Why do warriors feel so glassy?

Every time I go into a PvP or WvW match I see warriors who are unstoppable killing machines, almost impossible to kill... but here I am, struggling to play one since 2015 for all sorts of content.

I have three warriors. A DPS Spellbreaker, a DPS Banner Core Warrior, and a Condition Berserker. The condition Berserker isn't that bad, but I'm having huge difficulties managing the other two characters. They're just incredibly fragile and useless. Their damage isn't high enough to finish off their enemies in time, and all that I see are their health-pools dropping faster than I can count... faster than my thief characters, even. I find this absolutely ridiculous. I can barely last against one miserable Elite enemy, and I keep dragging my party down in dungeons. This is so frustrating.

Yes, the builds fall under the category of meta and are praised by many, but they just aren't working for me. I've even tried going full Soldiers, and it's not really working. I want to like this class, but every time I try to play it... I feel like just giving up.

@"RandomWolf.3986" said:Every time I go into a PvP or WvW match I see warriors who are unstoppable killing machines, almost impossible to kill... but here I am, struggling to play one since 2015 for all sorts of content.

I have three warriors. A DPS Spellbreaker, a DPS Banner Core Warrior, and a Condition Berserker. The condition Berserker isn't that bad, but I'm having huge difficulties managing the other two characters. They're just incredibly fragile and useless. Their damage isn't high enough to finish off their enemies in time, and all that I see are their health-pools dropping faster than I can count... faster than my thief characters, even. I find this absolutely ridiculous. I can barely last against one miserable Elite enemy, and I keep dragging my party down in dungeons. This is so frustrating.

Yes, the builds fall under the category of meta and are praised by many, but they just aren't working for me. I've even tried going full Soldiers, and it's not really working. I want to like this class, but every time I try to play it... I feel like just giving up.

First of all, this belongs in the warrior subforum.

Second of all, it's about chaining together the skills that give you damage reduction or temp invuln when the time is appropriate. For example:

• Full counter gives you temporary invincibility.
• Any skill with build in evades (like whirlwind attack) gives you temporary invincibility
• Endure Pain / Berserker's Stance gives you temporary invincibility to specific types of damage
• Blocks provide invincibility to most damage except unblockable attacks
• Stability provides defense against CC's.

So typically I see warriors that are nigh-invincible taking advantage of chaining together their temp invulns when they see an enemy busting out their high damage skills. For example, Photon Blitz or Holographic Shockwave are very telegraphed skills by holos that make perfect sense to full counter or dodge through. Then when the holo is on cooldown, the warrior switches into damage mode, with not much focus on those survival skills.

Realistically, you should be paying attention to what your opponent is doing and reacting.

@"RandomWolf.3986" said:Every time I go into a PvP or WvW match I see warriors who are unstoppable killing machines, almost impossible to kill... but here I am, struggling to play one since 2015 for all sorts of content.

I have three warriors. A DPS Spellbreaker, a DPS Banner Core Warrior, and a Condition Berserker. The condition Berserker isn't that bad, but I'm having huge difficulties managing the other two characters. They're just incredibly fragile and useless. Their damage isn't high enough to finish off their enemies in time, and all that I see are their health-pools dropping faster than I can count... faster than my thief characters, even. I find this absolutely ridiculous. I can barely last against one miserable Elite enemy, and I keep dragging my party down in dungeons. This is so frustrating.

Yes, the builds fall under the category of meta and are praised by many, but they just aren't working for me. I've even tried going full Soldiers, and it's not really working. I want to like this class, but every time I try to play it... I feel like just giving up.

I can talk for pvp and wvw, since i don't think pve it's focused much in defense but mainly in the max dps output you can achieve with your profession.

As Vagrant said especially on Spellbreaker, the way to be nearly invincible is time right all your skills, this way you can be tanky as hell, 2 dodges on the right enemy skills, 3 seconds block with shield5, full counter, switch to greatsword3, plus passive endure pain and balanced stance, plus active endure pain, full counter again, shield 5 again, dodge again.

The trick is watch the enemy and use properly the right skills, if your opponent is only autoattacking or he kiting dont use shield 5 or full counter randomly, or when you will need it you don't have it anymore and you will feel seriously glassy like a thief.

@"RandomWolf.3986" said:Every time I go into a PvP or WvW match I see warriors who are unstoppable killing machines, almost impossible to kill... but here I am, struggling to play one since 2015 for all sorts of content.

I have three warriors. A DPS Spellbreaker, a DPS Banner Core Warrior, and a Condition Berserker. The condition Berserker isn't that bad, but I'm having huge difficulties managing the other two characters. They're just incredibly fragile and useless. Their damage isn't high enough to finish off their enemies in time, and all that I see are their health-pools dropping faster than I can count... faster than my thief characters, even. I find this absolutely ridiculous. I can barely last against one miserable Elite enemy, and I keep dragging my party down in dungeons. This is so frustrating.

Yes, the builds fall under the category of meta and are praised by many, but they just aren't working for me. I've even tried going full Soldiers, and it's not really working. I want to like this class, but every time I try to play it... I feel like just giving up.

Where did you find your builds? Names suggest on pve while you mention pvp/wvw. They use completely different builds from pve.

PvE meta builds and PvP builds are vastly different

PvP warrior takes the Defense trait line, several defensive utility skills, and often a shield. Each of these individually mitigates tons of damage, and when taken all together makes for a character that is extremely difficult to bring down

PvE dps builds take none of them