Guild wars 2 PvE – Weapon Guide
guild wars 2 PvE . Playing Guild Wars 2 come with numerous possibilities. Since the game is very vast and free, you can play as you like. It is including your way to win the Guild wars 2 PvE. In this case, playing as warrior is one of the best thing you should do. But nevertheless, there is nothing easy in this game. To help you get through the menacing steps, here is the weapon guide for warrior.
===========================================================================
Greatsword
The Greatsword is the warrior’s iconic weapon attributed to mobility, evades, high burst damage, and offensive buffing. It is the weapon that will be most commonly used in combat.
1 – Autoattack Chain
The autoattack chain of the greatsword is its only skill of the 5 available that is under-performing, due to the very slow attack speed. Despite the fact that the damage coefficients between the 3 hits are higher than most other weapons, the autoattack chain of the greatsword is fairly low DPS.
The autoattack chain is divided into three parts; Greatsword Swing, Greatsword Slice, and Brutal Strike.
Both Greatsword Swing and Greatsword Slice apply 1 stack of vulnerability each that both last for 8 seconds in duration, which help with the warrior’s vulnerability contribution during group fights, but what is important to note is that there is a delay after the Greatsword Slice and before the Brutal Strike which make it sometimes difficult to properly time an evasion with Whirlwind Attack.
Brutal Strike applies no vulnerability but deals slightly higher damage than the first two hits in the chain, meaning that in addition to the fairly slow attack speed of this autoattack sequence resulting in low DPS, the damage is slightly backloaded as well.
2 – Hundred Blades
Perhaps the most iconic skill out of all of warrior’s weapons and one of the defining features of the warrior greatsword is Hundred Blades. This skill provides large burst damage on a short cooldown, as well as large numbers to admire with a total of 9 hits with the last one dealing the most damage.
Unfortunately, there are two negative aspects of this skill; the cast time and the fact that it roots the warrior in place. Because of the fact that it cannot be used while moving and requires a full 3.5 seconds to complete the cast, this skill requires the target in question to be stationary and leaves the warrior vulnerable to take damage while casting.
Knowing these two downsides to this skill is important, and in order to make best use of it one must master positioning and timing in order to know when and where it is appropriate to begin this channel during a fight in Guild Wars 2 PvE.
3 – Whirlwind Attack
Coupled with Hundred Blades, this is one of the warrior’s most damaging attacks if used intelligently. It has a total of 4 hits that are spread across the range of 450 and if the distance traveled is obstructed, all of the hits will land in the same spot. This means that a warrior can abuse movement impairment such as terrain.
It is also allowing themselves to become immobilized to their advantage and use WWA for a quick burst. This deals a lot of damage on a fairly short cooldown and is a very efficient way to accumulate a large chunk of adrenaline in around a second, making it easier to maintain Berserker’s Power’s damage modifier in fights.
4 – Bladetrail
Bladetrail is a ranged attack in the form of a projectile that cripples and damages enemies that it passes through. The projectile will return to the user and hit twice in total, although it can and will get obstructed by terrain if used nearby.
What this means is that this skill is only a DPS increase if used out in the open where the projectile is able to hit its targets twice. If an enemy is against a wall or near a surface that will obstruct the projectile, it is a DPS loss over autoattacking.
5 – Rush
Rush has many practical uses, all of which make it a very important skill for the warrior both in and out of combat. Out of combat it can be used to travel large distances quickly. Rush will channel for 2 seconds and if no target has been reached the end of the animation involving the damaging strike will not execute, making it a great skill for mobility purposes.
However as of the June 2015 Specializations update, swiftness no longer affects movement skills making Rush feel rather sluggish when used out of combat and with swiftness. The reason for it feeling this way is due to the fact that running with swiftness is a 33% movement speed increase, whereas using Rush is approximately a 50% movement speed increase.
Comparatively, 50% is not that much of an increase over 33%, so it can seem less consistent because when a player is engaged in combat they will have half the movement speed as they normally would out of it, but Rush will always move the same distance regardless. As a result, it may appear as if this skill seems like it moves faster when in combat when it in fact does not.
In combat it can be used for a large spike of damage due to its very high damage coefficient, or in certain situations for kiting mobs. Unlike all other skills on the greatsword, Rush is the only one that does not cleave and is only a DPS increase for single targets.
F1 – Arcing Slice
Arcing Slice is the greatsword’s burst skill which is one of the essential skills a warrior will use in PvE as it provides fury and helps maintain adrenaline-specific bonuses such as the 20% damage from Berserker’s Power.
Unlike some other burst skills, the damage of arcing slice is not increased depending on the level of adrenaline accumulated prior to casting but rather the duration of fury provided by it is. Arcing Slice cleaves for high damage and deals significantly higher damage to foes below half health.
==========================================================================
Axe Main Hand
The main hand axe is another incredibly strong and defining weapon that a warrior can use that is an important component of many Guild Wars 2 PvE builds.
1 – Autoattack Chain
The autoattack chain of axe main hand is the sole reason why it is such a valuable weapon to a warrior’s arsenal, as the attacks are fast and the highest DPS out of all of the warrior’s autoattack chains.The autoattack chain is divided into three parts; Chop, Double Chop, and Triple Chop.
The Triple Chop is backloaded and is both the strong and weak point of the axe mainhand, as the final hit of it deals roughly twice the damage of all of the previous chops. Because of this, it is important to avoid interrupting an axe autoattack chain as it is a fairly relevant DPS loss to lose out on the final hit of Triple Chop.
One very uncommonly known trick to this autoattack chain is that the second hit of Double Chop can be interrupted with a weapon stow, allowing the possibility of beginning Triple Chop a fraction of a second quicker. This weapon stowing trick results in a DPS increase, though it requires a lot more user input and precise timing for very little benefit.
2 – Cyclone Axe
Cyclone Axe will cause the warrior to swing its axes around, hitting each enemy within a nearby range of 130 twice and applying 4 stacks of vulnerability. This skill is one of the warrior’s many sources of vulnerability though it is important to note that it should never be casted to interrupt an autoattack chain as interrupting Triple Chop with it would be a DPS loss.
3 – Throw Axe
Using Throw Axe in melee range is a DPS loss, so a warrior should normally only use it when running in to engage an enemy or when applying cripple is desirable (for example, kiting). Due to its very quick cast time and long range, it can be helpful for when pulling/aggroing an enemy is desirable, however due to the fact that it applies cripple it should only be used for this purpose when no other methods are available.
F1 – Eviscerate
Eviscerate is the most powerful single-target damaging melee weapon skill available to the warrior if used at full adrenaline, only matched by a Final Thrust (used on an enemy below half health). The only skill on any weapon that surpasses its damage is Kill Shot, which will be mentioned further down in the guide. It is one of the warrior’s iconic weapon skills and part of what makes the axe main hand one of the warrior’s most useful weapons in PvE.
===========================================================================
Axe Off Hand
Axe off hand is unfortunately much less useful and very niche for the warrior, as its skills are both underwhelming in damage and utility.
4 – Dual Strike
Dual Strike is one of few weapon skills available that provides the warrior with fury, however it is rarely needed due to the fact that warrior already has easy access to high (and in many cases permanent) fury uptime. Despite the fact that it deals a decent amount of damage itself, it does not justify casting over an autoattack chain on axe main hand unless for some reason there is a downtime in fury.
5 – Whirling Axe
Whirling Axe is an attack that often fools newer warrior players into thinking it is much better than it actually is, due to the fact that it hits 15 times over the course of 3.5 seconds and ends with a high number. Despite the aesthetically-pleasing final number displayed, it is important to remember that this display is a result of all 15 hits.
It is why newer players often get confused as many will forget that each time the number changes it is cumulative rather than reflecting the individual damage of each strike. In the end, Whirling Axe is actually a DPS loss over autoattacking with axe mainhand is which is a disappointment but an undeniable truth.
Despite this fact, it is the only axe skill for both main hand and off hand that has a maximum number of targets cleave of 5 as opposed to the usual 3, meaning it can be used to tag slightly more mobs than usual. Additionally, due to the quick succession of individual hits during the channel, it can be used to fill a bar of adrenaline very quickly.
===========================================================================
Mace Main Hand
Mace main hand is, unfortunately for mace lovers, extremely awful DPS and a very niche weapon that will rarely be used in PvE. It is only used in rare circumstances when an extra block on a very short cooldown is needed or even rarer circumstances when for whatever reason defiance stripping is needed from a warrior in groups (this is typically not the role of the warrior, so it hardly ever happens).
1 – Autoattack Chain
The mace main hand has one of our weakest autoattack chains out of all of our weapons and is the main reason why axe is always preferable – the DPS is just too low on mace.This autoattack chain is broken into three parts; Mace Smash, Mace Bash, and Pulverize. Mace Smash and Mace Bash behave identically in terms of damage, number of targets, and cast time.
However, Pulverize has a slightly longer cast time and deals roughly twice the damage and applies 5 seconds of weakness. As a result, this autoattack chain is much more defensive than warrior’s other main hand options are and because of that, it is less attractive of a choice concerning PvE.
#2 – Counterblow
Counterblow is the defining skill of mace main hand and the sole reason it is typically ever found to be useful in PvE, as it provides our shortest cooldown block out of all weapons. The damage dealt by Counterblow is fairly decent, making it a slightly more attractive skill, but will only hit if blocking an attack in melee range (130).
Because of the very short block duration, using this skill to pre-emptively block an attack is trickier than sword off hand’s Riposte or shield off hand’s Shield Stance. At the same time, it will require understanding of an encounter’s mechanics to reactively use. Counterblow also helps provide 3 adrenaline after blocking and 6 adrenaline if no attacks are blocked by the time the skill is finished channeling.
3 – Pommel Bash
Pommel Bash deals very negligible damage and the stun is fairly useless for interrupting in PvE, though due to the fact that it applies a stun it can be used to strip defiance stacks on any champion or legendary enemy, leaving the opportunity to interrupt or stun a boss with more meaningful crowd control skills.
F1 – Skull Crack
Skull Crack is the burst skill of mace main hand. It is extremely uncommon for it to be used at all in PvE, but like Pommel Bash it can be used to strip defiance. Instead of having increased damage based off of adrenaline level, it applies a stun that has increased duration depending on adrenaline level.
Therefore, due to the fact that its only real purpose in Guild Wars 2 PvE is to strip defiance, it is pointless to wait until using at full adrenaline as it counts a single stun regardless, meaning no matter what it will only remove one stack.
===========================================================================
Mace Off Hand
Mace main hand is an extremely strong offensive-buffing off hand with both good damage and utility and is our primary off hand weapon of choice when nothing but offense is of concern to us in a fight.
4 – Crushing Blow
Crushing Blow is a hard-hitting attack that applies 10 stacks of vulnerability on a short 15 second cooldown with a cleave of up to 3 targets, making it one of the most essential and bestselling points of a warrior’s capacity for vulnerability contribution to group fights.
It is the primary reason for mace considered as the best off hand as far as offensive utility and damage is concerned, because it is a DPS increase for both solo and group scenarios and is an important part of all warrior rotations involving mace off hand.
5 – Tremor
Tremor is a very useful and strong skill which combines good damage and control. Using it in melee range will mean the target gets hit by the melee swing of the mace and a second time by the shock wave, causing them to take twice the damage.
Due to the fact that it has a knockdown and a hits up to a maximum of 6 targets, it is extremely helpful for controlling and interrupting multiple enemies and can be used to strip defiance stacks on champion or legendary enemies.
===========================================================================
Sword Main Hand
The sword mainhand is useful in many different situations including mobility in and out of combat, for impairing movement of enemies, and for condition-focused builds.
1 – Autoattack Chain
The sword main hand’s autoattack chain is iconic for the condition damage builds of the warrior but is not used in builds focused on maximizing direct damage, as the raw damage is significantly lower and less efficient than axe main hand’s.This autoattack chain is broken up into three parts; Sever Artery, Gash, and Hamstring.
Sever Artery and Gash both deal an identical amount of direct damage and each apply 1 stack of bleed that lasts for 10.5 seconds on a cleave of 3 targets, making it very strong for condition damage builds that focus on maximizing the amount of stacks of bleeding on enemies.
The third attack of the chain, Hamstring, applies a very short cripple as opposed to a bleed which is fairly useless in PvE and is only helpful in PvP or WvW where players move around during combat much more. As mobs most of the time only move reactively to the player they are aggressive towards, this 1 second cripple is nothing of importance in PvE.
2 – Savage Leap
Savage Leap is one of the most valuable skills out of all weapons to the warrior because of the incredible out of combat mobility it provides. Not only can this be used to jump across cliffs and uneven terrain, but it is a 600 range leap skill on a short cast time with a mere 8 second cooldown, making it ideal for traveling from place to place in any map/zone.
All warriors should swap to sword mainhand when out of combat just to travel around quicker regardless of build specifically because of Savage Leap. An important fact about Savage Leap that must be understood is that its animation has 2 parts — the leap and the finish.
The finishing portion of the animation can be interrupted mid-leap by simply pressing whatever key is bound to weapon swap, resulting in the leap traveling a slightly further distance. This can be abused to leap further than mentioned in the tool tip, which is particularly useful for reaching locations that would otherwise not be possible with a normal leap.
Canceling the finishing portion of this animation also means that it is possible to use this leap without attacking nearby enemies, making it possible to stay out of combat. As far as combat is concerned, Savage Leap deals a relatively low amount of damage compared to most of warrior’s other options and the 3 second cripple is uncommonly useful in PvE.
3 – Final Thrust
Final Thrust is one of the warrior’s most powerful skills if used against an enemy below 50% health, with a damage coefficient equal to that of an Eviscerate used at level 3 adrenaline! The catch is, unlike Eviscerate, Final Thrust cleaves and can hit up to 3 targets rather than just 1, making it very powerful.
Unfortunately, sword main hand is typically only used for out of combat mobility and for condition damage builds when in combat, so this skill will for the most part be unavailable to a warrior using a build focusing on direct damage.
Due to the fact that Final Thrust is a skill that purely inflicts direct damage, it is generally less of a DPS increase for a condition damage build as opposed to auto attacking is because maintaining bleeding is more important.
F1 – Flurry
With No Adrenaline:
With Full Adrenaline:
Flurry is the burst skill of sword main hand and does multiple things at once; it damages up to 11 times over the course of 2.5 seconds on a 3 target cleave, immobilizes for up to 4 seconds, and applies 1 stack of bleeding for every hit of the channel that all last for 2.75 seconds each.
The amount of attacks, stacks of bleeding applied and total damage along with duration of immobilization of the enemies in question, depends on the level of adrenaline the warrior has prior to casting the skill. Flurry is generally never used for the damage, but can be extremely helpful when immobilizing an enemy or multiple enemies.
A perfect example of this would be the Legendary Shoggroth boss in the first path of the Ruined City of Arah. Immobilizing it as it attempts to retreat into its hole can allow the team to kill it before it gets the chance to burrow underground.
===========================================================================
Sword Off Hand
Sword off hand is one of warrior’s most useful off hands as it has high single-target damage along with a reliable block on a low cooldown, making it a great combination of both an offensive and defensive offhand especially great for solo encounters where more defensive utility is needed than just dodging in order to survive. Additionally, it is to optimizing DPS in a condition damage build.
4 – Impale & Rip
The fourth skill of sword, or rather the first skill of sword off hand is broken into two parts; Impale and Rip.
Impale is a projectile attack that deals a very small amount of base direct damage but applies a unique condition on the target it hits called “Impaled” that is not removable and lasts for 4 seconds in duration. If the Impale projectile hits a target, it will apply up to 5 stacks of torment for 8 seconds in duration, pulsing on intervals of 1 second each.
The torment deals twice the damage overall to targets that are moving, so it is very ideal for bosses that move around a lot. This skill is essential for condition builds, as the increased condition duration and condition damage that they have increases the damage inflicted by Impale by a lot!
The second part of this skill is Rip, which can only be casted on a target that is currently affected by the “Impaled” condition. Rip can only be used within a short time frame after an enemy becomes Impaled. Because the damage coefficient of Rip is quite high, it is often desirable for warriors using builds that focus on direct damage. Rip is not a skill to be ignored!
It is important to note that while Rip is the primary reason for most warriors using this skill, damage is maximized with Impale & Rip by waiting until the very last instant. Additionally, condition damage builds will not be using Rip at all because they are only concerned with the torment that Impale applies, and casting it in that circumstance would be a DPS loss.
5 – Riposte
guild wars 2 PvE . Riposte is the reason for sword off hand being so powerful as far as defensive utility is concerned as it provides a helpful and reliable block on only a 15 second cooldown. This block duration (2.25 seconds) is almost equal to that of shield off hand’s Shield Stance (3 seconds), but is only half the cooldown!
The one disadvantage of Riposte when compared to Shield Stance is that its channel will end if blocking attacks within 130 range, meaning that in order to block projectiles without ending the channel earlier than intended, a warrior must make use of positioning to ensure all attacks are out of range so that the counter attack does not occur.
If however the counter attack occurs, it deals a low amount of direct damage and more importantly applies 4 stacks of bleeding on a very long duration of 16 seconds. This can be very helpful for condition damage builds, as they can use Riposte purely for a DPS increase whenever it is off cooldown instead of wasting a dodge.
One fact that is uncommonly known about Riposte is that there is a very brief instant at the start of the animation where it is not blocking (a small fraction of a second). This means that if casted immediately after a dodge roll for example, it may still be possible to take a small tick of damage depending on the timing of the block and the intervals in time of which the attacks being blocked are executed.
This small bit of information is extremely helpful in order to understand that when trying to chain block attacks between Riposte and Shield Stance (in order to skip trash mobs while remaining out of combat), it is always best to begin with Riposte before Shield Stance for 100% block duration uptime for the full 5 – 5.25 seconds whereas beginning with Shield stance and swapping to Riposte will result in a very narrow window of opportunity to take damage and get stuck in combat.
==========================================================================
Warhorn
The warhorn is one of the warrior’s most frequently used off hands overall as it is a major source of swiftness, a blast finisher, and can cleanse movement-impairing conditions for nearby allies.
4 – Charge
Charge is a skill used to provide swiftness to both the caster and surrounding allies but additionally can cleanse cripple, chill, and immobilize making it an extremely useful skill for both in and out of combat mobility. It should be one of the most frequently casted weapon skills when traveling in any map, as it is important to maintain high swiftness uptime.
5 – Call to Arms
Call to Arms is another major reason for the warhorn being as useful as it is with multiple different uses; it applies 10 seconds of vigor for nearby allies, it is a blast finisher for combo fields, and applies 6 seconds of weakness to nearby enemies. This skill is both extremely useful for contributing to secondary effects applied from combo fields.
If used in combat can serve as a useful tool for defensive utility that can help with positioning and taking less damage. It is important to understand that weakness applied to any enemy will put the user in combat, so blasting with Call to Arms can easily get a warrior stuck in combat. So, it is recommended to check the surrounding area as a preventative measure of caution.
==========================================================================
Shield
Shield is our most defensive weapon available that despite what most people think, is one of warrior’s most useful tools!
It can speed things up by ensuring that a warrior is able to remain out of combat when running past trash mobs and therefore traveling quickly throughout an area. It has access to our longest-lasting and most reliable block and is in my opinion a necessity to have for all warriors! It is a very lackluster weapon to use in combat, but an incredibly useful tool for remaining out of combat.
#4 – Shield Bash
Shield Bash has unfortunately a fairly long cooldown, but stuns for a brief 1 second and moves the user roughly half of the units of a Savage Leap. While this is a skill that will be of little to no use ever in combat, it provides a very small movement speed increase when used out of combat for mobility.
However, if the warrior is under the effects of swiftness and not in combat, using Shield Bash for mobility is very barely a movement speed increase comparatively to just autorunning. The times in which it is a decent movement speed increase are only Out of combat with no swiftness or in combat, with or without swiftness
Shield Stance is the primary reason for this guide suggesting warriors to keep a shield at hand. This block is awesome despite its long cooldown, as it lasts for a full 3 seconds and will block any and all skills on this game with the exception of specific skills that have unblockable skill effects (e.g. Malrona’s Venom Blast attack, Mai Trin’s Pistol Spin attack, etc).
Shield Stance can block combination that lasts over 5 seconds, making it a very powerful weapon for running past hordes of mobs and staying out of combat. It is possible to continue channeling Shield Stance even when Shield is no longer equipped. Swapping weapons by using the in game keybind function for it, however, will disrupt any channel.
==========================================================================
Longbow
Longbow one of two ranged weapons available to the warrior, and between the two of them is the stronger choice and only one of the two with actual use in PvE. It comes with a blast finisher and a fire field, allowing you to use both skills to blast might. It is a weapon that is essential for condition damage builds as it is the warrior’s main source of burning, which is the most damaging condition in the game.
While longbow itself has very inefficient DPS comparatively to that of its melee weapon counterparts, it is comparatively higher DPS than that of rifle and offers superior utility including an immobilize, a fire field, a blast finisher, and a skill that blinds.
1 Autoattack
The autoattack of longbow, referred to as Dual Shot, is our longest-distance attack out of all of our weapons with a base range of 1200 like rifle’s. However, due to the fact that the projectiles arch they can sometimes reach targets that otherwise would not be possible to hit with rifle’s autoattack which fire in a straight line and can be obstructed by terrain.
Additionally, Dual Shot is almost twice the DPS of rifle’s Fierce Shot autoattack, which is uncommonly acknowledged by warriors comparing between the two weapons in terms of DPS.
2 – Fan of Fire
Fan of Fire is a low cooldown skill with an extremely short cast time of 0.25s that deals a fairly decent amount of damage if used directly in the hitbox of an enemy as it will ensure that all 3 arrows hit. The burning while helpful only lasts for 2 seconds, so it is at most an additional burst of extra burning damage for warriors running condition damage builds.
3 – Arcing Arrow
Arcing Arrow is one of the selling points of longbow, as it deals a hefty amount of AoE damage on a short cooldown that can hit up to 5 targets within 240 range of the impact and also serves as a blast finisher.
It is strongly recommended for all warriors in groups to contribute to combo field blasting when groups want to blast combo fields (e.g. swiftness in static fields, might in fire fields, stealth in smoke fields, etc.), as when out of combat it is always ideal to make use of whatever tools are available to maximize our class’s capabilities to their fullest just as it is in combat.
4 – Smoldering Arrow
Smoldering Arrow deals very low damage but can blind up to 5 targets within 180 range of the arrow’s impact, which can be helpful against tightly grouped packs of enemies. Additionally, due to the very short cast time of 0.25 seconds, it can be used to reactively mitigate incoming damage in place of a dodge.
5 – Pin Down
Pin Down is another helpful skill for impairing the movement of an enemy as it will immobilize for 3 seconds on a fairly short cast time of 0.75 seconds. Due to the fact that it applies 6 stacks of bleeding for a very long duration of 16 seconds it is a skill that warriors using condition damage builds should be using immediately whenever it is available, as it is a DPS increase.
It is worth noting that if immobilizing an enemy at the start of an encounter would be desirable, a warrior can pre-cast Pin Down and quickly swap to greatsword or any other desirable weapon(s) before the projectile hits the target, as it is always possible to swap out weapons while out of combat.
F1 – Combustive Shot
With No Adrenaline:
With Full Adrenaline:
Another selling point of the longbow, Combustive Shot is the only fire field available to the warrior and the burst skill of the longbow. It can be used for the purposes of direct damage, maintaining burning stacks on enemies, providing AoE might by using blast finishers in the field, and triggering synergistic trait bonuses (i.e. Building Momentum, Berserker’s Power, etc).
The duration of Combustive Shot along with the total damage it inflicts is determined by the level of adrenaline the warrior has at the time of casting. Each level of adrenaline will increase Combustive Shot’s duration by 3 seconds with 9 seconds being the maximum at level 3 adrenaline, and the fire field will tick twice as many times for damage at full adrenaline compared to if at level 1 adrenaline.
Contrary to the duration of the fire field increasing based off of adrenaline, the duration of burning stacks applied by Combustive Shot does not increase from 5 seconds.
===========================================================================
Rifle
Rifle is the other option for ranged combat available to the warrior, but sadly due to its vastly inferior DPS and lack of utility it has essentially no place in PvE whatsoever.
1 – Autoattack
The autoattack of the rifle, Fierce Shot, is the primary reason for rifle being such an awful choice in PvE. The DPS is extremely low and pales in comparison to longbow’s Dual Shot autoattack, despite even that being a low damage autoattack comparatively to its melee counterparts. Additionally, Fierce Shot does not have greater range than Dual Shot.
Its only advantage is that when traited with Crack Shot, it can pierce through multiple targets. However, one important thing to note is that each Fierce Shot when used against a target that is afflicted with the vulnerability condition will grant bonus adrenaline, making it easier to build adrenaline for Kill Shot.
This is especially helpful as Brutal Shot, the rifle’s 4th skill, is capable of maintaining nearly 100% vulnerability uptime when traited with Crack Shot. As mentioned under Dual Shot’s description above, rifle’s autoattack is roughly half the DPS of longbow’s.
2 – Aimed Shot
Aimed Shot can be used to keep an enemy crippled for 5 seconds, which can be used for maintaining distance, but it is very low damage.
3 – Volley
Volley is the one actually good attack of the rifle that provides decent burst damage. Volley uses 5 shots in quick succession over a 2.5 second interval on a fairly short cooldown, making it an ideal skill to cast and accumulate adrenaline.
4 – Brutal Shot
One of two skills worth casting on the rifle, Brutal Shot applies 8 stacks of vulnerability that last for a long duration of 12 seconds, meaning that a warrior traited for Crack Shot is able to reduce the cooldown from 15 to 12 seconds and maintain at minimum, 8 stacks of vulnerability at all times.
5 – Rifle Butt
Rifle Butt is a knockback that cleaves within short range and can be used to help with positioning, as it can be combined with Aimed Shot to help ensure distance between the user and enemy is maintained.
F1 – Kill Shot
Kill Shot is the burst skill of the rifle that technically deals the highest damage out of all attacks on the warrior at full adrenaline, but due to the fact that it roots the warrior in place and has a long cast time of 1.25 seconds along with being on one of the worst weapons available to the warrior, it is hardly useful.
Comparatively, it hits an equivalent amount of base damage at level 2 adrenaline to that of an Eviscerate at level 3 adrenaline.
===========================================================================
Hammer
guild wars 2 PvE . Hammer is a weapon primarily used in PvP and WvW, where hard crowd control abilities are more useful in combat. In Guild Wars 2 PvE, hammer deals significantly lower DPS than other melee options and has little to no use.
1 – Autoattack
guild wars 2 PvE . Hammer’s autoattack is slow and average-hitting, resulting in a combined very low DPS. The one unique feature to it compared to other autoattacks that the warrior has access to is that the third hit of the chain has a maximum number of targets of 5, contrary to the usual maximum cleave of 3.
The autoattack sequence is broken into 3 parts; Hammer Swing, Hammer Bash, and Hammer Smash. Hammer Swing and Hammer Bash are identical in damage and cast time, but Hammer Smash deals slightly more damage and hits 5 targets instead of 3, making this autoattack chain slightly backloaded in damage despite already having very low DPS.
2 – Fierce Blow
guild wars 2 PvE . Fierce Blow is a skill that deals a medium amount of damage but applies 8 seconds of weakness on a very short cooldown, making hammer one of the only weapons capable of very high weakness uptime. Mace’s Pulverize skill along with warhorn’s Call to Arms combined with hammer’s Fierce Blow make warrior a class with the easiest access to the weakness condition.
However, both mace main hand and hammer are thoroughly discouraged for general use in PvE, as sacrificing such an enormous amount of offense for weakness is a very poor trade off especially considering the vast majority of mobs on this game do not dodge.
3 – Hammer Shock
guild wars 2 PvE . Hammer Shock is an average-damaging skill with an AoE cripple of up to 5 targets for 8.5 seconds. As stated in the initial weapon description, hammer is great for positioning and both soft and hard crowd control but unfortunately in PvE these things just aren’t as necessary enough to justify using hammer.
4 – Staggering Blow
guild wars 2 PvE . Staggering Blow deals an average amount of damage that can knock back up to 5 targets, meaning that it can be used to strip defiance as well.
5 – Backbreaker
guild wars 2 PvE . Backbreaker is a single target skill with a long cast time of 1 second, but it knocks down the target for 2 seconds. This skill can also be used to strip a stack of defiance.
F1 – Earthshaker
guild wars 2 PvE . Earthshaker is the burst skill of hammer and pretty much the only reason a warrior will generally ever equip a hammer in PvE due to its ability to leap when out of combat. Unlike Savage Leap, however, it requires at least 1 bar of adrenaline to be full in order to execute, making it require either the use of the heal “To The Limit” or the utility skill Signet of Fury to activate when out of combat.
Earthshaker applies a daze that can last up to 2 seconds at most with full adrenaline, as the stun duration increases depending on adrenaline level. The damage, however, does not. As hammer itself is a low DPS weapon, Earthshaker is a skill rarely used in combat but it is worth mentioning that as a stun it is capable of stripping a stack of defiance and it is also a blast finisher capable of contributing to combo fields.
guild wars 2 PvE . That is what you should know about the warrior weapon used for PvE. As a warrior you got a lot of abilities and possibilities to do. In the case of weapon, understanding each of the skill will help you win the Guild Wars 2 PvE. Hopefully, this guide will help you go through the confusion of choosing the best weapon. Good Luck!
Still get confused? We want to answer any and all of your inquiries here!
