69 replies to this topic

[Thanatar]

Yinero, on 01 October 2012 - 06:57 PM, said:

Just wanted to correct this because I had a twitch in my neck when I read it, lol. The blast finisher from longbows doesnt buff your eneimies with might. It buffs your Allies who are in the blast radius with might.

Haha, thx dude. My bad.

[Ironbars_Kalam]

Thanks for this post OP.  I just started running this build and I am loving it.  I have just a few questions on finishing out gear and runes. With all Knights Exotic Armor, Knights Rare neck and two earings, and 2 Exotic Valk rings I am sitting at close to 24k HP and 1,500 Toughness.  Also the Mystic Forge GS and the Beserkers LB.

When crafting the Exotic Neck and two earings should I go with Besrkers for more damage or Valks for more HP, or stick with Knights? I do seem to kill pretty fast and seem to be pretty tough.

Also what Runes would you recommend. Superior Runes of Divinity are so damn pricey.

Edited by Ironbars_Kalam, 02 October 2012 - 06:07 PM.

[RivenTheValorous]

Ironbars_Kalam, on 02 October 2012 - 06:06 PM, said:

Thanks for this post OP.  I just started running this build and I am loving it.  I have just a few questions on finishing out gear and runes. With all Knights Exotic Armor, Knights Rare neck and two earings, and 2 Exotic Valk rings I am sitting at close to 24k HP and 1,500 Toughness.  Also the Mystic Forge GS and the Beserkers LB.

When crafting the Exotic Neck and two earings should I go with Besrkers for more damage or Valks for more HP, or stick with Knights? I do seem to kill pretty fast and seem to be pretty tough.

Also what Runes would you recommend. Superior Runes of Divinity are so damn pricey.

Glad I have a fan

Regarding stats, I'm still rounding out my exotic armor and my jewelery needs some work as well so I am not at maximum efficiency yet for this build, but there is plenty of room for adjustment. I like Valkyrie stats, personally, and you could definitely run those on your jewelry or maybe half of them. Also, I have Knight's stats on my greatsword which accounts for a LOT of toughness (+179), so if you are opting for more offensive stats in other avenues such as your weapons, making up for that in your jewelry is advisable. I sit around 1800 Power, 1600 Toughness and Precision, and 1300 Vitality. If it is possible to bring up the vitality a little more without sacrificing numbers anywhere else, it is a good choice. By getting to full exotics, I may be able to throw in some Vitality pieces.

As far as runes, I am running runes of the noble at the moment because I like magic find, but from a position where you want to kill things, I really like the Superior Runes of Divinity. The entire point of this build is being well rounded and I think that those best exemplify that. I'll be purchasing some when I get my exotic armor finished Other options, as I've touched on before are anything that gives Power + Vitality/Toughness/Precision/Crit Damage, it all depends on personal preference, but I think, since you need all the stats anyway, Divinity is the most bang for your buck.

Edited by RivenTheValorous, 02 October 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[Tankatronic]

Glad that build works for you, but I really don't see how you can do well in medium/large groups. That build seems ideal for the small scale battles, which is fine, but I think people really overlook how useful a horn can be. My sword/Horn combo doesnt do as much damage as a Greatsword, but I'll stay alive longer, and I can convert conditions to free boons like might for example to give me more damage.

I haven't run into any GS warrior that was able to take me down 1v1. Your highest damage ability requires that I stay rooted long enough for you to finish, but I'm sorry mate, you just won't catch me with my pants down with the plethora of condition removals at my disposal.

[RivenTheValorous]

EntropicTempest, on 04 October 2012 - 03:51 AM, said:

Glad that build works for you, but I really don't see how you can do well in medium/large groups. That build seems ideal for the small scale battles, which is fine, but I think people really overlook how useful a horn can be. My sword/Horn combo doesnt do as much damage as a Greatsword, but I'll stay alive longer, and I can convert conditions to free boons like might for example to give me more damage.

I haven't run into any GS warrior that was able to take me down 1v1. Your highest damage ability requires that I stay rooted long enough for you to finish, but I'm sorry mate, you just won't catch me with my pants down with the plethora of condition removals at my disposal.

Thank you for the feedback 100b is mostly a tool to use on gates, siege, and NPCs. Once in a while, someone stands in it and they are in deep trouble. Overall, Whirlwind attack does the most damage for me, especially as people run away. It really hurts when you get a couple crits off on the #3. Also, I run Mending and Signet of Stamina to handle the conditions, as is previously mentioned. This build, I have found, is highly survivable, but it is far from being the only route. If Sword/Warhorn works for you, that is outstanding! I am always glad to see other warrior builds that get it done. Once again though, this build is about choosing your engagements wisely. So maybe running into a crowd of 30 is a poor choice. That is why we bring a longbow

[Ironbars_Kalam]

So i've played this build for a week and to be honest I can't find anything majorly wrong with it and it is a blast.  It works in the small 3-8 man group I run in.  It is great in the zerg, it has good survivablity, great ranged AoE damage, amazing GS mobility. And yes I won't lie I love HB mainly for the enemy that is kneeling over a fallen friend rezzing them, that is the best time to get a HB off.  I tried a hammer build last night to see if I was missing out and I know for sure I am coming right back to the GS/Bow build.  Thanks again for posting this build.

[RivenTheValorous]

Just an update, since Superior Runes of Divinity cost about 19g for a set, I am using Emerald Orbs. Statistically, these give you greater numbers than the runes of Divinity would in the stats that you need the most (Power, Precision, and Toughness). You sacrifice the Crit Damage, but you can always make up for that in your accessories if you wanted. They are also incredibly cheap so it costs about 24 silver to get 6 orbs. 1/76th the cost of Runes of Divinity.

[Rhaegar1914]

hello all and bear my my noobness!

From what I can gather it's quite hard to find n enemy who will remain in fron of you enough to allow you teh full HB. However it seems that even delivering a fraction of HB will still offer me more damage than any other available skills....is this correct or is it just my BS?

[RivenTheValorous]

Rhaegar1914, on 17 October 2012 - 07:26 PM, said:

hello all and bear my my noobness!

From what I can gather it's quite hard to find n enemy who will remain in fron of you enough to allow you teh full HB. However it seems that even delivering a fraction of HB will still offer me more damage than any other available skills....is this correct or is it just my BS?

HB can be quite effective if someone is:

A. Too slow to realize what is going on
B. CC'd/Immobilized to sh*t so there is nothing they can do about it
C. Whenever you know you can get off at least 5 hits

Personally, I try to avoid hitting 100b unless I know that I can get off more than half the strikes, for example, when you land Bull's Charge (which is in the build for reasons other than 100b) you have a brief moment where they are knocked down. If you activate 100b as the Bull's Charge animation finishes you will be able to land at least 5/8 strikes which is good damage. I don't use 100b if anything less than this will hit because it is a slow and clunky animation to get out of so unless you know it is going to land on them, it helps them put distance between you and them. This build, and many others that use a GS revolve around great mobility and not allowing your target to escape (cripples, swiftness, gap closers, knock downs). A cute little combo would be using Longbow's Pin Down into a weapon swap/Bull's Charge and land it that way.

[Duke Randall]

After reading through this thread, i thoroughly enjoy your build/responses but I myself cannot get into a Greatsword Warrior. I don't feel as useful in larger fights and I almost feel vulnerable to an extent. I mean it might be my playstyle, but currently I'm running a Toughness heavy Hammer crowd-control build and loving it, but i may have to try this one out again. Any overall suggestions I should pay attention to? I'm running full Knight's armor with Soldier superior runes, and full Orich Berserk's. Thanks ~

[Andy75a]

I'm probably about to say something really stupid now: when I read a skill's description and notice 100x2....it means that the damage is delivered in in a certain amount of blows (i.e. 100 damage delivered in two strikes hence 50 damage per strike). Did I get it right?

[RivenTheValorous]

Duke Randall, on 18 October 2012 - 02:25 AM, said:

After reading through this thread, i thoroughly enjoy your build/responses but I myself cannot get into a Greatsword Warrior. I don't feel as useful in larger fights and I almost feel vulnerable to an extent. I mean it might be my playstyle, but currently I'm running a Toughness heavy Hammer crowd-control build and loving it, but i may have to try this one out again. Any overall suggestions I should pay attention to? I'm running full Knight's armor with Soldier superior runes, and full Orich Berserk's. Thanks ~

The key difference with a larger fight is that that is when you want to really pull out your longbow and use that instead. The greatsword is great for smaller engagements or when you break into a melee situation. Personally I have been meaning to try out a hammer build myself for a little bit of a Tankier spec.

Andy75a, on 18 October 2012 - 07:05 AM, said:

I'm probably about to say something really stupid now: when I read a skill's description and notice 100x2....it means that the damage is delivered in in a certain amount of blows (i.e. 100 damage delivered in two strikes hence 50 damage per strike). Did I get it right?

The damage you see in the tooltip is how much does per hit and then the multiplication symbol is how many times it hits.

Edited by RivenTheValorous, 18 October 2012 - 08:19 AM.

[RivenTheValorous]

So I finally got around to finishing my exotics and these are what my final stats look like:

Power: 2057 (2057)
Precision: 1992 (2043)
Toughness: 1920 (1747)
Vitality: 1234 (1234)

Attack: 3157 (3137)
Crit Chance: 55%* (58%)
Armor: 3131 (2952)
Health: 21,552 (21,552)

() Stats with Longbow
*Accuracy sigil not included

A little update, I am still using Emerald Orbs, but I am thinking about picking up Runes of The Pack. Their stats are pretty fantastic and that extra swiftness duration will give like a 45 second uptime which is amazing for WvW. The boons it randomly gives out also work in direct synergy with SoR. Also, I bought the guild assassin's backpack and attached an exquisite emerald jewel to it for my back piece.

[SGTliger]

Looks legit, I haven't read it yet, but am posting to save it. I am looking forward to making my warrior dominate in WvW!

[CaakEE]

Im running a super tanky WvW warrior.

http://gw2skills.net...LbWuskZtCZAxGEA

my damage come from the 100% uptime fury and might, bloodlust rune and the Empowered trait.

the Missile Deflection trait is good when you need to run from your Leroy idea of tank 20 ppl (I do that frequently, If you play on BlackGate you know that).

Running with Power/tought/vit armor and weapons and Ruby Jewels, Thinking about change my hammer to berserker too.

Conditions Cant stop you, cuz you want to run with soldier runes.... and when you have 2 Shake it Off(2 conditions each with soldier), Mending and For great Justice.... yeah conditions wont work.

No buffs:


Self Buffs: (No bloodlust stack)


Self Buffs+ Bloodlust:

Edited by CaakEE, 24 October 2012 - 07:41 PM.

[Freyn]

Just got to change one thing...

Bulls Charge DOES go less distance if crippled/chilled.

[Voison]

I know this topic is old, but I LOVE this build.

I did some tweaking with it and its amazing in WvW and PvE. I use to run a Vit/Toughness stacked with Shout heals, but I did super low numbers in dmg.

Right now I'm sitting at:
2088 Power
1,148 Precision
1,481 Toughness
2,058 Vitality

That is 29,792 HP.
I use: Stomp (Never been a fan of charge), Signet of Stamina, On my mark (It helps & is needed in WvW when taking Supply camps / towers), and Signet of Rage.

I love this build because I can still pack a punch and handle most 2vs1s, but not get one shotted like most Glass cannons.

[RivenTheValorous]

Update: I am now running Runes of the Pack. They dipped in price to 64s each so I figured I would pick them up. Haven't noticed a huge difference between them and the orbs other than the 42 seconds of swiftness when I activate SoR. Pretty awesome.

I am also trying to run the "Shake It Off" Trait in Tactics with my 2nd trait. Conditions always give me trouble so I'm hoping this helps out.

[Don Zaloog]

I think Rune of the Pack is still bugged.

What do you guys think of Rune of the Centaur and Rune of Speed?

[Hellspawn2323]

Invoky, on 27 September 2012 - 10:56 AM, said:

Frenzy is horrible in WvW tbh. Frenzy is good in small scale pvp or 1v1 situation. We are talking about wvw here. Wvw = zerg vs zerg. If you are not fighting zerg 90% of time you aren't being helpful to ur server.

Sorry but I have to disagree 100%. I cannot tell you how many times ive used frenzy / hundred blades on zerg groups at our gates, Ive taken down 5-10 people in under 2 secs with that build and then quickly get back in the gate and behind our walls.

ANET designed this game too be played the way you feel comfertable playing. There is no cookie cutter builds its in the hands of the player.

Just like I dissagree with the person who said that longbow is better then rifle. One thing ive learned in WvW is that there is a psychological game also being played. Have you ever noticed that when there are 2 large groups toe to toe. If some big beefy well geared class starts too charge you'll see the group follow him.

But if you put that player down in a snap, the rest of the group stops and retreats. thats where Rifle with Fire sigil comes in handy. My Kill Shot hits for 18.5k which one shots most players and if that doesnt 1 shot them rapid fire finishes them off. Secondly AoE dmg doesnt prevent players from reviving people in the downed position. A well placed Kill Shot downs the players trying to rez and or finishes off the person in the downed state, Kind of like putting a lame horse out of its misery.

I use GS for that third dodge mechanic [whirl] and the bulls charge / frenzy/ HB combo. In my hands ive gotten over 3000 kills playing casually in WvW. Ive tried hammers and longbows and they just don't suit my play style.

So I say aslong as your effective with your build play it there is no wrong way to play a warrior (unless your running a signet build hahaha)

Edited by Hellspawn2323, 06 November 2012 - 02:38 PM.

[RivenTheValorous]

Don Zaloog, on 06 November 2012 - 02:19 AM, said:

I think Rune of the Pack is still bugged.

What do you guys think of Rune of the Centaur and Rune of Speed?

Runes of the Pack have been working for me. The tooltip is wrong, though. I get the buffs 5% of the time when I am hit instead of when I attack as the tooltip suggests. Still gives the buff, and at a higher frequency when you are a frontline player in WvW so it gets a lot of proc chances. I've been pleased with them. You get a wolf howling at a moon over your head when it procs so it's easy to see it is working.

Centaur is pretty good. I looked at Runes of Strength, Divinity, and Soldier as well.

Hellspawn2323, on 06 November 2012 - 02:36 PM, said:

Sorry but I have to disagree 100%. I cannot tell you how many times ive used frenzy / hundred blades on zerg groups at our gates, Ive taken down 5-10 people in under 2 secs with that build and then quickly get back in the gate and behind our walls.

ANET designed this game too be played the way you feel comfertable playing. There is no cookie cutter builds its in the hands of the player.

Just like I dissagree with the person who said that longbow is better then rifle. One thing ive learned in WvW is that there is a psychological game also being played. Have you ever noticed that when there are 2 large groups toe to toe. If some big beefy well geared class starts too charge you'll see the group follow him.

But if you put that player down in a snap, the rest of the group stops and retreats. thats where Rifle with Fire sigil comes in handy. My Kill Shot hits for 18.5k which one shots most players and if that doesnt 1 shot them rapid fire finishes them off. Secondly AoE dmg doesnt prevent players from reviving people in the downed position. A well placed Kill Shot downs the players trying to rez and or finishes off the person in the downed state, Kind of like putting a lame horse out of its misery.

I use GS for that third dodge mechanic [whirl] and the bulls charge / frenzy/ HB combo. In my hands ive gotten over 3000 kills playing casually in WvW. Ive tried hammers and longbows and they just don't suit my play style.

So I say aslong as your effective with your build play it there is no wrong way to play a warrior (unless your running a signet build hahaha)

I've also been trying a hammer in WvW but the mobility is just so tough with it that I can't really get into it. Animations are also really slow. The Longbow was never in here for it's individual target capability, but for it's ability to crank out the best AoE from a range on a warrior.

Are you running full Berzerker's gear? Or at least in part? I never hit for much more than 13k with Hundred Blades. It's usually around 10k. If I were to be running full Berzerker's gear, I would be running with a rifle as well because it scales so much better, but I have a bit of condition damage with my strength tree, Longbow, and Might Stacking which makes my AoEs and Burning hit pretty hard. I've never been able to dish out damage to the degree that you have, and pure damage isn't the point here because I've found glass cannons to be lacking in WvW because of the massive amount of damage that you can take in such a short time. For this reason, you'll see that I have prioritized survivability over offense in many cases. What does your gear and stats look like to do this kind of damage? I can't imagine that you are as tanky or even close to it.

Just an update, I am trying out a Sigil of Blood on my Greatsword to see if my survivability can go up a bit in melee situations.

Edited by unraveled, 08 November 2012 - 11:10 AM.
Removed reply to deleted content.

[Don Zaloog]

Rune of the Pack - The (3) set bonus gives you +50 Healing Power instead of +50 Power. You should notice an increase in healing power when you equip the 3rd armor piece.

Edited by Don Zaloog, 06 November 2012 - 11:05 PM.

[Limbolein]

I use Frenzy in WvW with my hammer build. I feel that hammer animations are very slow, too, and thus will be dodged often. Also, Merciless Hammer adds great damage but only for very short periods. With Frenzy your CC won't be dodged as easily and you get off several attacks while the targets are disabled. And last but not least, Frenzy is dangerous for yourself but not so much if several enemies around you are disabled.

[Aunshi]

Did you think about Runes of Earth ? The protection and the (6), armor of Earth, seem pretty good imo.

[Yarz_Widow]

I run knights gear and jewels with full divinity runes.

25/0/30/0/15

Run around with axe main hand for the burst skill  therefore the 15 in the last tree.

And a hammer on my other weapon.


This is just for fun.

For keep and tower defense you can switch to a fun aoe build.

Trait for banner damage on drop with all 4 banners equiped and then have a bow equiped as well and you have 6 aoe attacks

Edited by Yarz_Widow, 07 November 2012 - 03:16 PM.

[Limbolein]

Aunshi, on 07 November 2012 - 01:34 PM, said:

Did you think about Runes of Earth ? The protection and the (6), armor of Earth, seem pretty good imo.

I do and so far I really like them. Without them I always had either Endure Pain on my bar or specced for Defy Pain which is now not necessary anymore. Too many great traits in the defense tree.

[Ryze]

RivenTheValorous, on 23 September 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

When activated, you have 36 seconds (with the 20% boon duration from Tactics)

RivenTheValorous, on 23 September 2012 - 12:49 PM, said:

With your 30% increased condition duration

Forgive my ignorance, but where exactly are you getting those from?

[RivenTheValorous]

Ryze, on 07 November 2012 - 06:13 PM, said:

Forgive my ignorance, but where exactly are you getting those from?

Each point in tactics gives me +1% Boon Duration as well as +10 Vitality so by putting 20 points in, I have +20% boon duration

Condition Duration is in the Strength tree and is paired with power. By putting 30 points in Strength, similar to tactics, I get +30% Condition Duration and +300 Power.

Don Zaloog, on 06 November 2012 - 11:04 PM, said:

Rune of the Pack - The (3) set bonus gives you +50 Healing Power instead of +50 Power. You should notice an increase in healing power when you equip the 3rd armor piece.

I actually haven't noticed this. My power is right where it should be with the runes. I'll look next time I log in, but my healing is the same as it was prior to the rune change so it isn't likely.

[Hellspawn2323]

RivenTheValorous, on 06 November 2012 - 07:15 PM, said:

Runes of the Pack have been working for me. The tooltip is wrong, though. I get the buffs 5% of the time when I am hit instead of when I attack as the tooltip suggests. Still gives the buff, and at a higher frequency when you are a frontline player in WvW so it gets a lot of proc chances. I've been pleased with them. You get a wolf howling at a moon over your head when it procs so it's easy to see it is working.

Centaur is pretty good. I looked at Runes of Strength, Divinity, and Soldier as well.


I've also been trying a hammer in WvW but the mobility is just so tough with it that I can't really get into it. Animations are also really slow. The Longbow was never in here for it's individual target capability, but for it's ability to crank out the best AoE from a range on a warrior.

Are you running full Berzerker's gear? Or at least in part? I never hit for much more than 13k with Hundred Blades. It's usually around 10k. If I were to be running full Berzerker's gear, I would be running with a rifle as well because it scales so much better, but I have a bit of condition damage with my strength tree, Longbow, and Might Stacking which makes my AoEs and Burning hit pretty hard. I've never been able to dish out damage to the degree that you have, and pure damage isn't the point here because I've found glass cannons to be lacking in WvW because of the massive amount of damage that you can take in such a short time. For this reason, you'll see that I have prioritized survivability over offense in many cases. What does your gear and stats look like to do this kind of damage? I can't imagine that you are as tanky or even close to it.

Just an update, I am trying out a Sigil of Blood on my Greatsword to see if my survivability can go up a bit in melee situations.

Yes im full Bezerkers gear. I have 20k HP Full Power / Prec / Crit Dmg Exotics. I always pop Signet of Rage before performing Bulls / Frenzy combo this way my Crit Chance is over 75%. My survivability is still very high because of my playstyle. Im in and out quick (thats what she said) so I dont have to worry about absorbing a lengthy amount of dmg. The funny thing is I find the same applied in PvE aswell. Why worry about absorbing dmg if I can just blow up a group of 3-5 adds in less then 10secs that are copper / silver level Mobs...

Now dont get me wrong im not saying I can beat every class and every build, but out of 8 Professions only 2 give me a hard time which is Thief / Warrior and only if its that Thief build where he death blossoms and vanish applys dots rinse and repeat. Or a skilled Hammer Warrior running the shout condition removal build combined with Fear and lots of lock downs.

other then that ive rolled and I mean ROLLED most players. I wish there was a KDR system because if I were too give a solid legitimate KDR guess id say im easly sitting on 9:1 KDR.

I promise sometime next week ill make a twitchtv recording of my build in action and let you be the judge, and decide if its the build / play style youd enjoy.

Edited by unraveled, 08 November 2012 - 11:11 AM.
Amended quote.

[Aunshi]

RivenTheValorous, on 31 October 2012 - 07:29 AM, said:

Update: I am now running Runes of the Pack. They dipped in price to 64s each so I figured I would pick them up. Haven't noticed a huge difference between them and the orbs other than the 42 seconds of swiftness when I activate SoR. Pretty awesome.

I am also trying to run the "Shake It Off" Trait in Tactics with my 2nd trait. Conditions always give me trouble so I'm hoping this helps out.

You should try the runes of the earth, they are simply amazing.