Guild Wars 2

It seems to me this game is totally surrounded by great swords.. along with only a few others to really choose from. I had kinda figured since they have 1 handed axes some genius would have added a great axe, and what about a few pole arms(halberds, ect…) spears only usable under water? I guess lack of variety is kinda boring. Something to think about for future content I suppose

I like the ideas of halbediers and great axes – even if this is just a skin option for the great sword it would be a nice change. However, is the problem of great sword domination a lack of weapons, or an imbalance/usefulness of weapons or perhaps its the look (I haven’t seen a hammer i liked yet).

I was also playing around with the idea of a new weapon, but I thought a whip would be an interesting idea. one handed whips that could be dual weilded. Longer melee range, but shorter than that of a longbowbow/shortbow. They could do a skill where you pulled the enemy in. for CC you could “grab” their feet and knock them down. If you were a ranger you could use the whip to make your pet attack harder (like circuses or something). Theives and death blossom but with spinning whips. You could spin a target around causing them to be dazed. etc. just some ideas.

It’s not a balance issue, it’s more cosmetic. That, and for seven years, the only two handed weapons in Tyria were Hammers, Bows, Scythes, and the Staff. Now, it’s Hammers, Bows, Rifles, Greatswords, and the Staff. This shows progress.

The real problem with adding more weapons is that they’d have to add new skills for *every* profession that would use them. Let’s say you get a Greataxe. If you give it to Ranger, Warrior, Guardian, and Necromancer, you’d have to come up with at least 20 unique skills. Warriors, Guardians, and Rangers all have chains for auto attacks, and to continue that tradition, you’d need to bring the count up to 26 skills. Warriors would also need an adrenal skill, so that makes 27.

Then you’d have to work on the actual weapon stats. Currently, Hammers are the highest damage range but slower, Greatswords are faster, but lower on damage per swing. I’d assume that the Greataxe would find a place between the speed and damage of the other two weapons, as the Axe did in Guild Wars.

Once you’ve got the weapons skills decided, and the weapons basic stats decided, then you’d have to add new traits for it, or add it in to currently existing traits. If you add more traits for it, you run into the constant problem A-net has with giving warriors *way* more options than anyone else. If you work it in to currently existing traits, you’d have to worry about it simply replacing other weapons in the same traits.

And then, once you’ve actually figured out that whole mess, you’d have to give something new to the other four classes, so that they didn’t feel left out. And that just brings about a whole repeat of everything I just said, only for different people, including the always troublesome elementalist, that requires 8 skills for an offhand, 12 for a main hand, 20 for a dual wield, or 20 for a two handed weapon.

All that said, it would be cool, and here’s what I’d suggest:

Greataxe:
Warrior, focuses on big critical hits and burst damage with longer cooldowns than a greatsword. Less control than a hammer. More leaps, but less AoE than a Greatsword. Traits to make it better in the Discipline line. Depends on singular big hits, so countered by blind, block, and general anti-melee. Hard to kite.

Ranger, focuses on conditions in melee, and pet boons. Vulnerability, bleeding, weakness, cripple. Grant pets might and fury. Less mobility than a greatsword, but slightly more control. Traits in Beast Mastery. Low mobility and condition dependency makes kiting and anti-conditions the obvious counter, along with pet-hate and general anti-melee.

Guardian, focuses on damage, for himself and the group. Grants boons like might, swiftness, and fury. Less control than the hammer, less ranged than the Greatsword. More symbols and whirls though. Traited in Valor. A front line fighter that depends on boons, and only gets better with allies, counters would include anti-group hate, kiting, and anti-melee.

Necromancer, (my personal favorite idea for a greataxe, the dark executioner) will focus on survivability and sudden burst damage. Slower than your average necro, and requiring some time to build up to a spike, this necromancer has control. Blocking, knockback, knockdown, stun and daze will be the focus. Once life force has been harvested, and a target is helpless, it delivers one solid coup de grâce, then starts building up all over again. Soul Reaping, and to a lesser extent Blood Magic should benefit this weapon choice for a hardy, executioner styled necromancer. Being so defensively minded, with single hit burst damage, and control, counters would include kiting, anti-melee, and obviously, Stability.

I definitely want a Scythe. Anet said they dont want a weapon for a specific class only and the scythe works perfectly for both the guardian (ala dervish) and the necromancer (ala reaper effect). limiting a weapon to only two classes has been done for most two handed weapons.

hammers: guardians and warriors
Long bow: rangers and warriors
short bow: rangers and thieves
rifle: Warrior and engineer

adding a scythe to that list to carry on the dervish tradition isn’t that hard to imagine, considering the necromancer would make hefty use out of it and wouldn’t break the atleast two classes must be able to use a weapon tradition.