Guild Wars 2

the idea behind said thieve trait is that after a back stab your safe from cc but think about this what does that extra time do ironically many control moves take 3/4 to more. even with the change will it change much. auto 1 auto 2 control.

hell brawler recovery was utterly useless til this balance great I weapon swap no blind or I used a auto attack great no blind and not stuck in a weapon set!!!!

ele’s rol got nerfed I agree I think it shouldn’t been as good as it was but 40 seconds… that just too much reduce the range to 1200 keep the time 25 remove the aoe aspect and maybe slash some dps great no more issue.

now how is this a detriment to the game. look simple instead of fixing what is wrong with professions.

i.e. stable / stun breaks for a necro.

we are getting nerf’s this has been since the beginning how things are handled and if you look at the necro and theif fourms you’ll understand what I mean nerfing a class that can do everything effectively instead forcing professions to play a specific style or have specific weakness is just simply going to anger players.

Nerf’s minus overtly huge ones will make no change between a good player and a bad player if your losing because of a l2p issue much of the argument vs a warrior is. your going to be upset til the class is broken.

let me point out something on behalf of the necros out there. why did so much get changed for dhumm fire then why when dhumm fire got changed did many of those nerf’s still stay.

this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if balancing was done more often but once every 4 months it can take a year or longer to fix a problem or problem caused by balancing.

thieves have been hit incredibly rough to the point that their is simply no excuse for it in spvp. longer reveal check stealth reduces the control of the point check. so thieves are forced out of their big advantage and …. punished horribly for it in spvp.

necros are simply helpless in the face of control for the most part ingeneral getting tossed around all game because your facing a engi and getting hit with a treb in kylo castle is not fun. foot in the grave is not a decent answer either. don’t want tossed around k take this 3 second stable skill and keep in and out of death shroud. they need a reliable source of stable they get jack.

hell if we want to talk about broken what about engi’s non cd tool kits. ele needs to wait 15 seconds ore less (depending on your aracane invest) to do the exact same thing yet this allows engis to control and combo you down in a flash.

theif stable is almost as bad you (in a different way) get it after revealed is applied giving you a slight breather after say a back stab but 1 second or 1.5 second. why give it at all if it’s going to be that minute.

this game is loaded with traits that need fixing and need more variety what we are getting is LESS.

I main a warrior I won’t deny it and I won’t deny it’s the upcoming warrior changes that broke the camels back. however i’m speaking not of a war prob but a prob in general.

I have to be utterly honest the impale nerf makes very little sense. I ask you think of this.

warrior have to be up close to use sword’s bleeds. all of them and yet we profession who can do this from a far can do this quicker and at ranged. we get a 2 second advantage but at a MUCH SLOWER RATE.

yet we see the exact opposite with impale a skill that is being nerfed by a large margin 33% when it was already made that it could be easier to counter by adding the torment quicker. I can not understand the logic of making a skill easier to counter impale then weakening it by so much only 3 spot’s infliclt damaging condtions 1 of which (riposte) will only work if you time your block on a melee (still avoidable) and utterly useless on a ranged target (for bleeds anyway). now i’m not saying it won’t be viable but to loose so much that really feels like it shouldn’t had been messed with in the first place that is upsetting.

this is ironically the opposite of how it should be. melee puts your in more danger which should be where the damage is highest at.

the state of the warrior will be this post patch.

our adrenaline will still act as a vice with no advantages to really having it other then burst skills many of which have been nerfed and I fear nerfed again. as well as preventing high lvl play between player’s making warrior’s a hindrance.

a commonly said complaint is warriors have too much health too much armor and to much mobility trying to bring real world logic to a game which is in it’self unlogicial.

if any profession other then war had his health pool and armor he would be the undisputed champion of the world!!!!! and yet with this health pool and with this armor we were the under dogs at one point.

thieves (or i’m guessing thieves) claim that warriors need to lose armor or health because they have to much thieves can hit very high numbers but have to give up something. so let me as this if warirors could stealth repeatedly at will maintain the high lvl of damage and high defense stats how would you win.

simple you wouldn’t while it’s true that thieves can not take a hit as good as a warrior it’s also true that warriors can not use the ultimate defense stealth. hell warrior’s can’t even gain protection. we do gain a block or two on a 20 / 25 sec cd that last all of 3 seconds and endure pain that take 60 seconds to come off cd.

these do not compare to the thieves stealth do not delude your self into believing they do.

however we also here talk of how warrior has the highest dps highest health pool and highest mobility as if NOTHING compares. allow me to burn that opinion here.

don’t believe me allow me to prove it with MATH

protection = .33 to armor
light armor = 967 ascended
heavy = 1267

with 20 into aracane the ele can pick up elemental attunement which is a 50% uptime of protection and regen. with the math finshed we get 1286 armor for a LIGHT armor profession with protection. now add in the bonus of rock barrier which adds another 250 (50 per rock for 5 rocks) which will also inflict nice damage if it’s skill seq throw is used.

warrior do have some traits and skills that will boost it’s toughness but they are all vital or short lived. i.e. 100 toughness while above 90% health or doly sig which is a stun break and a stable both of which are likely to be needed during a fight. dps ele are the undisputed kings assuming your willing to be squishy for it. but ironically we also here complaints of I GOT one shot with kill shot. you built squishy…. how is it the fault of a squishy high dps build that he killed another squishy high dps build simple IT"S NOT.

back on track of the warrior mechanic
when you look at the mechanics of every single profession we get something that looks like this.

warrior 10 sec cd + ad
necro life force + cool down minus life blast which does great dps for powermancher’s.
theif stealth has a large cd 40 seconds but makes up for it with cool downless stealthed skills (or 5 seconds because of reveal your call)
Mesmer is probably the only ONLY profession that may have a legit complaint in this department as it skils consume it’s clones / phantasms and have cool downs as well however even then clones are also much more useful then adrenaline when played right.
engi only has cool downs on it’s tool belt skills which vary depending on the skill.
ele ele…. 15 seconds to swap to a diff attunement not that much higher then our own burst recharge but with 4x the skills.

Before we begin I want to clarify that I have played maxed and very familer with most profession in gw2

warrior necro engi ele.

in this up coming update we will for the first time since post beta see the warrior mechanic adrenaline changed in a very unfair and truthfully negative way. that is adrenaline is lost on miss

the sad hard truth is that warrior do need adrenaline changed but in a way that encourages management which this update will be so far from. currently their is no such thing as ad management for warrior since ad just fuels our burst skills which can be good at times but still it’s a poor excuse.

as a necro you have to manage your life force it’s part of being a necro or more specifically a good one. as many think it’s a extra life bar they fail to realize just how good death shroud is. you can tell a good necro from a bad one in general as to when and how he uses his death shroud which possess a variety of skills all of which are good. this encourages necros to manage their life force carefully for when they can make the most of it. also life force is only depleted when you are in ds and even then it’s slowly (faster if you use life blast)

compared to warrior adrenaline warriors just do not compare. we get 1 burst no variety and in some cases extremely diffuclt to use. we should be thankful for the gs burst buff and the changes to riflies auto.

but it’s not just the necro lets also bring up thieves. I enjoy playing my theif from time to time and I need to be excused by have to ask. thieves are easy to kill? ik i’m about to get flamed and insulted by thieves the undisputed masters of stealth is only a EASY kill if he refuses to pick his battle intelligently (not a insult everyone messes up once in a while) or lets himself be killed.

dagger off hand and pistol off hand both allow for the theif to stealth himself making him the aggressor and dictating the terms of the battle not his opponent. this is not counting his skills or traits both which can apply stealth. they also have pretty good cleanse (not nearly as much as war admittedly.)

Argon.1563:

Im really unhappy about this nerf. Condition warrior now has no long-ranged weapon. and I don’t care what anyone says, the Longbow is not a condition weapon, just because it gets like, a 1 second burn that can hardly be boosted using sigils+runes.

I supposed all I can do is just get a rifle, give it Sigil of Earth and Precise Strikes trait, then use Volley, and hope for random bleed procs during long-ranged combat.

pindowns good too and combustion shot + arching arrow gives free might to you and allies always handy.

the bigger issue is…. imaple is getting beaten and batter with the nerf bat.

not happy right now this patch is going to make things worse ALOT worse. having ad process even on a miss now means EVERY BURST NO MATTER IS NOW COMBUSTIVE SHOT.

what is saw fixed nothing but will create a big problem unless something has changed since I last played.

I also think the impale nerf is too much I don’t like the wait and see approach because next feature patch is a long long away.

I also think warriors are going to be in bad shape later. maybe i’m over reacting but it’s not like we’ve not see anet go overboard with the nerf hammer.

burr great thread and great points.

the thing is most player are focused on maxing dps. dps hits levels in this game that you can melt a mob before anyone really should die. this lead to zerk gear being the most desired gear for pve and lead to the dps mentality that exist in gw2 atm.

hammer how ever has a major flaw with it and it’s the defiant buff basically you have to hit a boss 5 times (after first) and in dps’s defense why when you can simply kill something in just 10 / 15 seconds. gw2 dungeons has a lot of stacking which makes the soft cc utterly pointless.

it’s sad but the above reasons are big reasons why people would like more dps vs more cc (hammer vs gs)

now honestly and frankly you should play the way you want if your having issues with getting teams make friends and team up with them. dps is the best way to play pve in gw2 but you should try to have fun and forget about what the best way is as long as you can manage.

which I imagine a hammer would manage although I’ve not ran one in pve so I can’t say for sure.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

First off, a disclaimer. I don’t main Warrior, I main necro. Yes, this does mean I have a biased opinion on this topic.

However, this is coming more from the Ready Up #16. Notably, the section where the developers mention intended Warrior weaknesses.

Now, most folks can agree that “weak at dealing with enemy boons” and “reliant on adrenaline” are, with current design, jokes of weaknesses. But the third one they mentioned “can be easily overloaded with conditions once their defenses run out” is real.

At least, it’s real in every build that doesn’t run Cleansing Ire. This one trait eliminates the biggest weakness Warriors are designed to have (and also drastically mitigates the joke weakness of adrenaline dependance). As such, does anyone feel it would be out of line to give the cleansing part a cooldown? Say, 20 seconds? It would still be a good trait, but it would not singlehandedly remove a designed weakness and remove the need to bring any condition removal skills (Warriors have them, including a full cleanse utility).

TLDR: Would adding a 20 second cooldown to Cleansing Ire’s cleanse be an unecessarily harsh nerf, or would it be justified and in line with ANet’s vision for the class?

I’ve never been one to care to much about ire’s cleanse although I won’t deny I do appreciate it from time to time.

however do I think ire’s op with a certain build (very specific here) ire can essientally grant pusedo condtion immunity the problem is not ire it’s ire in conjuection with a lot of other traits skills and hell a trait line. it’s a tricky situation to fix with out really harming warriors any fix would need to be purely to the cleanse as well not to the ad gain.

so is it op well maybe it’s hard to say it’s op when you compare it to the absurd rates some professions can place them on you.

i.e. in a duel in 1v1 a Mesmer over whelmed me using ever cleanse the warrior has with his on death traits.

LordByron.8369:

Despite its doable anyway, i’d just like them to ask random people in front of AC if the changes they made, are perceived as “fun” from the community.

Just send any dev in front of ac entrance and question random people
Would be a new form of feedback.

they do or ik one mob who does. who would literally join our guild chat and ask about changes we would like to see and are we happy with how the game is. nowi ’m not going to say this happens often their is only so many anet mobs. however I have seen it done.

BurrTheKing.8571:

Sigil of Paralyzation has been buffed up to 30%, meaning that Skull Crack now lasts for the full duration of 100b. While Hambow is still a strong build, Skullcracker focuses on locking down a single target in addition to being much more mobile. In a well organized team being stunned for over 3 seconds is a death sentence. Another nice side benefit is that with a shield and Counterblow you’ll feel the Healing Signet nerf less because you have several ways to avoid taking damage. I have Furious Reaction on 2 versions but you can use Rending Strikes as well.

Here’s a few version of the build that I’m messing around with, there’s so much more room for build diversity when it comes to runes and sigils so you can really put your own spin on things. I’m leaning towards Hoelbrak runes, but Ogre seems like a good choice because while stunned it’s adding you your DPS and they can’t actively kill the Dog. In WvW I’m going to have a Sigil of Impact on the GS which will make it hit around what it did pre-Ferocity. The new Cavaliers ammy in PvP might be good because you’ll still have around 100% crit chance when you have Fury.

Version 1

Same trait loadout as before. More frequent uses of Skull Crack and more Ferocity. I’ve moved from Lysaa since Hoelbrak got buffed a bit but an unfortunate side effect is you only have 49% crit chance. It doesn’t hurt it too badly but it can screw you over sometimes.

Version 2

The weakness of this build has always been a lack of range, leading you you possibly having periods where you are dealing no damage to them while they kite. Spiked Armor helps with this a bit because you’ll have Retaliation around 50% of the time. It’s not useful vs slower hitting builds but kitting classes like Engi that hit you with tons of nades will end up killing themselves.

Version 3

Only a minor variation. You lose Warrior’s Sprint although you could switch out Dolyak Signet for Balanced Stance and take that instead. The Sigil of Geomancy will help insure you’re getting that extra 10% damage during the 100b and will last for a good amount of time after.

I feel that this build has a future now that other builds have been nerfed. I should also mention that this build can mop the floor with Hambow 1v1 if you use your blocks correctly. That’s pretty handy in organized play because chances are you’ll be able to deny their control for much longer than you’ll be able to deny yours.

EDIT: So, the new Phalanx Strength trait seems like it “might” be really fun. I haven’t messed with it much yet but with Forceful Greatsword you can give a ton of Might to your allies.

BETA Version 4

It lacks Cleansing Ire but I put on Shrug it Off in an attempt to compensate a bit. I’m not sure it’s viable but it’s certainly entertaining. With the new Runes of Strength the might you share will last for I THINK more than 9 seconds. It’s also a reason to use Mighty Defense.

burr I noticed that myself earlier today had a similar thoughts about hard cc in general X D.

MrFluffy.9307:

arcing arrow is OP, if you use it directly below you the animation is short and the shot becomes hard to predict, also the scenario I just listed is how warriors always use it btw -_-

Unless they’re attacking a zerg you’ll never see a warrior use arcing arrow from range in a 1v1 lol

at which point arching arrow acts more like a melee attack which seems most people agree that warriors should have a lot of.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Hi I’m also a new necro and I’m thinking of using the deathshroud 2 teleport to port from mob to mob and beat ’m with dagger as a power necro. Anybody tried this before? Does it work? Why is the skill so slow anyways?

should work just fine

tip though if your having issues landing it make use of a control skill such as fear or immobile to make it land.

best used on fleeing players.

DemonxBrain.4615:

Hey I’m a new player in GW2 and the necromancer class made me realy curious. I would like to play necromancer and it’s my first time playing so i would like to know if u guys have any tips or ways this class should be played and built.

death shroud learn it use it love it.

it’s not a simple extra life bar that’s bad play all the skills are very useful and can be very handy when used right. that is the number 1 mistake I hear players on necros making.

yes yes power mancer is absolutely viable

30 10 0 0 30

I run love it esp when warriors find out my blows don’t stop due to their little zerk stance.

Percidios.8213:

My build in pvp right now is power necro, but i’d like to get more regen…I checked some traits of blood magic and it looks good. Is it viable in spvp ?

honestly if your a power necro go 30 0 0 10 30

reapers might / training of the master / close to death
0
0
dagger mastery
vital persistence / near to death / deathly perception

I think it’s the meta spvp power mancer build although I could be wrong.

I’ve used it in my spvp games and it does excellent just make sure to build up and make proper use of your death shroud.

i’ll just say it bluntly the siphons in blood magic suck. your not going to notice a 27 health gain on hit to make them have any sort of a point you’ll have to wreck your power mancers dps even then it’s still going to be pathetic to very VERY lack luster.

oh boy you can’t be more wrong with your first reason. you got death shroud that’s a +70% health pool + some pretty dam good skills.

condtions are broken across the board in regaurd to pve. their pretty strong though in wvw and spvp. it’s not a necro only problem. to answer your question it’s a hardware issue and only anet will be able to go into more detail.

condtion damage condition duration precision would probably be over looked by any respectable condtion user. it’s just not tough enough your trying to be glassy while using a style that prolongs the fight.

I wouldn’t mind a condtion damage condtion duration toughness / vitality alt though. although we do have dire which is good too. some would say too good and I have to be honest and say probably.

necros don’t need stealth hell I don’t know if they need leaps. life blast hits like a truck skill 2 in death shroud acts as a gap closer that unlike leaps isn’t hampered by soft cc.

necros are very good in spvp I run a power mancer personally and honestly it’s loads of fun. I love watch warriors think their silly little zerk stance will save them. condtion mancer is also very good with the ability to out put lots of condtions in a short time staff enable you to not only put out constant bleeds but put out constant aoe regen on allies. i’m sorry but necros are not by any standard bad at spvp.

I also ran my necro in wvw putting a well placed well or using plagues darkness plague is very effective in zergs. one for aoe blinds protection you and your allies the other just able to ruin anyone with buffs.

i’m not being sarcastic nor rude but i’m going to be honest your argument has absolutely no merit to a lot of your points on the necro.

pfft forgot to mention strong points of shield >.< you’ll gain a short hard cc which will be utterly pointless for most bosses as most have defiant but it’s also a leap finsher and well that’s something for pve i guess X D.

the big point is your shield stance which is a 3 second block with shield mastery traited it’s a 20 second cool down which greatly enhances your tankiness.

also it gives you 90 toughness which means your essientally at or only very slightly below what your toughness (armor) would be for your current build

i personally prefer the first build more and truthfully i think it’s better but this one may be more your flavor if you want something more tanky.

oh your worried about the hp well great fortitude will actually fix that the armor hmm.

k that’s a bit tougher to think over while keeping your current dual axe build.

k heres a idea if you don’t like my previous because of the armor and health.

go 20 10 20 0 20

str
great fortitude (for the hp) axe mastery
arms
rending strikes
defense
shield mastery/cleansing ire
0
disc
signet mastery sharpend axes

equip a shield over your second axe.

k now i’ll explain the changes.

you’ll have a very large dps drop as we left out dual wieldings 5% and left out zerker power and burst mastery to give us a few traits to play around with. i swapped your off hand axe for a shield. we also swapped dual wielding for great fortitude. we did however gain 290 toughness (which should be about as high if not higher then any build you used with dual axes) armor wise. great fortitude makes up for the vitality you didn’t want to lose.

we did however gain ire this will give you more adrenaline and as it should be common knowledge by now you’ll have a high rate of condtion removal and enhanced adrenaline gain.

the shield will give you short cc and it’s 3 second block (on a 20 second cd mind you) a boost of 290 defense which isn’t shabby.

we lost your perm fury up time by removing the second axe as well as the ability to generate adrenaline via whirling axes. ire helps with that second one. however you’ll still have a high furry up time via signet of rage.

this build is much more bulky but it’s also less offensive. your movement speed will be about same though. the only really but very noticeable changes will be the lost of burst mastery zerkers power and dual wielding greatly reducing your dps. your crit chance will be the same under the effects of fury (2/3 the time) 33 sec furry with a 48 sec cd.

it’ll give you a very noticeable dps drop while giving you more survivability.

i genuinely would prefer the first build as said build would honestly make better use of your weapon set.

however this is a alt build you could try if your turned off by the loss of toughness and vitality.

i doubt you will be though.

oh if the hp’s a problem swap dual wielding for great fortitude it’ll give you a large health boost. however costing you some dps in the process X D.

the sigil won’t work properly (as i described) until apr 15 when their changing it from 1 crit to 3. so it won’t be at it’s most effective til then.

thanks davis kinda enjoyed coming up with that build i suggested regaurdless X D. i may go tinker with my war in spvp later lol

have to agree with this its almost common sense in all honesty. it also forces professions to excel at certain forms of combat while not at others.

i.e. i’d like to see some buffs to condtion warriors in the form of traits that favor them not just a few. (only major that comes to mind atm is deep cuts)

gaurds are getting kinda a very important and long over due condtion build buff.
although even after the coming buff will still be in need of some single target skills not pure support.

just my quick thought

no i wasn’t X D i hate arah’s design so i try to avoid it and just do other dungeons ac cm se hotw cof X D

anyway that build should maximize on valks crit damage potential give it a decent crit rate and enable for high dps out put.

sorry i didn’t put any suggestion despite my numerous posts X D.

how about 30 10 0 0 30

dual wielding/axe mastery/zerks power
rending strikes
0
0
signet mastery/sharpened axes/burst mastery.

sigil of intelligence.

the sigil will allow you to crit 3x after swaping with the coming buff. you’ll get at least respectable precision from your runes i’m assuming over 30% crit chance with 3 gaurrenteed.

burst master combined with zerks power means you can use eviscerate and still retain some dps buff. your crits can inflict vunerbility boosting your dps even more and granting you 2 strikes of adrenaline. which should be easy as you gain it via swap and 2 strikes per crit with axe meaning you should be nearly 2 bars most of the fight even with using your burst.

whirling axes will now give aoe vuneerbility and fill your ad bar’s with a 16 sec recharge. (cancel it part way through to maximize dps potential)

I don’t specify utls i am a firm beliver in a good build should be not only effective but flexible.

i don’t main axes but this build should give a boost to yur team as your inflict vunerbility to foes increasing their dps as well as your own allowing you to use your burst more effectively with a less harsh dps drop.

feel free try it out and tell me what you think.

some probably but a few can be done via minor tweaks.

i’ll use the exact same bosses in my and explain how a few minor tweaks would actually probably help.

spider queen prevent the little path way that everone stacks in from going through the gate to the spiders. spider queen can’t be lured there and as such stacks wouldn’t work.

option 2

make her rubber band at the gates they do this with another much harder boss in cm seamus. it would prevent her from being stacked on all together. would only require changes to the bosses behavior and shouldn’t require a major rewrite.

option 3 make her invulnerable at that location.

colossus
remove the pillar all together. now your succeptable to his knock back and his aoe fields of death. should be fairly simple i’d imagine but can’t gurrentee.

option 2
make people who stack at that location unable to damage him by giving him invuln frames. effect = to option a.

ghost eater *cringes*

enhance the time his shield is down per trap more time to dps him helps avoid the extra diffuclty of trying to refill traps if your dps is too low and your run out.

option 2
remain mostly the same maybe a slight increase in his armor down time but remove / GREATLY nerf his ability to heal so people are not punished by the prolonged battle even more

pdavis absolutely your idea to find people who would do it would work. however you’d have to actually find the people. I tend to run with guildies personally so my odd builds don’t run into much of a hassle but the strong zerk mentality makes that easier said then done.

you can do what I do and stick with guildies or do it by making your own group (I don’t specify zerk nor do I advertise what i’m using I just use it in other words no pinging)

however doing this means more inexperienced players and some tougher dungeon runs. however the worst dungeons runs I have had experienced was not from the group of people not knowing what to do causing us to wipe for 2 hours at a point that is easy to do. it was with runs that went fairly normal 20 mins maybe. however someone makes a mistake and starts a fight in pc or starts a fight with me cause I accidentally mis clicked a skill or some easy to do small mistake like that or simply people taking the game way to seriously.

won’t let me alter my post for i’m going to make a second one pdavis. all these imbalances strongly favor zerk since at the end of the day a team of zerkers will likely kill prior to being killed. with the highest possible dps killing legendary tier mobs in less then 20 seconds. lupis fastest kill is 17 secs now I hear.

til anet fixes the imbalances I mentioned the zerk mentality will likely stay. which comes good news and bad news. it seems anet wants to change this mentality. bad news their change sounds like it’s going to have the reverse effect. as lack in dps will be increasingly be notice as such odd builds will have a even harder time finding a team. (however if the loss is purely because of the ferocity change it may be manageable or have the effect kinda opposite of this as dps will equal out across a few armor types but uneven in others the main point high tier dps will be more comparable with med tier armor with power pre + random stat will be tolerated better. although i’m doubtful this will be how the crit change will occur i’m hopeful if only because what the alt means for experimentation.

anet needs to fix the dungeons to stop safe spots (stacking is usually caused because of safe spots for a boss or certain attack.) it would probably been a good idea to do that first then to fix the dps imbalance. it would make more people work for their reward resulting in either a playing better with zerk or going with a more bulky build.

pdavis.8031:

wildfang.9670:

in all honesty pdavis you should make your own build and refinement that’s what I do. it’s fun and enjoyable and makes your character more unique. hell a run a rifle gs warrior which out right appalls some people. doesn’t change fact I do pretty dang good.

Oh I totally agree. Thats part of the reason I made this thread. There are other effective options other then zerk, and I run one of those options. What bothers me the most, is that there are too many people caught up in the DPS race and look down on those that that run something other than zerker. Doing gear checks on open PUG groups, kicking or leaving a party because its not zerk, etc. I understand Zerk is the highest DPS in the game, but that doesn’t mean anyone not running zerk is a sub par player, or have a ineffective build to add anything to a party.

I’ll try to sum up most / all reasons why zerk is so popular instead of pve encouraging experimentation this may be lengthy for that i’m sorry.

it goes beyond simple speed run mentality to almost verging on common sense for it to be used. many bosses can 1 shot your if you in high toughness armor so the stat becomes irrelevant.

many bosses are actually stacked instead of properly fought take the spider queen from ac or colossus rumbluss either of which are insanely easy to kill with a decent group. that’s just two of many sadly. ghost eater probably encourages it more then either by his mechanic (same for the boss from cof path and ofc others) you get 3 easy chances to take down his armor and dps him ofc you want it to count longer fight drags on much harder it becomes not a difficulty spike more of a mountain.

broken bosses
their are actually bosses that are utterly harmless if you know the safe spots. why would anyone want toughness or hell armor for these bosses. hell many of the bosses I mentioned are from ac the 2nd best paying pve dungeon.

CountzuCrytus.7256:

I play a S/S war in spvp (S/S Longbow). It’s a really fun build at the present time, sadly though the build itself will receive a nerf post 15th as the torment duration is going to be reduced significantly.

The build still has great potention as its easy to get 20+ stacks of bleed on a single guy and watch him get hit 2K+ dmg a second just from bleed

actually it’s hard to say those notes were confirmed fake but anets also confirmed that imaple will apply torment quicker MUCH quicker. this would make it much more bursty but easier to cleanse. it’s quite possible that they will reduce the time the torment lasts while buffing the rate they are applied. which could very well mean the damage is applied much quicker but in very similar amounts. (it will be easier to cleanse though)

so we won’t know how it works out til apr 15 at this poing kinda hoping it’s not nearly as bad as what has been said.

Gintokikun.9342:

Hi y’all.

So I’ve been playing GW2 for a time.

I have an ele and a mesmer. I love both.

In games, warriors were never my favourite class, but I decided to do one. He is lvl 2, lo. But before I start doing anything with him, I want to know some things.

Ive read that after the patch, if someone uses mace/axe, switching weapons won’t be necessary, and thats kind of boring, using always the same weapon set.

Another thing, is SS a good thing? Because I really love using two swords, it just looks cool.

Just give me your opinion if I might like it or not. Considering the patch that is coming.

Thank you very much!

your first one about not swapping out of axe mace i kinda doubt it although it would likely be possible. the current meta build is axe mace / gs. you use 100 blades swap to axe for the auto attack’s sustained dps.

the only trait that may really effect this rotation in the upcoming build is dual mastery which will give 10% more attack speed or in case of auto attacks 10% dps buff. so i can see it as possible but if your not swaping properly then you lose the effect of on swap sigils which can be useful.

now as for sword sword builds can be amazing for condition builds. however they are some noteable flaws. you lack cover conditions so your bleeds are easier to cleanse however your torment will not be (although it will be easier cleansed after this patch but not as easy as most condtions)

flurry your burst skill serves 2 very important purposes a condition burst and crowd control. that is that the 12 stacks of bleeds will hurt a lot but only for a short period. 2 you can if you so choose sheath your weapon to cancel flurry and keep the imboile allowing for say 100 blades.

condtion warrior is very viable in the inverse of our past build. it’s good for wvw roaming and good for spvp bad for pve. (although sword power builds are a thing and dual agility will benfit them maybe they will be better in pve we’ll see) however you will depending on your build be weak to focus fire and you will go down if that happens.

keep in mind warriors have no true condtion weapon sword longbow our condition weapons are actually hybrid weapons.

in short sword sword is very viable and pretty good however it has very real flaws you should keep in mind.

zerker is the best for pve in a organized group that knows what their doing.

however you can still do it through other builds at end of the day pve in gw2 is easy in some ways too easy.

in all honesty pdavis you should make your own build and refinement that’s what I do. it’s fun and enjoyable and makes your character more unique. hell a run a rifle gs warrior which out right appalls some people. doesn’t change fact I do pretty dang good.

their is no all around build though to my knowledge and warriors in wvw like to run sword warhorn.

you could mix them but I can’t gurrantee the performance.

as far as roaming goes i’m not familiar with any popular war wvw roaming builds atm and even if I was with the major changes happening shortly all builds will likely see drastic changes (good and bad)

hope this helps.

30 25 0 0 15

axe + mace /gs for pve (full zerk for pve)

although i’m not 100% sure on the traits.

I think

strength line
dual wielding / slashing power / zerkers power
arms line
rending strikes/ forceful greatsword
0
0
disc
signet mastery

is how our pve build meta is although I refrain from meta build prefer to make my own usually X D.

for spvp it’s hambow and I think although not sure it’s
0 0 30 20 20

traits once again not familiar as I haven’t even touched ole hambow (burst mastery and cleansing ire are in it)

if I was to take a wager i’d say
hambow is
defense
dogged march/ cleanse ire/merciless hammer
tactics
stronger bow strings/burning arrows
disc signet mastery/inspiring shouts

gs axe mace is the meta build which is what is usually considered to be the best.

it does have the highest dps. if you like hammer though I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to tweak it around to make hammer work but one thing in pve defiant makes hammer a lot less threatening.

be nice to see a true condtion trait to be introduced for the warrior.

i.e.

raise condtion damage when wielding duo swords would be nice say a 170 boost. just a thought.

as things stand condtion warriors have very few condtion augmenting skills in arms. deep cuts being the only one.

issue with that is ofc is sword which works best as a condtion weapon has poor augment skills.

since the crit bleeds are too weak to really matter blade master is out. the new grandmaster will help condtion builds but still rather limited. deep cuts is the only condtion alteration trait warriors have kinda disappointing honestly.

something similar to the gaurds burning dps increase would be nice for warriors bleeds. 20/30% buff if wielding dual swords.

use glue bomb to imbolie / cripple them then use your bomb of choice. i.e. big ol bomb.

you need to use some form of cc i.e. immobile knockdown to prevent them from moving.

InfernoHero.5687:

I’m going to be honest, I only have Knight’s gear and use it for everything.

Here’s my build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIMQJARTj8cUGaXIefQHaABp4LyCjifAISPCjBcNA-zwxAYshoRFGiWCsIasltioxqYwUnER1+jioVDA-e

Now, I will say that I NEVER go into a zerk only LFG for dungeons. Seriously, stay away from them. I’ve never been in one, but I have a strong feeling they ruin the fun of a good dungeon run.

oh trust me they can

i wouldn’t use gs in spvp it’s just useless with out a lot of set up that easy to counter and you’ll likely die trying to set it up.

i rune a sword warhorn / longbow

10 0 30 30 0
great fortitude
0
dogged march cleansing ire spiked armor
inspiring banners quick breathing inspiring battle standard

the utls are flexible but take at least 1 banner or battlestandard.

you’ll have to learn how to use it but it does it’s job well gives lots of regen while working to survive. i came up with it when i got fed up with a no good bunkers on our side and b when it seemed like everyone wanted to focus on me.

you can make your own changes.

(runes of melandru x 6)
(sigil of energy sigil of force) sigil of energy

actually log in to all yur chars the gold will be added together it’s been a while but gold is account bound now not char bound (still have to log into the char the initial time to get it counted)

for pve switch to either
knights valkyire soliders (power vitality toughness) invaders

beserk is best if you knw what your doing but you will die as easy then as you do now.

the meta pve build for warriors is 30 25 0 0 15

I prefer greatsword + rifle for the ranged option however the current meta is gs /axe mace.

for your gold amount get ruby orbs or if you want more survivability either runes of the solider or runes of the dolyak (there is little difference soliders are good if you shout a lot but doly gives a small 30 hps heal which isn’t much)

you should try to have 2 sets of armor for pve and wvw. however if you can not / do not want too pvt which is the best armor for warrior in wvw will do fine in dungeons although not as effiencnt as zerk.

do not run zerker in z v z you will do nothing but die. zerker may take time to get used to because it is very unforgiving to mistakes (can be) but it is the best armor if you know what your doing in pve.

to proplerly play warrior you need to use some form of cc (immobile or knockdown) to create a opening to land your hard hitting telegraphed attacks.) pve is VERY forgiving on this pvp not so much.

i’d work on getting gold atm via cof and ac but due to the living story it may be rough finding a team for a day or two.

champion also now drop special bags that give coin + a chance at a t-6 mats making champion farms (frost gorge being the number one champ farm ik of but down due to the turn out in living story atm) extremely easy coin but also tedious you’ll need to learn where to go and what wps to go too.

the living story is a decent way to make money if you know what your doing you want to find and kill any champion / legendary (not get killed ofc) to gain their bags.

way dungeon rewards are handled have changed you get 1 high reward per path per day so no more farming cof for insane gold it’s 1 gold for path 1 for instance all other runs down to 27. path 2 will also reward you 1 gold even if you completed path 1.

in general all dungeons reward 1 gold the expections being ac at 1.5 gold per path arah at 3 gold per path and twilight arbor path 4 (new path) 2 gold.

Jake.1430:

Thank you for your contridution

I play both warrior and necro how do they stack up.

despite popular opinion necros have more health then a warrior. while it’s true the base health of both professions are the same death shroud is a bonus that can’t be ignored. (although it is annoying how many think ds is only a extra life bar)

necros have very limited access to damage mitigation and if they want to go bunker are forced into the ever so popular mm build. although death shroud helps greatly with this problem. (death shroud gives necros 70% more health then a warrior if ds is full)

necros have INSANE condtion potential as they can place not only large stacks of condtions but the oh so important cover conditions. necros wells are very useful for support and to a point short term damage mitigation or dps (depends on which well we are talking about) much of this being in aoe form.

necros have out right intense dps as a powermancer build on the auto attack with dagger and if traited and played well a high portion of relative stable up time. (foot in the grave hence why powermancer is a 30 10 0 0 30) however this is single target dps. (kinda similar to a condition warrior actually)

necros are commonly viewed as a slow unmobile profession which is incorrect. back in my wvw days I had to SLOW DOWN to not out run the zerg if I equipped sig of locust and spectral walk.

necros elites are all golden not a bad one in the bunch unlike a certain profession ik and love (rampage)

death shroud skill 2 acts as a form of gap closer allowing you to shadow step if you will to your target if you hit although the projectile is slow easy enough to dodge. death shroud skill 1 does great dps for a lack of a better word spammable move although it is also easy enough to dodge at range with bonus damage if your close and can be traited to grant other VERY nice goodies i.e. 15 second might per cast. (necros actually have easy access to might ingeneral esp with blood is power) long story short death shroud does not have a single bad skill in it’s kitten nal. making it one of the best class mechanics in the game.

now that all that is out of the way time for the negatives.

necros have a major issue with any changes to condtions because that’s what their best at they are the attriction class after all. however this view also poor into the pve seting and some people are so sensitive they may kick your or leave even if you are a powermancer. many necro builds get tossed around …. a lot. a few days ago I played a tournie and at battle of kyhlo just watched as I died why. between knock back from enemy players and the constant treb knock down it was literally all I could do I was literally helpless.

necros form of bunker (minion master) is weak to aoe and also important to note does not require any investment in power if you have your minions doing your dps as you power and minions power are separate entities. (I go for it any way for more dps)

what I can say after playing necro is this.

necros are not in a bad spot as MANY I’ve seen in the necro fourms make it out as but they are also not golden with bugs that for a time will block out you heal when you may need it most necros need some bug fixing.

the issue with necros is the shaving that has been done due to the intensity of conditions in spvp and lack of viability of condtion builds in pve making necros few weaker then they really are. while I don’t think anet needs to start buffing necros (actually that would be a bad idea for the most part) they do need to fix some of the bugs with the classes bugs which can and will get you killed.

what necros need———————————besides bug fixes

increased options for power builds to improve variety in the class.

more options for power builds helps with some of the issues necros have as anet trys to reduce the conditions in spvp as well as more options for pve.

necros need more stability and i’m not talking in a trait line I mean real 4-6 second stability skills. this would help with the annoyance of cc which everyone just absolutely loves.

necros need defense traits reworked to not favor minions (protection of the horde is a minor trait it’s useless if your not a minion master your only giving up a trait which is in my pov annoying as hell and hurts build variety)

necros need bug fixes.

ruby orbs are popular.

runes of the scholar are even better assuming you can keep your health above 90% a bit.

Lindbur.2537:

Rifles are a bad choice in dungeons.

depends on your personal taste honestly.

i love using my rifle with my gs.

i get many of the goodies that axe gives (admittedly not quite as good) but gives me a way to continue to apply dps if i need to back out of the fire for my heal to cool down. in a experienced professional team i highly doubt you’ll need too.

i just don’t like the thought of dual melee sets for some reason seems not flexible enough.

at which point option a longbow. option b rifle.

longbow is not a bad weapon in fact it’s auto is better then rifles for power builds fan of fire also out dps’s rifle 2 aimed shot.

but that’s about where the love ends.

volley out dps’s arching shot (on a single target)
brutal shot adds vuln smoldering shot adds a single blind.
rifle but although useless in some boss fights is handy in other (slave driver) as you can use it then bola the mob to stay in spot.
aimed shot with leg specialist and opportunist is easy perm fury.

i can see reasons to take either rifle or bow into a pve setting as a complement to the gs.

i just feel like the rifle has better synergy.

with that said rifle doesn’t have as much dps as axe and ik that’s a deal breaker for some (not all but some) but rifle is not a bad weapon to use as a ranged alternate if your looking for one either.

adding what to what dranor said out side of a 1v1 in wvw necros utls are pretty solid in z v z for either build.

I personally used to run wells and plague for the blindnessto help my allies push through with minimal dps to them. (wells for changing condtions into buffs and vice versa on my enemies)

Rickster.8752:

The balance patch has one major change to balance – dhuumfire being nerfed into the ground.

Obviously the nerf is very large. And other classes are getting buffs at the same time (or tiny nerfs like warrior which wont matter).

So the only change after the patch which matters is that necros will be horrible/weak.

This is a silly thing to do to be honest. I agree with the dhuumfire change but similar nerfs should come for other classes.

In pvp this change just crushes necro as we are pigeon holed into condi buillds and our condis have been nerfed time and time again to make way for dhuumfire which is now being deleted.

Burning is needed so much, you will realise how weak necro is after the patch

necro is far from weak in the current game. while I admit that necros top build condition mancers have taken repeated hits lately with increase in the amount of condition immunities that’s not a necro sole issue.

as for pvp I play power mancer and rather like it. making someone freak out and waste their zerk stance as they watch their health just drop is just priceless.

bobomb.5209:

Warlord.9074:

bobomb.5209:

Ugh your post is giving me a headache. As much as I dislike all the hate towards warriors what you have just posted is a mess.

You do know that SPAM isn’t just a type of horrible canned food but an actual word right?

The only thing being spammed is your use of the word “spam”

All of these classes have different mechanics, the only class that can spam anything is a thief and if they do they thief=dead.

Elementalist spamming skills? Again Ele=dead

Please revise your post.

Compared to a warrior almost anything can be labeled as spamming :P If you can reapply somthing over and over again with relatively short cool downs thats spamming. If you want to challenge that compare cool downs of mesmer invulnerability to anything that warrior has which technically warriors have no invulnerability skills. The only ones they have that are incorrectly called invuln skills are on 1 minute long timers.

So….. I can spam damage with my auto attack? Nerf please
Edit: But I do see your point, but saying that is like saying a Mesmer can spam Mantras, or a Guardian can spam Meditations. Its a subset type of skills for a class. Only the thief is an exception and that is because of class design as well.

Edit2: Saying a Mesmer can spam mantras is hilarious.

what he’s saying is that profession are defensive in very different ways. a common complain being warrior has too much health too much armor. yet the more fragile professions are much better at damage mitigation then a warrior.

if you play a theif like you play a warrior theif is going to go down no questions asked. yet you can not play a warrior like you play a thief a Mesmer or a necro.

it’s not that only bad players play warriors it’s that warrior play differently because they lack certain things.

things like stealth clones simply can not be measured by simple numbers. things like death shroud when measured will shw that a necro can have much higher health then a warrior in performance.

it’s a lot of grass is greener on the other side then actually understanding warriors strengths and weaknesses.

Warlord.9074:

Lets examine other professions abilities and how these mechanics are not only extremely annoying but under the control of competent players are strait up over powered.

Mesmer, Invulnerability spam (evading is close enough) Stealth spam, Blink and teleport spam, Clone spam. Range, Confusion, interrupts, CC Kiting

Thief, Blind Spam, (Blind spam is the big one.) Its ridiculously overpowered in the right hands. stealth spam.

Elementalist, AOE spam, CC spam, Regen spam, boon spam, Range ( D/D and S/D is 300/600 range. Before you make the case that is melee compare it to warrior or melee cleave =130 range Kiting

Necro. Condi Spam, Fear Spam, Army of pets. Multiple HP bars. AOE spam.

Ranger not worth mentioning.

Guardians are in a good place.

Engis are in a good spot. The AOE CC spam is a bit much.

There you have it. What does warrior spam? Pretty much nothing and everything is telegraphed.

Lets compare other classes and warriors in a graph.

As you can see the graph the only players warriors have no problem beating are bad players. It is much harder for a warrior to beat a competent player of another profession than it is for a competent player of another profession to beat a warrior.

just got off work so i’m kinda tired but browsed the fourms and found this so I want to comment I apologize if I say or word anything wrong.

I have all 8 professions and I completely agree with you.

warrior has so many common myths about them it’s laughable actually had someone tell me warriors have the highest dps in the game. which if false.

at best warriors are about half way in that department. hell a power necro gets easier access to might and more dps then a warrior on a single target. the only comparable skill between power necro and warrior is axe mainhand. which is slow 3+ sec to complete a entire chain. vs 2.1 sec for dagger.

merciless hammer nerf… warrior have a grand total of 2 skills that can make any decent to good use of that trait they are the infamous skull crack and earthshaker. with that said warrior do get pummel bash and shield bash both which add a gran total of 1 sec stun each one attack is basically all your likely ot get out of the hammer. (knock down doesn’t count)

yeah 100 blades hits like a truck over a 3 sec time limit but lets face it one two steps back wards and your golden.

i’ll admit necro’s attacks don’t cleave but dear bloody hell lich form is better then any elite the warrior has dps wise. (i’ll concede that battle standard can be better). on top of that you get minions bone minions explode hits like a brick and also is a blast finisher allowing for aoe blind retal or weakness depending on the field your running.

mesmers are the king of small fights their clones can easily disorient any player long enough for a Mesmer to reek havoc unless you have powerful enough aoe which in case of the warrior depends on the build. that is ofc if a Mesmer knows what it’s doing.

hell their 2.5 sec invul skill is on a 12 sec cd.

we get a 3 sec invuln (traitable to 5) on a minute.

thieves take your pick enough evade skills to avoid a lot of dps unless the actually spam or capable of stealthing easily. as with the Mesmer can kill what you can’t actually hit.

that’s just some of the stuff that could be mentioned when they bring up (high armor and highest health pool although necro does actually have a higher one since death shroud fill up easily and can be used as a extra life bar (although that is bad play on a necros part as they shoud be making use of death shroud but you are going to take a hit or two in it)

people gripe about how much mobility the warrior which lets be honest while i’ll admit warrior can get somewhere fast there is more to mobility then swiftness and rush skills. warrior has no teleports meaning their movements are predictable and a cripple or chill will redce the range of their movement. it has 1 good source of vigor war horn and they have no evade skills minus whirling blade.

charter.4095:

I haven’t played much sPvP in a while or ever, but I just started PvPing again. I found I didn’t like my guard too much and I was pretty terrible with warrior and thief. I have not played a necro before, my necro is lvl 11, but I LOVE it so far. I feel like I do very good damage and survive well against most anything 1v1 (except meditation guards wreck me). Right now, this is the build I’m running, I’m looking to improve it, any tips?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBHhZakRrSPTTbjePhA949qFnJqwwQ9wcWnPE-TsAg0CnIQShkDJDSSksINsYZxsAA

I find I rarely or never switch to staff, and I don’t spend much time in DS. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but I don’t feel I need it often. Usually I try and flash into DS, use 3, then life blast until whoever I’m chasing is dead. Sometimes I use 4 when there are a bunch of minions/spirits/clones nearby. Are the other skills worth using too?

Is there something better than spectral armor, consume conditions, and flesh golem to be using? Consume conditions is nice, but the cast time is ages and I don’t always get it off.

Any other necro tips? I briefly tried dagger, but I didn’t do too well with it. I like the kite and kill the axe brings. I also tried a MM, but wasn’t sure what to do and didn’t kill much. Thanks for any help!

depends on you spec which you didn’t give but if your power based I like lich form personally over flesh golem. you should try to learn how to properly use your death shroud although it can be used as a extra life bar the skills are way more useful then simply that.

Jagblade.4627:

I haven’t played since January 2013, I come back into game to have a peek and see my old GS/Rifle build completely blank. Traits have changed, skills have changed, everything refunded.

Just looking around the forums I see the concept of having a rifle in your build for PvE/Dungeons is shunned entirely. What exactly have I missed?

I see the go to build is now GS / Axe – Mace. Call me stubborn but I’ve never really liked maces but I’ll cave if I have to. Is my old build really that obsolete now? I used to stack bleed and Vulnerability with the rifle and then 100 blades / “beyblade” everything to death.

For the record, I don’t PvP at all. Never have, never plan to.

i use rifle gs and honestly i don’t see any issues with it.

the reason people favor the axe ver rifle is that the auto on the axe is better which it is. with that said i personally like the rifle so i can keep applying dps far way for those moments when you don’t want to be in melee range (i.e. need to heal)

bobomb.5209:

wildfang.9670:

sword sword longbow
full melandru runes
carrion stats

20 30 0 20 0
great fortitude/physical training/
deep cuts/blade mastery/ last chance
legs specialist/burning arrows/
————————————————————————-
10 0 30 30 0
solider stats
bunker support
great fortitude/
dogged march/cleansing ire/spiked armor
inspiring banners/quick breathing/inspiring battle standard
sword warhorn/ longbow
—————————————————————————————————————————

No thanks on the first one but could you elaborate on your second build? I would like to know capabilities here before I mess around with it. Thanks for posting!

the second one is my personal bunker build. i posted a thread a while back trying to get ideas got some i liked got some i disagreed with and this is what my refined version came to be.

it allows for massive up time of vigor 13 seconds of 16 in battle allows you to keep swiftness up perm which is great for mobility (13 of 12 seconds). the ability to change condtions into buffs also is a nice bonus. charge removes soft cc prior to adding in the buff which is handy to say the least because it cures more then you would likely think.

healing sig and inspiring battle standard + battle standard allowed me a high on point regen for myself and those around me. spiked armor is in my opinion better then the other traits bunkering is a battle of attriction and retal helps tip it in your favor some don’t care for it i do. armor attack boosts you power farther then the mere 10 you add into power to gain great fortitude which gives you more health. which should be roughly around 30k.

sig of the dolyak acts as a stun break and aids in finshing people off i couldn’t come to put balance stance over it because this build already has perm swiftness.

hits decent moves fast bunks extremely well. skill.
————————————————————————weaknesses————————————————————————
which brings me to it’s weakness’s. it just doesn’t have high dps and theres no denying it. while the numbers look nice for attack the fact is a 4% crit chance means that on heavy’s you may hit around 2k with final thrust if their at half health. the absolute highest I’ve hit was on a light armor class (can’t recall which one want to say a mes) was around 5.5k on a crit.

with all that said it does exactly what it was meant to do bunker and support. i’ve manged to actually keep half a team busy on me while my team capped.

i usually run bulls charge banner of power battlestandard sig of doly with that said it is a fairly flexible build so even removed sig of dolyak at times for say fear me.

for my weapons i favored sigil of energy to get extra evades for those oh kitten moments and sig of force.

sword sword longbow
full melandru runes
carrion stats

20 30 0 20 0
great fortitude/physical training/
deep cuts/blade mastery/ last chance
legs specialist/burning arrows/
————————————————————————-
10 0 30 30 0
solider stats
bunker support
great fortitude/
dogged march/cleansing ire/spiked armor
inspiring banners/quick breathing/inspiring battle standard
sword warhorn/ longbow
—————————————————————————————————————————