Stupid Warrior, or am I just a NooB?

OK, so I have been playing GW for about 2 months now and I am trying to figure something out. I have the following build LV20 W/Mo build

1- For Great Justice (adds to adrenaline)
2- Pure Strike (+damage, can be unblockable)
3- Galrath Slash (+damage)
4- Final Thrust (+damage, doubles if victim is below 50%)
5- Shield Stance (blocking)
6- Symbol of Wrath (AOE holy damage)
7- Healing Signet (healing)
8- Balthazar's Spirit (+adrenaline/energy when struck)

My Swordsmanship is LV 16, I have a 14-21 sword with +24 Health and +5 energy and a shield with DEF 12.

Here's my issue: I dont do very much damage! I am plagued with damage in the single digits against creature (or player) equal to my level or greater. And when I use a skill, I finally get damage above 30. Other player's boast huge damages above 50....what gives?

Am I missing something? Am I just a nOOb moron? Or do warriors in this game just get the shaft?

replace symbol of wrath with zealots fire

lol first of all change from sword to axe or hammer.

second of all you are finding out that warriors are easily countered and made if not useless then pretty close to useless.

How does that work?

Zealot's Fire - Enchantment Spell
For 60 seconds, whenever you use a skill on an ally, all foes adjacent to your target are struck for 5-37 fire damage.

So whenever I use a skill on myself...Zealot's fire deals damage?

Swords are not completly useless like some people think there the balance of the weapons(Hammer and Axe)and can do a few more conditions than a axe or hammer plus they look cool ,even though Ill prefer a chaos axe

lol ok i am coming to you from a necro that loves to eat up warriors. sword has no knockdown or interrupts at all. that means that 1v1 i will eat up a sword wieldind warrior no problem (so will most other casters) in order to be very effective as a warrior you need to have knockdowns and interrupts. if you are lacking these then any caster worth his salt will lay waste to you.

that is why i said chance to axe or hammer.

What is your strength? and you only gain 1% point for each rank over 12 so having a 16 Swordsmanship may not be very helpful. It would be better to have both Sword and Strength as high as possible with the leftovers split into Tactics and a monk set.

So when you say sword has no interupts, I guess you ment not including this one:
Savage Slash - Sword Attack
If this attack hits, it interrupts target foe's action. If that action was a spell, you deal 1-32 extra damage.

LMAO 1 like that is not going to derail a good caster. for example a good necro will have 5 hexes on you and have you stripped in less then 10 seconds. i will heal for over 22 a second while i reduce your attack time by 50% and steal 20 HP from you every time you attack, SS will do 38 damage every time you use a skill or attack, etc etc how many hex removals do you have??

zero!!!

unless you can knock me down you are toast plain and simple

I have a w/n, with an ebon sword of swordsmanship, 15-22, 12 swordsmanship, 10 str, 9 or 10 tatics. I find worrior doing respectful damage both in PvE and PvP.

my usual PvE skill set (with my still limited skill choices):
sever artery
watch yourself
gladiator's defense
savage slash
rest are necro skills (bloodwall, life steal, condition transfer etc)
and other party shouts, shields up, charge etc.

...and you'll be pretty much useless against casters with all those warrior debuffs. You continue to mention strip but strip only takes off one enchant. Against any decent war, it will probably be a coverup enchant or an enchant that's easily recastable. If you want to make single-sided arguments like that, you might as well be saying rangers will beat necros (nature's renewal + distract/savage/concussion).

Bottom line... you thought there was no interrupt from sword warrior but there is savage slash and it disables your skill (ala distracting shot) and theres the no-attribute distracting blow...

No knockdowns?... Bull's Charge and Bull's Strike (only works if they are moving) and gryphons sweep (not sure if there are more) so you obviously dont know your warriors

Necro's have great curses... and I feel that if I had to choose between playing necro or warrior on a 1vs1... I'd play necro and always win solely because I'd bring skills to guaruntee my win

But in Tombs (the real pvp arena not 4v4 arena) 1vs1 the necro doesnt have a chance unless he is decked with less useful skills

My opinion? It's the player that makes the difference and those who jump in to brag about something they are wrong about don't know their stuff and will lose

Sword warriors simply do crap dmg but they can 1hit cripple and bleed though i feel that 10 energy for hamstring is a bit pricey

the big thing for sword warrior are the tactics line -- try out axes i feel they are best dmg and most versatile

wong my friend i mentions REND ENCHANTMENTS that takes down 8 which means all of them :P

and those are not just warrior debuffs. they affect all characters. SS afects any time a SKILL IS USED or an attack. (that means staffs as well0)

my point was to the original poster.

chance to axe or hammer. much more effective

weapon-wise speaking, 15 - 22 for swords, 6 - 28 for axes.

I don't see how swords are doing crappy damage.

lol i do know my warriors (i play one in PvP when the guild needs one since i have almost all skills unlocked) but that is either here nor there. my post was to give him advice to change from sword to axe or hammer where he can do much more damage and distract better

It looks like you are playing PvE primarily. Since you are also tanking you will be getting wailed on and triggering Balthazar's quite often. In this case go axe, axe excels at adrenaline use. I also see you are running axe, tactics, and smiting. Sword is less adrenaline based and doesn't mesh as well with Balthazar's.

For PvE try this:
Cleave or Eviscerate (once you get it)
Executioners Strike
Penetrating Blow
Axe Twist (if you run eviscerate) or Dismember (if you run cleave)
Balthazar's Spirit
Watch Yourself
To the Limit or Cyclone axe (both have the same adrenaline building function)
Rez (any hard form)

Dodging works against balthazar's spirit, watch yourself can boost your armor decreasing the damage you take per hit and allowing you to tank better. To the limit will rapidly charge all your adrenal skills. Once charged you can let lose with cleave, executioners, and penetrating to rapidly tear one foe to shreds. If you spam cleave and penetrating you can get good damage, but will slow the development of executioners. However with this build you have to have faith in your teams monk as your defense is sacrificed for heavy single target offense. Also if you can find a necro willing to carry dark fury (and who knows how to use it well) you will be an engine of destruction. Also with balthazar's on you should be able to spam "To the Limit" or Cyclone Axe like nuts.

Swords is just fine. Playing Axe or Hammer really depends on what your goal is, or what your team's goal is. Rather taking Great Justice, I'd recommend you to take Battle Rage. With a high str attribute, Battle Rage lasts a long time, and allows you to charge up adrenaline very quickly. Not to mention using high str will give you extra damage when you use your attack skills.

Also I wouldn't bother bringing Shield Stance. While defensive stances sound good...they're only partially useful when you play PvE. (absolutely useless in PvP since no one with a brain attacks a warrior) As long as you have a decent monk in your party you shouldn't need to worry about your HP.

And if you afford it...bring Hamstring too. 10e may sound high...but in PvP, it is absolutely indispensible.

In response to the last poster who feels that shield stance is useless... I completely disagree.

I play a W/Mo build in PvE

Str 4
Swd 14
Tactics 13

Gladiators Def 9 seconds 75% block chance -29 damage to all blocked attackers
Galrath's Slash +35 damage on hit
Savage Slash - interrupt if spell +35 damage
Final Thrust +35 Damage on hit, double if target below 50%
Shield Stance 18 seconds 75% block chance
Sprint - just in case party gets wiped out and I need to rez
Healing breeze - 5 regen
Rebirth - teleporting rez

I am constantly the last character alive, and I can tank til the cows come home. the shield stance and gladiator's defense are teh bread and butter of my build as i can get 27 seconds of 75% block chance and the healing breeze keeps me up for the 5-6 seconds i need for the skills to recharge after i do a glad/shield/1 second wait/glad/5-6 second wait/shield.

the shield stance is excellent as a defensive build component.
On a side note to the OP - the sword does do small damage vs high level creature, but with the galrath's and final it can do between 50-70 depending on the creature (much more if they are below 50% for final) However the type of damage is a factor in the high level areas, i switch between an ebon fellblade and a fiery dragon sword depending on the opponents i face, the ebon generally does a little more damage, but the fire is helpful vs ice imps and seige golems and felsh golems and such.
I hope you keep up with the sword as it does a great job if you are willing to learn how to use it to the most effect with your own style of play.
however that being said. don't hesitate to try the axe/hammer out as they also have great builds that can be just as effective as a sword build.

I would like to thank everyone who stayed on topic here and who actually replied to MY issue, and didnt get involved with the "my necro is so awesome..." tangent. Some really useful tidbits there!


99% of what I do is PvE (yes, that's right, I dont PvP very often!), and I used to do axe stuff, but thought the higher minimum damage would be a good trade. Perhaps not? I cant see trading the shield for a hammer, and the axe, while doing more damage (sometimes) seems too unpredictable.

I never thought of getting multiple weapons in hotslots to exploit my enemies' weaknesses though. I assume that translates into double damage?

So barring that..... what four hilts should I look for? I know that HOLY damage is great against undead....but what about FIRE and the others? What are the most common weak points I am going to encounter?

sighs i did not go off topic my friend (please read entire posts) in fact i tried to keep it on topic by giving you other options for your warrior. i gave the necro example so you can see the difference in the options you have.

@OP

First you need a max damage sword, preferably with +15% while your health is over 50% or while in a stance, or...while enchanted.

Symbol of Wrath is pretty much a waste on your character. It's a slow casting, short duration AOE spell and you can't control if a monster is going to stand in it the whole time.
Since you're already in Smiting, try Strength of Honor. The extra damage it does ignores armor and you'll get even more benefit from attack speed buffs.

Next, you have a couple of decisions to make. You're spread across 4 attribute lines (Swords, Strength, Tactics, and Smiting) but haven't told us which you're focusing on. On top of that we don't know what type of build you want to play. If all you want to do is damage with swords, we can give some advice, but your current attributes are a bit schizophrenic.

Frenzy is absoultely necessary if damage is your main concern, but if you're operating as a tank in PVE it's going to get you killed. If you're not the tank, you should start using it ASAP.

Next: Interrupts. You need to learn to start using them. If you haven't encountered them already, there are some bosses (monk in particular) that are brutally difficult to take down without any interrupts. That, and learning to use interrupts is a valuable skill, so it's time to start. Savage Slash is great, and don't forget you can bring Distracting Blow if you want as well.

Unfortunately for you, swords don't have much in the way of adrenal spikes. Galrath+Final Thrust is a nice finisher, but you have to get there first and using nothing but regular attacks along the way isn't really going to get you there quickly.

Energy is also likely to be an issue, so pick up a zealous sword hilt for your brand new 15-22 sword. It benefits a ton from attack speeds boosts as well, and it should solve any energy problems you might have.

I'd drop Balthazar's Spirit unless you're doing a lot of tanking...but again, if you're tanking, you're not going to be able to deal a ton of damage. That's a tradeoff you wont be able to get around, so make that choice now.

Sorry, I should have mentioned earlier that I hardly do any PvP. My mistake.

My primary role in our group is PvE tank. My focus is on Swordsmanship (16), followed by Tactics (11), then Smiting (8), then Strength (3).

my sword averages 20+ against other characters....are you fighting warriors or other classes like you shoul be?

Like the previous poster mentioned, you need to decide if you want to tank or deal damage. If you're going to tank, at the very least get yourself a max shield (2 months and you don't have one?). If you want to deal some damage, you need to follow the advice of some previous posters (good info there).

You do need to keep in mind though that this is a team game, with different characters filling different roles. Warriors are really set up to be the tanks, piss people off a little, and hold the mob in one place for the casters to do the big damage. If you want to do lots of damage, you're going to have to roll another toon.

Yeah, warriors are there to take damage and bring in some "support damage." That being said, yeah, the high-level creatures like Aatxes will not take a whole lot of damage from warrior weapons alone. Using +dmg skills will help, but really your best friend is sever/gash if you're using a sword in PVE. With high swordsmanship, sever will drain 120 hp, and gash can mean a huge drop in life against high-level monsters.

Axes I find are better suited to PVP, because a warrior can afford to be less defensive and more aggressive, meaning that adrenaline builds have more survivability. In PVE the tanking warrior has to buff himself a lot mid-combat too often, making something like Sever Artery and energy-based damage bursts preferable for a lot of builds (not all, certainly).

Also, since you are going tactics, it makes sense to stick with swords because tactics is very sword-friendly with Riposte and Deadly Riposte, which are great for solo PVE.

Anyway, I deal like 9-13 damage against Aatxes as well (oh, and I use the +5 energy sword as well), but it's plenty when you consider that bleeding adds another 6 per second and your Elem buddies are (hopefully) doing most of the massive damage anyway.

Do you enjoy playing the game?
Do you feel that you are an effective player?
Do you continously analyze your strategy and look for ways to be more effective?

If you answered yes to those three questions, you are not a "n00b." A n00b is unintelligent (as compared to a newbie--which you might very well be--and newbies are good, because it shows growth in the population--"newbie" is a term of endearment).

Desparate blow is good with sword although the warrior will get knocked down it will cuase more damage to the caster although i haven't done this i the arenas as I switched my PVP Warrior to Hammer from sword.My PVE Warrior is still useing sword though.Server artery and gash still are good skills both from pre yes those pre skills are still good.

I second that warriors are complete trash in PVP. Easy to negate, using distance or 75% stances, or hexes, weakness, blindess.....basically w warrior sucks period

The axe is actually fairly predicatable, you use your axe attacks for your damage output and you can fairly well predict how much damage they will do. Taking the sword if fine, but if you do I highly suggest dropping balthazar's spirit and possibly dropping smiting. The sword just doesn't have the adrenaline based damage potential the axe does. Warrior who output heavy damage do not do it by normal attacks, they do it using attack skills. If you run a sword your best bet at boosting your damage is pure strike and seeking blade. These will eat up your energy if you aren't careful though.

If you are a tank, go sword, tactics, healing prayers
If you want to do damage with sword, go sword, strength, smiting prayers
Get two 16 armor shields, one that requires tactics, one that requires strength. Use the shield based on if you are tanking or going max damage.
Make sure you get the best vigor and absorption runes you can to offset the -75 hp for the superior sword rune and the amount of damage you take. Two other runes to have would be minor strength and tactics.

I personally like the sword for PvE unless I know I am dealing with monsters that don't bleed, then I go hammer. For PvP, I always go hammer. Several hammer knockdown skills, plus bane signet, plus holy strike, and maybe balthazar's spirit if I know I am playing 4v4 and not getting any buffs from others for adrenaline.

Hey Bud,

I am a NooB and I scanned this thread but perhaps this will help

If you're a W/Mo Smiting Slasher (I like to call it) then you are focusing on Swordsmanship, Smiting, and Tactics, with leftovers in Strength

That is exactly what I am playing, and here are the skills I use as a Smiting Tank, which is great against physical monsters

Strength of Honor (this is great because it adds +10 damage to each attack I successfully hit, no matter what weapon, I use Sword as primary)

Flurry (33% faster attack with 25% less damage) the SoH skill above makes up for the damage loss easily

Sever Attack (standard sword skill)
Gash (standard Sever Attack followup)
Final Thrust (standard sword skill especially below 50% health) I did 150dmg in Hell's Precipice against a ghost with this in a single swipe

ELITE SLOT - I switch between Hundred Blades and Gladiator's Defense depending if I'm going for a boss or if I'm with henchmen (this can be replaced with Healing Breeze if no Elites are available)

Healing Signet (Tactics self heal)

Symbol of Wrath (5 energy instead of 25 from Zealots since I stance a lot with my Crimson Carapace Shield)

This does very well for me as a tank in groups
Try it out and see what you think