User:Ekko/Sandbox/Weapon Ideas/Warrior
Warriors are often fairly boring classes in MMOs, since their playstyle usually falls into one of two categories: hittin' stuff until it dies or lettin' stuff hit you. The warrior in GW2, though, actually has a wide variety of potential playstyles, due to the large variety of actually disctinct weapons it can equip. Here's a look.
The warrior has 19 possible weapon sets: 4 two-handed weapons, 3 main-hand weapons, and 5 off-hand weapons. With weapon switching, it has a total of 171 unique combinations of weapon skills*. This doesn't count aquatic weapons, by the way, because I have really very little idea of how that'll play.
- I'm almost positive I've been doing this math wrong, but I'm on break and don't want to worry about it.
Two-Handed[edit]
Greatsword[edit]
The greatsword is a mobile offensive weapon with a number of area attacks. The Greatsword Swing -> Greatsword Slice -> Brutal Strike chain deals single-target damage and inflicts vulnerability with Brutal Strike, which sets the foe up for more damage. Hundred Blades hits multiple foes multiple times with a fairly quick recharge (which can be reduced further by a trait). Whirlwhind Attack causes you to dart forward, attacking foes as you pass, while Bladetrail is a ranged attack that hits multiple foes over a boomerang-like path. Uppercut knocks a foe up and behind you, giving you a little more control over the battlefield. The burst skill for the greatsword, Face Me, focuses on mobility--it cripples foes and, with more adrenaline, gives you swiftness and immobilizes your enemies.
Hammer[edit]
The hammer is a control-based weapon--debuffing and disabling foes, often with area attacks. We don't really know anything about its chain, so I'm going to skip over it here. Fierce Blow weakens your target, mitigating its damage output. Hammer Shock cripples foes with an AoE attack, and Staggering Blow knocks a group of enemies back--together, they can trap a bunch of melee enemies in a damaging area or just keep them away from your team. Backbreaker knocks down an enemy, rendering it temporarily useless. Earthshaker, the hammer's burst skill, lets you jump towards a group of enemies and stun them all for a time depending on your adrenaline level.
Longbow[edit]
The longbow is one of the warrior's two long-ranged weapons. It's an offensive, area-focused weapon, that sets enemies on fire. Dual Shot is exactly what it sounds like: it sends a pair of arrows at your foe with an instant recharge. Incendiary Shot shoots an exploding arrow that lights your target on fire and damages foes nearby it. Fan of Fire shoots three arrows in a spread pattern, setting enemies it hits on fire. Pin Down immobilizes a single foe and doesn't set it on fire. Arcing Arrow is a ground-targeted explosion, which sets foes on fire with a trait. Combustive Shot is the burst skill; it targets an area of foes and...sets them on fire. It's worth noting that, unlike most long-ranged two-handers, the warrior's longbow lacks a means of dealing with close-range foes.
Rifle[edit]
The rifle is a single-target ranged offensive weapon. Bleeding Shot is pretty straightforward, a spammable attack that applies bleeding. Aimed Shot cripples a single target. Volley fires a series of rounds at a single target and allows you to move while shooting. Brutal Shot makes your target vulnerable, setting them up for high-damage skills, like Volley. Rifle Butt knocks back a foe in melee range--with Aimed Shot, you can do a decent job of an enemy away from you. Kill Shot, the burst skill, is a powerful, single target attack; its damage increases with adrenaline.
Main-Hand[edit]
Axe[edit]
The main-hand axe is a straightforward offensive weapon. Chop -> Double Chop -> Triple Chop is exactly what it sounds like on the tin, a total of six attacks in one convenient skill chain. Cyclone Axe returns from GW1 largely unchanged; you spin around and hit foes next to you. Throw Axe is also exactly what it says on the tin--you hurl your weapon to deal damage and apply vulnerability, which is a great condition for dealing damage. The axe's burst skill is Eviscerate, a leaping attack that deals huge amounts of damage. Throw Axe -> Eviscerate is an obvious, but potent combination.
Mace[edit]
The mace is a defensive weapon, employing conditions and counters to mitigate enemy damage. Mace Smash -> Mace Bash -> Pulverize is a damaging skill chain that weakens your foe at the finish. Counter Blow is a powerful defensive skill with a short recharge--it blocks the next attack and counters with a melee strike that knocks your foe down if it's a melee attack. Pommel Bash is a short (1 second) daze, which can interrupt a particularly powerful attack or stop an enemy for just enough time for an ally to get healed. Skull Crack, the mace's burst skill, stuns a foe for a fairly long time, which is obviously useful.
Sword[edit]
The sword is a mobility-focused offensive weapon. Sever Artery -> Gash -> Final Thrust is the iconic skill chain here, which stacks bleeding and ends with a powerful strike. Savage Leap is a leap attack, useful for changing targets or dealing with ranged or fleeing foes. Hamstring cripples an enemy, increasing your mobility advantage. The burst skill, Flurry, immobilizes a group of foes, with duration increasing with adrenaline.
Off-Hand[edit]
Axe[edit]
Like its main-hand counterpart, the off-hand axe is a damage-focused offensive weapon. Dual Strike hits a foe with both of your weapons, doing a good bit of damage. Whirling Axe causes you to spin around, hitting enemies around you, while you move, which can let you cut a swath through a crowd.
Mace[edit]
The off-hand mace is a condition-focused weapon with both offensive and defensive capacity. Crushing Blow applies vulnerability, while Tremor cripples a group of enemies. The two helpful conditions can support most weapons, although many warrior main-hands already apply these conditions.
Shield[edit]
The shield is a defensive weapon, which makes sense. Shield Bash causes you to rush forward and stun an enemy, blocking attacks on the way. Shield Stance is a toggle skill, causing you to raise your shield and block incoming attacks, at the cost of impairing or preventing your own attacks.
Sword[edit]
The off-hand sword straddles both offensive and defensive purposes. Impale is a ranged attack that sticks your sword in an enemy. While impaled, the enemy takes damage from bleeding, but you lose access the the sword's skills. Riposte is a defensive skill that blocks incoming attacks and counterattacks melee enemies, applying bleeding.
Warhorn[edit]
The warhorn is a support weapon, mainly applying boons. Charge frees nearby allies of movement-impairing conditions and gives them swiftness, causing your team to move faster. Call to Arms gives you and your allies vigor (which can be maintained indefinitely with this skill) and weakens enemies around you.
Weapon Combinations[edit]
Axe[edit]
Axe/Axe[edit]
Two axes work well together, but still have the major downside to the main-hand axe: you only have damage. Whirling Axe is a welcome mobility skill and supplements Cyclone Axe's area attack capacity, and Dual Strike offers another high-damage attack, but that's about it. You get to hit things with your axes and move around a bit--your utility skills and/or teammates will be under more pressure to make up for the lack of control, support, or defense while in this set.
Axe/Mace[edit]
The off-hand mace's conditions aren't a huge benefit to the axe. Crushing Blow adds another way of applying vulnerability, which is nice, but, since you can already apply it with Throw Axe, it's less helpful. Tremor's AoE cripple can add some effective mobility and help out your teammates, but it's not spectacular when Eviscerate is a powerful target-switcher and the axe doesn't benefit much from moving around.
Axe/Shield[edit]
An interesting pairing: the most damage-focused main-hand with the most defensive off-hand. The pairing works pretty well--Shield Stance adds a lot of defensive capacity to a set that would otherwise totally lack it, but it does mean you can't deal (much?) damage while it's up. Shield Bash is nice with the Axe--it adds a safe way of closing distance and can guarantee you the first attack if you use it as an opener. That said, its use will probably be limited, given that you want to use Eviscerate a lot, the stun is helpful by itself.
Axe/Sword[edit]
The off-hand sword can either be a helpful offensive or defensive supplement, depending on your need. Impale adds a ranged attack that lets you get damage on a target you're not going after yet, or supplement your attack damage on a big foe. Riposte lets you block some attacks without giving up too much damage, which is helpful if you might be in a position where you'll be attacked (and that's probably the case often, for a melee attacker).
Axe/Warhorn[edit]
The warhorn adds some much-needed support to the axe, and the axe's already-high damage makes up for the lack of offensive skills on the off-hand. The two shouts let you maintain Swiftness and Vigor on your nearby allies, and frequently weaken your enemies, which goes a long way towards helping your team out, and it's quite nice for you as well.
Mace[edit]
Mace/Axe[edit]
The offhand axe adds some helpful mobility and a nice dose of damage to the support-oriented mace. Dual Strike gives you a high-damage attack that you'd otherwise lack, and Whirling Axe gives you a reason to move, which can help you get in a better position or switch targets.
Mace/Mace[edit]
The off-hand mace continues the condition theme, but with a more offensive bent. Tremor lets you impede the movement of a lot of foes, which is always nice for a control-oriented set, and Crushing Blow is a nice offensive debuff that can increase your damage output and help your allies kill enemies you weakened.
Mace/Shield[edit]
MORE TO COME, again. It's break, and nobody reads these, so I'm not terribly motivated.
