Curse

Rival Night · Oct 19, 2010, 11:23 PM // 23:23

hello

made a warrior, just finished the factions campaign, in the process of getting the last 2 bits of my elite luxon set

im sword spec, was thinking of taking 4 surv insigs and getting a knockdown ability and 1 stonefist. not too sure about runes

any advice appreciated

ty

End · Oct 19, 2010, 11:29 PM // 23:29

Uh oh not this again.

Odds are this will get into an argument about Armor insignias v. Health insignias.
I deny to comment on insignias.

As for runes

+1 sword
highest vigor you can afford
+1 Strength most likly
vitae
vitae

Calista Blackblood · Oct 19, 2010, 11:35 PM // 23:35

Stolen from the Stickied warrior guide

Warrior armor has a higher AL than all other armors. It provides a base of 80AL, +20 vs physical. This means you will have 100AL vs. physical damage, and 80AL vs. elemental damage, excluding shield bonuses. As a Warrior, your armor does not give any boosts to either energy or energy regeneration. This makes Warriors basically useless for frequent spellcasting.

To better understand how armor works, remember that once you get to 60AL, every 40AL after that will halve the damage. For example, a Dervish hits you with a regular 20 damage scythe attack. You have 100AL, meaning the damage will be halved once. 20/2=10. Excluding weapon and shield bonuses, you will take ~10 damage.

One common mistake people make is that they think armor affects all parts of you. If you have an 80AL helmet and a 50AL cuirass, this does not mean you have 130AL everywhere. Each piece is responsible for its own part. 60AL gauntlets will only give you 60AL if you are hit in the hands, otherwise you would be unprotected by them. The cuirass (chest armor) has a 37.5% chance of being hit, the leggings have a 25% chance to get hit, and the helmet, boots, and gauntlets have a 12.5% chance of being hit.

In addition to the inherent +20AL vs. physical bonus, armor can have both an insignia and a rune attached to it.

Insignia

Insignia work in exactly the way weapon inscriptions do, just that they can be bought from rune traders. There are Warrior specific insignia, as well as general insignia that can be used by any profession. Each armor piece can have its own insignia.

The best few are Brawlers, because the requirement is so easy to meet, Sentinels if you know you'll have 13 Strength (though it's very inflexible, wouldn't recommend it if you've only got one armor set), Sentrys, because it works well with an IAS, and Survivor, because health is generally useful. Warriors with some kind of knockdown should invest in a Stonefist insignia to increase the time the foes are knocked down (even sword and axe warriors should get one; don't forget skills like Bull's Strike, "You Move Like A Dwarf!" and Brawling Headbutt). The effect doesn't stack, so you'll only need one (doesn't matter where you put it, though boots, gauntlets, and the helmet are the best choices because they are hit the least).

Some people like to mix and match insignia, having some health and some armor. I don’t see the point in this; in any given area you’re better off with one or the other. Also, there is a myth that if you do mix insignia, you should put the armor insignia on the chest and legs and health on the rest. The logic people use to justify this is flawed though; the myth is just a myth. There’s an in-depth discussion here: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/t...t10442321.html

See the GuildWiki article for more.

Runes

Runes work in a similar way to insignia but have some key differences. Most runes raise your attributes, don’t stack, and aren’t location specific. There are 13 different types of runes a Warrior can use.

For a list of runes and what they do, see this GuildWiki link.

A Warrior’s 5 armor pieces generally hold the following runes;

1) Minor Swordsmanship/Hammer Mastery/Axe Mastery ON THE HELMET. It must be placed on the helmet (the ones that give +1 to a weapon attribute are best), so that if you want to be able to swap weapons, you only have to change the helmet, not the helmet and whichever piece has the rune. Minor is better then Major/Superior, as we've seen that an extra 1/2 ranks in your weapon attribute only raises your DPS by a few points, as the cost of a more noticable 35/75 health. It's actually less than what's in the table; monsters in PvE can have incredible amounts of defense so the few points of damage shown will be even less. I’d estimate no more than 3 points of damage.

2) Minor Strength. Higher levels of potency aren't of much use, but a minor strength is good for boosting key skills such as Flail and Rush, aswell as the additional 1% armor penetration.

3) Minor Tactics. Higher levels of potency are only used in farming builds. A minor rune is good for boosting skills such as Healing Signet.

4) Minor/Major/Superior Vigor. Keeps you alive. No health penalty for higher potency (would defeat the purpose), so buy the best you can afford.

5) Superior Absorption/Vitae/Clarity. The final slot is a decision between 10 health, 3 physical damage reduction, or reduced durations of blind and weakness. The choice doesn’t have much impact.

You obviously won't need a Tactics rune if you aren't using any Tactics skills and your shield has a Strength requirement. The same reasoning applies to the Strength rune but you’ll generally always have 9-14 Strength so you won’t be replacing it. Fill the spare slot with something in 5).

Oh BTW! Raisu Palace was a breeze wasn't it? :P

Hugh Manatee · Oct 20, 2010, 02:42 AM // 02:42

4 Sentinels insignias and 1 stonefist, Major weapon and major strength so I can still get pretty numbers in a 11, 10, 10 split. Sup Apsorption, best vig, and clarity. I take almost no damage, my HP number is meaningless, I could run Sup weapon and still not die...

Screw tactics unless you're farming/running, if you are, buy a cheap 1k set and defile it with tactics runes...

Chthon · Oct 20, 2010, 02:47 AM // 02:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by End

Uh oh not this again.

quote that for truth....

Right, on to business:

Runes:

minor weapon mastery on the helm.
Sup vigor
Sup absorption (yes, it's still very much worth it post nerf)
minor strength
(maybe minor tactics if you only have 1 armor set and sometimes run farming builds or whatnot that actually use tactics)
rest vitae

Insignias:
1 Stonefist + probably Sentry's (assuming 100% stance uptime).
Sentinel's is a common, but misguided, choice. Reasoning: Unless you're in danger of getting spiked to death (which would indicate much bigger problems with your team than your insignia choice), the damage you take is essentially fungible. Thus, whatever stops the most damage overall is the best choice. Against most mixed-monster mobs, 10AL vs all is going to stop more damage than 20AL vs elemental. Thus, Sentry's > Sentinels. (For that matter, Knight's may also outperform Sentinel's in many circumstances.)

Rival Night · Oct 22, 2010, 09:14 AM // 09:14

thanks for the help guys

if i wanted to do some pvp on my warrior can i keep my elite luxon set and just stack stonefist for the knockdown and go hammer

i tried to find a page where it listed pvp hammer builds and runes/insigs etc but after 30 mins of searching (possibly in the wrong places) i found nothing

Calista Blackblood · Oct 22, 2010, 09:56 AM // 09:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rival Night

thanks for the help guys

if i wanted to do some pvp on my warrior can i keep my elite luxon set and just stack stonefist for the knockdown and go hammer

i tried to find a page where it listed pvp hammer builds and runes/insigs etc but after 30 mins of searching (possibly in the wrong places) i found nothing

Don't "stack" Stonefist insignia as you can only get the 1sec KD increase once. Note that the 1sec extra KD also applies to Bulls Strike which is stapled to many Warrior PvP bars,hammer or otherwise.

As for PvP builds,Earth Shaker,Dev Hammer and Magehunters fit this criteria nicely

Hugh Manatee · Oct 26, 2010, 10:30 PM // 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chthon

Sentinel's is a common, but misguided, choice. Reasoning: Unless you're in danger of getting spiked to death (which would indicate much bigger problems with your team than your insignia choice), the damage you take is essentially fungible. Thus, whatever stops the most damage overall is the best choice. Against most mixed-monster mobs, 10AL vs all is going to stop more damage than 20AL vs elemental. Thus, Sentry's > Sentinels. (For that matter, Knight's may also outperform Sentinel's in many circumstances.)

You already have 100 al vs physical, plus the -3 phys from an absorption if you have it, and your shield and/or weapons, physical hits should be negated at this point, 10 more armor won't make much of a difference, but the warrior has only it's base 80 vs elemental damage, you got a -20 deficit vs elemental damage to stack on. Unless you're specifically farming stuff that deals physical hits(cave spiders, i think the stone hulks outside sardelac, maybe the trolls ect), the sentinels will protect vs more of a "mixed" threat, which is what you're going to encounter in the average mission, vanquish or pvp match. Also you sometimes get these guys in pvp who swap into a elemental weapon to pound on you, an extra 10-20 AL helps there.

Chthon · Oct 27, 2010, 02:29 AM // 02:29

You forget that not all non-physical damage is elemental.

maxxfury · Oct 27, 2010, 03:46 AM // 03:46

Now im sure i covered this in guild chat the other day Riva :P guess there was too much shouting goin on :P....

on the note of Guildchat: Calista you scab :P....whassup?

/jayson

No you scab <3

superraptors · Nov 09, 2010, 02:07 PM // 14:07

id go sentinels all the way esp for HM, best to pack 14 str tho incase u are in areas with weakness