Once you drop the preconceived notion that the Warrior is a melee specialist, using ranged weapons becomes much more palatable. Also as has been pointed out LB is most effective in melee/near-melee range.
Sword is a hybrid weapon that’s great for staying on target and keeping pressure on. Long duration bleeds and Cripple on the auto-attack, Cripple and Leap on #2, and #3 hits just as hard as a full adrenaline Eviscerate if target is <50% health. So while it may not appear to do much damage, when put in the right build it can be pretty potent.
Shield may look pretty vanilla, but consider what it offers. #5 is essentially one second shy of Endure Pain without the stun break on half the CD. #4 is both a stun and leap finisher. So not only is it a great hard CC to stop a heal, burst, rez, or stomp or setup for a Final Thrust/Eviscerate, but if you use it in a field you get a nice bonus.
Axe/Axe is not optimal for PvP (or any game mode). The same goes for Signet of Fury and Deep Strike. If you’re going 6 pts into Defense you’d probably want to swap Spiked Armor for Defy Pain.
You don’t have to be a buff bot, and don’t for a minute think LB makes you a Ranger in heavy armor. A Warrior’s LB behaves much differently than either of a Ranger’s bows.
The majority of PVP Warrior builds run with LB because of Cleansing Ire. Unlike other weapons, LB F1 can be executed without a target and while blinded. All of the other F1s can miss resulting in no conditions cleansed. My advice to you would be find a weapon set that works for you, and then learn to love Longbow. You had said in a previous thread that Sword/Shield feels the most like a Warrior, but I’m going to recommend you try the Hybrid Sword since you seem to be partial to MH Sword. http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Hybrid_Sword_Warrior
It sounds like you should also take a look at what Warrior can and should be doing in PvP. It’s not your job to stand there and face tank stuff in melee while you get focused because you’re short on defenses.
Let me put it this way. If downed state is such an inconvenience that you’d like to toggle it off (which is impossible) and there is no way to avoid it aside from not getting there in the first place then maybe you should be a bit more careful when it can be avoided.
Like Foghladha said even once you’re downed there’s a good chance you can rez unless you’re outleveled/outnumbered.
I don’t recall how long it takes once downed to be killed by say a mob a level or two higher or maybe 2-3 equal level mobs, but I can’t imagine the time it takes is so long that it’s an inconvenience. Especially since you shouldn’t be getting downed often enough that going from downed to dead even if it takes a minute should be that much of an inconvenience that you’d want to remove the downed state altogether and go straight to dead.
@OP: Looks like you’ve been trying to decide between a Ranger and Warrior since October 2013 if I’m reading your post history correctly. Even if it was October 2014 you could’ve leveled both to 80 and been in full exotics by now. And been able to decide for yourself which is better.
Every once In a while I come across a LB Ranger who I’m not sure is aware that Reflect (and to a lesser extent Retaliaion) applies to them, and/or doesn’t know how to cancel a cast. Since the influx of LB Rangers I’ve wrecked a few with Magnetic Shield, Whirling Defense, or various reflect specced blocks on my Warrior.
Somehow it doesn’t occur to them to stop attacking when there’s a bubble running towards them reflecting an entire Rapid Fire back at them. Watching possibly the most abused ability in WvW (Rapid Fire) get wrecked by arguably the least used ability in the game (Whirling Defense) is pretty fun. And there are countless videos out there going back to the days when Skullcracker builds were all the rage of Warriors putting a serious hurt on LB Rangers who didn’t know any better.
This doesn’t go for the ones who actually know how to play the spec. Those usually pick me off while I’m not focusing 100% on them, or occasionally it ends in a stalemate.
I’m actually messing around with an E-gun condi build atm. Standby build is BK/TK conditions. Used to play an FT/EG build before they changed Kit Refinement.
There may not be any grandmaster traits in Firearms worthy, but Target the Maimed plus having reduced CDs, increased range and 10% more damage on Rifle is great since it’s your primary source of damage.
Changing traits is free. Try out different setups and see what works for you. I’d definitely switch Sigil of Blood to Fire though.
Hotkey about face and you can get around the map pretty darn fast with GS + Sw/X with Martial Mastery. Maybe faster than Warrior, but I’m not sure without doing the math. There are a few videos out there of people chasing rangers all over the map and not being able to catch ’em.
And while the wiki description of the traitline states that it “focuses on mobility, traps and switching weapons in combat.” It’s more just about weapon swapping, positioning, and close/mid range fighting.
You can buy rabid armor and trinkets from Orr Temples (Karma) and from WvW vendors(Badges). Just don’t put expensive runes you may want to be reused elsewhere because they can’t be salvaged. Rabid weapons can be bought from WvW vendors (Badges), but again not salvageable. They can also be crafted (except trinkets).
And in response to an earlier question of yours about nerfing conditions Confusion at least one did get nerfed (WvW). The build I referred to relied on getting a bunch of Confusion stacks and Retaliation up (also nerfed I think) and letting people wreck themselves. It was a very trollish build, but was tanky and fun. Unfortunately does not work in today’s game.
Do you by chance know what pieces should be dire/rabid and if full rabid or dire would be better? Also if cele is better overall and whats the easiest way to get cele gear! Thnx!
Full Rabid is fine for roaming, but if you want a bit more HP you can use Rabid/Dire Ascended Trinkets, and/or Dire weapons. It’s pretty easy to build a condi spec on the cheap and still be serviceable, Power build not as much. Depending on your rune/sigil choices of course.
There’s no easy way to get Celestial gear. You can get Celestial Trinkets with laurels, from fractals (Rings only), and Mystic Forge (Back only), but armor and weapons have to be crafted and you can only make one account bound charged quartz crystal per day (per account). So a minimum of 30 days per set of Celestial Armor, and another 5 days per weapon.
I’d second Slashing Power instead of Axe Mastery. Also you might want to think about 6/0/5/0/3 depending on on your needs to squeeze out some more offense against opponents who may not be running so many boons.
You should probably do a full rebuild, but if money is tight and you had to pick CPU or GPU I’d go CPU, because GW2 is a CPU intensive game. And from what I can tell that GPU should be serviceable for GW2. You’d be looking to get into an i5 for your CPU.
If you want to stick with your mesmer since you have a bad habit of deleting low level alts (you’re not alone) you may not be pleased with at the moment. That being the case you might be best off asking some profession specific questions over at the mesmer forum, and reading up on mesmer guides.
I’d say you’ve made a mistake I often have leveling. Avoiding events and blindly going heart to heart (occasionally with personal story in between). This always ended up leaving me a bit behind the next heart after a while. Solution. First catch up a bit. Completing maps of the cities and might net you a few levels depending on your level and boosters. Also try and hit up some world events on your current map. And there’s always switching maps to fill in gaps if you don’t want to do events on your current one.
Full Rabid or Rabid/Dire mix is still good for roaming condi builds. Celestial is a different animal and leverages Might through Sigil of Battle and Hoelbrak. Both Might and Sigil of Battle got toned down recently so I’m not sure how that’s affecting the build.
Axe is great for tagging if you’re farming PvE or running with a zerg in WvW. Also nice for camps in WvW. A staple in most condition builds. For open world PvE however there’s nothing stopping you from running an Axe/X + GS power build.
Aside from trait spread it looks almost like a spinoff of the Tankcat build which got killed when they nerfed Confusion (and I think Retaliation). But you should take a look at current doublt kit condi bomb builds. Also condition builds are generally not advised for PvE. http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Engineer_-_Double_Kit_Condi_Roamer
You could play Sword/Axe(or dagger) and GS. I’m currently running Axe/Axe and GS mostly for soloing camps and small to mid size group stuff. The mh Axe I prefer for pet might stacking from Fortified Bond and to avoid some of the pbaoe Blind spam.
Looks like a white heart at a 45 degree angle (when zoomed in 500%). Could be a place holder for any number of things. There have been plenty of threads in the past suggesting there should be an F2 for a defensive ability. Could be that.
Practice Practice Practice. If you want to work on dodging and interrupting find some NPCs with a big tell like Ettins and start there.
There used to be a Daily Dodger achievement, which I used to do with the Ettins. I’m pretty sure it helped somewhat, but sometimes when you need to make that split second decision you just can’t pull it off. And believe me that’s not exclusive to you. The only thing that’ll fix this is practice. Pay attention to the skills of your opponents and what their animations look like. The next step is learning what’s worth dodging/interrupting.
As far as keybinds go you need neither a gaming mouse or keyboard. Just experiment until you find a keybind scheme that’s right for you. There are plenty of threads on the topic here and guides elsewhere.
I think you used to be able to just slot an off-hand on your second set and the MH would carry over to the second set, but CDs would still be maintained from first set.
They may have changed it at some point so you need to equip a MH and OH in each set. I’m not positive.
the point is we still dont have a option for a condi clear that is flexiable , it still requires one grandmaster+ sigil or SoR , or Sotf + Sigil while other classes have heals that clear condis or utilties that clear all condis Compeltely
When leveling I wouldn’t look to level 80 builds for guidance. To work as intended they generally need all or most of the component parts, which you won’t have until much later in the game. Certain builds can work with a bare-bones spec if you will, but even then it’ll require you to be pretty far along in the game. For PvP though go nuts as soon as you can get in.
Since you don’t even get your first trait point until level 30 (and one every 6 levels after that) Just pick a weapon setup that works best for your playstyle and/or the task at hand and the same for utilities. You have plenty of time to experiment.
Also there are no passive mitigation stats like dodge/block/parry. In GW2 all of those actions need to be initiated by the player in one form or another. This may be what you’re referring to as “far more challenging and diverse in player skill than anything else”.
I was more explaining to other people here that the changes that are being implemented are not going to be a strict upgrade in power. You’re going to lose something in the process.
I wasn’t even aware that that misconception existed until this thread.
Regardless of what’s added/removed in the transition from Ranger to Druid (to use a known example) it’s going to be a lateral move. Think of it as being able to switch to a similar yet uniquely different profession. Really nothing to get worried about.
Based on everything Anet has said about HoT I’m not sure why these questions are even being asked?
1. What would be the point? There will be no raising of max level or added tiers of gear. The only reason to boost people to a certain level with an xpac is if there’s going to be an increased level cap. And like others have said, just play the game. By the time the xpac comes out you’ll have plenty scrolls and tomes.
2. Revenant is not not a Deathknight. See response to Q1.
Last night it started with a DC followed by multiple instances of 30sec plus skill lag in a BL mixed between roaming and defending a tower. Last night was the worst I’ve had in a while. Occasionally I’ll get skill lag of a few sec or a DC from time to time, but never that much at once.
The “only one there” problem should be less of an issue with megaserver.
I’ve recently started leveling a few more alts and have noticed that certain areas feel a lot more full than they did pre-megaserver. Also there always seem to be down-leveled people in the lower areas doing any number of things from farming mats, to events, to world completion.
I run an i5 3570K on a Z77 with SSD, 8GB RAM and the same vid card as you GTX 660 2GB. Typically at 60 with everything on high except for I think shadows.
Start with mobo and CPU (i5) and see if that gets you to where you want to be. SSD will also get you faster startup and load times. If you feel it’s not enough then get a new vid card, but it’s probably not necessary.
