Warrior WvW | Large Group Sword/Warhorn, Hammer | Assaulter First Warrior WvW Guide
Table of Contents
Summary
This is MY WAY of playing warrior. My personal preference of damage and tank and playstyle, it's not much different from meta but there are a few subtle changes and also I have tried my best to justify each decision I have made. I hope you all enjoy this guide. Stay classy folks! 
I. Weapons and Skills
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- Gash½Bleed your foe with a gash.Damage: 202Bleeding: 8 s (340 damage)Range: 130
- Hamstring¼ 15Cripple your foe with a precise slash.Crippled: 1 sDamage: 252Range: 130
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Weapon and Skill Details
Weapons:
First and foremost, the core of your warrior build, sword and warhorn. This is what you will stay in until you go in, try to use the "Leap Finisher" on elementalists ice fields as you will get Ice Aura which chills foes that strike you (only once per second for each attacker); incoming damage is reduced by 10% (which is phenomenal). When using your sword F1 burst skill, try and make it so that you ensnare 3 backliners as chances are you won't be getting through enemy frontline stability. It's also worth noting that you can chain cc a lot easier if you cancel the animation and follow up with hammer stuns.
Use your warhorn 4 whenever due to it's low cd (12s) which is 2 seconds of swiftness downtime (on top of guard symbols), however you should take note that this is a CC cleanser of cripple, chills and immobs ontop of the fact it also removes an additional condition because of the "Quick Breathing" trait (Tactics II).
Warhorn 5 is vital to zerg fights, this is your only reliable blast finisher this gives vigor which is good to have before engaging but it isn't worth using in a fight as you will potentially miss water reset blasts.
Latest change to this build:
Charge(Warhorn 4) - Decreased the number of targets from 10 to 5.
Hammer is the CC and damage in a fight. Your F1 is a burst ability which is a potential blast finisher and a stun. Don't use 2 unless it is all you can do, the animation is too long and the pay off isn't worth it.
Heal:
"To the Limit!" is an additional shout as a opposed to healing signet for extra party healing and more adrenaline so that you can use your hammer burst to remove more condi.
Utilities:
"Shake It Off!" is used when in a fight and need heals and condi clears, its short cd relative to your heal ability makes for a utility if your guardians drop your stab.
"For Great Justice!" is good for engaging, fury and might and already a bar of adrenaline, with which you can use hammer burst to condi clear and get early stuns in and early regen.
Endure Pain is almost always worth it, stability is given to you by guards and not only is this a stun break but 4 seconds of invulnerability but still susceptible to condi however that is almost irrelevant as you have a decent amount of condi clear (warhorn 4, 5, "Shake It Off!") your survivability is increased ten fold, however it's perfectly fine to run balanced stance if your guards are not up to scratch.
Elite:
When commander drops, use. If someone asks for banner, use. Banner is love, banner is life. Although Rampage is not recommended, it ca be useful as an engage or disengage the perma-stability, infinite stuns and parkour mobility, Rampage can most definately come in handy, should the situation arise, Warning!: By running rampage there is a very high chance your commander will get mad at you since you aren't running banner, keep that in mind when taking the more "selfish" option.
Most of your abilities indirectly assist your condi clear so a good rotation will keep you condi free and relatively good health upkeep. There is really no other frontline option when it comes to weapons, except maybe sword shield, however you lose a lot of condi cleanse and mobility.
Traits
Defense
- Thick SkinGain 120 toughness while you are above 90% health.
- Shield MasterReduces recharge on shield skills by 20%. Blocking an attack grants 1 stack of might for 8 seconds. If you block a missile attack you reflect it instead.
- Dogged MarchChill, cripple and immobilize have their duration reduced by 33% when applied to you. Gain regeneration for 3 seconds whenever one of these conditions is applied to you (10s ICD).
- Cull the WeakDeal 5% more damage to weakened foes. Striking a foe without weakness that is below 25% health inflicts weakness on them for 3 seconds.
- Adrenal HealthHeal every 3 seconds based on your current adrenaline level.
- Defy PainCast Endure Pain if you take damage while below 25% health. This trait benefits from the duration bonus provided by Last Stand
- Armored AttackGain power equal to 10% of your toughness.
- Sundering MaceReduces recharge on mace weapon skills by 20%. Mace skills apply 1 stack of vulnerability for 10 seconds whenever they hit a foe that is dazed, launched, knocked down or stunned.
- Spiked ArmorGain 150 toughness while you have retaliation. Suffering a critical hit grants you retaliation for 5 seconds (15s ICD)
- Last StandGain vigor for 6 seconds whenever you activate a stance. Stance durations last 25% longer. If you are affected by a crowd control skill cast Balanced Stance. 45s internal cooldown.
- Cleansing IreGain 1 adrenaline whenever you are hit. Remove 1 condition per bar of adrenaline spent when activating a burst skill.
- Rousing ResilienceGain 1000 toughness for 8 seconds and heal yourself whenever you break out of a stun.
Tactics
- Determined RevivalGain 400 toughness while reviving an ally.
- Leg SpecialistInflicting cripple on a foe also inflicts immobilize for 1 second (5s ICD)
- Quick BreathingReduces recharge of warhorn skills by 20% and causes warhorn skills to remove 1 condition on affected allies to a boon.
- EmpoweredDeal 1% additional damage for each boon on you.
- Reviver’s MightWhen you successfully revive an ally, nearby allies gain 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds.
- Shrug it OffCast “Shake it Off!” when you have at least 1 condition on you. This trait benefits from the bonuses provided by Vigorous Shouts.
- Burning ArrowsReduces recharge of longbow skills by 20%. Dual Shot inflicts 2 stacks of burning for 1 second.
- Empower AlliesNearby allies gain 150 power (combat only). Reduced radius of this effect to 300.
- Inspiring PresenceMight you apply grants 10 healing power per stack.
- Powerful SynergyWhenever you activate a leap finisher it activates twice.
- Vigorous ShoutsReduces recharge of shout skills by 20%. Shouts heal allies in their radius and grant you 5 adrenaline.
- Phalanx StrengthWhenever you give yourself might you also apply 1 stack of might for 6 seconds to nearby allies.
Discipline
- Versatile RageGain 5 adrenaline when you swap weapons.
- Crack ShotReduces recharge of rifle and harpoon gun weapon skills by 20%. Rifle and harpoon gun shots pierce.
- Warrior’s SprintMove 25% faster while wielding melee weapons. Using a movement skill removes the immobilize condition.
- Vengeful ReturnThe Vengeance downed skill has a 100% chance to rally you if you kill a foe while it is active. When you rally you regain 25% additional health and 100 endurance.
- Fast HandsReduces recharge of weapon swap by 5 seconds.
- Inspiring Battle StandardBanners apply regeneration for 3 seconds every 3 seconds to allies in their radius while they are active.
- Destruction of the EmpoweredDeal 3% additional damage to foes for each boon they have on them.
- Brawler’s RecoveryRemove 1 condition whenever you swap weapons (combat only).
- Versatile PowerGain 2 stacks of might for 10 seconds whenever you swap weapons (combat only). Burst skill recharge is reduced by 15%.
- Merciless HammerReduces recharge of hammer weapon skills by 20%. Hammer skills deal 20% more damage to stunned, dazed, knocked down, or launched foes.
- Heightened FocusStriking a foe below 50% health grants quickness for 4 seconds (15s ICD).
- Burst MasteryBurst skills deal 7% more damage. Regain 3/7/10 adrenaline when using a burst skill based on the amount of adrenaline spent.
Trait Details
Defense:
-Thick Skin - 120 Toughness on engage, if you keep your health up it will stay that way, this is about halfway between an extra legging (90) and chestplate (134) worth of toughness.
-II Dogged March - Tenacity when faced with a ton of CC and bombs is vital on top of your warhorn 4, so its almost impossible for you to be seriously affected by these.
-Adrenal Health - A lot of your abilities give you adrenaline (due mostly to Vigorous Shouts) which works wonders with this, despite its low health return, it will eventually add up.
-IV Defy Pain - All the reasons to run Endure Pain except this doesn't affect the utility so you get 8 seconds potentially of invulnerability, more survivability is always worth it.
Potential change
-V Armored Attack - If you have a damage based play-style.
-Spiked Armor - Very strong when hit by a critical, the retal is amazing and so is the additional toughness.
-VIII Cleansing Ire - Adrenaline gain on hit coincides with the fact that the use of adrenaline gives condi cleanse with hammer burst.
Tactics:
-Determined Revival - Essentially useless, unless commander calls for hard res and the enemy jump you, but you will most probably never take effect.
-II Quick Breathing - This gives so much condi cleanse and the cd reduction is very helpful.
Potential change
-I Leg Specialist - As you run hammer if you are against a pug group as their boon uptime is almost negligible and the immob potential on 5 people for a follow up is huge.
-III Empowered - Very good when you are having a particularly organized night because you can have swiftness, might, fury, vigor and potentially retaliation as well as the boons your allies apply such as quickness, stab, regen, aegis and protection which is 10% damage increase, more than most damage multipliers in the game.
-Reviver's Might - Same as Determined Revival. 99% useless.
-"Shrug it off" - A free condi cleanse, heal and adrenaline and has no correlation to the utility so you get 2 "Shake It Off!"'s.
Potential change
-Empower Allies - Most parties like you having this but I don't extra survivability is almost always better than the equivalent in damage.
-Inspiring Presence works well with "For Great Justice!" although it is only Healing Power, so you most probably wont see a difference
-VIII Vigorous Shouts - Hands down the most important trait in this build, it's the reason shouts are so effective. Healing on 3 shouts, cd reduction plus the condi clear and boons provided by them make it one of if not the strongest warrior trait.
Discipline:
-Versatile Rage - Make use of its free adrenaline for early regen and burst/blast potential.
-II Warrior's Sprint - Mobility in combat is essential, I feel, in most games, Guild wars 2 is no exception. Immob remove on sword 2 and hammer F1 is even more mobility on top. The other 2 traits are not relevant anyway.
-Fast Hands - With a lot of the build relying on weapon swaps, its vital you learn when and where to swap weapons. Essentially, you want hammer in a fight and sword/warhorn when repositioning or setting up.
-VI Brawler's Recovery - As aforementioned, knowing when to weapon is crucial and is nonetheless important even when learning. Condi cleanse on weapon swap reduces the dependency on your warhorn and utility shouts.
Potential change
-Destruction of the Empowered - This is useful in situations where the enemy zerg has high boon up time, such as guild groups, all they need is 4 simple boons and you will deal +12% damage which can stack to insane amounts of damage multipliers.
-Versatile Power - This trait further reinforces the idea of weapon swaps as a ore mechanic of my shout warrior
-VII Merciless Hammer - Even if we were to ignore the massive damage buff, it gives 20% cd reduction meaning more stuns, more cripples and more knockbacks.
Potential change
Both traits are perfectly viable however Heightened Focus is a lot more focused on dealing damage which isn't your priority as a frontliner. Despite the adrenaline restore one Burst Mastery, that is still a little too focused on damage which is what I believe you have a backline for.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 25162 (+5950)
- Vitality 1595 (+595)
- Armor 2721 (+450)
- Toughness 1450 (+450)
- Attack 3527 (+1529)
- Power 2529 (+1529)
- Critical Hit 35% (+35%)
- Precision 1646 (+646)
Secondary Stats
- Agony Resistance 85 (+85)
- Condition Duration (self) -40% (+-40%)
- Critical Damage 43% (+43%)
- Damage 998 (+0%)
- Defense 1271 (+0)
- Experience from Kills 20% (+20%)
- Ferocity 646 (+646)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
Might, vigor and swiftness (especially) should all have relatively high up time and are relatively easy to keep steady with either another Warrior or Guardian.
Your sword auto attacks apply bleeding so you can always leap in, get an auto attack or two off on some enemies, force them to use condi cleanse and then following up with your hammer cripples. Immob comes from sword F1 burst skill, 3 players, and weakness from hammer 2 and warhorn 5.
IV. Food, Armor, Trinkets & Upgrade Items
Food Nourishment
Condition Duration (self): -40%
Vitality: 70
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Condition Duration (self): -40%
- Vitality: 70
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Utility Nourishment
Gain power equal to 6% of your toughness
Gain power equal to 4% of your vitality
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Gain power equal to 6% of your toughness
- Gain power equal to 4% of your vitality
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Armor & Runes
- Defense: 127
- Power: 63
- Toughness: 45
- Vitality: 45
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Defense: 127
- Power: 47
- Toughness: 34
- Vitality: 34
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Defense: 381
- Power: 141
- Toughness: 101
- Vitality: 101
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Defense: 191
- Power: 47
- Toughness: 34
- Vitality: 34
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Defense: 254
- Power: 94
- Toughness: 67
- Vitality: 67
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Defense: 191
- Power: 47
- Toughness: 34
- Vitality: 34
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
Armor Stat Totals
- Defense 1271
- Vitality 490
- Toughness 445
- Power 439
- Agony Resistance 30
Rune Bonuses
Superior Rune of the Soldier- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
Accessories & Jewels
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
Accessory Totals
- Power:692
- Precision:466
- Ferocity:466
- Agony Resistance:45
- Vitality:30
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 950-1050
- Power: 125
- Precision: 90
- Ferocity: 90
- Weapon Strength: 855-945
- Power: 125
- Precision: 90
- Ferocity: 90
- Vitality: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Toughness: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
Weapon Set I
Superior Sigil of RenewalHeal Nearby Allies on Weapon Swap
Sigil of Superior EnergyYou gain 50% of your endurance when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 9s)
- Weapon Strength: 1034-1166
- Power: 251
- Precision: 179
- Ferocity: 179
- Weapon Strength: -
- Precision: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
- Precision: 5
- Agony Resistance: 5
Weapon Set II
Sigil of Superior HydromancyYou freeze nearby foes for 2s when you swap to this weapon while in combat. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 9s)
- Weapon Strength: 950-1050
- Power: 125
- Precision: 90
- Ferocity: 90
- Weapon Strength: 950-1050
- Power: 125
- Precision: 90
- Ferocity: 90
Water Weapon I
Water Weapon II
Upgrade Item Details
Armor:
Soldiers armor has all the tank you need as a frontliner and the power to stay relevant when you hit. Rune of the Trooper(Soldier) is the best choice you have, not only do you get more tank, but the extra condi cleanse on shout is incredible due to the amount of shouts you put out.
Accessories:
Full Beserkers, you need damage somewhat, here it is.
Weapons:
Berserkers
8x +5 Toughness and 8x +5 Vitality on any armor, accessory or weapon it doesn't matter. The reason I run these is due to the fact that you gain power based on Toughness and Vitality from your Utility Food.
V. Basic Gameplay
STICK ON TAG!!! The most important part is that you, and your party members stay on tag and within range other wise you are giving condi cleanses to pugs or heals to wrong people and it gets messy. You should be sitting on top of tag no matter what, even still there are a few basics.
Decision making:
There is no right way to go about it but there are certainly pointers to follow. While fighting in a zerg you need to pay attention to both the tag and the cooldowns of abilities and at the same time not spamming them all as soon as cooldown drops. Sometimes you need to make the decision such as "Do I use shake it off for the heal or to the limit?", "If I use to the limit now, that's a 7.5k heal I don't have available for 24 seconds, will the enemy attack in that time?" and some simple ones if your zerg isn't responding "Is now a good time to drop banner?(Battle Standard)".
Don't mash:
Contrary to popular belief, warriors are not "press one to win" bots, and when used effectively, have the potential to negate a ton of condition stacks and using the rest of the build to it's maximum effectiveness. This doesn't mean, use all shouts at the same time and warhorn skills to get rid of poison and bleed stacks, no, this is inefficient and ineffective, there should be some common sense applied.
Do you need health and a condi clear? Shake it off.
Do you need condi clear but not health? Warhorn 4/5.
Do you need health and no condi clear? To the Limit.
I have 5 conditions on me, what's my best option? If you have health, use warhorn 4 and 5 and if you still need to, shake it off is available. Instead of going "oh shit, necro wells *warhorn 4, 5, heal, all utilities" then having nothing left when commander says go in.
Have your squads back:
Always check your party UI, if you see a party member have more conditions than you think they can handle, don't be scared to use your abilities, they have a shortish cooldown so you should aim to always have one open. If you see a party member down there is no reason not to insta-banner. One person can make a helluva difference, it could be that extra might stack that rallies you next push, or the regen that keeps you on 14hp. Your team is your number one priority.
Have situational awareness:
Make sure you carry a greatsword on you at all times, there will be times, trust me, where you will need to rush to a cap to stop a T3 garrison from flipping and you get in on the last tick then get hailed a hero when your 50 man follows up with a wipe and more bags than Paris Hilton. You need to take the initiative to run ahead of the commander and get in there, even if he doesn't call it. If you see swords on the keep your all running to and there is 1 minute left on "Repel Invaders" then you know there's someone doing work, you need to hustle and get in there. Little things like this, I find myself doing myself all the time that go mostly unnoticed, but you shouldn't need the glory.
So these are just some basics that I play my Warrior around, you may think otherwise so take these with a grain of salt.
Main Skill Rotation
Both warhorn skills preemptively before leaping in and tagging someone popping your fury and might from "For Great Justice!". If you aren't in combat when you hit "For Great Justice!" it will be a waste, and the endurance will drop instantly.
Once you have your boons as you follow the tag, they will call "bombs" or "damage on my tag" and this is when you lay down your CC. It's easy to get distracted and stick to a few people and chain stun them but it's vital you stick on tag. Your only "cleave" is hammer 3 which has a relatively short cd in comparison to other hammer abilities.
Try and fit your shouts in there when you need to as mentioned prior, but your main focus is to keep yourself alive and your fellow party members.
There are too many variables to take into account for there to be one single way of doing it, but that's not fun, there's no longer creation of combos, no progression, everyone does the same thing without batting an eye. You should be always trying to improve not only your skills as a Warrior, but your game knowledge, someone who knows some of everything is potentially a lot stronger than someone who knows a lot bout one thing but not a lot about anything else.