The Brutes Tavern: Warrior Discussion Thread

[Meledelion]

It's pretty much the same build I linked but he takes 5points from strength and puts them in discipline. He also grabs axe/mace instead of gs/gs. The utilities are the same as I mentioned.

The difference is that you start off with axe/mace, autoattack till adrenaline is full>WS>HB>WS>autoattack with axe>WS>HB>...

For solo play I'd stick with just GS since burst>all in the open world.

[Valeron]

Ugh, I really hate how there are 18 different build websites for GW2. I miss the days of WoW where everyone used the Wowhead talent calculator and if you didn't it was like, WTF? I can't even tell what he picked for his slot skills, if he picked any.

He also says the build is specific for dungeons, not for solo play. Since I don't plan to run dungeons much (or at all) I feel like this build probably isn't optimized for my style of play.

I'm really surprised no one has created a PvX type website for GW2 like there is for GW1.

I'm sort of disappointed in the community in that respect a bit. gwpvx was great I thought since it had all kinds of rated builds for every profession, team builds, builds for pvp, for general pve, farming builds, etcetera.

Instead we have a bunch of fragmented build sites.

[Meledelion]

The problem with PvX was that a lot of votes were just "I use this build and I like it" votes which hinders theorycrafters. For instance I hate toughness/vit builds and find them useless, for that reason I should downvote every build that has them even though it's possible (and likely) that the poster of that build actually did lots of optimising and it's a good build for the "role" it wants to play.

Another (big) issue is that in GW1 you could setup teams easily. There were 8slots in a team and 10 classes, meaning that the chance that someone has one of those classes is quite big (80%)
In GW2 you have 5slots and 8classes meaning that the chance of someone having one of those random classes is only 62.5%.

The last issue is that there's no heroes in GW2 while there were in GW1, not many builds actually relied 100% on the combo of those 8builds, you could for instance change the nec/rt healer to a mo/me dwayna healer and be just as effective.

[Valeron]

Yeah you make good points but at least it was a central place to discuss the builds and such. That is what I sort of miss about it. It's hard to find a good place for discussion on builds and tactics for GW2.

[Meledelion]

So far guru is the "best" place for builds, just keep a critical mind and use your own excel sheets to double check things.

[Lane]

Okay, I'm still confused about slot skills since several have been mentioned. x_X So, for soloing, should I go FGJ, OOM, and Signet of Might? I don't really want to use banners, and Frenzy doesn't seem worth it for 4s of quickness on a 60s cooldown. Also, would you go Healing Signet or something else?

[Meledelion]

Healing surge as a heal.
Frenzy is very handy since it means you deal double dmg for 4sec, this means that you're going to be dealing upwards of 120k dmg. The reason why this is so handy is because some mobs have short attacks which are annoying but aren't dangerous (blind, knockback) but which do make you deal less dmg.

Banner of discipline is one of the best utilities wars have (especially in groups).
For soloing you can run frenzy, omm and fgj and for elite signet of rage.

[Arajal]

A setup I like to use when soloing is Frenzy, Signet of Might, and "FGJ", with the elite as Signet of Rage. My solo build includes Forceful Greatsword, so when I pop everything and use Hundred Blades, my might stack caps out by the end of HB; stuff melts.

Mending is nice for getting rid of those pesky conditions that mobs in Orr just love to throw on you.

[Lane]

Okay, I've almost got my gear together, but! I need a back piece. Any suggestions on what I should get off the TP? There don't seem to be any Berserker options.

[Meledelion]

if you do the personal story you get a green back that's a pretty good temp untill you get the ascended one.

From TP there isn't a whole lot of interesting stuff, if you really are bound to it grab the one that has critical dmg.

[Lane]

Hm, I think I remember the back piece from the personal story being fairly late into it and I haven't even done Claw Island yet. x_X I do still have the Berserker one on my elementalist, but I don't think there's anything I can transmute it to so that I can give it to my warrior.

[Arajal]

If you're in a guild with the unlocks open, both the standard guild armor vendor and the commendation vendor have backpacks with Berserker stats (I think). Regular vendor has rare while the commendation vendor has exotic.

[Lane]

What is the purpose of GS/GS if the weapons share an ability cooldown? o_O

[Meledelion]

Weaponswap sigil

[Lane]

Alright, so, is 30/25/0/10/5 still the new best build? :P I'm not sure which (if any) calculators have been updated with the changes yet.

[Meledelion]

I haven't done the math yet lane. A lot of people seem to be going 30/30/0/10/0 (greatsword) instead of 30/25/0/10/5
My first assertion is "yes" since the major trait you get isn't all that good, the only two interesting traits in arms are already taken (5 and 10).

So it comes down to what gives most damage 50precision(2.38% crit) vs 5% more crit dmg?
Just from checking effective power on the calculator you get 30/30/0/10/0 vs 30/25/0/10/5

There's a difference of 22power in favor of 30/30/0/10/0 (which surprises me)
Just found that's using scholar runes and not ruby orbs. If you're rocking ruby orbs the gap is a tad smaller at 15power in favor of 30/30/0/10/0 but it's still there...

So looks like 30/30/0/10/0>30/25/0/10/5

edit: There's something odd happening, In theory I can hit over 100% crit chance but in practice it's not happening and I can't figure out why... If I hit 100% it's obvious my build is better.

[Lane]

I'm a little confused about a couple of those traits.

Deep Cuts Bleeds you apply last 50% longer <-- Where is the bleed coming from with GS?
Powerful Banners Banners do damage when summoned <-- So, basically just something to do extra damage every 2 minutes? What if you don't use banners (often)?

[Meledelion]

1. from precise strikes (5in arms)
2. yes, there's no other damaging alternative, you can go for short temper but hardly any bosses block anyway and you're already at the might cap

[Meledelion]

Does anyone know the actual skill activation time of the warrior?

I've been testing them and would like to confirm my numbers. It seems that the axe chain doesn't take 1.75s as expected but actually takes 3.25s due to aftercasts. Same thing with GS, instead of the chain taking 1.5s it takes 2.3s which are very important differences.

- - - Updated - - -

Interesting update. Using the data I've gathered regarding after-casts etc. I got some fun results (pure math)

The best dps build out there for axe atm is 30/0/0/10/30 IF you can use Force+Night sigils.
The numbers I got (based around having an "optimised"* team + consumables) are 8441dps(8189dps if you use another sigil than force) for axe/mace vs 7768dps for GS.

However the axe number should be adjusted. Since inorder to reach this number you go from the premise that 25stacks of vulnerability are up and thus that you don't have to use skills 2 and 4 which are quite significant DPS losses. It is safe to say that in reality this won't happen and the estimated DPS loss is around 150. Further more, with the change to axe making the damage back-loaded instead of linear (the final hit does most damage) means that using those two skills makes the rotation quite complex. If you interrupt your auto-attack before the last strike you greatly sacrifice DPS(it does 2.14* more damage than the other attacks).

This means that while in theory axe is the better dps weapon, GS actually pulls ahead. And the best part is that after having checked the math my original call was correct, the highest GS dps build is indeed 30/25/0/10/5. Second highest is 30/30/0/10/0 7735dps and last we have 30/0/0/10/30(the same distribution as axe) with 7633 dps.

The wild-cart build GS+axe/mace 30/25/0/0/15 does a theoretical 7770dps but relies on spot on weaponswaps + not interupting the axe chain (and you lose vulnerability uptime)

TLDR: GS 30/25/0/10/5 is the way to go

[Valeron]

meh, greatsword is so boring, at least to me. I still really like double sword condition build, yeah it's a bummer in zergs but I still enjoy it.