Guild Wars 2

same question as my torch.

nope.

Mace is viable but often outshined by sword. For your other topic, torch is garbage.
Mace is nearly the same dps as sword but is also light field spam-heavy, use it when you need the extra block.

As ostred said, you can use mace if you want as its dps is so very close to sword. Use it where you can really make use of its utility. I casually wear Mace + Focus/Greatsword while I am skipping trash or other dangerous parts like the bomb part at CoF p3. Along with Shelter, Virtues, Retreat and Renewed Focus you are impervious to damage while you are on the run.

Scepter/Focus + Scepter/Torch is top dps if you fight a boss with a large hitbox. Torch isn’t good for anything else.

Mace is really good for fractals. Hammer + mace/focus does more damage than hammer camping and hammer/gs in some situations but you mainly will want it when you fight hard bosses like mossman, archdiviner, and mai trin. Sword cleave is awful there for when you run gs+1/focus so mace would be better.

For dungeons mace is better than sword where your taking little damage or condi damage that will strip people’s scholar bonus and mace will be enough to get it back, where cleaving is an issue which would be mainly pugs not doing los or grouping mobs, or when a boss with a small hitbox will die in about 10s since you can use focus skills + symbol then swap to gs to burst since sword has nothing bursty. Mace will do less than 2% less dps than sword in a gs+1h/focus rotation and that’s not counting the extra vuln from mace with symbolic exposure or if you get off mace #3. You can see the difference in dps and rotations in the dps guardian sticky.

mace shines in trash fights with multiple mobs were you take little amounts of damage. If traited the symbol also applies aoe vulnerability so I use it in some bad group comps. It has about 2% dps decrease to sword so I always switch to sword on single target fights with mobs with small hit boxes. On large hit box mobs I switch to scepter. I’ll have my two weapon sets be scepter/focus and scepter/torch. BTW this is about the only time torch is viable. In case you were wondering I have 1500 hours on guard with 2000hours in total. A great resource to use us obals guardian guides you can find them on his YouTube channel.

you know mace doesnt cleave right?

Charak.9761:

you know mace doesnt cleave right?

You sure on that. I can’t double check in game right now but looking on gw2skills the tool tips say 3/3/5 targets for the AA chain, plus the big thing is that large symbol which can be decent burst damage if you hit that then swap to GS for that burst. It’s a bit slow but it’s really not shabby at all and that bonus healing can be very beneficial.

Last I checked, mace does cleave.

Mace does cleave 100% certain. second skill is aoe and third skill is pbaoe so it is far from a single target weapon

Jerus.4350:

Charak.9761:

you know mace doesnt cleave right?

You sure on that. I can’t double check in game right now but looking on gw2skills the tool tips say 3/3/5 targets for the AA chain, plus the big thing is that large symbol which can be decent burst damage if you hit that then swap to GS for that burst. It’s a bit slow but it’s really not shabby at all and that bonus healing can be very beneficial.

The damage is 3/3/1. The healing affects 5 targets, so that’s where that comes from. The Mace is still more aoe than the sword, its just moved from the last AA chain to the 2 and 3 skills.

Should note that the base damage is nearly the same as the sword.

Once you factor in traits sword pull ahead by a good 10% if not more.

The sword also attacks much faster which can be better for proccing sigils. (the AA on sword is also extremely high damage wise, especially the last attack. Ive seen 3.9k hits with it self buffed)

It’s alright but not necessary. I use mace in fractals on a few occasions, Mossman with sword focus on offset and the first archie in cliffside. It’s also alright for trash with hammer if you don’t need to gs or staff on offset. But for most bosses/stuff sword focus/gs is better. Hammer is bad on all fractal bosses anyway

And as for dungeons its fun to use every now and then or for more aoe damage than sword/keeping up scholar buff on others

Sword is usually better for trash and mobility through the dungeon but mace isn’t bad in damage. Sometimes I like to take it to boost survivability though you need to be wary of overwriting fire fields with your light field.

In Guild Wars 2 almost every build is “viable”, but few are optimal. Mace is “viable”, but far from optimal.

Kypriathe.4183:

Sword is usually better for trash and mobility through the dungeon but mace isn’t bad in damage. Sometimes I like to take it to boost survivability though you need to be wary of overwriting fire fields with your light field.

Sword is absolutely atrocious for trash since the final swing doesn’t cleave.

It seems that mace and sword have close dps, even when both are used in a max damage build setup – as shown in obal’s spreadsheet. I honestly think that we have much more options to go with while using and building a mace. Basically, any trait related with blocking and/or symbols is related with mace.