Guild Wars 2

Conncept.7638:

xiv.7136:

I find it funny that OP is complaining about elementalist burst.

And the next thread is a video with an elementalist bursting for 27k in 2 seconds, highest burst in the game by far.

Yeah, 27k burst that only a complete moron would ever get hit by. And if you could find such a moron, you’d better hope he’s not being accompanied by a second moron who would laugh as he completely mitigates your damage or just backstabs you for an easy kill.

Only complete morons, newbies and people who have been severely outplayed get bursted down by glass cannon HB warriors, doesn’t stop the steady stream of QQ coming in though.

Only real difference between the two is that the warrior does less burst damage, but is less squishy. Sustained damage probably favors the 27k ele too, though it’ll be harder to pull off.

The thing is though, HB is still viable. I reckon the uberburst ele build will be too. Certainly not optimal, but likely viable.

1. I agree that warriors should have it in their skillset, but as something scarce or situational, we are the offensive plate class after all. Something like changing thick skin to give us protection for a few seconds instead of the extra armor. Maybe add a shorter duration protection when spiked armor procs.

2. Banners are really clunky for their benefit. I’d suggest that they end up being an area denial item, like stripping a specific boon in a visible, small circle where they are planted, as big as a guardian symbols maybe. They’d tick every 3 seconds.

strength – remove stability (I can overpower you with my strength)
tactics – remove protection (I know where your weak point is)
discipline – remove vigor (I know when to strike)
defense – remove might (you aren’t going to hit me through this)

battle – 1 second knockdown (make it shake the ground)

The radius will be small enough to circumvent, yet still make point capture easier. Multiple banners could make a wall, forcing attackers to walk around or pick a boon to get stripped. Banners bolster allies and intimidate foes, we’re lacking the intimidate part :P

3. Berserker stance grants swiftness and fills you endurance on use.

4. Make stomp leave behind a smoke field, because of the dust. Reduce the base cooldown of the other physical utilities while you’re at it to balance them out.

Damage specced Hammer + Axe/Mace

Bring the CC while dealing good damage so your other glasses can go nuts, or switch weapon and deal great damage and still have a ranged stun handy. Keep a rifle and longbow handy for ranged fights.

30 in arms
25 in defense
15 in strength

Running with knight armor and berserker weapons/jewels. Ruby orbs everywhere. (almost full exotic)

3,207 attack
53% crit
55% crit damage
2,769 armor
18,662 health

I think this is a major contender because the damage output is good, while bringing CC. It might not be as much support as a shout healer, but the dodges you get from the signet and the 15 strength trait really improve your survivability by a wide margin. Even if you do get hit, 18k health is okay when coupled with 2.7k armor.

Healing 6k (3 shouts) from a 7k attack < avoiding it with 1 CC or 1 dodge. And while the dodge is personal survival, the CC can help your teammates (and keep the enemy in fields of pain, to further increase damage dealt).

How would axe/mace + rifle perform?

You lack the defense and mobility of the x/shield offset, but you get something to murder kiters with and to bait melee to get into axe range

There’s nothing wrong with glass builds in dungeons, if you know what you are doing. That said, not everybody does.

And when you do not posses the skill to live and fight, but you really want to keep the feel of DAMAGE EVERYWHERE…. Stay glass, get a different weapon.

A glass hammer might deal less overall damage, but the CC it brings can be very potent and the individual crits are nothing to sneeze at either. A glass with a warhorn can dodge more often, a glass with a shield can save your kitten more often than not.

Carrying something that can provide support/defense, even better if it benefits more than just you, in your offset will drastically increase your ability to survive despite your current lack of skill.

Glass hammer / axe + mace is a good example. Popping into the fray with hammer CC and good damage, and switching to axe to mow down the survivors or in a boss battle. Keep a rifle with you just in case and you’ll do fine in dungeons.

TLDR: If you keep dying as a glass cannon, but you want to stay a glass cannon, consider getting a defensive/support weapon in your offset to stay alive and/or help the group.

I am a shouthealing hammer warrior in glass gear. I can solo 4 young karkas or 3 drakes without getting downed.

While hammer CC and condition removal make this a breeze for me to solo, every class has builds that will shine in the new zone.

The key is learning when to dodge and bringing some kind of reflect and/or condition removal. The part where the karka rears up and shoots projectiles is the part you can easily see coming and dodge or CC.

Drakes are harder, but all you really need is condition removal and circle-strafing/kiting.

I find the difficulty to be a step up from Orr, which is a good thing.

I never had to dodge in Orr, and I’m a glass cannon hammer warrior. Now that I find myself facing the karka and the drakes, dodging and timing is what seperates me from finishing the fight at 95% health instead of 30% health. In Orr you can, once geared in 80 masterworks, pretty much ignore your roll button and burst down almost anything. It might be tougher on some profs, but ultimately most people run glass specs in orr because all you need to succeed is overwhelming offense.

This zone is a great way to teach people how to maximise their survivability with the tools they have, something that quite a few PvE players, and even some PvP players, lack. With the focus now no longer being on overwhelming offense, but surviving, the populace as a whole will gradually raise their overall skill level.

Dungeon runs will be smoother, WvWvW skirmishes will no longer be noob-stomping but actual battles…

I can dream, no?

And while a mass zerg tries to pvdoor, 2 warriors go around raiding camps and flags, murdering dolyaks, and kicking the kitten out of the others that try to do it too…

There’s more to wvw than zerg, it’s just harder to find.

On that note, it’s 10:57 here… Everybody is running less people at this time of day due to school or work. Imbalances at this time of day have more to do with server population and unemployment rates.

nope, on a hill between godsword and the keep in SFR borderlands… 4 trebs….

They’re gone now, though.

If it was in the place you described, it would have been great. As it was back then though, they were useless except for if the enemy took godsword camp, and even then 4 trebs is overkill

0/10 no name was given!

My female human’s name is Theodora Nyx. Just popped up randomly in my head.

Had some good fights, watched some good fights, broke up some good fights.

I absolutely love this week so far, mini groups from all three sides playing whack-a-mole at camps and flags in a battle royale. Haven’t had this much fun in ages! Keep it up guys!

Also, I don’t know if our own people are just dumb, or there are really spies out there wasting our supply on useless sieges in useless locations (we don’t need 4 trebs at godsword…). Just in case though, could you try and stop it on your ends if it is one of your guys? We’ll be willing to do the same to any SFR that are doing this to you.

A happy SFR hammer warrior

Oh for the love of….

The 5 signet, glass cannon greatsword build. It’s a very restricted build, a veritable one trick pony if you must. What distinguishes the users of the build is not the build itself, but the player’s skill at executing the trick.

A bad signet warrior will die over and over, a detriment to his team. A good signet warrior will likely live to see another day, although their margin for error is a lot smaller than other builds.

To all the signet warriors that find themselves dying much of the fight, consider practicing your dodging and timing, or simply change your utilities to make it easier for yourself. Maybe even switch out a few traits.

To all the signet warriors boasting about how they kick kitten while many of the others are dead:

Your. Party. Is. Dying.

If you find yourself in this situation, the simple switching of your utilities to something that isn’t just signets will likely prevent their deaths (stomp to clear and rez, for example), or at least make them last longer. You doing 85% of your possible damage will not outweigh another 2 players who are not dead.

When this does happen though, it does not mean that you are to blame. They are the ones dying after all. But it does mean that you could possibly make up for their lack of skill by adding a bit more group support. You could also tell them what to look out for and what to dodge.

TLDR: A signet warrior is only as good as his player, get better or bring more support.

Tested this, thought it was good.

I see many people claiming that ‘everybody’ has 100% stability uptime.

False, and even those that can spam the boon usually have a greater downtime than uptime.

Does stability hit this build hard? Yes it does. Can it outlast the stability or strip it with luck? Yes it can. Does the 100b glass spec have the capability to outlast stability? Only if premeditated, blowing your closer to bait stability and then kite until it’s down. You just have to deal with the long cooldown of your setup skill. This is remedied by going greatsword/hammer, but you lose out on your block (the one that covers your glassy behind) and a major part of your burst potential.

It’s not a bad build, but it doesn’t really have a place in the current meta yet (like most control builds: it’s either bunker, portal lackey or burst at the moment.)

This is within the context of how signet warriors could alter their builds slightly to accomodate more utility for the team and themselves at the cost of less theoretical damage (no damage if dead, yadda yadda). This also includes glass cannon survivability, if you want to bring only pain, you better live to see it land…

Switching out the signets for shouts and getting soldier runes will work (much better if traited, but without it’s still viable and better than full signets for the group as a whole). Axe/warhorn will work (better if traited, but good enough without seeing as with the vigor buff you have 1.5 vigor on you.. hmmm, dodges…. also, group buffing).

Remembering that one of your signets removes conditions will work (90 precision vs not dead…. a concept many don’t seem to grasp)!

Also,
9. lyssa runes. Dem Lyssa runez

1. mending
2. sigil that removes conditions on crit
3. 3 shouts with soldier rune (don’t even need to trait them to provide better group utility than signets and will remove 4 conditions every 30 seconds, staggerable)
4. signet of stamina active
5. warhorn (better if traited, you could make your offhand weapon set axe/warhorn)
6. restorative strength (strength trait, 10 pointer too)

granted, some of these are suboptimal, or only cover a certain range of conditions…

but we do, indeed, have a nice variety.

edit:
7. as mentioned, the non soldier runed “shake it off”

edit 2:
8. mobile strikes (only roots though)

all signet warriors have at least signet of stamina, a long cooldown mass condition removal.

Due to the cooldown, and the fact that the passive is more useful in general (perma halfvigor), the active is barely used. Some people even forget the active exists at all and just want a signet for the precision buff from traits…

I’d like it to be changed to a % damage increase over Y seconds, or the next X attacks (non burst-skill) after a burst skill. % being reliant on trait investment and X any Y reliant on adren level when used.

It would make the dodging or reflecting of our bursts less of a detriment.

Obviously the % has to be balanced with the 3/6/12% damage trait with adrenaline level. Maybe make them non-stacking?

The thing is, you could have run different utilities, done a little less damage yourself, but increased group damage and/or survivability to a greater degree. Just from utilities.

It’s great that you mention last to die, because that indicates that you know at least how to dodge, but what about keeping the others alive (which according to you have died)? The tiny increase 1 signet gives will not outweigh the damage a not dead party member will bring because you stomped and saved his kitten or you cleared that nasty burn with shake it off…

The signets are viable, just not optimal (for group play).

Got myself a new look:

If fast hands did actually work as intended, wouldn’t a sigil of doom on both weapon sets be good?

You get a high uptime on poison with constant switching, giving all the benefits of poison while also providing an additional cover condition for your bleeds/burns.

Thoughts?

1. Improve the voice acting.
2. Implement additional backstory for non-sylvari players.
3. Improve his AI, he’s pretty much only useful for minor tanking while you go spanking (or make his backstory include ADD or something).
4. In the first few missions with his shiny weapon, make him goof up. Like when he tries to use whirling wrath but then knocks himself down, or he drops the the sword a few times (big sword, little scholar, no training). Also, make people refer more to their order leader or lieutenant.
5. Towards the later missions, have him have a few scripted fights where he pretty much showcases his great skills (or better, the power of the sword itself) after his on-the-go training. Now make people worship Trahearne as they currently do.
6. When done with his Wyld Hunt, make him really depressed. Make him drunk if you have to! The guy’s sole purpose for existing was cleansing Orr, he should be having the midlife crisis of the millenium. Implement it as a thing after the current finale, so this thing has had time to sink in with the plant, like sending a message to meet at a place of drinking in the PC’s home instance.
7. Did I mention the voice acting?

Note on hammers: they are decent for solo pve, and are actually very good for dungeons.

Locking down groups of enemies while your glass cannon friends can go to town? Blasting through defiant stacks on bosses so you can interrupt the heavy hitter? Hammer can save lives and make many group situations easier.

That said, when considering a 1h / offhand set it’s usually a mix and match of what you want really.

axe MH – very high sustained damage and nice burst.
axe OH – more fury and an aoe (note that you need to hit more than 4 targets to make the aoe do more damage than axe 1)

sword MH – decent direct damage and good bleed damage, mobility.
sword OH – heavy bleeds, nice burst and a block.

mace MH – weak/decent damage, a block, weakness and 2 CCs
mace OH – vulnerability and a ranged stun

shield – stun and damage reduction
warhorn – aoe buffing and debuffing, only easy source of vigor for warriors

Thanks again for all the replies, tried a few of the suggestions and I’m getting results.

A thing I tried out for giggles, which turned out to be pretty kitten effective, was to get the trait for immobilize on cripple and simply throw my axe at the thief. They look stupid, and I get breathing room (a trait I can easily swap out of when I need to fight something else).

Once again, thanks for the feedback

p.s: @MistyMountains: Can’t tell if trolling, or just bad reading comprehension

How about a different rework?

Make Final Thrust our burst skill! Make it DD and bleed, with the DD scaling with enemy health and the bleed damage scaling with adrenaline. (damage values for DD will never exceed eviscerate, but the added bleeds will push it to more total damage if they don’t get wiped)Make it hit everybody in a line for upto 300 range? maybe 200?

Then make a reworked flurry our 3rd chain attack! Remove the self root, lower the amount of swings (3 or so) and make the root apply to to only the first flurry swing. As for damage, up the bleed duration by a few seconds and increase the DD a bit too (balanced against the smaller amount of hits, ofc).

Some part of me keeps thinking that an out-of-the-box autoattack root might be a bit op, so maybe switch the root to a tiny cripple to boost hamstring’s poor duration and make it synergise with the root on cripple trait.

At least, that’s what I’d like to see

Thanks for the replies!

For those of you who didn’t get it, I’m a hammer and axe/mace warrior. Soldier amulet. 25.5k health and 3100-ish defense (armor + toughness). I don’t have healing shouts, as I’m specced more like Defektive’s dps variant.

Current utilities are Bull’s Charge (need a non-adrenaline gap closer, and the cc is nice), Balanced Stance and Signet of Stamina.

I guess I could switch out Signet of Stamina (the extra dodge regen is nice, but the active effect cancelling it is really meh imo, I’d have to switch to mending for condition removal as well instead of healing surge). Would it be better to go for “Fear Me!”, Endure Pain, or stick to Signet of Stamina? (when it comes to thieves ofc)

HS spam is the sign of a bad player, but not always. I’ve stated that I can CC them to death if they’re bad. I’m talking about good thieves that happen to run this build, the ones that see my hammer swing and dodge a year before it it lands. The only thing that manages to catch these guys is, like I said, my offhand mace stun at point blank (or timed after dodge) and an Earthshaker behind me when they stealth.

The autoattack tip is solid, I usually only use it if the thief puts down that stealth field of his, but I guess that using it for the normal stealth would work too.

Also, running away from the stealth is…. lame… Don’t get me wrong! It works and I’m going to try and incorporate it, but it seems so cowardly.

Is there anything else I can do within the limits of this build? I like it too much to want to switch it for just one ridiculous spec.

I’m running a variant of Defektive’s Avalanche build (built it from scratch, but I’m saying this so you’re familiar with my setup at least).

Now, I’m having trouble with glass cannon, heartseeker spamming thieves. They blow me up.

Backstab does a healthy 40% of my health, and the heartseekers then start. I’ve tried dodging, but the amount of heartseekers that get through will easily murder me. Running doesn’t work at all. Attempting a CC on them ends in a dodge festival if the guy (or gal) is any good.

The only time I can beat these guys is if they’re either bad, or I have some adrenaline handy and earthshaker behind me when I think they’ll pop up. And even then I have to anticipate a stun break and a dodge, having to time my mace 5 just right (not sure if standard HS spam build has a stunbreak, but the guys I fight sometimes do).

So the question is, how do I deal with them? I can only think of fear me, but is there another way? Or is the build simply countered by the HS spam build?

p.s: Respect to the thieves who don’t run this build, you have proven yourselves to be above 2-spamming and I applaud you.

So here’s my warrior then

Medkit/Flamethrower Engineer
Staff Guardian
Hammer/Shouts Warrior
Staff Elementalist
Greatsword Mesmer

I tend to stun alot with my hammer, yes. And I get that it might be quite a bit of aggro for doing so.

However I tend to be focused even if I fight only with my rifle, never using my cripple or knockback either. As I’ve said before, stopping my attack doesn’t work well. If I stop attacking to the point I’m no longer a target, my contribution is a guaranteed bronze.

In dungeons it means I’d have spent a lot of time doing nothing at all :/

That’s the thing though, in a huge group filled with glass cannons I hardly think I’m doing the most damage. The only people I might be outdamaging are the guys with bad gear (just dinged 80 most likely) and the guys traited and geared for mostly support.

Although I think damage is a factor in aggro, somehow I still keep the attention almost solely on myself. Does being tankier make you a more valuable target? Do my healing shouts generate that much hate? If so then why isn’t the water ele over there kiting like hell?

Over the last few days I noticed that in the majority of dynamic events, especially the ones with a big bad champion, I’m running for my life.

Why?

It seems that almost every single one of the big bads wants to destroy me with extreme prejudice. I’m holding aggro the entire time except when downed, and even then it happens.

I’ve dodged, controlled, fled, and even jumped away but I’m still being chased. Not using any skills at all does nothing, because I’m still being chased and downed. Switching to ranged weaponry or using just ranged weaponry the entire fight at max range does nothing either, though it gives me some initial running time.

Could somebody tell me what’s going on? Did the R&D outpost dump some of that risen juice on me as a baby?

(I’m a hammer/rifle warrior with defensive traits and offensive gear, if that helps)

Actually, the LFG/LFR system used in WoW actually did kill off some of the social aspect. But not for reasons stated here.

Because the system set you up with anybody on any server within your region, as opposed to just your server, you tend to end up with groups full of idiots that prefer to hide behind anonymity instead of improving their play (trolling, being bad, etc.). Furthermore, the pairing with other realms meant that you had less contact with your own, which guildwars 2 puts a hefty emphasis on with dynamic events.

This led to less “lasting” social interaction, and a relative increase of interaction with kittens in WoW.

The solution? Make a LFG tool, but make it per server or small server groups (3 at max, maybe the low pop servers). The less anonymity is promoted, the better the overall social experience will be.

My sword/axe build can stack massive bleeds, 12 sustained and 20+ burst.

The damage is comparable with that of most other greatsword users over a long period of time, only it isn’t mostly reliant on the target standing still. And most moving ones can be immobilized by the sword burst skill anyway.

The being forced to root yourself to deal significant damage, to me, is a major drawback for group pve. While the sword burst skill suffers from the same thing, it can make up for it because it can root things in place as well, such as mobs going for the squishies or ones escaping the aoe-fest.

Sword / Axe
&
Longbow

I play a bleed heavy spec, usually able to stack up 20+ bleeds in a burst and maintain 12 stacks outside of the burst. Whirling axe, with my crit % and bleed sigils, deals great aoe damage and can, with a bit of luck, also stack up decent bleeds and vulnerability.

The longbow is more for utility’s sake. While the physical shots are poor, thanks to my focus on condition damage, the burn is beastly. The blind and root have saved my teammates and I more than once, especially in dungeons.