User:Qiff/one build is not enough

As with all pages, please use the talk page to correct me on any errors and discuss the contents of the page.

Here is a random dungeon group in a random situation:

• "Hey Warrior, can you bring a banner?"

"No, I'm a shout War."

• "..."

Here's another:

• Thief using Shortbow on a boss

"Hey Thief, you do know that dual pistol has much higher single-target damage, right?"

• "Yea, but I like shortbow better."

"Derp."

Last one:

• Warrior using longbow/rifle on target.

"Hey Warrior, you can melee these foes. No point in staying back there."

• "I know, but I like the rifle."

"Nuuuu :("

Common mistakes

Please note that I am talking about 5-man parties completing tasks in dungeons/fractals/other things, not general solo PvE exploring or PvP. Before you start raging about me trying to force other people to use certain builds, this is not the case, and this is not the point I'm trying to make here. I am also not telling you how to play a certain profession. I am writing this to show that having more weapons than you can carry, being open-minded towards other ideas and builds and switching to other skills can really help your party and speed things up, make you live longer, or make you be more useful in general. A common mistake made in GW2 is the concept of any profession being able to fulfill any role. This is not true. Professions have an amazing variety of uses, but not everyone can do everything. I will present a variety of situations per profession to show that having multiple weapons and switching between them and skills can be extremely useful.

Warrior

Starting with the frontline, the warrior is clearly made to deal damage. Many people expect a warrior to deal a significant amount of damage and not go down very easily, because the are supposed to be tough. This is not entirely true, because a full berserker warrior can only take a few hits and puts you in a difficult position: you are meant to deal a lot of damage and also stay alive. Let's take a look at the profession and what you can do be of use of your team.

Commonly used

Weapons

• Greatsword: Say hello to the best damage-dealing skill in the game, Hundred Blades. This weapon is inarguably the king of dungeons: good DPS, two movement skills in Whirlwind Attack and Rush, and Vulnerability on the chain attack skill. The only downside is that Hundred Blades roots you (you cannot move while using it), which means that enemies have 2,5 free seconds of eating you. To avoid taking hits to the face, break the skill by evading, or kill the enemy before it can deal damage to you.
• Main-handAxe: Hundred Blades recharges for about 6 seconds (you should trait for it) and the chain attack (skill 1) is quite slow, so what do you do? You switch to your axe. Cyclone Axe is a great attack that spreads even more vulnerability, while the chain attack is much faster and hits harder than the chain of the Greatsword. This is a great weapon to have as a second set.
• Off-hand Mace: More vulnerability with Crushing Blow, while some crowd control with Tremor. Good off-hand weapon if you do not need to block.
• Off-hand Sword: If you do need to block, take this. It is better than a Shield, because you can Torment foes with Impale, block with Riposte (which recharges faster than the shield block) and increase your Axe's DPS a little. Keep in mind that if there is no enemy near you, Riposte will block for the full duration.
• Sword/Warhorn: Many warriors have these weapons in their inventory, to run through dungeons. You can use Savage Leap, Charge and Signet of Rage to keep up Swiftness and dash around. Use a Greatsword and its two movement skills to cover a lot of ground. This makes the warrior the fastest profession in the game.
• Ranged: Only use ranged weapons if you have to. The damage of these weapons is inferior to all of the options above. Some bosses, however, are very hard to melee, in which case, it is better to bring a ranged weapon and stay alive, than melee all the time and die. In most situations, the Longbow is a better option. It's auto-attack hits for a little more (and twice, I will explain why that matters later), you can Immobilize and Blind foes, and its Burst attack (F1) creates a fire field, which can be blasted for Might.

Armor

• There is really no reason not to go full Berserker's. Traits allow you to regain endurance with burst skills, while Fast Hands plus a Superior Sigil of Energy allow you to regain half of your Endurance every 10s. Combine this with the evade from Whirlwind Attack, and the blocks from Riposte, and you can effectively melee the whole game (PvE, that is). Should you need a little more defense, you can opt for a few trinkets with Cavalier's stats (Toughness/Power/Critical Damage) or Valkyrie's stats (Power/Vitality/Critical Damage). It is good to have a Superior Sigil of Bloodlust on your Greatsword, as 25 stacks give you 250 extra power, which is quite a lot. Accuracy, Force, Night Sigils are all good choices, and depend on the situation.

Utilities

It is important that you switch these depending on the situation, just like your weapons.

• For Great Justice: Always take this. There is no excuse for not bringing it. It is one of the best utility skills in the game. AoE Might and Fury is huge. Fury is a pretty rare boon, and some professions really depend on a Warrior's fury (like a Thief, a Mesmer or a Guardian).
• Banner of Strength + Banner of Discipline: If you run a normal dungeon, and you are the only Warrior in your team, these are the skills you should bring. They increase your whole party's DPS by a lot, and you do not have to do anything! Just pop them somewhere, preferably in a fire field, because the placement of the Banner is a Blast Finisher and gives Might, and watch how things die. Thieves and Warriors love the Discipline Banner, because they can get up to 100% Critical Chance if they have fury. Do not trait for Banners (damage when they spawn, regeneration or reduced recharge), because there are better options available and things mostly die before the Banners run out. If there are more warriors in your team, bring one of the Banners, have the other Warrior bring the other one and fill up your last slot with something else.
• Other: If you have free spots, use Signet of Might, Signet of Fury or, if Vulnerability is needed "On My Mark!". If you need a stun-breaker, use "Shake It Off!", if you need to evade more, use Signet of Stamina. I use the last one at bosses like Mai Trin, so I can evade more and remove her insane conditions. You can increase defense/support party-wide by choosing for one of the two other Banners, but only takes these when there's room in the Party for the two damaging ones. Never use the Physical Utilities; they suck.
• Elite skills: You have two options. If your party needs 1) Might, Fury and Swiftness and 2) the best Resurrection skill in the game, take Battle Standard. If not, take Signet of Rage. Both are among the best Elites in the entire game.

How to stay alive

Dealing the most damage in the entire game is cool and all, but being dead means no damage at all. So how do you stay alive? Healing Signet + Omnomberry Pies. At the start of the game, the Healing Signet was the most neglected healing skill of the Warrior. After its buff, it became the most common healing skill for the Warrior. It now heals for ~2% of your health every second, which is a lot. Other passive healing signets do not heal for nearly as much as this one does. Use it, and (almost) never activate it. Together with the food that gives health on critical hits, you should stay alive in most situations. This is why the two hits of the Longbow are so important: 66% chance to get healed per shot, is 43% chance to get healed twice, and 43% chance to get healed once. The natural toughness of the Warrior is enough to withstand at least one attack, and heal up while you are dealing damage. This means that you do not have to interrupt your DPS in order to heal. This does not mean that you can face-tank the whole game: the warrior gets enough evasion and block options to negate almost all the damage it takes.

Guardian

Let's get one thing straight. Guardians are not Warriors, nor will they ever be Warriors, and vice versa. While both Soldier professions are melee focused and share a variety of weapons and high natural armor, the two classes play very differently and are needed for different properties in the party. The community's opinion is very divided about Guardians. The hardcore pro's will tell you to go full Berserker, because support is useless and the Guardian is only there for Aegis and useful utility skills. The other group will say that the Guardian's DPS is so low that it's not worth it and that they are not meant to deal damage. Personally I like my Guard to be supportive and tough enough to survive, but not be completely useless DPS-wise. You can do with it whatever you want, I will discuss the usefulness of the weapons and skills the Guardian has, not the best way to play him. In any case, Guardians are more built to last than any other profession, however you play it. People in your party do not expect you to go down much if you are a Guard. They are amazing support classes and can keep your party up with boons, blocks and reflections. Side note: a Fractal party at level 30 or higher often likes to bring a Guard for the support, especially reflection skills. Their reflection skills are also very useful in dungeons like SE.

Commonly used

• Greatsword: Again the GS! This weapon is important to ball foes up with Binding Blade, blind them with Leap of Faith and deal damage with Whirling Wrath. Be careful with your Symbol, as this is a light combo field that gives Retaliation, and you might end up being in the way of other Professions that want to blast in Fire Fields for Might. See the Elementalist for more information about that.
• Sword: The Sword's attacks are a little faster than the Greatsword's, which is why many DPS Guardians use this as their second set.