Guild Wars 2

So there are rumors that all classes will be gaining access to additional weapons in the not-‘too’-distant future. And while I know that our current utilities and weapons could still use some tweaks, I thought it would be fun to guess at what weapons we might be getting, and hopefully to encourage some discussion about what weapons people want/what niches still need to be filled.

So with that said, here are two possible weapon examples, courtesy of me.

Torch: (mainhand only)

Auto-attack:
-Swipe deals ~400 damage in front of you
-Swipe (3/4 sec) deals ~400 damage in front of you
-Thrust (1/2 sec) set fire to your opponent, dealing ~500 damage and applying burning (1 sec)

Torch #2:
-Aim to Maim (6 sec CD) lunge forwards at your opponents legs, crippling (4 sec) and applying burning (3 sec) ~300 damage ~240 range —leap finisher--

Torch #3:
-Scorched earth (15 second CD) Ignite the ground around you into an expanding wave of flame, dealing extra damage to burning opponents, leaves a ring of fire around the warrior, lasting 4 seconds. 480 range, ~600 damage (normal) ~900 damage (burning)

Burst: Phosphorus strike —blast finisher—
-Spark your torch in a blinding flare, blinding and revealing nearby opponents. (durations increased by adrenaline level)
-1 bar: 1sec blind, 2sec reveal, ~120 area
-2 bars: 2 sec blind, 3 sec reveal, ~240 area
-3 bars: 4 sec blind, 6 sec reveal, ~480 area

—The idea I had for the torch was to fit in with potential condition builds, possibly with a sword in the offhand. Burning is the natural way to go with torch attacks, but I wanted to avoid using moves that would generate combo fields for the most part. (had to have at least one though, so fire ring it was) Since this would effectively replace mainhand sword for a typical condi build, I decided to leave some short of dash move in.

Apparently, hunter pets are getting a way to reveal stealthed targets soon, which gave me the idea for the proposed burst move. No damage, just AoE blind+reveal… also making it a blast finisher seemed like a decent idea.

Staff:

Auto-attack:
-lunge (1/2 sec) small dash (~120) ~650 damage in front of you
-Flourish (1/2 sec) ~800 damage around you
-Bash (3/4 sec) ~900 damage in front of you, cripples

Staff #2:
-Double thrust (6 sec CD) thrust twice with your staff, dealing (x2) ~600 damage, gain might for 6 seconds if both strikes connect.

Staff #3:
-Vault (10-12 sec CD) anchor your staff into the ground and vault forwards, crippling (4 sec) and applying vulnerability (5 stacks, 6 sec) to opponents caught in the impact. (3/4 sec evade) ~750 damage —leap finisher--

Staff #4:
-Dust-up (15-18 sec CD) Drive your staff through the ground as you strike, kicking up dirt and dust to blind (2 sec) opponents around you. ~530 damage —blast finisher--

Staff #5:
-Flourishing strike (20-25 sec CD) flourish your staff, evading attacks briefly before delivering a heavy blow to your opponent, dealing ~1000 damage and applying vulnerability (5 stacks, 6 sec). Cooldown is reduced by 50% if the strike hits. (3/4 sec evade) —whirl finisher--

Burst: Lunging sweep —leap finisher--
-Dash forwards and sweep your staff out in front of you, dealing damage and knocking opponents back. (damage and dash distance increased with adrenaline)
-1 bar: ~700 damage, 240 range dash
-2 bar ~850 damage, 300 range dash
-3 bar ~1100 damage, 480 range dash

—The idea I had thinking up staff abilities was for sustained damage in combat. Two evades and a blind grant increased survivability, while vulnerability and might applications lend to solid sustained damage (in theory).

Essentially, a staff like this lacks the burst of a greatsword and the control of a hammer, but instead provides mobility, defense, and sustained damage, while vulnerability stacks lend some support to group play.

Aside from these two (which I admit, are probably NOT the most likely additions to our armories) Shortbow and pistol are two other weapons we’re likely to get in the future, as our ranged selection is not all that diverse… or useful (Poor Rifle, if only they’d stop dodging you).

The only options apart from those is scepter and dagger, and while a friend of mine did have a neat idea of offhanding throwing knives, I don’t really think warriors will be using either of these weapons anytime soon.

Anyways, that was my thought on the subject, anyone else have some input? Ideas? Feedback? Rage?

I’ve been running a sword/sword+hammer build for WvW roaming/camp taking, and have been enjoying it so far.

Sword grants solid mobility and decent damage (either through conditions or burst with final thrust) Shield is typically a more popular offhand choice than a second sword, but sword offhand does give you a ranged torment to help when being kited (that has a heavy-hitting melee side as well) and a parry with half the cooldown of shield block (more useful against ranged attacks, less useful -but does damage- against melee attacks)

I’d recommend using either a greatsword or sword/x for one of your sets in WvW, just for the mobility it grants you. S/S can be a fun backup for either a condi or power build. Try it out and see how you like it.

Team fights.

Warriors have a lot of cleave, strong CC, and solid burst, all of which can work wonders in small skirmishes. You can peel off allies, burst down opponents, stop people trying to stomp/res, and put out solid AoE damage while doing all of the above.

Most of our abilities work much better in concert with other classes as well. Teammates locking down a target? Go go hundred blades. Rogue looking to set up burst? Mace stun to lock someone down for them. Come in late to a fight, where your opponents are distracted by your teammates? You can turn the fight around quickly with a hammer.

Other classes can support their team, certainly, but not in quite the same way as a warrior can. We make other classes better by fighting alongside them, allowing them to do more of whatever it is they do best… that’s what I’ve seen, at least.

Sami.7923:

As it stands its pretty overpowering. Even most wars I come across agree with me thakittens OP. Its 392 healing (without healing power bonuses!) per second and can be activated for 3300 heal on 20 sec cd. You may disagree but consider this. Signet of the wild, which is based off healing power gives 140 hp with full clerics and with regen uptime which gives 80+healing power(low ammount) is still below healing signet. Now the offset to this is to use conditions as the war is not using the other heal to remove conds. but what if I am a power build? They changed my gs maul from bleed to vuln so I had to switch into zerker to make it do any dmg. I dont even use signet of the wild anymore because it give me a pitiful 50-60 hp per sec even though its probably our best passive utility. So wars that I come across now pretty much outheal me and outdamage me. What was healing signet before? Now before you guys make fun of me for making gs zerk ranger(its the only way to make gs viable on ranger as the DMG and speed are pitiful and only if I take a grandmaster trait moment of clarity). Know that I dont care to play full shamans cond spirit ranger(low skill). Its just as OP if not more and its going to get a nerf very soon. I agree that wars needed a buff(still no love for guardians) but this is too much.

1) If you use Healing Signet’s active, the passive heal is removed for the duration of it’s CD (so 16-20 seconds, depending on traits). So the active 3.3k heal can save you if you were about to die.. but then you’re sitting at almost no health with no passive regen.

2) Signet of the Wild is a utility skill, it exists alongside your heal skill. Healing Signet is a heal skill, it is meant to be the warrior’s primary source of healing. Don’t compare the two just because they’re signets, they serve dramatically different roles.

3) How can a power build counter a Healing Signet warrior? Burst is a good solution, a heavy hit takes a while to regen back, and if you can hit a warr hard over and over again, they’ll drop. Also, while I’m not well-versed in ranger weapon sets, if it possible for you to run a weapon/utility/pet that can apply poison, even with your power build? Poison counters Healing Signet on it’s own, regardless of how hard it hits.

Also… not every build is meant to easily beat every other. That’s why the idea of ‘counter-builds’ or a build that is ‘strong against x’ exists.

-Note- A bunker warr might not drop as fast, or at all 1v1, as another poster noted with their x/x/30/30/x example build. However, a bunker warr with that many points into their defensive trees will have their damage heavily reduced. They would be akin to a bunker Guardian in that respect, or even a bunker Ranger.

Building bunker doesn’t make something OP, every class can do that. Healing Signet IS a strong heal, no denying that, but it can be countered, and a build that tries to take ‘full’ advantage of it is severely hampering their damage output to do so.

Daecollo.9578:

Engineers are overpowered, I looked up all their skills and I know the class by heart. I never even played one but I know it. They need nerfed obviously.

Not exactly what I meant, though it’s a good example of how hard it would be to try and enforce such an edict.

Ideally, if you research a class’ mechanics, read the threads on their class forum, see the class in action (either by playing as one, playing against one, or playing alongside one), you should be able to A ) make a statement and B ) back it up with evidence.

It’s the ‘B’ part that’s important. You can say “Warriors are terrible, I know because I’ve played for 500 hours” or you can say “Engineers are OP, I know because I read their abilities”. But if you can’t back up either statement any more than that… well you aren’t saying very much, are you?

If you said, for example:

“Engineers are OP. Between static shot, bomb kit, and trait options they can chain blinds against multiple opponents. Include a strong heal on a short CD that also gives them a water field for finishers (Healing Turret), a bunker engineer focusing on conditions can put out too much damage for how hard they are to kill.”

At least with that you’d have an argument – something other posters could look at and either agree or disagree with, promoting discussion- as opposed to just a statement that shows your opinion and little to back it up.

Anyone can put in the time to browse threads, look up class information, and think it all over in order to post something constructive and intelligent about a class, regardless of their personal experience.

Yes, personal experience does help, but feeling too strongly about a class can be as bad as not knowing how the class works.

If there was going to be any ‘restriction’ on posting, it would make more sense to restrict it to people who have researched the class they wish to talk about, and are prepared to discuss it in an intelligent manner… which does not always include those who have played 400+ hours of sPvP or WvW.

Excalibur.9748:

@oZii…there’s a huge difference between a thief in stealth and a warrior not in stealth.

The thief is in stealth..what is he doing? He’s regening health…or running away…he can’t do anything else.

The warrior on the other hand is bloody owning everyone else , all the while regening an ungodly amounts of HP. besides it is passive so you can not deny him his heal. While the CND can miss/be easily dodged, and BP + HS costs almost all your initiative.

Except that Rogues are harder to hit in stealth, when his passive is healing, while the warrior remains wide open for attacks.

Except that Rogues have their actual heal ability on top of regeneration in stealth (one of which stealths them in addition to healing) while healing signet takes up the warrior’s heal slot.

Healing signet is very good against lower-end, sustained damage. It is also good if you can consistently keep opponents from damaging you through blocks/invulns/cc/dodges/etc. It is NOT, however, as good against burst damage, and is heavily crippled by poison.

Comparing healing signet to rogue’s heal-in-stealth isn’t an accurate comparison to argue balance by. Healing signet can also be countered, and while you can build a fairly bunkery build around it… most classes can do the same with their own tools.

It’s strong, but not OP. And surviving 2 cannons while also dodging/blocking/etc to avoid damage is a different story from standing still and just regenerating through the damage.

15 points, sorry. Though if you add these changes most warrs will feel forced to at least go 5 tactics/15 discipline, which is 20 points consumed already.

That also makes going the rest of the way into tactics even more appealing. (your 5/10/15% healing increase would apply to the 25 trait as well… and to regen… you realize how much sustained healing a 1h/shield – x warrior could have with healing signet, constant weapon swapping, full adren and condition cleanses?)

Stealth doesn’t actively block attacks, it just makes it a little harder to hit them. You can still damage and down stealthed thieves if you act fast enough/know where they’re going to run.

On paper it’s one second, but using a burst move with cleansing ire can cleanse up to 3 conditions, signet of stamina cures all conditions on you, and if you add boon duration, multiple cleanses, and allies/light zones cleansing, you can stack up a decent regen duration in combat…

…provided there are a lot of conditions flying about. I have the least issue with that idea, more a concern over synergy with other abilities, and not being sure if warriors should have aegis.

1) Increases healing done? That’s a lot of increased healing for 5 points that any warrior could spec into. That’s an additional ~1.5k+ healing from Healing surge, ~800+ healing from mending, and ~50 more healing/second from Healing signet when you’re at max adrenaline.

That’s not ‘for hybrid builds’, that’s a mandatory 5 points in the tactics tree.

2) Remove ‘when you miss with blind’ and… maybe. I know Blinds kill us, a lot, but for the classes that have the most access to it (ie: rogues) they don’t have much defense outside of blind.

I’m not sure about giving warriors protection, to me it doesn’t fit well with the warrior aesthetic, and there are better ways to increase their sustain. Regen doesn’t seem too bad, except for the synergy with healing signet.

3) Not sure how this fits with the warrior aesthetic, to be honest. Again, I fear it synergizes too well with healing signet (given it’s new power, we need to be careful adding any other healing to the class).

Also, it pretty much forces anyone who goes that far into tactics to also go into at least 5 points into discipline… not a large commitment, but it still goes against the idea of promoting diversity in trait choices.

1200 range is still decent for sniping (base range for Rifle’s attacks). You won’t get the extreme ‘sniping’ range as you might from a traited LB ranger, but Killshot IS the hardest hitting burst move warriors have, and with 20 points in Arms, you can trait for piercing shots, allowing you to snipe through zergs to peg the people in the back.

You won’t have the pure AoE of a Warr LB (or possibly ranger LB), but in terms of burst potential, I’d lean more towards rifle.

ArcTheFallen.7682:

I’m just trying to figure out what would make up for our huge lack of sustain. Guardians have protection + boons all a plenty. Mesmers have invuln/stealth/blink. Rangers have protection + heals + PETs to soak up dmg + evade. Thieves have stealth/shadowstep/evade. Necros have DS and fear. Engis have heals, invuln, condi immunity. Eles have boons/heal. Warriors have nothing. We need some damage reduction access or more block if that’s where they want to go and maybe access to better healing. Given the class, having a blink wouldn’t fit so we won’t have that and having stealth wouldn’t fit either so we need better defense and/or heals.

Perhaps give us better access to weakness?

It would fit within the aesthetic of our class, and along with the CC we have access to could potentially give us decent sustain through offensive abilities. Shoring up some of our other heals might help as well (I’ve always been a fan of sustained healing in the games I play, but our healing signet just doesn’t cut it).

In regards to the original intent of this thread: More solidarity within players of the same class is a great thing to see. It makes people feel better about the class they play, and makes newcomers to the class feel welcome and encouraged to pick it up and learn it.

Nothing scares people away like looking at a class forum and seeing it riddled with posts about how bad it is, or watching the most vocal members tear each other apart instead of trying to actually discuss anything. I’ve seen it in a few MMOs, and don’t want it to happen here as well, not with a class I quite enjoy playing, despite it’s struggles in PvP.

Favorite? Hammer.

Maybe not the most powerful or effective right now, but I haven’t found another weapon whose attacks are as satisfying to use as the Hammer’s. It just FEELS powerful to use, like there’s actual force behind each strike.

Second place would be Sword+Shield.

Aesthetically appealing, it’s also just a really useful set of abilities. A leap that cripples, a dash that stuns, a fast auto-attack chain, a block and an execute-type ability? That’s a nice variation of abilities that are both useful and enjoyable to use.

Thieves can’t carry up to three other weapons along with their pistol, and swap between them all with no cooldown.

Thieves can’t chain-swap through kits to the extent that they rarely have to their pistol 1 ability at all.

Thieves don’t have a pistol 2 that stacks heavy poison on one or more targets, a pistol 3 that stacks blind and confusion across up to four targets, and pistol 4 that applies burning to any opponent in front of them, or a pistol 5 that immobilizes/cripples opponents in a solid area.

Thieves can’t swap out their pistol 4+5 for a ranged reflect+aoe knockback, or a block+ranged daze.

Thieves can’t decide to use a different auto-attack, but still be able to instantly swap over and use their pistol skills when needed/they’re off CD.

If thieves could do all those things, then yes, I would agree that our pistol auto-attack needs a buff. But engineers are a completely different class from rogues, with separate strengths and weaknesses, so I don’t see how a comparison between the Thief and Engi pistol 1 abilities proves anything, one way or the other.

Is it weird that, when I got GW2 about a month ago, I leveled a warrior to 80… then dropped it because my Engineer felt more fun, useful, and effective?

Maybe I just didn’t play greatsword warrior correctly… but either way I’ll be sticking with the class that can make it rain turrets and health kits while I frolic about with a gun that shoots hypodermic needles.

If support is your plan… Perhaps look into running Healing Turret/Grenade Kit, working towards Elixir Gun Kit and… Elixir R maybe? Along with Pistol/Shield as your weapon set.

Grenades will give you decent condition spread, including a solid AoE blind and Chill. Elixir Gun and Healing Turret help with team support; providing AoE healing, light/water combo fields, and solid AoE condition removal for your team. Static Shot (pistol 3) is a great multi-target blind, while Shield gives you some survivability, along with a ranged daze that can hit multiple targets if lined up well.

As for traits… Probably go with Explosives to start with, which increases condition duration as well as letting you trait for increased grenade explosion radius (‘Forceful Explosions’), reduced CD on grenade skills (‘Short Fuse’), and throwing an extra grenade with each skill (‘Grenadier’).

I’d look into more defensive traits after that, personally. Alchemy has some nice synergy with kits (regeneration while a kit is equipped, swiftness grants vigor) and gives access to HGH (elixirs grant might stacks) at 30 points if you decide to go that route, but play around with different setups as you level and see what you like.

-Hope that helps.