Guild Wars 2

I have a couple questions:
How does rampager amulet compared to berserker amulet? Would you say the additional condition damage outweighs the crit damage you get on the berserker amulet? (also if you run zerker, would 30/0/0/10/30 be a better option then 10/30/0/0/30)?

What’s the benefit of running mace in your second set instead of sword? Mace has a block, but sword has a leap along side better condition performance.

Overall nice write up!

GS + Axe / shield or warhorn for better dueling / small scale roaming (Damage build)
GS + sword / shield or warhorn for solo roam (Survivability, mobility)
Hammer + sword / warhorn for group roam (CC)
GS or Axe/shield + Longbow for defense
Rifle + Sword / warhorn for lol sniping

If they would add those, it would bring up the skill cap of the warrior quite high. I would love to see that.

I’m not sure about the down state.. Against anyone decent I won’t even get a proper number 2 skill off due to blind, block, invis, stability or long cast time, random misses..

Summer.6728:

xiv.7136:

The best warrior build below:

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I would start with

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|2.1g.h1|b.1g.h15.d.1g.h1|1g.a7.1g.7o.1g.7o.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|3s.0.2s.0.2u.0.2u.0.3u.0.2u.0|0.0.u56b.u378.a6|55.7|w.11.z.18.1i|e

This build gives you a ton of healing and front line staying power. Get that symbol down from the Auto Attack Chain and live in it. Note the runes and increased symbol duration as this keeps your Protection going. You can also throw on the Signet of Judgement with Protection for 43% damage reduction all the time. Other melee will benefit from your Symbols also.
I run Zerker gear here because the damage reduction takes care of you quite a bit. Mix in some Soldiers if you feel you need to.
This build also supports GSword and Staff quite well. It doesn’t have the highest DPS but its not bad.
After you get used to Hammer you can move into a higher DPS build quite easily.

I think you are lost, this is a guardian build.

That’s the joke lol

In its current implementation confusion is very weak in general PvE and very strong in wvw. In sPvp the damage is actually reduced by 50% and maybe Anet will look at maybe separately balancing skills between wvw and PvE too.

Against two upleved you can probably down one or both with a good combination of whirlwind + blade trail + rush + shield bash + eviscerate. Finish him off with balanced stance + endure pain. Then shield block if needed, heal and go for the other one.

A longbow helps with tagging

Hey! I think your burst is good, but drops hard the moment your target has stability

I guess you gotta be careful with how you see the numbers. When you swap to your GS, the effective power drops to 4k, which is around the same the moment your target is not disabled. Similarly your toughness is on average only going to be 1300 (-100 from thick skin, -200 from turtles defense). Depending on the condition, they might only be partially available.

I think 30/25/0/0/15 might be highest, especially since you can take both axe mastery and dual wielding:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|7.1g.h2.9.1g.h1|0.0.0.0.0.0|1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e.1g.7e|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|p5a.p35.0.0.k5a|39.1|5z.61.69.6e.6m|e

I think main hand axe and off hand sword is kinda weird combination. Making and axe is mostly pure damage whereas offhand sword is more condition based.

For my roaming build I use sword/shield + GS. The mobility with those two is very good and keeps me alive 90% of the time. However for duels / spvp I find Axe / Shield + GS is more potent with eviscerate as a strong burst.

If you are looking at using it as the primary weapon set, I think Axe/X is definitely higher damage with both the auto attack chain and eviscerate.

I personally went for sunrise and bolt though. Just fits my play style more.

Although in hot joins warriors are fine.. they just take a little bit more skill then other classes. It’s only in high level organized play that the real lack of warriors are starting to show.

You can run much more effective roaming builds in WvW then in SPvP. This is because you have more stats, access to food and a larger area to disengage. Warriors scale quite nicely with stats, as we have a lot of % based damage increases. You can generally run away from almost all classes except for thief and the occasional DD ele.

In a team setting you can bring damage, CC or support through banner / shouts. You can also run spike long bow builds or lol killshot builds. Melee is a disadvantage in a zerg setting, but if you run pure PVT, you can initiate well with hammer and through shield block + endure pain live long enough for your team to catch up.

Pentose.3479:

Hmm, I posted this in the locked thread, but I guess I’ll put it here again.

Not sure how, but two SF players were able to get into Sunnyhill during a siege while the gates are still up. The pictures only show one of them (the one with PVP tag in the first pic is a Mesmer clone). I forgot to SS the other one.

Could be due to lag, server issues, whatever. It’s just the first time I’ve seen someone able to get inside. It’s also my first time fighting a zerg of that size on a gate.

Also, there were necro pets going through the door earlier in the siege.

Actually, I had that happen to me once, as in I teleported through the gate. I was lagging a bit, but I was suddenly inside that same tower for no reason. I quickly left and thought wtf, but seeing this it might actually be a problem with the tower design.

robocafaz.9017:

fost.9167:

Why no stronger bowstrings? Is there something I am missing?

I personally don’t think the two longbow talents are really worth their investment compared to other things.

peter.9024:

Why not take those 30 arms and put them into strength? If you take heightened focus and a sigil of accuracy with some food, your crit chance is around 90% even without going into arms. 30 into strength will ensure your crits are crazy high.

The purpose of 30 arms and 30 tactics is to be able to do a Combustion shot every 8 seconds. While the 30 trait in Strength for Berserkers stance isn’t bad it only provides adrenaline boosting every 45 seconds, whereas extra adrenaline on hit is constant gain. Especially since it’s AoE crits, it usually guarantees at least 2/3rds of your bar full by the time you’ve hit your Explosive Shot.

But I will experiment with your suggestion and see if it works better than what I’ve got going on. Thanks!

Actually, you will be able to fire off a combustive shot every 8 second. You have 3 sources of max adrenaline: signet of rage, adrenal health and signet of fury. If you think about it, usually even with furious, you’ll probably get max adrenaline form either signet or heal before you furious fully recharges it. This is especially true in defense / offensive positions as you will not be able to stay at the front line for long.

Why not take those 30 arms and put them into strength? If you take heightened focus and a sigil of accuracy with some food, your crit chance is around 90% even without going into arms. 30 into strength will ensure your crits are crazy high.

88% crit chance:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|3.1g.h1|c.1c.h4.g.1c.h1h|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|u52c.0.0.a4.u56b|3a.8|5y.6d.69.6b.6m|e

You really can’t think outside of the box..

Empiren.6401:

peter.9024:

Let’s face it, it was a kittenty 3 button build. When I want play warrior, i want to utilize all my weapon skills and all my utilities and not press 3 buttons then wait 60 seconds.

Spvp is kinda in the kittenter for the warrior, but wvw is fine at the moment. We aren’t top tier there, but i’d put us at a decent top 3-4 class at least. That’s because warriors scale incredibly well with stats and we have some good food available. We will see next patch(es) if anet will start to change some of the warrior skills to suit a purposeful play more.

Oh I’m sorry, you think it was 3 button build? Oh……i forget.

Yeah I tend to forget pve/wvw players don’t realize that in spvp the crit damage/chance isn’t as high.
————————-
Warriors are in the lowest tier for spvp. I’m not joking, i’m not being pessimistic, they are dead last and that has been the case for many months and many patches.

Its not just this last patch, every patch tends to just overlook us and buff our PVE attributes when we already are top-dogs.
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Also a 3 button class? Again, in wvw, sure. But so are a lot of builds on a lot of professions. In spvp? No. tpvp? Good luck getting that glichy bulls rush to work in the first place.

Its like you go “it shouldn’t be a three button class” and then don’t realize that we have NO alternatives after that was taken away.

Try running 20/0/30/0/20 (berserker power, slashing, turtle, last stand, spiked armor, signet mastery, mobile strikes)
Berserker amulet, soldier jewel, lyssa runes
Axe (accuracy) / shield (hydromancy), GS (accuracy)
healing surge, balanced stance, stamina, endure pain, signet of rage

If you know how to dodge, this build will take you places.

Empiren.6401:

peter.9024:

Empiren.6401:

CoaxialMazer.9140:

Today’s patch was something with exploit, I thought you were referring to 3/26’s update.

Nah. 3/26 was a warrior nerf.

Nerfing the lowest tier profession, cmon anet, thats just low.

I’m actually ok with the patch. Yes, we are weaker now, but haste was a broken ability not just for warriors, but even more for thiefs and rangers. At least by killing the gimmick bullsrush frenzy build, we can see some real changes coming to warriors (hopefully..).

You must be joking. You think that changes will happen because they broke our only viable build?

Yeah, thats how it works. Break class and then leave it for months then buff it.

Oh wait, this is Anet logic. stares are we gonna be the next ele? shrugs eh, its like anet just absolutely HATES us though. They consistently ignore us and then do a 180 and nerf frenzy which primarily effects warriors the most.

This wasn’t in SoTG adn we were already dead last.
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TL:DR If your fine with it cool, but for those of us who play warrior, its not.

Let’s face it, it was a kittenty 3 button build. When I want play warrior, i want to utilize all my weapon skills and all my utilities and not press 3 buttons then wait 60 seconds.

Spvp is kinda in the kittenter for the warrior, but wvw is fine at the moment. We aren’t top tier there, but i’d put us at a decent top 3-4 class at least. That’s because warriors scale incredibly well with stats and we have some good food available. We will see next patch(es) if anet will start to change some of the warrior skills to suit a purposeful play more.

Empiren.6401:

CoaxialMazer.9140:

Today’s patch was something with exploit, I thought you were referring to 3/26’s update.

Nah. 3/26 was a warrior nerf.

Nerfing the lowest tier profession, cmon anet, thats just low.

I’m actually ok with the patch. Yes, we are weaker now, but haste was a broken ability not just for warriors, but even more for thiefs and rangers. At least by killing the gimmick bullsrush frenzy build, we can see some real changes coming to warriors (hopefully..).

I’m more in favor of adding more berserker pieces after. Warriors just scale so good with zerker pieces.

The discipline stats are a bit weak, but they do contain some of the most critical warrior abilities:
- 5 sec weapon swap
- mobile strikes
- signet mastery
- 9% crit chance~ 200 precision
In light of those skills I can’t not go at least 20 into the discipline line and in most builds I go 30 into the line.

Since you got rabid stats, try going for a full condition spec with undead runes, longbow + sword / sword.

Well, you have no stun break..

My take on Lyssa:

I used to run boon duration runes with might stacking, however recently I switched to a WvW build that doesn’t run forceful GS (I think that almost all the traits in the precision line only bring marginal benefits except for forceful GS at 20 and minor at 25). At this point it came down to 39 sec of signet of rage (with full boon duration runes) or 35 sec signet of rage (with lyssa). However for the 4 second difference you get 165 precision, 5 seconds of god mode every 48 seconds + full clean and some random boon on heal.

In the WvW context it usually comes down to this:
- You can zerg dive by rushing in, balanced stance > lyssa > do some damage > whirlwind out > ( shield block if needed ) > Sword 2 (i run sword / shield on other set) and usually you’ll be very alive.
- If you get caught of guard, using your elite will give you some more valuable seconds with the aegis, protection, stability and regeneration.

At least this is the trade off between boon duration and lyssa runes.

Comparing it to ruby orbs is a different case, ruby orbs are higher damage period, but they don’t bring any utility. I think the damage trade off is roughly 15 – 20%, which is significant in PvE, but in WvW the ability to fully cleanse along side a slightly longer Signet of Rage is worth it in my opinion.

I like the signet. Between signet and adrenal health you can get a shot off every CD.

Honestly, you forgot the main one: Mobile strikes – remove all movement impairments

GLHF! I’ll be testing out my glamour mesmer a bit..

Yep I’ve been using lyssa for the last two weeks in wvw and I have to admit that I really underestimated its effectiveness.

CookMETEnder.7582:

peter.9024:

ChaosDoom.8459:

Hi CookMeTender, I can give you my answer based on real game play experience.

When you use boon duration based runes, eg. I would think these work better for warrior, 2 x Rune of Hoelbrak 2 x Rune of the Fire and 2 x Rune of the Citadel would give you almost true perm fury and true 25 stacks might.

You will see it move between 22 to 25 stack of might and no less. With 2 monk, 2 water and 2 major water/monk, the rest of boons are better but your Might and Fury are not so good compared.

When you use Ruby orbs, normally is between 12 to 16 stack of might. Of course both scenarios are based on when you are solo. IMO Ruby orb make up for the loss in power due to lesser might. The crit chance and crit damage made up for the loss resulting slightly better overall dps. This difference is minor when you solo.

When you are in a team, the difference becomes obvious. Ruby orbs outweigh boon durations runes for full zerker DPS build.

Why would you pick citadel when water gives 15% to everything? Also i’d argue the 5% difference between fire/hoelbrak and monk is not that significant, especially since fury is also increased by another 15%. The best setup would be 2 monk, 2 water, 2 fire / hoelbrak

I guess the question is would monk/water/fire be better than 6 ruby for DPS overall (including perma-fury, etc.)

Overall, I think ruby orbs would be higher DPS especially if you run FGJ, which can almost cover 100% uptime on fury. However boon duration runes offer more “convenience” options such as high uptime on swiftness and possible vigor / retaliation if traited and also extend the boons you give to your allies.

ChaosDoom.8459:

Hi CookMeTender, I can give you my answer based on real game play experience.

When you use boon duration based runes, eg. I would think these work better for warrior, 2 x Rune of Hoelbrak 2 x Rune of the Fire and 2 x Rune of the Citadel would give you almost true perm fury and true 25 stacks might.

You will see it move between 22 to 25 stack of might and no less. With 2 monk, 2 water and 2 major water/monk, the rest of boons are better but your Might and Fury are not so good compared.

When you use Ruby orbs, normally is between 12 to 16 stack of might. Of course both scenarios are based on when you are solo. IMO Ruby orb make up for the loss in power due to lesser might. The crit chance and crit damage made up for the loss resulting slightly better overall dps. This difference is minor when you solo.

When you are in a team, the difference becomes obvious. Ruby orbs outweigh boon durations runes for full zerker DPS build.

Why would you pick citadel when water gives 15% to everything? Also i’d argue the 5% difference between fire/hoelbrak and monk is not that significant, especially since fury is also increased by another 15%. The best setup would be 2 monk, 2 water, 2 fire / hoelbrak

Sil.4560:

Not any more OP than the elementalists who can throw off conditions left and right, the guardians who can take ten people beating on them to feel any pressure, or the thieves/mesmers who abuse the teleport and stealth skills so that the lag gives them an extra second of being completely invisible. Warriors can use some love in both modes.

At least I think we’re overall better then ranger..

In wvw at least:

Tough:
Confusion or Shatter Mesmer
DD Ele
Guardians

A bit hard:
Necro, Good Engis

Normal:
P/D condi thiefs, CC engis, other not zerker bull rush warriors

Easy:
Most backstab thiefs (that’s assuming you’re running slightly more tank then full zerker)
Rangers (imho, I’ve seen trap rangers as well, but with lyssa and signet of stamina atm it’s not that bad)
Zerker staff ele
Zerker bull rush warriors

I guess the only saving grace is that the majority of WvW population runs something in the easy department

Constantine.7812:

Sil.4560:

Class balance in this game is a joke.

i agree.

first of all what anet should do is remove clones and stealth from this game (no im not kidding) and replace it with decent skills so that we all (warriors most i guess) can see our oponents and fight them, because mesmers hiding behind clones and thieves hiding in stealth while doing tons of dmg is a joke yes. Im sure that many ppl wont agree with this (at least ppl playing thieves and mesmers for sure), but to be honest i dont care and this is my opinion. NO CLASS SHOULD BE INVISIBLE (STEALTH) OR MAKING MORE CLASSES (CLONES) -TO ME THIS IS CHEATING and i dont care how funny this sounds.
They said (anet) that they want to implement new balance in this game slowly, but i think they should be careful, cuz last update kitten off many ppl (including me) and its only matter of time when they kitten even more if they are gonna go this way.

Clones overall are not the issue.. The issue is the overall high burst potential alongside at least 3-6 get out of jail free cards:

For a mesmer:
sword 2 = invuln
F4 = invuln
staff 2 = blink back (works even when stunned)
torch 4 = invis

Utilities (pick any 3)
blink = blink + stun break
decoy = invis + stun break
mirror images = summon 2 images + stun break
null field = remove all conditions on you and all boons on enemies
portal = long range movement (if set up)

Elites:
Mass invis = well mass invis
Moa = run away or die
Time warp = 1.5x attackspeed

So basically as a warrior, its pretty hard to lock any decent mesmer down with any sort of CC. The best hope usually is that they used their blink and can’t get out of a sword immob + 100b because one of the bigger weaknesses of mesmer is still their weak condi removal (Kinda like warrior, except they get all the other free invuln, stealth and blink) and even then staff 2 or sword 2 will mitigate most of the damage.

llkoolaid.8204:

Hey BP, I love your flame rams…

You do realize that there are sadly a couple people on our server actively sabotaging wvw…

Yeah, mesmers are generally tough. Overall I find shatter mesmers to be slightly less problematic then confusion mesmers. Shatter mesmers are usually more squishy then full rabid confusion mesmers. If you get a lucky with whirlwinds and stay on the right one, they can go down. Good shatter mesmers still will win most of the time. Confusion mesmers in wvw are a real pain. They have higher damage reduction and the confusion alongside bleeds and burn really add up and you can pretty much only run away.

Sativo.9754:

Ok fine, i’ll give you the best build. When you’re come to realize that toughness means nothing and know the pretty simple mechanics of most dungeons along with a good party and can effectively pull off 30-40k 100b every time.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|1.1g.h2|7.1g.h4.9.1g.h1h|1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7.1g.a7|2s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|k59.p5a.0.a6.f5|2e.8|5y.69.6j.61.6m|e

That works for COF, but not WvW. You need a little bit of toughness to survive the random AoE you get hit with.

Edit: actually if you change your first post to a tank build we covered the warrior – power spectrum.

lemme give you a better build:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/?8.0|1.1g.h1|c.1g.h17.e.1g.h1l|1n.7i.1g.7i.1n.7i.1g.7i.1n.7i.1g.7i|2s.0.2v.0.3v.0.2s.0.3s.0.2s.0|k59.0.k28.0.u56a|3a.8|0.6g.6i.6f.6m|e

Honestly, just farm it if you really want it. Heck by the time you reached rank 59 you prbl made enough g to just buy it.

Idk, I’m not a big fan, ikittenerg situation, the 5 target limit basically nullifies the effect. I also can’t give up signet of stamina, balanced stance or endure pain for it.

Good options:

Offensive:
Scholar
Ruby

Defensive:
Melandru
Earth

Situational:
Lyssa
2 monk, water, fire

Currently my favorite for WvW is lyssa

For your role, I’d say you might as well remove 10 from strength and get banners or shout heals. Especially if you’re wearing PVT your damage is going to be very low, so might as well focus on budding your allies a bit more with shouts or banners.

I would love warriors to get a source of protection, but I don’t think it will ever happen. Think about a almost permanent prot ele or guardian and slow they go down. A warrior with any reasonable uptime of protection would take forever to take down due to our base vitality and toughness.

Therefore some other aspects I would really love to see are boon stripping and increased mobility / movement impairment removals.

In terms of SP usage, aim to get all the signets first. Especially the elite signet once you reach higher levels. A couple other skills you should get are: for great justice, balanced stance, endure pain, shake it off, banner of discipline, then afterwards just get whatever. You’ll get enough skill points during the game that you can buy every single skill anyways.

Yes it works, sigil of force is slightly higher overall damage but I prefer accuracy because moar crits

oZii.2864:

Cool I usually go for you when I see you. Human warrior with Twilight.

I edit the OP. Turtle defense applies for the duration of the condition. It applies for the stun also

For stuns it seems to apply until you get hit again by something that is not one of the criteria. Goes away after a few secs seems to be around 6-7 secs or you drop out of combat. Seems that if you get stun spammed by say headshot from a thief then it stays even longer.

Knockdowns don’t count.

Tested this with chill, immobilize, cripple, stun. conditions spammed etc.

after further testing I think the trait is worth it for glassy builds this puts me at almost 2.7k armor. Its basically 2 knights coats when it applies.

I made a video will edit it and post for anyone that wants to see

My quick and dirty test where off cause of thick skin trait.

thick skin doesn’t apply in your hero panel what it seems to do is give you the bonus above 90% health as soon as damage is received so as soon as you take damage you get the thick skin bonus toughness as long as your above 90% (shows in hero panel)

Most people do :’(

oZii.2864:

peter.9024:

wtf.. I thought it was 200 toughness for any duration… (also, does it mean there is a CD??)

Are you that Warrior with Sunrise? The Charr?

From my testing no after I made the post my server was getting spawn camped so I ran out to get hit with something. Had my hero panel up I got chilled and it applied then for a few secs and went away. Maybe its possible since I got other conditions to go along with it that it makes it go away but I had about a 6 sec chill on me and only the +200 defense for about 2 secs.

I’ll go into the mists to do some more 1 on 1 indepth look at it right now.

Hehe yeah.. :p

wtf.. I thought it was 200 toughness for any duration… (also, does it mean there is a CD??)

I’m looking for your suggestions for the current most effective confusion builds for solo roam and team play in wvw after patch. (Can be different builds)

You can run Axe/shield + sword/warhorn