Guild Wars 2

Why go cleric’s amulet with this build? Yes, the healing is good, but it’s not THAT much lower without it, and you could swap cleric’s amulet for Valkyrie without much of a loss, dealing WAY more damage. Unless you’re running some sort of secondary healing (banner regen or shout heals), it feels like that cleric’s amulet is a bit wasted…

naphack.9346:

Why shouts? Just slap a banner in there with 2 banner traits and you are good to go with equal sustain while still having your utility stuff open for signet of stamina and balanced stance or something. In large scale zerg fights, just pop 3 banners and everyone gets loads of regen to boot, while you blast finish the crap outta combo fields.

healing banners > healing shouts.

If you are going into WvW, or doing PvE content, then yes, go banners. I actually agree with this point. You should be running at least one banner anyways, so why not make it provide regen in the process?

However, sPvP is an entirely different matter. Popular builds are heavy in either burst damage, or condition damage, both of which hard counter regen when it isn’t covered by protection (which doesn’t even help against the later): Burst, by negating the heal-over-time component provided by regen, and conditions by the application of poison, which totally negates regen. In order to counter these, you need burst healing, which is exactly what shout-heals provide. 4-5k healing may not sound like much, but when it saves a party member, or helps you live through that burst where regen would’ve failed you, you’ll be happy you brought it instead of a banner.

Maybe the Dev team knows what’s going on, and we’re just entirely clueless?…

Why do you have to give up stability? Run FGJ, Shake it Off, and Balanced Stance. Traited for Vigor, it’s about as useful as an actual heal, gives you stability AND swiftness in addition to it, acts as a stunbreaker, and is on a 40 second cooldown, which isn’t bad. Plus, with the investment into shout-heals, you actually get more out of it thanks to that +30% boon uptime.

This gives you a means of getting reasonable damage bonuses (FGJ), condition removal, backup heals, and stability for point control or stomping, in addition to an extra 4-5k healing when you need it, which is also spread to nearby party members (which, imo, is the biggest benefit). Banner regen is nice, but is TOTALLY negated by poison, which is pretty common, and doesn’t help you when burst is as popular as it is. If you’ve got protection (ala guardian) and better vigor uptime, regen can be sweet, but without those key factors warrior is likely better off with the shout heals.

Do I recommend taking shout healing over endure pain if you’re specc’d for melee DPS, though? Absolutely not. If you’re going for straight burst, stances are where it’s at. Higher vigor uptime, equivalent adrenaline gain, invulnerability windows (usually via Endure Pain and Shield Stance), and short-term condi super-reduction are more of what a burst class needs than super-low healing and minor damage bonuses that really just aren’t needed compared to the modicum of staying power they get.

Absolutely perfect response. Thank you for that.

I actually have been running a shout-heal, Hammer/Longbow build for quite some time. With Cleric’s setup, running For Great Justice and Shake it Off with reduced cooldowns, I get about 4000 extra healing every 20 seconds (roughly 2k per shout). I also run soldier runes, as any shout user would, so I remove 3 conditions with that as well, plus having another stun breaker in addition to my Balanced Stance. I have been running with Mending, and I think with the cooldown reduction I may continue to do so in order to counter condition heavy opponents. Thanks to the immobilize and blind on longbow, plus the F1 to strip conditions off myself, combined with hammer AoE cripple and AoE stun, I’ve been bunkering with relative success despite the lack of mobility. Vigor on stance helps as well.

OP… did you just compare warriors to necromancers?…. I just… I…. Hey, warrior forums! Someone just compared warrior with a necro!

Oh, wait here for a minute, they’re gonna love this.

I know it’s off topic, but has anyone noticed how chatty ANet has been since this patch? Keep it up, guys. Even if it’s just brainstorming and such, it appeases the part of me that wants to know why you guys make the changes you make. /cheer

On Topic: Well, greatsword has some great things going for it. I think hundred blades COULD be a burst skill, but it’d need some tweaking, like being usable when moving, inflicting vulnerability with each hit, or something like that. Otherwise it runs the risk of being a wasted burst. It WOULD be a great way to combine it with Cleansing Ire, though, since it’s a multi-hit skill.

Arcing slice would be a good #2 skill, as would Rush. Maybe make arcing slice a bigger AoE around the warrior, or even a larger cone, allowing for better damage outside of Hundred Blades, or heck, cut down the damage on Rush and put THAT on #2, keep Arcing Slice damage high and put it on #5. Mobility seems to be the theme on the greatsword, so making rush more consistent seems like a good move.

Um…. if you’ve got a team consisting of two MM necros, a spirit ranger, and a phantasm mesmer, be prepared to be in for a world of hurt. Sure, there’s a lot of screen clutter, but AoE will just DESTROY your build, and if you’re relying on pets to do the work for you, you’re gonna have a bad time, because AI is never as good as players. I see that and think: Looks fun. One other guy at my back and we can wreck these guys XD

Really, are there any competitive teams that rely on a strategy like this that succeed with relative frequency?

You get armor skins from Achievement chests, as well as from glory vendors. As you increase your rank, you get access to better and better armor skins.

In order to get your own armor, you need to buy chests from the glory vendors. These come with a random assortment of skins based on your rank. Next, buy a PvP salvage kit. Now you can salvage Arcane Powder, Orbs, Crystals, and Slivers from the random PvP gear that you get. You can obtain PvP gear from the Mystic Forge in the mists by combining armor or weapon tokens (purchasable with glory from the Glory Vendor mentioned previously) with rank tokens (which you also get from chests, and maybe vendors. Don’t remember exactly atm.) and the arcane materials mentioned above for skins at your level. You unlock a new tier of skins every 10 glory ranks, which can take quite a while, unfortunately.

Alternatively, once you’ve figured out a good build for yourself, you can attempt to do free solo queue tournaments. Winning these gets you Free Tournament Tokens, which is used to create AWESOME armor skins. Good luck winning these, though, as competitive teams will frequently sign up for these for practice. >_>

Axyl.9408:

I’ve been playing since launch, but I’ve never really bothered with PvP (I played 4 games at the VERY beginning). I just tried a few games again and, oh, wow. It left me extremely dis-heartened.

First off, How do you get more PvP skins? I see a lot of people in cool looking armor, and I’m stuck with lame looking newby armor.

Is there anywhere I can fight people more my level? I don’t consider myself a “bad” player in PvE, but last night, everyone was steamrolling me and stun-locking me to death. I have a build I like, it’s got a decent amount of toughness and vit, balanced with more power and Prec.

Also, how do you deal with being zerged? I specifically left WvW because I hardly ever get to fight people solo, before being overwhelmed by a group. I came to PvP hoping it would be different, and to find to see how I really stood up to other players, with no luck. It’s still a 4 man blitzkrieg through everything. I would really like to do a few 1v1’s against real professions, just to see where I am. Everyone I was against tonight seemed much more skill than me, and had a lot of different armor skins. To me, that indicated they all have a lot of time invested in this.

I just want to fight others in my bunny league in a small group setting or even some 1v1.

Hi! First of all, welcome to the PvP scene! Just so you know, it usually starts out this way for a lot of new players to PvP, and that’s okay.

The first thing I recommend is looking up suggested builds for your class. I know you have a build you like, and that’s great, but there may be some tweaks that could be made to help you have more fun while retaining a playstyle that you like.

Additionally, remember that succeeding in sPvP requires different tactics than in PvE. Things like increasing your mobility, bringing stun-breakers, and clearing conditions are all pretty unnecessary for the most part in PvE, but they’re absolutely vital in PvP, and are usually the key to staying alive.

Try to pick matches as well. If you hit the Play Now button, you could get thrown into a very unbalanced match. By selecting your own server to play in, you gain a bit of control over the number of players against which you fight. There are even some servers devoted to dueling, so if that’s your thing, try to get into one of those.

The biggest thing, though, is that you shouldn’t get attached to a build early. Beginning to PvP means learning what builds work and which ones don’t. Find a few that are effective, then find one that’s fun, and you’ll be a lot happier in the end.

Hi,

I’m a GW1 vet who played since release. I also play GW2. Guess what? I love both games.

GW1 was great. It played a lot like an RPG mixed with a deck-building game. With the huge build variety and strategy involved with your build, fights felt rewarding because you pre-built your character well.

GW2 is also great. Battles are more fluid and dynamic, and thus reward player skill a bit more (at least IMO) than GW1 did. It’s still important to get a good build, but builds are more about deciding a direction to go with a character rather than altering its abilities on a fundamental level.

Also, GW1 is looking like it won’t ever go away. ANet has said that they’re still keeping the servers going for quite some time, and the things people loved about the game will still be there years from now. They only thing they promised was that Guild Wars 2 would be something new, and for the most part it is. The PvP is very different (I actually have way more fun with GW2 PvP than GW1), the PvE is different, and WvW is MILES different.

Basically, if you don’t like GW2, you should go play GW1. ANet WANTS you to do that. That’s why they’re keeping both games going. It’s not like their feelings will be hurt if you don’t like GW2. There are a lot of people that do.

Also, to the guy that brought up “no GvG in Guild Wars”: It’s a lore-based title. I recommend reading up on the Guild Wars in Tyrian lore. You can probably check the wiki.

Fenrir.5493:

snip OP post

Alright! One at a time:

1) Most classes can generate boons through weapons, and the warrior is sadly without this ability… well, mostly. There are a few exceptions, like Warhorn and Axe offhand (yay, more fury!). Seriously, I think this is a reasonable issue.

2) Greatsword 3 has and evade component (part of the reason greatsword is so popular).

3) Eviscerate, Final Thrust, Greatsword 3, Longbow 3, Rifle 3 all do pretty darn good burst, even if they’re a bit tricky to land sometimes.

4) Rifle is THE warrior ranged burst weapon. Again, a little hard to land at times, but still solid damage if it connects.

5) Warriors have vigor via stances and warhorn, and is one of the reasons stances are so popular, along with the other, more obvious reasons (condi-reduction).

6) Yeah, condi-warriors typically suck. But hey, we have it better than condi-guardians! >_>

7) Warrior does have a condi-cleanse healing ability, but I agree that the heals are typically a little lopsided. Heals overall favor classes with smaller healthpools, and it is these classes that typically have access to damage reduction outside of toughness (protection, aegis, high evade uptime, etc.). This could use a boost on the Warrior, and maybe even a little on the Necro front. High HP classes need stronger heals if they don’t have access to greater damage prevention abilities.

8) Backtrack, I missed one: Other classes TOTALLY have telegraphs. Ele’s do their spinmove before they charge in fire, thieves stealth before backstabbing, do the loppy evade before S/D #3, mesmers wind up for almost ALL of their greatsword moves except the auto attack… the list goes on.

9) Classes that heal, at least well enough for it to matter, with skills other than #6 typically have at least a moderate investment in healing power (Elementalists with 30 water and Valkyrie gear, for example). If you want to pull off decent heals as a warrior, you need that Healing Power investment. It might not be great, but then at least your #6 heals for a passable amount XD.

Most of the other things addressed are situational to the point of my not caring about specifically addressing them. Basically, the warrior could stand maybe a little improvement (I’d like to see sword get some evasion, maybe have mace/hammer apply protection every now and again, things like that), but they have a lot more going for them than I think you give them credit for.

Defektive.7283:

IDK why I keep coming up in these conversations.

It’s because, as far as the forums go, you stand out as a leader for the warrior community. I mean, you post guides, videos of warriors succeeding in a competitive environment, etc. Of course people will talk about you.

But, to the matter at hand:

Personally, I don’t like the current stunlock builds that are going around. I don’t like single target stuff, I don’t like mace, and I don’t like the typical lack of ranged weapons. I’ve been running a Hammer/Longbow shout-heal build with Soldier runes and Sigils of Energy with stability stance, plus a Cleric’s amulet, and have been having much more fun. I don’t mean to say that they’re bad, I mean stunlocking is awesome, but they really just aren’t my thing. Longbow gives me a ranged option (which I see as a necessity), both provide AoE capabilities (nothing says screw your team rez like Earthshaker combined with Hammer 4 XD), a called target lockdown (Bow 5, Hammer 5, Hammer burst), and all that healing power means I’m tanky as heck, AND can pop some burst healing in team fights, with a bit of vigor and bonus healing. I actually held a point for a full 30 seconds 3v1 once (I counted the shout cooldowns XD).

Still, I’m glad people are having fun with their warriors. It’s about time we started exploring what the class is capable of beyond burst damage. I still think we could see warriors become more popular soon, we just need to get more builds out there.

It LOOKS like you fought an unarmored enemy warrior with no toughness, with max power and crit damage on you (with some might stacks for good measure), and had the enemy warrior pop frenzy for the extra bonus damage. I don’t know that it’s really practical or likely to happen in a match, but… well, gratz on the… big crit.

Avead.5760:

I dont know what you are used to playing but i’d like to overcome the drawbacks of my build by skill.I can stand the massive terror cond bombs of necro,or the bombs and pistol condition of engi.
What really stucks in my head and makes me sorry for this game.. is kitten like unavoidable 5 k passive damage through burning covered by poison sigil,instant knockbacks/fears and mechanics like selfrezzes that while counterable require too much more work for my end in relation to the users end.
Thats all..
.

Well, there’s the kicker, isn’t it: The idea that skill should make up for any deficiencies in a build. I’m not arguing that it’s a bad idea, but it would mean that the best players could succeed with any build, which I’m afraid isn’t true. Builds all have different strengths and weaknesses, and skill can help cover those weaknesses, but they’re still there. If I build a warrior with no condi-removal and no stun breakers, I’m going to get owned by people with condi’s and stuns (unless I have support there to back me up, but that’s another topic entirely). I can be a great player, but I’m going to go down. Skill doesn’t make your weaknesses irrelevant: It means you can succeed at the role you’ve taken in the group in spite of those weaknesses.

Well, if you’re gonna do that, buff Hammer F1 while you’re at it >_>

You’re complaining about burn damage. Not tons of conditions getting stacked (which can be easily cleansed), not about getting a huge stack of bleeds which just wrecks you: Burn damage.

Sorry. Either get a bit tankier, or avoid more hits. I mean, you’re an ele. The only class harder to pin down with this stuff is Thief. Mesmer, sometimes. I’m a warrior, and I don’t mind the burn damage. >_>

Shadowstep to the open spot at the top right corner of the screen. It’s within 900 range. GG, marks. Or… just attack from the other side… or just admit that a stealth/mobility thief without stability or condi-cleansing is gonna be weak against classes stacking condi’s.

Okay, it seems you’re just upset about warrior, which is okay. Lots of warriors are.

The thing is, you shouldn’t expect to succeed in sPvP just using melee. In order to succeed at PvP, you need to be able to meet your opponent on their terms. If you go up against a staff mesmer as a melee-only warrior, you’re not gonna have fun. Same goes for ele. Bring a ranged weapon, check out the updates to Berserker’s Stance, and tweak your build a little. Also, downed states? Elementalists are easy-mode downstate. Stomp… follow them… stomp again. Hurray! Mesmers… a little trickier, but still easy. Thing to remember is that the first mesmer you see pop out of stealth is ALWAYS the clone. The mesmer pops afterwards, and can only port to a place they can see, which means you can see it and get there. Worst case, just throw down some AoE.

I fell in love with warrior instantly, but then it was my first character in GW2. I love all of the weapons, and the real fun comes when you learn to chain combos together (hammer/mace = GG for PvE trash. SOOOO much stunlock XD). Really, the trick is to get plenty of Utilities, find which ones work well with your weapons, and find a build that works for you.

I actually went condi-warrior for most of my leveling, because enemies typically don’t cleanse, and getting 20 stacks of bleeding at low levels in about 5 seconds is just so cool. Really, you need to be about level 20 or 30 before you start seeing what the class can do (once you start getting decent traits).

Alternatively, you just might not like it. There is some subtlety to how you play a warrior, but it’s a really straightforward class, no matter what spec you pick, save for a few.

Well, the thing is, condi damage can be stopped FAR more easily than direct damage. When you get crit for 3k, that damage just goes straight through. You need to preemptively prevent direct damage, either through high defenses, protection, or blindness.

While these defenses don’t necessarily work against conditions, conditions need more time to create their effect (not much time if stacked quickly, but still more than “instant”), and can be stopped by simply condition removal, which is quite a relatively available commodity, and those classes where it is lacking, simply need to learn that their build is weak against conditions, and learn when to engage, with whom to group up, etc.

Don’t get me wrong, the fact that you can make a character that is both uber tanky AND have respectable damage via condi’s is pretty crazy, and condi damage could stand to maybe be reduced a little, it is still utterly inconsequential when sufficiently countered.

If you bring a single extra elementalist with you with a focus off-hand, you can double your defensiveness with projectile blockers and protection & fury-granting auras, too. Plus, he can Lightning Flash to your locations as well, in addition to providing solid support and a bit of CC.

>_> I play a Dagger/Focus Hybrid Ele, a heckler blindness-spam Guardian, a hammer/physical CC warrior, and a support/roamer thief. Truth be told, I would probably play an Engineer if I liked the playstyle…

What are all these cookie-cutter builds people are talking about? And why do I not feel any weaker when I play my builds?

On a more serious note, you can’t judge class balance based on new players. You simply cannot. http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/balancing-for-skill

Warriors are fine. Heck, I laughed when I saw the condition removal note in the patch notes. Really? Shake It Off for AoE Condition removal, a low-ish cooldown signet that removes ALL conditions, a heal on a low cooldown that heals 2 conditions and, if you don’t wanna use Utility slots for it, a Warhorn trait that CONVERTS CONDITIONS INTO BOONS. Warriors have EXCELLENT condition removal, we just don’t have any passive condition removal like some classes do.

As far as balance is concerned, I’d like to see more options for different weapons encorporated into their traits or design (maybe sword crits grant vigor, axe crits grant retaliation, hammer crits grant prot, all at a % chance on crit, of course) which would allow warriors to plan around using different weapons for different builds, instead of defaulting to different roles based solely on weapon skills.

With the above suggestions, you could see an odd, retaliation stacking Axe warrior, or a Crit-based hammer warrior, or a sword-shield warrior that has blocks and crazy endurance uptime (i.e., a sword/board warrior that can be a somewhat effective tanky character).

I just tried an Auramancer build in PvE/PvP with a Dagger/Focus setup. Those earth abilities are sweet, and nothing says “screw your projectiles, and screw you, too” like Air 4 and 5. Admittedly, I don’t much care for the Water attunement focus abilities (not really good at doing anything thanks to the delay on Comet), but for my build Fire works just fine.

I think it’s funny that we’re discussing the evolutionary possibilities of the Charr in a game where the humans are, literally, inter-dimensional (or inter-planetary) aliens created by their gods, they dwarf race basically made themselves extinct via magic, and there exists a race of large, humanoid creatures that have somehow survived the eons despite having a general racial bent towards getting themselves slaughtered in extreme and creative ways (the Norn).

That having been said:

Female Charr: “Man, look at the pair on that male! He can gore me any time…”

I recently played an Auramancer elementalist in PvP, and I found that generating combo fields and utilizing existing ones was CRITICAL to my ability to play it successfully. True, for a spec completely designed around Auras that makes sense, but I was able to provide a good bit of group support through my ability to create lots of combo fields and chain them with short-cast blasts. Typically could keep around 6-8 stacks of might on the group, which made the difference in a few fights.

I think, as with a lot of things, people are still getting accustomed to GW2 combat, and to PvP in particular. Utilizing combo fields can really swing the tide of an uneven fight, but it requires a different kind of thinking than most MMO players are accustomed to.

Another thing to consider is that dungeon mobs hit CONSIDERABLY harder than standard mobs. This means that bringing Crowd Control and timing your dodges well will mean the difference between life and death. Not only this, but learning enemy behavior is important as well. For example, those Ghostly Rangers won’t use their traps on you if you’re in melee range, the illusions summoned by the Twins are really easy to kill, someone should be on boulder duty, etc. Heck, my warrior is specc’d for CC and healing because I can make up for the lack of coordination and skill pugs typically have.

Once of the great things about GW2 is that all classes can run all dungeons. You’ll encounter some flak from elitists, but as long as you learn your class and play it well, you’ll always be welcome in a good group.

Twill.6217:

what a sad elitist thing to say.
why shouldn’t others who bought this game be able to enjoy everything it can offer? what is your reasoning behind it? are they not paying customers? if i bought the content, i have the full right to do it.

if you want elite content just ask anet to release paid dlc-like dungeons just for you…. oh wait, that actually wouldn’t be profitable. there’s no money in selling something that only less then 10% of population will do.

If you purchased the game, you have the ability to do the content. If it’s too hard, get better or find a better group. If nobody had been able to complete it, I could see the argument that it is too hard, but it’s clearly been beaten, exceptionally quickly by some groups.

ArenaNet has clearly stated multiple times that their philosophy on the explorable mode dungeons was to make them brutally hard, requiring a lot of coordination and maybe voice chat to pull off. This has ALWAYS been the case, at least when it comes to their design philosophy. The point of their content is not that you should be able to enjoy all of it, but rather that there are so many things to do that there is always SOMETHING for you to enjoy.

Heck, I really don’t like WvW, and it bugs me that part of the monthly achievements require me to get a bunch of WvW kills, but I don’t complain about it because there are TONS of other things for me to do, nothing of which is invalidated by WvW content. The same goes for Explorable dungeons.

You new the risks, you spent the money. This is not ANet’s fault at all. Sorry about the bad luck, but that’s what happens. You need to come to terms with a RNG before you make that expense.

I would say the set you get should depend upon what you want to do with your character. I wanted to be a support warrior, so I grabbed a full exotic Cleric set as quickly as I could. I then decided I wanted to do some damage, so I grabbed the Power/Toughness/Vitality Karma set in Orr and an exotic greatsword.

Basically, do you want to focus on group support, direct damage, or condition damage? This will influence gear recommendations.

Nonlinear.9823:

I use two shouts in my build so I can do everything your build can do as far as what they provide outside of VS, except I don’t use On My Mark! for vulnerability, instead I use a banner that I use to blast finish and provide swiftness and regen.

Yes, I know the assumptions shout heal warriors use to justify shout healing over other builds or other types of support. Everyone is in range, everyone is taking damage, you don’t need shake it off for condition removal or stun break, you are only fighting one mob to get the most out of On My Mark!

I’ve read them all and they just don’t do it for me.

Ah, but you’ve made one fatal mistake: I never stated that Shout Healing was superior to other types of support, merely that it is a strong, viable option, and equally as powerful as a banner-healing build. Banner builds just do something different.

Yes, AoE regen is pretty sweet. It keeps players topped off pretty well, and with the right traits can more easily apply AoE might, allowing for some great party damage bonuses. However, the weakness of a banner build is that it has no way to counter bursts of damage, and doesn’t really have any “Oh kitten” buttons to help other players, not to mention the fact that Regeneration stacks in duration, not intensity, which is problematic when regeneration is easy to come by in a group. I mean, you have the Warbanner, but c’mon, every support warrior brings Warbanner XD. This is where the Shout Heal warrior can shine. He can provide healing on-demand, and can do a really great job of getting downed players back on their feet after getting rez’d. Not only that, but shout heals have the advantage of being able to help players keep from getting downed in the first place (just watch players praise you for keeping them up through Kohler’s daggerstorm XD).

Which, again, brings me to my point that Shout-Heals and Banner-Regen warriors are both equally strong support archetypes, but function as support in two fundamentally different ways. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and each has situations in which it is more ideal than the other. Now, is my preference more towards shout heals? Absolutely. I tried banner regen and just hated it. But that doesn’t make it bad, or even worse than Shout Heals… just different.

Nonlinear.9823:

With my build I regen 7.8k to 15k health every 20 seconds not including what allies get from banner regen.

Which is fine, except that shout heals work on every party member in range. You may be healing a lot, which is fine, but how are you keeping the party alive? Sure, you may be running banner regen, but without any healing power the amount of health being regenerated is quite small, so small in fact that it won’t really be noticable in more difficult fights.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with your build. It’s a strong, self supportive build. However, you seem to be under the impression that I’m only using 1 shout every 20 seconds, when I’m actually using about 3 shouts every 20-ish seconds. Yeah, 2.6k isn’t too much, but 7.8k is pretty nice. Combined with the buffs that come from shouts, and an AoE regen on your heal (I like runes of dwayna, what can I say :P), and you’ve got pretty solid group healing. Heck, if you wanted more regen and less burst healing, you could run a shout build and just bring a Banner of Tactics.

One thing I want to mention, though, is that shout heals can, and have, saved many a party member. Yes, my damage is relatively low, but between shout heals, regen, condition removal, and crowd control, you can make a very support oriented character that a group can appreciate having around.

The other thing to remember is that, obviously, not all builds are suitable for all situations. Some dungeons and PvE content require more damage than others, and some are easier with more support and crowd control. The trick is to be flexible with what you’re willing to bring to a group.

Actually, a warrior fully geared for healing power will typically shout for about 2.6k health with every shout. If you use them on cooldown, you’ll typically get around 5.2k health every 20 seconds (you DID take the Shout Cooldown reduction, right?), and another 2.6k every 24 seconds, or about 368 health per second on average, while applying long-lasting might and fury to the party.

If you want 2-3k heals, you need full clerics, period. You could try a condition based spec that would let you use Shaman gear instead, but…. well, I wouldn’t recommend it…

The point of playing a support oriented warrior is not that you can solo-heal through enemy damage, but rather that you have AoE buffing and healing abilities. For Great Justice is an AWESOME skill, but the healing is icing on the cake. Same goes for On My Mark, which gives the entire party a 10% damage increase, and Shake It Off, an AoE condition cleanser. The skills themselves are good, but the healing makes them rock.

But, to be fair, those in favor of pure glass cannon builds have a point. The best kind of healing is preventing damage proactively. That’s why my support spec features a hammer and rifle rather than a damage-dealing weapon. The CC on the hammer (AoE mid-range Immobilize, AoE stun on a 10 second cooldown, AoE knockback, Weakness!) proactively prevents the damage dealt by enemies, which is often far greater than any class’s healing abilities. The rifle may not be as good at CC as, say, a Mace/Mace or Mace/Shield combo, but you you still get your Immobilize/Cripple and your Melee AoE knockback, plus you have a ranged weapon for when you need it. If keeping your party alive through support is your goal, you need to remember that damage prevention is equally as important as healing.

If you’re looking for a build, OP, I recommend a 20/0/20/30/0 myself. You get decent Strength, a damage bonus for having high adrenaline, increased health (I always take that Power>Vitality trait, but you could take the Confusion causing trait if you want more damage), more toughness and healing power, Adrenaline gain on being hit, Reduced Hammer cooldowns (for MOAR CC), and shout cooldown reduction combined with healing shouts. It’s a pretty decent spec, and is capable of being effective in a variety of situations.

I could see it happening, or at least as a possibility. With the way weapons are tied to skills, it wouldn’t really be too difficult to implement on a basic level. The problem is that weapon damage would have to be adjusted. You couldn’t have a Greatsword with much higher weapon damage than, say, and Axe in one hand with a shield in the other. That would be way too strong. Instead, IF we were to see some implementation of this, it’d likely be similar to the way a thief’s weapon’s work, i.e., equipping a Greatsword by itself would provide the standard skills, and equipping a weapon in the off-hand would change the greatsword 1-2-3 skills to something different, while the 4-5 skills would match the off-hand, which would include other weapons. It’s still a bit ridiculous, though, and I don’t really see it happening.

I COULD see polearms possibly happening, but it would likely be something smaller, like a javelin, which was associated with the Paragons of Elona. We might also see Scythes make an appearance as well, again in association with Elona, but I don’t know that we’ll see too many NEW weapons enter the arena that don’t already have established lore. Frankly, I’m surprised they included the Greatsword >_>

A couple of things:

1) Yes, new players can be driven away by more experienced players. In fact, I believe that those hundred blades burst builds, among other super-burst builds, are designed specifically FOR new players. I mean, people constantly complain about these builds being OP, but people also complain about Noob-tubing in FPS’s. It’s a way for new players to feel strong.

2) The unfortunate thing about this is that new players and experienced players are playing together in matches. This means that someone like me, who sucks at PvP, will get owned by a random noob using this skill, while someone who is actually decent at PvP will stomp them pretty much every time, leading to frustration.

3) As with GW1, part of the problem is the community itself. I remember doing a hot join PvP game as a Monk in GW1 and essentially getting insulted and laughed off the team for using the Mending skill (widely considered the worst use of energy a monk could use). Nobody felt the need to instruct me, or teach me. They just thought I sucked and didn’t want me on the team, even if I helped win multiple matches. If new players seem to be having trouble, or if someone is using a particular skill that doesn’t work with their strat, the community needs to be more open about helping, rather than pushing new players away.

I’m actually pretty much fine with the dungeons as is. I’ve run several of them. If I have a problem, it’s with the community not being willing to run certain dungeons, which is something I don’t really hold ArenaNet responsible for. I’ve wanted that SE heavy chest and leggings for AGES, and I’ve never been able to get more than 2 people interested in running Exp for it because everyone cries about it being hard. It’s even hard to find groups for dungeons outside of Fractals because everyone INSISTS on grinding it constantly to get minor gear upgrades. It saddens me to see the community let itself get to this state…

A couple of points:

1) Christmas itself went through exactly this sort of change. Heck, Christmas as we know it didn’t exist for a very long time, basically until the church decided they were tired of people celebrating the pagan yuletide holiday and made the season about Christ instead.

2) Commercialization happens. Heck, it’s been 250 years since the old festivals. The gods are gone, and the Tyrian races are EXPONENTIALLY more connected than they were that long time ago. If anything, the commercialization of the holiday seems both saddening and completely intentional by the staff. C’mon, the comparison to the modern Christmas is so obvious it has to be intentional. I’m even expecting a Dr. Seuss-like moral at the end of the event.

Bonus Point: This change probably didn’t simply happen in a single instant. It’s not like 249 years passed full of Grenth/Dwayna goodness, and then all of a sudden BAM! 250 hits and it’s gone. A lot can change in that time span, especially with the relative globalization of holiday traditions amongst those of different faiths or cultures.

Actually, some of you may not have played GW1, but one of the more popular Ranger condition builds was a trap-focused build that used a staff (because traps cost a lot of energy, and staves provided a large increase to your energy pool). I’d like to see it appear in GW2 as a ranged, or even melee, AoE condition weapon. It’d make a great compliment to the Longbow and Shortbow, I think.

cheeseonbike.5607:

you’re contradicting yourself.

I like to be in your party and play fractals with u but i can’t because u kick people who have no agony resistance. So is that my fault the Anet hates me and doen’t give me a ring? while others who have done less runs then me have 2 or more rings?

Your post would be completely different if u weren’t so lucky (or as i like to say if Anet did hate u like they hate me.) I believe the items are not random they are bugged and bugged for some people for a reason. Because Anet is constant tinkering with the droprate’s.

It is starting to notice not only with the agony rings but also with rare and exotic stuff.

Actually, he isn’t contradicting himself. Ask yourself this question: Why are you doing Fractals? If the answer is because you want the best loot in the game, then you will eventually get it. The drop rate may be low, but that’s it.

If the answer is that you enjoy running fractals, then you don’t need the gear to enjoy the awesome dungeon design. If your gear is getting in the way of you having fun, then I would argue that doing the dungeon itself is not what you find fun, but rather that you enjoy having top tier gear.

First off, let me just say: I’m not very good at PvP. I haven’t had much experience with many classes (only Rank 5), and I’ve really only played Guardian and Warrior for any extensive time. That having been said, I can regularly wallop Mesmers with my CC warrior with decent success. A mesmer who is trying to fool you can pull it off, but a majority of them can’t, because they act like players when their clones are out; Circle-Strafing, dodge rolling, etc. They aren’t all that hard to spot. Combined with the fact that I have plenty of AoE, they aren’t really any tougher than any other classes. I don’t like Thieves, but I will fully acknowledge that it’s because I need to learn to fight them better, not because OMG STEALTH N BAKSTAB R BORKEN.

If you trait it, Vengeance is amazing. If you don’t, it’s basically worthless, though it does have some awesome niche utility (I once used it to clutch rez 2 players in PvE before I died, and it was the only way we managed to beat this super hard champ).

I think the main thing is that P/T/V gear makes you feel really awesome, even if it’s about on par with Condition damage. Conditions do a LOT of damage, and it’s easy to not realize it because the numbers aren’t as big. Heck, my Flurry outdamages Hundred Blades on my Warrior, but when I got my first 12k crit today, I felt like a badA.

It’s a very different style of play, and both builds have their own weaknesses.

As Spifnar said, Combo Fields can increase the damage a fair amount, and the other thing you’re forgetting is that, for a meager 10 points in Arms, you get a 33% chance to inflict meaningful bleeds on every crit, and Whirling Axe hits a LOT. It’s not a bad choice for a condition build, and you can even use it to build up stacks of vulnerability, too, which is pretty nice for groups. I could see a Rampager-geared Warrior going Sword/Axe instead of Sword/Sword for a more AoE oriented condition build.

If you’re using a support warrior build, whether it be Shout Heals or Banner Regen, you really can’t go wrong with Cleric’s gear. Power/Toughness/Healing Power will make you nigh unkillable. Plus, not only can you throw out some rocking heals, you can actually tank pretty well, too.

I actually think the Sylvari Racials are pretty rocking, ESPECIALLY for a rifle warrior.

You get a decent heal with a small AoE regen. It normally gets 1 shotted by a sneeze, but that’s one hit you didn’t take. You get a RANGED IMMOBILIZE, which is amazing if you wanna go full sniper, and the Druid Spirit elite skill throws out more AoE Immobilizes, as well as some pretty respectable damage. Alternatively, you can summon a ton of Flower Turrets to aid in your ranged onslaught.