Warrior - Spear DPS

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage and Dps

Designed for: WvW Zerg

Expansions required:

Difficulty:

Normal

This build was last updated on September 25, 2025 and is up to date for the August 19, 2025 patch.

Overview

A Warrior build for WvW. Combines high personal damage and good personal survivability.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Spear

Utility

Variants

Weapons

• Greatsword ⇒ Sword/Axe
  • Sword/Axe has higher potential damage and some utility, but is much worse defensively and requires much higher melee uptime

Heal

• "To the Limit!" - fill Adrenaline for Harrier's Toss
• Healing Signet - for stacking Signet Mastery, if you're having trouble keeping it stacked

Template Code

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Specializations

Variants

• Axe Mastery - With Sword/Axe

Equipment

Head
Dragon

Shoulders
Dragon

Chest
Dragon

Hands
Dragon

Legs
Dragon

Feet
Dragon

Backpiece
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Accessory
Dragon

Amulet
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Ring
Dragon

Greatsword
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Spear
Dragon

Sigil

Sigil

Rune
x6

Infusion
x18

Relic

Variants

Stats

• This build uses full Dragon to maximize damage with Burst Precision, you can use Berserker instead for more damage outside this buff, but this is not usually worth doing

Sigils

• Sigil of Superior Sigil of Energy

Usage

Quick Guide

• Core Warrior is a pure DPS with exceptional range burst damage
• Use your Spear to spike enemies at range

Spear Damage Skill List

• Harrier's Toss
• Maiming Spear
• Spearmarshal's Support

• Use your melee weapons to finish enemies

General

• Try to precast your Signet skills before fights start to stack Signet Mastery
  • You can swap your heal to Healing Signet as well as your open utility skill and elite skill to stack this more quickly, but make sure everything is off cooldown before the fight starts

Surviving

• This build has moderate passive defense
• This build has high mobility skill access
• This build has low active defenses

Defensive Skill List

• Defiant Stance - Convert incoming damage into healing
• Balanced Stance - Stunbreak + Critical hit immunity
• Whirlwind Attack - Evade + Movement (Warrior's Sprint)
• Rush - Movement (Warrior's Sprint)
• Savage Leap - Movement (Warrior's Sprint)
• Spear Swipe - Evade

• Use Whirlwind Attack to move out after spiking
• Rush/Savage Leap can be used for repositioning or gap closing
  • Drop your target if using defensively

Priorities

High

• Burst Damage

Moderate

• Damage

Low

• Battle Standard

Detailed Explanations

Burst Damage

• Your ranged spike damage priority is:

1. Signet of Might
2. Signet of Fury
3. Disrupting Throw
4. Spearmarshal's Support
5. Harrier's Toss
6. Maiming Spear

• The goal is to land as much damage in as short a time as possible, overlapping damage such as Spearmarshal's Support ⇒ Harrier's Toss to increase burst
  • If Spearmarshal's Support is on cooldown use Maiming Spear before Harrier's Toss instead
• If you can get into melee range, follow that up with one of the melee priorities:

Greatsword Priority

1. Arcing Slice
2. Full Counter
3. Arcing Slice

Sword/Axe Priority

1. Dual Strike
2. Whirling Axe
3. Final Thrust
4. Flurry

• Make sure you are in range of Sigil of Superior Sigil of Hydromancy when swapping to your melee set
• Use Signet of Fury to get full Adrenaline for Harrier's Toss as well as the Ferocity buff
  • Avoid using Signet of Fury for Arcing Slice since its damage doesn't scale with adrenaline

Damage

Skill priority

Greatsword

• Arcing Slice
• Full Counter - only while Arcing Slice on cooldown
• Hundred Blades
• Whirlwind Attack
• Bladetrail
• Rush

Sword/Axe

• Whirling Axe
• Final Thrust
• Dual Strike
• Flurry
• Savage Leap

Spear

• Harrier's Toss
• Maiming Spear
• Spearmarshal's Support
• Signet of Might + Disrupting Throw

• In general stay on Spear until you have a chance to get into melee range, then use your other weapon set for burst damage before getting back to Spear as quickly as possible
• Full Counter should be saved for Arcing Slice with Greatsword but used for Harrier's Toss with Sword/Axe
  • To ensure Full Counter triggers, you can briefly move into hostile enemy ground pressure
• Use Signet of Might to make Disrupting Throw unblockable and only cast Disrupting Throw with Signet of Might

Greatsword Usage

• Hundred Blades is situational. You stand still during channel, which means hitting CC'ed, movement impaired and downed foes is the ideal setup for this ability.
  • Don't be afraid to cancel Hundred Blades after only a few ticks of damage, look for any chance to get multiple ticks off
• Save Whirlwind Attack to disengage back to your group, but try to hit enemies with it when possible since the Evade will protect you while dealing decent damage
• Beware the animation lock of Rush. Its best use is for single target damage while already in melee, but even then it must be used very carefully if at all

Sword/Axe Usage

• It is almost always worth switching to Sword/Axe for Dual Strike ⇒ Whirling Axe if you can land both even if you need to switch back to Spear without using any other skills
• Beware the animation lock of Savage Leap. Its best use is for single target damage while already in melee, but even then it must be used very carefully if at all
• A stow weapon keybind can be useful to cancel Flurry after enemies move out of the way
  • The Immobilize of Flurry is applied on the first tick of damage, so try to at least land that and then stow the rest of the cast if you can't land the full channel

Battle Standard

• Battle Standard revives allies in its entire radius and finishes downed enemies in its center radius
• You should focus on using Battle Standard for finishing enemies, especially once you've used your burst
  • If you predict enemies will go down on your groups spike you can pre-cast Battle Standard to finish them before the enemy group can respond with rez skills