(edited by holodoc.5748)
(edited by holodoc.5748)
(edited by holodoc.5748)
(edited by holodoc.5748)
… AND NOW THE CONCLUSSION.
As for the skills themselves, there is so much more to viable combinations than just going for the usual warrior meta. “Berserkers stance” is somewhat of a necessity, that’s true, but the rest can be so easily combined to get some very interesting combinations.
Now hold your breath because I think a lot of people will find it hard to believe what I am about to say – “Cleansing Ire” / Longbow is not required to play a warrior effectively. There are so many ways to deal with conditions on warrior without “Cleansing Ire”, one of the most useful being is not getting conditions on yourself in the first place. If you play a glass stun/burst warrior its ridiculous to waste the second weapon slot just for condition removal when you could be using that second slot to quickly kill enemies.
Thank you for this well thought out response with detailed explanations. This was the type of answer I was hoping to get. I now understand why my weapons were sub par. I will try the GS/ Mace-Sword you suggested, as you said I would rather not go the hambow route. Are there any well known trait guides for GS/Mace-Sword or axe+sword/mace+shield or are the ones currently on enterthemists fine to use?
Thanks again
To be honest I rarely visit those “build” web sites because they often limit you in the way you think about how to play a specific profession. They usually say “this stuff works” and make you forget about the most important thing in sPvP – experiment yourself.
As for GS/mace-sword, its a great build for quickly dealing with enemies. You can build it to be extremely offensive (Strength runes, Berserker amulet) but do take note it takes some time to learn how to play it because its an extremely high risk/high reward gameplay type. Additionally you might want to rethink about using shield instead of sword because it offers an extra stun and blocking which can come in handy.
Here is a simple proposal how you can build your GS/mace+sword build.
You go 6/4/0/04 in your traits, “Dual wielding”, “Slashing power” and “Berserker’s Power” in “Strength”, “Rending Strikes” and “Forceful Greatsword” in “Arms”, “Warrior’s Sprint” and “Mobile Strikes” in “Discipline”.
You will also use Berserer’s amulet and Stregth runes although if you feel uncomfortable with how much sustain you have you can go for a more defensive amulet (although Berserker is in a very good sweet spot).
For your utility skills you use “Healing signet”, “Endure pain”, “Signet of Stamina”, “Berserker’s stance” and “Signet of Rage” although you can pick anything you like. Do take not you are not using “Cleansing Ire” so your only ways of dealing with conditions will be “Signet of Stamina” and “Berserker’s stance”.
For your sigils, “Sigil of Intelligence” and “Sigil of Air” on GS, “Sigil of Paralyzation” on mace and “Sigil of Battle” or “Sigil of Energy” on sword (or shiled if you decide to run it off hand).
The basic idea behind this build is to use GS for gap-closing and inflicting heavy damage with “Whirlwind attack” and “Hundred blades”. If you ever get in a 1vs1 situation (and you will) you fill up adrenaline for mace burst and use “Pommel bash in between” to make that task easier. When you reach full adrenaline you use “Skullcrack”, you switch weapons and go straight away for “Hundred blades” then “Whirlwind attack” straight through your enemy. Its usually enough to burst down enemies, especially squishies. If not you continue with “Bladetrail” and auto attack. If for some reason your enemy had invulnerability then you switch to other weapon set (that’s why its handy to have shield off hand) and fill up your adrenaline bar for another “Skullcrack” surprise. Don’t hesitate to use “Pommel bash” in between. When things go wrong you have “Endure pain” on your disposal and “Mobile strikes” which will give you enough time to disengage from the fight no matter what happens.
It takes some time to learn how to play this build but once you feel the bloodlust in your veines when you start bursting down enemies its extremely hard to go back to the lame condition builds
A bit lengthy post but I had to write it considering how many myths there are about warriors. One of the most prevailing is that warriors can be played effectively only with builds most people play. You can be an effective warrior if you don’t play hambow, condi etc. You just need to pick up your fights more carefully. The important thing however is you will be enjoying the game because you play it the way you like to play it.
(edited by holodoc.5748)
Range Weapon:
Rifle sucks, LB is the way to goMelee Weapon:
Sword sucks
Mace sucks
GS sucks
Hammer or Axe is the way to goOffhand weapon:
Warhorn sucks
Mace sucks
Axe sucks
Shield, OK
Sword is the way to go.Berserker stance
Balanced stance
Cleansing ire
Burst mastery( there maybe a alternative since the patch)
Healing signetare required for a build to be use able.
Lets go over all the weapons shall we.
Rifle indeed has to be one of the least favorable warrior weapons in sPvP. It doesn’t offer anything that other weapons can’t do better and the only (partial) viability comes from sniping people with burst (“Killshot”) which a) can often miss and b) has a very long casting time making it extremely easy to dodge/block. The only other useful skill would be “Rifle butt” which performs a knockback on up to three targets (this can be pretty fun sometimes).
Sword can be useful main hand weapon if traited for conditional damage, otherwise its far more useful offhand where it provides Torment damage and one block. It can also be very useful for mobility (skill #2, “Savage leap”) however GS is a far better choice for that role considering it has two skills which provide excellent mobility on a really low cooldown when the “Forceful greatsword” trait is used (“Whirlwind attack” and “Rush”).
Mace is a anything but useless. It has so many useful skills which are perfect for crowd control. Auto-attack can do awful lot of damage if built for stun/burst gameplay, it has a very useful block (“Counterblow”) and an incredibly fast stun (“Pommel bash”) which is virtually impossible to see. Burst (“Skullcrack”) is one of the most useful mace skills because it provides a rather lengthy stun which when combined with, lets say, Sigil of Paralyzation, provides enough time to switch to alternative weapon and quickly burst down the enemy. As an offhand weapon mace provides a very useful mass knockback (“Tremor”) and a somewhat less useful vulnerability stacking.
Greatsword has to be my favorite weapon for high risk / high reward gameplay. It provides unparalleled mobility for warrior and when built glassy it can often devastate node bunkers which do not expect so much DPS and mobility. “Whirlwind attack” and “Rush” are excellent gap-closers making it very easy for roamers to reach nodes and close in on, lets say, ranged spammers. “Hundred blades” (100B) and “Whirlwind attack” are the two main damage dealers, “Blade trail” is fantastic for slowing down one or multiple targets (or even immobilizing them if the “Leg specialist” trait is used) and “Rush” is your best friend when things start to get messy and you need a fast way to escape. Additionally “Whirlwind attack” and “Rush” can be considered as an additional dodge, especially when combined with “Mobile strikes” which break immobilize. Combine all those with the “Forcefull greatsword” and “Signet of Stamina” and you get yourself one hell of a warrior troll with a devastating firepower. Risky, its true, but incredibly rewarding when played right
Hammer, one of the most annoying warrior weapons. Prime example of warrior’s contribution to the vast selection of GW2 cheesy builds. Can spam nodes all day long and still have incredible sustain. Its basically a F1, #3, #4, #5 skill spam fest but very effective especially when stun duration increase traits/sigils are used. Not much to add here.
Axe, used primarily for Eviscerate quick-burst builds. You build up adrenaline with your other weapon set, then you switch back and burst making use of usually “Sigil of Intelligence” and other damage boosters. Only skill worth mentioning on axe main hand aside from burst is probably “Throw axe” which can also be combined with “Leg specialist” to make it more useful. As an off hand weapon axe is not that much useful because “Whirling axe” although having decent power in sPvP can be easily avoided.
Warhorn doesn’t have that much use in sPvP. It can be used for cleansing conditions and swiftness but there are rarely occasions where the full potential of warhorn would be used for that. Warhorn as an sPvP weapon for warrior really is a bad pick, no matter how you use it.
Shield is a very good defensive weapon. Provides an accessible way of interrupting enemies and a reliable block which can be used together with “Missile Defelection” trait to quickly kill pew-pew spammers. Its also fun to watch downed enemies kill themselves when reflecting projectiles with shield.
TO BE CONTINUED…
(edited by holodoc.5748)
(edited by holodoc.5748)