Guild Wars 2

What I want to see is halberds. You can even make a sythe and put it into this category that weapon would improve Alot of classes in the game personally (warrior, ranger necro, guardian and who knows maybe engineer(cause those poor guys need a melee weapon.
Plus halberds are just so dam sexy.

Edit: didn’t really even read all the post so sry if some one already said this.
can make it’s attacks cleave with condition and decent damage so you could chose witch direction you want. Long reach but no ranged attacks.

Please ANet, stop making levelling such a pain and finally give us something that can kill trash efficiently

In all honesty, the axe does need love and converting it to a power-based mid-range AoE weapon would do wonders for both the weapon and the class.

The axe as a short range cleave for auto-attack spam, 2 as a medium range AoE and 3 is fine as is.

That would basically make the axe into a proper weapon rather than as a secondary setup weapon for occassional use as a power focused necromancer.

Bump.

But to add. If they don’t intend to change ax, they could change 1 trait Unyielding Blast. Change it so that instead of piercing (already have staff and the staff projectile is a lot fatter in terms of aoe), it would bounce.

Seetoo.9316:

Bump.

But to add. If they don’t intend to change ax, they could change 1 trait Unyielding Blast. Change it so that instead of piercing (already have staff and the staff projectile is a lot fatter in terms of aoe), it would bounce.

Agreed, except I’d like to see it do splash damage like Ele fire staff 1. Either or, anything is better than having to line it up to pierce. It’s such a pain in the kitten !

A lore-friendly and interesting way to change axe would be to make it a cone-like attack, somewhat like guardian staff %1 but narrower and longer range. Visually, you would not see the cone, but for each enemy up to three (instead of 5 like staff), you would see the normal slash-slash effect on them. Then slap 1s poison on the attack to keep with necro’s theme of having poison on multiple weapons.

As far as I can tell, Axe is meant to be used with LF-on-Crit because of the huge number of hits axe 2 lands and based on the 5-target AoE on axe 3. Then the LF generation becomes acceptable. But as noted by others, adequate LF generation in and of itself isn’t enough to make a weapon good. It has to do other interesting things as well.

Making this change, it moves axe more twords being a close-range AoE weapon, although unlike true AoE weapons it hits 3 people. It also will give some minor poison damage, and that’s consistent with “has poison on multiple weapons” and “combines power and condition damage”.

Increase vunerability stacks of #1

Increase number of targets/or damage of #2

Give the weapon a knockback on #3

I know its a lot to ask, but now thats a support would i could sacrifice a staff for on my power necro. Necro with access to kb? Yes pls!

lettucemode.3789:

I think the reason Axe is relatively weak is because of how good it is in minion builds. Every single attack from your minions hits harder b/c of the vulnerability. In fact, I think minions scale off of vulnerability better than normal. I’m not a MM, but I use Flesh Golem as my elite, and he usually hits for about 600 on mobs. However, with 4 or 5 stacks of vulnerability that shoots up to over 1000. I haven’t done any formal testing with this but that’s what I have noticed happening.

Right now Axe is my backup weapon in my power build, and it serves me better than a Staff or Scepter would, so I’m happy. I would welcome buffs though.

Do you have any screen shots of this? I don’t exactly know how that would happen, but if minons are scaling off the vuln. that much, then something screwy is going on. 4-5 stacks of vulnerability means the mob is suppose to take 4-5% more damage. 1000 damage would be like 80% more damage. Does it continue to scale up that much at higher stacks?

Even with max stacks of vuln, the biggest increase the golem should see would be 25%, or around 750 damage.

Interesting find.

staff #1 hit’s multiple targets in a line. just saying. but yes the thing that has put me off the power build is the lack of aoes in it.

Necros really need a burstier weapon with cleave… If nothing else add greatsword or something, preferably scythe, but hey like that is gonna happen.
Or make axe alot better… Solo play PvE and in general chaotic WvW basically all necro skills are un-impactful(new word?).
Stacking bleeds and such is effective and nice, but takes ages, and every second spent in battle is a second you can die. Compare with warrior or guardian who easily clears trash mobs in a few seconds and in the case of warrior have very good kiting abilities against melee champs and such…

And Death Shroud in no way makes up for the shortcomings of not having good burst or AOE capabilities.

And for those who have only ever played necro… Try any other class, bar engineer, and you will notice how much easier PvE is, quicker more efficient and much more enjoyable. And for those who’ve never played it, try it and you will notice how slow and clumsy it is.

While I dooo agree that necro needs some sort of cleave for a weapon (I’m looking at you, axe), but I still scratch my head at how people think this undermines the necro’s AOE potential. I mean, have you people not looked at epidemic? It’s seriously become my most favorite AOE ability in the game. You can stack loads of conditions and spread them between all the enemies, and at the cooldown cost of only 15 seconds? I think that’s incredible.

Peter.8659:

While I dooo agree that necro needs some sort of cleave for a weapon (I’m looking at you, axe), but I still scratch my head at how people think this undermines the necro’s AOE potential. I mean, have you people not looked at epidemic? It’s seriously become my most favorite AOE ability in the game. You can stack loads of conditions and spread them between all the enemies, and at the cooldown cost of only 15 seconds? I think that’s incredible.

Well, it’s true that Conditionmancers have much better AoE capability…but power Necros on the other hand…next to none.

signed. Want to do some AoE DmG as Power Necro too.

So, has Arenanet given any feedback to this ? Or do other people still have concerns? I just don’t see any reason to keep the Axe as trashy as it is now. While every profession has its “subpar” weapon, they still fulfill a purpose, which the Necro Axe really does not.
The vulnerability of #1 does not help much in increasing its abysmal, strictly single-target DPS; in groups, sources of vuln. stacking are abundant.
Number #2 is your generic, single-target ‘nuke’, which…doesn’t nuke. Lifeforce regeneration is lower than the dagger’s autoattack rotation which is not limited by a cooldown.

1. is the only decent skill on the axe, but it does not make up for the glaring weaknesses of #1 and #2.

Give axe #1 the same cone AoE as the guardian staff #1 and I would be decently happy with axe. Also drop the cooldown on #2 to 4 seconds and increase it’s range to 900 or 1200. Then axe will be a worthy companion to to a dagger power build as you could use your axe for AoE and a little range and then switch back to your dagger when you’re able to get back into melee range.

a cone attack of 1200? Wow =)

At least make the cone narrower if you’re going to do that! =)

I haven’t done the calculations, but a cleave weapon could make the Vampiric build viable! In which case, I’d re-gear to full P/T/V and be the in-your-face-caster-class-guy.

I can see the Guardian staff cone working for the axe. I mean, the animation is already there, to me, the claws look like shredding multiple targets anyway. Did the axe do AoE in the Beta?

Staff exhist for Aoes, no need to cleave.
Btw Spear just does cleave.

Apart from the staff autoattack being slow, cumbersome and weak, the staff in general is also very heavy on conditions and utility, but barely useful in power builds.

Best and coolest place to implement cleaving for necro is Necrotic Bite imo (dagger 1 last hit). The animation is pretty big, its practically begging for cleave.

Axe could use buffs unrelated to cleave/splash/that sort of thing imo.

Giving dagger 3 cleave would be a nice buff in my opinion. Sort of the opposite of the mesmer sword, which cleaves on 1 and 2, but not 3 on its chain.

Staff. (Turns it into a Melee Weapon.)

1. Ability is now a Melee Cleave with your Scythe.
2-5 are the same marks, except they cannot be placed (are melee.) and do 100% more power damage. (The animation is now different as well, you slash the ground to create the marks.)

Make this a Trait.

This is the best idea to improve the axe that i’ve heard yet!
A cone would set it apart from the single target/ life stealing dagger and give the necro a solid power Aoe. Maybe we’d even see pve necromancers use something else then a scepter!

But maybe a target cap should be placed to make sure it’s not op.(We don’t want it to be the next guardian greatsword.)

Oh, one little thing: look at our traits, then look at the axe skills. What do you see? Amazing possibilities! make the axe viable and we’d see a storm of new ways to play the power necro.

Also, people say our traits are all mixed up, but i just think Anet wants us to play hybrid! If the axe would have some viability, We could maybe try to do that.

Manticore Five.9867:

a cone attack of 1200? Wow =)

At least make the cone narrower if you’re going to do that! =)

No I said increase the range of #2, but our auto attack would have the exact range and cone of the guardian staff auto.

Meh, even in this big patch, ANet didn’t listen.

Please, reconsider!

So I’d like to give my 2cents pertaining to axe.

1. I got a exotic axe and salvaged it the same day cause the ecto was worth more than its dmg and utility that it brought.

2. Where the dagger, staff, scepter, and war horn feel like necro weapons, I’ve never felt the axe to fit very well with the necro theme.

3. My suggestion is to drop the axe all together on a necro and add a new weapon type for the necro community like a 2hand scythe etc. that gives us the aoe cleave that every other class has and would allow us to drop having to go up the death magic trait – to add a little more mediocre dmg from weapon swapping to staff for marks in conjunction with wells, as a power necro I have no use for the conditions of marks or do I really want to use them, but staff is really our only option to add in aoe dmg in a our current rotation and its poor at that.

In short: Remove axe as a weapon for necros and add a 2hand weapon like scythe with cleave abilities for 1 and 2; 3 for a gap closer sorta like guards and rangers have and 4-5 as utilities skill. simply modify the axe trait in spite to benefit the new 2handed weapon.

So, did Arenanet give us an update or so or do they insist on the axe being absolutely niche and nearly useless?

A cone AoE on Axe sounds amazing. Aside from obviously being a big improvement which the weapon seems to need, just the visual in my head of my Necro sitting there swinging / spinning his axe while 3 or 5 enemies around get slashed by demon claws is awesome. Would quite possibly make Necro Axe my favorite weaponset in the game (visually).

I do almost suspect that Necro is “missing” a 2H weapon that didn’t make it into the game. Necro is the only profession in the game which doesn’t have at least two 2H weapons (not counting Ele / Engi because they have attune / kits to make up for it, and not counting Thieves because they seem to be based around the concept of dual-wielding). I’ve seen some talk about the fact that the devs intended for Battleaxes to be in the game at some point, it wouldn’t suprise me to find out that Necro was supposed to use that, and that it was supposed to be a cleaving melee weapon.

Electro.4173:

Necro is the only profession in the game which doesn’t have at least two 2H weapons (not counting Ele / Engi because they have attune / kits to make up for it, and not counting Thieves because they seem to be based around the concept of dual-wielding).

Hahaha. Why would you say that necro is the only class that has X when half the classes have X? You silly.

So long as they don’t nerf epidemic or wells in the process I’m all good with it. Unfortunately ANet likes to think of us as an attrition class so we’re not likely to see cleave any time soon as it defeats the purpose of being a brick with the ability to tickle things to death.

lettucemode.3789:

Electro.4173:

Necro is the only profession in the game which doesn’t have at least two 2H weapons (not counting Ele / Engi because they have attune / kits to make up for it, and not counting Thieves because they seem to be based around the concept of dual-wielding).

Hahaha. Why would you say that necro is the only class that has X when half the classes have X? You silly.

Its not the pure fact that its absent, but the fact that they don’t have them for a reason.

Elementalist and Engineer are lacking in weapon numbers because they make up for that through other mechanics (attunements / kits) rather than having a large number of equippable weapons. Hence not only a limited weapon selection but also the fact that they have no weapon swap. Thief is a bit of a stretch perhaps, but the whole dual-weapon attack mechanic they have going could show a favoring of dual weapons over 2H ones. And the fact that different combinations of dual weapons give different abilities could also partially make up for the lack of variety otherwise.

Necro has no reason to not have a second 2H weapon. Its just… not there.

Pure conjecture, of course, I’m not trying to state it as fact or anything. But even before I read this topic, when I started my Necro I felt it was missing a little something in the weapons department. I wasn’t specifically thinking battleaxes, just something in general, but then on seeing this thread it came to mind that a BA would both fill the second 2H spot and fill the in as another close range AoE.

Has there been any update from the devs that they’re thinking about this?

Let’s count our AOEs that do damage untraited:

Weapon skills:
Staff skills 1-5 (#1 pierces and does amazing aoe when paired with sigil of fire)
Axe #3
Focus #4
Warhorn #5 (great synergy with life stealing traits)
Dagger #4,5

Utility skills:
Well of Suffering, direct damage
Well of Corruption, direct damage
Bone Minion (can be detonated twice, direct damage)
Flesh Wurm (can be detonated for poison damage)
Signet of Locust, direct damage, heals
Corrosive Poison Cloud

Death Shroud:
4 is one of our best aoes that scales with power.

For d/d power necros, the easy options are well of suffering, well of corruption, dagger 4, 5, and staff (#4 scales very well with power), and #4 death shroud which also scales super well with power. Exploding bone minions is a decent aoe too.

Note that exploding bone minions twice = 2 blast finishers. Staff #4 is also a blast finisher.

Given how much aoe we already have, if Anet were to give us anymore, most of these skills would need to be nerfed hard.

Necromancers have 10 possible weapon sets, the same as Mesmer. Warriors have 19, Guardians have 12, Rangers have 11, Thieves have 7, Elementalists have 5, Engineers have 3. We are far from the lowest in that range, and the ones with more weapon sets really need the more sets.

Necros just need a 2h melee weapon and it will fix it.

Banjal.7328:

Necros just need a 2h melee weapon and it will fix it.

With cleave and a gap closer!

Now we’re dreaming !

Visionary.5681:

Banjal.7328:

Necros just need a 2h melee weapon and it will fix it.

With cleave and a gap closer!

Now we’re dreaming !

Jump underwater and BAM we got it ! leap , aoe pull , cleave.

wiazabi.2549:

Visionary.5681:

Banjal.7328:

Necros just need a 2h melee weapon and it will fix it.

With cleave and a gap closer!

Now we’re dreaming !

Jump underwater and BAM we got it ! leap , aoe pull , cleave.

If only we had the spear skills on land.