Advice for my Celestial Berserker Open world build

[Stx.4857]

Hello,

 

I am trying to make the best open world build I can make for my norn warrior, and by far my favorite spec to play is berserker, especially with lots of burning.  I just love the interactions and gameplay of creating fire auras and then exploding them and extending berserk.  I know it's generally considered inferior for open world compared to spellbreaker, but I would like to make it work.

 

So I started off using rabid gear with balthazar runes, which was okay but I felt like I had no healing.  I was using arms/disc/zerk.  It was fun but tough boss mobs and champs would kill me.  I tried arms/defense and arms/tactics but it didn't improve much.

 

Now I have considered getting a set of trailblazer, but I already have a set of Celestial gear, and using this setup I can get some pretty nice stats.  With might stacked up and in zerk mode, 3200 power, 2700 condi, plus a ton of health and decent armor.  The healing power also helps sustain a lot.  Overall I feel like it's pretty kitten solid.  Nothing special, just full Celestial with divinity runes.  

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKBBw+lzlJwuYLMGmJOWLtNVA-zxIYVlgRPfZEYFERKoxhYQpA40DDR+vltm2A-e

 

So I am looking for advice from more experienced warrior open worlders on how to make this better.  

 

I am using sword torch, mace sword.  I feel like this gives me a great mix of condi damage and CC plus two short cooldown blocks for defense.  I did consider longbow but I am not running discipline so I wasn't sure it would still be worth it.

 

I am running arms for obvious reasons and then I opted for strength over discipline for sustain, maintaining max might, and for more dodges.  This build also has pretty nice strike damage so the damage aspects of strength don't go to complete waste.

 

I am using mending over berserk heal due to the excellent condi cleanse, mega short cooldown, and strong heal per second plus the 10% damage boost.  I know the berserk heal is often used for combos when in berserk, so if I should switch this up i am open to it.

 

I am using for great justice for might and fury, outrage for the short stunbreak and burning, the rock for damage, and headbutt for obvious reasons.  I did consider dropping the rock for sundering leap for another leap finisher to generate an aura, but the rock just has such solid damage I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

 

I am using strength sigils to help maintain 25 might plus the sustain from the proc, but if earth or torment sigils would be better damage I am open to that.

 

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

33 minutes ago, Stx.4857 said:

Hello,

 

I am trying to make the best open world build I can make for my norn warrior, and by far my favorite spec to play is berserker, especially with lots of burning.  I just love the interactions and gameplay of creating fire auras and then exploding them and extending berserk.  I know it's generally considered inferior for open world compared to spellbreaker, but I would like to make it work.

 

So I started off using rabid gear with balthazar runes, which was okay but I felt like I had no healing.  I was using arms/disc/zerk.  It was fun but tough boss mobs and champs would kill me.  I tried arms/defense and arms/tactics but it didn't improve much.

 

Now I have considered getting a set of trailblazer, but I already have a set of Celestial gear, and using this setup I can get some pretty nice stats.  With might stacked up and in zerk mode, 3200 power, 2700 condi, plus a ton of health and decent armor.  The healing power also helps sustain a lot.  Overall I feel like it's pretty kitten solid.  Nothing special, just full Celestial with divinity runes.  

 

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKBBw+lzlJwuYLMGmJOWLtNVA-zxIYVlgRPfZEYFERKoxhYQpA40DDR+vltm2A-e

 

So I am looking for advice from more experienced warrior open worlders on how to make this better.  

 

I am using sword torch, mace sword.  I feel like this gives me a great mix of condi damage and CC plus two short cooldown blocks for defense.  I did consider longbow but I am not running discipline so I wasn't sure it would still be worth it.

 

I am running arms for obvious reasons and then I opted for strength over discipline for sustain, maintaining max might, and for more dodges.  This build also has pretty nice strike damage so the damage aspects of strength don't go to complete waste.

 

I am using mending over berserk heal due to the excellent condi cleanse, mega short cooldown, and strong heal per second plus the 10% damage boost.  I know the berserk heal is often used for combos when in berserk, so if I should switch this up i am open to it.

 

I am using for great justice for might and fury, outrage for the short stunbreak and burning, the rock for damage, and headbutt for obvious reasons.  I did consider dropping the rock for sundering leap for another leap finisher to generate an aura, but the rock just has such solid damage I wasn't sure if it was worth it.

 

I am using strength sigils to help maintain 25 might plus the sustain from the proc, but if earth or torment sigils would be better damage I am open to that.

 

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you

Looks like a really well thought out build! Thanks for sharing it.

Im not sure if this would be good or not, but you could consider using OH axe instead of OH sword. If you used flames of war and then swapped into whirling axe, you could generate a lot of burning via flaming bolts in addition to the fairly high power damage. This would also build up a lot of adrenaline and stacks of Furious' condition damage buff.

 

A combo might look like:

Flames of war, savage leap, blaze breaker, (swap), whirling axe.

[Broxxgar.6801]

You mixed Bleeding and Burning with a good strategy and inteligence. Burn for the pike Burst and I think  bleeding for a slow dmg over time, quite silence to the oponnet, but it can take more than 24k of HP in 16s if all stacked.

[Stx.4857]

24 minutes ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

Looks like a really well thought out build! Thanks for sharing it.

Im not sure if this would be good or not, but you could consider using OH axe instead of OH sword. If you used flames of war and then swapped into whirling axe, you could generate a lot of burning via flaming bolts in addition to the fairly high power damage. This would also build up a lot of adrenaline and stacks of Furious' condition damage buff.

 

A combo might look like:

Flames of war, savage leap, blaze breaker, (swap), whirling axe.

Oh that's a good idea!  It would be fun to combo like that and offhand axe does feel juicy for damage.  Do you think it would be worth losing the block, passive condi damage from sword, and the bleeds from offhand sword?  Offhand axe might be more fun so i probably will go with that

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

It's PvE. Take Brave Stride, you'll have lots of stability. Axe OH will also give lots of crits to fuel MMR, so it would also help sustain.

Consider swapping out Arms.

 

Edit: swap out the Runes for something better. Anything really would work better, though Tempest Runes are a favorite of mine on condi builds not for instanced PvE.

Edited February 3, 2022 by Lan Deathrider.5910

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

1 hour ago, Stx.4857 said:

Oh that's a good idea!  It would be fun to combo like that and offhand axe does feel juicy for damage.  Do you think it would be worth losing the block, passive condi damage from sword, and the bleeds from offhand sword?  Offhand axe might be more fun so i probably will go with that

Yeah, I don't think you'll be missing that extra block very much. The mobs in PvE are kinda erratic in their attack patterns, so it's often hard to time your block appropriately. Besides, the best defense is a good offense in PvE, and you want to be able to cleave lots of enemies at once. OH axe allows you to do that much better than OH sword.

 

You might consider going back to runes of Balthazar as well, or possibly trading out the sigils of accuracy for sigils of smoldering, at least on the sword/torch set. Burning is probably the lion's share of your damage, so maximizing burn duration is really important for optimizing your DPS. Just make sure you don't overcap the burn duration so you don't waste any stats.

 

If you decide to go OH axe, you might consider playing around with taking discipline as one of your trait lines for axe mastery, esp since the CDs of OH axe are a little long without the 20% reduction. Further, the15% burst CD reduction from Discipline is really helpful for Berserker since it helps you spend more time in berserk mode.

[Mikali.9651]

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABw6x/lFwwYXMGWJWaTqtUA-zxIYVlQmO8pEmEIQRQpChWVAidA-e

 

You could try something like this.

There is no reason not to go Tactics with so much Healing Power from Celestial and GREAT scaling on Vigorous Shouts, so I would advise you to try it out. 

 

I also go double quickness sigils on Sword/Shield setup with Firebrand runes for more Quickness uptime: Sigil of Celerity + Sigils of Rage + Berserker is 20 seconds of Quickness...all you need to do is hit your target with Shield Bash, do a crit, and then weapon swap into Sword/Torch build which have Sigil of Battle for 5 Might on swap and Sigil of Strength to keep Might stacking.

 

The cool thing about this is that Shield Bash has 20 seconds cooldown - same as Sigil of Celerity and Rage have, so it is a nice way to know when you can proc Quickness again!

 

Your Shouts will heal you (and others) for 2k healing. Your Burst skill will too (Soldier's Focus proc will heal for 1642).

 

Ofc, you can play around traits and different utility skills, AND go mace/shield instead of sword/shield, that way you would have more skills to use, more condi, more CC for breakbar.
I just went sword/shield cuz of sword and board 🙂

Edited February 4, 2022 by Mikali.9651

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

2 hours ago, Mikali.9651 said:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABw6x/lFwwYXMGWJWaTqtUA-zxIYVlQmO8pEmEIQRQpChWVAidA-e

 

You could try something like this.

There is no reason not to go Tactics with so much Healing Power from Celestial and GREAT scaling on Vigorous Shouts, so I would advise you to try it out. 

 

I also go double quickness sigils on Sword/Shield setup with Firebrand runes for more Quickness uptime: Sigil of Celerity + Sigils of Rage + Berserker is 20 seconds of Quickness...all you need to do is hit your target with Shield Bash, do a crit, and then weapon swap into Sword/Torch build which have Sigil of Battle for 5 Might on swap and Sigil of Strength to keep Might stacking.

 

The cool thing about this is that Shield Bash has 20 seconds cooldown - same as Sigil of Celerity and Rage have, so it is a nice way to know when you can proc Quickness again!

 

Your Shouts will heal you (and others) for 2k healing. Your Burst skill will too (Soldier's Focus proc will heal for 1642).

 

Ofc, you can play around traits and different utility skills, AND go mace/shield instead of sword/shield, that way you would have more skills to use, more condi, more CC for breakbar.
I just went sword/shield cuz of sword and board 🙂

Oh that's really clever. Nice work! I'll have to try that. Thanks!

[Stx.4857]

4 hours ago, Mikali.9651 said:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABw6x/lFwwYXMGWJWaTqtUA-zxIYVlQmO8pEmEIQRQpChWVAidA-e

 

You could try something like this.

There is no reason not to go Tactics with so much Healing Power from Celestial and GREAT scaling on Vigorous Shouts, so I would advise you to try it out. 

 

I also go double quickness sigils on Sword/Shield setup with Firebrand runes for more Quickness uptime: Sigil of Celerity + Sigils of Rage + Berserker is 20 seconds of Quickness...all you need to do is hit your target with Shield Bash, do a crit, and then weapon swap into Sword/Torch build which have Sigil of Battle for 5 Might on swap and Sigil of Strength to keep Might stacking.

 

The cool thing about this is that Shield Bash has 20 seconds cooldown - same as Sigil of Celerity and Rage have, so it is a nice way to know when you can proc Quickness again!

 

Your Shouts will heal you (and others) for 2k healing. Your Burst skill will too (Soldier's Focus proc will heal for 1642).

 

Ofc, you can play around traits and different utility skills, AND go mace/shield instead of sword/shield, that way you would have more skills to use, more condi, more CC for breakbar.
I just went sword/shield cuz of sword and board 🙂

Hmm, I like that idea.  I am a little worried losing the might generation from strength.  Do you think this version could still maintain high might?

 

How about this?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABkex/lFwwYXMGWJWaTqtUA-zxIY1on/UCTBEoIoUhQrSAxeIEU+YW2aaD-e

 

Axe offhand with mace mainhand to proc the Quickness sigils and axe offhand gives you even more Quickness plus that juicy whirl finisher for the fire field.  Dazes do proc celerity sigil right?

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

This is a great thread. Lots of good ideas here. Y'all almost make me want to play PvE again lol.

[Yasai.3549]

This is what I'll run for a Cele hybrid Berserk, especially if you are focusing on Sword and Burning. 
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABw+lzlRwWYMMMWJWaXuNVA-zxIYVFTP+EE7A-e

Reasoning: 
Berserk is your burst window, so you should be focusing on squeezing out as many Primal Bursts as possible during this short duration. Discipline is the best traitline to facilitate this because it allows you to Burst > Swap for Adrenaline > Burst shortly after > Swap again after 5 seconds > Burst once more. Coupled with Discipline's Quickness on hitting someone below 50% hp, as well as your Firebrand Runes giving you a whooping 88% increased Quickness uptime, you are looking at 13s Quickness, which is 2s downtime since the passive is 15s cooldown. If you are hitting a single boss under 50% hp, you can pretty much sustain your own Quickness. 

I changed all your skills to Rage skills for these reasons : 
1. You can now take the passive that makes your Rage skills burn in AoE. 
2. Blood Reck is an extremely powerful Heal skill that not only gives you small amount of lifesteal, it also resets your Burst cooldown and provides the Adrenaline to cast it. Using this in the above mentioned burst combo will benefit your burst window as well as give you back a ton of health with the lifesteal even if you are getting smashed

3. All these Burst skills increase your Rage duration, which is a huge deal. 

4. I left Shake it Off for getting Conditions off your back. It's good enough even without the Shouts trait. 

5. PS. Outrage is so insanely short cooldown of a Stunbreak, you can basically spam it for the Burn trait to proc. 

 

Edited February 5, 2022 by Yasai.3549

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 hour ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

This is a great thread. Lots of good ideas here. Y'all almost make me want to play PvE again lol.

PvE is still pretty fun. Most PUGS DGAF what you run unless they are asking for KP for Raids or FotM CMs which are a minority of PvE play.
 

And again, I've never been kicked from a group for refusing to run banners, so knock yourself out.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

1 minute ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

PvE is still pretty fun. Most PUGS DGAF what you run unless they are asking for KP for Raids or FotM CMs which are a minority of PvE play.
 

And again, I've never been kicked from a group for refusing to run banners, so knock yourself out.

After tasting the sweet nectar that is competitive play, I simply have a hard time going back to fighting NPCs and quirky encounter mechanics (stop-go?? Wtf). I just wanna crack some skulls!

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

1 hour ago, Yasai.3549 said:

This is what I'll run for a Cele hybrid Berserk, especially if you are focusing on Sword and Burning. 
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKABw+lzlRwWYMMMWJWaXuNVA-zxIYVFTP+EE7A-e

Reasoning: 
Berserk is your burst window, so you should be focusing on squeezing out as many Primal Bursts as possible during this short duration. Discipline is the best traitline to facilitate this because it allows you to Burst > Swap for Adrenaline > Burst shortly after > Swap again after 5 seconds > Burst once more. Coupled with Discipline's Quickness on hitting someone below 50% hp, as well as your Firebrand Runes giving you a whooping 88% increased Quickness uptime, you are looking at 13s Quickness, which is 2s downtime since the passive is 15s cooldown. If you are hitting a single boss under 50% hp, you can pretty much sustain your own Quickness. 

I changed all your skills to Rage skills for these reasons : 
1. You can now take the passive that makes your Rage skills burn in AoE. 
2. Blood Reck is an extremely powerful Heal skill that not only gives you small amount of lifesteal, it also resets your Burst cooldown and provides the Adrenaline to cast it. Using this in the above mentioned burst combo will benefit your burst window as well as give you back a ton of health with the lifesteal even if you are getting smashed

3. All these Burst skills increase your Rage duration, which is a huge deal. 

4. I left Shake it Off for getting Conditions off your back. It's good enough even without the Shouts trait. 

5. PS. Outrage is so insanely short cooldown of a Stunbreak, you can basically spam it for the Burn trait to proc. 

 

I've been rekted by something like this before: Shocker: No discipline...
But from a Rabid stat person. Them reflects on block go a LONG way. That guy used his Flaming Flurry to reflect my Volley and burst me.

BR from what I recall doesn't heal you for the condition damage you do right? Mending even untraited is still one of the better heal skills for the condi clear alone.

I love FB runes too, especially with an OH axe btw.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

2 minutes ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

After tasting the sweet nectar that is competitive play, I simply have a hard time going back to fighting NPCs and quirky encounter mechanics (stop-go?? Wtf). I just wanna crack some skulls!

I hear you tbh, but HoT or LWS3 are sill pretty great maps with great mobs. PoF though and the rest of the LW seasons are kind of easy...

I really hope that EoD is more like HoT.

Though if you want a challenge you can try to solo some dungeons or DRMS CMs on your warrior. DRMs on warrior with some of the CMs enabled are fun.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

Just now, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I hear you tbh, but HoT or LWS3 are sill pretty great maps with great mobs. PoF though and the rest of the LW seasons are kind of easy...

I really hope that EoD is more like HoT.

Though if you want a challenge you can try to solo some dungeons or DRMS CMs on your warrior. DRMs on warrior with some of the CMs enabled are fun.

That's true. I should really do that. It's good to mix it up now and again. PvP can get kinda toxic sometimes... Good to have a break. Thanks for the tip!

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Just now, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

That's true. I should really do that. It's good to mix it up now and again. PvP can get kinda toxic sometimes... Good to have a break. Thanks for the tip!

NP. It also fun to occasionally go through the story again on a new alt. Bonus: you get the stuff to make legendary weapons (I'm kind of addicted to that...).

Beyond that you can AP hunt if you need a break from PvP.

T4 FotM are also still some of the most fast paced gameplay I've had in GW2 on warrior, but Power Berserker has a high actions per minute there so it takes focus to maintain and situational awareness to make sure 💩 doesn't hit the fan.

[Yasai.3549]

49 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I've been rekted by something like this before: Shocker: No discipline...
But from a Rabid stat person. Them reflects on block go a LONG way. That guy used his Flaming Flurry to reflect my Volley and burst me.

BR from what I recall doesn't heal you for the condition damage you do right? Mending even untraited is still one of the better heal skills for the condi clear alone.

I love FB runes too, especially with an OH axe btw.

Isn't the OP asking for Open World tho.

I think this is fine for PvE.

 

I will never run this in PvP tho cos I hate zerker in PvP. Feels too vulnerable.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Yasai.3549

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

8 hours ago, Yasai.3549 said:

Isn't the OP asking for Open World tho.

I think this is fine for PvE.

 

I will never run this in PvP tho cos I hate zerker in PvP. Feels too vulnerable.

Most builds will work in PvE. Its good to have a few in your pocket that that translate well into WvW though since there are easy dailies there and Gifts of Battle for legendary crafting.

[Stx.4857]

Man this is tough.  I tried strength/disc/Berserker and it does make the rotation so much smoother to play with disc...

 

But my God, by giving up arms you literally lose 450 condi damage, 20% expertise, plus additional 33% on bleeds and you lose the bleeds on crits.  I hate that this traitline doesn't do anything other than damage but it is hard to give up.

 

And I also hate giving up strength because the permanent 25 might you get is huge for your damage plus you get a ton of extra dodges and healing from might makes right, which is huge for staying alive and the healing over time from applying all that might actually rivals the healing you get from going a defensive trait line like tactics. 

 

I have tried the pure dps route of disc/arms/zerk and I just can't do it.  I have like zero healing other than my one heal skill.  Tough champs just eat me alive.  

 

I should probably install a damage meter of some kind and test how much damage I lose between dropping disc vs dropping arms.  

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

3 minutes ago, Stx.4857 said:

Man this is tough.  I tried strength/disc/Berserker and it does make the rotation so much smoother to play with disc...

 

But my God, by giving up arms you literally lose 450 condi damage, 20% expertise, plus additional 33% on bleeds and you lose the bleeds on crits.  I hate that this traitline doesn't do anything other than damage but it is hard to give up.

 

And I also hate giving up strength because the permanent 25 might you get is huge for your damage plus you get a ton of extra dodges and healing from might makes right, which is huge for staying alive and the healing over time from applying all that might actually rivals the healing you get from going a defensive trait line like tactics. 

 

I have tried the pure dps route of disc/arms/zerk and I just can't do it.  I have like zero healing other than my one heal skill.  Tough champs just eat me alive.  

 

I should probably install a damage meter of some kind and test how much damage I lose between dropping disc vs dropping arms.  

You can use the raid golem. Do your rotation until it dies with both builds and compare the numbers. Not exactly realistic, but it gives an idea.