Combo Fields in SPvP

Below is a great combo tool:

http://mastodonte.fr/outils/tool-combo#en

Play around with it, learn what combo fields you can do yourself and start to learn what combo fields your team mates have in their builds.

Also get into the habit of declaring when you drop a combo field. The best way would be like this:

Mesmer = "Dropping Time Warp on the point."

A player who has studied that combo tool or combo fields will know that this gives Chaos Armour as a combination and as a result would drop an ability (a Warrior Batlle Standard, a Necro Putrid Mark) that gives it to all his team mates.

Another example.

Warrior = "Dropping Fire field on Enemy X"

Although the warrior hasn't stated what the ability is, you will now know 100% that burning is going down on Enemy X and as a result should try and get some projectiles through it and onto them to stack Burning.


TL:DR = If you have abilities that switch boons for conditions or vice versa, learn them. Everyone has combo fields and can use combo fields so get reading and play with that tool. This isn't too long though, read it all, learn it!

Stryke's Blog

Hey guys,

My fellow SPvP officer, Stryke, has just started a dedicated PvP blog over on our guild website.

Check it out if you like SPvP, the Thief class or Warriors.

http://www.the-unnamed.com/strykeblog

A few thoughts about Warriors in SPvP

So I've been incredibly busy IRL lately, which has severely cut into my play time. However, when I do play I have started to realise that there are a few things I expect from not only members of my team, but myself also, with regard to build synergy.

For a Warrior it is my opinion that you need:

Battle Standard -

This gives you an insta rez for team mates, as well as Stability for stomps and rezzes. This is so important in ticking almost all the boxes (apart from CC) for team play I can't believe anyone would ever run without it.

Balanced Stance -

If you don't take Battle Standard (you loose cannon) then the next best thing is Balanced Stance. This is great for stomping and is great when you need to get those pesky Guardians/Warriors etc down.

Shield -

This is just so good. Both skills. First you get an awesome CC that can stop a guy stomping your team mate, and the second skill is basically invulnerability. If you pair this with Missile Deflection then it becomes even stronger against ranged opponents.


The rest is down to play style. Shouts are good (especially if they heal) for Support. CC is great on Hammer and the Rifle 5 skill is pretty strong too. As a Warrior you should be working out how to stop people stomping your guys, or running around slapping other people to death.

Make it happen guys and remember, COMMUNICATE with your team if you want to win.

Stryke's Dual Axe SPvP Build

From my fellow sPvP officer in the Unnamed.
 

Made a fairly balanced build for Warrior with Tournament SPvP in mind, build here.

For 8v8 SPvP, I recommend swapping Kick for Endure Pain. You could also swap Balanced Stance for Bull's Charge, giving you better survivability and more control, but making you a little bit more vulnerable to stuns and snares.

Features:
A lot of power and extra crit damage for high burst with the axes.
Good survivability - decent toughness and vitality.
Mace/Shield offhand for holding out and mitigating damage.
Low crit chance relative to Berserker amulet, but this is mitigated by Eagle runes and the Rage signet, which boosts crit to 45% when active including Sigil of Accuracy on the axe.

Utilities:
Kick - Low cooldown CC to disrupt resses.
Balanced Stance - Able to ignore CC while ressing. A trait also triggers balanced stance, making this a very CC resistant build.
Frenzy - awesome ability for axes, makes the auto-attack do insane single target burst.

Strengths:
A lot of power and decent amount of vit/tough. High damage but not a paper build like many dps Warriors.
CC resistant, good for ressing and general combat.
Signet of Rage, somewhat underrated in my opinion - makes you a power house with Swiftness/Fury/Might for 30 sec with only a 60 sec CD.
Amazing AoE damage on a point, very respectable single target damage, high burst power with Burst ability and Frenzy.

Weaknesses:
No gap-closers, reliant on teammates for snares / immobilize.
No ranged attacks (except throw axe), can be kited in open ground.
No Battlestandard for insta-ress (Rage Signet is much more suited to this build imo)

Pattern of attack:
-Pop Signet of Rage before initiating a fight - try to always fight on a point to force the enemy into close quarters.
-Cast Cyclone Axe for Vuln, follow up with Whirling Axe, giving anything sat on the point all kinds of pain - especially good alongside classes that can combo-field the Whirl.
-Once the whirling axe is done, focus back to the single target, adrenaline should be full, hit them with Eviscerate.
-Cast Frenzy, annihilate them with auto-attack. If they go down while Quickness is still up you'll get a super fast Execution.

Using Dual Strike isn't a priority until Fury from the signet wears off. When you do use it, it's good to follow it up with Whirling Axe or Eviscerate, depending on if you want AoE or single target damage.

The Mace and Shield can be whipped out as and when is needed, you need to learn to know when to be on the attack and when to turtle up. It could be an idea to swap early in the fight and use Shield Block to soak up some high-damage cooldowns.

I reckon this build will be well-suited for either point attack or defense and would work best within a group rather than solo. I know Papa rates Battle Standard very highly for its utility, but I think Signet of Rage for this build makes you an out-and-out slayer. Lack of snares is somewhat mitigated by Swiftness provided by SoR, the 30 seconds of Fury is also insane for this build because of its high power and lack of precision. Stability helps mitigate CC's, Kick will be great for booting enemies away from downed players.