Guild Wars 2

This thread isn’t to complain about the Axe main-handed weapon for Necromancer’s it’s a constructive thread to improve the Axe. Share tests/results and suggestions on how to improve the weapon so that the Dev’s can work on this weapon.

The problem: The main problem with the Axe is that it’s raw damage on its #1 skill (and others) is pathetically weak in comparison to the necromancer’s other weapons (and much weaker in comparison to other classes). To prove this, i did a little test. I went into the mists and put 30 points into both spite, and soul reaping (no traits were used in any of the major slots) and did a three trial test on how long it took for each golem to die based solely on the weapon’s #1 and did an average. No amulet/sigils were used (the order goes heavy, medium, light).

Axe: 35s, 30s, 23s
Scepter: 26s, 20s, 17s
Staff: 44s, 35s, 30s
Dagger: 18s, 15s, 10s.

Staff being are weakest weapon, and axe coming in second. From the data above, the scepter did more raw damage than the axe based on a power build. Now, the scepter might have killed faster due to conditions, but that is a variable that can’t be avoided. What’s even weirder is that the dagger MH does 2x as much damage as axe, and it’s traits aren’t even in our power trait line, they are in our vitality trait line.

I roughly got between 240-340 dmg max on axe’s #1 skill with its max vitality stacks that it could put up. It crit for around 400, while the staff critted near 720, whilest the scepter critted for 500 or above. The dagger would crit from 700-1000.

Please post constructive feedback about the problems with the axe. Thank you.

I think the axe’s lower damage is meant to even it out with the vulnerability it applies and its medium range, but even so, it is rather weak. However, I think both attacks 2 and 3 for an axe main hand are very useful, and that skill 1 is the only glaring problem. Perhaps it could be improved to a usable level with a number of ways though: An attack power increase, an attack speed increase, or even an increase vulnerability stack.

I believe the dagger is supposed to be our strongest and fastest weapon, so that’s not too strange. It’s close range and single target are the drawbacks to using it.

Reshbal.8369:

I think the axe’s lower damage is meant to even it out with the vulnerability it applies and its medium range, but even so, it is rather weak. However, I think both attacks 2 and 3 for an axe main hand are very useful, and that skill 1 is the only glaring problem. Perhaps it could be improved to a usable level with a number of ways though: An attack power increase, an attack speed increase, or even an increase vulnerability stack.

I believe the dagger is supposed to be our strongest and fastest weapon, so that’s not too strange. It’s close range and single target are the drawbacks to using it.

I agree that this seems to have been the intent behind the axe. Problem is, because of it’s close range, it is too easy for someone to close range with you, and then you have to swap to dagger anyway for melee. Which makes it’s auto-attack a total waste of time under almost any cirumstance. Plenty of other classes can stack vulnerability better too.

Most people either say that they don’t like the axe, or that the other weapons are better(they are). But almost every necro I have talked to on Denravi (before it became Chernobyl) said that they don’t really know what, but that something has to change to make axe usable.

But when you take a lot of the other skills into account, axe is very clearly meant to be used with DS. So maybe we can make a basis for improvement based on this?

http://oi45.tinypic.com/2qasdgy.jpg

Rending Claws were originally a hybrid of power and conditions during beta but were quickly changed to apply vulnerability instead and so the bleeds became globally available to all builds in the form of the trait Barbed Precision.

Overall, this was a good change. But it made Rending Claws pretty bad.

You could go all high tech and suggest a ton of ideas to fix it but really, Rending Claws just needs either a damage boost or an attack speed boost.

That will pretty much solve it.

Although, if Rending Claws applied a 1s Cripple then that would be just dandy for our short 600 range.

If you want damage, vulnerability is not the way. Go fury, as even the basic crit can increase damage by double that of a full vulnerability stack (something axe alone can’t reach, to if you add in focus #4 you get close). And if you go for crit damage gear, you can get 2.5 times your weapon damage each blow. A fury powered axe #2 could actually be a interesting sight to behold.

Yes the auto attack on axe is pathetic, even that is an understatement…Will it get changed any time soon? No, because the devs aren’t reading the necro (or any class forums), every now and then there’ll be a red post saying “We’re reading what you’re saying and taking in the feedback, the reason why we don’t reply is because we’re all too busy”, which is utter bullkitten.

The skill needs a massive buff, somewhere in the region of 30% damage increase. A change like this doesn’t take much work, all it needs is some testing vs other necro auto attack abilities to ensure it’s balanced. This testing clearly never happened pre-launch, like so many other aspects of the game, which was delayed so much because they didn’t want to ship out and unfinished product…..Mission unaccomplished.

I also think the range should be increased to 900. From my experience most classes with a medium range weapon is usually around the 900 range. For it to be such a weak damaging weapon that is still at close range, it either needs more payoff in terms of damage, or an increased range.

It would be interesting to see rending claws get a passive increase to crit chance. Lets say 20% extra, on top of whatever crit you normally had. This way you could use it rather extensively with crit focused builds for procs or just more damage, depending on how you build.

Like many necro abilities, axe 1 has a rather long cast time (3/4 seconds), if this was nudged down to 1/2 like the scepter, It would be able to stack more vulnerability, and of course do more raw damage, although the damage would probably have to be tweaked down a little, so that it still does more then the current version, but not simply 33% more, which could potentially make it stronger then the dagger.

On my view, I think each of our weapons should work best with a specific build. This is how I view it.

Dagger for a Life Drain/tank build. The DPS is already there, so it doesn’t need the +power boost. Plus it pairs naturally with a vampire build which would also allow us to make a unique and fun tank.

Axe for a power build. This would work well as is, it just need some adjustment to its DPS. It would pair well with DS to up its damage as well as provide some buffer to incoming damage.

Scepter would be the condition, of course.

Dagger is better for power builds, if you are worried about the range of dagger then scepter is better for power builds.

The small buff to axe helped, however the number 1 attack is just really bad needs a speed boost.

600 range also feels weird in pvp. The gap is small enough that melee can close the distance easily and you’re still outranged by most who fight at range. I liked the suggestion of adding cripple to #1 skill. It would make it possible to keep melee at bay a bit and maybe avoid others just constantly outranging you.

Reshbal.8369:

I think the axe’s lower damage is meant to even it out with the vulnerability it applies and its medium range, but even so, it is rather weak. However, I think both attacks 2 and 3 for an axe main hand are very useful, and that skill 1 is the only glaring problem. Perhaps it could be improved to a usable level with a number of ways though: An attack power increase, an attack speed increase, or even an increase vulnerability stack.

I believe the dagger is supposed to be our strongest and fastest weapon, so that’s not too strange. It’s close range and single target are the drawbacks to using it.

While the dagger is meant to be our strongest weapon because of the risks of close range, its damage can double or even triple the axe in certain cases, which makes it seem odd that even with the Spite trait line, axe doesn’t even come close.

The purpose behind the axe seems to stack vulnerability so you can hit harder, however, the damage increase from vulnerability is so slight you don’t even notice it. Plus, the max stacks we can normally keep up is around 12-14 (assuming you use only the axe abilities).

I would like the idea of a cripple as well, but that won’t fix the axe. As stated before it needs a nice damage buff/speed increase.

Keep posting constructive feedback.

Aga.8641:

Yes the auto attack on axe is pathetic, even that is an understatement…Will it get changed any time soon? No, because the devs aren’t reading the necro (or any class forums), every now and then there’ll be a red post saying “We’re reading what you’re saying and taking in the feedback, the reason why we don’t reply is because we’re all too busy”, which is utter bullkitten.

I read the class forums, and what I learned is that every single class is the worst class in the game, ANet hates all the classes, every class is getting unfair nerfs, and every class needs huge buffs to keep up with the other classes.

Dispari.3980:

Aga.8641:

Yes the auto attack on axe is pathetic, even that is an understatement…Will it get changed any time soon? No, because the devs aren’t reading the necro (or any class forums), every now and then there’ll be a red post saying “We’re reading what you’re saying and taking in the feedback, the reason why we don’t reply is because we’re all too busy”, which is utter bullkitten.

I read the class forums, and what I learned is that every single class is the worst class in the game, ANet hates all the classes, every class is getting unfair nerfs, and every class needs huge buffs to keep up with the other classes.

The difference is you won’t see a necro/ranger nerf post anywhere.

I believe that Axe has that low damage because it attacks fast, and twice(x2).
Imagine yourself being able to hit for 300 raw damage each hit(so x2=600) and critting for anything close to 500, with a high chance to crit this would be almost 1k dmg per sec, while stacking vulnerability to the target.Now imagine using a build that stacks Vulnerability to the target,and giving you might(it’s the build I am using right now and it looks fun), you can easily get 20+ Vulnerability on the target and 10 stacks of might just by using BiP.
To sum it up, 1000 damage each time using the skill #1 , +20% from vulnerability + 10 stacks of might, giving an example number of 1400 DPS, wouldn’t that be a bit OP just by auto attacking?

Edit: if anyone is curius about the build let me know and I will post it

natsos.3692:

I believe that Axe has that low damage because it attacks fast, and twice(x2).
Imagine yourself being able to hit for 300 raw damage each hit(so x2=600) and critting for anything close to 500, with a high chance to crit this would be almost 1k dmg per sec, while stacking vulnerability to the target.Now imagine using a build that stacks Vulnerability to the target,and giving you might(it’s the build I am using right now and it looks fun), you can easily get 20+ Vulnerability on the target and 10 stacks of might just by using BiP.
To sum it up, 1000 damage each time using the skill #1 , +20% from vulnerability + 10 stacks of might, giving an example number of 1400 DPS, wouldn’t that be a bit OP just by auto attacking?

Edit: if anyone is curius about the build let me know and I will post it

Actually, the value is 600/2 = 300, not the other ay around sadly.

The biggest issue with Axe is that even if you get the maximum maintainable vulnerability (10%) through just auto attacks you and your party get more overall damage from you simply wielding another weapon.

If Anet wants the axe to be a support weapon, they need to either make it easier to maintain higher stacks with the auto attack or change vulnerability mechanics.

If they want it to be a “ranged” power weapon they need to increase either the attack speed or damage.

Yep, the tooltip damage is the total expected damage output, not the pr hit output.

Same with conditions. The damage is the total if it gets to run for its full duration, not the pr tick damage.

I honestly wonder if it would be better if Anet put the pr hit/tick damage as the main value, and the expected total in () behind it.

Kardiamond.6952:

Dispari.3980:

Aga.8641:

Yes the auto attack on axe is pathetic, even that is an understatement…Will it get changed any time soon? No, because the devs aren’t reading the necro (or any class forums), every now and then there’ll be a red post saying “We’re reading what you’re saying and taking in the feedback, the reason why we don’t reply is because we’re all too busy”, which is utter bullkitten.

I read the class forums, and what I learned is that every single class is the worst class in the game, ANet hates all the classes, every class is getting unfair nerfs, and every class needs huge buffs to keep up with the other classes.

The difference is you won’t see a necro/ranger nerf post anywhere.

Except I’ve seen quite a few “OP” necro or ranger posts, heck there’s one on the front page right now for the SPvP forums.

Anyways, there’s not much to discuss about axe. Rending Claws is a bit subpar atm, the rest of the skills are in a good place.

striker.3704:

Actually, the value is 600/2 = 300, not the other ay around sadly.

The biggest issue with Axe is that even if you get the maximum maintainable vulnerability (10%) through just auto attacks you and your party get more overall damage from you simply wielding another weapon.

If Anet wants the axe to be a support weapon, they need to either make it easier to maintain higher stacks with the auto attack or change vulnerability mechanics.

If they want it to be a “ranged” power weapon they need to increase either the attack speed or damage.

I wrote it this way just to give an example of how it can become “OP”, and 10 stacks of vulne from 1 person is not that low.
I agree altho that axe needs some kind of boosting, don’t know which direction,but still it needs to change.

This topic was discussed already in depth in this thread beforehand, there really isn’t much more to say.

• Scepter out-damages Axe in hybrid & power builds with no around 40% crit chance.

• Axe out-damages Scepter in higher critical chance and damage builds.

• Scepters “out-damaging” value relys on the bleed lasting the full or almost full duration were-as axe deals direct damage, quick check shows theres at least 80 different ways to remove, transfer or convert conditions.

Axe wasn’t what it was in beta and it does need a buff, and it isn’t right a mixed damage weapon out-damages a direct damage weapon on base stats.

Nesso.1806:

Kardiamond.6952:

Dispari.3980:

Aga.8641:

Yes the auto attack on axe is pathetic, even that is an understatement…Will it get changed any time soon? No, because the devs aren’t reading the necro (or any class forums), every now and then there’ll be a red post saying “We’re reading what you’re saying and taking in the feedback, the reason why we don’t reply is because we’re all too busy”, which is utter bullkitten.

I read the class forums, and what I learned is that every single class is the worst class in the game, ANet hates all the classes, every class is getting unfair nerfs, and every class needs huge buffs to keep up with the other classes.

The difference is you won’t see a necro/ranger nerf post anywhere.

Except I’ve seen quite a few “OP” necro or ranger posts, heck there’s one on the front page right now for the SPvP forums.

Anyways, there’s not much to discuss about axe. Rending Claws is a bit subpar atm, the rest of the skills are in a good place.

Yeah, it happen often, but they are mostly destroyed. Thief and mesmer get spammed by nerf thread.

But yeah, We had a thread not long ago about the Axe. I really think #1 deserve a buff. it’s one of the only 600 range weapon (Ranger got 900 range on axe), to fight with it you have to nearly be melee range, so it need some close to melee damage.

Its all about kill time and using Axe yields the worst kill time regardless of set and traits.

I think the Axe has a few fundamental obstacles. My suggestions are biased, but I believe them balanced.

I feel like the Axe builds center around control and vulnerability, and have good synergy with a wells-centered kit. So that’s the perspective from which these ideas come.
Axe Training being GM doesn’t make sense in its current form, however if it remains, the damage increase ought to be around 20%, in line with the cd reduction. Currently I think the damage buff is around 10%. Tooltip isn’t clear enough, either.
That, and Rending Claws gaining cleave, imho up to 3 enemies in a mark-sized radius. Matches with Reaper’s Touch quite well with the spreading out Vulnerability.

And if I can sneak in that Spinal Shivers would be great if it was a combo finisher, that’d be super.

Thoughts?

I definitely think the Axe training needs to be moved down to either master or adept trait line. It doesn’t make any sense for a weapon proficiency to be a grand master trait.

Hello,
I play necromancer since bwe, this is the only build, i think, where you can use axe for your main weapon

Tank/Retaliation necro spec
a range is good and you can keep distance/kite
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMad7hbab87JCJFNzaQP217rFlC4tOA;TsAA1Cto6y4lwLbQuukBtEZUwMBA

in this build you will have:
retaliation(reflects damage based on level and scales with power) from shroud, #3 of axe and heal.

this is +400-500 dmg to axe

vulnerability from #1 of axe, #4 of focus, spectral wall, #1 in shroud

+60% might duration
+40% boon duration

FireSnake.7536:

Hello,
I play necromancer since bwe, this is the only build, i think, where you can use axe for your main weapon

Tank/Retaliation necro spec
a range is good and you can keep distance/kite
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMad7hbab87JCJFNzaQP217rFlC4tOA;TsAA1Cto6y4lwLbQuukBtEZUwMBA

in this build you will have:
retaliation(reflects damage based on level and scales with power) from shroud, #3 of axe and heal.

this is +400-500 dmg to axe

vulnerability from #1 of axe, #4 of focus, spectral wall, #1 in shroud

+60% might duration
+40% boon duration

The damage you put out is beyond low and as soon as people realize this they will just ignore you and leave you to last.

You need more DPS if you want to main Axe in the way of:

1) High Power
2) High crit
3) Golem with 30% more dmg and 50% more HP

With those 3 you will still do less dmg than a Condition 30/30 Necro! Axe is that pathetic.

I don’t care what metrics Anet has in-game kill time is our metric and Axe is pure fail.

To be honest, i think the Axe is really not in a “defined” spot of what type of weapon it is. It applies vulnerability and gives a cripple, so you think it would be a burst weapon given that you can stack vulnerability and kite with cripple. Yet the damage is so low on the axe, that in order to significantly boost it you must go full into offensive stats (spite trait line) and even with the traits that specifically pertain to it, the damage doesn’t go far.

On the other hand we have the Vitality trait line associated with the dagger, so you think that would be our weapon for survivability. Turns out, not only is it that, but it does more damage than the weapon you trait in Spite for. So to be frank, we can’t really decide what the axe is meant for. It’s damage is too low to be worthwhile in terms of a power build, and should you focus defensively the staff or dagger works far better than the axe.

Keep posting feedback so that Anet can buff up this weapon, it needs some love!

If you really want to play Axe then you might look at something like this:

30/0/10/0/30

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;08c3-0-kHVH0E43KkJ0;9;4T-9-T19A;15;325BSZG6O;1JF04JF045Bf

You entire play style revolves around rooting/dazing you target inside WoD+WoS while maximizing DS use.

Worst mainhand weapon in the game?
Can anyone think of anything on a different class which is as pathetic?
Ranger weapons?

Kisses.1054:

Worst mainhand weapon in the game?
Can anyone think of anything on a different class which is as pathetic?
Ranger weapons?

In terms of pure autoattack damage (i.e autos without conditions), necro axe is actually one of the stronger ranged options, but the range is 300 too short to really count, since you effectively have to stay on point to hit anything anyway. For comparison, ranger longbow only competes at 1000+ range (which is like trying to hit someone with staff 1 btw), and doesn’t stack vuln.

Asking for a damage buff on the autoattack is probably a waste of time. The damage is already on par with other weapons. The only non condition dealing ranged autos that do more are guardian scepter, which has it’s own drawbacks, ranger axe (and shortbow does more even without the bleed), and engi rifle. If you want to count kits, grenades also do more. Axe does more dps than trick shot, which should hopefully give a bit of perspective, although bouncing is a much stronger effect than 2 stacks of vuln.

The range is a problem though, everything else is 900-1500. I guess it would be fair to say that a damage buff wouldn’t be totally out of line, since it’s very close to a melee weapon as it is.

I would have found the retaliation part more interesting if it scaled off incoming damage. Never mind that you still take damage so you can just as well trait DS for 5 sec of retaliation and go wild.

I have been running around using axe/dagger, collecting drops in PvE for crafting the last couple of weeks. Traits are 10/20/10/20/10 and I select skills and trait skills depending upon whether I am in a group, or solo. Here is my conclusion about axe/dagger: Use it for armor break, fire off the debuffs, use it again, then switch to staff.

Necromancer is, in general, not very good at unloading instant damage. The job is focused on piling up conditions and maintaining them so it is relatively slow to start but, once the mob has a bunch of conditions, necro damage accelerates. Other jobs like thief and warrior can deliver a lot of damage right away so that is one major difference in play style. The slow build-up of dps for necro is a definite handicap in wvw or pvp but that is why there are some specific builds people favor for necromancer that are very different than ordinary pve or dungeon play.

Necromancer is highly configurable but note that, for example, traiting power to 30 just to get the increased axe damage takes points from other areas. If you really want to play axe, I suggest also traiting defense for the increased toughness while channeling and use channeling to its fullest in and out of death shroud. You will not need targeting wells but there are a few good buffs for DS in critical damage tree.

My conclusion on axe is that it is only worth using in specific conditions. Do not over-rely on it or, if you intend for a full axe build, make sure you are using it fully and know your other necromancer skills will be nerfed. Play style will not be the same as for a conditionmancer build. You will have to be tankish and use DS constantly.

In general, I have come to the conclusion that it is better, in most cases, to unload all the condition damage possible right away, then hit DS, followed by your elite skill if the situation warrants it and you are not running pets. Saving a skill or two with longer cool-down does not seem, to me, to be all that much better than just firing them off and surviving until the skills are available, again. Any thoughts on that? I realize there is a lot of generalization in that statement but hording a good skill for use later has not been as effective as I imagined.

Crazy thing is that i find dagger to be much better for DS heavy play than axe, as the LF gain on axe 2 pales compared to the dagger 1 chain.

Recently Engineers have been getting a lot of mileage out of medium range medium damage output specs with very high retaliation uptime. There have also been conversations in this forum and on Gw2Guru’s forums about really powerful WvW builds using a lot of retaliation.

Could a similar trick be played with a PvP wellomancer? No one argues that well+dagger spam is bad. But if you could use Axe and high-uptime retaliation as a counter to the people who fight off-point out of wells, so it might be a valid use.

Either way, let’s hope ANet sees this scaling issue and tweaks the numbers of Axes to make them more viable. Either by increasing the rate or variety of condition application or by increasing the damage of the weapon.

I tried once to do a retaliation build, didn’t work out great.

But I didn’t try everything, might works!

But when I’m using a wellomancer build, I have trouble using something else then dagger/staff.

Dagger immobilisation is really good to keep people in your wells. I tried Axe for a while, but I missed the immo and the swiftness from warhorn.

If you try it, let us know!

I’ll give it a whirl when I get home tonight, but offhand I’d say something like this could be plausible. Traits, of course, are subject to commenting.

Build here

With the exception of a few wasted minion minors, it actually seems acceptable on paper.

Edits: Cool story, forum link validator. Cool story.

Is there a reason why you are taking offhand dagger with axe over focus?

Kardiamond.6952:

Is there a reason why you are taking offhand dagger with axe over focus?

Because I misclicked? Actually that is a lie… it’s because I was in a WvW mindset. I should not be for this exercise.

Something like this build is more complete. I dunno if I am the only person who thinks that those +20% chill duration runes with only an investment of 2 slots is crazy-powerful or not, but for necro it seems like a no-brainer. You will chill and retaliate a lot with this build.

So the intent of this build is to use wells to make the point an unhappy place. If your opponent plays in the wells, you get all of that enjoyment. Grasping them to chill them and snare them helps to keep the engagement where you want it. If they swiftly move out, chill them and proceed to punish. Like many dagger pvp builds, DS is there for retaliation and gap closing and emergency HP (although I suspect your 100% life blast will hit like a truck full of other trucks given how much power is stacked on that build).

I cannot test the damage output now. It’s just so easy to stack vulnerability on that build while retaining pretty good armor. My big concern is the lack of healing power. I’m not sure if it’d make more sense to favor that in the trinket.

The big problem here is no stunbreak. I’m not sure what to do to fix that.

As I was building this I was thinking to myself, “You know what would make the Axe a really good weapon exactly as it is right now? If Axe 3 was a blast finisher.” It’s strikingly obvious that the Axe is missing any sort of combo field interaction at all. Dear ANet, please make Axe 3 a blast finisher and you’ll see a lot more people use it.

Personally I think the axe should be a short range (maybe 300?) AoE cone. Necro sorely needs an aoe melee weapon and the axe feels right for this.

Cempa.3645:

FireSnake.7536:

Hello,
I play necromancer since bwe, this is the only build, i think, where you can use axe for your main weapon

Tank/Retaliation necro spec
a range is good and you can keep distance/kite
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMad7hbab87JCJFNzaQP217rFlC4tOA;TsAA1Cto6y4lwLbQuukBtEZUwMBA

in this build you will have:
retaliation(reflects damage based on level and scales with power) from shroud, #3 of axe and heal.

this is +400-500 dmg to axe

vulnerability from #1 of axe, #4 of focus, spectral wall, #1 in shroud

+60% might duration
+40% boon duration

The damage you put out is beyond low and as soon as people realize this they will just ignore you and leave you to last.

You need more DPS if you want to main Axe in the way of:

1) High Power
2) High crit
3) Golem with 30% more dmg and 50% more HP

With those 3 you will still do less dmg than a Condition 30/30 Necro! Axe is that pathetic.

I don’t care what metrics Anet has in-game kill time is our metric and Axe is pure fail.

First, I Laughed Out Loud at your advice. Second, still Laughing one sec.

The person you quoted gave you a very powerful tanking spec and you argue against it by saying, “WELL YEAH SURE BUT WHEN PEOPLE STOP ATTACKING YOU ITS LIKE YER NOT EVEN FIGHTING”.

Maybe I am the only one laughing. But I am certainly laughing out loud at you.

So I tried several variants of the build I listed, and I was hoping I could be tricky and succeed. But as I played with it more I basically could’t make it work. You can make a pretty good point holder, but the axe just lacks the punch necessary. I think though if it had a blast finisher I could make it happen.

But occasionally everything would click and for a brief moment, you could see it working. If the axe was a bit stronger and vampiric was a bit more efficient, it would really work.

People seem to be doing their math as if the only character present is the Necromancer Solo. Axe necro is one of the few classes that can keep vulnerability stacked up and this adds to the damage all other targets are doing (Which is usualy +10% damage) this includes your minions.

I find Axe #1 skill to be fine, if I wanted it do more damage or attack faster I would use a differant weapon.

LastDarkness.7390:

People seem to be doing their math as if the only character present is the Necromancer Solo. Axe necro is one of the few classes that can keep vulnerability stacked up and this adds to the damage all other targets are doing (Which is usualy +10% damage) this includes your minions.

By all means, please link to your math that shows that 10 stacks of vulnerability is more damage done than the Necromancer switching to Dagger or Scepter.

LastDarkness.7390:

I find Axe #1 skill to be fine, if I wanted it do more damage or attack faster I would use a differant weapon.

This makes no sense. If you wanted the Axe to do more damage, you wouldn’t switch to another weapon, because then you’d not be using the Axe, now, would you? If you wanted the Axe to do more damage, you’d tell the ones in charge of buffing it that it needed to do more damage, which is why this thread exists.

The whole “learn to adapt /shrug” mindset might work out for you in real life, but this isn’t real life. This is a product we paid for. We shouldn’t have to adapt to imbalance and bugs, the imbalance and bugs should be fixed by the people who created the product.

In every other industry, the customer gets to return a faulty product for a full refund or free repairs. I have not yet figured out why it isn’t like this in the video game industry.

GW2 needs another four months of QA testing.

By the way, Axe vuln stacking is really slow. People tend to think it’s a good vuln stacker because they use focus #4. But focus #4 isn’t axe.

Axe only stack vuln from #1, and it’s a fairly slow stacking. You also sacrifice a lot of you focus on using #1.

I tried it again yesterday, tried to do a power axe build. Didn’t work well. Once your #2 and #3 are on CD, you are stuck with abyssal damage.

The axe issue is that the no.1 is 2 small hits that make it feel weak… The scaling actually isn’t as bad as people think nor is the damage… I main a axe/power/crit axe/ds build and I do fine… The only issue I have is the no.1 not having a real chain attack to get that feeling of building up to a powerful blow and the range feels just a little to short for the damage you do… 900 seems like it would be overkill which is why I suggested 700-750 range for the no.1 and 2 while keeping the no.3 range as is…

The necromancer isn’t ment to get phenomenal high numbers they are ment to be more sustained with small damage spikes due to conditions/death shroud that’s why we have the 2nd highest health pool in the game.

Anyway I have a thread in the suggestion forums here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/A-few-suggested-changes-to-Necromancers-Axe/first#post917723 That was my suggestion for how they could make a combo for the axe no.1 where it was 2 small hits – medium hit – large hit combo for the no.1