new player, are warriors that bad?

[Mooncake.5278]

hey! new player here and i rolled a ranger, they are fun but warriors have always been my play style. i heard bad things about them so avoided them for my first character and went ranger with great sword...but its just not the same...so my question is..can warriors still excel at pvp without the dagger strength build and also in pve? thanks

 

[Myror.7521]

All in all warrior does okayish in PvE (since it plays on Banners..... remove Banners and Warrior is trash in PvE cause of too low dps). In PvP Warriors Bad or okayish, it depends on what Situation you play.

 

So all in all warrior is in the worst Spot it ever was. How ever its at least funny to play so just go on and play it 😁!

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Power Berserker is good in PvE and does well in non speed clear content. Core Celestial is pretty good in WvW. I've had some good success lately with a Core Berserker (stats not spec) build in WvW as well.

Overall in Competitive you are playing with one hand tied behind your back though in relation to the levels of cheese that other classes can bring to the table. Doesn't mean that you can't win, it just takes spot on gameplay and for you to not kitten up.

[Mooncake.5278]

how long has warrior been bad? and will it change next xpac?

 

 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

50 minutes ago, Mooncake.5278 said:

how long has warrior been bad? and will it change next xpac?

 

 

Feb2020. There is a rebalance planned for after EoD release, with a primary focus on WvW balance, but I suspect will also touch PvP.

[Infusion.7149]

Feb 2020 rebalance hurt warriors because damage was not allowed on hard CC in PVP/WVW.
In PVE warriors are in a decent spot outside of fractals because fractals are in a condi meta after the exposed change. You'd take a banner warrior in just about any raid or strike or even a DPS one.

[Zekent.3652]

2 hours ago, Mooncake.5278 said:

how long has warrior been bad? and will it change next xpac?

 

 

Almost 2 years, ranger is on a faaaaaaaaaaaar better spot, especially compared to warrior, just stay on ranger, and lets see how things goes after EoD on warrior.

[Mungrul.9358]

I still end up going back to my warrior main on almost a daily basis, despite it being nowhere near as easy to play as other professions, partly because it still feels great to play when compared to others.

But I have come to terms with the fact that I won't be anywhere near as efficient, and that I will always be closer to dying than if I were playing on any other profession.

 

I primarily, almost exclusively, play open world PvE, and core is still my favourite configuration. But I have gear- and build-sets bound to shortcuts, so I can switch to Berserker or Spellbreaker at a moment's notice.

 

For my core build, I have stubbornly refused to let go of Hambow, despite it taking numerous hits over the years, and I still find it the most satisfying to play thanks to the number of control skills available, and the perceived heft of hammer as a weapon. It can also be very resilient, but I'm under no illusions that it's the fastest at killing stuff.
Although I have refined my build a little more recently and made all my trinkets Assassin's while everything else is Marauder's, and that helped push the DPS up, especially when both FGJ and Signet of Rage are active.

 

I've also always tried to make sure my builds include both melee and ranged options, and have always found Longbow to be a lot better than people give it credit for, especially when fighting enemies that spam blinds. That the basic attack fires two arrows means that even blinded, you at least do half-damage, as one of the arrows clears the condition.

 

Rifle may sound better, and perception has a lot to do with the way I play GW2 (and games in general; there's been some fascinating studies done in to how audio can affect the perception of weapon damage, even between two different sounding weapons that do the same damage), but Longbow just outclasses it in almost every aspect, especially when combined with Hammer.

Admittedly, Earthshaker in to Combustive Shot's fire field isn't as effective as it was in Hambow's hay-day, but it's still immense fun, and rifle just doesn't combo with any of your other weapons at all.

Why use a weapon that doesn't combo when using a class whose strength is swapping weapons?

 

And that all serves to illustrate what keeps drawing me back to the profession. It makes sense to me, it feels great, and it's very rewarding to play when you play well. And I just don't get that same kick with other professions, although Mesmer comes very close.

 

I find the most boring professions for me are often the ones that are conversely some of the most effective, like Necro, Guardian and Engineer.

Those seem to be more about just firing off your skills in a set rotation, with very little feeling of heft or consequence behind them, and very unrewarding feedback loops.

Engineer's flamethrower for example may very well be very effective, but to me, it feels very ephemeral, if that makes sense. It doesn't feel as physical as a Warrior's hammer, axe or mace.

Similarly, letting minions do the work for you, or laying down numerous wells, hand-wavy AoE spells and traps doesn't feel as personal as blatting someone/something with a massive hammer.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, and in case it wasn't apparent, I don't play with banners. In fact, I actively avoid playing with them, seeing them as being antithetical to how the profession should play.

They may be very effective, but I don't care. They don't suit the profession's theme.

Edited December 16, 2021 by Mungrul.9358

[CaffeeCup.5742]

13 minutes ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

I find the most boring professions for me are often the ones that are conversely some of the most effective, like Necro, Guardian and Engineer.

Those seem to be more about just firing off your skills in a set rotation, with very little feeling of heft or consequence behind them, and very unrewarding feedback loops.

OMG someone gets it!  My guardian is just... I have to for easy PUG invites but god kitten is it boring.

 

As to OP:  Warrior is good fun, very action-like!  In most portions of the game save the last top 5 - 10% high end content (speed runs, high end pvp), you'll be fine.  You might get frustrated from certain cheese classes, but learn their cheese and it gets better, as long as you don't have strong aspirations of being top rank anything, you'll feel you can finish content and contribute to your group amply.

[Hotride.2187]

I would say the only benefit when playing warrior in spvp and wvw roaming is that you'll have to play well to get anywhere.

You don't have 5 layers of defense, insane damage or insane burst. You overall damage, your burst, your sustain, all of it is mediocre. So to beat a profession that has more of everything, you just have to play better; you'll be forced to learn.

Better players on better professions will of course just walk over you, but what can you do. The devs are making pve content at this point (not that warrior excels there).

Edited December 18, 2021 by Hotride.2187

[Zekent.3652]

PvP: Yeah, they're
WvW: Not that bad really, they're good for zergs, but still have pvp problems when it comes to roam.
PvE: They're good BUT they clearly lack of some devs love, like arms being literally the worst trait in the game, its like the budget version of firearms, the engi traitline.

[anbujackson.9564]

22 hours ago, Hotride.2187 said:

I would say the only benefit when playing warrior in spvp and wvw roaming is that you'll have to play well to get anywhere.

You don't have 5 layers of defense, insane damage or insane burst. You overall damage, your burst, your sustain, all of it is mediocre. So to beat a profession that has more of everything, you just have to play better; you'll be forced to learn.

Better players on better professions will of course just walk over you, but what can you do. The devs are making pve content at this point (not that warrior excels there).

PvE: Warrior doesnt really have any burst, even as a condi in exposed windows (the king of fire isnt really a king after all). The focus is on sustained dps and even then its mediocre at best. Overall damge is also on the lower end as a pure dps while providing nothing but decent cc. Actually I'm curious how warrior will perform if they decide to put the banner trait in tactics or put some drastic changes on them (less/no stats bonuses etc.). 

PvP: Its not even a brawler compared to rev, holo or reaper. The very thing you would except from a warrior.

WvW: Nerf WoD somehow again and watch warriors disappear there, too.

To sum it up: Two gimmicks keep it desirable in the game.

[frareanselm.1925]

Is not that warriors are bad, just that in 2012 release they were way better, and the problem is that now guardian and necro are so overpowered that warrior feels inferior.

[DemonCrypto.6792]

warrior is victime from underbalancing.
It's not bad but the lack of balancing between classes making it passively nerfed 
From the start every class is viable (not perfect) in every possible role , with core roles  where the class is meta (tanky dps for war)

But because they focus less on rebalancing war and didn't e-spec on other thing than dps ,war became unviable in other role infront of other classes , and now we are stuck here dps and banners (even if spellbreaker open it a little before being nerfed)

Now warrior is still fun but competing with the more flexible class became really demanding with a skill cieling so brutal it fell handicaped  (not that competing is impossible but just harder than other classes now)

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

In pvp warrior has 1 decent build and a couple ok builds. Strength spellbreaker is good at 1v1s but it has a lot of bad matchups so you need to outplay people to win. Basically all warrior builds havent kept up with the aoe spamming metas and are stuck in 2014 balance land.

 

Edited December 19, 2021 by Paradoxoglanis.1904

[Obtena.7952]

The best advice it to try it and if you like it, play it. If your criteria is if it's 'bad', then you should simply be asking what is 'good' and play that. 

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

I play Power DPS Berserker in PvE with full Diviner's for 100% Quickness, 25 Might, Fury, Swiftness uptime, and its pretty good. Does extremely well with the Rifle (higher ranged DPS than Ranger, but a bit less range), and Greatsword for melee bursts when its safe enough to attack the enemy head on.

 

I also play Healbreaker (Spellbreaker + HealShouts) as my main In WvW since a long time, and it also does well.

 

I don't play Warrior in PvP, but they seem to do okay there when I face them.

 

Overall if you're looking for a Rifle class, I would say Warrior is your bet. But as far as their melee weapons go, even their GS is lackluster (which is why many Warriors run Axe/Axe in melee). If you're a Greatsword fan I'd recommend playing Guardian, Ranger or Reaper instead, honestly.

 

Scrapper also beats them for Hammer usage in all game modes.

 

Keep in mind that due to their wide variety of weapons, high base health and armor, generous access to CC etc. Warrior is mostly a bruiser, and the game doesn't have a good place for bruisers right now outside of WvW.

 

Another thing to keep in mind if you're coming from other MMOs, all heavies (Guardian, Revenant, Warrior) count as  "warriors", while all the mediums would count as "rangers", and all the lights would count as "mages". Though this isn't technically correct since this game allows players to use a wide variety of builds and even mix subclasses with Elite Specs.

Edited December 19, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

8 minutes ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

I play Power DPS Berserker in PvE with full Diviner's for 100% Quickness, 25 Might, Fury, Swiftness uptime, and its pretty good. Does extremely well with the Rifle (higher ranged DPS than Ranger, but a bit less range), and Greatsword for melee bursts when its safe enough to attack the enemy head on.

.

That sounds fascinating. Would you mind sharing your build? Thanks in advance!

[Nova.4608]

Bannerslave warrior has a use in pve. That's it

For pvp, warriors are "hot trash" tier. SB is instead in the "trash" tier.

Telegraphed attacks, high skill floor, requires in-depth knowledge of other classes to even stand a chance, low payoff. 

Playing Warrior, especially core, is like playing a class from 2013 while everyone else is playing classes from 2021. If you're into BDSM or a masochist and are aching for the sweet pleasure of pure pain and suffering then Warrior is the class for you.

I mean for the love of kittening god, since the CC changes a while back warrior's hammer burst ability deals NO DAMAGE. You literally play without the core feature of the class lmfao. If that doesn't explain how bad warriors are idk what else to tell you.

Edited December 20, 2021 by Nova.4608

[Apolo.5942]

-PVE they can work ok for a dps role. Then again EVERY CLASS CAN DO OK. it has no other roles/options.

-PVP trash tier, everything you can do, somebody else can do better and likely more than one thing at a time, which you cant.

-WVW, very survivable in zerg thanks to phalanx strength, trash tier everywhere else.

Edited December 21, 2021 by Apolo.5942

[Tawesi.4280]

as a return player,i suggest you dont play warrior,GW2 warrior doest like other mmorpg warrior(most tanky and medium dps),warrior get nerf until most warrior player chg to guardian/ranger/engineer some of my guild frd quit the game cause dissapoint with the nerf.
win a thief=GW2 say warrior need to nerf cause too "warrior" .lose to a thief=GW2 say ur skill need to improve.

win a engineer=GW2 say warrior need to nerf cause too "warrior"win a engineer=GW2 say ur skill need to improve.
win a ranger=GW2 say warrior need to nerf cause too "warrior"win a ranger=GW2 say ur skill need to improve.
win a elementalist=GW2 say warrior need to nerf cause too "warrior"win a elementalist=GW2 say ur skill need to improve.
u can try play a warrior and feel the trash class in the game for fun.XD

[SeTect.5918]

On 12/15/2021 at 11:36 PM, Pati.2438 said:

All in all warrior does okayish in PvE (since it plays on Banners..... remove Banners and Warrior is trash in PvE cause of too low dps)

Didnt know that nearly 38k dps is trash now but okay. 

[Myror.7521]

@SeTect.5918 I wrote without banners that mean also a loss of a stat boost of 150 (for warrior 50 for all around that class 100) so no it wouldnt be around 38k dps. It would maybe end in 35k dps or lower.

[SeTect.5918]

2 hours ago, Pati.2438 said:

@SeTect.5918 I wrote without banners that mean also a loss of a stat boost of 150 (for warrior 50 for all around that class 100) so no it wouldnt be around 38k dps. It would maybe end in 35k dps or lower.

All benchmarks are done with warrior banners because they are for raids. 

If you play raids and go full dps and u have a bs in pug, you will deal the same damage which is 38k. 

I know what you mean tho. But not taking banners doesnt mean that u also dont use the trait that increases Banner effects. 

If you mean that if you fully remove Banners on warrior that warrior is useless then bc its maybe just like 35k dps then. No. All benchmarks are done with warrior Banners. So if warrior Banners doesnt exist, all other classes also lose dps. 

[OkayJarl.5617]

Warrior definitely needs some buffs but if you're competent in sPvP and WvW roaming you can be surprisingly dangerous. War is one of the better 1v1 classes still, even after the nerfs and despite what you may hear on the forums. Just look at the 1v1 tourny that Rom hosted a little while back.

That being said you have to play the class well, because the average war will get kitten on. Strength, Disc, Spellbreaker are the best trait lines to run in pvp and has been for awhile. You can get melted but if you time your dodges, cc, blocks and position yourself well you can outplay almost anything.

Bad matchups are condi mes/thief/ranger and really good core rangers running that valk build are going to be tough.

Edited January 10, 2022 by FunkyBassline.5289