Guild Wars 2

I know scepter/dagger is one of the main builds. I was wondering if going Axe with 30 in the power traits is good, or will I be just “ok” or even bad vs comparably specced characters from other classes?

Also, my weapon swap would be to staff. And I don’t use minions (though the asura golem will probably get used).

Character concept is an asuran mage, but one not afraid of using dark magic.

Scepter is much more versatile and has numerous builds associated with it. Scepter also has a much more respectable range. If traited and geared properly there is nothing wrong with using the axe as your main weapon you just need to understand its limitations. It can be very effective in a glass cannon build or a hybrid build when used in conjunction with other skills. I use a hybrid build with axe focus as my second weapon set focus 4 drops vulnerability and axe 2 does nice burst.

Plus 1 to what Voodoo said. I switched from a s/d & a/f condition build to a/f & staff power build and have been quite happy with it. Axe1 could use a bit of a buff, and axe’s effectiveness really depends on vulnerability (which is why its almost always paired with focus). Build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Vengeful-Cleric-PVE-build/1794780

My Asura necro:

Scepter/dagger for Condition builds.
Axe/Focus for range Power builds.
Dagger/Warhorn for melee Power builds.

See Nemesis thread at top of Necro forum for info
Necromancer tutorials

Hi so I gather your running an Asura, you may want to take a look at my none well build:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.1%7C7.1g.h1.d.1g.h2%7C6.1g.h2%7C1n.71g.1n.71g.1n.71h.1n.71h.1n.bw.1n.bw%7C411.0.2s.0.3s.0.211.0.311.0.3s.0%7Cu27b.0.p25.f2.0%7C0.0%7C3r.3u.1.48.4g%7Ce

I use Runes to boost boon duration, which helps my retaliation (Unholy Feast), regen (Reaper’s Touch), Might (Blood is Power), and again retaliation (Pain Inverter)

I wanted something with grater mobility than Wells offer but also to be able to stand my ground and slug it out if I wanted.

@Danbuter

Are you doing PvE or PvP?

While I found Axe to be efficient when you stack vuln and you can DPS freely, I didn’t like it in WvW.

The number 2 of axe is our source of damage. Sadly it’s really hard to land when you are being kited, or when you have a thief jumping around. You never get a full duration again a good oponnent. The auto attack is just lack luster, doesn’t do much to the enemy. The number 3 is good.

In 600 range, I just found myself too close to melee’ers, and too far from kite classe.

My opinion, not to say people can’t use it better then me.

But Nemesis tutorial using axe were in PvE, and the way he use it isn’t viable in WvW/PvP.

Thanks all. I plan on PvE and WvW, so it looks like scepter is the only real option.

Are you interrested by dagger?

If you want to go Power build, dagger is awesome.

I also moved from a scepter/dagger condition build to axe/focus power build and I am much more happy now in WvW.

Conditions are fun, but I feel it is too easy to get rid of conditions, the axe can do a good job if used correctly. I havent tried the dagger as main hand yet but I will.

My build is 30/20/20/0/0, PVT for amor, Knight accessories and Knight weapons. I get a good toughness rate, can keep about 45-50% of critical chance, about 3200 of Power and 22K of life.

And Staff is always my second weapon.

In PvP Dagger MH>Axe MH in any build that is focused on dealing direct damage.

Dagger1>Axe1 + Axe2, and Dagger 3 is tremendous even with its long cast.

In WvW you can possibly make use of an axe, but in sPvP it is almost entirely useless. Since you don’t say you are planning to play sPvP anyway, I suppose that isn’t a problem.

danbuter.2314:

Thanks all. I plan on PvE and WvW, so it looks like scepter is the only real option.

Not even close to being correct. All of our weapons are great options. It really depends on your playstyle and what your purpose is in wvwvw. In PvE there are two Axe options full on Axe berzerker damage :P, and Minon builds (My favorite). Dagger is incredible for about 4-5 different build variations. Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

Bas.7406:

danbuter.2314:

Thanks all. I plan on PvE and WvW, so it looks like scepter is the only real option.

Not even close to being correct. All of our weapons are great options. It really depends on your playstyle and what your purpose is in wvwvw. In PvE there are two Axe options full on Axe berzerker damage :P, and Minon builds (My favorite). Dagger is incredible for about 4-5 different build variations. Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

@Bas

Would you say Axe is as viable in WvW as dagger?

Each time I try Axe, I wonder : Why am I not using dagger?

600 seems to be too short to be an efficient range to kite people. And going melee range vs a real Melee is death sentence.

Bas.7406:

Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

Staff?

Kardiamond.6952:

Would you say Axe is as viable in WvW as dagger?

Each time I try Axe, I wonder : Why am I not using dagger?

600 seems to be too short to be an efficient range to kite people. And going melee range vs a real Melee is death sentence.

I don’t think it’s more viable in a power build.
It’s a different story with condition builds though, because then dagger or axe becomes more about the utility rather than damage.

Kardiamond.6952:

Bas.7406:

danbuter.2314:

Thanks all. I plan on PvE and WvW, so it looks like scepter is the only real option.

Not even close to being correct. All of our weapons are great options. It really depends on your playstyle and what your purpose is in wvwvw. In PvE there are two Axe options full on Axe berzerker damage :P, and Minon builds (My favorite). Dagger is incredible for about 4-5 different build variations. Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

@Bas

Would you say Axe is as viable in WvW as dagger?

Each time I try Axe, I wonder : Why am I not using dagger?

600 seems to be too short to be an efficient range to kite people. And going melee range vs a real Melee is death sentence.

Axe is fantastic in 5 to 10 man havoc squads because you can vuln stack for your warrior/thief teammates. While 600 seems relatively close, its better than dagger 150 range which makes me cry hen I see evade evade evade. In the end it’s about preference 600 is alot safer especially with unholy feast, and one good Ghastly Claws chain will hit someone for 13k ;P

Check out the “Facemelter” build in my signature for a unique build with Axe. It’s an sPvP build but I’ve been using a slight variation on it in WvW and it works well in both large and small fights.

Bas.7406:

Kardiamond.6952:

Bas.7406:

danbuter.2314:

Thanks all. I plan on PvE and WvW, so it looks like scepter is the only real option.

Not even close to being correct. All of our weapons are great options. It really depends on your playstyle and what your purpose is in wvwvw. In PvE there are two Axe options full on Axe berzerker damage :P, and Minon builds (My favorite). Dagger is incredible for about 4-5 different build variations. Scepter is for condition builds, and is definitely the easiest to play in a WvWvW zerg.

@Bas

Would you say Axe is as viable in WvW as dagger?

Each time I try Axe, I wonder : Why am I not using dagger?

600 seems to be too short to be an efficient range to kite people. And going melee range vs a real Melee is death sentence.

Axe is fantastic in 5 to 10 man havoc squads because you can vuln stack for your warrior/thief teammates. While 600 seems relatively close, its better than dagger 150 range which makes me cry hen I see evade evade evade. In the end it’s about preference 600 is alot safer especially with unholy feast, and one good Ghastly Claws chain will hit someone for 13k ;P

13k hit?

I have nearly full berserker gear on my necro, with some ascended.

How many vulnerability do you have to stack to get those number?

Because I would hit for around 5-6k on people, on crit. If it worked for the whole duration, which sadly doesn’t happen often.

How do you react to pressure? Like a thief, a mesmer, a ranger, an engineer? How do you counter when they start focusing you?

I feel like Axe doesn’t have the damage/utility to fight 1 on 1. Or to escape being focused.

I will have to try it again. But It didn’t impress me much last time I tried it.

If you plan on using Axe you have to stack critical chance. Axe is nowhere as near as bad as everyone makes it out to be but it will suffer in small scale fights.

Kardiamond.6952:

13k hit?
I have nearly full berserker gear on my necro, with some ascended.

I run a hybrid power build in WvW and my Ghastly Claws were half lifing Wild Bill probably one of the best P/D Thiefs in the game when we was dueling.

How come I don’t get that kind of damage?

And Wild bill being a good P/D thiefs doesn’t mean he has more HP then anyone else.

Thief are pretty glassy.

Did you kill him?

Kardiamond.6952:

How come I don’t get that kind of damage?

And Wild bill being a good P/D thiefs doesn’t mean he has more HP then anyone else.

Thief are pretty glassy.

Did you kill him?

The 13k is a fully buffed plus food fight. I did the Zerker in an HOTW run that is on the SOACGaming website and hit 9k in HOTW with no food and green zerker gems. The kitteno podcast that’s up on the SOACGaming youtube channel shows gameplay videos from kitteno and in one of them he hits 13k and I may have the one on there where he hit 17k.

Oh well in PvE it’s not the same thing.

With vuln stacking and group buff, with PvE mobs often not having much armor, you can do incredible number.

I thought you could do that on a player. Watching Axe #2 one shotting a thief would be awesome. :P

For a power build:

In pvp the dagger does more damage than the axe and has better life force generation, meanwhile the staff brings way more utility with double the range.

In pve the dagger does more damage with better life force generation and there are much better ways to stack vulnerability than sitting there spamming axe 1.

The axe 2 is pretty much a noob trap, it may give you high numbers but dagger 1 has higher dps considering that it takes nearly half the time to execute the entire chain.

Kardiamond.6952:

How come I don’t get that kind of damage?

And Wild bill being a good P/D thiefs doesn’t mean he has more HP then anyone else.

Thief are pretty glassy.

Did you kill him?

We dueled for 2 hours or so, I’m a fan of his videos and i knew it was him from the guild name he uses. I won about 70% of the duels we did, he started getting kills after changing up his build. He also sits on about 24K health.

tasbury.3674:

For a power build:
In pve the dagger does more damage with better life force generation and there are much better ways to stack vulnerability than sitting there spamming axe 1.

The axe 2 is pretty much a noob trap, it may give you high numbers but dagger 1 has higher dps considering that it takes nearly half the time to execute the entire chain.

If your using Axe in WvW, you dont auto attack. Axe is for the fast burst rotation, high Retaliation stacking and ranged damage in general.

I just watched your video man, nice job!

I see how Axe can be efficient. Did you try it in tPvP?

And how does it go again mesmer? Elem DD? HGH Engineer?

I mainly saw duel again thief and warrior.

But I like your use of warhorn.

Ascii.9726:

tasbury.3674:

For a power build:
In pve the dagger does more damage with better life force generation and there are much better ways to stack vulnerability than sitting there spamming axe 1.

The axe 2 is pretty much a noob trap, it may give you high numbers but dagger 1 has higher dps considering that it takes nearly half the time to execute the entire chain.

If your using Axe in WvW, you dont auto attack. Axe is for the fast burst rotation, high Retaliation stacking and ranged damage in general.

You will do more burst damage with dagger 3 → WoS → dagger 1 hell, just spamming dagger 1 is more damage than axe 2. Moreover Retaliation doesn’t even make sense with a burst build.

You shouldn’t use axe, not in WvW, not in PvE and not in PvP.

tasbury.3674:

Ascii.9726:

tasbury.3674:

For a power build:
In pve the dagger does more damage with better life force generation and there are much better ways to stack vulnerability than sitting there spamming axe 1.

The axe 2 is pretty much a noob trap, it may give you high numbers but dagger 1 has higher dps considering that it takes nearly half the time to execute the entire chain.

If your using Axe in WvW, you dont auto attack. Axe is for the fast burst rotation, high Retaliation stacking and ranged damage in general.

You will do more burst damage with dagger 3 -> WoS -> dagger 1 hell, just spamming dagger 1 is more damage than axe 2. Moreover Retaliation doesn’t even make sense with a burst build.

You shouldn’t use axe, not in WvW, not in PvE and not in PvP.

Blanket statements like this are always a mistake. I personally use axe/focus in my spvp play with my minion/chill build. The axe and focus both stack vulnerability on my target so that my minions do more damage. The 600 range is also perfect for me b/c I use sigil of hydromancy so I want to be close enough to my target to move in and swap weapons on them for the chill.

The focus of that particular build is stacking chill, stacking vulnerability, and letting my minions eat away at my target. Axe #2 works well in this situation since my target is slowed so much that they can’t easily avoid the channeling of the attack.

For my glass cannon build I do prefer dagger over axe, but as I stated above… axe does have it’s uses.

kidbs.8920:

tasbury.3674:

Ascii.9726:

tasbury.3674:

For a power build:
In pve the dagger does more damage with better life force generation and there are much better ways to stack vulnerability than sitting there spamming axe 1.

The axe 2 is pretty much a noob trap, it may give you high numbers but dagger 1 has higher dps considering that it takes nearly half the time to execute the entire chain.

If your using Axe in WvW, you dont auto attack. Axe is for the fast burst rotation, high Retaliation stacking and ranged damage in general.

You will do more burst damage with dagger 3 -> WoS -> dagger 1 hell, just spamming dagger 1 is more damage than axe 2. Moreover Retaliation doesn’t even make sense with a burst build.

You shouldn’t use axe, not in WvW, not in PvE and not in PvP.

Blanket statements like this are always a mistake.

Please read the string of quotes you quoted, it’s pretty clear what we are discussing here.

while he did not answer your ridiculous assumption correctly. He did positively point out that axe is a viable weapon choice. Dagger requires you to be within 150 of your opponent. Axe has a nice 600 range, and axe two in pvp on an unsuspecting target in a team match can be lethal. Axe 3 is amazing for wvwvw and in tournaments. I prefer axe in pve because I dont want to sit on top of my target as I would with a dagger.

damage is similar with the main deference being that the dagger is a straight damage weapon and the Axe adds vuln to benefit everyone in the party.

Bas.7406:

while he did not answer your ridiculous assumption correctly. He did positively point out that axe is a viable weapon choice. Dagger requires you to be within 150 of your opponent. Axe has a nice 600 range, and axe two in pvp on an unsuspecting target in a team match can be lethal. Axe 3 is amazing for wvwvw and in tournaments. I prefer axe in pve because I dont want to sit on top of my target as I would with a dagger.

damage is similar with the main deference being that the dagger is a straight damage weapon and the Axe adds vuln to benefit everyone in the party.

No assumptions are being made here, the dagger 1 chain does more dps than the axe 2. Which means in the scenario you listed of “unsuspecting opponent”, the dagger is better suited.

Again the axe 3 is mentioned, are you running the famous 30/30/30/30/30 build here? Retaliation is not good in burst damage power builds, you don’t have the defensive capabilities to see it come into play. It’s good with a Healing power/Toughness/Power builds that have high protection uptime, alot of sustained healing and 1 or 2 regen mechanics (see: Guardians). This does not fit the description of a Power/Precision/Crit Dmg build in the slightest.

Realistically in regards to this game performance only really matters when fighting other players. So sure you could use axe in pve and complete almost all content. However don’t complain on the forums when people don’t want to take necros in groups while you’re running an axe power build. Contrary to what you seem to think, necros are not the only class that stack vunerability in large amounts. Well of Suffering is often enough to fill in the gaps left by other classes so you sitting there spamming axe 1/2 does not help the group when you could be doing 2x the dps with dagger 1.

I love my axe, but as has been said the damage on the dagger far surpasses it. The utility of having an aoe cripple is of course quite handy, but when I equip my dagger I just feel like I am actually doing some damage. Increasing the attack speed for the axe (1) would go a long way to making it feel more like a viable weapon, but as it sits now it just feels like a lessor weapon.

Axe vs Scepter though is even more a stretch, the scepter gives better range, better condition stacking and just feels more viable even if your not a full condi build. Axe is more a niche weapon currently in that most other weapons we have do things better, but it can shine in a group setting for stacking vuln.

Jesus there are so many baddies in this thread who assume auto-attacking with a dagger on a Necromancer is the best melee option, if thats your mentality go play a Thief.

tasbury.3674:

You will do more burst damage with dagger 3 -> WoS -> dagger 1 hell, just spamming dagger 1 is more damage than axe 2. Moreover Retaliation doesn’t even make sense with a burst build.

You shouldn’t use axe, not in WvW, not in PvE and not in PvP.

I think you’ll find Well of Suffering > Ghastly Claws is a stronger and also quicker DPS, Dagger 3 has one of the longest channel times in the whole game. Ghastly Claws has a much higher chance of getting off a full channel then Dagger 3 and also has a higher base damage total.