Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking about what the weakest kits/weapons are for the classes I play for a while. I was wondering what other people think about the weakest sets on their class.

These are my top picks for what could be improved weaponwise on the classes I play:

Ranger:

1. Greatsword: Hits like a wet noodle. The biggest hitting skill “Maul” does about the same damage as the last hit in the thief sword autochain while being extremely telegraphed.

Honorable Mention: Mainhand Axe, autoattack is pretty dreadful damage scaling, barely dealing 1k with over 3300 power. The weapon is OK in condition builds, but generally shortbow is better.

Thief:

1. Offhand dagger: Dancing dagger is pretty pathetic damage and not even guaranteed to bounce. Cloak and Dagger is a huge risk against all targets since evades and blocks are so prevalent. Compared to pistol offhand, dagger just doesn’t cut it.

Honorable mention: Pistol/Pistol, overall a very weak kit when compared to D/P or S/P. Very little synergy

Necromancer:

1. Axe: Very bad damage on the auto attack for being single target and short range. This attack feels like it should cleave. Axe 2 and 3 are alright, but nothing special.

For guardian,

*Scepter
It’s actually the highest dps weapon we have, but actually landing that damage is very unreliable. AA and smite are offenders of this. Chains of light is pretty good, but it doesn’t give a great feel. Scepter doesn’t really synergize well with much of anything the guardian has.

*torch or shield depending on game mode. Torch is really only used for tossing blue fire while cleansing flames doesn’t provide much. Shield suffers from very long cooldowns for short effects that are situationally useful.

Elementalist.

Scepter.

Don’t get me wrong it’s good with fresh air and a bunker build but that is it.

The auto attacks suck
Dragon tooth is far too slow
Phoenix (Although receiving a speed boost not so long ago) still feels really slow especially after casting something previously like RoF
Shatterstone? Pffffttt

Warrior

Rifle: It’s ALMOST good but misses the mark. While it can be fun to snipe people in WvW in PvP it doesn’t have much of a place.

Bleeding Shot: A big reason on why it’s bad is that while it’s a direct power weapon the AA deals little damage and applies a condition you don’t need or want. I’ve tried running it with Attack of Opportunity and Sword but it just didn’t work. If it was just flat damage or slightly more damage with vulnerability it would fit the weapon more.

Aimed Shot: Like a lot of rifle skills it’s not bad, but not that good either. That being said, combined with Leg Specialist and Opportunist it works pretty well.

Volley: Fine as is

Brutal Shot: Here’s the big one. This is supposed to be the attack that sets up Volley and Kill Shot. However with a 12-15 CD while Volley is 8-10 it doesn’t sync up like it should. Rifle seems intended to apply constant pressure but if you have to wait several seconds to get the most out if it you either use Volley w/o it or you only use it every other time. If it shared the same CD AND was a (1/2) to (3/4) second activation it would be good.

Rifle Butt: Another skill that is fine as is. Really strong when combined with Bolas.

Kill Shot: And heeeeerreeee the big one. Strong if you can pull it off but hard as hell to actually pull off. As stated before Rifle feels like it’s supposed to constantly apply pressure but gets in its own way. At nearly 2 seconds activation time it’s impossible to not see coming if you’re looking at the user. If you can go Rifle Butt + Bolas you’ll have enough time to use it but they can blind you, block, go invulnerable, whatever. I think it would be better off having a mechanic similar to Final Thrust. Have it only have a 1 second activation with the same animation but it only deals max damage when the target is bellow 50% health. The damage might need to be toned down I’m not sure but this change would really make it a “Kill” Shot designed to finish off your target. Maybe the health % may need lowering as well but the concept is to make it easier to land but more situational.

Torch for Mesmer. Its stealth is defensively great, but its phantasm is borderline useless.

Runner-up is the scepter. Although Illusionary Counter’s torment hits like a truck in a condi build, scepter’s auto-attack is terrible and Confusing Images is slow/channeled.

infantrydiv.1620:

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking about what the weakest kits/weapons are for the classes I play for a while. I was wondering what other people think about the weakest sets on their class.

These are my top picks for what could be improved weaponwise on the classes I play:

Ranger:

1. Greatsword: Hits like a wet noodle. The biggest hitting skill “Maul” does about the same damage as the last hit in the thief sword autochain while being extremely telegraphed.

Honorable Mention: Mainhand Axe, autoattack is pretty dreadful damage scaling, barely dealing 1k with over 3300 power. The weapon is OK in condition builds, but generally shortbow is better.

Thief:

1. Offhand dagger: Dancing dagger is pretty pathetic damage and not even guaranteed to bounce. Cloak and Dagger is a huge risk against all targets since evades and blocks are so prevalent. Compared to pistol offhand, dagger just doesn’t cut it.

Honorable mention: Pistol/Pistol, overall a very weak kit when compared to D/P or S/P. Very little synergy

Necromancer:

1. Axe: Very bad damage on the auto attack for being single target and short range. This attack feels like it should cleave. Axe 2 and 3 are alright, but nothing special.

Ranger GS is actually really good, assuming you have any crit damage and power modifying it. It’s more of an all-around defensive AOE weapon, though, but it can do close to one hand sword damage, plus the fact that it can do all sorts of things make it great. I’d switch it with mainhand axe for worst. I want to love MH axe. I really do. but the damage is just so low, even with ricocheting hits. Splitblade is totally confusing, why you need to be right the face of an enemy to do all 5 bleeds (which is the only way MH axe does decent damage) is totally counterproductive. Winter’s Bite is alright, though.

On the other hand, offhand axe is amazing.

EDIT: I should point out that Ranger GS really shines in dungeons or areas with tons of enemies. VS a player, it’s really only about the chase> stun> landing a maul before switch to sword.

DOUBLE EDIT: just realized PVP was in the title. GS really only works as a chasing weapon before switching then. Still think MH axe is worse.

infantrydiv.1620:

Thief:

1. Offhand dagger: Dancing dagger is pretty pathetic damage and not even guaranteed to bounce. Cloak and Dagger is a huge risk against all targets since evades and blocks are so prevalent. Compared to pistol offhand, dagger just doesn’t cut it.

Honorable mention: Pistol/Pistol, overall a very weak kit when compared to D/P or S/P. Very little synergy

totally agree on offhand dagger, but i think it feels most out of place in D/D. pistol offhand is so far superior in every aspect and situation here. But in P/D it is ok imo.
to avoid saying things thgat were already said i link my post on this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/PvP-Thief-Dagger-4-5-small-buffs/first#post3823309

Scepter and Focus for me. Scepter is near useless in Condition builds and is out done in pretty much every way by Dagger. The only good thing is the Earth Auto attack. Focus has some decent Earth skills but is let down in every other attunement. In Fire You get better damage and Burning from Dagger. In Water no healing what so ever a decent range Chill and a tiny daze. Swirling Winds is decent but would take Ride The Lightening every day of the week and Updraft is better as well. In Earth Magnetic Wave is good even if the reflection duration is a little low. Obsidian Flesh would be better if it wasnt for the insane cool down.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Scepter and Focus for me. Scepter is near useless in Condition builds and is out done in pretty much every way by Dagger. The only good thing is the Earth Auto attack. Focus has some decent Earth skills but is let down in every other attunement. In Fire You get better damage and Burning from Dagger. In Water no healing what so ever a decent range Chill and a tiny daze. Swirling Winds is decent but would take Ride The Lightening every day of the week and Updraft is better as well. In Earth Magnetic Wave is good even if the reflection duration is a little low. Obsidian Flesh would be better if it wasnt for the insane cool down.

Woot. I probably don’t need to tell you that playing condition ele is almost an heresy since it’s quite obvious the class wasn’t designed for it : you can apply conditions with two auto attacks on scepter and that’s it (with a few more skills for dagger but it’s not much better), there’s nothing to cover them or stack them properly. It’s probably okay-ish in PvE but that’s it.

Scepter offers burst and blast finishers that are extremely good in PvP, it really outshines dagger.

Focus has some decent skills in Earth and Air (why don’t you like an AoE that destroys projectiles? the cc is meh but so are all of our ccs).Then the skills in fire and water are lackluster which would make it the weakest weapon indeed. Also, all of cooldowns are insane. The point of the focus is not to get damage, it’s to get a defensive off hand weapon : something that might not be as useful in PvE as it is in PvP.

Uhtameit.2413:

Woot. I probably don’t need to tell you that playing condition ele is almost an heresy since it’s quite obvious the class wasn’t designed for it : you can apply conditions with two auto attacks on scepter and that’s it (with a few more skills for dagger but it’s not much better), there’s nothing to cover them or stack them properly. It’s probably okay-ish in PvE but that’s it.

Scepter offers burst and blast finishers that are extremely good in PvP, it really outshines dagger.

Focus has some decent skills in Earth and Air (why don’t you like an AoE that destroys projectiles? the cc is meh but so are all of our ccs).Then the skills in fire and water are lackluster which would make it the weakest weapon indeed. Also, all of cooldowns are insane. The point of the focus is not to get damage, it’s to get a defensive off hand weapon : something that might not be as useful in PvE as it is in PvP.

Sure its not the strongest of builds, in fact it is the 2nd worst condition build (2nd to only Guardian) and i agree the Scepter is a Power weapon, it just doesn’t work currently for condition builds. Of course that could change with a few minor changes to it though none will actually happen.

It is a MUCH better weapon for Burst builds that is for sure. I am not saying that Focus is hugely poor. As you said it has some decent skills. Being that i run Dagger Main Hand i NEED the mobility that Ride The Lightening offers. The cool downs are rather insane but that goes for most weapons and utilities so it can’t really be down to the focus as its not the only one that has issues with this.

What i don’t understand – for a “defensive” weapon – No heal skill?

Necromancer- MH dagger. Long cd for immobilize, easily telegraphed, the #2 has a really long channel time adding to a not so great heal (also easy to cancel if the target gets behind you, should work like #5 on deathshroud and be targetable from any direction).

Thief- mainhand pistol. Can’t figure what this set wants to be, power or condi. #2 is plain aweful except for p/d if they can immobilize to secure a CnD but still feels out of place entirely.

Warrior- rifle. Pve basically, pretty weak everywhere else and easily avoided.

Ranger- sword. Just hate that aa that’s it, I use it for 2 skills then get out of it before the rooting kills me. Also OH axe is underwhelming in damage.

flamethrower, because everybody and their mother wants it to be a damage weapon instead of a utility weapon

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Uhtameit.2413:

Woot. I probably don’t need to tell you that playing condition ele is almost an heresy since it’s quite obvious the class wasn’t designed for it : you can apply conditions with two auto attacks on scepter and that’s it (with a few more skills for dagger but it’s not much better), there’s nothing to cover them or stack them properly. It’s probably okay-ish in PvE but that’s it.

Scepter offers burst and blast finishers that are extremely good in PvP, it really outshines dagger.

Focus has some decent skills in Earth and Air (why don’t you like an AoE that destroys projectiles? the cc is meh but so are all of our ccs).Then the skills in fire and water are lackluster which would make it the weakest weapon indeed. Also, all of cooldowns are insane. The point of the focus is not to get damage, it’s to get a defensive off hand weapon : something that might not be as useful in PvE as it is in PvP.

Sure its not the strongest of builds, in fact it is the 2nd worst condition build (2nd to only Guardian) and i agree the Scepter is a Power weapon, it just doesn’t work currently for condition builds. Of course that could change with a few minor changes to it though none will actually happen.

It is a MUCH better weapon for Burst builds that is for sure. I am not saying that Focus is hugely poor. As you said it has some decent skills. Being that i run Dagger Main Hand i NEED the mobility that Ride The Lightening offers. The cool downs are rather insane but that goes for most weapons and utilities so it can’t really be down to the focus as its not the only one that has issues with this.

What i don’t understand – for a “defensive” weapon – No heal skill?

It’s not like the heal on a 40s CD on off hand dagger will save you. Obsidian Flesh and the two anti-projectiles skill may prove much more helpful than 1k2 hp

Are Engineers even aloud to play this?

If so, Out of our two weapon choices I suppose the pistol’s Explosive Shot leaves much more to be desired.

Uhtameit.2413:

It’s not like the heal on a 40s CD on off hand dagger will save you. Obsidian Flesh and the two anti-projectiles skill may prove much more helpful than 1k2 hp

Yet Dagger offhand comes with A LOT more useful skills. The Focus has the Earth skills and that is it. That is all it has that is “better” than Dagger offhand.

Warrior : Axe off-hand.

Rly, rly bad. The base damage is just too low and doesn’t offer any utility to make up for it. The scaling is decent but you’re just going for full out damage, not worth. Maybe make the 4th skill work like ranger’s axe offhand, a ranged pull ? And well I’d like number 5 to reflect projectiles as well, especially considering it does less damage than spamming axe auto attack. So ye.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Uhtameit.2413:

It’s not like the heal on a 40s CD on off hand dagger will save you. Obsidian Flesh and the two anti-projectiles skill may prove much more helpful than 1k2 hp

Yet Dagger offhand comes with A LOT more useful skills. The Focus has the Earth skills and that is it. That is all it has that is “better” than Dagger offhand.

Not denying it, far from it. Focus is just a defensive weapon while a dagger obviously is an offensive one.

Uhtameit.2413:

Not denying it, far from it. Focus is just a defensive weapon while a dagger obviously is an offensive one.

Dagger is “more” offensive…Yet it comes with Heal, Damage reduction Aura, 2 CC and Mobility.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Uhtameit.2413:

Not denying it, far from it. Focus is just a defensive weapon while a dagger obviously is an offensive one.

Dagger is “more” offensive…Yet it comes with Heal, Damage reduction Aura, 2 CC and Mobility.

Yes but most dagger skills offer some nice damage. In water, the aura gives -10% damage (it’s nice but not that big of a deal) and the heal is 1k2 every 40s. If you consider focus, with 4 air and 4 earth you have around 10s immunity against projectiles which can prove way more helpful than just a 1k2 heal every 40s. And on top of that you’ve got a 4s immunity to everything. You have two CCs with focus too, btw. And yes, you have more mobility with dagger but that makes sense since it’s an offensive weapon.

So yes, it’s more defensive but clearly the fire skills need to be reworked. Dagger is overall much more fun but it doesn’t serve the same purpose

Uhtameit.2413:

Yes but most dagger skills offer some nice damage. In water, the aura gives -10% damage (it’s nice but not that big of a deal) and the heal is 1k2 every 40s. If you consider focus, with 4 air and 4 earth you have around 10s immunity against projectiles which can prove way more helpful than just a 1k2 heal every 40s. And on top of that you’ve got a 4s immunity to everything.

So yes, it’s more defensive but clearly the fire skills need to be reworked. Dagger is overall much more fun but it doesn’t serve the same purpose

Sure the 10% damage reduction isn’t amazing combine that with one or 2 traits and you could have Protection for another 33% damage reduction and/or Swiftness and Fury. Sure the healing isn’t amazing with no Healing Power mine has like 800Healing Power and that is a 2,100healing done, i take the cool down reduction trait as well which helps.

I would say the Fire skills need to be redone, the Fire Aura is decent but needs a cool down reduction at the very least. The Water spells need to be totally redone. Air is okay, cool downs could be adjusted. Earth could do with little changes as well. Obsidian Flesh needs like a BIG cool down reduction. Magnetic could do with little tweaks.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Sure the 10% damage reduction isn’t amazing combine that with one or 2 traits and you could have Protection for another 33% damage reduction and/or Swiftness and Fury. Sure the healing isn’t amazing with no Healing Power mine has like 800Healing Power and that is a 2,100healing done, i take the cool down reduction trait as well which helps.

I would say the Fire skills need to be redone, the Fire Aura is decent but needs a cool down reduction at the very least. The Water spells need to be totally redone. Air is okay, cool downs could be adjusted. Earth could do with little changes as well. Obsidian Flesh needs like a BIG cool down reduction. Magnetic could do with little tweaks.

So you’re running bunker or something? in sPvP it would be bunker anyway with 800 healing power oO. The daze in water is okay, the chill is kinda meh. Obsidian flesh is actually very good when you think about it, you are immune and have access to all your skills for kitten the CD makes sense. The 4th skill in earth does damage, removes 3 condis and reflects projectiles so again the CD makes a lot of sense imo.

Warrior—-Mace MH and OH, way too slow and clunky. They work for pve, that’s about it. OH axe—well documented. Hammer, rifle and MH sword for pve.

Necro—MH axe AA. OH focus skills are a bit slow to cast, but the effects are nice.

Thief—MH pistol. OH dagger could be beefed up a bit.

I think an overall fix to conditions in pve could help a lot of weapon skills/builds.

Guardian : weakest = shield,
most overrated =greatsword,
best = hammer and staff

Warrior: Offhand axe.
Guardian: Shield.

Engineer: None.
Ranger : Greatsword.
Thief : The Pistol/Pistol set.

DownStatetalist : focus, especially in fire attunement.
Mesmer: None.
Necromancer : Warhorn, because it is too easy to self-interrupt the weird casting time on #5.

Wolf.5816:

Are Engineers even aloud to play this?

If so, Out of our two weapon choices I suppose the pistol’s Explosive Shot leaves much more to be desired.

Engineers are definitely allowed to join in the discussion, and kits are up for discussion too

magic fly.2041:

Necromancer : Warhorn, because it is too easy to self-interrupt the weird casting time on #5.

It has an unblockable cc. The only thing that will cancel a block in the game. And it is AoE. How could that be your weakest weapon? xD

Necromancer: Axe and dagger. NO CLEAVE FROM THE ONLY POWER WEAPONS NECROS HAVE.

Thief: Pistol/Pistol
Elementalist: Focus
Warrior: Offhand axe
Ranger: Longbow
necromancer: Axe/dagger
Guardian: Scepter/shield
Mesmer: Offhand sword
Engineer: Rifle

I’m gonna agree with focus for ele, the playstyle it encourages (hovering over two attunements with long CD skills because your others are terrible) has been proven to have terrible effects on your healthbar.

PvP you say.

Ele: Scepter, because that’s a PvE thing.
Mesmer: Scepter, because it’s always useless other than for skill 3.
Guardian: Scepter, because it can’t hit the targets for nuts. Not bad in PvE though.
Warrior: Offhand warhorn. Nearly everything else has its uses.
Necro: Axe mainhand. It seems to be created to troll players really.
Ranger: Longbow. Also weak in PvE.
Engineer: Flamethrower kit. Tool kit. Also useless in PvE.
Thief: Mainhand pistol. Incidentally also nearly useless in PvE.

Hayashi.3416:

Ele: Scepter, because that’s a PvE thing.

XDDDDDDDDDDD

Nice joke. In case you’re not trolling, you should know that almost all the skilled elementalists in PvP use s/d or s/f (to a lesser extent staff since it’s not really viable) because it offers the best AoE burst in the game.

Lol. Warrior offhand mace bad? The knockdown wrecks. Necro axe has crazy vulnerable stacking and the 2 hits like a truck and the 3 is an aoe cripple. I’m curious as to what you define as good weapons lol.

Uhtameit.2413:

Hayashi.3416:

Ele: Scepter, because that’s a PvE thing.

XDDDDDDDDDDD

Nice joke. In case you’re not trolling, you should know that almost all the skilled elementalists in PvP use s/d or s/f (to a lesser extent staff since it’s not really viable) because it offers the best AoE burst in the game.

well Uhtameit i think we should not read this thread. just alone the general call for a weak weapon shows thats total fail to even argue with anyone in here.

seems like everyone calling a weapon here forget that the situation dictates whats a weak weapon for that situation.

Bottom line: almost every weapon is good at the right times with the right playstyle.

MercilessLemurs.7459:

Bottom line: almost every weapon is good at the right times with the right playstyle.

yeah thats what i was saying.