Guild Wars 2

Will be making a come back to the game in the next few weeks, I don’t think there are too many changes to the current builds until I’ve finished testing new content.

I don’t agree with this in the slightest.

Do you know what cancel casting is?

Justice is Blind >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Vengeful
Purity/Strength in Numbers > Defenders Flame
Fire sigil > Stamina sigil

Arganthium.5638:

Just had to check out a little stat thing on Two-Handed DPS build.

Basically, if you change your Valor VI trait for the IV trait (which also applies to yourself), then you decrease your damage output by 2.89% but increase your ability to absorb direct damage by 6.09%.

In an optimal meta, then, taking the IV trait would be preferable, but due to the amount of condi spam and general imbalance between classes ATM, it’s hard to make a completely accurate comparison between offensive and defensive stats. It’s easy to compare offensive stats to one another, and defensive stats to one another, but try to oppose offensive and defensive stats… There’s always been a heated debate (both internally and externally for me) about whether or not you can compare between the two types of stats. Typically, the more balanced and stable the meta is, the more accurate such a comparison is, but as it grows increasingly more muddled and imbalanced, the validity of the comparison is an entirely different issue.

Anyhow, that’s my take for all y’all on that particular guard build. just something to consider.

PS: if any of you need any more stat comparisons for other builds, just PM me, I’d be happy to help.

Did you factor in Vigor?

It’s taking me longer to test as I’m not playing as much due to life stuff currently.
The new heal is absolutely useless, no advantage anywhere. Most of the trait changes are pretty irrelevant. The main thing I’m testing atm is the sword over scepter on burst, which I was already testing vs engi/ele/thief/war point assault but the 5% extra damage may help it a bit more.

Greenfish.1270:

So with these most recent changes will you be updating your list at all? I really like looking at the builds you post I have learned a lot of new stuff for guardian because of them hope to see more from you!

I’ve been ‘busy’ with ‘stuff’ the last few days. But I will be updating the builds as soon as I’ve had maybe 20-30 hours testing with new traits.
The new heal looks absolutely terrible though, would only give you an advantage over DPS vs power DPS or burst.

Canubis.6289:

Jax, you mention in the end you’ve a new wvwvw build, any chance you could make link to it? I’ve recently started playing again and even though I’m “only” lvl 50 I’m liking the guardian play a lot but am having a hard time searching through the builds on these forums for what is good and what isn’t.

Thanks.

P.S If you got a build you’d suggest for lvl 50ish guardian doing both normal pve-levelling and wvwvw (can be two specs, I don’t mind retraiting) then I’d be a happy camper hah.

I have a build designed for small skirmishes 2-5 v 1-5 nothing more, I don’t play WvW very often and my build is specifically designed to be run with a friend and just steamroll anybody we play against.
If you’re trying to participate in big wvw fights or anything else it’s probably best to just look through the forums.
It also has a high skill cap for what you need to do.

Here it is anyway:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1g.h1j.0.0.0|b.0.0.d.0.0.0.0.0|1c.7x.1k.7x.1k.7x.1k.7x.1c.7x.1k.7x|31j.0.21j.0.21k.0.3s.0.21k.0.2s.0|0.0.k51.u29b.k29|0.0|w.16.13.19.0|e

Things to note:

• I use 500 Healing Power because I generally dodge perfectly, meaning I only need 500.
• I focus on control and defence for myself and friend, while being able to set up a spike easily. So the damage is indirect mostly.
• I don’t use AH, don’t need it.

I don’t PvE either but anything works there, look through the forums if you want something optimal.

Greenfish.1270:

Are most of these builds still viable? If so are there any that are not any more?

All are viable, you’ll also have an advantage over people not running them. ie. playing mace burst against somebody with GS burst, you have a build advantage. Same with control bunker vs any other kind of bunker.

edit: I realised there’s confusion for Americans with the date, totally forgot about that. Fixed =)

Josh Davis.6015:

Jax.5261:

Snip

From the blog:

With gear unification we will also introduce a system that allows players to set goals for rewards in PvP and work towards them. We are not ready to discuss this system in detail yet, as it is still being developed, but more information will come as we get closer to being able to release this system.

Gold will be the universal currency, but that doesn’t mean it’s how you will acquire gear. We’re not ready to talk about that system quite yet, but rest assured, you will need to PvP to acquire PvP rewards.

Didn’t even notice until now you only addressed buying pvp skins with gold. Which you guys didn’t mention in the blog so it’s a good clarification but you can buy pve skins with gold which then can be worn in pvp:

ronpierce.2760:

Gear

• In the months that follow, we will be working to eliminate the difference between PvP and PvE gear. Players will be able to earn gear in PvP that can be carried over to PvE and vice versa. *

And the effort required to get pve skins is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING REMOTELY as difficult as getting pvp skins. So according to entirely what anet has posted you can effectively pay gold for skins in pvp as long as they’re carried over from pve.

Can you clarify that for us please?

ronpierce.2760:

Jax.5261:

ronpierce.2760:

^ I don’t think you’re entirely caught up to speed, mr. Jax.

I only skimmed over the notes but from what I remember:

• Glory removed
• PvE gear worn in PvP (therefore they have our rewards)
• Gold used in PvP

Right?

There will be a progressive system to get rewards in PvP, and some stuff you can only get via PvP (specifically with ladders), the whole system details are just unfinished at the moment so we don’t have all of the information we need. Most of this is still speculation. Gold will be universally used in pve and PvP but it doesn’t mean it’ll be the way you get the armor. (Similarly you can’t go buy CoF armor with gold) there will be non gold-related goals from what I understand.

EXACTLY so we’re literally back to square one and have to start over, we don’t have any rewards for playing this long, you can get the same things in pve for much less effort.

ronpierce.2760:

^ I don’t think you’re entirely caught up to speed, mr. Jax.

I only skimmed over the notes but from what I remember:

• Glory removed
• PvE gear worn in PvP (therefore they have our rewards)
• Gold used in PvP

Right?

edit:

ronpierce.2760:

Gear

• In the months that follow, we will be working to eliminate the difference between PvP and PvE gear. Players will be able to earn gear in PvP that can be carried over to PvE and vice versa. *

• Once this new system is in place, glory will be retired as a currency, and gold will be the standard currency across the game.*

Justin ODell.9517:

Where are you getting the idea that we are removing rewards?

Glory’s being removed.
We don’t have any gold, pvp doesn’t reward any. So for these 3k hours that many of us have played we’re getting a tiny, small reward. The PvE players have all the gold, they will be able to buy pvp gear which means my pvp gear is now worthless too.

So what rewards do we get instead? I don’t understand why you guys are making it so that we lose everything (some of us actually played pretty kitten hard for, soon to be, nothing).

tl;dr: The rewards for dedicating yourself to the only remotely difficult part of the game will be negligible compared to mindlessly farming pve. Unless there’s drastic compensation (not you get to keep your lame finisher) such as thousands of gold or pvp-only armour.
But again, we have to ALREADY have the pvp-only armour because we’ve already invested the kitten time. We’ve already earnt it. Not a matter of now you get a chance to earn it, otherwise we’re back to square one.

And if you still don’t follow here’s a basic example of your proposed changes to the reward system:

Do we get the gold for the time we invested?
Since our rewards are being removed from the game we may as well. Going by 3k+ hours played and you can farm what 10g an hour in pve? Let’s say I was playing 2k hours of that continuously that’s 20,000 gold.

So I will effectively be behind pve players in pvp rewards because of this new gold bs. UNLESS I’m compensated for the rewards they’re removing. Or are we being screwed over again?

In terms of tpvp:
Thief

We completely hard counter them and if they go a super tanky evade/cloak build then we can’t kill them but they definitely still can’t kill us. If they make a mistake they die too, love it when it’s not us being forced to make all the right choices.

http://youtu.be/SbjUqGyxmxM?t=28m50s

An example of a video where I was showing people basics of the Guardian, it’s a build win.

brannigan.9810:

Greatsword is not a bad weapon at all. Binding Blade and Leap of Faith are both excellent abilities. Whirling Wrath is hit or miss but I seem to land it fairly often. Retaliation on demand is pretty nice as well. Not talking about duels though team fights in solo q Greatsword can be pretty effective. Its easy to pretty much queue up binding blades and then you don’t activate it (the ability kind of has two parts to it the whirl and then the pull) until you know it will get a person sucked in and then you use Whirling Wrath.

As I’ve demonstrated on a few videos, even against good players, their WW just don’t land on me (I think the last video it was 0.5/9 or10 that landed on me, that was just an instructional video too, not competitive). It relies 100% on your enemy not being able to dodge it properly, I just don’t like that style of play. I always assume my enemy is really good and then I can deal extremely well with every single player and not automatically lose when I do play against somebody talented.
The massive decline of pvp means that the good players are far and in between and you’ll see a lot of success out of plays that are easy to counter.

The GS pull gives your enemy two chances to dodge it, it’s extremely ineffective. Both the spin to land the Binding Blade and the Pull once it’s on your target have very big indicators that are very dodgable and if people aren’t dodging them you know you’re not playing against very high quality players.

These are the main reasons I don’t use GS often.

I rated them all from a tpvp point of view.
The categories were:

• Damage: How much damage a weapon can do
• Control: How much control/anti-control a weapon can output
• Accuracy: How well the weapon can land the hits (includes fake-outs)
• Scaling: How well the weapon does at different attribute levels

edit: fixed %’s

I’ll mentor if you’d like, I also have a lot of videos/written guides for new and experienced players.

no….

Romek.4201:

oh had 2 days ago a warrior on temple map – i knocked him down to can cap the buff
3 sec later he just apear there again and after i asked he said it was lag^^

Because it was, lol…..

Just put up a new video of some mace burst in soloq, just incase some of you want to see how well it works.

It’s soloq… remember that

Ralkuth.1456:

Hi, I was snooping through some duels and a Guardian was using this. It was a while ago. I’d like your opinion.

Bullet Punch’s spec
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNArdRlUgSDHHyNEfIFhNjAiwqCxDXw1DIGxGC-TsAg0CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MsYZxkAA

Some people I’ve seen run a variant of the 10/5/30/5/20 GS/Sword Focus Trip Med spec; what do you think of the above 2 specs, and zerker med specs running GS in general?

Duels? GS is literally the worst weapon you could possibly bring for duels. In team fights sometimes it’s ok because they don’t pay attention. The last few days I’ve been playing I’ve seen a few GS’s and they still have the same problem of being incredibly inaccurate.

You guys realize that shield 4’s protection was nerfed by a few seconds right? You’re suggesting breaking it again because you don’t feel it’s strong enough?

I’ve set up the following resources to help people such as yourself.

• http://tinyurl.com/SilvenGuardianBuilds
• http://www.youtube.com/user/RoknnOut
• http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven

It’s just the weapon skills, I did misspeak there.
But it’s your scepter auto and Prot Strike which are your biggest damage dealers in the first place.

Give ’em the dragon and be done with it!

Getting mad at this game again, why did I come back?

Since the last patch I’ve been feared a few times while in RF (goes on full recharge, so not lag).
I think it may be due to Fear Me? I’ve been Fear Me ’d in Shelter once as well now.

Block would be awful, but all in-vulnerabilities are bad for the game anyway, all should be significantly toned down.

Lexiculus.5296:

Just curious…why do you utilize the Fire Sigils so much as opposed to the Air sigils? I understand the fire procs are aoe but it looks like the air sigils do more damage.

Fire’s damage is very close to Air and it’s AoE, the damage you do on a single player is less but when you hit prot strike for 5k + 1.2k fire that’s 6.2k aoe, which can mean the difference between one shotting AI and leaving them all low hp.
The net damage ends up significantly higher while opening up more effective gameplay against multiple targets.

Tobey.4836:

Thanks for the fast reply. But could you explain your spreadsheet a bit ? For instance what are the dmg sources ? Is it mace autoattack?

Initially, i wrote the post because i wasn’t sure if its better to have a 15% higher crit chance for autoattack and prot strike or to have a flat out 10% dmg increase.
Could you argue that fiery wrath is better for the initial burst, and RHS is better for sustained dps ?

Btw, thanks for all the guides. Really loving the glass canon burst build :-)

The sheet is pretty big that’s why I only copy pasted a little bit of it, I just used the co-efficient for the entire burst (which is actually slightly wrong because I’m using the incorrect one ANet gave us a while ago, but it’s consistently wrong =) ). It factors in everything that you would need to factor in to see what damage you do and gives you ideal/average/worst-outcome numbers so that you can see how it fairs in a variety of situations. Also factors in Might/Protection/%damage reduction/armour etc, etc.

The most important thing to remember with Guardian burst is that it’s all or nothing, if you don’t land enough crits you’re screwed. It’s not gimmicky like 1/10 times it works but when you hit a 2k zealot’s fire instead of 4.2k hit you’ll realise pretty quickly that you need the highest crit chance you can. RHS is really important for consistency in your burst while Fiery Wrath has that extra potential for a one shot on somebody.

Another two important things to note are:

• Burning is quite often cleansed quickly (even if you’re not condi-damage) and Warriors/Engis can just be immune if they want. Guardians have cleanses + stun breaks which lower rank players will almost always use if they panic.
• I honestly can’t think of a breakpoint that the extra 10% -5 power (3 might from VoJ from 5 virtues > 100 power from Zeal). Sometimes you crit just under a phantasm’s hp when you’re trying to 1 shot them, that might help? But you’d also have to burn them which means you’d actually be at a disadvantage there too.

I really don’t see much application for it, if you could suggest a scenario where it would achieve a breakpoint then maybe it could work =)

EDIT: there’s a slightly bigger ss of the excel sheet, hopefully you can see the coefficients.

Very nice idea!

I forgot to conclude there:
In short you need that extra crit chance to counter Mesmers and engineers as you really need 60%+ crit chance to deal with them effectively (for the mace proc).

Tobey.4836:

Some days ago, i learned that right handet strenght only works for your mainhand :-(. Wouldnet it be better do drop those 5 last points in radiance and additonaly 5 points in virtues, to be able to pick up Fiery Wrath.

Unfortunately you rely on crits, most of the classes you counter would not be actually counterable if you don’t crit a lot.
I wrote up an excel sheet a while ago to do the maths quickly for me and this is the difference between them damage-wise (without bloodlust):

EDIT: accidentally mixed them up, they’re right now =)

Never.

It’s hotjoin.

I have soo many =(
Here’s one from each armour type:
Guard
Ele
Engi

Zanryu.3417:

Locuz.2651:

Zanryu.3417:

I’m aware, but I prefer opening with an Earthshaker rather than Bull’s Charge. It’s got mobility and acts as a knockdown, but there such a thing as too offensive. What makes Warriors something to complain about is that they slot defensively. They slot two stability’s and Berserker Stance (or in my case Endure Pain, a Stability, and Berserker Stance) and it becomes harder to prevent them from doing what they want to do.

Bull’s Charge offers no effect outside of the rushing and the knockdown, and while that’s great offensively and to possibly escape a fight, it’s doing you do good immobilized. Even slowed down it’s far less effective. It certainly won’t help if you’re stunned.

Endure Pain only grants 5 seconds traited. One minute is FAR from a short CD, that generally means you only get to use it once per fight. GW2 doesn’t have 15 minutes fights, someone goes down or runs within two minutes in most cases. The most anyone would get to use those skills is likely 3-4 times in one team fight.

Warrior and Necro share the same level of HP. As for the strongest heal, that’s debatable. Different heals have different abilities that makes them good under certain conditions.

And thats exactly why you are struggling as warrior. Youre not landing CC chains. I watched the video you uploaded last week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrfvEMGo7Vs&feature=c4-overview&list=UUemuZJXBIqyvL9_mAwDO4yw

Shows exactly that youre just not that aware yet how to play warrior at its full potential. Dont get me wrong, im not either. But i know for a fact that im doing a lot better then you are in skirmishes like that. Most CCs where used randomly, while warriors are about landing that wombocombo that 100-0s people.

What i saw for example is how you tried to get an immob + longbows f1. Problem with is that youre using your adrenaline that you could be using to land a proper hammer F1 in to hammer 5 in to hammer 4 in to bullrush + hammer 2 and 3 while he is knocked down for example.

Getting killed in cc chains like that is what people complain about. In CC chains like this : http://www.twitch.tv/ostricheggs/c/3063182

The only time i am using the LB F1 is:

- when ppl are fighting on point (and i know for fact that ill hit them)
- just before berserker rage as adrenaline dump
- When i know for a fact i whont go in melee range anytime soon. Like when im shooting from a ledge or w/e.

Zanryu.3417:

but there such a thing as too offensive. What makes Warriors something to complain about is that they slot defensively. .

The best defense is a proper offense. He whont be doing any damage if he gets interupted + knocked down for those 2 extra seconds. And if you get him low during that CC chain he will play defensively himselve.

On top of that…i had plenty of moments where i could disengage and effectively avoiding my death due to bullscharge (followed by a reset + reengage). Balanced stance is nice but doesnt create distance insantly like bullscharge does.

How is that not defensive.

Skimmed the video for instances of this, only saw one. If there’s more I’ll have to find them when I properly watch it later as I’m about to begin a tournament.

I’ll also edit my post then, after I’ve read your post completely.

Look, I can tell you exactly where you’re going wrong in the video (I’ll even be 100% constructive).
Hopefully being more constructive will show you what you’re missing so that you can see where the Warrior excels too much for the effort put in.

Please combine your threads and don’t make 500 million of them.

I also decided I’d quickly go into a game and get the combat log, met a guy in like 20 seconds and one shot him, was a s/d thief and I didn’t even get to use Zealot’s Fire or Shield of Wrath (missing out on a potential 12k on a low armour target) and it landed in less than 1 second.

http://tinyurl.com/p9jab6g

Try this.
You counter all other roaming builds, so dealing with the enemy roamer is easy. The telegraph is on your Focus 5, everything else you don’t actually have to commit with Judge’s if they dodge and it goes on a short recharge. Your burst is 18k+ in less than a second if it crits AND it’s AoE.
Against heavy armour targets you’ll generally hit 12-14k, the only negative is if you don’t crit + weakness + protection you’ll hit very low.
You rely on dodges, blocks and blinds.

Don’t run sword, if they’re half decent they’ll just dodge. Prot strike is also an illusion, it’s an instant hit with judges. If they dodge don’t use judges, if they don’t use it and it will land THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR LANDING YOUR BURST.

This is viable in tpvp but you need one of two things, guard in mid with 1-2 immobs and generally something with a knockup. So if your team comp doesn’t have that there isn’t too much to playing this over a thief (unless you want to deal with a backpoint mes easily).

Hope I made sense I’m tired =(

Zanryu.3417:

Jax.5261:

Zanryu.3417:

sorrow.2364:

Zanryu.3417:

I know what barbarian amulet is and I know that it is an horrible choice.

Bersker Amulet: 1,905 Power/3,016 Attack Power
47% Crit Chance/ 50% Critical Damage
21,662 HP

Barbarian Amulet: 16,76 Power/2,787 Attack Power
47% Crit Chacne/35% Critical Damage
26,802 HP

I lose out on 229 Attack Power and 15% Critical Damage but gain 5,140 HP. Why is that such a horrible thing?

Jax.5261:

People would actually get worse by watching your videos.
Posting these are 100% POINTLESS, your mechanics are too awful to prove any of your bad points (bar bad players will lose because they’re bad).

You don’t seem angry at all. EEEEYEWWWWWW.

Not entirely sure how I’m meant to be angry?
Maybe frustrated at how poorly you actually play?

Like “gah how can anybody be that bad, this frustrates me!”

It’s strange how you seem to be the vocal minority who believes I’m a horrible Warrior. You, Sorrow, and that Ahuba guy. This isn’t a thread about my skills as a Warrior though.

err sorry what?
I can’t stress this enough that was the worst gameplay I’ve ever watched.
Also, go back to the other thread you posted this week, you’ve got hundreds of people thinking you’re terrible. Maths is apparently too hard.

Zanryu.3417:

sorrow.2364:

Zanryu.3417:

I know what barbarian amulet is and I know that it is an horrible choice.

Bersker Amulet: 1,905 Power/3,016 Attack Power
47% Crit Chance/ 50% Critical Damage
21,662 HP

Barbarian Amulet: 16,76 Power/2,787 Attack Power
47% Crit Chacne/35% Critical Damage
26,802 HP

I lose out on 229 Attack Power and 15% Critical Damage but gain 5,140 HP. Why is that such a horrible thing?

Jax.5261:

People would actually get worse by watching your videos.
Posting these are 100% POINTLESS, your mechanics are too awful to prove any of your bad points (bar bad players will lose because they’re bad).

You don’t seem angry at all. EEEEYEWWWWWW.

Not entirely sure how I’m meant to be angry?
Maybe frustrated at how poorly you actually play?

Like “gah how can anybody be that bad, this frustrates me!”

Honestly thought you were trying to troll.
Guardians are support bunkers, that’s why they’re meta and the Warrior bunker is not.

Also not much of what you’re saying is accurate either, Warriors are good at taking down targets while shrugging off damage but they don’t support remotely as well as a Guardian.

I tried but everytime I tried to log in I got an error message saying:
“Wow this is the dumbest test ever, it doesn’t achieve or mean anything. Please do something better with your time.”

Anybody having similar problems? =S

Zanryu.3417:

Jax.5261:

You didn’t read anything at all,
the reason you didn’t fail MUCH, MUCH harder is because you were a warrior. You effectively just stood still, I just…. wow…
You argument may as well be “guys warrior isn’t OP, I can’t win while afk” well no you can’t you have to press some buttons in the right order but most normal mistakes will be unpunished or the punishment is negligible.

You don’t have game sense to really be commenting on this.

It would seem you didn’t read much at all either, you still don’t state why you feel your viewpoint is valid. You don’t state why Warrior is actually overpowered, your post comes down to “u just stand der n die so u sux n warrior is still OP”. Tell me why the class is OP.

Even if I didn’t play that well, it should have been cushioned far more with how broken the mechanics of a Warrior supposedly are. However, as you saw, Healing Signet+Adrenal Health+Bersker Stance didn’t actually save me. The fight still ended in the Necromancer’s favor.

Which is kind of the point of this thread. To show that what people believe is overpowered and broken actually isn’t.

…Still waiting on that video evidence to the contrary.

Just google it, I don’t watch other peoples’ streams and I don’t stream Warrior gameplay myself, you’re so lazy.

The fight was super cushioned for you, you were just vastly inferior in skill level (which is saying something because the Necro wasn’t good either). You got outplayed completely, but if you had any game sense you wouldn’t have been due to the Warrior being so strong atm.

Zanryu.3417:

Errant Venture.9371:

That’s the definition of an anecdote. You’re trying convince others to accept your opinion about warriors BASED ON YOUR OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE not based on QUANTIFIABLE, IMPARTIAL EVIDENCE.

zzz, trying to explain logical analysis to people on the internet.

You mean the same way people try to convince others Warrior is OP through word of mouth and their personal experience? You’re trying to shut down someone with a video of actual gameplay to back some of their points, but believe people going around stating Warrior is OP because of x, y, and z are fine? Even though they offer nothing but stories? Seems legit.

As it currently stands all evidence of the Warrior being OP is anecdotal at best, at least I have the decency to go and record actual gameplay. I’ve even got other videos of tournament play where you can see that I’m not carrying entire teams and facerolling the enemy due to my class alone.

You’re pretty much saying we should throw at all complaints about Warriors because it’s all anecdotal. The logic works both ways. You should probably try to argue without hurting your cause.

Jax.5261:

This is absolutely appallingly bad gameplay.
By face-roll people mean really easy to play, you can make a load of mistakes and not be punished, you can not really know what you’re doing and still win and you don’t have to pay much attention to the enemy to deal with them.

If you were any other class (or warrior before patch) you would’ve lasted ~20seconds.

• You waste EVERY SINGLE dodge roll
• You waste EVERY SINGLE defensive skill
• You have no idea how to keep damage up on your enemy
• You have no idea how to kite
• You don’t know what/how to dodge
• You don’t know combinations of attacks

That was an awful, awful video. I’m holding back so much more due to the forum rules but you are the one who posted it as ‘proof’.

The ONLY reason you survived nearly as long as you did was because the warrior is broken currently, not beyond fixing but enough to impact the game quite a lot. You literally showcased the opposite of what you were trying to do and embarrassed yourself in the process.

Awesome.

I’d say given my, what so many consider bad, gameplay I was punished severely. Even with how “overpowered” the class I was using is. You do pretty much nothing but say how bad I am and state the reasons people consider the Warrior OP, or rather why you believe they think it’s OP, but if it were truly a faceroll class should I not have done better? Even with my horrible gameplay? Shouldn’t I have been punished far less for mistiming dodges and not landing damaging hits or burst skills as much as I should have?

To everyone else posting: Feel free to post videos of how Warriors are OP. I’m sure others would love to seem them, the same way I would.

You didn’t read anything at all,
the reason you didn’t fail MUCH, MUCH harder is because you were a warrior. You effectively just stood still, I just…. wow…
You argument may as well be “guys warrior isn’t OP, I can’t win while afk” well no you can’t you have to press some buttons in the right order but most normal mistakes will be unpunished or the punishment is negligible.

You don’t have game sense to really be commenting on this.

Zanryu.3417:

Hello everyone, there have been many complaints about the Warrior class. How Healing Signet + Adrenal Health provide too much healing, how Cleansing Ire is too good at removing conditions, how Banner Regen Warriors are virtually unkillable, and I’m here to put a stop to this nonsense.

Warriors can die. Here’s the proof. Show me those Warriors that are carrying teams by themselves and winning 4v1s on video. Or really anything that shows how OP they are, rather than theorycrafting and telling stories about what happened. Sure, stories can give us some idea of what’s going on, but we don’t know the exact situations.

In other words… watch this video.

This is absolutely appallingly bad gameplay.
By face-roll people mean really easy to play, you can make a load of mistakes and not be punished, you can not really know what you’re doing and still win and you don’t have to pay much attention to the enemy to deal with them.

If you were any other class (or warrior before patch) you would’ve lasted ~20seconds.

• You waste EVERY SINGLE dodge roll
• You waste EVERY SINGLE defensive skill
• You have no idea how to keep damage up on your enemy
• You have no idea how to kite
• You don’t know what/how to dodge
• You don’t know combinations of attacks

That was an awful, awful video. I’m holding back so much more due to the forum rules but you are the one who posted it as ‘proof’.

The ONLY reason you survived nearly as long as you did was because the warrior is broken currently, not beyond fixing but enough to impact the game quite a lot. You literally showcased the opposite of what you were trying to do and embarrassed yourself in the process.

Awesome.

Lexiculus.5296:

Jax, have you worked on a might build? I thought I read earlier that you were experimenting on one that included 2 runes of hoelbrak, fire, and strength (+60 might duration) and then include 2 sigils of battle, the staff, at least one consecration (for +might fire field blasts), and empowering might. It should keep some decent stacks of might up for a long time.

Although I did experiment a lot with might based builds, they don’t have any advantage over current builds. There’s no aspect of them where you can say “ah this beats X while the regular DPS can’t”.
So they do exist but you’re gimping yourself by running them. There used to be one on the list as it dealt with necromancers well but when PoV got bugfixed back to removing 1 condition it was impossible to keep using it.

Arius.7031:

Thank you both for your response and your epic work in the original post. My question is geared towards WvW roaming. Basically, I want to be able to beat people 1v1 primarily with a secondary focus on being good when outnumbered. On my Mesmer, for example, it’s child’s play to kill 2 people at once (unless they’re both exceptional). They’re kind of OP in that regard though, so I don’t expect a build that’s quite that good, but something around that good would be very cool. I don’t know if that changes your recommendations though. I’m really interested in that 1st build as I love hammer.

It’s impossible to tell you what to run in WvW, the enemies have infinite builds to choose from, in tpvp they’re severely restricted and you can see their class beforehand. The Hammer/Staff build is really strong against everything while being able to deal with 1vX’s well. Guards are best off with a teammate, I know I only play wvw with friends (or I’d be in tpvp) and Scepter-Focus / Hammer is amazing, you can win against many more players. I remember a 2v~10 we won outright, without either of us going down.

Just forget about the summon hammer, that’s only for when your enemy’s positioning is controlled (unlike wvw).

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Once again, you rock for putting in the time to do this.

On the full Zerker Mace Burst I think there is a way to make it better.

Blind Exposure is objectively superior to Inner Fire, because you will get a Fury proc on Meditation use already and the burst comes out so quick that the added duration is of little consequence. If you time your port in correctly with RoJ and activate Justice you can land 9 stacks of Vuln as your burst sequence hits (timing is critical, but it always has been on this burst anyway). It gets a little button-mashy to execute, but there is slightly more damage to be had from the burst.

Also, if my math is correct Superior accuracy is a bigger boost to damage than superior force in this set up. It is splitting hairs, but notable.

As a variant you can run with Ogre Runes instead of Scholar. It is slightly less damage under ideal conditions, but higher sustained damage, particularly if you are in a longer team fight scenario, because you lose the 10% when >90% pretty fast to AoE and cleave with such low health. The Meditation healing helps mitigate this, but you can lose 10% of your health to a stiff breeze in this set up.

With the high Fury up time, with the proc on burning, Bloodlust is better than Accuracy. I’ve tested it in game and on my calculator. It’s also important that your burst hits as high as practically possible, even if you reduce the chance a bit. Especially dealing with Warriors in the current meta.

You Can’t use the RoJ with the Mace burst or you delay Zealot’s Flame or Protector’s Strike (to the point you’re much less likely to hit) but Justice + Chains of Light will give you 6% so you can choose to use that

The rock dog is good for downed fights but isn’t worth it in the long run (especially since you’re not sustain). Most of your damage is going to be over 90% though, you’re burst and counter most roam builds without taking much damage (especially thieves).

The choices are up to you though, your play style may different and I suggest playing with what you’re comfortable with.

Arius.7031:

Jax, what would you say is the best Guardian dueling build ATM (or top 3 or w/e)?

Depends on what you’re playing against.
http://tinyurl.com/lw4x74x
Good against most builds unless they’re centred around kiting and snaring you (even then you can do well). Defender’s Flame gives that extra damage to negate passive heals. You can run with Spirit Hammer if you need more control.

http://tinyurl.com/p9jab6g
Land your burst, one shot them. If you mess up or they negate your burst you can lose though, counters a lot of squishy builds and most of the kitten meta builds.

Hope that helped, if you have something specific I can give you something specific.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Dunno if this will go, but I plan on testing it.

Mace/Shield, Sword/Focus
Accuracy/Purity, Accuracy/Blood (or water)

Signet of Resolve, Signet of Mercy, Signet of Judgment, SYG, Tome of Courage (maybe RF instead)

0/30/20/20/0
Signet Mastery, Inscribed Removal, Perfect Inscriptions
Purity, Mace of Justice
Superior Aria (maybe a Writ instead), Resolute Healer

Cleric Ammy(maybe Celestial or Knights Jewel to squeeze just a bit more Vit)

Vitality Runes. Maybe Soldier, but I think Speed might actually work.

When you are in the Mace set you have good access to protection, coupled with healing from the AA and Symbol (regen) plus your #6 heals for like 10k.

When in the Sword set you can spam AoE blind and alternate with blocks.

You have 2 stun breaks, tons of passive condi removal, AoE weakness, enough crit to keep vigor up most of the time and the 120s CD rez utility might actually prove useful (you have stability and AoE instant cast blinds). Unfortunately you sacrifice a lot of control from what typical bunkers have, but the sustain is pretty fierce.

I see Jax is gonna update his thread soon, so hopefully he will do some of the testing for my lazy behind.

http://www.twitch.tv/jaxsilven/b/472401808
responded in video coz lazy.
I know i could’ve used signets better I have had no practice with them and keep in mind I have ~1s lag.

I’ve updated my guide as of today, if any of you are interested. There was no real change to the standard Burst build, there is to the balanced one so that I can get people to transition away from the GS (beforehand I was trying to kinda sugarcoat it so that people are more accepting), since it doesn’t have a place in tpvp burst.