Guild Wars 2

In comparing all weapons necros can use, the axe, the weapon they start with. The weapon which probably has some of the coolest animations in comparison is garbage to all other skill sets. Why is this?
I was up to take the challenge to find out why and then I discovered there’s a reason why the axe, even traited is still lacking compared to all other weapons. Here are some ideas which could bring the axe back into more necros hands.

-It’s basic attack needs to be in a small cone, attacking one enemy at a time with nothing more then flat damage is a waste of a necros time.
- It’s 2 attack needs to follow the small cone as well, rending claws animation looks as if it would attack multiple foes yet it doesn’t.

Now before I go on further you could also further fix this another way.
Change the condition from vulnerability to bleed, it is “claw scratching” after all, add this condition also to the 2 skill.

The 3 skill as it is right now is okay, it doesn’t really share the same school of thought however. 2 single target skills then suddenly a large AoE cripple that grants retaliation. Who thought that up.
I think this skill needs to be changed only a little, one would be to add either life force or straight life steal if they had a certain number of conditions stacked, like for instance 10 stacks of vulnerability or bleed.
As it is right now though the 3 skill doesn’t really need much help as compared to the other 2 which need to be rushed to the ER

With these changes, whichever you make. It would make the axe, the weapon which gets forgotten on necros sudddenly a more viable, useable choice.

Axe is used to stack vulnerability hence the low AA dmg. 2 is for burst 3 is for fighting melee classes. AXe is only meant to stack Vulnerability. I do aggre that it is weak, But if you know what your doing. get 10 stacks of vuln. switch to other weapons, burst down while using Vulnerability stacks.

I don’t know about having it hit multiple foes, the damage would probably need to come down even more for balance (I think it would be awesome none the less), but definitely don’t take away the vulnerability. We have the scepter for bleeding damage, we don’t need the axe for that as well. Vulnerability is a great condition for events/dungeons and paired with a focus / vulnerability well, the axe can keep up a decent level of vulnerability on a foe. I just wish that the 2 Skill applied vulnerability as well, even just a couple stacks, so that you don’t lose a whole bunch of stacks when you stop and channel it. Though, that might take out some of the strategy.

The axe needs to hit faster and stronger. Simple fix. It used to, and then they nerfed it too hard.

Tony.2150:

Axe is used to stack vulnerability hence the low AA dmg. 2 is for burst 3 is for fighting melee classes. AXe is only meant to stack Vulnerability. I do aggre that it is weak, But if you know what your doing. get 10 stacks of vuln. switch to other weapons, burst down while using Vulnerability stacks.

The thing is, it’s the only necro weapon which has direct damage instead of condition damage. And it’s still pretty bad. This forces necros to go for condition damage if they want to do something.

It’s not the only DD weapon; it is the only one with any range.

I think a good fix is to have life force on the 3rd chain hit like the dagger does. Combined with #2, and the might-life blast trait, this would make it a great synergy weapon with Death Shroud, giving a good power based necro spec. Then the low damage would be offset by the increased DS uptime, and you wouldn’t be losing DPS in DS because you’re not relying on conditions.

Two things reallykitten me off with the Axe.

The number 1 skill is slow and weak. The speed is totally unfun and dumb and it was fine in Beta and it needs to go back to where it was. Also being stuck doing ridiculous damage so that you can have a burst skill with 10% more damage is such a bad idea I get mad just thinking about howkitten that dev decision was.

Moreover, the number 3 skill doesn’t make sense… at all… Why would you cripple people and get Retaliation… it means half the people, the melees are gonna be too slow to attack you thus won’t get hit by Retaliation and if they are ranged, well chances are you won’t get retaliation from a lot of em with the weak range of the skill and cripple won’t change a godkittenthing. So it turns out to be a weak cripple against melees and a weak retaliation agaisnt ranged…
Also it’s just a terrible damage and only good to get yourself attacked by neutral mobs when fighting stuff.

Most importantly tough the Axe is by far the most boring weapon the Necro has by a huge margin except maybe compared to the dumb Warhorn.

Axe/Dagger actually works wonders with current DS heavy builds. Is it a signet stacked WW warrior….no….is it viable….very very much so.

1 does need to be scaled up to be on par with the raw DPS of other 1h weapon choices. Outside of that am fine with the behavior and speed.

2 I don’t care if the dmg isn’t buffed, but it would be nice if the damage was more steady rather than a ramp up. It’s too easy to detect, lacks the oomph of other classes similar moves, and easy to time an interrupt off it. The two factors combined are what make it feel underwhelming.

3 The retaliation is meh the cripple is fine. I’d prefer they drop the boon, and simply raise the AOE dmg, or add Life Force gain to it as it would assist with Orr farming events.

I think the 3 Skill “Unholy Feast” definitely needs some more flavour, but it also should be a Blast Combo Finisher. I mean it looks exactly like one.

Truth is with an axe and a focus you can easily stack 12 vulnerability on the target, but axe damage needs some boosting..

Also I would LOVE to see the auto attack or the 2nd attack using a cone, it would just make it so much more useful and not overpowered

The 2 Skill has such an awesome character animation (the axe spinning) but the animation for hitting the enemy is almost the exact same as the 1 Skill. I think that while your axe is spinning, a much larger, spectral axe of sorts would appear at your target and spin simultaneously with your own axe. I think this would be very cool, and would allow for it to hit multiple enemies – which I think is the boost it needs.

the axe has great synergy with death shroud builds, which focus on raw power. In all honesty it doesn’t need a bleed. As it is the necromancer relies way too heavily on conditions.

While I find that the axe is very weak in terms of pure damage output, it is an amazing kiting weapon.

For example I use an axe+dagger/staff. Depending on the situation I use well of suffering, and… what ever the blinding well is, along with the line that gives protection – or I use the minion that blinds, and the minion that snares.

I can quite easily kite and solo kill mobs of 5 or more at the same time, or a veteran/champion even with a few adds (as long as there are no long ranged enemies). It basically consists of running in, using daggers #4 to aoe blind, axe #3 to snare and running around using 1, 2 and 5 with the axe+dagger until you can do the blind or snare again. Then switch to the staff, use #3 for the snare, some of the others for damage and occasionally #5 for the fear.

If everything is somehow on cooldown, you have a pet who can snare until your cripples are off CD, a pet who can blind to bind you a few seconds, and a well that blinds all enemies in an area for multiple seconds. Top it all off with popping in and out of death shroud when things are on cooldown, and whenever #4 DS comes off cooldown for the aoe damage, increased health and a short fear, AND Plague elite (haven’t unlocked lich form yet) you can dish out some serious aoe while not taking a ton of damage.

So yes, our pure damage output is pathetic, and our condition damage is weak compared to everything else, but we can kite like a sonofa…

I think the largest overlooked thing about axe is what vulnerability was in beta to what it was changed to.

-In beta vulnerability was flat armor reduction, meaning at 25 stacks you steamrolled almost every thing with a small army champion monster or not.
-When it was changed to % incoming damage suddenly the axe on necro fell flat. You can hold about 8 stacks of vulnerability on average, thats 8 percent incoming damage from an axe on a necro. That’s laughable. You barely see any increase at all, with the flat damage reduction it was undeniable though.

Still, a small AoE cone auto attack would being a blessing, It’s depressing switching from axe to staff because I have to crowd control the stragglers. Other professions that can use the axe allow it to hit multiple targets, yet necros are the odd one out.

no matter what, you have to admit it sounds awesome and looks awesome, too. it’s by far my favourite attack in the game. well. other than the big ol’ warrior’s hammer.

Link.4039:

I think the 3 Skill “Unholy Feast” definitely needs some more flavour, but it also should be a Blast Combo Finisher. I mean it looks exactly like one.

That’s actually a really good idea I think. Necro is sorely lacking in terms of combo finishers. I’d say they could use a couple more combo fields as well, especially in their regular weapon setups.

The axe does need some work. It seems to be built around stacking vulnerability on foes to take advantage of with Ghastly Claws. The problem is that Rending Claws is far to slow to stack enough vulnerability to make much of a difference, and Ghastly doesn’t do enough damage for a burst attack skill.

It’s really bad when you consider that any ranger with a longbow and opening strike can apply 15 stacks of vulnerability with two attacks then proceed to use a burst skill with almost half again the damage of our axe’s. And this is all from twice the range of our axe too.

Personally I would up the attack speed of Rending Claws to that of the dagger, this would both help the basic DPS of the axe as well as it’s ability to stack vulnerability. I’d also up the damage of Ghastly Claws to about what the ranger’s rapid fire hits for so we have a strong burst attack to actually take advantage of the vulnerability we’re throwing around. As far as Unholy Feast is concerned, it’s not bad, but it could use more damage, and both functionally and thematically I’d prefer they replace the retaliation with life force or health gain per foe struck.