Guild Wars 2

I’m currently running this in WvW.
i have yet to see any sort of build with the main weapons being axe/dagger

I don’t wanna use scepter or staff, so… im running axe/dagger and dagger/warhorn.
axe/dagger because you get the MOST power with that setup. the dagger provides more damage over the focus and the warhorn.

I would like to see what the necro community can come up with for builds around those weapon choices. I use warhorn for the swift primarily

currently i’ve been using 10/0/25/20/15
All PVT armor. pvt axe and zerker dagger, and pvt dagger/rabid warhorn. 2 zerker rings, pvt amulet with ruby orb, 1 zerker earing and 1 pvt earing with ruby orb.
trying to use retaliation as a main weapon as well

im going to try 30/0/25/15/0 and 30/0/25/0/15

15 in vit adds to survivability, however, so does the added 15 in soul reaping for the spec armor so between those two im having issues deciding.

with 10/0/25/20/15
currently 3079 power on the axe/dagger
33% crit chance (with precision buffs)
58% crit damage (precision buff)
2492 armor
24292 vit

comments/suggestions on utilities anything will be helpful
more concerned about the axe/dagger combo tho and what the necro community thinks about it

Dagger off-hand does pretty bad damage in a power build. If you want to use it for condition removal or the weakness, feel free, but you would do much better with a focus instead.

I fail to see how 75 more attack over the focus can be bad

I tried a max Cripple build sorta thing with axe/warhorn and dagger/dagger for a little while and it was kinda fun. I mean, I didn’t do anything seriously with it, but I think I roughly broke even in sPvP with it. Someone who actually puts effort towards their output might be more qualified to answer?

I also don’t think you should strictly worry about how much damage your offhand weapon does. I can definitely see merit behind using the focus as well for those delicious stacks of Vulnerability.

For reference, I used 30/20/0, with either 0/20 or 20/0 on the end, depending on whether I felt like using Wells or Spectral toys. Spectral seemed to work a bit better but if you can make Wells work all the more power to you.

Dylninja.4216:

I fail to see how 75 more attack over the focus can be bad

75 extra damage on one weapon set, or the vulnerability from Focus will give you 12% extra damage on anything. When you are hitting for 1k or higher and that 12% is 120 damage or more I don’t know why you’d choose 75 damage.

You should use weapons because you prefer the skills they give, not because of the numbers on them.

I am running axe and focus for WpvP (I dislike the scepter and of course use staff for some situations).

It is ok. I like it better then dagger main hand due to the increase range. Axe 2 hits pretty fast (the channel is slower and hits harder then dagger 2 I feel) and axe 3 is pretty solid for the aoe.

I think focus is pretty important off hand vs dagger , but I have not spent a ton of time with dagger off hand, so no expert. I look at off hand stuff more about effects then dps (which admittedly could be wrong).

just happy to hear about other main hand axe uses out there in wpvp!

Oh in all of them I run with two wells and run speed buff. I keep the trait for targeted wells also and life siphon on them. I found with the axe and having the targeted 900 range wells, it was pretty nice.

I can see how it would work. You wouldn’t use the dagger offhand for damage, just control. Axe is very much a single target weapon, but between Unholy Feast, Deathly Swarm, and Enfeebling Blood, you can seriously discourage anyone else from stopping you from getting your one target. Deathly Swarm is still best saved for condition control instead of a blind, but nobody likes being blinded.

lettucemode.3789:

Dylninja.4216:

I fail to see how 75 more attack over the focus can be bad

75 extra damage on one weapon set, or the vulnerability from Focus will give you 12% extra damage on anything. When you are hitting for 1k or higher and that 12% is 120 damage or more I don’t know why you’d choose 75 damage.

You should use weapons because you prefer the skills they give, not because of the numbers on them.

Except everyone and their mother has condition removal besides glass cannon warriors, and you´re betting on playing against morons who won´t be pressing water attunement or cleansing wave or empathic bond or shadow arts traits or null field, etc.

I far prefer in that case condi manipulation+blind and an aoe weakness and 3 stack bleed than a single target short duration chill and a bouncing vulnerabity attack.

As for the OP, the reason why people don´t use axe is because it only works against noobs who don´t dodge the channel, which is the only damage and life force generation the weapon has.

Zenith.7301:

lettucemode.3789:

Dylninja.4216:

I fail to see how 75 more attack over the focus can be bad

75 extra damage on one weapon set, or the vulnerability from Focus will give you 12% extra damage on anything. When you are hitting for 1k or higher and that 12% is 120 damage or more I don’t know why you’d choose 75 damage.

You should use weapons because you prefer the skills they give, not because of the numbers on them.

Except everyone and their mother has condition removal besides glass cannon warriors, and you´re betting on playing against morons who won´t be pressing water attunement or cleansing wave or empathic bond or shadow arts traits or null field, etc.

I far prefer in that case condi manipulation+blind and an aoe weakness and 3 stack bleed than a single target short duration chill and a bouncing vulnerabity attack.

As for the OP, the reason why people don´t use axe is because it only works against noobs who don´t dodge the channel, which is the only damage and life force generation the weapon has.

I mostly play w3 and I’m on SoR, we’re in the T1 matchup. You are exaggerating the amount of condition removal present. Professions with limited removals don’t waste them on vulnerability, especially against a power necro because they know I can just stack more. Professions like thief or elementalist who have constant removal are going to remove your blinds, bleed, and weakness anyway. Given that, I’d rather have the focus than offhand dagger.

Exaggerating? I spvp so no wvw scrubs skimping on condi removal utilities. You have no other vulnerability on a short cool down. Ele bunker with earth´s embrace trait for stability will laugh at conditions with ether renewal. Null field keeps removing conditions, and mesmers trait for condi removal on shatter often. Ranger with signet of renewal and empathic bond is pretty much immune to condition stacking.

Condi specs are rather screwed in this game relative to power/prec/critdmg specs. I only run focus when I´m on a debunkering spec for the extra boon stripping.

Should also be noted that that 75 extra attack the dagger has only applies to the dagger skills and none other. If damage is what you’re going for, Focus is the way to go. Besides, the main point of spinal shivers isn’t the chill (which is nice), but the boon stripping.

Zenith.7301:

Exaggerating? I spvp so no wvw scrubs skimping on condi removal utilities. You have no other vulnerability on a short cool down. Ele bunker with earth´s embrace trait for stability will laugh at conditions with ether renewal. Null field keeps removing conditions, and mesmers trait for condi removal on shatter often. Ranger with signet of renewal and empathic bond is pretty much immune to condition stacking.

Condi specs are rather screwed in this game relative to power/prec/critdmg specs. I only run focus when I´m on a debunkering spec for the extra boon stripping.

So if everyone has this much condition removal, why use offhand dagger at all? :P Something about your story doesn’t add up.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Should also be noted that that 75 extra attack the dagger has only applies to the dagger skills and none other. If damage is what you’re going for, Focus is the way to go. Besides, the main point of spinal shivers isn’t the chill (which is nice), but the boon stripping.

Your weapon damage applies to everything you do when you have that weapon set out.

Because I like having more condition removal, as you can´t have too many of it? Because you can land a blind before a big hit, and don´t rely on it staying up long for a benefit?

You won´t always have the luxury of standing on a putrid mark to transfer your conditions and consume conditions is on a considerable cd.

Zenith.7301:

Because I like having more condition removal, as you can´t have too many of it? Because you can land a blind before a big hit, and don´t rely on it staying up long for a benefit?

You won´t always have the luxury of standing on a putrid mark to transfer your conditions and consume conditions is on a considerable cd.

Ahh, but you’re assuming I use a staff. Shrouded Removal + Near to Death is all the condition removal I need on my power/crit build. With CC, of course.

lettucemode.3789:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Should also be noted that that 75 extra attack the dagger has only applies to the dagger skills and none other. If damage is what you’re going for, Focus is the way to go. Besides, the main point of spinal shivers isn’t the chill (which is nice), but the boon stripping.

Your weapon damage applies to everything you do when you have that weapon set out.

They don’t apply to utility skills. I can garuntee that (or, if they do, the tooltips don’t reflect it). I’m pretty sure they only affect the damage dealt by the weapon skills they grant you.

@Zenith: Putrid Mark doesn’t care if you are anywhere close to it. It will transfer your conditions. Allies must be on the mark for it, though.

lettucemode.3789:

Zenith.7301:

Because I like having more condition removal, as you can´t have too many of it? Because you can land a blind before a big hit, and don´t rely on it staying up long for a benefit?

You won´t always have the luxury of standing on a putrid mark to transfer your conditions and consume conditions is on a considerable cd.

Ahh, but you’re assuming I use a staff. Shrouded Removal + Near to Death is all the condition removal I need on my power/crit build. With CC, of course.

;p, I like to remove conditions in bulk, not one every 5/10 seconds.

I really hope they buff axe, though, because Frostfang is the 2nd legendary I’m working on atm after having completed Meteorologicus.

Focus is just plain better in power builds. Chill + boon stripping will outclass a weak AoE bleed/weakness, and a big vulnerability stack/some regen will do much better than a blind/condition transfer.

Zenith.7301:

Exaggerating? I spvp so no wvw scrubs skimping on condi removal utilities. You have no other vulnerability on a short cool down. Ele bunker with earth´s embrace trait for stability will laugh at conditions with ether renewal. Null field keeps removing conditions, and mesmers trait for condi removal on shatter often. Ranger with signet of renewal and empathic bond is pretty much immune to condition stacking.

Condi specs are rather screwed in this game relative to power/prec/critdmg specs. I only run focus when I´m on a debunkering spec for the extra boon stripping.

sPvP is full of scrubs. People who use sPvP to talk about builds are scrubs. No one on any team in tourney’s or spvp or wvwvw wastes it on Vulnerabilyt. Btw, axe 1 applies 2 stacks of vuln constantly so you make take my stack of 15 off, but now I have 6, now 10. Now someone else just applied a stack of 20 bleeds, but you have 10 seconds before you can cleanse conditions again. With Focus offhand I just stripped your buffs, now you have no buffs wasted your condition cleans on a 12 stack of vuln, so now I can apply chill without a worry.

Now you die because you are spending cooldowns foolishly

Bas.7406:

Zenith.7301:

Exaggerating? I spvp so no wvw scrubs skimping on condi removal utilities. You have no other vulnerability on a short cool down. Ele bunker with earth´s embrace trait for stability will laugh at conditions with ether renewal. Null field keeps removing conditions, and mesmers trait for condi removal on shatter often. Ranger with signet of renewal and empathic bond is pretty much immune to condition stacking.

Condi specs are rather screwed in this game relative to power/prec/critdmg specs. I only run focus when I´m on a debunkering spec for the extra boon stripping.

sPvP is full of scrubs. People who use sPvP to talk about builds are scrubs. No one on any team in tourney’s or spvp or wvwvw wastes it on Vulnerabilyt. Btw, axe 1 applies 2 stacks of vuln constantly so you make take my stack of 15 off, but now I have 6, now 10. Now someone else just applied a stack of 20 bleeds, but you have 10 seconds before you can cleanse conditions again. With Focus offhand I just stripped your buffs, now you have no buffs wasted your condition cleans on a 12 stack of vuln, so now I can apply chill without a worry.

Now you die because you are spending cooldowns foolishly

Bas you painted this picture perfectly, its like I was hovering over your shoulder taking in the scene as you were owning some nub. Awesome.

Axe is the worst Necro weapon, you’ll give up on it eventually. It’s main use is as the lazy man’s dagger where you don’t want to have to deal with the more frantic dagger play.

There are 2 main builds that can use axe but are better with dagger:

1) Minion master where you need axe or dagger for your minions to be responsive. You’ll move on from these builds eventually but they’re good for noobs.

2) DS builds where axe is ok for building life force. Real players don’t post builds but try 30/10/0/0/30.

zainey.5021:

Axe is the worst Necro weapon, you’ll give up on it eventually. It’s main use is as the lazy man’s dagger where you don’t want to have to deal with the more frantic dagger play.

There are 2 main builds that can use axe but are better with dagger:

1) Minion master where you need axe or dagger for your minions to be responsive. You’ll move on from these builds eventually but they’re good for noobs.

2) DS builds where axe is ok for building life force. Real players don’t post builds but try 30/10/0/0/30.

I think a better way to state this Zainey, is that Axe auto attack is subpar in terms of raw damage. Its not necessarily the worst weapon for the Necro. The axe 2 skill does greater burst than dagger 2, but lacks healing transfer that dagger has. 3 skill on axe is great for keeping in the teeth of a fight and very good for power builds with the retaliation. Axe is just as frantic game-play-wise as dagger, so I don’t know what your talking about here.

Spouting nonsense about axe just because its NOT YOUR preferred weapon, doesnt really help in the discussion. Maybe give a few valid points as to why Axe is inferior and dagger is better with some real experience/scenarios…that would be more helpful. Your post kinda sounds condescending.

also, what are you talking about when you said this? :

zainey.5021:

DS builds where axe is ok for building life force. Real players don’t post builds but try 30/10/0/0/30.

This forum is full of people theory crafting builds. You are calling all these people not “Real Players”. Go troll somewhere else or ask mommy next time you want to click the reply button on these forums.

I’m a “Surreal Player”.

Running an oddball 15/20/0/20/15 Axe/Dagger build in Knight’s armor with a side helping of Carrion to spice things up a bit. Blurring the power/conditional/crit boundaries, I guess.

Bas.7406:

Zenith.7301:

Exaggerating? I spvp so no wvw scrubs skimping on condi removal utilities. You have no other vulnerability on a short cool down. Ele bunker with earth´s embrace trait for stability will laugh at conditions with ether renewal. Null field keeps removing conditions, and mesmers trait for condi removal on shatter often. Ranger with signet of renewal and empathic bond is pretty much immune to condition stacking.

Condi specs are rather screwed in this game relative to power/prec/critdmg specs. I only run focus when I´m on a debunkering spec for the extra boon stripping.

sPvP is full of scrubs. People who use sPvP to talk about builds are scrubs. No one on any team in tourney’s or spvp or wvwvw wastes it on Vulnerabilyt. Btw, axe 1 applies 2 stacks of vuln constantly so you make take my stack of 15 off, but now I have 6, now 10. Now someone else just applied a stack of 20 bleeds, but you have 10 seconds before you can cleanse conditions again. With Focus offhand I just stripped your buffs, now you have no buffs wasted your condition cleans on a 12 stack of vuln, so now I can apply chill without a worry.

Now you die because you are spending cooldowns foolishly

Says the guy who pretends you can stack high vulnerability with the axe autoattack considering the debuff baseline duration, and who brings someone else putting conditions as an argument against removing vulnerability (let’s not mention that on the other side an ele comes with water attunement and cleanses those new conditions right off).

If you’re killing people with a low duration chill, they were going to die anyways.

And most importantly now you die because you were using a garbage weapon that is not only selfish compared to a scepter, but has less aoe pressure.

I’m zeroing in on 600 hours of play just as a necro, i’ve tried every weapon combo there is except axe/dagger. All i was ask was for theoretical builds.

My belief as the axe main hander, your primary tool is retaliation. So i’ve been trying to focus on the damage output from retaliation.
pop unholy feast, then with retaliation on DS you get a stacked duration of retaliation and then ds 4 for aoe. Axe can be aoe damage, just has to work in tandem with DS

Axe/Focus is the more suitable choice for a power setup, but Axe/Dagger could work. Not for the damage, but for condition transfer and aoe weakness, both great tools.
So go ahead and try.

Zenith.7301:

Says the guy who pretends you can stack high vulnerability with the axe autoattack considering the debuff baseline duration, and who brings someone else putting conditions as an argument against removing vulnerability (let’s not mention that on the other side an ele comes with water attunement and cleanses those new conditions right off).

If you’re killing people with a low duration chill, they were going to die anyways.

And most importantly now you die because you were using a garbage weapon that is not only selfish compared to a scepter, but has less aoe pressure.

What rank are you again? Thank you for your epicly well-worded reply steeped in deep facts and situational tactics.

On a side note, all of our weapons for power build are selfish. It’s why we thrive on bunker killing. Our chill has multiple ways to apply it, and so the low duration is awesome. I can reapply it quickly.

Apparently you have never tried axe. 2 per auto attack means in 3 seconds I can have 6 on you for every axe 2 attack (which is the attack the aim to dodge) I can get 6 stacks of vulnerability. Is someone is dumb enough to cleanse it (yes I mean an ele) There isn’t an ele around who would waste jumping into Water or using a condition cleanse on Vulnerability.

If you haven’t realized that the Necro is the single best bunker killer regardless of the bunker class, than you have never played a necro or versed a good necro.

Finally, at what point is carry an axe selfish? Vulnerability helps my team. Doing my job helps my team. I have a job to do every single time it’s to pick out the target and kill it. Bunker or Ranged player. If I don’t do my job that’s selfish, carrying the scepter in a power build is selfish. Doing aoe when focus fire and boon removal is necessary is selfish.

It’s almost like you have never played anything but zerg on zerg.

Dylninja.4216:

I’m zeroing in on 600 hours of play just as a necro, i’ve tried every weapon combo there is except axe/dagger. All i was ask was for theoretical builds.

I got that and tried to answer. I didn’t mention that I’ve tried retaliation builds because I haven’t found any that were any good. I think the main problem is retaliation effectiveness is so timing dependent. I personally do better with fear and chill. Talking PvP here of course – any and all. Maybe try 4x rune of sanctuary and 2x rune of monk for more retaliation and boon duration. Good news I guess is Spiteful Vigor is only lvl VII and Spiteful Spirit is in Spite line so 30/0/20/0/20 could be a decent DS build. Only other idea is work in Chilling Darkness but then you’d want focus offhand for at least one weap set. Hope that helps a little.

Bas.7406:

Zenith.7301:

Says the guy who pretends you can stack high vulnerability with the axe autoattack considering the debuff baseline duration, and who brings someone else putting conditions as an argument against removing vulnerability (let’s not mention that on the other side an ele comes with water attunement and cleanses those new conditions right off).

If you’re killing people with a low duration chill, they were going to die anyways.

And most importantly now you die because you were using a garbage weapon that is not only selfish compared to a scepter, but has less aoe pressure.

What rank are you again? Thank you for your epicly well-worded reply steeped in deep facts and situational tactics.

On a side note, all of our weapons for power build are selfish. It’s why we thrive on bunker killing. Our chill has multiple ways to apply it, and so the low duration is awesome. I can reapply it quickly.

Apparently you have never tried axe. 2 per auto attack means in 3 seconds I can have 6 on you for every axe 2 attack (which is the attack the aim to dodge) I can get 6 stacks of vulnerability. Is someone is dumb enough to cleanse it (yes I mean an ele) There isn’t an ele around who would waste jumping into Water or using a condition cleanse on Vulnerability.

If you haven’t realized that the Necro is the single best bunker killer regardless of the bunker class, than you have never played a necro or versed a good necro.

Finally, at what point is carry an axe selfish? Vulnerability helps my team. Doing my job helps my team. I have a job to do every single time it’s to pick out the target and kill it. Bunker or Ranged player. If I don’t do my job that’s selfish, carrying the scepter in a power build is selfish. Doing aoe when focus fire and boon removal is necessary is selfish.

It’s almost like you have never played anything but zerg on zerg.

Bring your necro and I’ll show you on a ranger what actually debunkers. Your power necro is subpar; don’t fool yourself. Not all bunkers rely on boon stacking to hold a point.

The axe is a selfish weapon because whil you bring 6 stacks of vulnerability, outside your #2 you are doing negligible damage. I’ll just bring a mesmer with null field and boon removal on shatter for vulnerability, boon removal, and group mobility to boot, while doing considerably more damage than your power necro ever will.

Show me the top QP team videos where necros aren’t running a staff+scepter/dagger.

It’s just plain stupid to run an axe over a dagger if you’re set on running a power build. Dagger does so much more damage.

Zenith.7301:

Bring your necro and I’ll show you on a ranger what actually debunkers. Your power necro is subpar; don’t fool yourself. Not all bunkers rely on boon stacking to hold a point.

They either rely on boons or lots of healing. Either way, a necro busts them pretty well.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Zenith.7301:

Bring your necro and I’ll show you on a ranger what actually debunkers. Your power necro is subpar; don’t fool yourself. Not all bunkers rely on boon stacking to hold a point.

They either rely on boons or lots of healing. Either way, a necro busts them pretty well.

And lots of evasion/blind or lots of CC, like the engineer. Boon strip is undeniably powerful, but it is not the only tool necros are sought for.

I’d love for the axe to be a better weapon, but its #1 is just dreadful, its life generation is dreadful (because people will actually dodge your channel), and only #3 seems like the stand out skill ( huge aoe cripple and retal is pretty neat). The dagger outclasses it in damage (because the axe is a single target just like the axe), LF generation, and for aoe damage and utility nothing touches the staff.

Zenith.7301:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Zenith.7301:

Bring your necro and I’ll show you on a ranger what actually debunkers. Your power necro is subpar; don’t fool yourself. Not all bunkers rely on boon stacking to hold a point.

They either rely on boons or lots of healing. Either way, a necro busts them pretty well.

And lots of evasion/blind or lots of CC, like the engineer. Boon strip is undeniably powerful, but it is not the only tool necros are sought for.

I’d love for the axe to be a better weapon, but its #1 is just dreadful, its life generation is dreadful (because people will actually dodge your channel), and only #3 seems like the stand out skill ( huge aoe cripple and retal is pretty neat). The dagger outclasses it in damage (because the axe is a single target just like the axe), LF generation, and for aoe damage and utility nothing touches the staff.

If you are using a ranger to bunker kill you got bigger issues besides one awful bunker. As for your reply, I never once stated the axe was a better damage weapon. I said A/F is a better weapon than Dagger because it doesn’t force me to be up someone’s but to deal damage, and the Axe has significanly better burst.

MM plus A/F is very powerful on a focus target. It does good damage, helps control a target, and gives me enough range to feel comfortable. it’s a completely different playstyle than S/D and Staff. In fact, I keep dagger around strictly to blow up a stationary locked down target.

I run axe hit them when coming in stack the Vuln, hit them with A2 if they are not kiting, I swap to d/w, and hit them with D3 W5 and D1 until it’s time to weapon swap. Swap back out and hammer away with A/F while kiting in circles, than switching back when I can lock them down.

It’s not complicated, it’s just not what you play. A lot of us love A/F because I don’t have to be up someone’s butt all day, and it’s a great control weapon. Your inability to see anything besides what you think is the problem here.

Or maybe your view is skewed by not caring to actually look at the numbers. Axe does NO damage outside A2 channel, which people can dodge/block/interrupt. It jusat doesn’t, and I worry that you’ve actually not tested other classes if you’re willing to claim that axe does good damage — that’s just a total lack of perspective.

I can’t fathom any necro skipping a staff in competitive pvp. You are seriously foregoing 600 range on a weapon whose autoattack does similar #1 damage to the axe, are missing out on aoe chill/poison, condi transfer, aoe fear for interrupts, grants aoe regen to allies, and with traits pretty much keeps your life force bar filled. All for a single target vulnerability stack on miserable damage autoattack, a channel that casts longer than a Blurred Frenzy and does less damage, and an aoe cripple/retal?

I actually thought power necros were running d/f and staff. Limiting your range to 600 is insanity — any knowledgeable player will kite the crap out of your axe as easily as they can kite you while on dagger. It’s just a current weakness of the weapons until they give us the DS teleport back or make Dark Pact a ranged gap closer.

Staff is terrible unless you have traited for it; using trait points that should go for better power build options. If you are going WvW, then staff is great, but you still need to burn those points. You need to look past strictly one section of the game. Axe has its own niche; staff is a support weapon, dagger is a single target raw damage weapon, scepter is condition damage, and axe is AoE control/support.

If I can be kited at 600 range, how would dropping it even further make anything better? That makes absolutely no sense.

Bhawb.7408:

Staff is terrible unless you have traited for it; using trait points that should go for better power build options. If you are going WvW, then staff is great, but you still need to burn those points. You need to look past strictly one section of the game. Axe has its own niche; staff is a support weapon, dagger is a single target raw damage weapon, scepter is condition damage, and axe is AoE control/support.

If I can be kited at 600 range, how would dropping it even further make anything better? That makes absolutely no sense.

Aoe control? An aoe chill, an aoe fear,

Staff is never terrible. Not even untraited. Maybe more difficult use without greater marks, but that’s it. An aoe poison and chill and a condition transfer and an aoe fear can never be terrible. AoE regen and 3 stacks of bleed aoe are never terrible.

The only thing terrible about the staff is the projectile speed and damage for #1. And the Axe hasn’t got much on it.

Those AoE areas are so small that you cannot tell me you are going to land it on multiple people without spending 10 points to upgrade its size. Are the AoE’s nice? Sure, but as a power build you aren’t going to have good AoE damage (outside of WoS maybe) anyway. The bleed/poison will do crap damage, because its a power build. The regen will do very little because necros should never have healing power in PvP (and focus grants the regen).

Axe’s auto attack has more damage than staff (not by tons), and also makes the person take 10% more damage from ALL sources by vulnerability stacks (up to 22 vuln stacks because you’ll be taking the focus with it). Focus 4 will grant regen to your team just like your staff will. Focus 5 will strip boons and chill a target.

Staff is a fine weapon, and it has a lot of use, but trying to argue that it replaces the position of Axe is ignorant. Axe/offhand (you can’t compare them without considering what the offhand will be, otherwise its 3v5 skills) can be used in its niche situations, and in those situations it outclasses staff. You can argue all day that it doesn’t do as much damage as dagger, and no one cares, its damage has nothing to do with why it is used.

On a point it’s fairly simple to hit multiple targets, actually. Greater Marks just makes it fire and forget. Axe autoattack does not pierce. Axe autoattack does not generate life force. I’m not convinced on axe’s position other than trying to stack vulnerability at the price of terrible damage. Whatever damage you gain from vulnerability stacking is lost by a large margin on the sustained damage of the weapon.

Super Squad’s Erho showcased just fine how to use a staff without greater marks at the beginnings of the game.

Really, if I just wanted to stack vulnerability and strip boons, why not just bring a mesmer? Why wouldn’t well of suffering be sufficient? The aoe chill and poison and aoe fear control to neutralize points and interrupt stomps/heals is part of what makes the necromancer stand out compared to classes that ACTUALLY do damage (and don’t kid yourself that your power build will ever hold a candle to a mesmer or thief or warrior or d/d ele, because it doesn’t).