Hybrid war : offhand sword Vs torch

[Goullmir.6490]

Got a hybrid (power/condition) build i feel comfortable with for pve gameplay initially based on sword/sword (build 1) but cannot ignore potential benefits from sword/torch (build 2) variation thereof. I'm torne between both builds and cannot make up my mind, so maybe i'm missing something and would appreciate indepth comments on the weight of cons and pros.

 

**Stats** :

 

Power : 2052 (2202 in combat)

Armor : 2909

Health : 21012

Crit chance : 50,28% (70,28% in combat)

Crit damage : 200,7 %

Condition damage : 522 (702 in combat)

Bleeding duration : +35,93%

Burning duration : +35,93%

Fury duration : +30%

 

sup rune of rage + sigil of force + sigil of accurarcy

 

**Build 1 (sword/sword) + build 2 (sword/torch)** ... secondary rifle :

 

Utility slots :

 

- to the limit

- signet of fury

- signet of might

- dolyak signet

- signet of rage

 

Arms :

 

- Opportunist

- Blademaster

- Dual wielding (1) / Burst précision (2)

 

Tactics :

 

- Leg specialist

- Empower allies

- Vigorous shouts

 

Berserker :

 

- Savage instinct (1) / Smash Brawler (2)

- Dead or alive

- King of fires

 

 

I use the build for allround pve, dropping foes fast to 50% of health with both condition tick and sustained rapid damage to go for the finish with "final trust" and bursts. "Dead or alive" over "heat the soul" for the second build is a consious preference of mine. The immediate pros and cons I get from both builds are the following :

 

**sword/sword (1)** :

 

- +20% attack speed adding to rapid succession of crits and sustained damage pressure

- access to a third condition (torment from impale, 900 range) and a second damage spike + bleeding (rip)

- access to a block and counter (riposte) for more situational play

- 15 seconds recharge on condition cleanse with berserker mode

 

**sword/torch (2)** :

 

- 100% crit chance and -20% recharge on (primal) burst skills

- access to one additional immobilization/fury trigger on 3 potential targets (blaze breaker, 600 range)

- access to 4 burning triggers without berserker mode on 3/5 foes (blaze breaker + flames of war)

- access to fire field (flames of war)

- 25 seconds recharge on condition cleanse with flames of war

 

 

[Flauvious.6195]

What do you plan on using this for? If you are just doing general openworld pve, any build works, so do whichever is more fun. If you are looking at raids/high level fractals or optimizing, warrior oh sword is like one of the worst weapons in the game at the moment and completely inferior to torch in every way. Having an "extra condition" just means that's an extra condition that you have no condi duration for. The only "hybrid" build that's really even close to good is using grieving gear on a firebrand. The fact that they only deal one condition, burning, means they can maximize burning duration easily through traits, runes, sigils, food, etc. and can get away without the expertise from vipers gear (the usual condi stat set of choice). Warrior OH sword is to bad to make an effective warrior hybrid build, and if you're using torch you might as well just go full condi because torch does low power damage.

 

But if you wanted to make a sw/sw hybrid build for fun, I'd recommend a rune and sigils that increase burning and bleeding duration. Also you're going to want to use pure offense gear, your 2900 armor means you're using gear with toughness which is really a waste in pve, you will survive just fine without it.

[Goullmir.6490]

Erf, mostly i play solo in open world, farming events, hunting achievements, casual WvW and so on. Therefor i value self-sustainable builds which also put less pressure on teammates should I group up. Don't fret, i wouldn't use this build in raids or even fractals where you heavily depend on others and adapt your builds and playstyle (discord) according to their needs. Furthermore, if my aim was a power build i would choose either greatsword or double axes and if i went full condition damage i would definitly choose sword/torch and arc. Regarding my previous post, i don't believe that meta-gaming is all there is to gw2 and that traits/skills unfavored by the masses still have potential if used correctly. Generally I start with looking at traits/skills I take a mischieveous interest in and build around them to see if I can get something bad ass out of them.

 

Since, tweaking around with builds and equipment is undeniably a big part of the positif aspects i find in this game, throw me a bone here by sharing your insights on the merits of +20% attack speeds with decent crits compared to additional semi-aoe sources of burning outside berserker mode. Is the loss of 100% crit chance on bursts in a base build of constant 70% crit chance a no go ? Does the -20% recharge on berserker mode and primal bursts make a real difference in a build fueled by full adrenaline gain on "to the limit" and "signet of fury" ? Is the condition cleanse on torch 4 with a 25 seconds recharge of equal "in combat" value than the condition cleanse on entering berserker mode with a 15 seconds recharge ?

[Oglaf.1074]

Honestly, just go Condi-Berserker with Torch.

 

I mean, you practically already are - almost.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Axe/Torch/Longbow King Of Fires is the most fun build I have on Warrior. Decapitate is a Berserker skill and is a leap finisher, so it auto detonates the fire aura you get from leaping through fire fields, quickly applying aoe burning. It is a far superior Hybrid build (uses axe for power, free fury on axe 2, projectile finisher is more burning on axe 3), and entering Zerker mode just ups it further with spammy Leap Finishers.

[Goullmir.6490]

The more i play around with both options, the more I'm torn toward my initial set-up of double sword. Now, I get that you're all loving the full condition sword/torch build but playing without the +20% attack speed just feels sluggish to me. This of course is related to my personal playstyle rather than what would be considered an optimal choice for everyone, and sadly I lack indepth number-crushing analysis to comment on whether or not landing more hits from multiples sources with decent damage outweights less frequent high spikes from a single source to get a faster kill. I do believe that hybrid sword/sword drops non-boss foes and non-tank players faster even if total damage over time is higher with full condition sword/torch. Could be that it comes down to whether or not you consider offense to be a good defense in gw2 and if a jack of all traits puts out more pressure than a one-trick horse. Nonetheless, thanks for the posts everyone.

[Oglaf.1074]

> @"Goullmir.6490" said:

> The more i play around with both options, the more I'm torn toward my initial set-up of double sword. Now, I get that you're all loving the full condition sword/torch build but playing without the +20% attack speed just feels sluggish to me. This of course is related to my personal playstyle rather than what would be considered an optimal choice for everyone, and sadly I lack indepth number-crushing analysis to comment on whether or not landing more hits from multiples sources with decent damage outweights less frequent high spikes from a single source to get a faster kill. I do believe that hybrid sword/sword drops non-boss foes and non-tank players faster even if total damage over time is higher with full condition sword/torch. Could be that it comes down to whether or not you consider offense to be a good defense in gw2 and if a jack of all traits puts out more pressure than a one-trick horse. Nonetheless, thanks for the posts everyone.

 

The attack speed doesn’t stack with Quickess.

 

That’s why I consider the trait sub-optimal, personally.

 

 

[Flauvious.6195]

> @"Oglaf.1074" said:

> > @"Goullmir.6490" said:

> > The more i play around with both options, the more I'm torn toward my initial set-up of double sword. Now, I get that you're all loving the full condition sword/torch build but playing without the +20% attack speed just feels sluggish to me. This of course is related to my personal playstyle rather than what would be considered an optimal choice for everyone, and sadly I lack indepth number-crushing analysis to comment on whether or not landing more hits from multiples sources with decent damage outweights less frequent high spikes from a single source to get a faster kill. I do believe that hybrid sword/sword drops non-boss foes and non-tank players faster even if total damage over time is higher with full condition sword/torch. Could be that it comes down to whether or not you consider offense to be a good defense in gw2 and if a jack of all traits puts out more pressure than a one-trick horse. Nonetheless, thanks for the posts everyone.

>

> The attack speed doesn’t stack with Quickess.

>

> That’s why I consider the trait sub-optimal, personally.

>

>

 

You mean quickness overides it completley? Like gaining quickness just takes you from 20% attack speed to 33%? I didn't know that as I've never used the trait but that is bs.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Attack speed modifiers usually only take the highest, which is pretty much always Quickness.

 

Dual Wielding should just add new Dual Skills like thief and weaver, and using Dual Skills grants quickness.

[InsaneQR.7412]

> @"Kiroshima.8497" said:

> Attack speed modifiers usually only take the highest, which is pretty much always Quickness.

>

> Dual Wielding should just add new Dual Skills like thief and weaver, and using Dual Skills grants quickness.

 

Well this would give so much more skills it would be kinda bunkers even as a GM.

 

But dualskills for warr should have been there from the start. Atleast when you are using 2 mainhands.

 

 

 

 

 

> @"Goullmir.6490" said:

> Erf, mostly i play solo in open world, farming events, hunting achievements, casual WvW and so on. Therefor i value self-sustainable builds which also put less pressure on teammates should I group up. Don't fret, i wouldn't use this build in raids or even fractals where you heavily depend on others and adapt your builds and playstyle (discord) according to their needs. Furthermore, if my aim was a power build i would choose either greatsword or double axes and if i went full condition damage i would definitly choose sword/torch and arc. Regarding my previous post, i don't believe that meta-gaming is all there is to gw2 and that traits/skills unfavored by the masses still have potential if used correctly. Generally I start with looking at traits/skills I take a mischieveous interest in and build around them to see if I can get something bad kitten out of them.

 

 

 

I have a build for funzies. Its a full on grieving set with rage runes. Discipline, arms and berserker.

I made it kinda hybrid. So you can stack condi dmg stacks from furious, gain ferocity from signet use and from wielding an axe.

I use sword/Axe and Axe/Torch.

Its heavily reliant on weaponswap and constently dashing out bursts.

Its a solo PvE build to clear weak mobs fast and tough mobs efficiently with burns and bleeds.

Because you are pretty much constantly in Berserker mode you have high quickness uptime, and axe gives you addditional quickness so your attack speed is always nice high.

 

[Red Haired Savage.5430]

> @"InsaneQR.7412" said:

> > @"Kiroshima.8497" said:

> > Attack speed modifiers usually only take the highest, which is pretty much always Quickness.

> >

> > Dual Wielding should just add new Dual Skills like thief and weaver, and using Dual Skills grants quickness.

>

> Well this would give so much more skills it would be kinda bunkers even as a GM.

>

> But dualskills for warr should have been there from the start. Atleast when you are using 2 mainhands.

>

That would be a pretty cool concept, but why limit it to mainhand offhand weapons why not do it for shield, warhorn, and torch? I think I'll make a post about it to not derail this one.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Dual Wielding has more to do with using two real weapons as the combat style is completely different from the GW2 style of fight with main hand weapon, occaisionally use off hand as a tool. Only shield can be used together with the mainhand weapon for a martial combat style, as warhorn and torch don't really fit the whole martial concept.

 

Also, the Shield trait in defense is a better spot for shield dual skills, not arms.

[Goullmir.6490]

Blame it on my indecisivness, but scratch my previous comment on "dual wielding". Furthermore, i've put in some effort and finalized my ascended gear and mcm infusions. A major point of interest for my playstyle and the purpose of a hybrid build remains killing fast. I've started out with increasing power damage stats a bit more and realised that both "burst precision" and "heat the soul" did make an undeniable difference. Without "dual wielding" sword still feels sluggish and appart from 3s when initiating berserker mode i don't have self-quickness. I however started depending more often on berserker mode in my rotation and the +15% attack speed helps. I sacrificed "dead or alive" because of the 30s cooldown which doesn't really cut it in a thight spot. Having no rage skills except "berserker" and "primal bursts" I also left out "smash brawler" due to little benefit in the overall rotation. Efficency of the overall build went up, and i cry myself to sleep over the loss of cool dual-swords esthetic (2x firebringer skin). Sole torch skin I found with somewhat compatible esthetics for firebringer is touch of madness.

 

 

Hybrid War build :

 

Full ascended gear stats :

 

Power : 2150 (2450 in combat + signet of rage 25s)

Armor : 2901

Health : 21012

Crit chance : 50,09% (70,09% in combat)

Crit damage : 200,9%

Condition damage : 671 (1001 in combat + signet of rage 25s)

Bleeding duration : +35,93%

Burning duration : +35,93%

Fury duration : +30%

 

sup rune of rage + sigil of force + sigil of accurarcy

wvw infusions : 12x5 toughness, 2x5 power

 

primary weapons : sword/torch

secondary weapon : rifle

 

Utility slots :

•to the limit

•signet of fury

•signet of might

•dolyak signet

•signet of rage

 

Arms :

•Opportunist

•Blademaster

•Burst précision

 

Tactics :

•Leg specialist

•Empower allies

•Vigorous shouts

 

Berserker :

•Last blaze

•Heat the soul

•King of fires