Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I’m not sure about the GS as an hybrid weapon. I do understand your will to have many attack patterns, but the loss seems high. Have you considered exchanging the GS for a sword? You would still have a stun/burst (sword #3), and offhand options can be nice (torch, sword, and even an axe if you can whirlwind on a firefield at melee). Also, that would let you take Body Blow, further enhancing the mace/shield set.

The sustain of the build seems low. You do have some good active defense (block/control of mace/shield, mobility/evade of the GS), but no way to restore health (no shouts, no Rousing Resilience), and little condition management (no Cleansing Ire, no Brawler’s Recovery). I believe that burst-based builds can work with a warrior, but I fear that the build does more sustained damage than instant damage, and may not resist long enough to see it to its end.

What’s your take on Discipline and Fast Hands? I’ve seen many players considering they can play and be competitive without Fast Hands, but I’m not sure about it myself.

Food for thought:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRApe8fnMdAtdgVhAmkCEliFiAD5E8CeevH3m701IA8B7ZA-TpBHABBv/w3lBQ4gAIwJAAgjAQAPAAA

The latest video by Vaanss has it, on a human female. It looks cool.

Excellent, loved it

This is a great vid, so strong! The first fight in particular was amazing.

Like Choppy, I feel that a bit more stability could be useful. I’m not sure what’s the best way to get it, though. Last Stand is indeed a very nice option (I run it too), but the build is burst-based and Cleansing Ire fits so nicely into it… Eternal Champion instead of Bloody Roar could be considered, as the build has a lot of Berserker time, but losing the 10% damage modifier and the taunt into Hundred Blades would be disappointing. Maybe simply Balanced Stance instead of Outrage, as the build does not take much advantage from breaking stun (no Rousing Resilience, no Eternal Champion).

The lack of Reckless Dodge, Forceful Greatsword and Berserker’s Power is painful, but one has to make choices, and yours has proven to be lethal.

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed the show!

Hello,

Asato.5479:

I mean… is he supposed to be famous? If which is the case, yeah I’d like to have some info.

He’s the captain of the US team Apex Prime, which participated in the first season of the Pro League. He mains a warrior, although he’s been playing mostly Revenant and Reaper recently.

He has a twitch channel, but does not stream anymore since mid of the season. His stream featured unranked/ranked PvP games, with a focus on discussing and playing out builds (but not really PvP strategy). His skills as a warrior are strong, making his games enjoyable/instructive.

Ross Biddle.2367:

A great thief will always give a warrior trouble. However bringing sufficient counter burst will give them just as much trouble.

+1.

A warrior, provided he packs some burst, is pretty much a counter to a thief. However, a strong thief, who knows how to take his time, kite and interrupt properly, should have the advantage.

Incidentally, rifle warriors (on the rise!) should be able to dominate thieves more than usual melee warriors, because the rifle is a natural counter to kiting.

@Zefrost: interesting build, thanks for sharing!

Pyriall.1683:

I think if you had the ability to define your role on a team then you wouldn’t need to swap. Balance team compositions around roles and you can lock out profession swapping and stacking.

+1

One could envision a team/meta where a class could have two valid builds, for different roles, in which case class stacking would be natural. It reminds me of the old bunker/meditation guardians.

Matchmaking, to be more accurate, need to take into account the performance of players with their classes, and possibly their performance in the roles they’re used to assume. As a result, changing class at the beginning of a game should be disallowed.

Introducing roles should not be too difficult, as Conquest is known game mode. Some players or teams might want to play unorthodox strategies, in which case just let them choose a “custom” role – they’d be accountable for the resulting matchmaking.

Introducing roles would also help teams to coordinate together, as solo players would be more aware of what is expected from them (and what they can expect from the team). This could only lead to better play, thus a more enjoyable experience.

Zagerus.8675:

Ahahahaha oh man. I have no idea why but I laughed so hard at this.

Me too, it’s a good one

Great video indeed. Not only did I learn a few things, but it also made me reflect on my gameplay and identify many areas I need to work on with my warrior. Thanks for sharing!

Hi,

Cerby.1069:

Weapons we don’t seem to use:
-Sword OH
-Axe OH
-Mace MH OH

My signature has two builds with some of these weapons.

“The Finisher” is a power PvP build which lets you finish target under 50% health, basically using Axe #5 to grind a target’s HP, then obtaining unblockable/quickness for sword #3. It also offers a bit of sustain, with the mace/shield utilities, stances and Rousing Resilience (which triggers on activation of Balanced Stance, without a need to break from stun).

The build only works in PvP, because of the Axe #5 buffed damage there (but this may change next update). A Berserker variation, exchanging the “unblockable” from Signet Mastery for more damage, control and sustain might be:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRAsX5enMdAlhgVhAmkCElilrADJAkASdvf2S7rVJH06aBA-TpBHwANLDM4gA0a/hDHBAAPAACnAAA

“The Tormentor” is an expensive condition WvW roaming build, based on hard control and confusion. It sustains mainly thanks to passive stats and weakness (in other words: not a lot). It leads to considerable burst damage when you manage to land an interrupt – but classes with good stability uptime will counter it pretty hard.

Both builds are entirely melee, with average condition management and mobility, meaning natural counters in kiting and/or condition heavy classes. They’re solo-oriented, thus intended for fun and not coordinated play (forget HL WvW roaming or PvP). They’re pretty old, so could maybe benefit from recent amulets / gears. They’re decent, I’ve had plenty of fun and success with them, but they’re not the strongest warrior builds in their respective categories.

Have fun.

Hello,

Choppy.4183:

Not sure I understand the condi sniping part. I mean, there’s some burn on gunflame, but that’s about it for the rifle.

He’s running a mix a Viper / Sinister, so it’s more of hybrid damage. As for the rifle, all skills but #5 come as projectile finishers, so would inflict burn when shot over a fire field. That’s one reason for taking the Longbow, I guess: aside from the desired ranged gameplay, it offers bizarre yet working synergies and weapon rotations.

I find the idea of using the rifle as an hybrid weapon quite attractive, actually. About a month ago, there was another hybrid rifle build posted on the forum, which IMHO looked promising. I sometimes regret ANet removing the bleed on the rifle AA (I used to run the rifle as a condition weapon before).

I’ve never tried or theorycrafted Rifle/Longbow, so cannot really comment on the posted build (I think I’d consider Arms rather than Strength though). I’ve seen it played however, and it did look fun, as Tesla has pointed out. I believe Obindo has some footage of it, in some of his PvP 1v1 videos.

I have just created a post in the Bug Forum, describing the issue, putting links to relevant posts in the warrior forum, as well as video illustrations (including this OP). Feel free to contribute to it if you wish so.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Endure-Pain-Bug-1/first

Hi,

Endure Pain is warrior skill, which nullifies incoming physical damage for 4s, while letting through other types of damage, such as conditions, retaliation or life steal. However, in some occurrences, the skill bugs and lets physical damage go through.

The cause of this bug is unfortunately obscure: lethal damage going through? Race issue between the channeling of the enemy’s skill and the activation of Endure Pain?

Anyway, this bug has been reported many times on the warrior forum, for instance:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Endure-Pain-bugged/first
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Endure-pain-3/first
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Endure-pain-bug-1/first

There also have been many videos illustrating the bug, for instance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06LZPSJAa6M&t=9m49s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLPuYACdBMg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TXTl2DQ5_k

It has been going on for many months now. I hope that it is finally acknowledged and fixed. Dying to it is quite annoying, especially when you properly time the skill to block an enemy burst.

Thanks.

@Choppy

I cannot test (sorry), but the behavior is “historically” consistent. I’ve been using the runes of the Guardian before, and it was the same (you could check in PvP if you like). You had to make a build choice then: select both the rune and the reflect trait (knowing you’d have some opportunity cost) or use only one of them.

When they merged the CD reduction, the might-on-block and the reflect in the new Shield Mastery, I was a bit surprised, because that mechanically reduced the value of block builds. But as they see it, when you reflect, you don’t block, that’s the original (and questionable) rule.

Happy new year, thanks for the nice video! You guys seem to have a lot of fun roaming, it’s way more enjoyable to watch than the Pro Bunker Wars

Mitz.5741:

What i usually do is activate Berserker stance and Endure pain at the same time and go suicide mode into a zerg !

You may be simply hurting from retaliation in such case, it’s one of the damage type that goes through Endure Pain and Berserker Stance.

Endure Pain is bugged though, as others have pointed out. In Vaanss video, you can see Vaanss doing a 11.8k evisceration on a warrior, who has the Endure Pain buff timely activating. The server properly registers the skill, as it shows on Vaanss’ screen, so I believe this indicates a bug with the activation / stacking of the skill rather than some lag.

I’ve encountered this issue many times myself, it’s quite annoying as you make the effort to time your skill to counter a certain opponent’s attack, yet get hit. I reported it in game twice, but to no avail.

dominik.9721:

what’s wrong with the twitch numbers? go4 cups had like 1k~ viewers on average.
pro league games have like 3k~ viewers on average,allthough the meta is boring to watch.

I don’t feel there a problem with Twitch numbers either. I watched a good part of the last pro league, and there were indeed 3k+ watchers there – a figure consistent with what I remember from previous large GW2 competitions.

Nearly all of the spectators were mocking the boring meta – but ANet has already acknowledged that the current meta was less than satisfactory, and that they’d change it soon enough.

I have a problem with the format of the broadcast, though. I do appreciate the efforts of the commentators, however I find myself annoyed most of the time by the PoV changes. They try to show a bit of everything (rotations, skills), but IMHO end up missing a lot of interesting stuff.

I’d rather spectate myself, possibly with the audio of the speakers. Beging able to replay the games would be great, too. Currently, I enjoy personal streams of players (such as Tarcis) way more than GW2 competitions, even if the general level of games is lower, simply because the pace is more consistent.

Cerby.1069:

Juba.8406:

Back in the days when GvGs were active and as part of a Gank squad i used Belinda’s Greatsword Skin since it brings the least visual impact making the sneaking life of the gank squad much easier especially on an Asura and since Twilight is like “target me plz”

Hmm good point. I guess for my purposes I’m concerned mainly with dueling and small group fights 1-4 players. Basically fights in WvsW where I operate as a roamer/independent player. Not all your enemies are completely fluent in all types of classes AND animations from skins. In group fights, multiple flashy (or none at all) animations in WvsW can be of benefit depending on the situation.

I agree with that. While it may not be elegant to work on things like appearance and effects to confuse your opponents, I believe it’s fair game, as customizations are pretty accessible in the game.

As a warrior, I feel like Juba. I have myself the smallest possible Asura, paint in black, with weapons without effects (Reaper’s GS). Most warrior attacks are telegraphed, so I want to make things difficult to read for my opponents.

As a mesmer, I’d say it’s the opposite. Nothing more formidable than a huge Norn or Charr, dressed in a colorful bad taste, with a legendary GS splashing your opponent’s screen.

BurrTheKing.8571:

I’d consider it…but I’m not well known. That being said, if they get to directly communicate with the devs it might be worth it. The actual job description is a little vague.

You’re a regular on the warrior forum, you know your deal, have an open mind and show proper respect to other forum participants. If you want to do it, then just go for it

About the position, ICBW but I think it’s like a point of contact to the devs. You can discuss with them and carry their opinions/questions to the community, as well as carry back the opinions/questions of the community (which implies some reading and summarizing of the points of interest discussed).

Hi,

Ross Biddle.2367:

So a good combo for sword is int sigil with hydromancy. Hydro will either hit them with chill on swap so you can gap open for an escape, or you can move into melee and swap into sword, hitting them with the hydro proc followed by a Final Thrust which is easier to land thanks to the chill locking the target down. Sigil of Intillegence will ensure that both the hydro and the Final Thrust crit, which makes that quick turn around burst come out of nowhere and really hurt.

Hydromancy looks interesting indeed, all the more that it can be used to clear blinds before Final Thrust. On the other hand, I don’t think Intelligence is needed: the OP can go beyond 100% critical chance already, with Fury, Sword Mastery and the precision stacks of Signet Mastery. This is one of the big advantage of the Arms line being used in a hybrid/power build.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Alternativly you could put a sigil of Agility in place of hydro. That’ll give you that 1s of quickness to either leap away, or speed up the channel of an instant Final Thrust. Int sigil again to ensure that burst hits its hardest.

Quickness can indeed be nice for Final Thrust. As for leaping away, I’m not sure, though: Quickness makes movement skills travel less far (as Slow make them go farther), unless they’ve finally fixed this?

Ah yes, you’re right, sorry! Well, I’m afraid I don’t see how to improve the build for now – I really like it “as is”, and your being successful with it is quite encouraging. I’ll make sure and try it when I’m back to the game.

Just a few questions, if you don’t mind:

• Are you generating enough adrenaline, to enter Berserker mode as you need? What’s your opinion on “Furious” rather than “Burst Precision”?
• Have you considered using the Rune of the Sunless? Fear works nicely with a rifle, to push opponents away and possibly kill shot them in the process. Your current choice of runes is very strong though, so I’m not sure whether it’d be worth it.

In the past, the rifle auto-attack had bleed on it. I enjoyed running condition builds with a rifle then. Most opponents would /laugh, then /die, then /noobify you

This is an interesting build, and rather consistent at that. Well done.

I see that you’ve chosen Dead or Alive rather than Heat the Soul. At first, I would have prioritized Heat the Soul, to optimize the combos between Torch #5 and the rifle projectile finishers. However, if your actual weapon rotations do not need the reduced CD, then I suppose Dead or Alive might be better, somehow compensating for the overall lack of defense, as you otherwise have no block or physical invulnerability.

In terms of sigils, I usually do not equip on-swap sigils of the same type on the different weapon sets. With Fast Hands, you’re likely to swap weapons under the 9s CD of the sigil, thus wasting some of its value. I’d probably take an Energy Sigil instead of one of your Sigil of Doom.

Cygnus.6903:

The Chrono was pretty good IMO, and the fact that the fight was dragged on showed the competency of a sturdy warrior build like this; many duels tend to keep on going until I’ve outsustained them to the point of making a mistake.

This was the fight I preferred, too. I liked how the mesmer handled the positioning in the fight, using your line of sight to try and confuse you, preparing his shatters adequately, defending nicely. You did an excellent job winning this – and one should not forget that you were running full berserker, without even Endure Pain, so IMO this makes an interesting case for your build. This was incidentally much better than watching current PvP!

Although your other opponents were indeed inferior to you skill-wise, I still enjoyed the fights, because they also demonstrated the strength of the build. For instance, I found myself automatically frowning at your getting hit by the Revenant’s Chaotic Release (“Huh? What’s he doing?”), then laughing at my own stupidity when realizing it was on purpose to gain Rousing Resilience on Outrage (“Ah, of course”).

I’d almost come back just to try and play this, and see if an average warrior like me can get something good out of it. In the past, I stopped solo WvW roaming and got to PvP instead because I could run for long minutes without finding appropriate opponents to fight – and wanted more excitement. But I still miss roaming around, and the occasional nice fights you can have there.

That’s… an interesting proposal

I’d definitely love to have a mechanics with more F skills. However, adding static F skills like that would be too similar to virtues I believe (and guardians don’t have burst skills). In the end, I think I’d prefer a second F skill based on the offhand weapon equipped, and fueled by adrenaline. It could bring damage or control (as the original burst skills), or sustain and support (something the warrior is needing).

Hello,

nearlight.3064:

I have pretty much no warrior experience but I kinda want to try out a condi berserker build (with viper amulet) so can you guys give me some expanses of builds you would probably use for this role?

That’s an interesting question. The Viper amulet is great, but fragile, and one of the current issue of the warrior is its lack of defense / sustain, when compared to other classes. The Berserker trait line does not help much in that regard, so finding something good with Berserker and Viper might be difficult.

If you want to be competitive, then you absolutely need Discipline and Defense, so your template is pretty set up with Berserker. Then, running Viper, you’d need weapons which can deal physical and condition damage, thus sword (mobility, hybrid damage), mace (hard control, block, interesting Berserker F1), or longbow (hybrid damage, soft control). You could try to make the build robust by implementing synergies with Rousing Resilience and Berserker.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAseTnMdAlkiVhAehAElilrATJH06qBIBgEQq7d0WaftA-TpBHABfXGAgHAw57PIwhAIgjAwAnAAA

I’ve seen Tarcis play with the Viper amulet using Hambow, using a Strength / Defense / Discipline template, with the runes of the Sunless. It was pretty interesting, particulary the interaction of the elite and Distracting Strikes. I don’t remember whether he was satisfied with Viper though, or preferred Wanderer or Celestial. His template could be something similar to:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJASTjMdQZIWFCehAnIGMCMdL88uCWAYDmzwU3K4DA-TpBHABFcBACe/hvLDAwDAQgDBQAHBAA

I’ve tried a melee variation of that, exchanging the longbow for sword/shield, and had a bit of fun with it. Body Blow really shines with the hammer and the shield, and the weakness is very useful. Rousing Resilience triggers with Balanced Stance, without a need to break stance, so I like it as well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAS8ejMdQZIWFCehAnIG6BMtNE++BWAoFu0waQPo7B-TpBHABFcBACe/hvLDAwDAYgDCQAHBAA

HTH, good luck in your warrior adventures.

Cygnus.6903:

Sad to hear you’re taking a break, but we all need those every once in a while.

I’ve spent way too much time on the expansion so far, so it is good to step back a bit. I’m also a bit disappointed with the elite specialization, not having managed to make it work as well as vanilla warrior.

Anyway, I was happy to check the forum and see you’d posted this Berserker build! It’s well-thought and promising. Point taken regarding the zealot armor, thanks for your explanation!

Choppy.4183:

Rekt.5360:

On top of that arc divider has quite the nasty range….

Omg… I never noticed that before. Is it seriously a 450 radius?!

Yes, it’s pretty awesome. It allows more flexibility in your positioning, helping quite a bit against adds, kiting classes and fleeing opponents. And on top of that, the damage is pretty attractive. I’ve had some fun with it in PvP before, running GS/Mace/Shield, with berserker gear and Strength / Discipline / Berserker.

[WvW roaming]

Hi there,

Has anyone tried the Reaper runes with some shout-based build already? I would enjoy reading some feedback about it, if you’ve experimented with it. I was theorycrafting around the following WvW roaming build, but had to stop playing for a while (don’t know when I’ll be back).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRBMhd21ITHUGideglHwJihrgSzhWvFyVIrLBMAu6UH-TVCEABRcCAg4BAslSQmU+l/+Ddq+TH6HA4IA8wBBgUAmp1C-w

Cheers.

This is an interesting idea, thanks for sharing! I’ve been using the Defender Runes before on my melee ranger, and I’m a long time fan of Rousing Resilience – but I’ve never thought about using both on a blocking warrior. I’m taking a break from the game now, but when I’m going back, I might give it a try.

Armored Attack would be pretty good on that build, because it also synergizes with Rousing Resilience, the 1,000 toughness also contributing an additional 100 power. I also wonder about using zealot armor (keeping berserker trinkets and weapons), to buff the sustain a bit.

Morwath.9817:

Alpha version of site : http://competitivegw2.blogspot.com/

This is pretty cool! Thanks a lot for your post and website, very useful.

On a side note, I wish Anet would invest more into spectating/replay features. Watching the stream is nice, but there’s no way you can study/learn a gameplay or review a team tactics with all these sudden POV changes…

I was originally thinking along the lines: if I want to remove stances altogether and play with physical skills instead, how do I need to buff them? So I tried to compensate physical skills with what stances bring, adding some stun breaking to form a synergy with Rousing Resilience (as I wouldn’t thematically equip Last Stand without stances). However, reading your posts, I somehow realize this is an awkward approach.

So I guess I do prefer your proposal, except I’d probably substitute the regeneration by vigor (because it has good synergy with Strength minor traits). In exchange, I’d replace the vigor of stances by something else.

As for the regeneration boon itself, it’s just that the class has been designed with limited access to it, so I just feel it’s out of place. But why not indeed?

I had something similar in mind actually, except that I was considering variables such as resistance, endurance, and stun breaking.

Basically, something like:

• 20% CD reduction.
• Physical Skills now break stun and restore endurance (50).
• Physical Skills provide 5s of Resistance upon activation.

I don’t think regeneration is suitable for the warrior, it’s not really in the class theme. Quickness, on the other hand, would be very nice, although 5s of it might be a bit too strong.

Definitely yes

Choppy.4183:

I’m on EB, so duels won’t happen with me anytime soon. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of others though.

In EotM, servers are grouped together by color (green, red, blue), so provided you both belong to a different color for the current week, then you may go and duel there. This won’t be this week as you both seem to be green, but maybe next week…

You’ve grown up, lass

Nice video, and these fights were great. Made me want to roam again! Thanks for sharing, looking for more!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR5ejMdQZIWFCehApIWICMlvw0bKYEAiADg3i7yN6C-TpBCwAAOCAYuAAZeAAB3f4yBBIcZAA

As power weapon, the bow can be coupled with a GS, using Strength/Defense/Discipline. You have no blocks and no hard control, but compensate with ranged pressure and soft control. It’s quite fun to play.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJARTjMdQZIWFCehAnIG6BKtNC/0wCgPICwdvHiBA-TVCEABRcIAg4BAky+DJq+zWKBZS5Xb6CA4CA8wRAgUAMp1C-w

As a condition weapon, the bow is very strong. It should work in any condition build, traited or not with Tactics:

• In terms of specializations, Defense/Tactics/Discipline, Arms/Defense/Discipline or Defense/Discipline/Berserker should all be solid choices. Strength/Defense/Discipline could be used as well, for condition/hybrid control builds. Not sure about Tactics/Discipline/Berserker, as losing Defense looks a bit dangerous in WvW roaming context, but why not?
• In terms of gear, you could go from anything to Dire, Rabid (pure condition) or mixing in some Sinister or Viper (more hybrid damage for less passive defense).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAsfTjMdQZIWFCehAnIWEDMlRwl7DkEASAnv3Ebk9yC-TViAABJ8AAgZ/hE1HAwRAgjDBwpq/IpSQxU+txJAgQAKmDA-w

As an hybrid weapon, I believe that a possible approach would be to leverage some shoutbow build, i.e. Defense/Tactics/Discipline, traiting shouts, making sure you can stack might easily. Gear could be either Celestial, or Viper/Sinister for more aggressive setup. Runes can be either Strength, Soldier, Hoelbrak, Berserker…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNBMhNakpDKDxOPwyD4ExQVQp9QsnD5L01pAu4NQAA-TVyCABA8AAwf/hDVC2p6Pfp8biDBgg6Dk4EAQxRAgMA+zB-w

Harvey.7820:

If you’re playing sPvP just roll a dragonhunter. They’re really easy to play and bring a ton of damage and point control in conquest.

I’ve had lots of fun playing with 5-traps Dragonhunters, actually. I’ve killed people with it while being on the other side of the map. They’re indeed great for node control – and trapping vicious places is quite fun in itself (Skyhammer cannon portal entry…).

Still, the gameplay is different, and I can’t resist coming back to vanilla warrior from time to time, to enjoy swift and ferocious action. The warrior has become weaker (or it should be said, other classes have become stronger) – but one can still pull out cool kills with it.

Viper.2436:

is there a chance that warrior will get buffed after all these entries?

That’s a good question. I suppose it’s not that easy a step to make for them, because of colliding interests:

• The ambition for professional PvP. The warrior is lacking in the current PvP scene, as exemplified in the last ESL tournaments. The Berserker spec unfortunately failed to address core warrior issues.
• The will(?) for an easy playable class in PvE, where players can have fun and perform reasonably well, for some moderate effort. Currently, warriors are well tailored for most PvE content.

The Berserker specialization looks less potent than other elite specs, which turned some players away from it. Also, there’s a lot to discover and enjoy in these specs, so many want to give them a try anyway.

I still play some vanilla GS/Axe+Shield warrior here and there, admittedly less than before. What changed, however, is my usage of Rampage, which has become joyfully unrestrained, especially against elite specializations.

I agree that there are some synergies between Berserker and the other specializations, and I believe that there are more than what Burr has listed. They may not be as powerful that what you can find in other classes (like the Reaper indeed), but they exist and work.

I think most (PvP) warriors have simply been so disappointed with their early testing that they have stopped testing the Berserker specialization, and now blindly despise it. There’s no blame to be laid though, because the elite specialization looks indeed less promising than the ones of the other classes.

After testing many different builds, in both power or condition flavors, I’m still struggling to find something decent in Berserker. However, the more I play it, the better I understand it, so I believe that my lack of enthusiasm for the line simply reflects an insufficient experience with it. I’m pretty sure it’s ‘viable’. As for ‘competitive’, still need to test more.

So far, I’ve found that you won’t win all 1v1s with it, and you need to carefully identify which you role want to fulfill, and stick to it (no more goofing around). It is to be played a bit differently than other warrior builds, in that you commit to a certain adrenaline usage (you must plan the ramping up and the activation of the Berserker mode), and you must drop a useful existing specialization to use it (need to build in a different spirit, and not use the Berserker as a poor substitute of the dropped line).

Also, there are many interesting synergies between Strength, Discipline and Berserker.

Berserker needs adrenaline, and Discipline provides Versatile Rage. Fast Hands maximizes the value of Versatile Rage, thus it’s easy to chain bursts when in Berserker mode.

The Berserker bursts are tier 3, working well with Berserker’s Power. Also, more bursts mean more endurance through Building Momentum, so more dodges (better defense, and better offense with Reckless Dodge).

Fatal Frenzy, along with the taunt of Bloody Roar, provides an interesting setup for a GS burst. I’m not sure about the synergy of Arc Divider (fire field) and Skull Grinder (blast), but the daze / cripple of Skull Grinder, with its long range (300), still provide a favorable situation for another GS burst.

[PvP Context]

Hi there,

Like many of us, I’ve tried various builds using the Berserker Specialization, in order to get a better understanding of how it works. Currently, I’m experimenting with a Strength / Discipline / Berserker power setup, with mace+shield / GS. I’m pretty sure many of you have tested this flavor already: what are you thoughts about it?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNApeRjMdQZIWFCehApIWICMlvw0bKYEAiADg3i7yN6C-TpBCwAAeAAZOEAYOCAB3f4yJAIcZAA

Originally, I tried running Defense / Discipline / Berserker, but I found this combination lacking in terms of power, and playing a GS without Forceful Greatsword messes up my rotations too much (too slow).

I don’t think one should equip Berserker as a poor substitute of another specialization line, but rather as a specialization that brings something new to the build. So I ended up keeping Strength instead of Defense, for an even more aggressive warrior. Aside from the increased damage, one also gets Taunt on berserker mode activation (excellent to interrupt or HB a foe), and the very good Arc Divider and Skull Grinder.

The final damage is truly impressive, and you can put a lot of pressure on opponents. To respect that theme, I’ve kept Rampage rather than another elite skill. The defense isn’t that bad, even without the Defense line, because you still have the mobility of the GS, the stances, and a mace/shield weapon set which provides lots of active defense.

Getting a guild hall is a matter of 20 minutes with a group of 4-5 people. Just hire a full group using the LFG tool, pay them a few golds for it (e.g. 3g per person), and you’ll have your hall in a blink of an eye. No need to invite them to the guild, just make sure you’re the one creating the instance. Return the favor if/when they ask for help to get their own hall.

I do wish they’d let small guilds (or solo guilds) develop freely too. I myself belong to a two-people guild, we do all content of the game, duo dungeons when the mechanics allows it, open-world PvE, PvP, WvW… I’ve played with many guilds before, including a GvG one, but currently the 2-people based format is what suits my tastes the most.

Try using the hammer instead

Allocate hero points (or whatever they are called) to unlock the specialization traits and skills. Then, in your build template, select the scrapper specialization, making sure to use the last specialization line in the template (the one at the bottom).

Artificially restricting a content by a number of players makes no sense. It simply excludes guilds that could achieve some guild missions by being only two, yet cannot because they’re not three.

Stating that guild missions should not be performed with less than three people is the same as stating that dungeon instances should not be run by less than five people. As a matter of fact, you can run many instances solo or duo, and get a different kind of fun than when you run them in a group of five.

Guild missions should not be tailored to be soloable. If some are, then let the happy solo’ers / duo’ers do them. If some aren’t, then too bad for them. It’s the same as dungeon instances.

Also, I don’t get why some people want to remove interesting content from players not belonging to a large enough guild. Unless they consider that belonging to a guild is more a pain than a joy, and that the content restriction is somehow a reward of their commitment?

Hi,

Andraus.3874:

It’s always been this way. It’s best to just auto attack it as those count as separate hits. It’s like this with any other skill as well.

I see, thank you for your answer. This is what we’ve been doing so far, using quickness to make sure we could deplete the shield stacks fast enough.

Regards.

Hi there,

The warrior Axe #5 skill (Whirling Axe) is supposed to hit 15 times, so I thought it’d be a good weapon to strip the Fire Shaman from its shield, in the corresponding fractal. However, it appears that only one hit is registered against it.

This happened today on the early-level fractal (lvl 5), with a two-people group. I’ve never used the offhand axe before in a fractal, so don’t know whether the bug is new or not. Something did change with the fractal, as the boss cannot be immobilized / crippled anymore (I think this is recent).

Regards.

I haven’t tried unranked/ranked arenas yet, but did go in hotjoin, in order to get a better feel of the class. That was hotjoin, with its usual wide range of skills – but I did better than I expected nevertheless, holding my 1v1s without too much problem, preventing decaps… The condi burst is real, and easy to land with a little preparation.

Most players don’t know what to expect from elite specializations yet, so it’s fairly easy to kill even experienced people. I don’t know whether a condi-burst warrior will become viable in the future, have to play more serious games to form an opinion.

I was using something derived from the PvE builds recently presented on the forum.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAsfTjMdQZIWFCehAnIWgCsjEYAIlpcE2dDh3Wbtd3C-TphAwAw2fYyDAgzhAgcZAAHBgOnAAA

The Berserker line isn’t bad, but in my view does not offer either enough damage, utility or defense to be able to compete with the existing specializations. Also, the Berserker mode puts significant pressure on adrenaline management, and not being able to use regular bursts (because you want to preserve adrenaline for the fated 3 bars) messes up weapon rotations, thus compromising damage/defense when on regular warrior mode.

Rather than a F2 skill to enter a Berserker Mode, I think I would have enjoyed a second burst skill, based on the offhand weapon equipped and fueled by adrenaline. In other words, you’d have one F1 and one F2 available when running Berserker. Such a setup would:

• Enrich the weapon rotations, thus lessening the pressure on Fast Hands. The F2 skill, depending on the offhand weapon, could bring any of damage, break stun, block, soft control, hard control, movement skills.
• Improve synergies with other lines, as the F2 skill would also work with burst-related traits, such as Berserker’s Power or Cleansing Ire. The Berserker specialization, adding a way to gain adrenaline with the second burst skill (on use, on preserve…), would also reduce the pressure on other adrenaline-generating traits (Vigorous Shouts, Cleansing Ire, Versatile Rage…).

I have only spent a few hours on the Specialization, in theory-crafting and in PvP games. I’m absolutely sure I don’t understand all of its subtleties yet, so maybe my initial negative impression is wrong. I’ll try again when HoT comes out, but honestly, I’m not sure of how I’ll capture the most value out of it, and whether that value will be enough to make me as competitive as I currently am.

Hi,

A few weeks ago, I’ve tried a berserker shout build, using Defense, Tactics and Discipline. While my build choices were often similar to yours, I did prefer:

• Using a sword, to retain utility (mobility, cripple, immobilize) as well as some damage burst combo (Axe F1 → swap → Sword #3),
• Using Rousing Resilience rather than Cleansing Ire, equipping Balanced Stance instead of Fear Me. The abundant stun breakers made sure I could trigger the trait regularly (and it triggers with Balance Stance without breaking from stun anyway). Cleansing Ire brings condition cleanse and adrenaline, but both aspects were already fulfilled in the build.

The build did okay, proving adequate to fight conditions. However, despite the Berserker amulet and the correct might stacking capabilities, its damage was too low against all the bunkers of the current era. Losing Strength unfortunately means losing a lot of modifiers (Berserker’s Power, Stick and Move in general, and Forceful Greatsword and Peak Performance for the GS/Rampage). I’ll give another try if/when we get the zealot amulet, to see whether an offensive support warrior is viable.

I’ll try your Berserker specialization variations when HoT arrives. However, Discipline, Defense and Tactics all seem mandatory in shout builds, and I’m afraid that the Berserker line, in its current state, will not be able to replace any of them in an advantageous way. Still, props to you for exploring this path.

Regards.

PS: Things I thought when writing this message:

• The current meta is a bad joke. A metagame implies that the builds it contains counter one another in a circular way (A >B > C > A), but in GW2’s case, the only thing that counters a celestial class… is a celestial class.
• The naming “Berserker” for the specialization is annoyingly poor, as it collides with the naming of the amulet.