So, warriors do not possess a great deal of in-combat, damage-avoiding mobility. They possess high armor, but this does not entail overpowered damage mitigation (it slows things down slightly at best). They do not have access to two of the best damage mitigating buffs in the game. What other options are available? The two best defensive options available to a warrior come from recent (I cannot emphasize this enough) changes to the profession, both of which require investment in certain skills and trait lines: out-healing damage and rapid condition/control removal. Now, both of these qualities are possessed by a few other professions as well, most notably the guardian, which has seen almost nothing but considerable buffs over the past few patches, and looks to be getting stronger in the next patch (By the way, did you know that the guardian can also be built as a glass cannon and has one of the highest potential DPS outputs in the game? Play around with a few builds; I am sure you will figure it out). For the warrior, out-healing damage requires investment in at least the Adrenal Health trait and the Healing Signet skill. The trick here is that the healing is “passive”, so the warrior can continue attacking while still healing. This is a nice little mechanic and it distinguishes the warrior (and guardian) from other classes; it makes them more unique. Recent complaints have been that this combination makes the warrior’s healing “too” strong, but let us consider: poison, burning, or sufficient stacks of bleeding or torment can easily out-damage the passive heal; a half-decent spike breaks through Thick Skin (if one even uses it) and whittles through the regeneration; AH is dependent upon having adrenaline (this is minor, though, since a tank-y warrior will likely have a full bar almost always); HS has a dismal active heal; AH requires investment in a particular trait-line. A warrior specialized for banners, might be a source of considerable frustration with the constant regeneration and additional stat buffs, but then this also requires some significant trait investment (and banners are wildly _un_popular anyway, weak of an argument as that might be), so we can hardly say that they are an ubiquitous advantage. There are a number of costs required for these buffs, then, so the benefits seem rather fair. None of them, however, are natural for the warrior, and few of them (if any) have been around since the game’s release.
Similarly so for condition removal: the majority of condition removal spam comes from investment in Cleansing Ire, a master level trait in the warrior’s defensive line. This is, undoubtedly, a great trait, but at 20 points it requires a reasonable investment. The warrior’s other condition removal skills include Signet of Endurance (which I think almost no one uses), Mending (which requires one to give up HS), and “Shake it Off” or any shout if one is using six superior runes of the soldier. All of these additional skills and traits require some considerable trade-offs on the player’s part and, again, are often not conducive to producing a high-DPS warrior, or at least not high enough to mesh with whatever crowd control one is utilizing and create an unstoppable killing machine.
There is, of course, a third way of mitigating damage available to warriors: shutting opponents down. This is achieved through simple pressure by damage, spamming control effects, or some combination thereof. This seems to be the focus of the critique and hence why so many “nerfs” are directed toward hammer and mace/shield sets. Is this reasonable, however? It is true that warriors can spam CC and deal decent damage, but is this genuinely the only profession so capable? What about engineers? Elementalists? Fear-focused necromancers? Greatsword and hammer guardians? It seems like most other professions have access to this mechanic as well; they simply choose not to use it because there are other viable options on the table for builds. A quick look at the PvP “meta” reveals that the CC-heavy warrior game is likely an attempt to give warriors a viable play-style to contend with (contend, not necessarily counter) numerous other effective builds. So, ultimately, it looks like the warrior CC is not necessarily more effective than other professions. Even if it is, the build seems to be prevalent not merely because it is effective, but because of limited viable options available to warriors for sPvP and WvW engagements. Mind you, I am not suggesting that some of these changes are unwarranted or unnecessary, but I think, perhaps, we may be using an ox cleaver to kill a chicken.
