proof that swords are better than axes and W/Mo arent noobs

There are many disscussions that argues which one is better. Now i introduce to u my sword W/Mo build that rules all! (PvE)

i've been using this build for a while and havent seen many people that use it. so here we go...

Attributes:
Healing(8)
Strength(8+1+1)-i use a platemail helm with +1 str (stacking)
Swordsmenship(12+3)
Tactics(7+1)

Skill:
Pure strike (+30 dmg)
Seeking blade (+20 dmg/bleeding)-switchable you want some other attack skill
Final thrust(+80 dmg under 50%)
Warrior's Endurance {E} (+3 energy every hit)
Healing signet (+100 health)
"Watch yourself" (+20 AL)-keep this on at all times, 20AL is a pretty big difference and can save your butt and only 3A!
Riposte (52 dmg at 8 tactics)-very useful not only does it negate the next blow but u do 52 dmg with it, and with only 3A!
Mending (+3 health regen) constant health regen is priceless, it acts like dmg absorbation

now, when u start the battle Warriors endurance and spam the 2 energy skills, and when u have enough energy hit "Watch yourself" and keep it on. Riposte is only for melee foes. and final thrust is obvious. If ur in an area with enchantment stripping foes, then ditch the 8 healing and mending for some other skill u wish to bring. This build works so well, with a good monk on your back u shouldnt die very much, if u die at all.

So what do u guys think.

you dont think you should bring rebirth in pve?

if you're so uber that you'll be the last man left standing you probably ought to bring a res.

You forgot frenzy so you can own all the enemies with your l33t healing signet + frenzy combo!

omg...drop this useless elite please.. just put some A skills.
where's the need for mending? you'll take ~normal damages, so your +3/-1 does nothing.
BTW beeing a wammo for mending...

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@ the OP: swords are roughly equal to axes, and you don't do much to change the wammo stereotype. Mending, a lot of energy-based skills, a Platemail helm - typical for W/Mos in PvE. (But then again a lot of PvE builds are still bad and manage to crawl through.) It doesn't use any of the strengths of the Warrior - high damage output, high armor, adrenaline - and instead relies on rather bad ideas.

1. Strength should be an afterthought in most builds, unless your build uses many Strength-based skills (you have only one). Using a Strength helm to get one more second and energy out of Warrior's Endurance is next to nothing compared to a weapon attribute helm.

2. Two healing skills - overkill. Take one at most and drop the other. Preferably drop Mending as wasting 8 attribute levels in Healing Prayers isn't doing as much for you as a jacked-up Tactics attribute. More Tactics = better Riposte, "Watch Yourself!", and Healing Signet.

3. Energy-based skills - use less. One of the prime benefits of being a Warrior is having a good selection of adrenaline-based skills. You don't need to waste your Elite slot and main stance just to use subpar energy-based attacks. You have Sever Artery and Gash available for Deep Wounding fleshy targets, or Galrath Slash for general use.

4. Speaking of stances, you be making heavy use of them. You have available Frenzy, which is a good offensive stance when you're not the one being focused on; Flurry, which helps with adrenaline but can only be effectively used with a Zealous weapon; Sprint, to close gaps between you and enemies faster and to cancel Frenzy when you're under fire; and the defensive stances like Gladiator's Defense, which help to guard you against attacks but aren't too necessary.

To claim your build rules all PvE is a bit much. *Gets pin ready to pop the big head*

Theres just 1 thing its missing.

W/Me/Mo, Arcane Echo Mending. Using both Mending and energy skills so your forced to dedicate your elite to it is just dumb. At least sword is getting a decent elite in Faction though.
I really do love it when warriors create the ultimate build to keep there sorry ass alive then don't bring a res to bring the less fortunate back to life. Unless you intend to solo thigns obviously.

I love warriors in PvP that cover there Healing Signet with Ripostes, so if i've got nowt better to do i hit em with Irresistable Blow for instant interrupt

3 last mission were easy when i and my friend played builds like this:
I used sword: gash-severy-galarath-frenzy-shock-charge-heal sig-res sig
Tactics 11, strength 9, sword 16

No counter stance for frenzy... Last Of Master dont need it in gvg, so why wuold i need it against stupid mursaats???

My friend's
He used Axe: evi-exe-pene-shock-frenzy-sprint-heal sig-res sig


Those mursaat monk bosses, they dropped like flyes when we shocked and made adrenaline spikes xD

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I would use only one energy based sword skill if you are going to use any and don't forget you have riposte and deadly riposte.I use a Knights helmet for now but will be switching to a glad helmet of tactics.I only use knights chest piece and the rest glads.

well, personally i hate swords. never seen a good use fo em. imo, axe way better, look at eviscerate. soloin wit w/mo wit axe is way easier than sword. i use vital blessing, healing sig, then solid adren skills, wit eaither battle rage o eviscerate.

I like the sword more.

1. They have more skills.
2. I can use Ripostre
3. I think they look cooler than Axes.

What is it with W/Mo's and Vital Blessing...

Do you honestly think we care if you can stack points into prot prayers for the sole purpose to get 100-150 more health than the rest of us (most wammos seem to enjoy spamming there health randomly just to show people how high it is...). Shatter Enchantment just makes you even worse off. Besides if your having that much problem with your health and dieing, i think you need to get yourself a new tactic or sort your damn skillbar out.

It may just be me but in PvE, you use Frenzy, you better be able to heal yourself well because i sure as hell won't waste my energy on you. Also not bringing a 2nd stance to cancel it off in PvE gives me even more reason to refuse to heal you. You were dumb enough to bring it when your ideally prime agro to stop the squishies dieing. Obviously if you can use it properly and only do it when your not even getting attacked at all then fine, but i've really had enough of those wammos who run into battle with frenzy and almost drop dead vs the first Mursaat Ele they come to.

if youre farming droks trolls swords are useless u need cyclone axe to heal yourself and get adrenaline and in lots of cases axes can be better, im sayin this as a sword warrior too.

hundred blades? dirka dirka

Where is the proof? I see a horrible build that is worse than the pvp premade paladin. I can think of a way better way to gain energy, and it's called zealous weapon mod.

Mending is a classic newb skill for w/mos. That helm does not help either. I also don't see why sword is better than axe... it really isn't.

Axe is better than sword for pve easily because of cyclone axe. The only reason sword can be useful for pve is riposte and deadly risposte.

In terms of pvp, I have yet to see a viable HA or GvG build that revolves around sword.

There's the evis/executioner/shock build that's really popular right now.

In every discussion of Sword vs. Axe, i have to wonder...would people still pick Axe if Eviserate was no more?

As for the posted build, the skill selection is a bit odd to me. Honestly, I don't like to do a 4 attribute dependant build, so maybe that's part of it. I also value Tactics above strength, so that might be part of it as well.

As was also stated, Pure Strike isn't so hot since you have to be in a stance all the time, not to mention cooldown. I also don't know why people think mending is so awesome...I'd rather not spread out my attributes that way. :/ I'm sure it works for what you want it to, but it is hardly proof that swords are better than axes.

Wow another replica warrior sword build with {elite} mendingway.. I am proud you made a build working around mending like every other build..

Seems like any other build using mending with watch yourself.. and yes most w/mo's have proven to suck at what they do.. and yes I think both axe and sword are equally matched in some ways.

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Mediocre build PvE wise, horrible PvP wise.

Firsly, choosing monk as your secondary only for mending is somewhat bad in my oppinion. At 8 healing prayers your mending gives 3 pips of regen. 1 pip of regen is 2 health per second, hence you gain 6 health per second. This will essentialy cancel out 6 damage per second. Most things in PvE will be hitting you for at least 20 damage, and you'll be "tanking" most of the time, and attempting to take all the damage. Lets say you take all the damage for 15 seconds, then combat ends, your mending has essentialy negated you from loosing 90 points of life(due to degen or damage). That is roughly equal to one orison of healing. If the monsters do say 30 damage per hit, you've negated 3 hits. If they're using say an axe(or sword), they will hit you 3 times in 4 seconds(1.33s base attack speed), and that's if they have no speed boost. Basicaly you've just negated 4 seconds of damage from one monster. Really not that great when you look at it that way? Now this is only hypothetical on the damage you'll be taking(could be more or less depending), but the figures of attack speed and regen are all 100% accurate.

Watch Yourself and Riposte are both 4 strikes of adrenaline, not 3. However riposte takes 80 adrenaline points(1 strike = 25 points), so it is somewhat close to 3. Your tactics is somewhat low in my oppinion, most warriors in PvE have at least 12 in tactics(break point for most tactics stances such as gladiator's defense), if not more. Riposte is certainly not a bad skill, it does a decent reliable amount of damage, but it's conditional in it's damage as it must be a melee attack, and the attack must be blocked(swift chop, irrestiable blow, and other skills can not be blocked).

Other than this your build seems to rely heavily on energy, so much so that you need to bring Warriors Endurance as your elite. Also about that, a +1 mastery helm will be much better than the +1 strength you get from your plate helm, especialy since strength is considered a non-desirable attribute most of the time in PvE, and Warriors Endurance is essentialy a waste of your elite.

With only one pip of energy regen(1 energy every 3 seconds per pip) you'll hardly have enough energy to make the most of your two energy costing attack skills, which seem to be the main damage dealers in your build if you're using final thrust to finish targets off(since the adrenal cost makes it somewhat impossible to spam...).

My suggestions on your build would be to change it to look somewhat like this:

1. Sever Artery(useless vs non-fleshy opponents, keep this in mind)
2. Gash(useless vs non-flessy opponents, keep this in mind)
3. Final Thrust
4. Hundred Blades* or Gladiator's Defense*
5. Frenzy or Some form of condition removal(Mend ailment, Purge conditions, possibly Contemplation of Purity if your monks use alot of enchants)
6. Sprint or Some form of hex removal, Smite Hex and Holy Veil are reccomended, if you bring Contemplation of Purity for slot 5, fill this slot with whatever.
7. Shield Stance, Shields Up, Watch Yourself, Healing Signet or another utility skill that will fit what you're up against and what you're doing.
8. Rebirth, Ressurect(can be a waste of a res in certain situations), or Ressurection Signet.

Attributes somthing like...

16 Swordsmanship
12-13 Tactics
Rest Strength

This is a very genralized build, and may not work everywhere, infact it probably won't even be optimal in many cases, as it should be totaly changed depending on what you're up against and doing.



Edit: As for Last of Master using Frenzy with no cancel stance, you'll notice he only uses it when he probably won't be attacked, never versus a pure spike team, and only when he's sure he can get a kill.

I use the following Attributes everywhere
Tactics 12
Strenght 10(or 11)
Swordsmanship 13(or 14)

What do I think? I think you unessesarily earned the ire of every Axe Warrior in the game by using the title of this thread and then presenting this build. Fine, so you have a monk to back you up you might do ok, but what if the monk dies?

The mesmer mobs, I think Wind Riders, would eat this build alive.

They'll strip the mending off this thing and since they usually come in groups of 3, they'll thwart any attempt to heal sig with Cry of Fustration. You'd probably die in oh say....20 seconds. Oh did I mention they're keep you in constant -5 degen?

Forgotten "Archers": They usually come in twos so if you're not constantly blinded "Throw Dirt", they'll be pelting you with I believe "Penetrating Shot", whatever the skill is, it hurts. Healing Sig? They'll fry you with Distracting Shot in an instant.

Let's see what else would beat you to death...without a monk.

-Avicara
-Sand Giants
-Mountain Trolls
-Blessed Griffons
-Azure Shadows
-Groups of Magumma greater then 2-3.
-etc.

Swords have their uses, but they are not the be all or end all of weapons, that's why people use both.

A decent build is one that works with a monk
A good build requires minimal monk support
A great build, as you claim this to be, basically relies on itself to survive for more then a minute or two, or longer.

swords are highly underrated by serious players in my opinion; mainly ebcause they are the weapon-of-choice for idiots who have no idea how to use them propperly; making them look worse than they are.
the fact is, swords and axes play differently. period.
an axe is better for pure-adrenaline-based-damage-spiking.
swords are a tad more well-rounded, with a higher choice in energy-based skills, but also maintaining good adren-based skills.
i mean, one of the best skill combinations for a sword warrior is final, galrath, sever, gash, hamstring. it works wonders when you build up adren on one target with your axe-warrior pair, then switch targets, fire off your crippled, and then go to town with adren spikes.
swords do less possible damage than axes (higher average) but they are better for light-defense and in more ways than one, better for chasing down enemies.
i think chapter 2 will actually make sword warriors and axe warriors far more alike.
at the moment one of the primary reasons sword warriors arent seen as spikers is the lack of pure-damage-output skills; like penetrating blow, ex axe, evisc, cleave, and others for the axe. sword warriors only have galrath and final thrust for pure damage; meaning that most of them turn towards other skills that compliment a sword/axe warrior duo, or sword/hammer warrior duo. ATM the only pure sword-based elite is a total joke; hundred blades, which means sword warriors generally switch to other elites (which again, compliment a more team-based outlook, rather than pure damage) such as;
battle-rage (ever-popular with protectors strike)
bulls-charge (pair this up with a hammer warrior and prepare to have loads of fun)
or charge (combiend with a sword warriors superior 1v1 warrior dueling ability, makes them decent flag runners [if they need be], while maintaining the ability to deal damage, or allows the whole team to catch the enemy).
but, you rarely see axe warriors using these elites, because in general they would have to be insane to give up eviscerate (without eviscerate swords have more spike-potential).