Guild Wars 2

As a Axe/dagger + Axe/Focus oriented build, why cant Axe auto attack hit without a target? Dealing with thieves is ridiculously hard when they stealth…I cant even open windows in Clock Tower in spvp (though I can Unholy Feast them for Ret…but still). Am I forced to use Staff or dagger as another main, when I dont really want to because Im particularly fond of the control/debuffs attached to the axe and only want to swap offhands during a fight.

Scepter can’t hit the windows either.

Kravick.4906:

Scepter can’t hit the windows either.

It was a pathetic moment when I found out…I was attempting to escape and just ended up walking into the window

Small price to pay for the scepter and axe auto at not being a projectile. It allows us to hit enemies through the variety of projectile reflections and or absorption moves throughout the game. All the axe really needs IMO is a little more damage or utility on the auto atk via more vuln stacks for a longer duration/quicker atk rate. All axe skills could use a range increase to 900 to compensate for the low damage.

As Gaffles said, that happens because the axe (and scepter) attacks are not projectiles but, instead, targeted instant attacks.

The downside is, as you mentioned, the inability to deal with untargetable enemies (such as windows and Stealth Thieves). The advantage is that they can’t be “juked” (have to be rolled) nor can they be reflected.

Apollo.7583:

It was a pathetic moment when I found out…I was attempting to escape and just ended up walking into the window

They should be able to hit windows, but for the meantime use Axe 3 or Staff 1.

When we are talking about auto attack on axe anyway I would like to hear a developers opinion about the state of it and if there is anything in the plans for the future. I would love to play a power axe build in tpvp but unfortunately it is not viable because of the auto attack being mediocre at best as a sustained dps attack. The axe works well as a “switch-to” weapon for the aoe crip and retal + ghastly claws burst but that is about it.