Wednesday 16 May 2012

WvWvW Banners and Shouts Build (still crit heavy)

As promised a modified W3 build for the Warrior. This build is still crit heavy, so the gear you collect will want to reflect this (socketing crit in everything). This will also mean that you can change your spec over to the Burst Build when you want to do some solo roaming or PvE and still use the same gear you've taken the time to earn!

Most of the detail still holds true below so I won't go through it all again, just focus on the (now more important) Sword/Horn skills and the changed Utility skills and traits and how to utilise them in Keep assaults and open battle.

Breakdown: Build

Abilities

Savage Leap = Nice to quickly leap to any defender in a keep that pokes their head out of the door or squishy caster that you see in open battle. Drop a tasty Eviscerate on their face and burn them to the ground before everyone else realises what happened.

Hamstring = 9 second cripple that reduces movement speed by 50%. Good for clearing up attackers that are routing and keeping them in one place whilst you give them the good news.

Charge = Aside from being very very useful for running around the map, this is also nice to drop when the doors go down and you enter the choke point created. It not only speeds you up but also removes some immobilizing effects.

Call to Arms = Nice little buff that gives 100% endurance (rolling) regeneration to your guys and cuts the opponents regeneration and chance to hit in half.

Slot Abilities

Healing Surge = No brainer here. You're going to get hit when you're smashing a gate in, better to heal yourself and top up your Adrenaline than the others. If you see yourself getting a lot of conditions then find a new bunch of people to roam with as the support guys aren't doing their best!

"For Great Justice!" = Fury for 10 secs and Might for 30 secs. This should be up at all times giving a nice might buff to everyone.

"Fear Me!" = A bit of a funny one this, good in a big fight as it will fear enemies for 1 second (messing up their casting) and will provide Weakness for 10 seconds (50% less endurance and chance to hit)

Those two shouts are nice and get buffed heavily in the traits below. If you wanted some extra healing and swiftness giving you could go for "I Will Avenge You!", but frankly with the Horn abilities and the Traited shout healing and banner regen in this build you really don't need it.

Banner of Discipline = crit and crit damage buff

Battle Standard (elite skill) = crit chance, Might, immunity to all stuns (Stability) and the ability to revive fallen allies. Pretty nice all round in W3 due to the immense amount of dying that goes on by the ram.

Take note that the two banners and "Fear Me" are 'Blast' combo skills. Meaning if you drop them in a water field it'll add heals, fire field adds Might etc etc

Go here for more details on that: Blast Finisher

Traits

30 in Discipline which improves burst skill damage (Eviscerate) and gives higher crit damage.

Versatile Rage/Fast Hands/Versatile Power = Keep swapping from Sword/Horn to axe, drop Charge and Call to Arms and swap back. Instant buffs improved by these traits. Reduce weapon swap cooldown by 5 seconds, gain Adrenaline and Gain Might.

Chosen Abilities:

Sharpened Axes = Axe crits feed your Adrenaline

Inspiring Shouts = Shouts grant adrenaline. You won't have to worry about Adrenaline as much.

Heightened Focus = 2%/5%/9% increase in crit chance in line with Adrenaline level

30 in Tactics giving you loads of health and extra buff duration

Determined Revival = Extra armour whilst reviving.

Fast Healer = 10% faster revive speed.

Reviver's Might =  Might buff to allies when you revive someone.

Reviving is HUGE in W3. Do it and do it often. With these increased skills and your banner you can really help the group.

Chosen Abilities:

Inspiring Battle Standard = Your banners apply regeneration to allies

Lung Capacity = 20% faster shout cooldown

Vigorous Shouts = shouts heal

10 in Strength for power increase

Reckless Dodge = Rolls damage nearby enemies. Again I will say Roll Roll Roll!

Chosen Ability:

Great Fortitude = 10% Power given as extra Toughness. This build has more survivability than the Burst Build, but every little helps!

Guide

This is another short guide on how this build can be used.

Open battle

When roaming around you should be in Sword/Horn for the speed buff. When you come across another group drop Call to Arms and run in there (having switched to Axes) and drop Cyclone Axe followed by a pair of dodges to keep you relatively safe. By this time the rest of your guys should be in there so drop both banners, both shouts and Whirling Axe.

Swap to Sword/Horn, drop Charge and Call to Arms again, choose a target (someone clothy) and Savage Leap to them, followed swiftly by a Hamstring. Back onto the Axe and you can go to town. Drop your first Eviscerate and then essentially follow the guide for Burst DPS below, remembering to drop Shouts and Banners whenever they are up. If you can aim these banner drops and shouts so that you/they are in a combo field then all the better for it! (I rarely manage to do this as there's just too much going on)

Keep take

For keeps you play two roles. Outside Warrior and Inside Warrior. Whilst outside your only job is to stay on Sword/Horn and be a revive bot. Get to everyone that falls and get them up again, drop all your shouts and banners whenever you can and Charge and Call to Arms from the Horn skills.

This should mean you have full Adrenaline pretty much at all times so when the door does go down you can run forward, pop Charge in the bottleneck (as explained earlier), choose someone to inflict pain upon and Savage Leap/Hamstring combo them. As above, you then swap to Axe, Eviscerate and business as usual.

Solo

If you want to roam around WvWvW solo, then don't use this build. You need a group for this to be viable as, although AoE only affects 5 people max, you are a DPS/Support Hybrid. If you want to go around ganking people then use the Burst Build from my earlier post!

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