Guild Wars 2

Yuck, bleed warrior is not the way to go anyway.

Everyone will tell you full Beserker with Greatsword and Axe/Shield or Warhorn.
Slashing Power trait from the Power tree, Furious Greatsword trait from the Arms tree, the Fast Hands Minor trait in the Discipline tree. The rest is up to you.
Use Hundred Blades and Whirlwind Attack if you can cleave through a few people/got your target against a wall to build might, switch to Axe and use #2 then auto attack, switch back as soon as you can and Hundred Blades will be ready to go again.

Whoa, all the green for Darkhaven!

How frequently is this website updated?

Until Thieves and Mesmers get neutered I don’t want to spend any more time here than I absolutely have to. My main is a Warrior so the process so far is to just go when I’m outmanned and make suicide runs at POI’s and Vistas. I’ve managed to get all but enemy controlled keeps and towers and what not, so the question is what’s the best server to transfer to that’s absolutely dominating to make this as painless as possible?

Olba.5376:

Dolan.3071:

Bloodlust is obviously the best regarding damage if you can maintain full stacks. So try it out, if you can’t seem to constantly maintain 10 or more at all times then Sigil of Force is the way to go. From memory I think my power stat was at 1,800 (don’t quote me on that, might be mixing it up with attack or w/e) so plus 5% is 90 power (kind of pathetic when you think about it.)

You’re misunderstanding the sigils. The +5% works the same way as the Berserker’s Power trait. It’s a 1.05 multiplier to your damage, not a +5% power boost.

I knew I’d go and mix it up with attack. +5% attack = 1.05 damage multiplier more or less.

A balance between PVT and Berserker. Warriors just by being warriors have easy access to precision boosts: Constant Fury, +9% from Discipline Trait, Banner of Discipline (not as effective in WvW), not to mention sigils and nourishment buffs. I ran Soldier Runes for a while but I’m finding Lyssa to be a lot better, you’ve got a 11% precision boost (at least I did), a 10 second boon when healing (13 as I’ve got +30% boon duration, not to mention the surprising number of times it’s given me aegis/protection/stability). Then the condition wipe and gain every boon when using Signet of Rage (works even better with Signet Mastery traited.) To compensate for the lack of condition removal I use Signet of Stamina, it’s passive effect is very helpful, as well as being on a lowered CD. Plus in PvP people try to mask Immobilise beneath a sea of other conditions, so shout condition removal is ineffective, you want a complete cleanse that’s always ready to go.

Ultimately you can’t have a build that’s strong in PvE and strong in WvW, or vice versa, they are two completely different things. Best thing you can do is have two armour/weapon sets and hope your traits line up enough so you can easily swap between the two.

Bloodlust is obviously the best regarding damage if you can maintain full stacks. So try it out, if you can’t seem to constantly maintain 10 or more at all times then Sigil of Force is the way to go. From memory I think my power stat was at 1,800 (don’t quote me on that, might be mixing it up with attack or w/e) so plus 5% is 90 power (kind of pathetic when you think about it.)

havoc.6814:

I wonder if everybody will still run GS after the upcoming PVE Hundred Blades nerf…

I’ve been playing with two armour sets, one zerker and on with condi damage. use the condi damage with a sword/warhorn shout build and the zerker with axe/mace. Depends on the team composition and dungeon.

Are you serious? Yes, nerf the only thing Warrior has going for it, damage, that makes perfect sense.

For Great Justice and Signet of Rage always, they never leave my skillbar. I always go Banner of Discipline because +10% crit damage and about +4% crit chance to the whole party is great (healing too if traited.) Note that banner effects don’t stack, so sort that out so there’s only one of each type if you’ve got multiple warriors. Though to be honest BoD is the only one worth having. The 3rd one changes between each encounter, from OMM if I’m expecting little resistance, Fear Me/Endure Pain for running, Balanced Stance if I know there’s a lot of CC involved. Though its usually Signet of Stamina for the condition wipe and endurance regen increase, which is better than Shake it Off IMO.

As far as armour goes, any combination of PVT/Knights/Berserkers that can give you enough precision for regular critical hits. I think I sit at about 50% crit chance outside of combat, but I’ve got +9% from discipline trait, +5% sigil, +20% constant fury, +Banner of Discipline, +Food Buffs, +Utility if you’re made of money. Then it’s just a matter of tweaking towards Crit Damage or defensive stats to suit your play style, as Power is in all 3 sets (only a secondary in Knights, it’s why I’ll never go near that garbage.)

Dangbat.2804:

Everyone will say full berserker, but personally I feel you should stat yourself for what you need—also, the Glass Warrior build is awful.

It really depends on the player using it, and how supportive their team is.

SwickHobo.5096:

it adds vulnerability. Making it suppliment you AA very nicely. However its only worthwhile in a 5 man team setting.

Edit: ah my bad thought you meant cyclone axe. WA is a fantastic addren. builder thanks to the sheer number of attacks. It pretty much guarantees a full 3 bars if used with the right traits or with multiple enemies nearby. It also has a high chance to proc on crit effects even if your crit chance is relatively low. It will not however out DPS the axe AA ever.

So its more of a follow up move after using Eviscerate? Seeing as you already answered my original question so well, isnt this attack supposed to be horrendously bugged?

Am I to understand that Whirling Axe does LESS damage than just the auto attack? Was this intended? So is the only situation in which WA would be useful is when you’re completely surrounded? :/

For levelling? Full damage spec. Power/Precision with Deep Strike trait in the Arms tree. Go all Signets, or For Great Justice if you don’t have Signet of Rage to give you Fury yet. Use the Greatsword and Hundred Blades everything to death. Alternate weapon set? Whatever you want, very little will survive Hundred Blades.

For an endgame build for running dungeons and what not? That’s a whole other can of worms, but losing Deep Strike and most of those Signets is a good place to start (the effects scale badly as you get past lvl 60 or so.)

CoE? Full Zerker with Soldier Runes to purge that burning damage. Honestly CoE was made for zerkers, Alpha will drop you in 1-2 hits regardless of how much defence you give your character, knowing when to dodge and keeping the battle SHORT is a better way to go. Also as you learn the dungeon better its a good idea to have two melee sets on you most of the time and only swap to ranged when its a non melee situation (which is rare.)

As mentioned above start off with a bit of forgiveness, other than CoE full Knights so you’re not just a one hit wonder. Start throwing in zerker gear as you get more confident (should also help in losing aggro) until you’re at full Berserker gear.

You’re not just limited to edging yourself towards being a Berserker though. For instance I run a balance between PVT and Zerker. Whilst my damage is obviously not as high, I crit on every hit, have an equal power stat, and trade a bit of Crit Damage for the ability to hold aggro. I run frequently with a full zerker warrior, and the damage difference is usually about 5k on the Hundred Blades, but I’ll take being able to draw aggro off my team over a bit of extra damage any day. However this simply isn’t necessary in organised groups where you have a designated Guardian to tank for you, but I only ever PuG anyway.

Well you see, you ping your Beserker gear but wear your Magic Find gear. Omnomberry Bar, maybe even the +50% Magic Find Consumable, and off you go.

I can tell you right now you’re not gonna get through most of the above paths in that timeframe. Unless you’re already a veteran of the path, and manage to find other veterans, things like CoE can take incredibly long, my first few goes with inexperienced people took HOURS.

TA has the same problem, one or two people who don’t know to skip content will slow the whole process down by a lot. The more “foolproof” dungeons where even a novice can get through with ease provided at least one person knows what they’re doing, is SE 1 and 3. AC p3 and to a lesser extent p1 aren’t too bad for time either. Trust me, do yourself a favour and avoid CoE and Arah, get a bad group and you can kiss your speed run goodbye. Whereas others are a lot more forgiving regarding the idiot factor.

Lower CD or buff to the potency of healing abilities.
Make Rush a tad slower than RTL as well as making it and Whirlwind Attack immune to cripple/chill.
Fix the kitten F1 abilities so you can use ones other than just Hammer and Rifle, this includes the Discipline trait line buff to burst skill damage.
Endure Pain also negates condition damage while active.
Bolas instantly immobilise foe if they’re in range, turns to face them if facing the wrong way (unless of course they dodge as you cast it.)
Not too sure what the go is with Frenzy anymore, but having it at 4 seconds duration, no extra damage taken, can still frenzy finish people regardless of when it is activated.
Plenty more but these are a good place to start.

Fury and Might are two different things, you can achieve permanent Fury through Signet of Rage and FGJ. Btw most warriors running too many signets and obviously using Deep Cuts trait will be booted from groups very quickly, take it from the people who know, it’s a very selfish build. Banner of Discipline IS the way to go, yes it’s a little clunky but you get used to it, plus most battles end with some running, so the swiftness it gives it good. Also when traited for it banners only have a couple seconds worth of down time (Not the elite, that thing is useless.)

Also Healing Signet is terrible. As a warrior you should be dodging most hits and only require burst healing, warriors do not get nibbled to death.

Provost.6210:

This fight is nothing compared to the Spider Queen. I’ve been in groups that have aced the Ghost Eater but wiped hardcore at the overpowered poison nonsense of the first fight.

The people you pugged with are just stupid.

Side-note: speaking on behalf of colour-blind people, the green and yellow beams look identical. I have to wait to see if an ooze has been lifted before I know whether to use skill #1 or 2. If ArenaNet could change these to red and green it would be a lot easier for us to manage.

How is the Spider Queen hard? Granted I have wiped there before, I tend not to last too long when I’m the only left, and one other time when I managed to get myself immobilised on a poison field, then Queeny spat more poison right on me for good measure. People just don’t understand you have to kill the ADDS first, I swear I’m the only one running around cleaning them up.

swiftpaw.6397:

After path 1, had someone the other day tell me they weren’t doing path 2, I said ‘why? it’s not hard.’

Answer: ‘it takes too long.’

Well geez by that logic why bother with any dungeon other than COF P1 -_-

He was awful anyway, a guardian who never used his virtues, no loss I suppose :/

What? I find path 1 way harder than 2. Unless there’s some new “easy way” I remember it being impossible without all utilities set to stability and stun breakers.

Fuschia.6573:

Biggest problem is that you have to compare Banners to Shouts, since they fill more or less the same role.

Currently Banners are only good in comparison when you’re in the same spot for a very long period of time – something that only really happens in PvE and some very specific WvW and PvP situations.

I’m thinking picking up Banners on the fly and being able toss them a short distance rather than simply planting them at your location would work quite well without making it too easy to keep your banners with you all the time. Added damage from Powerful Banners would help make that Trait slightly more useful/interesting, as well.

Alternatively, have Powerful Banners increase the damage on Banner skills and reduce the cooldowns. Would make moving the Banners around more beneficial, essentially achieving the same thing as above, although you’d still probably have to make picking the Banner up instant.

Make Powerful Banners add a knockdown and knockback to banners when summoned. I’d say when thrown as well but that’s too easily abused. Imagine summoning a banner in a thieves Shadow Refuge? Oh god the shenanigans.

Even if you don’t mean it try to come across as friendly. Say “haha” add in some emoticons. Little things like that can help ease the tension. If you’ve had a little spack attack at someone mid battle because they were single handedly botching up the whole process (we’ve all been there) then APOLOGISE afterwards. It’s just people skills and you’ll get better at it.
There aren’t hoards of evil duo’s out there trying to do this, even so you can usually tell early on. E.g they’ll be from the same guild, they will actively avoid reviving people, I don’t know maybe I can just read people but just start being nice when things get tense. I’ve yet to be kicked from a PuG beyond the first 10 seconds after joining (for whatever reason, they didn’t like my class, I don’t know.) BTW if the instance leader is an elitist, just leave, I had some guy start querying my weapon choice the second I joined, HAHA BYE BYE.

“But then I won’t have as many cantrips” – Every Elementalist ever.

In all seriousness though it would be kinda OP’d. The amount of combos you could do by yourself would be ridiculous, if they toned down the number of finishers/fields that summonable weapons have then by all means.

The idea about equipping banners to your back piece involved the banner occupying your F1 skill. Our burst skills need a bit of love all around because with most weapons it simply isn’t worth using, not to mention cough +3% burst damage cough. If actually using the F1 skill was improved, then you’d actually be sacrificing something by equipping the banner (and putting said F1 skill on CD after dropping it.) But to be honest I think just being able to pick up the banner on the fly is good enough, people complain about a one second root on deadly attacks, having to stop to pick up a banner is absurd. Also being able to drop it without putting your own weapon swap on CD would be GREAT.

How much critical chance does 25 stacks equate to? Trying to decide whether I’m better off just going with permanent 5% boost or trying to get the stacks up.
Thanks in advance.

docMed.7692:

You guys are arguing about learning styles – either way, both will help you learn (I’ve run glass cannons and full toughness builds in multiple dungeons on different prof’s).

Also, since nobody pointed it out, might note that rifle is a 1 trick pony (#3 is the only good skill) – and this is coming from a warrior with Predator.

Never understood the obsession with rifle. A quick number crunch will tell you longbow deals more damage, more AoE damage, more hits to proc sigils and food, as well as blind and immobilise are fantastic defensive tools. Seriously if you’re not using Bolas and Longbow for the Mossman… You can almost keep him completely locked down yourself.

KazNaka.4718:

^ false. You learn much faster with a glass cannon build because you are forced to dodge, move around in order to live. With knight’s gear I can tank everything and become too lazy to dodge. Why dodge when I can just stand there and take the hit?

Now, what’s another good motivator to dodge and live? Sigils that give you stacks (bloodlust, perception, etc). I wear full berserker’s and bloodlust sigil, and on a good day I can manage to keep all 25 stacks all the way to the end of the dungeon (meaning I never went to downed state).

Disagree. There are more dungeons out there than CoF1.
My time spent learning D/D Elementalist taught me that getting one-shotted does not help you learn, being able to regularly identify the animation/warm up of attacks that greatly DAMAGE you is of much more help. Don’t get me wrong, you could just be some amazing Warrior that can actually not be a burden in full zerk gear, but more often than not that just isn’t the case, and I actively avoid “beserker warrior LFG” in anything other than CoF.

JJBigs.8456:

I came to warrior from a guardian main. I found PVT/Knights/Heal Shout/Banner Regen to be the most inneffective gear possible. I died just as much or more than with zerker. They did not help even 5 percent and I cant justify almost ever using them besides some “Skip/Run parts” or some higher level fractals levels when im just playing like a bad kid.

Why doesnt tanky help a warrior? Well most things are a 1/2/3 Shot kill, and all the defense in the world wont help you. If you cant burst things down fast enough (i.e. non zerk gear) It will kill you. Just learn the class, and honestly you will survive the same or better in zerk gear than with tanky gear

(PVE)

Sounds like you were holding aggro, believe it or not it takes more skill to mitigate hits and heal appropriately than it does to hide behind the boss avoiding infrequent AoE’s. A zerk warrior is only as good as the person holding aggro, because once they go down the warrior is usually the next target.

Profano.9514:

Oh, now because i have a mesmer, i can’t answer? Very funny.

1) There are more guardians and ele than mesmers in WvW
2) Ele do more ranged damage
3) Warriors do more melee damage

Nice try, you can troll better.

If you’re getting beaten by warriors I’ve got some bad news for you…

Pyroatheist.9031:

Idk, I think op might be right. I mean, if mesmers really were not overpowered, then it would mean that all the people complaining about them would have to be complete noobs, and we all know that definitely isn’t the case…

Again, your signature clearly indicates you’re primarily a Mesmer player. The number of people who only play Mesmer and seem to think the class is balanced far outweigh the players who have tried everything and know an OP class when they see it.

Also nah, I never take my warrior into WvW/PvP, without a healing/boon buddy they fall over too quickly.

mosspit.8936:

Improve the dungeon? Well for starters, make the final bosses for path 1 and 3 drop those 15 silvers and wondrous bags.

Even so I still run SE path 1/3 now and then.

By the 9 divines yes, this has always bothered me.

You can fake drop your Warbanner simply by interrupting the cast. The banner will drop and make its pretty sound and animation but it will quickly fade and you’ll see the banner go on a short interrupted CD. However if you DIE mid cast the same thing happens only your banner will go on a full CD despite not even dropping, at least that’s what happens according to the bugs page, can’t say I’ve tried to drop a banner with next to no health left.

Warrior already has outrageously high health, so toughness is really all you need. If you’re feeling too squishy then 30 points into the Vitality tree to get healing shouts or banners is the way to go.

To be honest Axe/Warhorn is a lot better, the main reason you’re using shield is the shield block, and while it feels cool it has a stupidly long CD, whereas warhorn can give you vigor so you can dodge more frequently (as well as applying this to the rest of your team.)

As a warrior, you should be concerned with doing tonnes of damage, it’s pretty much your only job. While you can balance yourself out to be a bit more supportive and defensive, damage should always be your priority. The best way to do this is to conform with every other warrior and use a GS with Furious Greatsword traited (you should be critical hitting with every hit as we have constant fury and through foodbuffs/maybe even sigils critical hits are a good way to heal). Use 100b, rack up some might, if they’re against a wall use WA too, or if you can collect enough hits on conveniently placed mobs, switch out to axe/warhorn as the axe auto attack blows the greatsword out of the water, as well as the warhorn playing its defensive roll as well as possibly reversing conditions which should be traited. This also means 5 seconds less weapon swap so you can change back to GS shortly after hundred blades comes off CD.

Hope I helped and good luck to you.

^ know the dungeon before you take that build in there, more often than not its one-two hits and its nights out. Something with a bit more forgiveness (Knights) will help you to learn the dungeons, you can’t learn if everything one shots you.

Why does it take so long to find a group for Sorrow’s Embrace? Seriously Path 1 is almost as quick and easy as CoF1. You have regular chests and I’ve found many cores and what not inside. I was honestly expecting SE to be buzzing with activity after AC was buffed, as it was the next easiest supplier for P/V/T gear (a common first choice in armour) But no, still a long wait to put together a group (not even possible during off peak hours.)

The number of exploits and skippable mobs is outrageously high, what should be the recipe for a farming dungeon. Whilst path 2 is in its own little circle of hell and will never be on anyone’s cycle until it gets cut in half, the other paths are very speedy.

On a side note, if you care to bother, what would you do improve the dungeon? At first I thought the mobs and bosses had too high health and too weak attacks. However after going through with 3 warriors it became pretty obvious that all that health can still be hacked down quickly with not enough offence to deter the zerkers. So I’d say cut the health by about 25% but give them a lot more attack variety/frequency, because don’t get me wrong, their attacks DO hurt, but even if they do manage to down someone we’ve got at least 10 seconds worth of “boss taking a nap” time to get them up again. Because at the moment all boss battles are strategic positioning (exploiting perhaps) and your best DPS cycle to try and keep it short.

I know this dungeon is on the least of anyone’s priorities, and there won’t be any major changes soon, but for the love of god don’t do an AC change. The same reason I try to avoid AC is the same reason I avoid CM, Crowd Control. If every mob’s auto attack is a lengthy knockdown, with so many that most encounters almost require stability to stay in melee range, then that is a dungeon I never want to see again. Getting knocked back? Sure okay only slightly annoying. Getting knocked DOWN for 2 seconds with each hit? Feels like an eternity.
Okay getting very off topic here, SE discussion yip yip!

TheLazyOne.8509:

My theory is Sweet Revenge only works if you deal the finishing blow, but not through condition damage or a party member finishing the opponent. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Nah, done the finishing blow plenty of times (the only one attacking it) and still no Rally. I’m almost 100% convinced it doesn’t work in FotM at all, oh well Signet Mastery is a better choice once I’ve got Lyssa runes anyway.

Profano.9514:

Come on. Stop trolling every mondays …

I see you only play a Mesmer. Or only play a Mesmer regularly enough to put it in your signature. How cute.

That’s not to say warriors aren’t completely out of the picture, but generally a good warrior will lose to an equally skilled person playing another profession. Mesmers and thieves are the go to class to rack up some easy kills. They have stupidly high burst damage and an arsenal of escapes, hence why there are so many in the mindless killing in hotjoin sPvP. In tPvP holding points is more important so you’ll see a lot more Bunker Elementalists and Guardians. But really, every class has their strengths and weaknesses, warrior just drew the short straw on both.

Warrior is very underpowered in PvP, we have strong burst damage if we can catch really bad opponents, but have little to no survivability. I stopped taking my warrior there when this became more and more apparent, so I’m not too sure what works and what doesn’t work since recent patches.

Thieves are easy tier to play. I originally made one because the idea of going invisible in WvW seemed really cool, turned out I was only the millionth person to think of this. On a side note, when trying to dress it up, t3 human armour grabbed my attention, 100g later and congratulations, I have a thief that looks exactly like everyone else’s.

Back to the original topic, I play t2 WvW, and at least half of the TC’s and FA’s I see are Mesmers. As a Kain I’m disappointed by the sheer number of thieves we have, but it’s more of a trade off considering the lack of mesmers. Eh, I personally wouldn’t mind seeing the stealth and clone dynamic replaced with a less overpowered one, such as disguising yourself as enemy players. I know it’ll never happen but I can always hope.

Empiren.6401:

Bulls rush taking another second to hit a person within melee range is a pain.
(it stops JUST before melee range and then hits them)
GS auto attack does not initiate within range, you must press it.

Whirlwind has a funky targeting on first click.

Auto-target(non-player controlled targeting) effects rush pretty heavily when you try to escape and it just targets someone you could not have possibly clicked.

Mash #1 anyway. You can start the swing before you enter range and it will still hit if you enter range at the last second. Auto-target is not a bug it’s a L2Play issue, turn it off.

Regarding Sweet Revenge, I’ve had it traited for a while and it seems to be 100% on some enemies, and 0% on others. For instance its always worked on veterans and champs, yet on some weaker enemies it might not make the cut. Not working on ambient creatures is understandable, but I’ve had it work on a yellow title Mosquito. Yet I’ve NEVER had it work on the trash mobs in the Cliffside Fractal. It’s not really something you want to regularly try out unless you strip down, so confirming this is a pain.

As far as dealing with Rush goes. Don’t use it on objects or physically massive targets when you’re already in range. Lag is the most common culprit for missing or overshooting, but really enough lag can make an AoE miss.

Completely dependant on what you plan on doing with it. Provide more detail including your preferred playstyle.

I’ll agree that mesmers don’t hold points too well, but they’ll kitten well annihilate the person trying to. Guardians and Ele’s are hardly OP, take your own advice and play them (as I did with Mesmer to justify my claim.) Most Ele’s run a soft hitting bunker build, the rapid chain of attacks make them prone to confusion, whilst the condition removal is quite good, they will always hit themselves at least 2-3 times before cleansing. Running shatter? They’ll never do enough damage to you in the short encounters that they catch you, it may take time but eventually they’ll slip up and get clipped by a few clones here and there, believe it or not a Mesmer deals a lot more damage than an Ele can heal through. From what little I played it was actually kind of easy, most D/D, they have to charge you to deal any damage, fall back behind your line of clones and blow em up when they get close enough, no amount of vit/tough will save you from that. I’m sorry but no profession should be like a Dungeon Boss, to be in possession of a frequent dodge or die attack, and the two classes that come to mind are Mesmer’s and Thieves. The warrior tries to, but is a LOT harder to do. To those saying Mesmer is difficult to play I urge you to try out warrior…

It’s coming. The inevitable Mesmer nerf is coming. The people are crying for justice and their pleas will be answered in one swift, decisive blow. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but the time of the Mesmer will soon be over, and WvW/sPvP alike will rejoice. My only wish is that this attempt at balancing the classes is over-done, and Mesmers everywhere are nerfed into the ground, transformed into walking loot bags. Such should be the punishment for taking advantage of a flawed system.

… All dramatics aside I’m getting real sick of only seeing Mesmers (and to a lesser degree, Thieves) in WvW. I know their good, I know their easy to play. When you go to Heart of the Mists and within a few hours gameplay you’re mopping up other classes with ease, you know something’s up. The damage is by far the best in the game, done at range!? The warriors cry at the thought. I went Asura too, if you want to experience overpowered, may as well go all the way right? And overpowered it is, it was like I engaged easy mode where I hit for double and everyone else hits for…. Hits for nothing, the ports and evades are out of this world. Hell even just standing still to blend in with the clones threw a few people off, and only evade at the last second if a big hit was coming my way.

So, I’m sorry but, I’m legitimately calling OP. I’ve heard this accusation been thrown around a lot, but it really is. I’m hardly the best player and yet even after a few hours experience I’m racking up the kills (don’t get me wrong, I did get killed a few times, but I’d say seasoned veterans are much less likely to make such rookie errors, as they’re so easily avoidable as the Master of Trickery.)

If you really think Mesmers are well balanced, then I ask you to take a look out in WvW, and ask yourself why almost everyone is a Mesmer (or Thief I suppose, the principle is the same.)

I had the same problem, zerging puts me to sleep, I don’t understand how people can do it. I usually run solo/with small groups. See now you’ll start running around in smaller groups, trying to get some small scale fights going whilst avoiding the massive zergs. Doing this is actually very fun… HA. It would be fun if you ever encounter other people that aren’t Mesmers or Thieves. Bunker up or roll a GC mes/thief, until they get a much needed nerf it’s the only way to go. I’m at my wits end with the hive minds that play WvW, but you can’t really blame them. When a class is simply so overpowered that you’re pretty much guaranteed victory, why not use it? Mesmers deal more damage than any other profession, and they do it from range. Thieves aren’t as bad, after they do their little burst and you’re still standing, you might sink a few hits in but they will inevitably stealth and run away if you can’t beat them down in 4 seconds. If a warrior hasn’t killed you after their very predictable burst, they’re in a whole world of trouble. With a thief? They can just run away after it fails, as well as their burst doing a lot more damage, hitting a lot quicker, and doesn’t take up all utility slots to pull it off.

Tl;dr until Mes/Thief get some balancing done, be it they get nerfed or we get some buffs to stay on par, WvW will be dull and boring regardless of how you play.

Empiren.6401:

Because I like heavy armor and I despise guardians.

And there it is. Couldn’t have put it better myself.

Look out for me! The purple Sylvari Elementalist who waves at zergs. Also to the TC zerg at TCBL right out front of Kain spawn last night. I can’t say I stood a chance against that Mesmer but to see the group just standing around and let me revive myself up was one for the record books. And that thief who full healed everytime they popped stealth, argh, I need to get better at fighting thieves/mesmers :P

Healing power and condition damage are a big no no. Warrior options are:
Soldier- Power, Tough, Vit
Knights- Tough, Power, Precision
Beserker- Power, Precision, Crit Damage
And any combination of the above provided you can consistently crit through whatever means, around 70-80% crit chance in the middle of combat is recommended.

Provided you’re leaving the walls of COF1 you’ll want something more than the lousy heal skills we have. 30 points in Vitality tree and roll with either healing banners (only ties up one utility slot) or healing shouts (overall it heals for less, and ties up all 3 utility slots, generally only use this with Soldier runes to make the most of your shouts.)

Your weapon choices will decide the rest of you traits. Hope this helped.

Turn and run. Any half decent Mesmer has chewed me up and spat me out every single time. I like to think I’m not completely rubbish as encounters with all other classes feel a lot more even. But to be honest, I don’t even risk starting combat, they do stupidly high damage and are nigh impossible to lock down. Sure I’ve killed a few, but they sucked, or lagged out. People will tell you it’s just a L2Play issue, but the truth is there’s a very simple reason you see so many in WvW/PvP…

Fiorrello.8126:

nah, warriors don’t really need a buff, we already have a few things we do, and we do it well.

i’m personally not really geared and traited for duels, but that’s fine, duels aren’t really what i’m going for with my warrior. now running between everyone else’s fights dropping explosions and fire fields, immobilizes and knockdowns, that is incredibly useful.

so yeah, some people think that the inability to win a one on one is a bad thing, i think the ability to win everyone else’s one on ones and survive is a very good thing. as a warrior i can take a losing fight, and turn it into someone else’s loosing fight.

This hurt to read. You can’t praise a profession for being able to interrupt someone else’s fight and tip the odds in your side’s favour. Any profession can do that, and the method you’re doing isn’t a method at all, it’s winning through superior numbers.

Like people who kit out their characters JUST to catch people trying flee their zerg. That person was mostly dead anyway, you can’t stand around in a 50+ Zerg saying how your warrior does its job well. It’s simply taking advantage of the fact that you greatly outnumber your opponent. I can guarantee that all these lockdown builds would be mince meat in a 1 on 1, and that’s all that matters. The build is NOT good because it can be a part of a 50 v 1 slaughter.

Dat precision. I really wish I could utilise Adrenal Healing and whatever the Strength one is, but I can’t bring myself to part with my current traits.

I’ve tried most other professions, but I always find myself coming back to my warrior. I’ve been at 80 for a while now, and am still fine-tuning, finding ways to improve.
For instance I’m thinking of dropping soldier runes and going for Lyssa, adding in Signet Cooldown Reduction trait, and changing OMM to Signet of Stamina. I think that would more than compensate for the loss of condition removal and the passive boost to stamina regen and all those glorious boons will be a marked improvement.

Tl;dr I do believe Warrior has so many possibilities, they just take longer to think of…. Or I’m just really slow :P

Oh and a story? Righto back before they revamped Ascalonian Catacombs, Colossus Rumblus used to have this bugged AOE scream that would instantly kill anyone within 400 or so range that wasn’t directly behind him. Anyway one guy got downed, another dropping as he tried to revive him, so we all sort of grouped around them, got them up, then bang Colossus dropped his AOE and we all hit the ground. His next sequence involved dropping rocks on you, didn’t do too much damage when downed but it interrupted your healing. So we’re all sitting within 5 feet of each other watching our health bars circle the drain. Then that glorious number 3 skill lit up, the only Warrior Vengeances up, I double tap my Warbanner and we’re all up, I didn’t even mind faceplanting the dirt 15 seconds later. Much to my surprise three of them lured him away while the other got me up. We finished that blasted graveling and off we went.
A WARRIOR TRUE AND THROUGH, OO-RAH.

Full glass cannon with Omnomberry Pie, alternating Whirling Axe and Hundred Blades. Those weapon choices are made for burst DPS, make the most of those rapid hits. Okay I suppose you could go full Knights or find a balance between Knights and Beserkers till you find a survivability you’re happy with.