Due to overwhelming response I have decided to make a guide that lays out my own personal methodology for playing the Guild Wars 2 Warrior class. I originally did not want to make something this focused. There are so many viable builds and gear strategies out there and I don’t want you all to think you HAVE TO follow my example.

I will start by going over the build I used for levelling to 80, why I chose to go that route, and how I used my abilities and whatnot. Then I will go over my level 80 dungeon running build and explain the benefits of that. So hold onto your butts and don’t forget to bring a towel.

My basic levelling strategy.

My Build <– Click here.

As far as the build goes, I always put 10 points into precision first for that Deep Strike (+40 Precision per unused signet) trait. It is sort of the backbone of this build. I tended to favor the Precision line over Power due to the Bleeds and Vulnerability on crit it provided. If you wanted to run faster earlier in your levelling then by 30 you would be able to get the 10 points in Precision and 10 points in Discipline. That would give you your super high crit and 10% run speed.

I bought my gear in this order. Power gear when I was low level, Power/Precision gear when I was mid level, and Power/Precision/Condition damage at the high levels.

Ok, so you have my build and my gear strategy for levelling. Let’s go over how I leveled while keeping in mind that there are a plethora of other way to go about this. Namely PvP, which is just something I rarely gravitate toward in games (I hear it is awesome for experience and karma though).

Some key things to keep in mind when levelling in PvE.

1. Do all events…at least a little bit.

Now there are some events that spawn waves of guys for you and can be great exp just via that. There are other events though (think the gathering apples kind) that take more time than they are worth. What I did in those cases is gather what felt like a good amount of whatever they wanted, and then walk away. So long as you do not leave the zone, at some point that event will be completed by others and you will typically get a Gold participation.

I imagine Arenanet set that mechanic in place because they want the game to be fluid and not make you feel like you HAD to keep doing something if you got bored of it. Now they do encourage you to stay. If you complete the event and stick around there is a good chance it will transform into another bigger event chain leading to more exp/karma/gold. Which ones you stick around to experience is up to you though.

2. Do content your level or higher.

Completing the map in your starting area is not a bad idea. You will get a nice chunk of XP, some green loot, and it will teach you a lot about the various points on your map. After the 1-15 zone though (I was about level 17 when I 100%ed it) you will earn better exp and rewards by jumping around the world map and focusing on areas within a level or two of your current level.

This mean skipping some hearts and maybe moving to other racial zones. Around 25 I would hit up Gendarin Fields and do the hearts till they got a bit too high and then port over to a different zone and level round there till I could go back and finish it up.

So long as you have been buying level appropriate gear every 5-10 levels you will be more than capable of handling content 1-2 levels above you. Much more than that though and it will start taking you too long to kill mobs for this to be efficient. Some professions may have an easier time taking on higher level content than others though.

3. Dungeons.

Now I did not take advantage of this myself because I was so turned off by Ascalon Catacombs (Level 30 dungeon and the first one you get access to). Since then I have found the later Story Mode dungeons to be far friendlier (Caducus Manor comes to mind). CM is a level 40 instance that is very short and gives a boatload of exp at the end (about 20k). When I hit 45 I decided to try it out on my guardian and just kept doing it repeatedly until I was 48. I could have kept going to 50 easily.

There are other dungeons like this so if you are finding yourself a little under leveled for the hearts, try a dungeon for a bit and grab a few levels from that content.

4. Crafting.

At level 60 I was feeling a bit sluggish. Didn’t really want to do anymore zones or hearts. What I did instead was follow a good guide for Cooking and Jewelcrafting and suddenly I was 70+. For every crafting skill you get to 400, you gain 10 levels. Now the guide I used has been nerfed a bit. Arenanet didn’t think people should be able to port around and buy all the mats needed to get the cooking skill to 400. But the recipes themselves are still valid and most of the materials can be found in bags fairly easily even now.

Below are the two guides I used.

Cooking Guide 1-400 by Danny_Martini on Reddit.

Jewelcrafting Guide 1-400 by Kowzz on Reddit.

NOTE: I didn’t get JC or Cooking to 400 before I was level 80. In fact my JC is still at 376. I just leveled my crafting enough to get over the hump and get me into the level 70+ zones.

That covers what I did personally to level. Again, take this as just an idea of what is possible. Hell if you feel like you could walk around the world and gather nodes and never kill a single mob to 80. Don’t feel like you are being left behind. No matter what you do in game, you will be 80 soon enough.

What I do at level 80.

Ok, so pretty much everyone knows my farming setup at 80 by now. (For those that don’t, you can view my post on Reddit here.) I use Explorer’s Draconic crafted exotic set with MF trinkets and a MF Greatsword. The first thing I did as a fresh level 80 was start 100% clearing every level 70+ zone. Those rewards are insanely good. I personally salvaged everything but considering what has happened with the market it may be a better decision now to sell certain types of rewards. (like the MF ones)

Once the zones were all clear I was able to finish up my set and that’s when I started farming. I began doing the Penitent and Shelter point event in Cursed shore. They usually happened back to back with a small break in between and then would start over. Both of those events spawned waves of mobs for me to kill and get yellows from. This is no longer what I do.

The Penitent -> Shelter Point event loop can still be viable but it is becoming less so day by day. Arenanet has instituted diminishing returns that appear to be based on the number of players killing the same mobs and the number of times you have done an event (that day? that hour? that week?). I have been finding lately that my old event loop is filling up with more and more level 80s every day and thus my loot has been dropping significantly in quality and amount.

My new method has been to canvas Malchor’s Leap and Cursed Shore (two of the zones in Orr) in a grid-like pattern. Gathering everything I see and doing every random event I come across. This will typically net me about 40x Orichalcum Ore (3.5s each on TP), 40x Ancient Wood Logs (2s each on TP), Omnom Berries (I make MF bars out of these), a boatload of lower tier mats, and a couple thousand Karma. All that in an hour or so. I do this with a buddy of mine in game for safety, since running all over the place can get you swarmed in some of the less player populated areas. Always nice to have someone nearby to revive you when you’re down.

Note: When out in the world gathering wood. If you are being attacked while you harvest, there is a chance you will get a ruined log even if you have tier appropriate gathering materials. I have not seen this with food and ore nodes though.

NOTE 2: I will be branching into WvW and Dungeons soon, but have not begun testing those out quite yet as I have been spending a lot of my time making these posts.

Skill use and the logic behind my builds.

Magic Find Build

Let’s look at my farming build again and we will go through each trait and skill.

Precision Traits:

Deep Strike (I): I use all signets and very rarely activate them. This gives me a very large passive boost to my crit.

Rending Strikes (V): My crits cause vulnerability (more damage) on my target. Help me solo and helps anyone fighting the same thing as me.

Momentous Greatsword (X): Crits give me Might (more damage) and it allows me to spam my skill #2 (Hundred Blades) every 6.5 seconds instead of every 8 seconds.

Power Traits:

Great Foritude (III): Gives me an extra ~1,000 HP. Found this infinitely more useful than say taking Berserker’s Might. I already kill most things with a single use of the 2+3 button combo.

Berserker’s Power (V): I never use my adrenaline when I’m running with a GS so why not get a 12% damage boost to take advantage of my laziness.

Slashing Power (IX): More damage.

Discipline Traits:

Warrior’s Sprint (III): I run around a ton so being faster just makes me that much more efficient.

Utility/Signet Skills (6,7,8,9,0 on keyboard)

6. Healing Signet: HP Regen is awesome. Over the course of a fight it will tend to heal me for more than using the heal itself. On tough fights I can hop in, bash face with GS, then hop out when HP gets low and switch to range while I regen back up. Rinse. Repeat.

7. Signet of Might: Mo Power.

8. Signet of Fury: Mo Crit.

9. Signet of Stamina: This is one of the signets that actually have a function. A weak point of the build is bleeds,poisons, and slows. I keybind this ability to Q and use it as needed.

0. Signet of Rage (Elite): This is so good. I have this keybound to E and use it constantly. Even when you aren’t fighting this 60 second cooldown skill grants you a 33% sprint buff that lasts for 30 seconds. Now run speed is capped at 33% so it doesn’t stack with your Discipline trait, but still…friggin awesome. It also grants another 20% crit (makes up for the loss of the precision boost from unused signet) and more might which is just gravy as far as im concerned. Half of the time running around zones I am at 33% increased speed from skill and the other half I’m at 10% from trait.

Note: Keybinding is very easy and can be done with a bunch of skills, but I prefer just setting Q and E because they are easy to click. To set your keybindings you hit Esc while in game, choose Options, click the Controls tab. Double click on the number skill you want to keybind, hit Unbind button, then click the button you want to use instead of say 9 or 6.

I basically run up to a mob or two or five, hit 2, then hit 3 to whirl through em, then hit 4 to throw a sword through all the mobs that then returns throught he mobs again, and then 5 to shoot back to the pack and either spam 1 or hit 2 again. Though keep in mind with regular packs of mobs you probably won’t even get past skill 3 in that combo. They will be dead already.

Now in the event of a REALLY tough champion I will sometimes use my Long bow instead. I prefer longbow for this over a rifle due to skill 5. That skill locks a mob in place for a few seconds which is key. Just slowing them isn’t as useful to me. I have soloed champions this way….albeit it took like 20 minutes and my hand was very cramped afterward from all the circle kiting.

That about covers my farming playstyle. It is mindless and some might say boring, but that does not mean it isn’t powerful as all hell. Let’s move onto my……

Dungeon Build

Here is my dungeon build so let’s go through it as well.

Tactics Traits:

Inspiring Banners (V): Larger radius for regen buff is my primary reason here. Anyone that has done dungeons know that you are roften runnign around all over a room when fighting a boss so this should help.

Shrug It Off (VII): A passive that gets rid of conditions on you. Anything that does something for me without me having to think about it is GREAT.

Inspiring Battle Standard (XI): Adds regen to all banners you drop. Hard to beat that.

Defence Traits:

Turtle’s Defence (II): I am always friggin slowed or crippled or getting kick in the nuts. +200 toughness is a HUGE boon gained from such an inconsequential condition as being crippled.

Sundering Mace (VII): I mainly use this to lower the cool down on mace skills. The damage increase isn’t bad at all though.

Shield Master (IX): Again lowers the cooldown on my skills (ie. stun from shield bash) and give +90 Toughness. This makes you very very hard to kill.

Arms Traits:

Unsuspecting Foe (IV): Considering how often I am fighting stun locked bosses (not to mention my own stun capability), this is an incredibly powerful ability for me.

NOTE: It could be argued that 10 points in the Strength Trait line might be better for the 5% Vit boost based on Power. This only came up to an extra 700hp for me and considering my plethora of other defensive traits; I think another 50% crit during boss fights was a better use of those last 10 trait points.

Utility Skills (6,7,8,9,0 on keyboard)

6. Mending AND Healing Signet: Each of these serve two very different and useful functions. If I am going into a fight that will have a lot of conditions I will use the Mending skill and spam it as needed. For that reason I typically will keybind 6 to Q with my Dungeon build. If am am going into a fight without a bunch of bad conditions I will stick with Healing Signet for the extra HP regen.

7. Fear Me! (read: RUN YOU SONS OF ****** !!!): If you are in Melee range (and I am because I’m unkillable) this makes your enemy run like a girl for 3 seconds. 3 SECONDS….That’s like forever in terms of your group regening HP and reviving downed members. I keybind this to E for my Dungeon build.

8. Dolyak Signet: More Defence although this could probably be alternated with Shake It Off if you are in a condition heavy fight.

9. Banner of Defence: +90 Vitality AND Toughness for your whole party. Plus Regen from the Trait.

10. Battle Standard: Let’s everyone hit faster/harder and again adds regen.

At the start of battle I will place the banners a little ways from each other so that as people run around they are bound to pass through at least one of them and get the regen buff. I wouldn’t want to put them right on the boss because then people tend to click and pick them up on accident (or because they hate kittens…you don’t hate kittens do you?).

My basic strategy is to let 1 hit three times (third time is a big damage boost and effect), then hit 3 (Daze)…wait for it…and then hit 4 (Stun). Repeat annnnnd they’re dead. Simple. F1 is also a nice long stun if I have accumulated enough adrenaline. If I have the mobs attention (and it’s actually hurting me) I hit 5 and just chill for 5 seconds while my group wails on the target. Then I can either dodge out or swap to my rifle and use 5 to knock him back. If I get low its very easy to just back off for a bit and help downed members get the attention of any adds there might be. Fear and knockback are pretty dang powerful CC abilities.

I have not completed my gear set but this is what I am working towards.

Armor:

Boots + Helm = Crafted Exotic Cleric’s Draconic Pow/Tough/healing

Shoulders+Chest+Gloves+Legs = Karma Exotics purchased from Melandru for 42k Karma a piece. Pow/Vit/Tough

The armor will have a full set of Superior Rune of the Dolyak (that final bonus is imba).

A full set of Pow/Tough/Healing trinkets. Since I got my Jewelcrafting up to 376 I was able to make these for myself, but I imagine they aren’t anymore expensive than the MF versions.

Weapons:

Crafted Exotic Cleric’s Pearl Bludgeoner (Mace) Pow/Tough/Heal w/ Superior Sigil of Life (grants 250 Healing when charged)

Crafted Exotic Clerics Pearl Shell (Shield) Pow/Tough/Heal w/ Superior Sigil of Water (gives healing to people around me)

And I bought an exotic rifle on the TP for 1g 20s that had Vit/Tough/Healing w/ Superior Sigil of Earth (for the bleed).

I was able to buy the chest piece, but I will have to figure out a way to farm karma before I can buy the other 3 pieces of the Melandru set. Everyone says WvW is the best for this but I have also heard that the Karma rewards there have been reduced to a third of what they used to be. When I figure out how to farm Karma efficiently I will make a Part on that.

Ok, so this guide grew way bigger than I intended but I think I have covered just about everything I know about my class. These posts have really started to eat into my playtime so I am going to take a break for a while. When I return I will hopefully have had a chance to test out Explorable dungeons and WvW a lot more and be able to provide useful tips for those. Thanks again to everyone for supporting me while I did this and helping me learn even more about all the awesome stuff in GW2. There is a ton of knowledge in the GW2 community, it’s just really spread out. Hopefully I was able to simplify some confusing things and pave the way for others to follow in my footsteps. See yall in game.