Bleed Warrior Build

I was recently talking with Nemac who said he wanted to play a sword/shield warrior... I actually went that way in the earlier days of the game as I was playing sword/shield in guildwars1 and liked bleeding and cutting my foes.

I'm now testing a bleeding spec, which is not sword/shield but sword/axe with longbow as secondary... I know longbow skills do not bleed but there's other advantages to it. Let's look at the traits first:

Traits:
30 points in Arms
+300 precision, +300 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
(VII)Blademaster: Increases your critical-hit chance with a sword by 10%
(XI)Furious: Critical hits grant triple adrenaline

10 points in Tactics
+100 vitality, +10% boon duration
Determined Revival: Gain 5 extra toughness per level while reviving
(II)Empowered Allies: Increases power of nearby allies (and yourself) by 150 points

30 points in Discipline
+30% critical damage, +30% burst recharge
Versatile Rage: Gain 5 strikes of adrenaline on weapon swap
Fast Hands: Weapon-swapping recharges 5 seconds faster
Versatile Power: Gain might for 10 seconds on weapon swap
(VI)Signet Mastery: Signets recharge 20% faster
(IX)Sharpened Axes: Critical hits with axes grant extra adrenaline. Axe skill recharge is reduced by 20%
(XII)Heightened Focus: Gain a 5% critical-hit chance for 1 stage of adrenaline, 10% for 2 stages, and 15% for 3 stages.

So basically, these traits focus on bleeding the foes by using sword bleed and bleeding on critical hits, while trying to generate adrenaline to be able to use the sword and longbow Burst Skills. I'm still tinkering with the Discipline tree and looking at (XI)Burst Mastery:  Burst skills deal more damage (I think it's 10% more) and cost less as Heightened Focus is only really interesting when you're full on adrenaline which shouldn't happen very often... But 15% crit is for normal attacks not only burst so... Yeah, not sure yet...

Equipment:
Full Rabid armor set w/ various runes + accessories/trinkets with Exquisite Coral Jewel in all sockets
Rabid Sword with Superior Sigil of Rage
Rabid Axe with Superior Sigil of Earth
Rabid Longbow with Superior Sigil of Earth

Right... So regarding the Full Rabid armor set, as you cannot craft it, your only choice is to get it from various dungeons such as Caudecus Manor or Honor of the Waves. You can also acquire it from various Temples karma vendors but it's like 1 piece from a different vendor so it may take a while... I have personally opted for the easiest one, Galrath's armor set can be purchased from trading post for less than 1g a piece (it's cheap for exotic warrior armor).

Rune wise, I'm focusing on runes that give extra bleeding duration and went for Superior Rune of the Centaur(x2), Superior Rune of the Krait(x2) and Superior Rune of the Afflicted(x2). Each pair of runes grants you with +15% bleed duration which amounts to +45% bleed duration in total. Pretty cool when paired with (III)Deep Cuts: Bleeds you apply last 50% longer... You're now sitting at +95% bleed duration. Runes price varies, though... I think I paid around 80s for Centaur and Krait and around 10s for Afflicted.

Exotic Rabid Trinkets/accessories/pendants can all be purchased from the Karma vendor after the Dwayna event in Malchor's Leap for a total of 252,000 karma that you should have available if you've been running your dailies and monthlies and saving the jugs for Karma Fridays like I told you to! Exquisite Coral Jewel to socket in have to be purchased from trading post for relatively cheap.

Exotic Rabid Sword can be acquired from dungeons... I went for the trading post option and purchased Alderune's Last Stand for 1,5g.

Exotic Rabid Axe was an issue... I couldn't find one in trading post so I got Labrys for 1,7g. The stats are Power/Precision/Condition instead of Toughness/Precision/Condition but I'd figured it would work too...

For the Exotic Rabis Longbow, I bought Final Curse for like 1g.

Quick note on the Superior Sigil of Earth. You need one on each weapon set as it grants a 60% chance to apply bleed on ciritcal strike. It goes very well with the trait Precise Strikes: 33% chance to cause bleeding on critical hits but be aware that these two do not stack. You do not get 93% chance to bleed on crit... Instead you get 2 separate chances (60% and 33%) to apply bleeding which means 1 critical hit can result in 2 bleeding conditions.

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 a Burst Skill use from the get go.

"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.

Similarly to my traits, I'm still playing around with those... I'm thinking maybe changing banner for Endure Pain as I'm kind of squishy... I'm still getting used to the build...

OK... Back on the Longbow choice... I chose longbow instead of rifle for the following reasons:
1. The longbow burst skill Combustive Shot does area of effect damage and applies burning condition. At 3 strikes of adrenaline, the bed of fire will hit mobs 5 times. Each of those 5 hits get the same chance to crit than any other direct hit, and if critting they will be subject to the "apply bleeding lottery" and the bleeding stack increases.
2. Combustive Shot has a great combo with Arcing Arrow that grants 3 stacks of might for 20 seconds... Each stack of Might grants you 35 Power and 35 Condition Damage... That's a total of 105! And for 20 seconds! Awesome!

So that's basically the idea.. I'm trying to play the build as follows:
Step 1: Use healing surge to fill up the adrenaline bar
Step 2: Combustive Shot + Arcing Arrow to get the 3 stacks of might (note you have to be hit by Arcing Arrow to get the stacks... so have to step in fire)
Step 3: Switch to Sword/Axe and use Savage Leap to close down on your foes (you shouldn't be too far but anyway...)
Step 4: Dual Strike then Whirling Axe (note that dodging does not interrupt Whirling Axe which is awesome)
Step 5: When full adrenaline, hit Flurry (your adrenaline will go to 0 but the 12 strikes of flurry should take it back up in no time)
Step 6: Back of the mob a bit and switch to bow. Heal if needed (for Health or for adrenaline or for both ^^) and repeat from Step 2.

Honestly it's pretty cool... It's a big change from the Berzerker style as it's focusing more on conditions but it's a pretty viable use of sword and condition damage... and pretty fun to play too (although challenging at times)! Now, don't go make me say what I haven't... So far the Berzerker build is more efficient, mobs die faster, etc... I haven't actually timed it but it's the feeling I get when playing around with the Bleed build... And if you run CoF p1, noone will want you. But it's fun and with a bit of tweaking I'm sure it's worth playing...

Another point is you may look silly if partying up with other guys that are pros at conditions like maybe rangers, mermers or necromancers... Although the build is viable you may not be able to outdamage them.

I haven't thought of food buffs yet as I do not know for now if I want to boost crit chance or tough/vit. The crit. chance of the build is already pretty high, I think it was something like 80% with "For Great Justice!", Banner of Discipline and Signet of Rage... Add to that what you get when full adrenaline and it's like 95% chance to crit... With the Berzerker build I'm usually using omnomberry pies which give a 66% chance to steal life on critical hit... So maybe that combined with something else or maybe crystals to increase condition damage I'm not sure yet...

So that's the build... And sorry Nemac but I'm not sure if we can revive Sword/Shield. Shield skills are just useless used with bleeding in mind. I just can't find anything interesting in them except the extra armor and looking cool

Yeah I pretty much gave up as well. Otherwise, this is similar to what I have going. the 2 changes I can actually remember right now is I have sword offhand as well so I get 2 more skills that allow me to stack more bleed, as well as one is a ranged bleed so I start with that one then lunge in and stack more. The other change is that my first trait in arms( i think its called. second one from the top) i have the one that gives +40 precision for each unusued signet, and ive got all utilities are sigs except for the one(for great justice).    I crit alot.

Sorry for the shitty grammer tonight. I'm literally fighting to stay awake to type this.