Some thoughts on warriors

So... I've been playing warrior for a bit now... I've tried support and damage builds and here is what I run right now:

Traits:
20 points in Strength
+200 power, +20% condition duration
Reckless Dodge: Damage foes at the end of a dodge roll
Building Momentum: Burst skills restore endurance
(V)Berserker's Power: Increases damage based how much adrenaline you have built. Stage 1: 3%, Stage 2: 7%, Stage 3: 12%
(IX)Slashing Power: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 10%

25 points in Arms
+250 precision, +250 condition damage
Precise Strikes: 33% chance to cause bleeding on critical hits
Critical Burst: Burst skills have a 10% increased critical chance
Attack of Opportunity: Increases damage to bleeding foes by 10%
(V)Rending Strikes: 33% chance to cause vulnerability on critical hits
(X)Forceful Greatsword: Gain might on critical hit with a greatsword or spear. Greatsword and spear skill recharge 20% faster

10 points in Tactics
+100 vitality, +10% boon duration
Determined Revival: Gain 5 extra toughness per level while reviving
(VI)Empowered: Increases damage for every boon on you

15 points in Discipline
+15% critical damage, +1.5% burst damage
Versatile Rage: Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on weapon swap
Fast Hands: Weapon-swapping recharges 5 seconds faster
(V)Heightened Focus: Gain a 2% critical-hit chance for 1 stage of adrenaline, 5% for 2 stages, and 9% for 3 stages

Equipment:
Full Berzerker armor with ruby orbs in all sockets
Greatsword with Superior Sigil of Force
Axe with Superior Sigil of Force
Mace with Superior Sigil of Bloodlust (Actually I use Major because I found Superior was too pricey)

Utility Skills:
Healing Surge: Heal yourself and regain all adrenaline. Heal amount is based on your current adrenaline level (8440 at level 3).
The description is not really true as I've observed that, at full adrenaline, you actually loose all your adrenaline when healing yourself. It's a very powerful healing, though, and I also usually activate it before enterting combat as it will fill up my entire adrenaline bar, granting me with 12% increased greatsword damage instantly.

"For Great Justice!": Grant Fury (20% crit. chance for 8 seconds) and Might (105 Power + 105 Condition Dmg for 25 seconds) to yourself and allies.
Nothing much to explain... This is so OP becuase it applies to you whole party and has 0 cast time which means you do not waste DPS.

Banner of Discipline: Place a banner that improves precision by 90 and critical damage by 10% for you and nearby allies.
Nothing to sneeze at while in combat, and when running around the carrier can apply swiftness to the whole party so it's good for mobility as well.

"Shake It Off!": Cure a condition on yourself and nearby allies. Also breaks stuns.
As a way to remove conditions and break stuns

Signet of Rage: Gain Fury (20% crit. chance), Might (175 Power + 175 Condition Dmg), and Swiftness (33% Movement Speed) for 30 seconds.
Like "For Great Justice!" but single target this time (except I've noticed Swiftness applies to everybody around you)

I love this build and I find it so much more fun to play (somehow) than my previous Power/Toughness/Vitality build with healing shouts and removal of conditions... I thought going full Berserker I'd be wiping all the time but the fact is you kill stuff so much quickly you barely get hit.
Of course, I've become a bit squishier so I get to dance around a bit more than before but that's not really an issue anymore.

Anyway, the real reason I'm posting this is because I've been running CoF frequently and I see a lof of level 80 warriors still running 5 signets (referring to the signets build here) or some kind of mix... And while I'm not saying the build isn't good or anything, I still think 5 signets build is not using one warrior's full potential... What do we get in the 5 signets build...?

Dolyak Signet: +180 Toughness (Passive), Gain Stability for 8s (Active)
Signet of Fury: +180 Precision (Passive), Gain 30 adrenaline (Active)
Signet of Might: +180 Power (Passive), Attacks are unblockable for 10s (Active)
Signet of Stamina: Increases endurance regeneration by 33% (Passive), Cure all conditions (Active)
Signet of Rage: Gain Fury (20% crit. chance), Might (175 Power + 175 Condition Dmg), and Swiftness (33% Movement Speed) for 30 seconds.

So yeah, I get the idea of that build as it would enable some players to focus on their attack skills and kind of forget about their utility bar as the advantage of the build is to keep signets on cooldown as much as possible, as it is linked to a trait that gives 200 precision for 5 signets on cooldown I think...

But when you think of it, just swapping one of those signets for "For Great Justice!" will grant a huge dps increase as it applies to you and you allies! In a party of 5, that would mean 100% crit and 525 Power/Condition Damage... Same thing with banner, etc...

So basically, go DPS and think of a group setup when choosing your utility skills

Great Ill look into this when I level my warrior!

Finn. That build is so OP. Took on the entire enemy team of 5 xD I died. but I took 2 down with me and almost 1 more

OK I've been meaning to update this since last month but never got around to do it... Just remembered noe because I'm working on a bleed build since Nemac wants to play sword warrior (and me too actually)... So here goes:

After the patch, some of the traits have been removed and others moved to higher tier so re-traiting my warrior was necessary... I've read on some forums that most Berzerk warriors now do not use Greatswords anymore because it incurrs a loss in overall DPS. I'm all for efficiency but like playing greatsword so I found my own setup that works pretty well still using Greatsword and Axe/Mace.

Traits:
30 points in Strength
+300 power, +30% condition duration
Reckless Dodge: Damage foes at the end of a dodge roll
Building Momentum: Burst skills restore endurance
Stick and Move: Get a damage bonus when endurance is not full.
(V)Dual Wielding: Damage is increased by 5% when wielding an axe, mace, or sword in your offhand.
(IX)Slashing Power: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 10%
(XI)Berserker's Power: Increases damage based how much adrenaline you have built. Stage 1: 5%, Stage 2: 10%, Stage 3: 15%

25 points in Arms
+250 precision, +250 condition damage
Precise Strikes: 33% chance to cause bleeding on critical hits
Critical Burst: Burst skills have a 10% increased critical chance
Attack of Opportunity: Increases damage to bleeding foes by 10%
(III)Deep Cuts: Bleeds you apply last 50% longer
(X)Forceful Greatsword: Gain might on critical hit with a greatsword or spear. Greatsword and spear skill recharge 20% faster

15 points in Discipline
+15% critical damage, +15% burst recharge
Versatile Rage: Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on weapon swap
Fast Hands: Weapon-swapping recharges 5 seconds faster
(VI)Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster

That's that for the traits, everything else is the same (gear, food buff, etc...)

I know some of you may wonder why I did not spend 10 points in Tactics to get Empowered Allies that gives 150 Power to party... Reason is most warriors are running it and it doesn't stack and I also would have to give up on fast hands...

Another reason I still run greatsword is I like most of the skills it offers and find them very useful... Rushing in, dealing tons of damage and whirlwind back out... Plus I'm still working on my Twilight

this is great Yuri, I'm gonna have to try that.

yeah and also check my other bleeding build i've just posted. it's tons of fun.

So I was checking youtube for some dungeons videos and I bumped into this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VxotKo_zwU

Apparently some players have done the maths and there's another traits setup 30-0-0-10-30 that's better than mine up here and still allows the use of a greatsword. Have a look!

The great thing about this game is it seems simple with the builds, but there are so many aspects of it that you can mess around with.

Yuri inspired me to roll a warrior and after playing his bleed build for a bit I started to run into a few issues in some areas, usually when I was with a team. I like to build all my characters for team based combat so this is what i've been playing around with.
Traits:
Defense -
Shield Master: Gain +90 toughness while using a shield. Shield skills recharge 20% faster
Merciless Hammer: Hammer damage is increased by 25% when a foe is disabled. Reduce cool-down of hammer skills by 20%
Spiked Armor: Gain 6 seconds of retaliation when struck by a critical hit. Cannot trigger more than once every 15 seconds

Tactics -
Leg Specialist: Apply a 1 second immobilize whenever you cripple a target with a skill
Lung Capacity: Shouts recharge 20% faster
Vigorous Shouts: Shouts heal

Discipline -
Warrior's Sprint: Run 25% faster while wielding melee weapons

Utility:
Fear Me: This saves lives, and heals, and saves lives again
Shake it off: Cure a condition from yourself and nearby allies. Also breaks stuns
On my mark: Call out a target for to make them vulnerable
Armor and Runes:
Runes I went with runes of Melandru. Gives you lots of toughness and minus condition duration. You could also go with Runes of the fighter. Armor, Rampager gear. Same stats for trinkets.

Sounds like a support right? Far from it. Not only are you healing your team when shouting but between the sword and hammer switches that's a lot of condition to deal with. I see a lot of people complain about sword and board on the forums and with the right gear this build works for team combat or solo. So in short... stuns and bleeds, live forever.

In WvW this is one of the better warrior builds i've messed with to keep you alive and dish out a lot of damage and aoe stuns.
Let me know what you think.

Yuri--that was the build i used for my warrior; and the build i currently use for my warrior post patch. I have some cavalier trinkets for some extra toughness in exchange for lower precision, but otherwise berserker everything. I also use a superior sigil of energy on the mace for an extra dodge. works well for dungeons and familiar content. Good to see posts like this on our forums.

Hey Dal,

I used to run a similar "support" build with my warrior some time ago... But was focusing more on support with cleric gear (toughness, healing, power) and 6 runes of the soldier to have each shout remove a condition. Was also running mace/shield because of vulnerability stacks and hammer for knockdowns... Kind of good on the survivability part but took me forever to kill stuff and somehow died eventually. It's kind of hard in this game to become a tank (as a warrior). That's why I went berzerker because support build implies you need somebody to support.
Maybe your approach with sword is better as you can bleed stuff and your gear gives you +condition dmg.

Another good thing to do with that build is to use "rare veggie pizza"

+40% condition duration
+70 Condition Damage Condition Damage
+10 Experience from kills

I feel like you have to move around a lot more with this build, switch weapon sets often. The hammer controls the mobs and the sword bleeds them out. If everything is on cool down, "fear me" will give you a bit of time to heal. I try not to call it a support build, but if needed the skills are there.

I feel if you are in a place where the mobs have a lot of CC, this build works very well.

Thanks for all your support and feedback Yuri.

Back to the chalk board after teh patch. Anet moved Empowered Allies to Tier 2 of the Tactics Tree which mean you'd need to spend 20 points in Tactics to get it... Kind of a moot point in a DPS build... So if you're still into playing GS style with axe/mace combo, here's how to retrait...

Traits:
30 points in Strength
+300 power, +30% condition duration
Reckless Dodge: Damage foes at the end of a dodge roll
Building Momentum: Burst skills restore endurance
Stick and Move: Get a damage bonus when endurance is not full.
(V)Dual Wielding: Damage is increased by 5% when wielding an axe, mace, or sword in your offhand.
(IX)Slashing Power: Greatsword and spear damage is increased by 10%
(XI)Berserker's Power: Increases damage based how much adrenaline you have built. Stage 1: 5%, Stage 2: 10%, Stage 3: 15%

25 points in Arms
+250 precision, +250 condition damage
Precise Strikes: 33% chance to cause bleeding on critical hits
Critical Burst: Burst skills have a 10% increased critical chance
Attack of Opportunity: Increases damage to bleeding foes by 10%
(V)Rending Strikes: 33% chance to cause vulnerability on critical hits
(X)Forceful Greatsword: Gain might on critical hit with a greatsword or spear. Greatsword and spear skill recharge 20% faster

15 points in Discipline
+15% critical damage, +15% burst recharge
Versatile Rage: Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on weapon swap
Fast Hands: Weapon-swapping recharges 5 seconds faster
(VI)Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster

Equipment:
Full Berzerker armor with ruby orbs in all sockets. There are players out there who like to use the 3 main piece (Helm, Chest and Legs) with Assassin stats to get 3% extra crit chance over 63 power. It's up to you but as I already have the full Berserker set I'm not going to bother. You might also want to try Superior Runes of the Scholar for higher end rune instead of the orbs... You'd get 165 Power, 8% Crit dmg and 10% overall dmg while your health is above 90% over the orbs 120 Power, 12% Crit dmg and 84 Precision.

Greatsword with Superior Sigil of Force
Axe with Superior Sigil of Force
Mace with Superior Sigil of Bloodlust/Perception (Actually I use Major because I found Superior was too pricey)
Regarding Sigils, Sigil or Force gives you a flat 5% increased dmg while I've noticed Sigil of the Night gives you extra 10% dmg at night... And since most dungeons are at night, one may favor Sigil of the Night... So it's up to you. Bloodlust and Perception also give you Power/Precision stacks but they end on down and I get downed a lot which is annoying.

Utility Skills:
Healing Surge: Heal yourself and regain all adrenaline. Heal amount is based on your current adrenaline level (8440 at level 3).
The description is not really true as I've observed that, at full adrenaline, you actually loose all your adrenaline when healing yourself. It's a very powerful healing, though, and I also usually activate it before enterting combat as it will fill up my entire adrenaline bar, granting me with 12% increased greatsword damage instantly.

"For Great Justice!": Grant Fury (20% crit. chance for 8 seconds) and Might (105 Power + 105 Condition Dmg for 25 seconds) to yourself and allies.
Nothing much to explain... This is so OP because it applies to you whole party and has 0 cast time which means you do not waste DPS.

Banner of Discipline: Place a banner that improves precision by 170 and critical damage by 10% for you and nearby allies.
Nothing to sneeze at while in combat, and when running around the carrier can apply swiftness to the whole party so it's good for mobility as well.

Signet of Fury: Passive effect = 180 Precision. Sadly, "Shake It Off!" has to be retired in the favor of DPS stat. Signet of Fury grants you almost 10% crit chance which is now needed to cope with the deficit from losing Empower Allies.

Signet of Rage: Gain Fury (20% crit. chance), Might (175 Power + 175 Condition Dmg), and Swiftness (33% Movement Speed) for 30 seconds.

There you go, this should take you close to 100% crit. chance. There's also a way to tweak the build around by using Deep Strike in the Arms tree instead of Rending Strikes and switch Healing Surge for Healing Signet to get up to 120 extra precision... But I'd only really do that when playing solo as in a group the vulnerability stacks benefit everybody and represent an exponential DPS increase.