Guild Wars 2

I use GS but when i try to change to sword/focus the damage is low (like half to 3/4 damage) and the speed is the same, what i find extremely slow for a one hand weapon.

Shouldn’t be the sword a little bit faster to make up for the lost of damage? Maybe 1/4 second?

Also the same happens to Staff. the Scepter does the same damage, has longer range and is double as fast what is ok for the scepter (the damage is not high anyway).
shouldn’t the staff do more damage to make up for the half range? Something closer to the GS instead to the Sword?

I believe that the Sword has higher auto attack damage then the GS. One meta build uses GS//S/F which wants you to hit GS 2,3,4,5 then move to Sword for auto. Are you traited for the Sword?

As the poster above points out, the sword/focus is not in direct competition with a weapon like GS, it’s about the combination. You build rotations with weapons, that’s why you get two

So as he says, you’ll do the GS skills then swap sword hit your focus skills and just auto attack, then swap back when it’s up and GS skills again and so forth. (optimal is GS2-4-3-5 auto till 2 is up, hit it, swap sword focus 4-5, auto, make sure to swap after you finish the auto chain when it’s up, rinse/repeat)

As for Staff vs Scepter, you’re forgetting that staff has a HUGE radius cleave, so with say 2 targets you’re getting double the damage, 3, triple and so on. Now there is Smite for scepter which can hit multiples but staff is generally just for large radius tagging and not really a high damage weapon focusing more on it’s support skills.

Hammer is a standalone that can do competative damage on it’s own without needing to rotate (good for when you want that second weapon to be something more niche like staff/scepter).

GS is your big damage weapon

Mace is your more defensive 1h, sword your more offensive (though mace will just be a total win with th enew traits).

Focus is your best offhand currently, but with the new traits Torch may make an solid offensive option. Shield is just crap.

Scepter currently has the highest damage potential on large targets, and has the niche of our best and only real range option. The damage will not hold after new traits though as Mace’s symbols will be key.

TL/DR, Don’t look at the weapons only individually, look at them as a complete set of both weapons together.

mace is even slower but higher damage, which of the two is higher dps?

sword is higher dps atm but that could change in HoT

Vizardlorde.8243:

sword is higher dps atm but that could will change in HoT

fixed it 20% symbol buff and no more powerful blades, plus if you trait for it 20% faster recharge on mace skills and 2s longer symbols

And currently I think in optimal situations it’s like 2% better on sword.

But, mace being slower it’s more prone to non optimal situations and there’s the light field thing. So sword is pretty much the better damage weapon unless certain criteria are met where mace becomes preferable (extra block, healing, projectile issues with 3rd sword AA, wanting higher burst damage)

GS Sw/F is between 1 and 3% better dps over GS Mace/F. Pure Sword will be around 10% better than Pure Mace.

Seriously the difference is so small, that both are good choice. And yes Mace will become higher dps with the new traits unless there is a big change to what we already know.

It’s good to know. Thanks guys.

Instead of a sword I might craft a mace then

(my LB is already crafted)

Mace’s DPS is dependent on how good you are at hitting Protector’s Strike at the right time. If you can get the block and damage out of it with a very short channel you’ll do good DPS. Also your target has to stay in the symbol. Without PS, Mace is lower DPS then Sword. With a quick PS it comes out equal or higher from my testing. Not sure how accurate these statements are but I feel fine running mace with PS as a DPS ability.

Sword also has some flaws in its design.

The last auto can often miss enemies who are moving around due to its very narrow cone attack.

The number 3 also doesn’t block anything despite what it says on the tool tip. It absorbs, this means it cannot trigger trait effects.
The number 3 also roots you making you a prime target for melee & ground targeted attacks.
And finally the projectiles launched by the number 3 move so slow that any enemy outside imminent melee range can avoid them by simply moving around.

Take this in combination with the trait changes coming and sword will be real lack luster.
So chances are that unless the sword receives some real love it will become something that nobody want’s to use in HOT.

Longsword and Mace are slower than the 2H Greatsword. Which is nuts. Both 1H weapons ought be twice as fast. Animations are pretty clunky too to compared to the GS.

Plus Guardian mace needs a stun, knockback or daze in the 1 skill…I mean its a mace, for pete’s sake…you know..a head knocker?

Raf.1078:

Longsword and Mace are slower than the 2H Greatsword. Which is nuts. Both 1H weapons ought be twice as fast. Animations are pretty clunky too to compared to the GS.

Plus Guardian mace needs a stun, knockback or daze in the 1 skill…I mean its a mace, for pete’s sake…you know..a head knocker?

I too believe it should be faster…but twice as fast seems like a reach. are you basing that on the concept that it’s only doing half the damage of GS? highly doubt it’s that low. but some speed adjustment isn’t out of order, especially if it keeps it competitive. Some people really like the traditional look of sword + X.

I’m excited about the changes to mace. Long time been my favorite weapon of choice, along with hammer. only picked up the GS for the leap (guards limitations with movement at root here), and it’s a bit more involved then hammer (I don’t fall asleep using it).

But with the changes, im really excited about pulling out my mace and torch.

funkyfuzz.9142:

Raf.1078:

Longsword and Mace are slower than the 2H Greatsword. Which is nuts. Both 1H weapons ought be twice as fast. Animations are pretty clunky too to compared to the GS.

Plus Guardian mace needs a stun, knockback or daze in the 1 skill…I mean its a mace, for pete’s sake…you know..a head knocker?

I too believe it should be faster…but twice as fast seems like a reach. are you basing that on the concept that it’s only doing half the damage of GS? highly doubt it’s that low. but some speed adjustment isn’t out of order, especially if it keeps it competitive. Some people really like the traditional look of sword + X.

I’m excited about the changes to mace. Long time been my favorite weapon of choice, along with hammer. only picked up the GS for the leap (guards limitations with movement at root here), and it’s a bit more involved then hammer (I don’t fall asleep using it).

But with the changes, im really excited about pulling out my mace and torch.

It does not half but around that. Like a little bit more than 1/2 damage of the GS. In numbers, while doing average of 1.8K with the great sword i do 1.1K with the sword. Although the base is almost the same seems doesn’t to scale the same way.
So i would make the chain 1/4 – 1/4 – 1/4 sec and we should see the improvement in speed and usability . Damage is quite close to the sceptre and the sceptre is a 1200 units ranged weapon. Also AA doesn’t give up any boons/conditions so i don’t see why shouldn’t be like that. If looks like OP take the base down but the speed is needed.
Just talking about SW#1 AA the other skill are fine like they are.

Otherwise sword won’t be an alternative to GS. And we need a ranged weapon as well so Sword/X – GS is not an option.

Bloodgruve.6038:

Mace’s DPS is dependent on how good you are at hitting Protector’s Strike at the right time. If you can get the block and damage out of it with a very short channel you’ll do good DPS. Also your target has to stay in the symbol. Without PS, Mace is lower DPS then Sword. With a quick PS it comes out equal or higher from my testing. Not sure how accurate these statements are but I feel fine running mace with PS as a DPS ability.

You are right (sort of). Yes if you can block a hit and counter-attack quickly, it will make the dps GS – Mace/Focus reach that of GS – Sw/F. But it’s highly unlikely. You need to land your counter-attack in the first second or you will lose dps. For that reason, it’s more of a gamble than anything else.

Thaddeus.4891:

You are right (sort of). Yes if you can block a hit and counter-attack quickly, it will make the dps GS – Mace/Focus reach that of GS – Sw/F. But it’s highly unlikely. You need to land your counter-attack in the first second or you will lose dps. For that reason, it’s more of a gamble than anything else.

It’s very much a gamble and a test of an individual’s skill. I ran it exclusively for a few months and got pretty good at hitting that PS at the right time. I liked it a lot because it felt to me like the more ‘Guardian’ of the weapons we have. It’s a viable alternative with a higher skill cap.

Bloodgruve.6038:

Thaddeus.4891:

You are right (sort of). Yes if you can block a hit and counter-attack quickly, it will make the dps GS – Mace/Focus reach that of GS – Sw/F. But it’s highly unlikely. You need to land your counter-attack in the first second or you will lose dps. For that reason, it’s more of a gamble than anything else.

It’s very much a gamble and a test of an individual’s skill. I ran it exclusively for a few months and got pretty good at hitting that PS at the right time. I liked it a lot because it felt to me like the more ‘Guardian’ of the weapons we have. It’s a viable alternative with a higher skill cap.

GS + Mace/Focus after the trait changes will be so fun to play. Making sure you optimize your symbol uptime and have Protector Strike ready at anytime. I can’t wait

Raf.1078:

Longsword and Mace are slower than the 2H Greatsword. Which is nuts. Both 1H weapons ought be twice as fast. Animations are pretty clunky too to compared to the GS.

Plus Guardian mace needs a stun, knockback or daze in the 1 skill…I mean its a mace, for pete’s sake…you know..a head knocker?

If you’re trying to base this off of real life weapons, you’re flat out wrong here (and by the way, ‘longsword’ is two handed; you’re talking about an arming sword). Two handed swords tend to be faster and require less strength than one handed swords. Anyways, I think the real fix here should be shield. Fix the shield, and the one handed weapons will become more competitive with the greatsword in general. Although yes, I do agree with you that mace should have a stun or daze, although the cooldown on that might have to be a little long.