Guild Wars 2

It’s not like it’s a bad weapon, but it does seem like the most sub-par out of the three off-hands we have.

Off-hand dagger has the most traits that affect it. The focus has many traits that go well with it. But the warhorn? It only has a single trait that affects it – Banshee’s Wail. Warhorn almost seems weak if you don’t that that one trait that it has.

Warhorn has some utility… but not as much as the other off-hands. Off-hand dagger can transfer conditions. Focus can remove boons. Wail of Doom is a short daze on a long cooldown that inflicts no damage. The biggest flaw is that players only use the warhorn for swiftness because of the Necromancer’s lack of speed. Would you actually use the warhorn if it didn’t grant swiftness or if there were non-utility ways to increase speed? Probably not.

So what can be done to make the warhorn up to standards?

• Make Wail of Doom inflict a piercing 1s fear. 1.5s fear with Banshee’s Wail trait.
• Make the Banshee’s Wail trait affect the trait Decaying Swarm – Locust Swarm at 25% HP.
• Change how Decaying Swarm works – a Locust Swarm at 25% HP is useless.
• Change the trait Speed of Shadows – Run 25% faster in Death Shroud to grant swiftness.

This would make it up to par because it would synergize with a lot of traits lines. Scepter/Warhorn fear build anyone?

What’s everyone else’s opinions on the warhorn?

2 sec based daze is really great. A warhorn is a must have on a glass cannon well-bombing necro, to interrupt any healing.

I think warhorn utilities is more usefull in PVP. The cripple from the locaust swarn let you to get close to enemies, if you are running dagger or run away from a melee if you are playing a ranged build. And don’t forget the vital force gained with this skill.

We haven’t got a shield or blocking habilities, is like our “defensive” offhand.

The warhorn is an absolute must in PvP if you aren’t carrying a staff. Locust swarm is a really strong ability, if you are using a dagger power build it does decent damage, cripples, and can life steal really well, in addition to swiftness, and really good LF generation. But Locust Swarm isn’t why you should use it, Wail of Doom is. You can stop stomps, you can stop enemy res, you can daze someone, and all of this is in a pretty big AoE; meaning you don’t just stop 1 person from stomping, you stop everyone.

Warhorn is amazing in a DS focused build.

Vital Persistance (25% slower LF drain in DS) + Locust Swarm = Life Force won’t naturally decay in DS which allows for a lot of blasting away with a fairly damaging attack which can also pierce and give Might.

I kinda wish that the cooldown untraited wasn’t so horrible (Heck even when traited it still is kinda bad) and that the trait wasn’t in a trait line that seems inappropriate for (Curses is about Conditions. Warhorn provides no conditions… Would make sense for it to be in something like Soul Reaping (Though that is kind of cramped due to how many traits are required to make DS a reliable focus of a build))

I’d say something like – 25 Second base cooldown on the skills, trait providing 25% cooldown reduction + the 50% Stun and 20% swiftness duration (So traited would be 20 second cooldown, 3 second daze and 12 second swiftness rather than the current 25 second cooldown)

Warhorn is my favorite offhand. D/W in a well build is amazing, it feels like it was made specifically for that purpose. After D #3 immobilize and a golem knock down in two wells, you can daze to interrupt their defensive response to spike damage and use locust swarm to keep them crippled as they try to leave the well, then just stick to them with D #1 spam and time a good DS Cripple/Fear pop (coupled with Thief runes) to attack the back with 10% more damage. Beauteous.

i like axe/dagger and dagger/warhorn.

Good for PvP. In PvE Wail of Doom leaves much to be desired as it does no damage and you generally don’t need the daze. When you do need the daze the boss is immune to it.

I’m fine with the cooldown, but it needs something else, preferably damage, so it doesn’t sit idle on your bar for PvE.

In a dagger/whorn well build, dazing a large group of enemies inside a WoS is always satisfying. Its 2 seconds(3 traited) that the enemy isnt doing damage to you, which is a bigger deal than it seems in PvE and can be used both offensively with wells/dagger1 chain or defensively as an escape tool if you get in over your head.

I run D/WH too… problem with the build in general is you run out of things to do. You use your few damaging skills and everything else is so situational I sit there staring at myself autoattack. Life Siphon- full hp. Low dmg. No need. Dark Pact. I don’t need to immob anything. No need. Etc.

Dagger autoattack is too good. Damage needs to be reduced on it and redistributed to other skills you can use for a damage increase if their primary purpose isn’t needed.

Draehl.2681:

I run D/WH too… problem with the build in general is you run out of things to do. You use your few damaging skills and everything else is so situational I sit there staring at myself autoattack. Life Siphon- full hp. Low dmg. No need. Dark Pact. I don’t need to immob anything. No need. Etc.

Dagger autoattack is too good. Damage needs to be reduced on it and redistributed to other skills you can use for a damage increase if their primary purpose isn’t needed.

I feel the same way sometimes. I usually run a dagger well build, and even with well and warhorn traits if I don’t perfectly micromanage my abilities or I make a mistake I get so cooldown starved and end up dodging in and out mixing in dagger1 chains for 10 someodd seconds waiting for utilities or my horn skills to come back up.

I think warhorn is just on the cusp of being awesome. If they changed the daze into a fear I think you would see much more use out of it.