Guild Wars 2

This weapon is absolutely horrendous and the necro has no way to deal with a long range threat. There have been a few hundred threads about this in the necro forum but it’s never gotten any kind of feedback. Can we just please get acknowledgement that there’s … anyone that cares

We got a new animation just like with Wetfire.

I’d like Axe to be our support weapon.

Now it has no strong theme or design. It needs one.

I feel axe is starting to lean more to the side of boonstrip/corruption. But as others have said we currently have no ranged power weapon other than DS. So, here are a couple ideas.

Increase axe range to 900 except for the third skill.

Axe skill 1, does the same damage it does now, only it applies vulberability 2 only if you rip a boon from the enemy.

Axe 2, steals 1 boon per strike and gives it to you. Each boon taken gives you life force. Say….4%? 2% per strike if no boons?

Axe skill 3 is fine I think as it is, jut wish it gave a biting lifebforce, but eh, aoe corruption works as well.

Sry guys this was in general but got moved instantly. Can close it since it’s in the graveyard now

TheLastNobody.8319:

I feel axe is starting to lean more to the side of boonstrip/corruption. But as others have said we currently have no ranged power weapon other than DS. So, here are a couple ideas.

Increase axe range to 900 except for the third skill.

Axe skill 1, does the same damage it does now, only it applies vulberability 2 only if you rip a boon from the enemy.

Axe 2, steals 1 boon per strike and gives it to you. Each boon taken gives you life force. Say….4%? 2% per strike if no boons?

Axe skill 3 is fine I think as it is, jut wish it gave a biting lifebforce, but eh, aoe corruption works as well.

It’s more like they don’t know what to do with it to me it look like a MH bad copy of staff utility wise.

When the reaper hits and we have no Death Shroud and no ranged power weapon better than scepter, the class is going to be a complete sitting duck to everybody with a ranged weapon and speed boost.

Maybe axe being awful isn’t so bad now, with life blast on every necromancer, but reapers are really going to miss not having a viable skirmishing weapon.

nekretaal.6485:

When the reaper hits and we have no Death Shroud and no ranged power weapon better than scepter, the class is going to be a complete sitting duck to everybody with a ranged weapon and speed boost.

Maybe axe being awful isn’t so bad now, with life blast on every necromancer, but reapers are really going to miss not having a viable skirmishing weapon.

They will just settle down for staff.

If axe 1 was given a cone cleave 3-4 targets, axe 2 a syphon health component, then I think axe would be worth something. In addition I think vulnerability is crud as we have to spam 1 over and over to stack any vuln. Seriously this is the shortbus of weapons, we really need this buffed so I can ditch staff. I hate staff because it’s so slow and weak, and we are forced to run it. If axe was buffed it would be nice in combo with reaper as well.

Still in awe that the axe mastery trait was nerfed. Just don’t get it.

I’d like to see axe become a real ranged power option.

Buff up the damage up number 1 & 2 considerably then make then 900 range.
(if this means axe 1 cant stack vuln any more then who cares, not like it was good at it anyway)

So many problems with the axe would be solved.

As for the axe trait, a simple change that would work wonder would be to make axe skills cleave targets nearby your primary target for a % of the damage.

nekretaal.6485:

When the reaper hits and we have no Death Shroud and no ranged power weapon better than scepter, the class is going to be a complete sitting duck to everybody with a ranged weapon and speed boost.

Maybe axe being awful isn’t so bad now, with life blast on every necromancer, but reapers are really going to miss not having a viable skirmishing weapon.

This is what I’ve been preaching. I sound like a broken record with my constant axe threads on both accounts but I just can’t take it anymord

While Axe 1 is definitely completely and utterly bad, Axe 2 doesn’t need much of a buff, I have had it hit for 15k on another player. What it does need is either increased range or a secondary effect on top of the current Life Force generation.

Now Axe 3, this skill has one use for me. I use it like a radar to locate Thieves and Mesmers in stealth. That’s all its good for. And as much as I do like my thief-radar, I would see it turned into a sorta cone shaped targeted AoE like GS3 on Warr. And on use it does its current effect in a reasonably tight cone with a much more powerful effect. The idea I like the most is if it would do its current effect inside the cone shaped AoE multiple times in a rapid pulsing way before wearing off, like a fast and small mini-Well of sorts.

+1, at bare minimum it needs a range increase…in WvW half the time I am only swapping off staff is to use my focus cuz axe range is terrible for a ranged weapon. It needs better aoe cleave for 600 range otherwise. And of course the auto is straight cheeks…at least it looked cool before.

I would also love to see axe buffed. I don’t usually run powermancer but when I do I use scepter in place of axe, lol. And as we all know it’s not a good power weapon, but I find Feast Of Corruption to be a nice burst skill + poison on AA is nice and it has good range. It doesn’t hit very hard but it’s (IMO) still better than axe.

+1, though i don’t expect a buff considering how many posts have asked for some serious help for axe. We got a tiny buff with #3 but axe trait got nerfed with the new unholy fervor making it require vuln to get 10% damage. It also only effects axe skills now(no longer boosting ds damage), such a terrible and unnecessary move imo. Let’s not forget they destroyed axe auto animation even with tons of necro QQ about how bad it looks they didn’t bother to revert the animation.

I’ll still +1 but it just feels so futile and pointless ;/

Yeah, Currently it’s just meh at best. Our only option for power builds above 600 range is staff and that’s mostly utility/slow dps.

Axe needs love anet please :c

ive killed the anomaly with staff before bit it did take a bit of time. I used to play axe a lot because it’s cool and at first I thought axe 2 did good damage, until I understood DPS.

So how much better is scepter as a ranged power weapon?

saxmachine.6024:

So how much better is scepter as a ranged power weapon?

It’s not better, I just like it better. It’s slightly faster, has poison on AA so it’s nice for debuffing, has a fast-cast lowcooldown bursty skill (Feast Of Corruption), better range, Grasping Dead can crit some nice numbers as well surprisingly and of course it’s good for kiting (lengthy cripple).

I use scepter/warhorn and dagger/focus when I’m running powermancer. Life Force generation on both sets and after I’ve applied at least 4 conditions with my dagger/focus I swap to scepter/warhorn with Intelligence sigil and use Feast Of Corruption which can land anywhere between 2 and 10k crits depending on might stacks, vulnerability, etc. Either way, shortcool down and fast-cast make it pretty low risk to use.

TheLastNobody.8319:

Axe 2, steals 1 boon per strike and gives it to you. Each boon taken gives you life force. Say….4%? 2% per strike if no boons?

That would be increadibly borken.

A good start would to just increase the range to 900 (or even 1200) and see how it goes from there, damge would still be lacking imo but the range struggle for power builds would have been addressed

Lots of people aren’t happy with the axe as it currently is on the necromancer. Which is understandable. Many people want to increase its range to 900 or even as high as 1,200. I’m not in that camp to increase its range. I feel the axe should stay at 600 but it should make up for it in its utility and damage. Which it currently doesn’t.
So my proposal is why not make this our dedicated boon corruption weapon? Originally My idea was to give its auto attack a skill chain and I still stand by that. So a couple seemingly small but major changes here could make the axe a really cool and interesting weapon to run.
Skill 1: Make this a 3 attack chain with a half second cast time on each strike. First two strikes would cause vulnerability while the third strike would corrupt a boon. Also, increase is base damage slightly. The mesmer has a boon stripping weapon in the form of the sword and they can get clones to also strip boons for them so why not have a boon corruption auto on necromancer? Its still short range so why not?
Skill 2: Have this skill strike your target, generating Life force but at the same time strike foes at the base of the weapon where you’re spinning the axe. Change it into a whirl finisher.
Skill 3: Maybe slightly reduce its cast time.
I feel that with these changes we could make the axe an interesting and rewarding weapon to use. Any thoughts?

(Copied from my other post.)

nekretaal.6485:

When the reaper hits and we have no Death Shroud and no ranged power weapon better than scepter, the class is going to be a complete sitting duck to everybody with a ranged weapon and speed boost.

Maybe axe being awful isn’t so bad now, with life blast on every necromancer, but reapers are really going to miss not having a viable skirmishing weapon.

When Reaper comes out and is just nerfed as hard resulting in going back to standard Dagger/Warhorn + Staff you mean? XD

lets face it any specialization designed to do more Damage then any other class in the game is going to be Ruined i give Reaper one patch before we’ll say goodbye to it, great design i mean it looks like ALOT of fun but the QQ thats going to Outbreak across the Specialization will force Anet into a Swift nerf.

on the bright side, everyone will be trying the new Revenant so i guess not as many will see the effects of the nerfs that are income on us, people already QQ on our new sustain, let alone when we get 3 life bars and Even past that 8k Dmging auto attacks in Shroud when it comes (seen by dmg figures written on Wiki)

adding a third hit to axe 1 would probably be enough to compensate for its ludicrously low dps. 3 hits in 1sec with the .2 aftercast & with the extra vuln would make it a decent power weapon.

Hell, they could even put in the animation for the warrior axe chain stages 1 & 2. Pretty sure the cast times match up.

suggestion change for axe
purpose make it stack vulnerability very quickly, make each skill feel different

Axe#1 increase damage by 33% also animation needs work
Axe#2 decrease damage by 50% change to pbaoe 600y add whirl finisher
Axe#3 its good
there are 3 will provide a power boost to the axe

traits
unholy fervor just change the damage boost to any weapon
spiteful spirit in addition striking a foe apply vulnerability2 for 7sec
Decimate Defenses as is

all of this i feel would just be overpowered but something in this direction
side note making the axe not focus on damage and instead on support or boon removal those sound like good ideas too

axe need to be atleast 900 range
skill one should be faster
skill 2 is ok
skill 3 need to apply fear also
and buff damage 10% on axe
and axe 1 should be able to hit with no target like dagger

ugh please just fix the animation already ><

RIP Royal Ascalonian Axe

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_revenant_skills

Revenant sword 1 does more damage and stacks more vulnerability against 3 targets simultaneously and is significantly faster than Necro axe 1. Revenant sword 1 also has a 3 hit combo and does more dps per second than Necro axe 1. When comparing these two skills, Necro axe 1 is so pointless you might as well be throwing the toilet paper from the trick or treat bags at an enemy. In pvp, considering weapons only… necro axe versus revenant sword will be a completely uneven fight. Necro axe needs a buff. It needs to hit multiple targets. Nobody wants to use it as it is now regardless of the animation.

Necro axe 1 should have the same combo as revenant sword 1. Revenant sword skill 1 is like necro axe 1 on steroids.

Sledge Stone.9017:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_revenant_skills

Revenant sword 1 does more damage and stacks more vulnerability against 3 targets simultaneously and is significantly faster than Necro axe 1. Revenant sword 1 also has a 3 hit combo and does more dps per second than Necro axe 1. When comparing these two skills, Necro axe 1 is so pointless you might as well be throwing the toilet paper from the trick or treat bags at an enemy. In pvp, considering weapons only… necro axe versus revenant sword will be a completely uneven fight. Necro axe needs a buff. It needs to hit multiple targets. Nobody wants to use it as it is now regardless of the animation.

Necro axe 1 should have the same combo as revenant sword 1. Revenant sword skill 1 is like necro axe 1 on steroids.

You would have had a point if it wasn’t for the part where Necro axe is not a melee weapon whereas Revenant sword is. Might as well compare Engi pistol to Thief dagger. It’s about as relevant a comparison.

No, thats my point. Necro axe 1 should be changed to melee. We already have scepter for medium range and with necro axe as it is now, nobody will use it. Revenant sword skills 2 & 3 have 450 range compared to the necro axe 600 range. Necro axe 1 should be changed to melee and have the same combo as revenant sword 1. Necro axe 2 and 3 can stay the same or be buffed and have their range reduced to 450.

Inb4 someone says axe range is 600 cuz its not reflectable mesmer Gs has twice he range and it cant be reflected and #2 is unblockable.

I would just like a axe buffed but let axe keep its range. We don’t want to turn into a melee weapon. We already have dagger and very soon greatsword. Just keep axe with the range it has but make it not suck.

I dont know how many times i have to point it out. But axe 2 is not fine. Its ridiculously long channel time makes its DPS very very low for supposedly a “burst” skill. The same goes for dagger 2 but that at least has the benefit of being a heal. Life force generation is not really enough to justify axe 2 when we can already get really good life force from dagger auto, focus 4 and warhorn 5.

Sorry but its starting to get annoying still seeing people say “axe 2 is fine because i hit someone for 15k”…. When in reality 15k over a 3 second channel is not fine at all.

Brazil even did a video on it. It gets the point across. But it actually displays axe as slightly better than it actually is because he ignores aftercasts.
https://youtu.be/paxEJr1hWac

Also i kind of agree that axe needs a range increase. 600 is barely out of melee. So if it remains at 600 it needs to be just a bit lower damage than dagger and around the same damage as lifeblast or very slightly lower. If it has 900 range then it just needs to clearly beat scepter for direct damage. So it only needs a minor damage buff if it gets a range increase. Either way axe 2 needs buffing to have a lower channel time or much higher damage.

Before anything axe needs a role/vison right now it is an agglomeration of different effect with no cohesion. DPS weapon? to low damage coefficients. Support? selfish retaliation and #2 skill. Defensive? 2 skill and vuln on auto attack.

Tim.6450:

Before anything axe needs a role/vison right now it is an agglomeration of different effect with no cohesion. DPS weapon? to low damage coefficients. Support? selfish retaliation and #2 skill. Defensive? 2 skill and vuln on auto attack.

This is another good point. I think its trying to be a semi ranged dps power weapon. But it does that very poorly. Especially when we have life blast.

It doesnt even compliment life blast because the one benefit it has (vuln) requires you to maintain a weaker auto attack. So maybe the solution would be to put the life force on the auto attack and the vuln on ghastly claws. That way you can set up burst vuln for a spike when you enter DS or drop wells.

Sledge Stone.9017:

No, thats my point. Necro axe 1 should be changed to melee. We already have scepter for medium range and with necro axe as it is now, nobody will use it.

Except a power necro wouldn’t want to use a scepter.

Misguided.5139:

Sledge Stone.9017:

No, thats my point. Necro axe 1 should be changed to melee. We already have scepter for medium range and with necro axe as it is now, nobody will use it.

Except a power necro wouldn’t want to use a scepter.

I don’t want to use axe, either. Staff is much better, when you consider the multi target/higher DS dmg/high burst of marks 3&4

Axe should hit at least an extra time in its current cast space. Hell, if that’s too much of an overcompensation (for the low damage, i can’t see it…) then just make it a 1-2-3 chain – 2 hits, a third harder hit, and then a final pulse where you ‘rip life force from your target’

would make axe a good weapon for maintaining life force if nothing else.

Axe needs a freaking cleave and thE power needs to be increased. I mean wtf, look at the new rev sword and they can justify our kittenty axe which is my definition of a nerfed weapon. I can do the channel damage of axe 2 on 2 greatsword attacks on a warrior. And if your hitting for 13 k its probably in pve and your hitting some glass mob that has 25 stacks of vuln.

This just reinforces my thoughts that Anet is biased against Necros and enjoys it when we complain, or simple does not give a f

all i can see being done with axe is slightly faster auto and increases to 750 range 2 is allright ish and 3 could use a unblock-able/blast finisher

also please allow it to cleave

I forgot to mention that Revenant sword 1 does more DPS in less time than Necro dagger while applying more vulnerability than necro axe, against 3 targets! While necro dagger only hits 2 targets and necro axe only hits 1 target. Necros need weapon buffs. Especially the axe. Revenant’s sword skill 1 is the equivalent of having necro axe and dagger in a single weapon, with cleave.

Erm we have no idea on the actual damage of Revenant sword. It looked rather weak if Roy was using Berserker amulet on the stream.

Unless we know his power on the stream we cannot calculate the coefficients of the skills. Which means damage comparisons are meaningless at this point. I was only able to work our reaper damage from the stream because they showed us the tooltip of a currently existing skill (BiP) so i could estimate the power from that.

spoj.9672:

Erm we have no idea on the actual damage of Revenant sword. It looked rather weak if Roy was using Berserker amulet on the stream.

Unless we know his power on the stream we cannot calculate the coefficients of the skills. Which means damage comparisons are meaningless at this point. I was only able to work our reaper damage from the stream because they showed us the tooltip of a currently existing skill (BiP) so i could estimate the power from that.

He is using marauders. Guess because tevs have hase 15.5k ish HP and he had 21k HP. Only 2 ammies have 560 bit. Cele or marauders. Crit chance also seems to high for cele as well hence my guess.

If you really wanted to you can watch the video, find the sigil of fire procs on the heavy golems. Average the damage and reverse engineer.

edit: by estimating marauders the total coeff if all your auto attack hits land would be 2.95. Or roughly as strong as guard or theif sword autos if all your hits land. Its just faster since its auto chain takes 2.1s instead of 2.5. Its actually much weaker if your targets doesnt sit still for all 2 hits of #1.2

What about runes though? Runes with power could throw those numbers off. Using fire procs would be unreliable as well. Im going to wait till the next beta before i question the damage.

But if your calculations are close then thats actually pretty reasonable. Its only very slightly higher than dagger (same attack speed). Obviously revenant has slightly more damage modifiers. But thats more of a necro issue than something wrong with revenant.

rev sword is better than necro’s dagger just saying~
friggen taking a enemies out of a fight, shadow step burst skill, where necro dagger haz no burst and siphon channel is super slow and not dpsy

edit: they get a block too and a multi foe targeting chill

spoj.9672:

What about runes though? Runes with power could throw those numbers off. Using fire procs would be unreliable as well. Im going to wait till the next beta before i question the damage.

But if your calculations are close then thats actually pretty reasonable. Its only very slightly higher than dagger (same attack speed). Obviously revenant has slightly more damage modifiers. But thats more of a necro issue than something wrong with revenant.

I cant see how many damage mods they get but i can only see 7% and 20% in devastation line and i cant see any anywhere else that are permanent. They do have Bolstered Anguish but thats only 3% per condi on you. Not very useful in pve where condis are not often and in pvp unless you run sword mallyx but if you lose resistance with all the conditions on you you will suffer. Could be interesting though. Their sword also wont get max effectiveness unless you can land both hits of #1.2. you lose a lot of damage if it misses.

We get 5%, 5% and 20% if you take spite and soul reaping. Unless they change reaper to do extra damage vs chilled targets its fairly even. .

ontopic and regards to axe i believe the following changes will make it a much better weapon:
Base changes

• #1 scaling changed to 0.95
• #2 cast time reduced 1.75, add whirl finisher
• #3 increase scaling to 0.9 , reduce cast time to 0.75

Trait changes

• # Unholy Fervor: add increases range by 300, reduces cooldown by 33%.
  1. Spiteful Spirit : add unholy feast is now a blast finisher / take reduced damage under retaliation (5%) / retal does extra damage + lasts longer (33%) – any of these because the trait is currently way to weak for a GM

Feel these few and very reasonable changes would actually work well, fix axe and synergise well with what we already have kit wise as well as giving us some “normal” support that the devs are ever so afraid of giving us for whatever reason. It helps all builds we have with finishers. We would suck a lot less if we had way to interact with outselves or other players in general. The class is to selfish.

They get 7%, 7%, 20% (devastation and invocation) and 3% per self condi.

spoj.9672:

They get 7%, 7%, 20% (devastation and invocation) and 3% per self condi.

didnt see the 7% in invocation. Assuming str runes they can reach 207% damage by themselves with 5 conditions on them and fury. We can get a measly 174%. We really lack mods :/ Axe trait really needs to be universal or reapers need a damage mod trait.

After testing the Axe (again), I remembered how awful it is and why I not even try it.

Staff is 500 times better as full zerker compared to Axe and maybe even Scepter is better as zerker.

The problems:

• As ranged weapon, it only has 600 range, I don’t believe that is other ranged weapon with this range;
• Their skills have insane cast time for their effects. Way too long;
• Axe #1 can only hit 1 foe and its damage is awful;
• On Axe #2 if you begin the cast further the range while getting close, it will miss all hits, even if is in range. Also, if your target breaks the range limit and your get closer, all your hits will miss;
• The Axe #2 also only hits a single person;
• The Axe #3 suffers from the long cast time as well.

To make the weapon more viable:

• Reduce the cast time of #1 to 0.5 seconds, increase its range to 900 and make it splash in a 150 radius. Yes, it need to have a higher DPS than Staff or even Scepter autos. If the vulnerability in this skill is the problem for not reducing the cast time, then remove it completely;
• Reduce the cast time of #2 to 1.5 seconds, increase its range to 900 and make it splash in a 150 radius;
• Reduce the cast time of #3 to 0.75 seconds;
• Change the Trait to apply +10% damage every time (remove the vuln requirement) or add other effect instead.

This weapon really needs to get a lot of love to be viable. Now is worthless.

Just throwing this out there because Wynaut?

Axe 2 – Remove Life Force generation, decrease cast time to raise DPS by 30%.
Axe 1 – Add scaling Life Force generation, the longer you use Axe 1 the more Life Force you generate per hit. This could make up for the huge loss in DPS we get when we use Axe 1.