Guild Wars 2 Warrior

When it comes to weapons the Guild Wars 2 Warrior is the master of mayhem! Able to wield 9 different weapons, in 19 different ways, with each serving a different purpose, players can equip their warrior to suit their own play style.

The old faithful weapons from Guild Wars 1 are still available... Axes, Swords and Hammers... but in GW2 the warrior also has the option of using Maces, two-handed Greatswords, Longbows and even Rifles!

When wielding one-handed weapons in their main hand, warriors can also use shields and warhorns in their offhand or even choose to wield two weapons! A warrior equipped with the Weapon Master "trait" (more about the Trait system in a later post) can switch back and forth between his two active weapon sets in combat, cutting a devastating path through his foes.

The Guild Wars 2 warrior's choice of weapons can be...

Main Hand Weapons : Axe, Sword, Mace.
Offhand Items : Shield, Warhorn, Axe, Sword, Mace.
Two-Handed Weapons : Hammer, Greatsword, Longbow, Rifle.

Axe Warrior quickly builds up his adrenaline to deliver powerful spike attacks to cut down his enemies.

Sword Warrior is quick, agile and highly mobile, bouncing between foes with a "Savage Leap", inflicting bleeding on his foes as he goes.

Hammer Warrior smashes his enemies and pounds the ground, staggering groups of foes with devastating area attacks.

Mace Warrior uses powerful stunning attacks to disrupt foes and hits them where it hurts leaving them susceptible to further blows.

Greatsword Warrior uses sweeping area of effect attacks to decimate his foes with his two-handed weapon.

Longbow Warrior inflicts fiery area of effect damage using incendiary arrow.

Rifle Warrior pulls distant foes or delivers the final killing shot on fleeing enemies using the single-target ranged weapon.

Here's a sneak peek of the Guild Wars 2 Warrior in action...

As in Guild Wars 1, adrenaline plays a big part in the damage output of the warrior. At the start a fight the warrior has zero adrenaline but as the battle progresses he gains one strike of adrenaline with every attack they make. In Guild Wars 2 warriors have three stages of adrenal power that take increasing amounts of strikes to fill. They can wait for the adrenaline to hit maximum or they can release their stored adrenaline with a "Burst" skill.

Each weapon has one Burst skill that improves at each stage of adrenaline charge, resulting in more damage, increased skill duration, additional conditions or increased condition duration. These Burst skills use all of the warrior's adrenaline so should be used wisely.


Other familiar Warrior abilities such as Stances and Shouts are back in Guild Wars 2

Stances : Lets you turn on adrenaline enhancement at the cost of energy regeneration. For example, a warrior could hit "Berserker's Stance" which drains his energy, but give him adrenaline regeneration. Toggling off the skill will send it into the recharge phase.

Shouts : Spells that affect a large area, giving bonuses to allies or debuffing enemies. A warrior using the shout "On My Mark" can call a foe to be targetted by party memebers and lower the enemy's armor rating. Added to this are traits that increase the number of targets your shouts affect.

A few special skill types have been added, making the Guild Wars 2 warrior even more fearsome.

Charge Skills : For even more impressive attacks, some skills can be held down to power them up. A Mace Warrior can power up the skill "Obliterate" through four different power levels and then release it at a particular level to inflict increasing amounts of damage to their unfortunate target.

Chains : In a great improvement to efficiency, Guild Wars 2 Warriors now have a set of three skills that share a single skill slot! The sword warrior for example, has the chained skills "Sever Artery", "Gash", and "Final Thrust" all on the same key, so rather than using three skillbar slots, they stack to fill only one slot. Similar in activation to the GW1 Assassin, chains go off in sequence if you are hitting your target. In this example Gash becomes available only if Sever Artery hits its target and then Final Thrust becomes available only if Gash hits. Chains effectively give a warrior two extra weapon skills on a weapon set. The GW2 Krewe LOVE this concept!

Banners : The warrior calls down banners to buff his allies with attack power. A banner can be picked up and carried around to move the buff, or it can be planted in an area to convey the buff, allowing the warrior to continue fighting. One example is Banner of Courage, which increases the melee damage of allies within its range. There are also traits which increase the duration of your banners.

One thing's for sure, the Guild Wars 2 warrior is a far more versatile, resilient and destructive class than we have ever seen before.