Curse

pingu666 · Apr 07, 2011, 04:43 AM // 04:43

theres some potential with NRA and attacks/skills which give benifit for not being in a stance
barbous slice for example

just bought my main a new set of armour, shes already got a survivor set. and a dreadnaught set. (+health and +10al vs elemental). so what other insigs should i be considering?

atm im thinking sentry, or radient :s

And shield im thinking of replacing the exalted aegis 30hp 5/20, with another shield mostly for looks, would 30hp -2 in stance be good?

80-90% of the stuff im doing on this charater is hardmode

**Marty Silverblade** · Apr 07, 2011, 04:55 AM // 04:55

*Barbarous Slice is horrid. If you're using it, you're running a crap bar.
*With three sets of armor I'd go for Sentrys, Sentinels, and Survivor. Dreadnought isn't as useful now because 13 (or 14) Strength is something you'll be running a lot so Sentinels gives you double the bonus without having to compromise anything. Sentry's is +10 vs all armor affected damage and the stance requirement is trivial. I don't see why you would need Radiants.
*+30/-2 is fine. You'd be technically better off with +30/+10AL vs <damage type> but that would mean swapping shields a lot and having more crap in your inventory so I wouldn't bother.

pingu666 · Apr 07, 2011, 05:16 AM // 05:16

http://www.guildwiki.org/Barbarous_Slice
http://www.guildwiki.org/NRA

**Marty Silverblade** · Apr 07, 2011, 05:26 AM // 05:26

Your point? I know what those skills do. If you're not running a stance you're running a sub-par/terrible build. Standing Slash offers better +damage for 6adr.

pingu666 · Apr 07, 2011, 01:47 PM // 13:47

true, but it doesnt offer bleed, for use with gash
theres a few stances that are worth taking if youve got nra, that would be battle rage, run as one, and a few others that wouldnt really interfer with barbous

Outerworld · Apr 07, 2011, 07:43 PM // 19:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingu666

true, but it doesnt offer bleed, for use with gash
theres a few stances that are worth taking if youve got nra, that would be battle rage, run as one, and a few others that wouldnt really interfer with barbous

Two things:
-Bleeding's useless, +dmg will always beat it.
-NRA costs 15e and locks you into a pet.

Bassically Marty is right, there's no real reason to run NRA other than the "fun" factor.

pingu666 · Apr 07, 2011, 08:15 PM // 20:15

i know bleeding is mostly useless, but if you want deep wound, with sword, you kinda need it, unless you rely on team to supply cracked armour for body blow.

and yeah i know nra isnt that good, i tried it

Outerworld · Apr 07, 2011, 08:36 PM // 20:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by pingu666

and yeah i know nra isnt that good, i tried it

So...why are we having this discussion then?

pingu666 · Apr 08, 2011, 12:47 AM // 00:47

well if someone wants to make a warrior/pet build in future, they will know?

in some ways its better for a warrior than ranger, as we can just use adreanline skills for the rest of the bar more or less, a ranger cant do that (without a secondary), yeah theres expertise but you would have to run a ton in it to make it cheap

Sharp Blade · Apr 19, 2011, 11:40 AM // 11:40

Thank you so much, this guide is fantastic!

Just started playing the game again after a 3.5 year break and now I'm trying to focus on PvE. Back when I played (from 28 April 2005 till late 2007) actively, I focused almost entirely on PvP and really lost touch on PvE. Now, with all the crucial gameplay-changes that have been made throughout the last couple of years, I felt completely lost with my warrior in PvE. But thanks to your guide, I managed to quickly get a grip on the game and now I'm a GW addict once again! :-)

djemonk · Apr 19, 2011, 12:14 PM // 12:14

I appreciate this guide, also. I've been playing for six months and warrior is the only class I really love to play. This guide really helped me recognize and avoid some of the n00b mistakes I was making and made me an all-around more effective warrior.

My suggestion, and maybe this isn't worth the effort at this point, would be to talk about warriors at different stages in the game. A lot of people look down on "Defy Pain" as an elite skill, for example, and I see why they would, but for a while it's really one of the best elite skills you can capture.

I feel like this guide is great for the very basics (pulling, tanking, warrior roles) and tuning high-end warriors, but there's a big part of the mid-game that's missing.

Again, thanks for this guide. I've referred to it several times over the past six months and learn something new each time!

Ghull Ka · May 24, 2011, 03:56 PM // 15:56

Thank you for posting this information, I picked up my warrior after a long break and needed a good starting point.

One thing that makes me sad is that basically every build has "For Great Justice!" in it. Mandatory skills aren't good for anyone. Like Asuran Scan was. "Save Yourselves!" is in basically every build, too. Warriors only get 6 slots, heh. XD

I guess if it works it works, :-) I ain't hatin on effective skills!

I was wondering what y'all's advice was on Battle Rage these days? It's different than I remember it being years ago, and it seems like it could be a fun elite to use. I remember the good old days, leeroying around the map, outranging my healer friends, pinging "I have Battle Rage on me!!" Great times!

**Marty Silverblade** · May 29, 2011, 01:00 AM // 01:00

Sorry for getting back so late, I've had too much to do in rl. Anyway,

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghull Ka

One thing that makes me sad is that basically every build has "For Great Justice!" in it. Mandatory skills aren't good for anyone. Like Asuran Scan was. "Save Yourselves!" is in basically every build, too. Warriors only get 6 slots, heh. XD

Well, nothing is strictly mandatory, other than an IAS, but that's non-specific. FGJ effectively doubles the power of all adrenaline based attacks so it's hard to say no. Fitting Dark Fury into hero setups is now a fairly simple thing to do so if you want the slot for something else you can still have your double adrenaline. That said, running DF and FGJ means 4adr on hit, which is awesome.

SY is just a skill that's powerful enough that it demands a place on the bar, although it's completely droppable if you don't need the defense. If you run more mitigation on the midline (which again, due to 7 heroes, is easily done with Mesmers) you won't need it. It's overkill a lot of the time anyway.

Quote:

I was wondering what y'all's advice was on Battle Rage these days? It's different than I remember it being years ago, and it seems like it could be a fun elite to use. I remember the good old days, leeroying around the map, outranging my healer friends, pinging "I have Battle Rage on me!!" Great times!

It's a stance that doesn't boost your attack speed. Given that the IAS is the single most important thing on a Warrior's bar, you'll need to find another source. The option used most often is NRA, though that costs 15e, two skill slots (one of which is a PvE skill), is only 25%, and forces you to run a pet. There's Weapon of Aggression too, but that forces a Channelling spec, is still only 25%, and burns though a lot of energy. It also makes your weapon ugly, which may or may not matter to you. If you've got money to burn you can use Rock Candies, which solve the problem perfectly, but I choose not to use consumables.

Overall, it just doesn't do anything remarkable enough to justify running. Double adr is nice but comes from FGJ and DF too. IMS is nice but not really necessary. If it had IAS or provided better bar compression it would be more worthwhile. Perhaps remove the double adr, add scaling IAS (which forces a high Strength) and add a small +damage on hit.

That said, Primal Rage is more what you're looking for now. Double damage sucks, but thanks once again to 7 heroes, fitting in Prot Spirit/Shelter and SoA is easy. Recharge sucks too (PvP nerfs ftl). It's still not worth running, but it'd be more fun and more like what you want.

Urcscumug · May 31, 2011, 08:16 AM // 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghull Ka

One thing that makes me sad is that basically every build has "For Great Justice!" in it.

First of all, I find adrenaline builds less restrictive, because the main enabler skill (FGJ) is non-elite, unlike WE, which allows for a much wider variety of interesting elites to be used. Leaving aside the wholy trinity for a moment (Dragon Slash, 100b and Earth Shaker), you also get your choice of Backbreaker, Defy Pain, Devastating Hammer, Dwarven Battle Stance, Enraged Smash, Flourish, Forceful Blow, Headbutt, Quivering Blade, Shove, Skull Crack, Triple Chop.

But ok, try an energy bar. It's not hard to do, basically the only requirement is Warrior's Endurance, which you cap in the Ascension missions, and perhaps a Zealous weapon (crafted one for myself using a bonus mission reward weapon and aftermarket mods). Throw in an IAS (now that's mandatory), about 3 energy attacks (weapon-independent if possible), and the rest of the slots are yours to be creative in.

Just to give you an idea, here's an energy build I splashed on the other day and I've enjoyed since: WE+zealous axe, Flurry as IAS, 3 energy attacks (Power Attack, Counterattack, Furious Axe), Serpent's Quickness and two slots on which I put varying skills depending on the region. Dismember is a regular favorite (you're going to get adrenaline anyway, might as well use it and Deep Wound is always smexy), or Watch Yourself (you always get some points left over, might as well turn them into party-wide armor), Wild Blow for block-stance removal etc.

Before anybody points out that SQ and Flurry are mutually exclusive, it's true.

I mainly use IAS only during SQ downtime.

I should also mention that the build is not easy to use, requires keeping an eye on your effects monitor and muscle memory, for reflex skill activation via keyboard. I've trained myself to use the 1-5ER keys and to develop such muscle memory fast for any build, so YMMV. I'm not sure how well it would work for a mouse user that hunt'n'pecks his bar.

I'm also looking into alternatives. I might even reconsider NRA (with the appropriate apology to Deadfalk) with the pet set to heel. Or I might have a hero cast Quickening Zephyr and Energizing Wind, and bring Weapon of Aggression on myself (at 11+2str/10+1axe/10chan or 11+2/11+1/8). Or use WoA with attack skills of lower recharge and simply dispense of SQ. Or switch to Flourish etc.

The point is, there's no shortage of interesting quirks you can experiment with. No reason to feel jaded as a beginner warrior. Maybe if you've been around for years and tried everything, but us young'uns still have stuff to get excited over.

**Marty Silverblade** · May 31, 2011, 10:04 AM // 10:04

Actually, while we're on the topic of random/fun/somewhat unconventional things, I'll share something I messed about with briefly after thinking of it in another thread: using WE to fuel non-attack skills. These skills needed to be instantly activatable to not mess with the process of chopping things up. Unfortunately the only things I could think of were YMLaD and FH, but it was fun nonetheless, and definitely feels different to typical PvE shout spammers (like the one recommended for Discordway).

Axe 12+1+1 (if we're being unconventional, we might as well. It's not like there are times to use axes in serious circumstances)
Strength 12+1

Warrior's Endurance
"You Move Like a Dwarf!"
"Finish Him!"
Penetrating Blow
Penetrating Chop
Agonizing Chop
SY
Flail

It's quite spiky, much like Shock Axe builds in PvP. It's good at taking out WiK healers because you can pretty much take them out start to finish. I wouldn't run it in a serious situation but it's good to mess around with.

EFGJack · May 31, 2011, 10:17 AM // 10:17

As everyone knows 100b/hundred blades doesn't work too well in areas with small groups of monsters so I usually run a hammer/renewing smash build in those areas, but now I've been experimenting with Axe variables and I found something that's quite effective in terms of single target & aoe damage. It doesn't touch Renewing Smash in single or Hundred/MoP in AoE but it fits well in the middle.

This coupled up with a micro'd "Brace Yourself!" is really interesting. the bad side is that the hero doesn't use Brace Yourself on anyone unless they have been KD'd so you have to micro it every 4 seconds. It's a fun build that's also effective once you get used to microing Brace on yourself.

Relyk · Jul 16, 2011, 02:54 PM // 14:54

Where's the axe love? I sense some disparity in its popularity. endurance axe is the best build for general play. Spamming dismember, cyclone axe, and YMLaD gets you farther than using 100b or hammer ever will for areas you're unfamiliar with and even then. Only time I switch to 100b is fow/urgoz/deep because spiking is fun.

@Marty, using WE to spam YMLaD, evas, technobabble, etc. is common practice for me, seems strange you think it's novel idea. I've been spamming YMLaD since eotn came out. Dismember is much better than FH because its spammable DW. power attack is strong damage and you have better options for pen chop/blow with spamming prot strike or wild blow. Whirlwind attack isn't as important as sword or hammer since you can spam cyclone axe at the same rate splinter weapon recharges.

@EFGjack, how are you splitting attributes? running tactics higher than 3 can be annoying.

Squishy ftw · Jul 16, 2011, 04:02 PM // 16:02

I totally share the WE axe lovins. WE bars allowing AScan to be spammed is another big positive imo.