BWE3 + Stress Test Shout Support Rifle Warrior Build

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/wvw-shout-support-rifle-warrior-shout-rifle-support-wvw-warrior-3747.html

Let me know what you think.  How it might be improved?  Does +healing affect the heals on my shouts?  Going defense would give me a lot of survivability but I'd be sacrificing pierce and lower cooldowns on Rifle and basically 10% damage, as bleed will always be up.  I don't know which way to go.  Help me out!

I'll probably end up trying a lot of both and seeing which I enjoy more.  I don't generally get my hands too dirty in melee, so the survivability might be worth sacrificing.  I'm already pretty survivable without it, mostly because Warhorn lets me get out of almost anything!  If I go Arms and give up the 5 sec weapon swap cooldown, I can go with the 4s quickness when I cripple someone, which is pretty often.  Makes sword a lot more brutal as well, having my burst go off in an eye blink would be awesome. :D  Then he'd still be immobile for 2s after I'm finished or something.  Even just proccing it on Rifle that often will add a lot of damage!

Gah I just don't know what to do!!  Really depends on how much healing the healing defense adds to my shout heals, I think.  Just need this flippin' game to come out so I can try em out already!

Hmmm that looks pretty good. +healing will affect your heals from your shouts (it should anyway).

I am actually gonna be using a spec very close to yours. Gonna try out a bow in my main weapon and the same 30 points in the tactics tree for the healing shouts so that I can assist whatever group I am in. AoE healing in any sense can never be a bad thing in my opinion. Also, the bow with the extended range for the first slot in the tactics tree might make for some more in the back healer type class if I want to try that out if I want too. Lots of different ways to try it out with this game so gonna try out the bow/support and also a melee/support as well.

Anyone have a resource that talks about the mathematics of the healing? Maybe its still too early in the game for all that haha. Will each of my heals go up by my healing power amount? Id imagine its even less which doesnt seem very effective to me. Basically Im looking at whether I want to have cripples that apply a 1s immobilization which procs 4s quickness on me, lower rifle cooldowns and piercing rounds, and 10% increased damage on bleeding targets in Arms, or increased defense while ccd, a free cc breaker, and a 5 sec invulnerability at 25% health. Overall I think the Arms option is more helpful to the overall team, whereas Defense is mostly about saving my own backside, at least with my build. I already have a lot of cc breaking and condition removal in my build so Ill buff my damage instead. A good build for a melee oriented support is Taugrim's Captain Hammer build. You should check it out, just google it. Id link it if I wasnt using my android phone to type this up lol, hence why I am not using appostrophes lol. Ill edit on my pc later. Lots of cc. Built kind of like the classic WAR tank. Closest to KOTBS i guess with the shouts. Uses mace and shield I think. You could go longbow for the other set, but hammer would synergize well, but leaving you with no ranged options. In wvw Id prefer to be able to change to a ranged weapon at need. Warrior can be played so many different and equally viable ways. Its a great class.

» Edited on: 2012-08-16 07:43:05

Very similiar to what I have been working with. The one change on my end was taking Deep Cuts in the Arms line instead of Rending Strikes. Need to put some thought and testing around this especially with the vulnerability changes...but I do like the idea of 50% extra bleed length. Ties in nicely to the sword and a bit from the rifle to ratchet up the condition damage and synchs nicely with Attack of Opportunity where you get 10% extra damage when attacking a bleeding opponent.

From Taugrim's site. "The Vigorous Shouts trait heals for 1192 base + 80% compassion"

As to your build. If you want more healing but want to keep the damage up maybe just look at the Clerics Amulet or Celestial Amulet. Getting enough points in Defense to matter would require you losing your -20% to Rifle cooldowns.

Ah, ha! That is an excellent idea Hercy. I will use my gear to compensate for the +healing I lose in my build. That way I can keep my Arms. I'll put an updated build here.

I am also thinking of doing a shout based build. This is the build I was thinking of running for dungeons... It doesn't do a ton of damage, but it is great in survivability and brings a TON of healing to the party. http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/warrior#16|9|60|16754|65|919|1890|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|1895|1081|1491|30|1513|1510|1056|10|1104|0|0|1|15|

For dungeon gear I was thinking of...

• The pve equivalent of cleric's jewel / ammy
• Dwayna's runes so I give the party regen 5 seconds out of every 20 (and give myself regen when tanking).

For WvWvW I was thinking of...

• Changing to mace / warhorn and longbow... adding the faster longbow trait
• Using runes of the centaur to keep give my party permanent swiftness

For sPvP I was thinking of...

• Mace/Warhorn + hammer but swapping to soldiers runes for the condition removal
• 10% faster movement when using melee weapons...

For solo / gathering I was thinking of....

• Sword/warhorn + greatsword for the massive speed boost
• Runes of the centaur for permanent swiftness
• 10% faster movement when using melee weapons...

» Edited on: 2012-08-16 22:53:01

Gamdrin: I have looked into the Captian Hammer build I do think it will be very appealing and instead of using a shield and mace I will indeed put a bow in so that I can switch to ranged if need be in WvWvW at any time that it is needed for some in the back healing. The stuns and AoE CC from that build are a very viable benefit to helping any group in a pinch. The defensive bonus also helps keep me alive longer so that I can pump out even MORE healing to my allies. Like it has been stated, the warrior in Guild Wars 2 is so versatile in how you can play it that you literally can do about anything with it so there will be lots of testing once I can hop into the fray and see what works best for an overall type support for WvW and groups scenarios in both ranged and melee. I will be on at launch and be playing for probably the first 3 days as I requested those days off hehe, trying to get my name (Wook) but might have to get my second name (Furyen) either way I will be in game and more than will to post feedback or talk in ventrilo with fellow warriors about what is working and what is well not working so well when it comes to healing/support builds at launch.

Hmm runes of the centaur. Ill check these out. Havnt seen em. Yeah definitely looking forward to sharing knowledge with other warriors about builds and strategies.

Updated it to 30 Arms, changed my Runes to Runes of the Valkyrie which make my precision more worth it as well as making up some of the healing I lose by changing out of defense. I'm really liking how this is shaping up, can't wait to playtest it.

Like the change Gamdrin. Still not sure which is better...vulnerability or the extra bleed length in arms...but looks solid.

Yeah originally I went with the bleed duration, but i changed it to additional vulnerability because they added a new shout that stacks TEN vulnerability. I wanna just maximize my vulnerability and help call out focus fire targets for my group.

MEH. Played the Arms variation in some sPvP this last stress test. Way too squishy feeling. It wasn't the healing I missed it was the toughness. That being said, in WvW I might still go with Arms, because it's easier to kind of get out of harm's way, you don't need the bonuses in defense as much and I'd rather do more damage. :D