Lets just face it for warrior. Its a old dog and it cant be fixed without a huge overhaul. Longest CD in the game with some of the worst weapons in the game. Over half of its weapons range are 170 and 300. Atm every single warrior build would lose in a 1 vs 1 to the elite builds and in every team fight if the players are of equal level.
The thief thing is tricky since thief was the counter to mesmer. Mesmer was good for team play but struggled to hold its own vs thief so thief became the Apex. I dont think its about making balancing thief but about making it the counter to a build. If Anet buffs thief it might be to the point where it counters mesmer and rev which then just forces for druids/dh and the new thief.
In all honesty everyone keeps posting about balance patches but too many times they nerf stuff that shouldnt be nerfed. For instance if they knew the HOT expansion was gonna change the meta then why change d/d ele 1 month before release? At this point it becomes more questions for me about what they want rather then what they will balance.
Warrior has some great skills, it’s just underpowered. Shield bash is an excellent interrupt while sword gives a decent gap closer. Hammer offers some good crowd control and hammer 5 while a big telegraph (fighting certain PvE risen mobs teaches us when to dodge or interrupt these) nevertheless is good with a proper setup. Then you have kick which launches back, so they’ll get up by the time you’re in melee range again. A possible solution here is raising overall warrior DPS while making king knockdown only with no launch back.
I think ultimately Anet intends certain specs and weapons to be optimal for PvP and others for PvE like how World of Warcraft traditionally had frost and fire mages as a PvP spec (one for CC other for burst damage) but wanted arcane mages as a PvE spec. The need for separate balancing of PvP and PvE is obvious because if something who can two or one shot a player is immune to CC it clearly demands a completely different stat and skillset than playable characters who don’t rely on AI scripts.
The word you were looking for in your PvP argument for warrior is had. The Dps is still good, i still do 5k damage on hammer 5 and 14k on Greatsword 2. The Probelm is when playing good players they no that what im trying to set up. The set up for these attacks are near impossible and heres why.
Necros new stability. There new chill dmg now makes warrior slow and you cant stun them which is great for necros.
Thieves shadowstep make them already difficult in 1 vs 1 but the extra dodge and constant dodge skills that come with staff means your timing has to be near perfect.
Revs get 2 of everything and if they trait for champion stun break you cant catch them. Glints heal if i catch you one and if i catch you twice dont worry hit F1 for access to your 2nd heal and stun break.
Druids heals and pets make them impossible to beat for a warrior. The pet takes a stun and condi dmg so hambow is out and if you go mace/shield with greatsword you have to pray they trait wrong. When you get them low on health they can hit F5 and get all the way back up and warrior who plays dps doesnt have any sustain outside the stances.
Mesmers are a nightmare. If i dont have stability boom well, if i catch them with a bulls charge,shield bash,skull crack they have blink, distortion and staff 2, sword 2 to get away after a stun break. Plus with a hammer they have shield now so catching them is impossible if they are of a high skill level.
DH are actually the only class the old Dps warrior in my opinion can beat. Even then though the warrior has to do everything right. One missed dodge or popping a stance to early or late means you will lose in this case vs a DH.
Dps does not fix any of this unless they buff warriors dmg 3X. You cant fix dps on warrior and say all better cause they already tried that with the 2nd zerker trait line. I actually thanked them for making a quick change to the zerker trait line thinking the dps output would be enough since its 17% in zerker form.
Like i said the trait system for the class needs a huge overhaul for it to be at the level. If you want to make it a gimmick class like thief. Ok but that only 1 level up and the have destroyed ele into a bunker class only. Im sorry if i went on a bit but no, without major nerfs to other classes warrior will remain a terrible class without major trait line changes. The other option is to have it be a 1 type of class like ele or theif and say this is the only role you can be at a elite level with the zerker trait line.
