Guild Wars 2

I was playing my Necro just now and just noticed that standard Axe attack damage is not right

as you can see from attached screenshot my Axe should base damage at 466 in lvl 80 zones with the damage buff from traits but my critical hits are not even hitting that damage mark.. and thats with 18 stacks of vunerability on the Skrit enemy..

My base Sceptor damage is barely over 208 and crits for over 500 dmg without any vunerability.. again as screenshot provides..

changing the attack animation seems to have bugged the weapon and severely broken the Axes damage

Im not an expert on the games damage mechanics so I’d be grateful if someone who was were to test it themselves and back me up here if I am correct about this so it can be fixed asap..

there is definitely a damage issue here my Axe used to hit a lot harder than this

the 2x means that your axe attack hits twice for a total of 466 damage… or in other words: 233 damage per hit, before calculating for defense, crits, etc…

too bad you don’t have screens from “before.”

also… did you accidentally swap out gear or traits? i can clearly see you don’t have weakness on you…

It could actually just be a new feature where your crits always do less than your base damage to ensure that you have longer, more fulfilling battles. Axe damage has always been pretty awful though so I wouldn’t notice much difference.

They probably accidentally released this change early since it wasn’t in patch notes and clearly unfinished so who knows what’s really wrong with it.

Hmm.. I remember my Axe doing a lot more damage than this..
it definitely used to do more than my Sceptor at least..

still with 18 stacks of Vun it should be hitting a lot harder than the Sceptor should without any..

something isn’t right

The attack speed is ever so much slower than before. Reading some threads earlier, someone said that it was .9, and now it’s 1.2. Whether or not that’s right or wrong, I’m not sure.

I read something about it relating to trait changes dealing with the axe.

I really hope this change was unintentional as it is, and was supposed to “ship out” with the trait changes and not this early.

Nevermind that the animation on certain character combinations looks abysmal, but that’s besides the point. Plenty of rage about that in the necro forum anyways.

Yeah im hating the new animation as well..
I dunno why that was changed since the older style worked fine..

it could be a problem with the trait.. instead.. I haven’t really noticed much change in attack speed though but I wasn’t really paying attention to that tbh..

The attack animation looks slower now, so for me the damage output feels slower as well. None of the other skills feel like they were effected. However, if the actual attack speed was affected, then the vulnerability stacking will be behind, even if it’s a slight slow-down.

True..

I don’t have much trouble getting stacks of Vunerability up though..
its just the damage feels severely weak now..

It could just be the trait isn’t working.. I don’t know for sure
either way though I feel that right now the Axe is utterly useless for Necromancer.. even more so if its supposed to be this way..

It was a deliberate change to counter an exploit. Unforunately it caused some uproar due to the fact the people punished were not the exploiters and the animation is either unfinished or just extremely poor in design. Feedback is being collated here for hopefully a change.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Axe-skill-1/first

It’s not just affecting the axe power build either, but any build reliant on vulnerability. I run a damage amp deathshroud shotgun build, I used to have around seven might and fourteen vulnerability from sigil procs and the axe-auto when entering deathshroud, and could quickly amp up to 15-18 might and 25 vulnerability in seconds, at which point I’m averaging 4-4200 damage shroudblasts.

I can’t even get half of that with this change. Upon entering deathshroud I have at least one to two less stacks of might and half as much vulnerability, and I average 2200 damage crits. And the extra amp time to get up to my max of 4200 damage crits costs me such a huge portion of my deathshroud that I’m debating if this build is even worth playing anymore.

Im running a Hybrid Necro myself.. with Axe Focus secondary weapons set..

this change has crippled my Axe completely..

like my screenshot showcased.. my Sceptor which is a condi weapon does more direct damage than the Axe.. and thats before conditions are applied which only amps that up more..

I might as well switch to full condi if this is a perminant chance and not bother with a secondary weapon at all..