Guild Wars 2

I see in the wiki that Axe got a 10% boost on Sept 29th.

Is it any good as a weapon now?

I’m trying to put together a Reaper using mostly power/precision and a greatsword, so I’m looking for ideal choices for the weapon swap when I am forced to use range…

Scepter is all about conditions.

Staff is all about support and has area targeted wells which, for me, impacts my ability to stay mobile or target if this ranged situation is occurring in the open world. I just personally suck at things like circle strafing while also laying out area targets…

dulfy long ago posted on a necromancer guide that Axe is basically non-viable:
http://dulfy.net/2014/06/30/gw2-necromancer-pve-guide-by-spoj/#Axe

But that was June of 2014, and the weapon has since been boosted.

Any opinions?

(Hmmm… even after adding a thread with ‘axe’ in the title, searching the forum on the word ‘axe’ says no results found for me…)

The forum search is broken. ANet knows this, but has no plans to fix it.

Axe is okay now that it has 900 range. Still not a great weapon, but it is usable, at least. That’s honestly the most that can be said for it, though.

Forum search is broken since forever
Most people hate on the axe in this forum. The problem is that Life Blasts deal more damage and apply vulnerability, and the axe2 is not a dps increase. Since RS doesnt have Life Blasts i think its the better choice to compliment reaper with a ranged option. It’s not a weak weapon like stated in the guide, it has its place, it ignores projectile defense and combined with focus #4 it provides a ranged fast burst. Also it isnt medium ranged like it says in the guide, it got 900 range. And lastly it has a skill that creates big numbers, always fun to see crit 20k:D

I use it alongside a focus as my secondary set, with Greatsword and shroud the primary attacks naturally (although I also keep a sceptre and warhorn handy in my inventory.) Is it optimum? No, but it has a couple of complimentary skills like the chill on focus 5 and retaliation on axe 3. Axe 2 also generates a nice amount of life force (12%) for your shroud. Most people will find better options I’m sure, but it works for my needs.

The Axe + focus skins I use compliments the look I went to, so ofc that is a prime consideration too

For context I only pve.

Axe sucks, as a Reaper who uses Dagger/Warhorn I kill every single Axe wielding Reapers I’ve seen so far. This is PvP.

If you PvE, there’s even less of a reason to use Axe. You should be using GS & Dagger.

Axe is our ranged weapon when using Reaper (where we would otherwise have Death Shroud).

Not much else to comment, really.

I appreciate Axe+Focus as a means for generating LF, stripping boons at long range, chilling at long range, clearing blinds effectively, and being able to apply some pressure at range.

If you like it, you can make it work for you most likely. Don’t listen to gavyne’s world of absolutes.

axe is nice . but against anyone with dodges and teleports it is hopeless, if someone has a teleport they just port behind you and it cancels it, If you don’t let go of the mouse when close to someone they can just sidestep and it will cancel axe 2.

people with vigour/ daredevil will starve you of life force, at least with traited staff they can’t because you get the lf even if the skills don’t hit them.

The axe is fine now. It can’t compete with either the Dagger or the Greatsword for damage, but if you need range it’s got you covered. Plus the 3 is pretty good.

Necros can use an axe?
(What I’m saying is it’s bad don’t bother.)

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Necros can use an axe?
(What I’m saying is it’s bad don’t bother.)

I disagree. You should personally bother with every single weapon and skill you have, at least for a bit to see how it feels. Maybe you’ll like it and find a use for it.

It functions nicely as a burst/support weapon. It’s not a main weapon, but if you’re power(and not overly worried about being swamped with condi), A/F provides a nice quick downtime.

Ax3+Ax2 also is a way to quickly kill a Chak Zapper if it has a shield up.

Cogbyrn.7283:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

Necros can use an axe?
(What I’m saying is it’s bad don’t bother.)

I disagree. You should personally bother with every single weapon and skill you have, at least for a bit to see how it feels. Maybe you’ll like it and find a use for it.

I did, I can’t find any use for axe. It doesn’t feel right using it imo, the damage feels lacking, everything feels lacking. This is from a PvE point of view.

I thinks it’s nice for reapers to give you an option for range pressure. If you run something like d/wh staff you’re never gonna hit anything against competent players.

Axe is terrible. That being said it was buffed a small bit, but when compared to any other ranged power weapon its just awfully weak.

Blaine Tog.8304:

The axe is fine now. It can’t compete with either the Dagger or the Greatsword for damage, but if you need range it’s got you covered. Plus the 3 is pretty good.

It’s not fine and you are wrong, seriously.

It would be true if axe had some kind of cleave, but it’s single target.

Axe needs some dps increase on #1 and #2. Maybe #2 giving 1 sec fury per hit. Not just simple % damage increased. Something to punish enemies for not dodge this channeled skill and rewarding us for landing those hits.

And again, axe #3 must be a blast finisher.

Its good for afk killing with minions. As the range made it more viable as a safe distance weapon. Its damage is still atrocious though.

I suppose it is a form of tax for the fact that it is so liberal with ignoring defenses, that the damage is a bit subpar. I still enjoy it for the rare times you need to go ranged in a power build; I feel like staff is really poor there since that usually means you’re fighting one difficult target.

Amethyst Lure.5624:

I suppose it is a form of tax for the fact that it is so liberal with ignoring defenses, that the damage is a bit subpar. I still enjoy it for the rare times you need to go ranged in a power build; I feel like staff is really poor there since that usually means you’re fighting one difficult target.

This. I don’t know why, but I feel like people are pretending that necro has this whole set of ranged tools. Without shroud we are doomed to use either axe or staff. Staff #1 is even worse than axe and with power build marks are not that great (utility is nice, but not for pve).
Yes, axe dmg is horrible. Yes, axe doesn’t have any cleave. I use axe on swap for fighting more difficult single targets that I can’t get close to at some particular moments. For ranged option, as a reaper some dmg is better than no dmg at all.

@OP
So to anwser your question, I feel that axe is stronger than before. Not nearly strong enough to be main weapon, but it’s not like we have great deal of choice anyway for those niche moments we want to go ranged.

Reaper is crying for an axe buff. Axe’s awfulness is probably why Reapers are o terrible in pvp.

+1 Axe needs buff. Compare Axe 2 to ranger longbow 2. Does the lack of a projectile really justify a 25% damage cut?

Ideas to buff axe:
-Make axe 3 instant cast (my favorite).
-5% damage increase to axe 1—damage coefficient of 0.8 (from 0.77)
-5% damage increase to axe 2—damage coefficient of 3.0 (from 2.88)
-Make axe 1 a chain skill with 3 attacks. The 1st 2 attacks apply vuln, the last attack applies some boon.

Salamander.2504:

+1 Axe needs buff. Compare Axe 2 to ranger longbow 2. Does the lack of a projectile really justify a 25% damage cut?

Plus the 12% LF generation? Potentially, yes.

power necro can use axe for stacking while building LF. It doesn’t have impressive damage but it has some range and #3 helps with kiting.

vicious.5683:

Blaine Tog.8304:

The axe is fine now. It can’t compete with either the Dagger or the Greatsword for damage, but if you need range it’s got you covered. Plus the 3 is pretty good.

It’s not fine and you are wrong, seriously.

It is fine and you are wrong, seriously. See how easy that is?

“Fine” doesn’t mean “perfect.” The Axe is usable. I wouldn’t be opposed to a few buffs, but it does its job as a backup weapon for power builds when they need some range.

vicious.5683:

It would be true if axe had some kind of cleave, but it’s single target.

Axe needs some dps increase on #1 and #2. Maybe #2 giving 1 sec fury per hit. Not just simple % damage increased. Something to punish enemies for not dodge this channeled skill and rewarding us for landing those hits.

#1’s DPS should not be raised, as it’s good enough as it stands. A bit of cleave wouldn’t go amiss, though. That’d actually really help round out the weapon.

For #2, as much as I would like the Blighter’s Boon procs, boosting just the damage would probably be fine too. #2 really should have its damage boosted as it doesn’t really increase our DPS right now. If ANet really wanted to add something to it other than straight damage, I’d like to see each hit increase the duration of existing Vulnerability on the target by .5 seconds.

vicious.5683:

And again, axe #3 must be a blast finisher.

3 is already a really bloated skill. The Blast finisher would make sense for the animation but the skill is already pretty good.

Dont listen to the guys here saying Axe is not good on reaper. I personanlly played all my time since beta with dagger/x and staff and now im using gs-axe/focus with much success, you will still be inferior to rangers and mesmers ranged abilities, but you wont be far behind.Axe is strong range option for necro(argubly the only choice) and does require certain buff, but it is very good at pressuring players from safe distance.Problem with it that ppl can tp behind and cancel it, but that is when you switch to GS also when you using signet build with reaper, with that spec, even heralds cant have boons against you.

Blaine Tog.8304:

vicious.5683:

Blaine Tog.8304:

The axe is fine now. It can’t compete with either the Dagger or the Greatsword for damage, but if you need range it’s got you covered. Plus the 3 is pretty good.

It’s not fine and you are wrong, seriously.

It is fine and you are wrong, seriously. See how easy that is?

“Fine” doesn’t mean “perfect.” The Axe is usable. I wouldn’t be opposed to a few buffs, but it does its job as a backup weapon for power builds when they need some range.

vicious.5683:

It would be true if axe had some kind of cleave, but it’s single target.

Axe needs some dps increase on #1 and #2. Maybe #2 giving 1 sec fury per hit. Not just simple % damage increased. Something to punish enemies for not dodge this channeled skill and rewarding us for landing those hits.

#1’s DPS should not be raised, as it’s good enough as it stands. A bit of cleave wouldn’t go amiss, though. That’d actually really help round out the weapon.

For #2, as much as I would like the Blighter’s Boon procs, boosting just the damage would probably be fine too. #2 really should have its damage boosted as it doesn’t really increase our DPS right now. If ANet really wanted to add something to it other than straight damage, I’d like to see each hit increase the duration of existing Vulnerability on the target by .5 seconds.

vicious.5683:

And again, axe #3 must be a blast finisher.

3 is already a really bloated skill. The Blast finisher would make sense for the animation but the skill is already pretty good.

again, its not fine.

When something is fine it doesn’t need to be changed. And that’s clearly not the situation of Axe.

Axe is absolutely terrible. Probably the absolute worst weapon in the entire game across all professions. Its uses are so easily replaced and limited that there is literally no reason to run it in any situation ever.

Take staff as your ranged weapon instead. Staff, unlike axe is one of the best weapons in the game.

vicious.5683:

When something is fine it doesn’t need to be changed. And that’s clearly not the situation of Axe.

Every weapon in the game has rough edges that could stand to be beveled off. You can’t set the bar at perfection, because we’re never going to get there.

Lily.1935:

Take staff as your ranged weapon instead. Staff, unlike axe is one of the best weapons in the game.

Not really. Think you are getting mixed up with ele.

Man, axe sees so much hate, and I don’t know why. I’ve found it to be really useful in certain situations. It allows for solid LF generation without feeling like I need to take Soul Marks, actually applies some pressure from range, and allows for some customization with the off-hand (condi transfer, increase LF generation/boon removal, the daze/LF gen).

It isn’t like Axe #2 hits for half of someone’s health, but that would be crazy if it did, imo. This is mostly from a PvP perspective, though.

Yeah, as much as i hate axe. I would definitely consider it better than staff. :P

And theres a very simple reason for that. Staff has no use in PvE combat other than afk exploiting in safespots. If you need range on a power build axe is actually better. And for condi builds you will always want to camp scepter for your mainhand.

spoj.9672:

Lily.1935:

Take staff as your ranged weapon instead. Staff, unlike axe is one of the best weapons in the game.

Not really. Think you are getting mixed up with ele.

I’m not. Necro staff is extremely strong for us. lots of utility on it, good against groups and single targets. its 1,200 range gives us spacing that is valuable on both core and reaper. And I never said it was the absolute best weapon in the game either. One of the best. Because it is.

spoj.9672:

Yeah, as much as i hate axe. I would definitely consider it better than staff. :P

And theres a very simple reason for that. Staff has no use in PvE combat other than afk exploiting in safespots. If you need range on a power build axe is actually better. And for condi builds you will always want to camp scepter for your mainhand.

I disagree. Staff is far better against mobs in PvE and it has far far stronger life force generation than the axe, not only that but it gives you access to chill on two skills for reaper, has a condi cleans and decend damage for its range. yes its SLIGHTLY lower than axe, but not by a whole lot.

Aka, No… its not better than staff….

Personally I just can’t manage to work with the staff – too many skills are area targeted and that cuts down on my mobility a lot. I’m the sort of player who is always mobile, usually circle strafing or kiting through to the other side of things.

Too much Wildstar play in me – where everything is area, but in cones and shapes projecting from you.

The area targets in Guild Wars are just difficult to place down when being highly mobile.

It looks like opinions are split on Axe. I gave it a try after seeing that here on the first day of this thread – and I’ve managed to get my Necromancer from just started in HoT to having unlocked the full Reaper spec by running around the first two zones with Greatsword and Axe/Horn.

Not yet sure on it, but it seemed ‘viable enough’ as a swap to option when forced out of melee.

I don’t do either PvP or WvW so I have no perspective to give there. I’m mostly a dungeon person, but have yet to try this in a Dungeon. Its actually been a while since my Necromancer saw a dungeon period (and not because I stick to the meta or whatever… Its more random ‘what toon today’…)

Whether or not its effective, Greatsword and Axe/Horn look like they might be fun in Dungeons. So I hope they turn out viable enough…

Lily.1935:

spoj.9672:

Yeah, as much as i hate axe. I would definitely consider it better than staff. :P

And theres a very simple reason for that. Staff has no use in PvE combat other than afk exploiting in safespots. If you need range on a power build axe is actually better. And for condi builds you will always want to camp scepter for your mainhand.

I disagree. Staff is far better against mobs in PvE and it has far far stronger life force generation than the axe, not only that but it gives you access to chill on two skills for reaper, has a condi cleans and decend damage for its range. yes its SLIGHTLY lower than axe, but not by a whole lot.

Aka, No… its not better than staff….

Pvp prespective, axe is much better and staff only gives utility to the table it got almost 0 dps, less lf regen than axe(unless traited which basically is worse that you need to trait for it while you have a faster movement in reaper shroud that it is a must trait).
Staff is one trick pony, you lay all your marks than wait for #2 mark and spamm it untill weapon switch while axe auto attack more reliable and #2 on short cd and have great lf regen. So utility aside, axe is much better range option and that is coming from somone who adore staff but must admit the truth.

Sandrox.9524:

Lily.1935:

spoj.9672:

Yeah, as much as i hate axe. I would definitely consider it better than staff. :P

And theres a very simple reason for that. Staff has no use in PvE combat other than afk exploiting in safespots. If you need range on a power build axe is actually better. And for condi builds you will always want to camp scepter for your mainhand.

I disagree. Staff is far better against mobs in PvE and it has far far stronger life force generation than the axe, not only that but it gives you access to chill on two skills for reaper, has a condi cleans and decend damage for its range. yes its SLIGHTLY lower than axe, but not by a whole lot.

Aka, No… its not better than staff….

Pvp prespective, axe is much better and staff only gives utility to the table it got almost 0 dps, less lf regen than axe(unless traited which basically is worse that you need to trait for it while you have a faster movement in reaper shroud that it is a must trait).
Staff is one trick pony, you lay all your marks than wait for #2 mark and spamm it untill weapon switch while axe auto attack more reliable and #2 on short cd and have great lf regen. So utility aside, axe is much better range option and that is coming from somone who adore staff but must admit the truth.

I’ve found axe to be incredibly unreliable. its Life force is absolutely atrocious since people can dodge most the channel which means you’ll be lucky to get 4% life force when you can camp at range with staff. One trick pony? you must be confusing staff with axe because staff has dozens of tricks that gives it amazing utility as the ranged weapon of choice. Axe has one good trick and thats boon stripping. And even that is far out classed on our own profession on other areas. Staff is control, its good for power and condi. Staff is never a primary weapon its always your secondary weapon. but that’s all it needs to be. That’s what its supposed to be. Shortbow fills the same type of role for thief as a secondary weapon but never a primary. Neither of these weapons need to be anything else. The damage difference between axe and staff even is minimal at best.

Staff is a control weapon first. Its defensive, its ranged. Axe is… well… its a power ranged weapon with no notable features. Axe = bad, Staff = good. Not an opinion. I was so excited to run axe when necromancer was first announced for GW2 back in the alphas. I was so excited to run axe on a caster, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. But then in practice it was rather bad. Its never been a good weapon and its damage has been increased several times and decreased recently and increased back up and a little bit stronger. But “A little bit stronger” isn’t justification to run it. Its vuln stacking is minimal and slow at best. Maybe in a power minion build its fine, but even in that situation I’d still use a staff anyway because of its overwhelming utility.

I’ve used both staff and axe in PvP and PvE. Staff always over preforms and Axe always under preforms. Not once has axe proven its metal. Not with 100s of hours of testing both. However, this is one single situation where axe does do better than a staff. When the foe you’re fighting in PvE doesn’t trigger marks… That’s it.

I want to love axe. I want it to be my main ranged power weapon. I’ve even built frostfang in the hopes anet would make real and good changes to the weapon. But now I just have a useless legendary that sits on my character and doesn’t get used.

Axe #2 feels like it should be an AoE. Even a short-range 100-radius AoE would be fantastic for clumps of mobs.

I don’t PvP much, but in PvE Axe is okay. I’ve been using it exclusively to work on Weapon Master, and it hasn’t been a burden. Still, I always catch myself thinkng #2 will hit multiple enemies.

Blaine Tog.8304:

vicious.5683:

When something is fine it doesn’t need to be changed. And that’s clearly not the situation of Axe.

Every weapon in the game has rough edges that could stand to be beveled off. You can’t set the bar at perfection, because we’re never going to get there.

I agree with that, but necro’s Axe seems completely made of rough edges.

And I’m not looking for perfection, I just want axe on the same level GS is.

I highly prefer axe to staff in non-condition builds. I haven’t used staff (except to reaffirm my hatred of it) in my non-condition builds for 2 years now, and Axe has only been getting better and better. The only real advantage staff has at this point is a functional and strong trait, otherwise Axe provides way higher pressure, plus it allows me to run A/D D/WH for perma 25% movespeed.

I don’t like it, tbh. Only scenario i’d use it is to range a boss if i am using a power build. Because staff in power builds are just not good, pve wise.

All my testing says axe is bad at everything… I wouldn’t touch it for PvE except for those very fringe situations. I have a berserker’s axe and staff (ascended of course), and I’ve always come to the same conclusion. Its always I need more control, I need more aoe, I need more life force. Something that the staff provides more of in spades than the axe. Even when trying to strip boons the axe under preforms since it only corrupts one boon. Its better for you to just kill your foes flat out than play with boons in PvE.

And to me. Axe is just getting worse and worse. 900 range didn’t give it anything for me. Its still a garbage weapon. And now its a garbage weapon at 900 range and completely impossible to balance it properly because of its incredibly terrible design.

Lily.1935:

All my testing says axe is bad at everything… I wouldn’t touch it for PvE except for those very fringe situations. I have a berserker’s axe and staff (ascended of course), and I’ve always come to the same conclusion. Its always I need more control, I need more aoe, I need more life force. Something that the staff provides more of in spades than the axe. Even when trying to strip boons the axe under preforms since it only corrupts one boon. Its better for you to just kill your foes flat out than play with boons in PvE.

And to me. Axe is just getting worse and worse. 900 range didn’t give it anything for me. Its still a garbage weapon. And now its a garbage weapon at 900 range and completely impossible to balance it properly because of its incredibly terrible design.

Yeah, for PvE Ax is total garbage compared to staff, I mean, none of the ax attacks can be reflected, compared to massive telegraphs for marks and a joke of an AA for staff. (This is precisely why the Ax auto was changed to drop the damage in the back half of the cast, Rob mentioned this)

You totally can’t get enough burst to kill normal anti-power mob in a few hits.

The idea of using it as an opener, as a way to stack chill, get 15-20+ stacks of vuln, build LF AND get retal on you before you either go to RS, D/Wh or GS? Preposterous!

vicious.5683:

And I’m not looking for perfection, I just want axe on the same level GS is.

GS has a lot of powerful moves, but it’s also a melee weapon with nothing but long animations. The Axe is not only ranged but doesn’t use projectiles, making it very difficult for foes to deal with. It’s also designed as a choke-hold weapon, used to strangle your foes to death rather than hammer them into the ground like the Greatsword.

As it stands, it does that pretty decently, rough edges aside. I’ll admit that it doesn’t feel the most impactful (whereas the GS’s feel is spot-on, even with a crummy trait) but it’s actually quite good in objective terms at doing what it’s trying to do.

Lily.1935:

Axe = bad, Staff = good. Not an opinion.

…

I’ve used both staff and axe in PvP and PvE. Staff always over preforms and Axe always under preforms. Not once has axe proven its metal.

I’ve found plenty of use for Axe over Staff in various situations. Now that the range is 900, it’s even easier for me to justify. To try to lay an objective claim on your opinion of the weapons seems a bit over the top.

Also, when you compare the two, you also need to compare the versatility of having an OH that is customizable.

I also prefer Speed of Shadows or Unyielding Blast when I make builds, so feeling obligated to take Soul Marks rubs me the wrong way. Regardless, I enjoy axe over staff on a power build, and I don’t think it’s all that far behind. Just depends on your style. It’s possible axe just isn’t for you.

I dislike staff because if you’re not in a condi build swapping to it says to your enemies “hey guys I’m not going to deal any meaningful damage to you for the next 10 seconds, please wait a bit!”. It just doesn’t have the kind of pressure it would need to compete, and even worse for it, its utility as a utility weapon is incredibly lackluster compared to our other skills.

If you take A/D over staff, you end up losing poison/chill (as if those are rare in necro builds), your condi removal becomes slightly less reliable, and you lose the CC of Fear mark (which is easily made up for with smart Wail of Doom use with your D/WH set). On the flip side, you gain far more significant debuffing of enemies (weakness, cripple, boon corruption, vuln), and you never lose offensive pressure by swapping weapons anymore. The two weapons aren’t objectively better than one another, they fill different goals, and in plenty of builds its a fair swap.

Bhawb.7408:

I dislike staff because if you’re not in a condi build swapping to it says to your enemies “hey guys I’m not going to deal any meaningful damage to you for the next 10 seconds, please wait a bit!”. It just doesn’t have the kind of pressure it would need to compete, and even worse for it, its utility as a utility weapon is incredibly lackluster compared to our other skills.

If you take A/D over staff, you end up losing poison/chill (as if those are rare in necro builds), your condi removal becomes slightly less reliable, and you lose the CC of Fear mark (which is easily made up for with smart Wail of Doom use with your D/WH set). On the flip side, you gain far more significant debuffing of enemies (weakness, cripple, boon corruption, vuln), and you never lose offensive pressure by swapping weapons anymore. The two weapons aren’t objectively better than one another, they fill different goals, and in plenty of builds its a fair swap.

I don’t lose very much damage when switching to a staff from dagger/focus. I do however lose a mega tone of momentum when switching from dagger to axe parried with anything. If you think otherwise you’ve never trapped people in your wells with staff. Which I’ve done on countless occasions. And than just enter Death shroud. Where’s the DPS loss? Why are you concerned about DPS when you’re trying to control the situation and defend? Staff gives you an out. Axe does not.

Its not a bias opinion of mine its performance. If axe actually preformed well I’d only complain about its absolutely terrible paddling animation on females. But when I’m using it and and not paying attention to its animation I’m always thinking “Ugh…. this is just dreadful I could be using staff and not be getting wreaked by everything around me.”

Also, by the way. I don’t often use soul marks. But I like the option.

Klaeljanus.7695:

Lily.1935:

All my testing says axe is bad at everything… I wouldn’t touch it for PvE except for those very fringe situations. I have a berserker’s axe and staff (ascended of course), and I’ve always come to the same conclusion. Its always I need more control, I need more aoe, I need more life force. Something that the staff provides more of in spades than the axe. Even when trying to strip boons the axe under preforms since it only corrupts one boon. Its better for you to just kill your foes flat out than play with boons in PvE.

And to me. Axe is just getting worse and worse. 900 range didn’t give it anything for me. Its still a garbage weapon. And now its a garbage weapon at 900 range and completely impossible to balance it properly because of its incredibly terrible design.

Yeah, for PvE Ax is total garbage compared to staff, I mean, none of the ax attacks can be reflected, compared to massive telegraphs for marks and a joke of an AA for staff. (This is precisely why the Ax auto was changed to drop the damage in the back half of the cast, Rob mentioned this)

You totally can’t get enough burst to kill normal anti-power mob in a few hits.

The idea of using it as an opener, as a way to stack chill, get 15-20+ stacks of vuln, build LF AND get retal on you before you either go to RS, D/Wh or GS? Preposterous!

I get 25 stacks of vuln on mobs by blinking so I don’t see why you’re paragoning the slow vuln stacking that the axe provides. Also, your sarcasm isn’t appreciated. And the Life force building is slower than staff. By a mega ton. Damage isn’t much higher either unless you trait for it. Literally 8 more damage on axe with its auto. I have no issues stacking vuln and sustain 25 stacks without the aid of axe so that isn’t a problem. Its Ghastly claws is a slow channel with a low pay off and the life force from it is actually allot slower than staff. Staff’s Auto can grant you up to 20% life force per hit which means you can spend far less time fiddling with your weapons and get into a real DPS situation, basically death shroud/reaper’s shroud. Its boon stripping its at 600 range still which means your target can and will often be out of its reach anyway. The tells on Axe are extremely noticeable. Just as much as the tells on staff.

The axe needs some serious work. I want it to be my go to power weapon. It just doesn’t preform very well. Which is extremely depressing… Especially considering I built frostfang because I used to love how it felt, even when it wasn’t effective at 600 range. I didn’t care that it under preformed. Now it feels bad and under preforms so I can’t justify using it.

Lily.1935:

Its not a bias opinion of mine its performance. If axe actually preformed well I’d only complain about its absolutely terrible paddling animation on females. But when I’m using it and and not paying attention to its animation I’m always thinking “Ugh…. this is just dreadful I could be using staff and not be getting wreaked by everything around me.”

Also, by the way. I don’t often use soul marks. But I like the option.

It is biased, because it’s your performance. I’ve been in too many WvW roaming situations where Staff was negligibly helpful at best against blind spam, aegis spam, stealth spam, etc., for me to really like Staff. And you’d think I might like Staff against something like stealth, because you can drop AoEs, but that isn’t really how it worked out. And if that Staff #1 isn’t generating upwards of 12%+ LF per cast, that’s a whole lot of time you’re spending trying to land a non-homing, slow projectile on multiple people.

Axe clears blinds, in one of its many ticks, and still applies the rest of its pressure/LF gen, as opposed to so many other Necro abilities that are long cast times for a single hit. It continues to channel through stealth, so that Thief that just D/P combo’d back into stealth for the 10th time is still taking damage (Power, mind you, so it doesn’t have the incredible convenience Condi has in situations like that). When the Mesmer comes out of stealth with Aegis, you channel for LF generation, blow any blinds/aegis, and apply some pressure/get some LF to boot. Did that Medi guard just pop Shield of Wrath? 3 ticks from Axe #2 and it’s gone, instead of 3 slow hits that may or may not land.

And that’s all just channel usefulness. It doesn’t have to kill them in 2 channels, but as long as it applies pressure and gets me some LF generation, great. The boon corruption + AoE cripple is nice for some control while you’re in vulnerable-mode. The off-hand can be anything you want it to be.

I mainly just don’t want anyone to be completely discouraged from trying it. As with most things in MMOs, personal style can be a major component. Someone might be really good at managing DoTs, but struggle with a burn-phase style. Maybe someone can instinctually support/heal, but doesn’t know when the time is right to dive for the kill.

Lily.1935:

I don’t lose very much damage when switching to a staff from dagger/focus.

That’s just factually inaccurate. Staff’s AA is 58% of the damage of Axe’s, and that’s assuming it even hits, and its a slow projectile vs nonprojectile. Marks hit for 0.3/0.5/1.2/0.25 coefficients, which is again, pathetic damage. Every single mark added together does less direct damage than a single Axe 2, or a single Dagger AA chain – 2.55 vs 2.88/2.8. So you absolutely lose damage, its not debatable.

Also, staff doesn’t keep people in wells. It has a single soft CC to keep people in place, in the form of chill. One dodge and they’re out; or if you fear them they’ll leave on their own.

Bhawb.7408:

Also, staff doesn’t keep people in wells. It has a single soft CC to keep people in place, in the form of chill. One dodge and they’re out; or if you fear them they’ll leave on their own.

To be fair though, with fears applying chill with Reaper, that does help a bit with an extra tick or two. I don’t see how Staff traps anyone anywhere otherwise, though.