Best build to level a Warrior?

[Buran.3796]

  Short question: which would you say is the best build to level a Warrior from 1 to 80 just soloing OW?

  Context:  over 10k hours in the game, I've been recently replacing some of my 18 characters for new ones since I had too many of the same race/sex and was annoying hearing always the same voices. So I chose to manually level the new ones just doing PvE maps. Overall has been fun and easy given how much knownledge I have compared to when I started almost 11 years ago. I started a list with what I though were the best builds to level each profession, and is almost done (only Warrior and Engineer rest). I'm currently leveling the Warrior and I'm not very sure about the weapon choices, the skills or event the stats (focus on power or condi?).

   I found that was easier with condi builds for Necro, Mesmer, Elementalist, Revenant and Guardian; Ranger works well with any of both, Thief felt weak with any of them. Warrior has been a bit confusing: very good mobility options and plenty of damage against regular mobs, but a bit squishy. You need to expose a lot if you use 100 blades or Whirling Axe; swords + long bow is safer but sometimes you find fire immune foes and had to swap to rifle, which is weak vs mobs. Stun chain builds seems fine once you get more levels and stats and synergies, but until lvl 30+ your cc is limited and I sometimes seems as I'm constantly running around until the cooldowns are down again. For comparison with Mesmer or Necro everything was blown away befiore enemy even reach me, and Guardian while more exposed nukes all in .5-6 seconds... 

  Which builds for leveling a core Warrior you will recommend that feels like your'e trampling across the content instead of hit and running for you'r life as a Thief?

[Lighter.5631]

you just discovered a vanilla gw2 core war problem that basically no one really talked about but every one know of.

and 1 of the reason why they made spellbreaker, because berserker had the same problem.

not only warrior was hard stuck into banner slave(tho meta), warrior was also pretty bad in open world.

the suggestion I can give, is you take advantage of the new traits, and use hammer, you still gonna need a shield tho i think. so hammer/axe shield, but you get no mobility, but that's the sacrifice all warrior has no make. or you can take sword shield instead, so only swap when you need utility, because sword is trash in power damage, and flurry just expose you as much as axe 5.

Edited July 1, 2023 by Lighter.5631

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Strength: bot/mid/mid

Disc: mid/bot/top if running axes otherwise bot.

From there you can do one of the following:

Def: bot/top or bottom if running mace or hammer/ bottom

Or

Tact: top/top/bot. Bring runes, racial skills, or consumables that summon critters.

Use Greatsword or Axe/Axe. In your other set bring either a CC set or ranged set depending on the situation.

You can generate lots of healing and endurance gain for survival. You are better off as a full Berserker stat setup and allowing MMR and the endurance Regen to sustain you.

 

[someguy.4107]

Go power. Most of warriors weapons, traits & utilities synergize better on power. The most "condition damage" core warrior weapons get is hybrid level at best, so use what weapons you enjoy.

Rush signet training for the "Rage Signet" elite skill. This is for swiftness if you don't have mounts. I wouldn't equip all signets cause it's really, really boring.

For utilities, train Physical skills. Bullying NPCs with endless CC never gets old. The mobility is superior too.

For Traits, Defense is a fantastic for sustain and CC damage. Just land your adrenaline skills to heal. Discipline offers the 25% increased movement speed trait along with "Fast Hands" (One of the best Minor traits in the game) allowing you to weapon swap every 5secs. Tactics is pretty subpar for leveling but provides some support options. Doesn't give access to any fun solo leveling builds. Arms is a really good leveling trait due to "Burst Precision" giving your adrenaline skills 100% crit chance. Arms also makes Fury give 30% increased crit chance instead of 25%. Strength increases crit chance by 5% with a minor trait and makes might you receive give more power. Strength is a very fun trait to play with "Aggressive Onslaught" giving you quickness with every CC you land.

I recommend: Defense 3-3-3 Discipline 2-3-1 Strength 3-3-3

Weapons: Hammer Axe-Axe

Utilities: Mending, Stomp, Signet of Fury, Bullscharge, Signet of Rage.

Every time you CC you get quickness and diet super speed which is fun to play. You can tag out Axe-Axe for anything else honestly, but Axe-Axe does a lot of damage. Hammer F1 into a group of enemies to weapon swap into axe 5 spin-to-win never gets old. If you find yourself not having enough defenses put "Endure Pain" utility on and/or shield.

[Xperiment.6923]

Well with 10k hrs..you know what's up. So I'll just say this...your healing comes from might generation. You can take Might makes Right in the strength line or Tactics has a couple passives that let's might heal you. In the Defense line you have adrenaline health. Gain health by spending adrenaline. Axe is the quickest adrenaline builder and has fury attatted to axe 2. Greatsword will feel the hardest hitting. Most Warrior weapons suck and are out dated.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Xperiment.6923

[Buran.3796]

   Thanx to all for the responses and advices, they were helpful. Following Lan Deathrider's tip tried the Strenght traitline, find out some weapon/skills combo that seemed to work and then started again. In ~10 hours rised a warrior from 1 to 49 with no deaths, and so far is mogging the maps in green gear and effiortless, in contrast of how was doing in the first run.

   In this sample I started as an Asura (my current two warriors are Norn and Charr, this Asura will be deleted once I reach 80, this is just for fun and to earn some perspective of how the core profesions perform after so many years and changes).

    I initially ran sword + axe & greatsword  in half of Metrica Province, then I moved to the "old" Hambow. Unlocked Balanced Stance as breakstun (later replaced by Dolyak sigil), then Bull Rush and Stomp at level 19 in my second map. Al level 21 unlocked Strength traitline and at that moment hambow was already working very well. The only rough point was the Hero Point near Thaumanova Reactor, infested with Skelks and the the veteran Fire Ember, which not only was immune to fire but also delivers very bursty AoE burns in a delicate moment in which most of the classes doesn't have much cleanses. To deal with it did chose to use rifle + greatsword in that fight, to keep foes away and poke at range. Then came back to hammer + bow the whole 49 levels.

   From 1 to 34 did use only gear provided by leveling and drops, at 35 bought vigorous (power + vit) weapons and armor and 'll get carrion (condi+ power + vit) at 65. Unlocked the second traitline (Defense) at 45 and by that time I already had all the traits. So currently I'm Strenght 1,1,3 and Defense 3,3,3 with no runes or sigils,  yet the build is performing admirably well: the chain stuns can disable and kill goups and veterans before they can even do harm; the high cc uptime allow me to ditch Might Makes Right for Agressive Onslaught and I have almost permanent access to stability. HPs went like silk and I was able to solo some weak champions; fighting regular mobs feels like mowing the weed. The major boost in damage will arrive at level 55/61 with carrion gear (green/yellow) and at 71 with the third traitline (probably discipline, still guessing the trait choices).

   It won't take me much more to reach 80, but so far I would say that now I'm happily surprised by the performance of core Warrior at leveling: not as safe as Mesmer but I would say that places second along Guardian (a bit slower in burst but super fun). Then I would put Ele, Rev and Thief. Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAMJlJwSYKMLGKOqP/LfA-e

    

Edited July 2, 2023 by Buran.3796
Updated the build link, gear availability corrections

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

4 hours ago, Buran.3796 said:

   Thanx to all for the responses and advices, they were helpful. Following Lan Deathrider's tip tried the Strenght traitline, find out some weapon/skills combo that seemed to work and then started again. In ~10 hours rised a warrior from 1 to 49 with no deaths, and so far is mogging the maps in green gear and effiortless, in contrast of how was doing in the first run.

   In this sample I started as an Asura (my current two warriors are Norn and Charr, this Asura will be deleted once I reach 80, this is just for fun and to earn some perspective of how the core profesions perform after so many years and changes).

    I initially ran sword + axe & greatsword  in half of Metrica Province, then I moved to the "old" Hambow. Unlocked Balanced Stance as breakstun (later replaced by Dolyak sigil), then Bull Rush and Stomp at level 19 in my second map. Al level 21 unlocked Strength traitline and at that moment hambow was already working very well. The only rough point was the Hero Point near Thaumanova Reactor, infested with Skelks and the the veteran Fire Ember, which not only was immune to fire but also delivers very bursty AoE burns in a delicate moment in which most of the classes doesn't have much cleanses. To deal with it did chose to use rifle + greatsword in that fight, to keep foes away and poke at range. Then came back to hammer + bow the whole 49 levels.

   From 1 to 34 did use only gear provided by leveling and drops, at 35 bought vigorous (power + vit) weapons and armor and 'll get carrion (condi+ power + vit) at 65. Unlocked the second traitline (Defense) at 45 and by that time I already had all the traits. So currently I'm Strenght 1,1,3 and Defense 3,3,3 with no runes or sigils,  yet the build is performing admirably well: the chain stuns can disable and kill goups and veterans before they can even do harm; the high cc uptime allow me to ditch Might Makes Right for Agressive Onslaught and I have almost permanent access to stability. HPs went like silk and I was able to solo some weak champions; fighting regular mobs feels like mowing the weed. The major boost in damage will arrive at level 55/61 with carrion gear (green/yellow) and at 71 with the third traitline (probably discipline, still guessing the trait choices).

   It won't take me much more to reach 80, but so far I would say that now I'm happily surprised by the performance of core Warrior at leveling: not as safe as Mesmer but I would say that places second along Guardian (a bit slower in burst but super fun). Then I would put Ele, Rev and Thief. Build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgAMJlJwSYKMLGKOqP/LfA-e

    

Glad my advice was helpful!

[Shadowpeixera.2918]

A good rule of thumb for any leveler is "if you don't have the mounts, free your movespeed talents first, because you will be walking a lot". In Warrior's case, i don't think we get a mobility signet so our options are warhorn offhand ( lol ) or Warrior's Sprint. At the early game, your heal skill will keep you topped up, and Healing Signet is enough passive healing. You might go MMR or Adrenal Health after it, all up to you. Power is a easier stat to gear for while leveling, since prec and ferocity won't really boost your dmg output that much, so you can just mix and match power, prec and tough/vit. Your base damage is high enough with power gear.

Sword is a really good weapon for open world because of it's utility but the damage is lackluster. But considering you get a lot of mix and matched gear with leveling, you'll probably have condi damage on your set, so Sword+Axe is perfectly playable. Personally i'm really interested in seeing how a Mace/Shield + Bodyblow build performs on the level experience but it'll be probably weak.

Warriors are quite sturdy when built well, so you can absolutely converge into a dps gearset at endgame and feel fine, but i'll be honest, i just dislike playing Berserker gear altogether ( always been a Celestial kid myself ).

Edited July 2, 2023 by Shadowpeixera.2918