Warrior - Core Aoe Striker

The community gave this build a rating, making it second-tier: Good

Focused on: Strike damage

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on May 19, 2024 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A core PvP Warrior build for PvP (especially 3vs3 season and teamfights) designed to deal heavy AoE damage.

Skill Bar

Greatsword

Axe/Axe

Utility

Skill Variants

Elite

• Signet of Rage - a useful passive that helps you build adrenaline and an active that could help you burst targets. It's more greedy than Rampage as Rampage could bail you out when you're getting focused while this does not.

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Specializations

Variants

• Berserker's Power is also a viable option, trading sustain for burst damage.

Equipment

Greatsword

Sigil

Sigil

Axe

Axe

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Changes

Runes

• Rune of Deadeye - better damage, lower survivability.

Relics

• Relic of the Sunless - adds AoE burst damage to the build on short CD when playing with Signet of Rage.

Usage

General

• You build adrenaline faster on Axe.

• Every skill on the right side of your bar can be used both defensively and offensively. For example Defiant Stance converts incoming damage into healing which allows you to pressure targets without worry, Bull's Charge is a mobility skill with CC but also evades attacks and can be used to safely disengage from a fight.

Damage

• Both sets can deal heavy damage.

• Dodge rolling grants Resistance, this is especially great at countering Weakness and Blind. Consider dodging before using important skills if you expect one of these conditions to be applied to you soon.

• Using any stance skill gives you a 10% damage boost from Relic of the Weaver for a short while. Every stance skill could be used offensively too and this only makes them better:
  • Defiant Stance is great when you want to jump into a group and not die while casting Whirling Axe.
  • Balanced Stance is similar to Defiant Stance in that regard. Although its damage mitigation is not as powerful, the Stability lets you use skill without the fear of getting interrupted.
  • Frenzy is more of an offensive skill than the rest, applying Quickness and Might. Speeding up your attacks while making them hit harder can help you overwhelm opponents in no time when used right.

• Arcing Slice (GS burst skill) is the most important skill to land on Greatsword. It's the only good Fury source in the build and the duration scales with adrenaline used, but the damage actually does NOT scale. For that reason you don't really have to worry about using this skill at high adrenaline, it's common to use Arcing Slice with only 1 bar of adrenaline, often as an immediate followup after an Axe burst combo.
  • It's recommended that you use this skill right after weapon swapping in order to benefit from Sigil of Intelligence.

• Whirlwind Attack is the second most important skill on GS - does good damage, evades attacks and offers mobility. Easy to land, versatile and very low risk.

• Bladetrail is more of a filler skill for ranged poking and Rush is mainly used as a mobility tool. Hundred Blades is niche, it can be good for downed cleaving or if the target is CC'd from Bull's Charge and you have Quickness but as a stationary skill it's easily avoided.

• Eviscerate (Axe burst skill) gets better with more adrenaline, you should aim to use this at 2-3 bars.
  • This makes you leap at the target which means it removes Immobilize, which is useful if you're rooted just outside melee range. It's the only mobility skill on Axe.

• Whirling Axe is your heavy hitter here, capable of killing multiple enemies in a single cast (assuming they tank it, which is rare). It does require setup similar to Hundred Blades (namely CC, Fury and Quickness), but the damage ramps up faster and you get to move while casting it which makes it a lot better. While Hundred Blades is niche and often skippable, you should always try to use Whirling Axe on CD.

• Cyclone Axe and Dual Strike are setup skills but not very powerful at that. While they do offer Fury and Quickness the durations are so short they're barely enough to cover 1 followup strike. However they both do solid damage so they're definitely worth using whenever available.

• Throw Axe is sort of a finishing move, dealing heavy damage against low HP targets. Being a ranged skill this is ideal for finishing off fleeing targets or at least snaring them with Cripple so you can catch up to them. It's fine for some ranged poking too in case you're the one who doesn't get into melee range just yet.

Survival

• Condition cleansing in the build is limited only to weapon swapping which removes 1 condition via Brawler's Recovery. Swapping to Axe removes 2 because of Sigil of Cleansing. This might not sound like a lot but with 5s weapon swapping it does provide a steady stream of cleansing. Use you mobility skills to get out of harm's way for a few seconds if you worry about getting overwhelmed.

• Defiant Stance converts incoming damage into healing, this is what you use to survive burst damage and to recover from low HP. While it only has a 1/4s cast time it's still not instant so you can't use it while stunned! When stunbreaks are available you're allowed to use it only when you get really low on HP, but when those are on CD you should use it when you still can and shouldn't risk getting stunlocked on low HP.
  • This skill is especially great at countering condition bursts. Enemies who rely on Power-based attacks could just stop attacking you and deny you the healing, but condition builds can't just take back the conditions already applied to you. With how little cleansing the build actually has, this is also the only tool in the build for tackling condition bursts.

• Dodge rolling grants Resistance, you may use this to better run away with Chill and Cripple.

• Gaining Might heals you, which adds a defensive element to otherwise offensive procs and skilsl like Frenzy.

• Balanced Stance offers mitigation against both direct damage and CC.

• Greatsword is your more defensive set. Whirlwind Attack and Rush can be used to run away from fights when you're getting overwhelmed, and Whirlwind Attack even evades incoming attacks in case you're out of dodges.
  • Bull's Charge can be used the same way, and much like WA it also has an evade frame.