Bunny's Warrior Build

It is not yet complete.

It is well on it's way: I have soloed two mordrem terragriffs, three thrashers, and several wolves all at once without being downed.

I wanted a "Clobbering Time" build that killed so fast the bad guys couldn't scare me.  That was possible; against a single opponent or a few light-weight opponents.  In a mob situation, the number of monsters always overwhelms weak defensive stats/traits.  What I ended up doing was going back to GW1 and copying Un Bunny's build.  It too started out as an offensive power build and it too had to morph in the face of facts.  The second iteration, the IMMENSELY successful one, focused on staying alive and allowing casters the glory of the actual killing.  As with GW1, my second iteration GW2 build has had a pleasant surprise side-effect: staying alive on the battlefield now allows me to (eventually) kill all but the toughest monsters or the largest mobs, provided I pay attention and don't stand in poison traps and make reasonable efforts to get out of prolonged Drake flame-sprays.

I will post all the details in a few days as I work out a couple kinks discovered in Fractals, but the major thrust was to abandon the pure offense powerhouse in favor of a more self-sustaining build. 

More later!

My build is currently based on constant recovery of health.  This is effected by a variety of means.

First, I use Superior Sigil of Blood on my main hand sword (50% chance to steal health on critical hit).  This is augmented by a Superior Sigil of Water (30% chance to heal allies near my target on hit (not on critical)).  These give me a steady stream of heals = 33%  of the damage dealt.

Second, I use Healing Signet which grants regeneration (and boosts my critical hit chance by 40% for Deep Strike (Arms I))(I use a straight-signet build).  I trigger the signet only in extemis (I'm below 5% health). 

Third, I traited for constant health recovery.  Under Arms I set Deep Strike and Critical Burst to gain increased frequency triggering the Blood Sigil (effectively guaranteeing it goes off every 5 seconds).  Under Defense, I set Adrenal Health to stack a second regeneration which is effective anytime I have adrenaline.  I avoid triggering the burst skill so I keep the regeneration and my damage output up (which keeps stolen health up).  I also set Armored Attack which increased my damage out based on increasing my toughness (which helps me stay in the battle).  I used to have Arms maxed  instead of Defense with Dual Wield Agility to increase the frequency of attacks, but discovered I'm already triggering my Sigils constantly anyway.  The Jury is still out on that one.  Finally, I set Sweet Revenge so that if I have to use Vengance to get up, I can guarantee my resurrection by attacking the weakest nearby foe.

Fourth: I went with an axe off-hand because of the 20% increased Critical chance for 3seconds, no other offhand grants such an increase.  My primary is sword, making every attack effectively an AOE (it attacks up to 3 foes on button one) increasing the damage out/health stolen.

Fifth: I increased my Healing Power by changing out a few pieces, one at a time, until my health recovery was enough to offset all incoming damage in most situations. 

Sixth: My equipment (including my weapons) has a lot of Precsion, Toughness, and Healing Power wiith some Vitality and Power thrown in.  There are no other traits on my equipment.

I still die if I wander off a tower in Fractals or stand in a poison cloud while trying to solo a Champion Fire-spraying Drake.....  Cannonades from Horus still do the job on me if I stay on the ground (jumping seems to reduce the number of attacks that damage me).  Etc...

This build works well for my play style which goes something like "Hello! (fist to the face) How are you? (knee to the groin) Enjoying the weather? (knife in the back of the ribs while target is doubled over) Why won't you talk to me?"

Hope this helps!

An interesting idea at first glance. I may post some thought on the subject as I play warrior often enough myself.
My play style is different and it may be helpful / useful to compare and contrast.

The variations I've tried do reasonable well in pve situations, but wvw and pvp have issues depending on the class.

In a hostile environment (anyplace where you are likely to suffer damage even while trying to avoid it) it is essential to stay engaged.  In GW1, Un Bunny was pretty nearly indestructible as long as he stayed engaged (even in fissure of woe).  If he broke contact, he had to RUN until he also broke agro or he could be killed - the same applies to this GW2 build (if I'm seriously conditioned at the end of battle, I can still die).  To remain standing at the end with this build, you should engage until all the agroed monsters can no longer stand.  In GW1, this necessity would lead to me agroing additional monsters when the rest of the party (which had learned to stay well behind me) sometimes wished I would take a break.  It can be trying for groups that don't know me - staying alive helps PUGs get over it though.

I theory crafted this build as a variation on the theme. You give up some of the items you were loving. but i think it might actually be more effective, or at least as effective while being more active to play. 

This build works with any weapons but i have included a mace/sword set because it gives you 2 block skills with 10 and 15 second recharges, and some stuns. would work well with hammer to deny the enemy a chance to hit with knockdown and applying weakness which makes them less able to dodge and reduces their outgoing damage altogether. 

I left in the sword/axe because thats just fun. 
(also included sigil of ice which i am interested in trying. 30% chance on hit to chill the target so they move 66% slower and cant get away. might be more important on the critical fueled build) 

This build uses almost no critical hits, so its not dependent on fury or devoting skills to get the higher precision. but it still uses healing signet, adrenal health, and sigil of water. 
Healing signet =  410 a second
Adrenal Health = 503 every 3 seconds
Sigil of water =   370 @ 30% chance on hit 

I currently have it set to use all soldiers weapons, clerics armor, with runes of the trooper (more on this in a minute)
All nomads jewelry (made from ambrite but i cant tell if we need a special recipe to make it)
soldiers backpiece with sapphire jewel (no real reason just easier than making the back piece)

Stats
This puts you at:
1594 power 
2270 toughness (3481 armor)
1860 vitality (27812 health)
926 precision (4% crit chance)
100 ferocity (157% crit boost)
0 condition damage 
955 healing power 

The real meat and potatoes of this build is shouts. The runes of the trooper remove a condition from you and your 5 nearby allies every time you use a shout, and the vigorous shouts trait will heal you and your allies for every shout you use. With these states every shout heals you for 2340 health. 

Traits: 0 0 6 6 2
Defense 
Minor thick skin: increase toughness when full on hp
dogged march: 10 sec recharge, reduces condition duration of cripple, chill, imobilize and gives you regen when they happen
Minor adrenal health: healing over time based on adrenaline level
last stand: gives you balanced stance when you would have been launched. 90 sec recharge (eep may be better options like missle blocking or weapon recharge speed) 
Minor armored attack: more power based on toughness
spiked armor: 6.5 seconds of retaliation if you take a critical hit. so you return damage to your attacker. 10sec recharge. thieves will hate this. 
Tactics
Minor determined revival: more armor when reviving
Lung Capacity: reduce shout recharge by 20%
Minor Fast Healer: revive speed 10% faster
Shrug it Off: 30 sec recharge, automatically uses shake it off when you get a condition. Triggers runes and the heal on shout trait! more healing and condition removal.
Minor Revivers Might: give might to you and ally when you revive them
Vigorous Shouts: all shouts heal for 2340

Optional 2 points 
Discipline (these 2 points could really go anywhere if you dont like using adrenal skills. there are some good area denial and interrupt skills in adrenaline, but the 10 points could do other things. removing this gives up the 8 adren on each shout)
Minor Versatile Rage: gain 5 adrenaline on weapon swap 
Inspiring Shouts: gain 8 adrenaline when using a shout. always topped off on adrenaline


Strength - going this route makes your total power 1694 instead of 1594
Minor Reckless dodge: damage foes when you dodge into them 563 damage
Great fortitude: gain vitality based on power. makes total HP pool 29002 so an increase of 119 vitality
Dual Wielding: base damage increase of 5% when using offhand weapon (not shield)
Short Temper: gain 3 stacks of might for 5-6 seconds when blocked. (not sure how effective this would really be) 


Skills:
Healing Signet: healing over time. but poor on demand heal. 
For Great Justice: because we traited for shouts you get this every 20 seconds. 2340 heal, 8 adrenaline. removes a condition, 10 sec fury and 30sec might for everyone. 

Shake it off: 20sec recharge 2340 heal, 8 adren, removes 2 conditions due to runes, and breaks stun
On My Mark: 24sec recharge 2340 heal, 8 adren, removes a condition, causes 10stack of vulnurability on target for 10 seconds. (this is only selected because of the short cooldown and could be swapped for another skill easily)

Good Options:
Fear Me: 48sec recharge so you wont use it alot, 2340 heal, 8 adren, condition removed, and 1-3 seconds of fear based on range. This would be very good in WvW small group because you could prevent a stomp by fearing the enemy away. 
signet of stamina for more dodging
a stance for stability, reduced damage
or dolyak signet for both reduced damage and stability when activated.  

Elite: 
signet of rage: grants adrenaline to keep you topped off but not really a big issue. activated for fury, might, and swiftness. the speed is really all you will benefit from since your not about big damage. 
Battle Standard: This is the gold standard for group play because you can instantly revive downed players. long cooldown but you will hear the commander call for it in a fight. gives everyone some might, fury, and swiftness in the area. 

This build should have good sustained healing from shouts and regen, while also being able to be versatile in a fight and deal out some damage. I may dust off my warrior to give this a shot, though the armor investment could be a little prohibitive.

forgot to mention that the shouts heal allies as well. edited to include that game changing factor that i didnt realize when i built the build. I have looked and found that a variation on this is one of the current WvW meta builds that you will see many running in a zerg.

And because apparently I like to post. I have determined what i think would be the optimum armor set up if your looking to max healing survivability. 

Link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

using all soldiers weapons and armor, and all Cleric/Sapphire jewelry

Stats
This puts you at:
2079 power (485 more than the strength variant above)
2124 2270 toughness (146 Less than above, for a total of 3335 armor)
1899 vitality for 28202 health (29002 under strength above and 27812 under Discipline)
926 precision (4% crit chance)
0 ferocity (150% crit boost)
0 condition damage 
808 healing power (147 less than above)

This ends up with more HP than the discipline route due to the vitality strength trait, but not as much as when i was using nomads jewelry with clerics armor.

Even with the 147 drop in healing power you are still healing for over 2k. and that is about 1k more than any other warrior running the shout meta in WvW so your more helpful to your team. 
Healing signet =  402 a second
Adrenal Health = 481 every 3 seconds at full adrenaline
Sigil of water =   370 @ 30% chance on hit
Vigorous Shouts = 2,207 hp per shout to you and 5 allies. Under the higher healing power listed above the shout heal was only 133 hp more. I think thats a great trade for so much more power. (wiki doesnt specify how many allies but generally it is limited to 5)

I have seen that the general approach on WvW build sites is to use soldiers armor with berzerker or assassins jewelry because then you can regain some of the lost damage and have the ability to still kill more consistently. playing with the build with clerics jewelry i noticed i had very little stopping power, which isnt necessarily the goal. 

Even without the clerics jewelry you still get decent regen and about 1600 in heal per shout so its not neutered, but with a HP pool approaching 30k the difference between a 1600 or 2000 heal isnt that substantial so I assume thats why folks are not investing heavily into healing power.