Guild Wars 2

Zenith.7301:

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Everything about unholy feast and the focus skill spinal shivers is bad for PvE and great for PvP. This isn’t so much a fault of the weapon as PvE encounters not being designed properly (lack of enemies using boons, no need to cripple enemies, ect). Retaliation is in the same boat. It’s a great boon, PvE just needs to keep up.

Adjust the damage scaling coefficient, blast finisher on 3. Axe fixed.

striker.3704:

Zenith.7301:

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Everything about unholy feast and the focus skill spinal shivers is bad for PvE and great for PvP. This isn’t so much a fault of the weapon as PvE encounters not being designed properly (lack of enemies using boons, no need to cripple enemies, ect). Retaliation is in the same boat. It’s a great boon, PvE just needs to keep up.

There are mobs that apply boons. The dredge. Porblem being they apply 3-4 boons in a 4-5 second interval so any boon strip is pointless as they come immediately back up.

And it also doesn’t make a difference with the damage output of elementalist/warrior/thief, things melt with protection or without.

Retaliation could use a 600% damage increase while in PvE, and outside WvW so it doesn’t get broken there. A 400 tick per 2-3 second interval autoattack is miserable on mobs that have 30-40k hp.

Personally I still think retaliation should be a % damage reflection, 20-25% damage reflected or so. That way it becomes useful against single heavy hitters like thieves or slow attacking enemies like guardians and not totally broken against rangers/mesmers with multi hit autoattacks or its multiple procs on barrage, which means the ranger takes far more damage back than his wimpy Barrage does.

Zenith.7301:

striker.3704:

Zenith.7301:

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Everything about unholy feast and the focus skill spinal shivers is bad for PvE and great for PvP. This isn’t so much a fault of the weapon as PvE encounters not being designed properly (lack of enemies using boons, no need to cripple enemies, ect). Retaliation is in the same boat. It’s a great boon, PvE just needs to keep up.

There are mobs that apply boons. The dredge. Porblem being they apply 3-4 boons in a 4-5 second interval so any boon strip is pointless as they come immediately back up.

And it also doesn’t make a difference with the damage output of elementalist/warrior/thief, things melt with protection or without.

Retaliation could use a 600% damage increase while in PvE, and outside WvW so it doesn’t get broken there. A 400 tick per 2-3 second interval autoattack is miserable on mobs that have 30-40k hp.

Personally I still think retaliation should be a % damage reflection, 20-25% damage reflected or so. That way it becomes useful against single heavy hitters like thieves or slow attacking enemies like guardians and not totally broken against rangers/mesmers with multi hit autoattacks or its multiple procs on barrage, which means the ranger takes far more damage back than his wimpy Barrage does.

+1 to alp of this

Zenith.7301:

A little damage boost? Axe autoattack needs at least 900 range and close to a 50% damage increase.

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Axe AA needs to be lower DPS than Dagger though. Even if it doesn’t cleave , on 900 range there should be a DPS difference. However, the burst skill on Axe (#2) needs to be a lot harder hitting instead.

Shiki.7148:

Zenith.7301:

A little damage boost? Axe autoattack needs at least 900 range and close to a 50% damage increase.

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Axe AA needs to be lower DPS than Dagger though. Even if it doesn’t cleave , on 900 range there should be a DPS difference. However, the burst skill on Axe (#2) needs to be a lot harder hitting instead.

I’m pretty sure even with a 50% dps boost axe auto would still be behind dagger auto.

nekretaal.6485:

Adjust the damage scaling coefficient, blast finisher on 3. Axe fixed.

…apart from the hideous animation…

zapv.8051:

Shiki.7148:

Zenith.7301:

A little damage boost? Axe autoattack needs at least 900 range and close to a 50% damage increase.

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Axe AA needs to be lower DPS than Dagger though. Even if it doesn’t cleave , on 900 range there should be a DPS difference. However, the burst skill on Axe (#2) needs to be a lot harder hitting instead.

I’m pretty sure even with a 50% dps boost axe auto would still be behind dagger auto.

It’s a ranged weapon, it’s to be expected.

The point is to bring it in line with other ranged weapons, not melee weapons. The baseline should be Long Range Shot/Fireball for ranged weapon damage autoattacks.

Anet just sucks at balancing autoattacks for classes, and classes like ranger/necro/mesmer suffer for it.

Zenith.7301:

zapv.8051:

Shiki.7148:

Zenith.7301:

A little damage boost? Axe autoattack needs at least 900 range and close to a 50% damage increase.

Also remove retal from it, retal is useless as a boon, especially in PvE. Give it something useful like vigor or fury per opponent hit.

Axe AA needs to be lower DPS than Dagger though. Even if it doesn’t cleave , on 900 range there should be a DPS difference. However, the burst skill on Axe (#2) needs to be a lot harder hitting instead.

I’m pretty sure even with a 50% dps boost axe auto would still be behind dagger auto.

It’s a ranged weapon, it’s to be expected.

The point is to bring it in line with other ranged weapons, not melee weapons. The baseline should be Long Range Shot/Fireball for ranged weapon damage autoattacks.

Anet just sucks at balancing autoattacks for classes, and classes like ranger/necro/mesmer suffer for it.

Increasing damage with 50% would actually make it a bit stronger (16,6666%) then long range shot at max range which I would considering long range shot has a bigger range. Also necro dagger is 80% stronger in terms of damage then axe at the moment so 50% increase would make dagger still 20% stronger.

We’re pushing 16k views on how much the axe is bad. I think Arena net gets it. I think they’re working on it now. But just in case, keep posting.

Edit: Doh! I must have been tired. I put responses instead of views.

Lily.1935:

We’re pushing 16k responses on how much the axe is bad. I think Arena net gets it. I think they’re working on it now. But just in case, keep posting.

Keep dreaming. We’ve been pushing them on how bad axe auto and staff auto are for over 3 years. Guess what’s changed.

I mean, staff is a condition weapon with 4 conditions related skills, with a slow and weak power based autoattack attached to it.

Scepter is a condition weapon with a #3 skill that scales off of power.

Necro and ranger suck for a reason, and it’s the amount of crappy hybrid weapons they have with low autoattack damage to boot. Hybrid weapons will never work in this system, half of their component doesn’t benefit from the full stat investment coming from armor and traits.

Zenith.7301:

Lily.1935:

We’re pushing 16k responses on how much the axe is bad. I think Arena net gets it. I think they’re working on it now. But just in case, keep posting.

Keep dreaming. We’ve been pushing them on how bad axe auto and staff auto are for over 3 years. Guess what’s changed.

I mean, staff is a condition weapon with 4 conditions related skills, with a slow and weak power based autoattack attached to it.

Scepter is a condition weapon with a #3 skill that scales off of power.

Necro and ranger suck for a reason, and it’s the amount of crappy hybrid weapons they have with low autoattack damage to boot. Hybrid weapons will never work in this system, half of their component doesn’t benefit from the full stat investment coming from armor and traits.

well staff got a bit of an upgrade still not perfect but I can live with it but axe need some love is too bad atm no 1 uses it

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

Lily.1935:

We’re pushing 16k responses on how much the axe is bad. I think Arena net gets it. I think they’re working on it now. But just in case, keep posting.

Keep dreaming. We’ve been pushing them on how bad axe auto and staff auto are for over 3 years. Guess what’s changed.

I mean, staff is a condition weapon with 4 conditions related skills, with a slow and weak power based autoattack attached to it.

Scepter is a condition weapon with a #3 skill that scales off of power.

Necro and ranger suck for a reason, and it’s the amount of crappy hybrid weapons they have with low autoattack damage to boot. Hybrid weapons will never work in this system, half of their component doesn’t benefit from the full stat investment coming from armor and traits.

well staff got a bit of an upgrade still not perfect but I can live with it but axe need some love is too bad atm no 1 uses it

They should let the necro PvP npc use it for some relief.

Sagat.3285:

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

Lily.1935:

We’re pushing 16k responses on how much the axe is bad. I think Arena net gets it. I think they’re working on it now. But just in case, keep posting.

Keep dreaming. We’ve been pushing them on how bad axe auto and staff auto are for over 3 years. Guess what’s changed.

I mean, staff is a condition weapon with 4 conditions related skills, with a slow and weak power based autoattack attached to it.

Scepter is a condition weapon with a #3 skill that scales off of power.

Necro and ranger suck for a reason, and it’s the amount of crappy hybrid weapons they have with low autoattack damage to boot. Hybrid weapons will never work in this system, half of their component doesn’t benefit from the full stat investment coming from armor and traits.

well staff got a bit of an upgrade still not perfect but I can live with it but axe need some love is too bad atm no 1 uses it

They should let the necro PvP npc use it for some relief.

Speaking of PvP NPC, gimme dose blocks pls.

(I know it’s connected to dodge but they can do it while Immobilized.)

Axe need a rework desperately is the worst weapon in the game

long swing time, lackluster damage, broken minions..just take dagger.

hm axe could use a 20% damage buff and 1 apply cripple and torment no vulne
axe 2 wirl finisher

Brokensunday.4098:

hm axe could use a 20% damage buff and 1 apply cripple and torment no vulne
axe 2 wirl finisher

We don’t need a THIRD ranged condition damage weapon.

striker.3704:

Brokensunday.4098:

hm axe could use a 20% damage buff and 1 apply cripple and torment no vulne
axe 2 wirl finisher

We don’t need a THIRD ranged condition damage weapon.

This will make axe work with reapper and good for brusting at range
axe need to be 900 gives cripple and tormet on 1 like 2 sec that way we can keep people close or punish them for runing away so axe would be more like a hybrid more than a condi wep

Torment doesn’t make axe better in any way at anything it needs to be better at, nor does it help condi builds in any way.

No more hybrid weapons please.

You don’t punish anyone by applying Torment on a weapon used mainly by power builds. Torment and blleding tickle without any significant condition damage investment, so it hardly punishes them.

+1

Glad I’m not the only one who absolutely detests the new axe autoattack animation. I acknowledge WHY you guys at Anet had to change it – but did you really NEED to change the animation? To the guy/s who pushed the change, you’ve made your point – I appreciate it. Kudos, nice work. Now it’s time to listen to your customers.

I very seldom play my necros (yea, plural I’ve got 2 necros – that’s how much I enjoyed the axe animations), and, when I do, I use them only for dailies or semi-RP (I use my ele/mes for everything else). I didn’t notice the change until today when I finally had enough gold to buy a Dreamthistle axe off the TP – again, I don’t even play necro that much but I bought the axe because of the animations, not the damage or range (because we all know axe sucks in those categories).

So please, for the love of all that is holy, bring back the old animation!

To all necro players, don’t you ever let this thread die without seeing justice.

Axe auto still unfixed :p

My 2 cents, although others have some great ideas in this thread, and for some reason it, like a zombie, doesn’t want to die (BRAINS).

Axe 1: make it either 900 range and increase it’s damage by 20% or keep the range and increase the damage by 50% (keep the vuln).

Axe 2: is currently not bad, but I would not complain with a small boost to damage.

Axe 3: (PvE) Replace the retal for vigor (2s) duration per enemy hit up to 5. Also adding a blast finisher (replace the cripple if need be) might make me want to use the weapon over a dagger.

I will add that I would like it if the retal was calculated differently as was suggested. As it is now the PvE critters attack to slowly. Even in WvW it is not worth taking the weapon over dagger, even when against a rapid fire long bow ranger when you can get it to proc that is.

For those, who will never forget and never forgive:

The Good ==> The Ugly

Good Asura ==> Ugly Asura
Good Charr ==> Ugly Charr
Good Norn ==> Ugly Norn
Good Males ==> Ugly Males
Good Females ==> Ugly Females

AllNightPlayer.1286:

For those, who will never forget and never forgive:

The Good ==> The Ugly

Good Asura ==> Ugly Asura
Good Charr ==> Ugly Charr
Good Norn ==> Ugly Norn
Good Males ==> Ugly Males
Good Females ==> Ugly Females

I don’t get it. Why would they ruin such good animations on such a poor skill?

AllNightPlayer.1286:

For those, who will never forget and never forgive:

The Good ==> The Ugly

Good Asura ==> Ugly Asura
Good Charr ==> Ugly Charr
Good Norn ==> Ugly Norn
Good Males ==> Ugly Males
Good Females ==> Ugly Females

god at least the male anims all still know how to weapon. look at that human female one (sylvari is the same skeleton)
how does i axe

What the f**k?
Just played Living Story, “Gates of Maguuma”, after a long time. Marjory — still using her Axe/Dagger build in this one — uses the “old” axe animation. Why is she allowed to use it? Because she cannot/will not exploit it? If she still can use the animation, why not for us, too?

Wow, the human female animation is so much uglier than the other ones. The other ones aren’t very nice either, but kitten …

I really have an axe to grind with whoever axed the animation on Axe 1.

P.S. it’s 1 am, im sick, and this felt so right and so wrong at the same time.

I think they should just scrap it being ranged, and turn it into a melee weapon.

Scepter can be the ranged weapon. Because of how condi damage scales now, it can be either a power or condi weapon, depending on how they tweak the numbers.

Kain Francois.4328:

I think they should just scrap it being ranged, and turn it into a melee weapon.

Scepter can be the ranged weapon. Because of how condi damage scales now, it can be either a power or condi weapon, depending on how they tweak the numbers.

That is one of the worst ideas i’ve seen. So necro would either be ranged condi or normal melee? That would destroy the variaty of playstyles way too much.

Tho I agree with the other posts that axe 1 needs a damage buff. I mean yes it is ranged and its supposed to be a bit weaker than dagger, but try to remember that dagger can hit up to 2 targets and axt only 1. Also axe is way slower than dagger.

The only thing I prefer at axe are the 2 and 3 skills. Dagger is almost autoattack only for me with axe I use most of them.

>

That is one of the worst ideas i’ve seen. So necro would either be ranged condi or normal melee? That would destroy the variaty of playstyles way too much.

No. You can be ranged Power if you use Berserker gear. You can use Condi if you use Sinister gear.

Because of how condition damage now works, you get very little bleeding damage if you do not specifically spec into condition damage.

This essentially means that they can safely buff the base damage and power coefficient of weapons like Scepter, since they wont be doing much condition damage in the first place, if you aren’t geared for it.

Under the current formulas, to still have Axe and Scepter as separate “ranged” weapons, would be meaningless, unless they bring some unique niche to the table. But at the moment, Axe is just a ranged power weapon, and Scepter is just a ranged power weapon. There is no reason under the new system to be separate.

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

That’s why they should rework it into a burst-y weapon.

As it stands, Daggers are our defensive weapon.

Kain Francois.4328:

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

That’s why they should rework it into a burst-y weapon.

As it stands, Daggers are our defensive weapon.

Life Siphon is no reason to call dagger defensive it is dps,GS is supposed to be melee burst and staff is no power weapon so axe needs to become/stay ranged.

Sagat.3285:

Kain Francois.4328:

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

That’s why they should rework it into a burst-y weapon.

As it stands, Daggers are our defensive weapon.

Life Siphon is no reason to call dagger defensive it is dps,GS is supposed to be melee burst and staff is no power weapon so axe needs to become/stay ranged.

An advantage would be that Axe doesn’t use projectiles. Which would be nice for a power build, because our other weapon set (D/X or GS) would be melee. Which means we have to charge in and hope for the best. So being able to cut past any reflects would be very nice so that we don’t always meet our opponent when they’re at full health. Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

Vydahr.4285:

Sagat.3285:

Kain Francois.4328:

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

That’s why they should rework it into a burst-y weapon.

As it stands, Daggers are our defensive weapon.

Life Siphon is no reason to call dagger defensive it is dps,GS is supposed to be melee burst and staff is no power weapon so axe needs to become/stay ranged.

An advantage would be that Axe doesn’t use projectiles. Which would be nice for a power build, because our other weapon set (D/X or GS) would be melee. Which means we have to charge in and hope for the best. So being able to cut past any reflects would be very nice so that we don’t always meet our opponent when they’re at full health. Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

It cuts both ways. It has no projectile but it is also not a projectile finisher and it cannot be traited to bounce/pierce multiple targets.

For that reason an autoattack that is stuck hitting a single target should be considerably stronger than an ele’s fireball that hits 3+ targets.

Axe #2 needs the rapid fire treatment. Also, scepter and axe need to give life force on autoattack.

Zenith.7301:

Vydahr.4285:

Sagat.3285:

Kain Francois.4328:

axe would be pretty much identical to dagger, then. chain melee on #1, long channel #2… just the #3s different

That’s why they should rework it into a burst-y weapon.

As it stands, Daggers are our defensive weapon.

Life Siphon is no reason to call dagger defensive it is dps,GS is supposed to be melee burst and staff is no power weapon so axe needs to become/stay ranged.

An advantage would be that Axe doesn’t use projectiles. Which would be nice for a power build, because our other weapon set (D/X or GS) would be melee. Which means we have to charge in and hope for the best. So being able to cut past any reflects would be very nice so that we don’t always meet our opponent when they’re at full health. Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

It cuts both ways. It has no projectile but it is also not a projectile finisher and it cannot be traited to bounce/pierce multiple targets.

For that reason an autoattack that is stuck hitting a single target should be considerably stronger than an ele’s fireball that hits 3+ targets.

Axe #2 needs the rapid fire treatment. Also, scepter and axe need to give life force on autoattack.

It should absolutely be comparable in strength to a fireball, I agree

Tracking improvements on Axe 2 would be nice as well.

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Vydahr.4285:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Axe is better on a power spec. Scepter is better on a condi spec.

Axe is super terrible. Scepter is just mediocre relative to other classes’ condi weapons.

Either way, all weapons besides the reaper greatsword need buffing/retooling.

Zenith.7301:

Vydahr.4285:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Axe is better on a power spec. Scepter is better on a condi spec.

Axe is super terrible. Scepter is just mediocre relative to other classes’ condi weapons.

Either way, all weapons besides the reaper greatsword need buffing/retooling.

try using scepter on apower spec you will find that it deals more dmaage + condi than axe

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

Vydahr.4285:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Axe is better on a power spec. Scepter is better on a condi spec.

Axe is super terrible. Scepter is just mediocre relative to other classes’ condi weapons.

Either way, all weapons besides the reaper greatsword need buffing/retooling.

try using scepter on apower spec you will find that it deals more dmaage + condi than axe

No, you don’t. Check the coefficients in the wiki. Scepter has o.350/0.5 on all its skills except for feast of corruption, which has a 1.0 coefficient. All of them lower than those on the axe, as well as the base damage numbers.

It’s not a glowing endorsement on axe, but using scepter on a power build is a terrible idea.

Zenith.7301:

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

Vydahr.4285:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Axe is better on a power spec. Scepter is better on a condi spec.

Axe is super terrible. Scepter is just mediocre relative to other classes’ condi weapons.

Either way, all weapons besides the reaper greatsword need buffing/retooling.

try using scepter on apower spec you will find that it deals more dmaage + condi than axe

No, you don’t. Check the coefficients in the wiki. Scepter has o.350/0.5 on all its skills except for feast of corruption, which has a 1.0 coefficient. All of them lower than those on the axe, as well as the base damage numbers.

It’s not a glowing endorsement on axe, but using scepter on a power build is a terrible idea.

It’s much closer than you think, scepter auto delivers more coefficient per second. Also, ghastly claws is super easy to avoid and it is probably easier to land feast of corruption which also has a multiplier on it. Unholy feast is better than grasping dead in power builds by a fair margin and axe has more lf gen if you can land ghastly claws. In terms of strictly dps though, it is pretty close.

Zenith.7301:

Brokensunday.4098:

Zenith.7301:

Vydahr.4285:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Vydahr.4285:

Also, another thing separating axe and scepter is that it takes time for a scepter attack to hit. Axe just hits, regardless of distance

What Scepter are you talking about? Necro scepter has no projectiles or travel time on any of its skills.

… I…. Apparently it’s been a reeeeeally long time since I used scepter. So, basically, then, axe is just so bad at its job that a condi weapon is better at it

Axe is better on a power spec. Scepter is better on a condi spec.

Axe is super terrible. Scepter is just mediocre relative to other classes’ condi weapons.

Either way, all weapons besides the reaper greatsword need buffing/retooling.

try using scepter on apower spec you will find that it deals more dmaage + condi than axe

No, you don’t. Check the coefficients in the wiki. Scepter has o.350/0.5 on all its skills except for feast of corruption, which has a 1.0 coefficient. All of them lower than those on the axe, as well as the base damage numbers.

It’s not a glowing endorsement on axe, but using scepter on a power build is a terrible idea.

Only conditions have base damage, power damage does not as its a function of variables.

Sceptar actually does much better than you would think in a power build instead of axe which is a problem and goes to show how bad axe actually is at doing its job.

Personally I use axe/dagger and staff and have some success with it, but I agree with all of you: the axe autoattack needs a HUGE buff, and/or should cleave, otherwise it needs to be totally reworked, again. And, the axe 2 skill should track better or channel faster (or do more damage, take your pick).

The only reason I use the axe is because I really like the #3 skill, and it’s useful for gaining a decent amount of life force in a relatively short time by using the 2 skill on downed opponents, or stunned/immobilized opponents. But then again, I run a hybrid build with cele ammy, so that is basically the one niche that it performs marginally well at. And scepter would probably work just as well, if not better, so maybe I’ll switch back to it until axe gets fixed.

Furthermore, the only reason I have (some) success with axe is by sticking to the following rule: I NEVER use the autoattack, literally never, unless every other skill I have is on CD, along with DS and weapon swap, AND I’m out of dodges—because the axe AA is straight garbage. So please ANet, fix our axe! Even if it’s only the autoattack that gets buffed, SOMETHING needs to be done. I mean, even the engi pistol autoattack is a lot better than necro axe, and that says a lot.

What did this old animation that people are talking about look like?

For me i just tried axe in pvp. Was fun. Axe2 can bug out at times and not hit a enemy if they too close. Bug fix can solve that.

i want better defense from the skills. Skill 3 gets some kind of defensive element that is stronger, would be real nice.