Guild Wars 2

I’ll just start this thread(I just wrote another huge post in Engi forums). I’ll prolly update it tomorrow or something.

Post your comments on the following topics:

DAGGER MAIN HAND
SCEPTRE
AXE
DAGGER OFF HAND
FOCUS
WARHORN
STAFF
TRIDENT
SPEAR
DEATH SHROUD

and their uses/pros/cons. Remember to be constructive(so no D/D suxxorz please! Say why it suxxorz then )

Thank you!

I wish I rad a reason to run anything other than staff.

It has a fair bit of AoE; with high power, #4 can hit hard.

With soul marks and staff mastery, it can build up life force faster than any other weapon as far as I can tell.

I spend most of my time in DS, so based on the above points, my opinion is obviously skewed.

No. On the contrary. You just gave 0/5 to all but the staff. I’d reckon that only good option left is S/D. I am interested in constructive thoughts about all the other weapons/weapon combinations. Likewise, you can explain just why Staff or S/D is so beastly good…

All fine comments. As long as they are not simple Necro suxxorz xaxaxaxa or sth Like that.

I use D/D, it kills fast and builds up life force faster. I’d prefer focus but the condition transfer utility on the off hand dagger is too useful throughout the game.

I wish there was a use for axe, I’ve tried all sorts and it just has nothing special going for it.

I’ve been thinking about how to improve the Axe. As it stands, Dagger is the primary direct damage dealer, Scepter is the primary condition damage dealer, and staff is a hybrid of direct and condition damage. This leaves one niche for the Axe: the ultimate AoE damage dealer. Maybe switch the Unholy Feast animation to the auto-attack for a constant 360 degree AoE vuln. Some would call that OP but with the abysmal damage the Axe generates now, it needs huge AoE to keep it useful. The Ghastly Claws animation could also be changed so the Necro levitates his axe around him hitting all enemies around him. Lastly, Unholy Feast could get the Whirling Axe animation and apply 1 second of retaliation for each hit (8-10 hits). Any feedback on this would be nice.

Scepter – great weapon , it serves its purpose with cond.+kiting+some LF

MH dagger – great in power builds , #2 if improved could:
a) make life siphoning builds a reality (actualy well siphoning would also need to lend a stronger hand )
b) make power users actualy use it: #1 is strong enough so: lower dmg , but add gap closer/leap finisher

Axe: hmm….since #3 is good in aoe, #1 could also deal some aoe damage, while #2 remains for when u want to burst the 1 player down.

Staff (condition) – it works, same as above
Staff (power) – here it gets tricky. sometimes it actualy works, but it has a big flaw.
Staff#4 is TOO good its cond transfer + 60% of mark dmg + our only land combo finisher. Because it so valuable for cleanse, we end up saving/not using it.
So i would:
a) distribute the damage to other marks.
b) move combo finisher blast from #4 to #2. Now to not make 2# overpowered,
make it so the combo only triggers IF the caster stand in the mark, just like the re
regen. Staff power users lose power if they go greater marks, and cond users have
max 1 well with them (+ its longer CD).
Side note: staff#1 only avtivates 1x per field, cz of slow rate and 20%. And spectral wall is bugged to put its combo activating part only under ur feet instead of where u place it. so if u move u lose the ethereal.

Focus: good, but loong cast times. especialy for #4 considering it only bounces more times if ur close. i would decrease the cast time, but make its effect vuln/regen/LF be range dependend like warior fear.

Flumek.9043:

MH dagger – great in power builds , #2 if improved could:
a) make life siphoning builds a reality (actualy well siphoning would also need to lend a stronger hand )
b) make power users actualy use it: #1 is strong enough so: lower dmg , but add gap closer/leap finisher

Can’t see such massive changes, but who knows how much damage I would give up to be able to close distance without DS2.

D/W.

Locust Swarm is a great offensive ability when paired with a Dagger mainhand as it keeps swiftness on you, cripples your enemy so you can stay in melee range, and does damage. Plus it’s handy on its own for the swiftness alone. Wail of Doom is a great interrupt that works in a frontal cone. D/W gives you great auto attack damage and life force gen, a life siphon for kiting situations, an immobilize, a daze, and a cripple. Combine that with staff and DS and you’ve got a lot of CC to lock people down with. I’ve played everything but always come back to D/W, just fits my play style.

Since ax is pretty redundant I would like to have it redesigned to a “burst condition” weapon for uniqueness’s sake. Scepter 1 applies 1 stack of bleed for 4 sec. Have ax 1 apply 4 stacks of bleed for 1 sec.

Staff is best for group fights due to AoE.

Scepter+Warhorn best for single fights due to cripples.

Dagger main hand is useless in wvw. Melee with light armor in 30 men zerg fights is bad idea.

Focus off hand is useless in wvw.

Axe in wvw, too weak damage to be of use.

Dagger:
#1: Good damage, good life force generation.
#2: Again, good damage, good range (for a melee weapon), but the heal is too low. AoE-heal would be cool too; for minions and support builds.
#3: slow cast time, rather long immobilise. i would love to see this becoming a gapcloser (similar to magnetic grasp which is significantly better in every aspect except immo-duration)

Focus:
#4: awesome skill. increases your direct damage by a lot. has a good cooldown. generates a good amount of life force. too bad regeneration is often wasted cause of DS, but thats a DS-issue.
no.5 slooow cast time, no damage. the boon-stripping is good in pvp/wvw aswell as the chill. in PvE it is rarely worth the cast time. most mobs dont use boons at all and the mobs that use boons either reapply them the second you rip them off (the grawl shaman in the volcanic fractal for example) or their boons cant be ripped off in the first place. this skill should deal high (AoE-)damage for every boon it rips off (similar to this)

DS:
#1: Good damage. should be a 100% projectile finisher tho and cast a little bit
faster. should add at least 1 stack of bleed.
#2: the chill and bleed is good, has a very short cooldown. if it hits, its awesome. for pvp, it needs faster cast time and faster projectile speed (or no projectile at all).
#3: no cast time, short duration: awesome for rupts or to prevent enemy players from dodging #3
#4: as a power-nec, good AoE; as a condition-nec: bad.

i thought about it and since necros arent meant to me mobile, a leap finisher is probably asking for too much. but the idea for DS#1 to become a projectile sounds fair, since it has slower fire rate.

Flumek.9043:

i thought about it and since necros arent meant to me mobile, a leap finisher is probably asking for too much. but the idea for DS#1 to become a projectile sounds fair, since it has slower fire rate.

im not exactly asking for leap finisher on dagger #3. but magnetic grasp got half the cast time, half the cooldown, bigger range, is a gap closer and leap finisher…
anet should give dark pact at least SOME of this stuff.
because as dark pact is now, it’s a very boring skill adn too easy to dodge

On the Axe auto-attack, I actually feel that reducing its cast time to 1/2 second (from its current 3/4) would be a decent buff. It would allow for faster (and higher) vulnerability stacking and more chances to proc on-crit abilities. The low damage is lessened by simply having it hit much more.

The downside is that Retaliation hurts more (though it already hurts axe anyway) and confusion triggers slightly more often.

Dagger main hand
1. great ability needs to have cleave damage though
2. good damage, with 400 toughness trait synergizes well
3. the only reason well builds are viable

Scepter
1. I think everyone knows the value of scepter skills seeing how 75% of people run scepter
2. good Cripple wish the duration was better. good for kiting.
3. good damage when you get some conditions applied. but overall meh

Dagger off hand.
4. I really havent used this weapon a whole lot. the condition transfer is nice but I really don’t have a lot of problems with conditions anyways.
5. AE weakness is great more conditions are always good.

Axe.
1. Pretty weak dps, but not as bad as most people make it out to be.
2. Pretty much the only way I kill thieves. ( channeled abilities hit stealthed targets) great dps.
3.The most antimesmer spell we have. Cast this then pop DS4= dead clones

Staff.
1. good for zerging but thats about it. Projectile still too slow.
2. With staff mastery can keep regen up 100% of the time but still meh
3.Ae Chill is great
4. Good dps, nice condition removal.
5. Good spell but situational

Focus
4. would like a faster cast time but still one of my most used spells.
5. absolutely a must for chasing people down. Chill is probably the best condition there is out there…

Warhorn
4. Great cone ae interupt that can save your kitten Wish it worked on downed people though so we could actually stomp someone in a outnumbered situation.
5.swiftness + cripple + damage = good

D/S
1. I agree that it should have a pojectile finisher on in and a faster projectile.
2. Great for closing distance. But the projectile is marginally faster than swiftness is making it pretty weak.. I really wish it was a ground targeted shadowstep like ability. That way it was useful for closing distance as well as getting away.
3. great for interupting heals.
4. balanced spell good for killing clones/pets