easy to kite melee warriors, then give warriors more tanking ability to make time for them to have a chance to catch ranged classes without getting stopped before even making it there to swing a sword even once. If the OP can explain to me how warriors can be so effective in melee combat without getting kited/stopped in place all the time and surviving the distance to the enemy without dying midway because of all the ways to make a warrior limp to his enemy. The only current solution is to make a way for warriors to be tankier via protection to survive getting into range, and staying in front a zerg of people and not dying in a blink of an eye. If there is another, I would like to hear it.
Of course we can also ignore the devs admitting that warriors get completely stomped by cripple or any slow of course.
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)
I think lyssa runes would be your best bet for guaranteed protection and removes all conditions. Allows you to spec a bit more differently if you think you got enough condition removal. Only down side to lyssa runes imo, is that its use is that your signet of rage will be not activated until you feel you want to. So swiftness/might/fury wont be up prior to battle, or you could activate early if u feel you will kill during the 5+ seconds you get the boons for. Or save it for when you need a mass removal of conditions.
^ this. Imo Protection is only Really OP if it wasn’t removable. Personally i would like to see a skill that mitigates AOE damage more than anything, cause regardless of where you play (WvW/PvE/tPvP/sPvP) Aoe damage is what really hurts the most for warriors in close combat. Even a small % would be viable. It would help make warriors more in your face, and stay in zerg or small skirmishes front lines more often like a guardian.10-20% wouldn’t be too strong, and we probably would have to trait defensively for it, and lose dps to do it. At the very least, let it activate when when you are being hit by an AOE attack that also hits an ally. Just don’t know why warriors feel less in your face than they should be.
Yea P/V/T gear + Hammer/mace-sheild can be in your face and disruptive in a zerg, but will still die more or less to aoe spam/conditions regardless as to how much condition removal a warrior had, not to mention how kiteable a hammer/mace-sheild warrior would be. Not to nit-pick or be stale, warriors are strong in many aspects, obviously not the best at everything or anything in particular, but im wondering how the devs imagined warriors to be like >.<
I got a glassy build to offer, but i dont die with it very often in WvW.
Full zerk gear/trinkets (Divinity runes of i could afford) for now using ruby orbs/exquisite jewels
Sword-Sheild/GS
20/0/20/0/30 <→ 10/0/20/10/30 (just to get leg specialist, sometimes)
Traits – Berserk Power/Slashing power/Turtle defense/Shield mastery/heightened focus/signet mastery/(sweet vengeance <→ mobility strikes)
Healing surge/balance stance/(bulls charge <→ bolas)/signet of stamina/signet of rage
Reasoning – never use burst skill, unless i know flurry>HB will land. With max adrenaline, you get max benefits from regen/healing surge/berserker power/heightened focus. Signet of stamina means more mobile and survivability, and its activation is great for escaping when you need to get out of fight using balance stance. Bulls rush/bolas are just extra engage tools to catch or lock down a target. Signet of stamina/rage are on low cooldowns, and this build is slippery. Shield helps mitigate damage, and interrupt/invuln when i need that 3 seconds to get my escapes ready. Savage leap/WW/Rush/bulls charge (if up) with swiftness. Sounds kinda sad, but most of my utilities are for getting pigeon holed so that i can get away and come back when im at full health.
Also interesting thing to note, hardest part about melee classes is the abilities that don’t bring you to your target, or as in pathing into the enemy. With Whirlwind/savage leap, you get to deal damage while dodging and reengage on the enemy constantly on a short interval. Combine with bulls rush/sheild-bash and even rush (i know it has bad pathing) at long distances, you can stick to target well. Of course, everyone has their own play style and builds, just throwing out mine.
I agree, and i feel shield should give it or trait into defense or tactic tree to have a way to get protection from using shield. If not shield, at least some way to activate it willingly, for a certain amount of time, helps get into zergs/fights and when boon is down, to jump back and wait for another moment to jump back in.
Some would argue that protection warrior is OP though =\, high health pool naturally and heavy armor (<— BS imo). But either way, any way to make warriors a tad tankier would be nice or skills that benefit in melee range.
My thoughts on how anet can fix warriors and their traits/skills, there should be a distinction between melee and range affects on certain traits/skills. For example, Last Chance in arms tree should activate every 60 second or 45 in melee range while 90 at long range is fair.
I feel warriors are just a tad gimpy at close range, and having frenzy in a zerg is a no-no in my opinion, unless your running endure pain, which would mean only 3 seconds not 5 (bug). I feel like warriors need to able to gain more defenses or some way to go berserk in melee combat, that it does not affect the ranged weapons/rifle-longbow builds to become OP.
Perhaps a trait where we get a bonus in toughness for being surrounded by more than 5 enemies in combat within a certain radius. Its interesting to me that we only have one skill that really differs in comparison to range (Fear me) and it makes it so that its benefits are best seen in melee range. If we had other skills that made warriors more prone to go into close combat and use skills that gain more benefits in close combat, i feel warriors can feel a lot more like warriors. Just some thoughts on how i feel a class should feel like a juggernaut, then again, warrior does have some strong skills in melee range that already makes them strong. Just feel a tad squishy compared to other classes, most of the time (regardless of build – class design).
If anyone has other ideas or thoughts, much appreciated.
I just wondered what the community thought if we had a way to get the frenzy stance from abominations? You know the one where every time they attack the get a stack of frenzy that makes them attack faster and (do a bit more damage?).
I noticed alot of the PvE characters/mobs relate to some class similarly and their skills. Just wondered if we could have had that on warriors. It would work similarly but less OP. If we get stunned/knocked back, the stacks would drop, but that would make warriors more designed to really go “Berserk” compared to our berserk stance which just gives us adrenaline.
I see the problem that lies with this, if someone uses GS/rifle, a warrior can easily stack alot of frenzy, but if the frenzy had an internal cooldown of like 2 seconds and make it only for melee attacks, it could make tanky warriors still have some bite. Just wondered where that stance could be gained on a class, which makes sense for a warrior to have.
Any thoughts on whether we should have that, or what we could propose to make more warriors “Berserk”?
Whirlwind, best aoe/movement and evasion skill on low CD.
HB is just a nice Dps finish/PvE skill, and rush gives massive space coverage.
Can’t get that with any other weapon in warrior arsenal period.
Honestly, i disliked GS for a long time cause everyone rolled with it, but after getting used to its abilities and learning to switch weapons constantly when your other sets CD’s are up, GS is godly.
IMO whirlwind is super strong, its like a third roll that does great aoe burst dmg and moves you to any location.
Still think Physical utilities could use the secondary abilities that you can activate after you initiated the first ability. It would add alot of diversity and more complicated tactics like peeling people with bulls charge/kick, or catch a group of people with stomp and make bolas throw able to pull someone from ledges of towers/keeps.
Honestly any kind of rework for warriors to make them more dynamic would be much more appreciated. We do get fast hands, which seems to be our most dynamic and specialized trait, but if they give us that, they should at-least make adrenaline skills shorter cooldown or rework adrenaline completely. Such a mess all over the trees and in design =\.
Either way, we could use some rework in the traits at the very least.
agreed, i feel it would be cool, but signet of rage only gives us boons (strippable) and RaO has a fixed 20 sec of that aura which is to relate to the (stance?) effect.
Don’t let warriors health pool fool you =\
No protection boon or aegis, and just barely enough condition removal to scream for.
Trust me the health pool looks nice, but it really is empty glass water unless you stack some toughness on that warrior.
Personally i like swords main abilities except offhand. If you were geared the same and had the proper traits, even with frenzy, the dps is pretty close to a hundred blade user, albeit not that high, it will kill. Savage leap already at 8 sec cd is super awesome cause its pathing is good, long range. If it had cripple, its cd would need to be reworked to 15 sec like sword skill 3. Most people don’t know the real beauty of skill 3 for sword is that its the only aoe melee cripple for one hand users, the only other aoe cripple would be from hammer. So you can cripple up to 3 people in a decent arc (not that large but still more than 1) and if you spec into leg specialist you get the immobilize on them all.
The offhand on the otherhand needs rework.
@runeblade , Well i like the idea that the second actiavtional abilities are optional, not required to use, for example if i had kick and i was just trying to push them away to run or to kick back to my zerg/team and continue on, i dont need to leap back into that target. I just thought it would be cool for a warrior to be able to have some more moveable cc/moves in the utility skills.
Bolas throw and bulls charger are really strong as they are, considering their cds, maybe stomp might be a tad bit long on cooldown, and it does have a blowout. But kick is rather questionable to its uses.
Although i like that idea, i feel every warrior will have the need to implement 30 in strength just to get protection for that long O.O
and Physical Training sounds weird with Bull rush or Stomp, maybe kick, not so much bolas throw. I see that you want to make the last traits in Strength better,
I think maybe making a better stance besides berserker stance, since adrenaline gain is rarely used or cared for since all burst skills have internal cooldown of 10 sec and 8 with 30 in discipline.
I kinda wanted them to try to make Stances cooldown reduced by 20% because its ridiculous T.T, and perhaps make the physical training to give utilities a chance to have a secondary effect after use that compliments their use, For example:
Bolas throw – also cripples for 5 sec after immobilize
Stomp – Confusion for 3 sec after the knockdown
Bulls charge – 5 stack of vulnerability after knockdown for 5 sec
Kick – Gain a swiftness for 5 sec
either that or give it a second activation spell that has a window period like
3-8 seconds to use the same skill again that does something else like:
Throw Bolas – After use you can pull target closer to you for a set distance (like 450 range or something)
Stomp – Second stomp that does damage and cripples them
Bulls charge – second activation would throw target behind you
Kick – leap at target after kicking them
Just ideas and of course tweak cooldowns for balance, but i feel this would make warriors more dynamic and more fun to use utility skills, just my thoughts.
Hmm well if you want to combine builds into a more general wvw build, Greatsword offers more utility and movement with slightly less damage than axe. It really depends on what weapons you really want to utilize. Axe offers damage/ greatsword has damage and movement/ bow is more aoe dmg and condition and control. For roaming and wanting to use both axe and greatsword it will be the standard glass cannon GS/axe-shield build.
of course traits are up to you on the discipline tree and the deep cuts can be something else if you prefer, even though i think the dps you get from the extra bleed duration is better. You can also go 5 more into arms and take 5 out of discipline to get the 10% dmg when opponent is bleeding, which can happen often since you will probably crit often to proc the 33% chance to bleed. It is really up to you, but yes you can mix builds around to your liking. This build will be squishy unless you get some knight gear for your armor. If you want crit damage, always prioritize earrings/amulet/sockets over armor pieces (helm/leggings/coat worst to give crit dmg). The stat per % of crit damage is bad on those pieces of armor.
You can keep telling how you want your build to be, i will help the best i can.
IMO rework adrenaline system completely (so hard to make it work with so many weapon bursts being different), or make it so that every 5 points in discipline changes the burst skill of each weapon differently (gives more diversity for each weapon and build/makes more warriors place their points into discipline depending on what burst skill they want from their weapon) or make it % recharge rate as it would be the only reasonable % aspect to the skills. I really think adrenaline build up sounds nice in paper, but it is quite lacking in uses for warriors. Only reason to go 30 into discipline is for the crit dmg. Wish they could find an alternative system for warriors, perhaps something centered around stances (like different stances for defense/offense/movement or something, just ideas). Still think anet could do better job at fixing our Special Skill department.
I didn’t say that you couldn’t use food for your build. Food is definitely a supplement for the runes if you want to do so. By all means do so, I restrict myself from using food cause I’m lazy and cheap =P, but yes you can do that. Lots of rune choices do open up if you decide to supplement the missing boon duration with food. The basis for which the build works, is on grabbing boon duration to obtain perma swift/fury/might for the gains. How you manage to achieve that is your own. You could even say keep the runes and switch the 30 from tactics out to anything of your choice and still get the perma boon affects and get more from your other traits . Another reason I like to run these runes is because most other useful rune choices are very expensive. This build is open to anything a person wants.
That is the sad part =\, I know guardians can do it better, it is the fact that I have a level 80 warrior and that I am a bit stubborn in trying to make the warrior work. I might actually level a guardian sooner or later, but for the time being, I want to try to see what I can create with the warriors traits and abilities.
I see, well the point of boon duration, is for more than just vigor. The build isn’t aimed at tPvP either, it is interesting to note that it can be viable. Its just the idea of being self reliant (as i see this being the major theme anet tried to go for in GW2) in terms of obtaining damage/fury/swiftness on a warrior is pretty fun. I don’t know what extent boon duration really is viable in terms of PvP or any other area. It is known to me that having perma swift/fury/might does help with the dps drop some other builds don’t cover when you build tanky.
^That is true. I really like boon duration though, and I like the idea of having tons of boons. (Not that it makes us get the boons we want like protection and regeneration)
I see shouts as more effective via Dungeon/PvE/WvW play. Indeed In terms of Point control, banner is more useful.
I see, I didn’t even know that this spec could even be considered viable via tPvP. Well the basis for the build was to make it an all around approach for any weapon or style a person wanted to go.
30 points in tactics means..
You’re a roaming initiator or a point holder. Both can work, but it takes time to actually learn how.
Are you referring to tPvP?
Link to a boon Guide I made for anyone who reads this forum
Links to other Guides
Max Adrenaline Guide
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Max-Adrenaline-Abuse-Universal-Guide/first#post1246880
Various Builds
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Various-Builds-for-Warriors-General-Guide/first#post1251107
[Possible Other Builds Coming]
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)
Example of how I use Boon Duration:
MY BUILD
It is a Sword/Sword – Longbow/Rifle build. Yes it is condition based, but because of my gear, I do have decent survivability and sustained dps from power equipment.
0/30/0/30/10
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1525|1523|1063|0|0|0|0|30|1057|1510|1
Armor -
Full Galraths Armor (Condition/Precision/Toughness) <— Back piece is also C/P/T
Trinkets –
Full Carrion (Condition/Power/Vitality)
With Full Exquisite Chrysocola Jewels (same as carrion)
Sigils – Preference
I used Earth/Doom for sword, and Smoldering for Longbow (force for Rifle)
Stats – without perma boons
Power = 1256
Precision = 1596
Toughness = 1386
Vitality = 1546
Attack = 2336 (condition dmg = 1295)
Crit Chance = 36% (46%with sword)
Armor = 2597
Health = 24672 (armor to health ratio is almost ideal (1:10 ratio is ideal))
Stats – With Perma boons (16 stacks of might (95% of the time), swiftness and fury)
(only showing the stats affected by might)(fury gives 20% more crit chance btw)
Power = 1816
Attack = 2896 (condition dmg = 1855)
I run normally, Shake it off/For great justice/ Sigil of might (i can keep it up for 18 sec of +5 might if i want damage with 2 sec off time) or stability stance *it stays up for 13.5 sec with this boon duration build, or any other utility i feel i may need. My heal is adrenaline rush for the spike heals and adrenaline gain.
Cons
Of course everything has a weakness and so does this foundation. Boon transfers/removers would drop your dps/movement significantly. It isn’t too bad considering the intervals to restack the boons aren’t too bad, and speccing more dps would better round out this weakness. Another con is that we aren’t specialized in any specific area other than being well rounded. That means, this build probably won’t work in tPvP. Again, this build foundation was sort of a way to make warriors above average in all and not feel we would suffer greatly from it. I still believe that the pros of boon duration outweighs the cons, but I am sure I don’t know everything about warriors and am still learning more things everyday.
DISCOVERIES
A few things I found while experimenting that I did not come across through research on forums or web. If anyone else found these things, I am sorry to have been late to the party.
- A secret to condition builds is, that its tick dmg is based on your condition dmg at the moment, not when you applied them, which means if you had 8 stacks of might when you Flurry (F1 skill from main hand sword) on an enemy and then for great justice and proced sigil of might, the next ticks will jump in damage by the extra 8 stacks of might that you just obtained.
- Blocks from skill 5 from sword/or skill 2 from mace did reflect projectiles when traited in the defense tree, (heard it no longer works as of 12/14/12 patch)
- As of (12/14/12 patch) do not get fast hands (15 in discipline) if you wish to constantly spam banner/aoe might stacks as there is a bug that makes you have a swap cooldown for dropping/picking up the banner.
- Knockdown skills do not benefit from Merciless hammer damage increase, only skills that clearly state (stun) on them give the 25% damage increase, Unknown if bug or intended, It has been stated (too lazy to find source) that Knockdown and Stun were supposedly the same.
CONCLUSION
I hope this opens a window for many people rolling warrior or avid warrior players. If you already know about this builds ideas than I guess this isn’t much help to you. I was initially going to keep it to myself, but I figured that helping other warriors see some kind of “fun” in their build and character can exist through this foundation. I accept any criticism or comments that can better help tweak and refine the warrior builds that exist. If this helped you in any way, I would be satisfied with a simple thanks. If you wish to criticize please provide helpful feedback and maturity in your responses. Thank you.
(Sorry for the Long Post >.<)
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)
BASIS & VARIATIONS
This is how the foundation works.
- 30 in Tactics for 30% boon duration and 3,000 health is nice bonus.
- 10 in Discipline for Signet mastery (20% cooldown reduction)
- 2 Sup. Runes of Monk/Water, (I prefer last 2 Sup. Runes to be Hoelbrak) – This in
Total gives (30% boon duration with 20% might duration (80% with the boon duration) , and the 50 healing/25 power help)
This leaves you with 30 trait points (a full tree to jump in/or spread out) to prioritize what weapon you wish to use the build with. 2 utility slots (For great justice and signet of rage are almost non-negotiable) and any healing skill you wish. +I understand that some people would want perhaps battle standard in some scenarios, and that is possible with this build (not needing to change traits because 30 into tactics is for banners as well) + allows for team perma regen.
Over all the basis for boon duration build covers a lot of areas warriors are strong in, without giving up too much in dps, or survivability. The variations are really wide. An example of a few:
(I assume people know what traits to get for their weapon/build as I will be
labeling only the trait allocations)
- Great sword Might Stacker/Shout healer
10/20/0/30/10 (easy 25 stacks of might in most fights, with shouts for small aoe heals, and support for a team.) - Hammer semi-bunk/Sword-Warhorn Support
0/0/30/30/10 (extremely tanky, retaliation boon (Unverified if its duration is
prolonged) is possible in WvW/PvP and access to adrenal gain + endure pain. Specing for warhorn in tactics tree helps team rid of aoe condition, and obtain random boons + swiftness and vigor for whole team.) - Sword-Axe/Longbow (Whirling axe/fire condition damage/Fire shield) Banner
20/0/0/30/20 (combo field usage, Aoe might stacking with banners that give regen, with might stacks, both fire and axe do damage, stability from battle standard can be used or stability stance (13.5 seconds duration with 60% boon))
This list isn’t limited to just these. I can name a few traits people can notice to be helpful in this kind of build that other builds seem to not take effect of:
Empowered – I believe it is 2% damage increase per a boon, it isn’t verified to work either, but I have tested and seem to have gained some damage increase with the 3 perma boons (should total 6% – Unknown if there is a % cap).)
Restorative Strength – With the signet cooldown reduction, signet of healing can remove certain (slowdown/weakness) conditions every 16 sec and provide some healing, used with 15 in defense tree can mean that you still have some of the health regen lossed from the activated signet.
Furios Reaction – Not the best of traits, but if you are in the tree and want vigor and are not stat-ed for toughness/vitality this trait can work for you. 10% of your health dropped will give you 10 sec of fury/vigor which equates to 16 seconds with boon duration.
I love the basis for boon duration due to how well they seem to synchronize with other abilities/traits we normally can’t use. My guide on this idea is very broad to say, so if you have any ways to tweak and create a build of your own with this foundation, it is highly encouraged.
ARMORS/STATS
This actually is the best part of this whole foundation for Boon Duration. You can literally mix and match armor/trinket pieces with many different stats to prioritize what you wish to increase (without too much sacrifice in other areas). If you want to go tanky with some decent damage, go Power/toughness/vitality and you will still have some Crit chance from fury to increase dps and might stacks for more power. If you want to go more supportive, you can get healing power/Toughness/Power and you won’t lose out too much on damage and still have an effective health pool due to heals (I assume shout build).
This is the part where you can really choose how your build and shape your warrior to your liking.
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)
Hi, My name is CoaxialMazer and I have a build that I theorized on my own, and I’m sure someone out there probably has come across this idea or there has been a guide on it somewhere (reddit/earlier beta/forum), but I haven’t been able to find it. Thus I make this guide for those who want to try warrior from a new perspective. This build has two parts [The basic idea I was aiming for] and [The actual build I use].
INTRO OF ME
I started out as a thief way before I knew how Strong they were and how powerful their skill sets where. I ran a straight glass cannon thief (full zerk/Ruby orbs) and I knew I was smashing people way to easy in WvW or sPvP (of course I had my shares of deaths too). Heartseeker is extremely strong, Backstab was ridiculous, and pistol whip was fun to abuse. Either way, I soon remembered how badly I loved to be a melee class with brute force (Warrior). All MMO’s i ever played, I always love being that Tanky/Dps kind of in your face style. So i re-rolled warrior after putting my thief aside. After playing thief, I realized how different the two classes were. Thief was definitely harder hitting burst (single target of course), and I felt thief utility/skills were more dynamic. Many escapes that I used on thief didn’t exist on the warrior.
I figured that wouldn’t be a problem if I went Tanky anyways. Well that’s when I noticed my biggest problems with warrior. Most people agree that for any build, regardless of class, we would need to prioritize 3-4 stats (power/precision/crit dmg/condition/etc.). And of course, reading about warriors, I came to the conclusion that Greatsword was our best Dps/Mobility weapon in the game (also realized that about 80-90% of the warriors running around use one). I am a person who is obsessed to play against the grain (Play with builds/weapons others don’t prefer), and try to make them work. Its a challenge I love to pursue, especially when those builds work.
I love swords because its not overly used, and dual wielding them looks as cool as a giant Greatsword on someones back. I don’t like swords cause they are so hard to make them work efficiently =(. I have had a tough time making anything work with them, not to mention how swords offer more utility than damage (I was seeking dps at this time of testing). And so I probably tested 20-40+ builds in 2 weeks, (mostly theorized and played around in sPvP – which i know is not the best place to test) but I did learn an enormous amount about warriors (abilities/skill sets/combinations).
I finally came to a build that suited my taste.
THEORY
I mentioned earlier that most people would agree that any class and build had stat prioritizing (3-4 stats). The build I came up with solved a little problem with warrior that I seem to find constantly showing up (you give dps – you lose survivability, and vice versa). Now i know everyone can say that’s the same with every class, but I disagree slightly because I believe most other classes abilities help manage their health and conditions easier than warriors (especially since warriors are in melee distance constantly, unless your a rifle/bow warrior).(opinionated)
A number of people and posts have shown that warriors are sort of (Jack of all trades, Master of none). This may or may not be true, but I did find a way I think can help make this an Above average in all compared to just balanced in all.
The build consists of 40 points dedicated in traits to obtain 30% boon duration and signet mastery to obtain reduced cooldowns on signets, along with 2 superior runes of Monk/Water to obtain 30% more boon duration and a 2 superior runes (any that give might duration).
This build allowed me to have permanent swiftness/fury/11+ might stacks. Reasons for wanting this:
- Swiftness – easier for warrior to stick to target while attacking, and stay with a group
- Fury – 20% crit chance helps DPS regardless of build
20% crit chance ~ 420 Precision - 11 Might stacks – Power and Condition damage (385 to each)
- Any other boon you may give to an ally would also be
increased by 60% of the duration.
That is tons of stat bonuses and perks that are helpful to any build. This allowed me to trait slightly more focused on my weapon and made it so that even if I went tanky on my stats from armor/trinkets, I still had a good increase in DPS.
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)
^ did soldier runes ever work with warhorn?
I love this idea, cause it would make a build oriented on having to build adrenaline, and berserkers might in the strength tree could actually be of use o.o, Not to mention how many ways we can to get adrenaline. It would mean less traits prioritizing and more focus on using stances at different points in a fight. Of course anet would tweek it for balances where they see it could work, imagine Endure pain/stability/berserk stance combine with the traits that give adrenaline for getting hit/or critical hits give extra adrenaline.
^ Your Welcome, I probably should provide a guide for new players. I hope i was helpful, and yes boon duration is quite strong for warriors.
Knockback doesn’t seem to give the damage bonus to me. If it did, i would use stomp/bull rush with a hammer and possibly be able to make a dps/stun lock build like that (idk if it would work, but i like to experiment). Has anyone been able to verify 100% that knockback will proc the extra damage, last time i tried, i didn’t get any gains.
^ thank you for the clarity, i just found out recently. Makes sense, since 10% boon duration would be OP.
Also make the 11 and 12 Traits on Strength tree more appealing (berserks stance for 5 sec? and physical utilities do 100% more dmg with 20% cooldown =\. idk but i feel they aren’t that great to be honest)
^ hehe I think those would be fun names (now if only they can change berserkers might in the strength tree to something more useful =\)
I had tried seeing what kinda bursts i could get with hammer (focus sigil, berserkers force, hammer trait, cull the weak) = 47% damage increase with full adrelanine (and the knockdown from backbreaker to get stun state and weakness from hammer skill 2) and using frenzy for the basic attacks to wreck havok (i saw bursts of almost 15-20k using PvP berserk amulet with 4-5 attacks). It was only a test, but seeing how hammer can hit up to 5 targets with the last hit of chain 1 and 3 on the first two chains, i think if you could get stability/endure pain/frenzy and get in wvw with a stun and frenzy everything, you could down 3-4 people in a couple of second. But in theory, its very interesting to try different builds.
Fun fact about Hammer is how the trait only gets a bonus to damage while the target is stunned but not knockedback (supposed to share same stats to stun) but i dont know if that was intended by anet or is a bug. Anyway If you want some giggles, try a glass cannon Berzerk warrior with hammer in sPvP and get frenzy/stability/endure pain and just jump into a group of people capping and just go balls out, its quite funny.
Retaliation is a pretty sweet boon, but I think that grandmaster trait would be better off with something like:
Dragonskin
Gain 5 seconds of protection when struck by a critical hit. Cannot trigger more than once every 15 seconds.Under constant fire that’s 25% uptime on protection (a bit more if you have + boon duration). And fits in with the idea of a defensive warrior much better than retaliation, in my opinion.
If it gave protection, it would be really strong, some people can get up to 80% boon duration easy in WvW, and around 50% boon duration in PvP. which means we get protection for much longer than 5 seconds (which honestly, i think isn’t too broken, but others would argue that since we have high hp, it would be unfair). I do wish we did have some way to get protection, reliably though.
Still i dont know how broken protection on a warrior would be, not to mention for over 1/3 of the time and more than 1/2 the time in pvp/wvw, which isnt bad i think since it could help with burst. We would still die alot to conditions though.
Our melee skills naturally are harder to land than other classes since we dont got lots of abilities that are target and jump attacks, but attacks that attack the air as we click on the buttons. Its not a bad thing, but its noob unfriendly against other players (they move alot while PvE mobs don’t.) and our attacks are easy as hell to read sometimes. It is more skill oriented and requires more sticking to targets (thats the Dps problem for most people) and yea, survivability does seem to be the annoying problems along with our traits being so spread out and non synchronous.
The new Giver Set is really interesting, I believe it isnt worth the boon duration bonuses unless you plan to be a tanky support. I think the weapons had a 10% boon duration, which is far better than the full set of armor and trinkets, which i heard as being 1% per a piece (which i am not sure is right, but is aweful to lose in terms of stats.) I wouldnt, mind using the boon duration from the weapons if i feel i want to use other runes instead of water/monk for the boon duration increase.
Another secret to condition builds is, that its tick dmg is based on your condition dmg at the moment, not when you applied them, which means if you had 8 stacks of might when you flurry an enemy and then for great justice and procked sigil of might, the next ticks will jump in damage by the extra 8 stacks of might that you just obtained.
Also i get to use Longbow F1 (Combustion Shot) with savage leap from sword to get the fire sheild temporarily, so if someone attacks they get burned, and it will do damage since i do have high condition damage.
(edited by CoaxialMazer.9140)