Warrior WvW | Large Group Hammer, Sword/Warhorn | Assaulter WvW Shout Heal Frontliner
Table of Contents
Summary
NOTE: I semi quit GW2 and will not be updating this guide very often unfortunately. I will keep the guide up in case the build stays relevant. Thank you for your support.
Frontliner build for manly players who want to roll through a zerg without breaking a sweat. Similar build ran by top WvW guilds, but tweaked for a bit more versatility.
Pros
- Very hard to take down but still dishes out constant AoE damage and cleave.
- Great crowd control.
- Great sustain.
- Fits into any group, from organized WvW guilds to pug groups.
- Great source of blast finishers for your group.
- Good mobility on the battlefield.
- Great condition cleansing.
Cons
- Subpar at 1vX.
- No real burst damage.
- You rely on water fields to reset because of no burst healing.
- Not as good if you're the only warrior in your group running this build.
[Rx] Noziro ~ Sea of Sorrows
http://prescribedrx.com/
I. Weapons and Skills
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- Hammer Bash½Bash your foe again.Damage: 333Range: 130
- Hammer Smash½Smash the ground and damage nearby foes.Damage: 444Range: 130
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Weapon and Skill Details
Main Weapon: Hammer
The hammer is a no-brainer for WvW teamfighting. Amazing crowd control and AoE damage. It's your main source of damage.
Auto Attack
Your standard auto attack. High base damage but no property on it, just raw damage. Interestingly, the last attack, Hammer Smash, does point blank area of effect damage.
Fierce Blow
Use at the end of an auto attack chain for extra damage.
Hammer Shock
Good AoE cripple with fast cast time, so use it whenever it's up even with the low damage.
Staggering Blow
Great AoE crowd control, especially since the buff. You need to position and space yourself well to use it. A lot of people forget that it's a whirl combo finisher as well, so it can be used for that in specific situations (Ice, smoke and light fields come to mind).
Backbreaker
Your only single target crowd control. Use it moderately in teamfights, don't prioritize it over your auto attack.
Burst Skill: Earthshaker
One of the best crowd controls in the game. Try to use it in the right situations and not spam it. Your adrenaline is a big part of your sustain because of the Adrenal Health minor trait. Remember this is a blast finisher. Use it to engage teamfights as often times your allies will place good combo fields in front of the enemy that you can blast.
Secondary Weapons: Sword/Warhorn
The sword is your mobility weapon while the warhorn is your utility and support weapon.
Auto Attack
Great chasing auto attack when you want targets to stay crippled.
Savage Leap
Best mobility skill in the game in terms of versatility. Use it to get out of a fight to reset, go back in a fight, etc. It is a leap finisher so don't hesitate to use it in a water field to heal yourself (after using Call to Arms of course).
Final Thrust
Great but very situational skill. Great at instantly downing squishy targets. Definitely has a place in teamfights when your melee train is running over a bunch of people, you'll be surprise how many low HP target you'll down.
Charge
Try to use it if you switch to your warhorn and it's up. Your main source of swiftness when moving around.
Call to Arms
The main reason why you'll be switching to this weapon set in a teamfight. It's very important that you save it for might stacking and water field resets. AoE weakness and vigor is nothing to be laughed at either.
Burst Skill: Flurry
Good situational alternative when you want to lock someone down but they have stability (or locking down Eles before they Mist Form/Vapor Form, etc).
Healing Skill
Healing Signet
This skill received a buff a few patches ago and is now a must for most warrior bunker builds. It offers good sustain on its own, but paired with the Adrenal Health minor trait, you'll be healing for over 800HP/second at full adrenaline. This skill alone will keep you up in teamfights longer than you really should. Try to never ever use it unless in a very dire situation as it is not a source of burst healing.
Utility Skills
What the build is centered around. "Shake It Off!" and For "Great Justice!" are great skills and have amazing synergy with each other. This build NEEDS these 2 shouts.
"Shake It Off!"
20 second cooldown stunbreaker??? Yes please. Will cure 2 conditions for you and your allies every 20 seconds. An absolute must in this build.
"For Great Justice!"
Constant 3 stacks of might and fury for your group. Works really well with "Shake It Off!" for a semi AoE burst heal.
Balanced Stance
As a melee class, you will need stability to not get kited. This is the best way to give yourself stability. You lose the 180 toughness bonus from Dolyak Signet, but stability uptime is more important for survivability. Toughness only helps when you need to stand in damage, but good players will avoid most of the damage purely with positioning. If you have a party full of guardians, then consider Dolyak Signet since you'll probably get perma stability anyways.
Elite Skill
Battle Standard
Great teamfighting skill. Instantly getting 5 down allies up is a powerful tool to have. Signet of Rage can be a good alternative if you're in a smaller group since more individual damage is a more reliable source of rally.
II. Traits
Strength
Arms
Defense
Tactics
Trait Details
Defense
Thick Skin
Good boost of stats to absorb the initial burst of damage in a fight.
II: Dogged March
This trait plays a big part in keeping you alive during fights, otherwise you would just get kited forever and wouldn't be able to push through enemies.
Adrenal Health
Great synergy with Healing Signet. As said earlier, it'll give you around 400HP/second at full adrenaline. For this reason you want to use Earthshaker wisely so you don't lose sustain.
X: Merciless Hammer
Big boost of damage and allows you to press more buttons, what's not to like. An excellent defensive alternative would be IX: Cleansing Ire for virtually 100% adrenaline uptime and additional condition removal.
Armored Attack
Gives you almost 200 power which is very significant for 5 points.
Tactics
Determined Revival
Tactics minor traits suck.
II: Lung Capacity
Makes your shouts that much more effective and even more spammable.
Fast Healer
Tactics minor traits suck.
IX: Quick Breathing
Synergizes really well with the playstyle. Gives the group perma-swiftness and lower cooldown on your blast finisher.
Reviver's Might
Tactics minor traits suck.
XII: Vigorous Shouts
The central piece of this build. Your shouts are going to AoE heal for almost 1800HP each, so you can imagine it becoming exponentially better the more frontliners you have that are running it.
Discipline
I like this as a tertiary trait line. This build has a lot of power already and enough precision. The only thing holding you from doing a ton of damage is the low critical damage, so the easy 15% helps. The traits will also help keep your adrenaline high, thus keeping your sustain high.
Versatile Rage
You'll be weapon swapping here and there in teamfights for either finishing combos or mobility. Good way to gain a bit of adrenaline for free.
IV: Inspiring Shouts
Offers really good synergy with the build. It really keeps your adrenaline almost maxed out at all time for great sustain.
Fast Hands
I guess this is more of a personal preference. It doesn't bring THAT much to the build, but it definitely adds to the versatility, thus why I like to spend the extra 5 points to get it. When you play with this trait for a while you just can't live without it.
Alternatives
0 0 20 30 20
The zergbusting meta variant used by a lot of top organized guilds on their shout heal warriors. Taking 20 for VIII: Destruction of the Empowered will make you do a lot of damage when jumping in big groups of enemies. My take on it is the more organized is your group, 20 30 20 becomes better than 25 30 15.
0 0 30 30 10
Tankier alternative. If you dont care about the fast weapon swapping, get 30 in Defense for the XII: Spiked Armor trait which is excellent in teamfights.
III. Stat Specifics & Effects
Primary Stats
- Health 29032 (+9820)
- Vitality 1898 (+982)
- Armor 2904 (+777)
- Toughness 1693 (+777)
- Attack 2978 (+951)
- Power 1867 (+951)
- Critical Hit 18% (+18%)
- Precision 1301 (+385)
Secondary Stats
- Boon Duration 30% (+30%)
- Burst Recharge 15% (+15%)
- Condition Duration (self) -40% (+-40%)
- Critical Damage 24% (+24%)
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords -2% (+-2%)
- DMG to Guards and Lords 4% (+4%)
- Damage 1111 (+0%)
- Defense 1211 (+0)
- Experience from Kills 20% (+20%)
- Ferocity 360 (+360)
- Healing Power 250 (+250)
- Stun Duration 30% (+30%)
Boons
Conditions
Control
Fields & Finishers
Stat and Effect Details
NOTE: The site seems to be miscalculating the stats (missing 100 toughness and adding 100 vitality) for some odd reasons. Here's what it should look like unbuffed, fully geared (ascended weapons and full WvW infusions):
NOTE 2: This gear setup assumes that you have ascended weapons, they are just not available on this site right now.
You might've noticed that I don't go full Soldier (Power Vitality Toughness or PVT). This is something I don't recommand for players who are not familiar with this build or the class. As a general rule, most classes and builds should start with full PVT armor in WvW, then replace a piece of gear here and there for more damage and stats optimization.
My goal with these stats was to get as much damage as possible without sacrificing survivability. I was aiming for:
- At least 26000HP.
- At least 3100 armor.
- At least 30% critical chance with food.
I feel like those are just about the minimum HP and armor you'll need to sustain comfortably in every situation possible. A better player might need less survivability. Also, having ~30% critical chance with food will ensure that you'll reach 50% with near perma fury which is a pretty good number. It's up to you to optimize your own stats for your playstyle. This is the best I've personally come up with but there might be better ways. If you're using this gear setup, I suggest swapping some soldier trinkets for berserker ones if you need more damage.
If you don't have any ascended gear, you can still run the same setup just fine but I'd suggest having 2 Knight's rings and using a mix of beryl orbs and emerald orbs on your trinkets.
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 precision equal to 6% of your toughness
Gain precision equal to 4% of your vitality
Experience from Kills: 10%
- (30min)
- Gain precision equal to 6% of your toughness
- Gain precision equal to 4% of your vitality
- Experience from Kills: 10%
Armor & Runes
- Defense: 121
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Defense: 121
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Defense: 363
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Defense: 182
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Defense: 242
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
- Defense: 182
- Vitality: 25
- Toughness: 35
- Vitality: 50
- Toughness: 65
- Vitality: 100
- Shouts remove a condition from each affected ally.
Armor Stat Totals
- Defense 1211
- Vitality 175
- Toughness 100
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
- Power: 5
- DMG to Guards and Lords: 1%
- Power: 5
- DMG to Guards and Lords: 1%
- Power: 5
- DMG to Guards and Lords: 1%
- Vitality: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Vitality: 5
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords: -1%
- Power: 5
- DMG to Guards and Lords: 1%
Accessory Totals
- Power:712
- Toughness:256
- Vitality:266
- Precision:210
- Ferocity:210
- DMG to Guards and Lords:4%
- DMG Taken from Guards and Lords:-2%
Weapon Set Sigils
- Weapon Strength: 985-1111
- Power: 239
- Toughness: 171
- Vitality: 171
- Weapon Strength: -
Weapon Set I
Sigil of Superior Fire50% chance to cause flame blast on critical hit causing AoE damage. (This effect cannot trigger more than once every 5s)
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Power: 120
- Toughness: 85
- Vitality: 85
- Weapon Strength: 814-900
- Power: 120
- Toughness: 85
- Vitality: 85
Weapon Set II
Sigil of Superior BloodlustYou gain +10 power each time you kill a foe. (max 25 stacks and ends on down or weapon change)
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: 905-1000
- Power: 120
- Toughness: 85
- Vitality: 85
- Weapon Strength: 905-1000
- Power: 120
- Toughness: 85
- Vitality: 85
Water Weapon I
Water Weapon II
Upgrade Item Details
Food
Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup
This food plays a very big part in keeping you alive and making sure you cannot be stopped while you're trying to push through a zerg. The only other food that I would recommand would be Mango Pies if you're sticking to smaller scale fights (less than 10v10). It'll boost your HP regen closer to 900HP/second. The food isn't affected by healing power but it IS affected by the WvW Medic bonus.
Master Maintenance Oil
This utility brings your critical chance where you want it to be, which is near 30%, 50% with fury.
Runes
Rune of the Soldier
This rune probably synergizes the best with this build out of any other rune. It makes your shouts so much more effective. Every 20 seconds you can cleanse 3 conditions off your allies AND heal them for 3600HP AND give them good boons. A good alternative is 6 Runes of Melandru, especially if you're unfamiliar with warrior frontlining in general.
Sigils
Hammer: Sigil of Fire
This is an amazing sigil. It will usually hit for over 1000 AoE damage, I really don't see any sigil giving you more damage and synergy with the build's playstyle than that. When you're running with an organized group, it becomes even deadlier if all your frontliner are running this sigil.
Hammer: Sigil of Paralyzation
This comes down to preference, it makes your already amazing stuns better.
Sword: Sigil of Bloodlust
The food already puts your critical chance at ~50% which is a really good number. This sigil will give you a great boost of damage. Sigil of Perception can be a good alternative if you're in a group that gives you high stacks of might constently, then 10% critical chance can be more desirable.
Warhorn: Sigil of Hydromancy
I really like this sigil for teamfights. AoE chilling is very underrated. A lot of good WvW guilds use this sigil on their frontliners. It's also very good to escape, just switch to S/W to chill people, then leap away.
Alternatives
Sigil of Energy
This is always a great sigil on just about any build. It's especially good if you're not familiar with the class or the build and you want a bit more survivability. But when you get used to this build, you shouldn't need this sigil to stay alive.
Hammer: Sigil of Force
Again, this comes down to preference, this sigil helps you get closer to that critical number of % damage modifiers stacking.
V. Basic Gameplay
You are THE INITIATOR and the backup PEELER for your group.
Initiator: You initiate fights. You are the first one to take damage and the last one.
Peeler: Peeling is the act of getting people off your damage dealers, aka your backline. After initiating, the enemy group is going to try to get to your backline too, so after pushing it's a good idea to go back and use your crowd control on enemies trying to kill your backline.
If you want to play this build, you need to be very manly. Don't be scared to get deep into the action and trust your sustain to keep you alive. Learn your limits well to make sure you don't overextend or take more damage than you should take. Add good positioning to this and you should be the last one to die in a fight. It will take some getting used to if you're used to having a burst healing skill like Healing Surge. Bonus points if you shout "HAMMER STUN, BITCH" everytime you hammer stun.
Things to keep in mind and general tips:
- Have you ever tried to escape a zerg with Savage Leap and GODDAMNIT I TARGETED A RABBIT. Fear not, I have the solution for you: Bind a key to "Lock Autotarget" in your control options. If you just tap it once, it will untarget whatever you are targeting right now. Pressing that key before every Savage Leap will save your life.
- Do you need a hammer stun more or sustain more at this particular moment? Not using your hammer stun can result in losing a lot of damage and crowd control, but keeping your adrenaline will result in staying alive longer.
- Prioritize your own survivability over your teammates'.
- Be aware of your boons. Don't waste stability if you already have it, don't use a dodge if you have aegis, etc. It is key to maximize your survivability.
- Be aware of what is on the ground. Don't stand in the enemy's damage. This is the reason why organized groups will push through an enemy group, not just to reach their backline but to push behind their damage. Defensively, you want to be able to spot water fields that you can blast with Call to Arms or Earthshaker.
- Tell your group to call for a banner if they're down. Also have the awareness to use it if you see people down. Don't hesitate to use it on one player because that one player can rally 10 enemies.
- When hammerstunning a group, it can be a good idea to pop "Shake It Off!" right before your hammer hits the ground to negate blind and potentially miss a crucial hammerstun.
- A minor tip, but one that can save your life, make sure you have your hammer equipped before maning siege. This way if your siege gets destroyed or someone kicks you off of it and you're spamming your 2 key, you won't sword leap in an enemy zerg.
- Shout "HAMMER STUN, BITCH".
- Be a man. Do the right thing.
Main Skill Rotation
Basic Teamfight Rotation:
- Before the teamfight starts, blast fire/static fields with Call to Arms and stack other buffs with Charge and "For Great Justice!".
- Engage the enemy with Earthshaker on top of a combo field.
- Follow up with a well placed Hammer Shock to AoE cripple their frontline so you can access their backline more easily (depending on how organized is your group).
- Lots of hammer swinging for a while.
- Use a Staggering Blow here and there to disrupt their backline damage or keep people off of your backline.
- Keep using shouts pretty often for condition cleansing and healing. Better if all your frontliners running XII: Vigorous Shouts synchronize their shouts.
- Swing that hammer some more.
- At some point you might start getting low HP. If YOU get low HP, that means your allies should be too. Try spotting a water field and switch to sword and warhorn to blast it with Call to Arms. Or use it on a fire field depending on how the fight is going. Use Charge as well since they're up at the same time.
- Keep hammer stunning big blobs of enemy players for maximum damage (and use it on top of combo fields for maximum effectiveness too).
- Stay alive.
- Win.
I'm-Being-Chased-By-A-Zerg Rotation
Are you getting chased by a pesky zerg? No problem, follow these steps:
- Pop your stability and Earthshaker aka "HAMMER STUN, BITCH" on their blob (use your 2 shouts for adrenaline if you don't have any or want max stun duration).
- Turn around and Hammer Shock.
- Switch to sword for the chill from the sigil.
- Dodge backwards while turning 180 degrees.
- Leap away with Savage Leap.
- Apply generous amounts of swiftness with Charge.
- Run away free and type /laugh if you have balls.
Disclaimer: I do not guarantee that this method will keep you alive and will not be held responsible for deaths and/or repair costs.
VI. Conclusion
Thanks for reading my guide. I hope this build is what you were looking for. I've accumulated a lot of experience in WvW and I enjoy sharing it so other players can have more fun playing the game. I've tested this build in just about every situation possible, from small scale fights to 1:5 odds fights, from 100% pug groups to very organized WvW fighting, and it did well in all of these situations.
Come hang out on my stream!
Though how much would you say your heals are actually beneficial?(unaware of the exact size of the heals with your healing power right now, as I did focus more on these builds around release, but 1,500 sound like it may very well be right )
they would only be healing five, not including yourself, how does this typically fair in larger zergs? In smaller zergs I can see the difference.
Also the problem I had with these builds is balancing do I heal, or do I buff. If you wait until the group needs the heal, they aren't getting the buff. The only way I found to get around this was to get 1 or 2 other healing shout warriors next to me, and rotate heals/buffs(Which was ridiculously effective at the time.)
How do you address these problems? I did not want to down vote your build if you have thought of these and had a response to them, or found a reason as why they may no longer or are not major problems, as I feel that would be unfair, and possibly unnecessary.
If you do not want to reply, I will just refrain from voting. =)
It depends how you define zerg. Even if you are the only shout heal warrior in your zerg, it's still a LOT of healing. (2 shouts * 1500hp) * 5 persons = 15000hp healing for your group every 20 seconds. It is definitely noticeable. There's also a fair chance that you'll have a few other shout heal warriors (if not a lot more) in a zerg, which makes your healing exponentially stronger. Most top WvW builds use shout heal on their warriors for a reason, it's very effective.
As for balancing buffing vs healing, you should prioritize your own survivability over your team (even if it sounds counterintuitive). You can use For Great Justice whenever it's up because it's never wasted. Shake it Off should be saved for your own survivability, or if FGJ is up and you want to use both shouts at the same time for max healing. It comes down more to experience running the build rather than actual rules on when to use your shouts.
Thanks for your comment. I hope you'll give the build a try again and like it!
As for balancing/buffing, what you say does make more sense, as like you said in your zergs there tend to be a more dependable presence of other healing warriors. Also focusing slightly more on what the shouts do over heals was what I tended to do when running these builds also.
I will pay some close attention to the zergs on my server, and try to see if there is a presence of healing warriors there. Though at least on my server I do not think there are a lot of them there.
As for your build, I can definitely see the benefit of running it with the dependable other shout warriors in the zerg. Since that is how you are intending on running it, to alleviate the drawbacks/restrictions of the shouts themselves, I do think this build deserves a like from me.
I just wanted to make sure that these were things you considered and accounted for given the nature of this build.
=)
Explain how these incredible benefits are mitigated by a 5 second cooldown on 2 shouts.
Thanks Noziro :)
Is there any huge change foreseeable with the new feature-patch coming up? Maybe with the healing signet change, as we are not so much zerker and thus suffer not that much from the crit chnage?