Guild Wars 2

Yesterday I tried to start leveling up a Power Necro for general PVE while I can get him Viper for T4 Fracs and Raids. I started with Axe and read many people sayign Axe is strong for PVE but… well… I don’t think so.

I was leveling a Human and by level 7 I was doing the Centaur Camp destroying Renown Heart on Queensdale, and it took me forever and a million years to kill anything with Axe.
I know Power Necro hasn’t Thief or even Revenant killing times on melee but I’ve had faster kills with a Mesmer at that level…

I deleted him after the benchmarks came out yesterday but something inside me calls to try again.

So, is Axe the only option now? Dagger still better? How do I level him up?

Above 60, just condition pet build with scepter/dagger and feel yourself getting carried autoattacking any target you wish to get down.

Atomnium.1532:

Above 60, just condition pet build with scepter/dagger and feel yourself getting carried autoattacking any target you wish to get down.

I’m afraid I have no Viper’s yet… I wanna main Necro and I’ll have to farm for said gear, I made the terrible mistake of getting a medium chest instead of a light one on my first HoT character…

Will Rampager’s work for Open World PVE and T1-T3 Fracs?

Whatever is fun for you honestly. Most PvE in this game you can do whatever you want and be effective.

How is him on Tiers 1-3 tho? It worries me that with the current wave of elitism that hit the game I might be kicked from pugs…

In pve just about any weapon is usable and can do decent damage if used with the right traits and skills. Axe I find better with minions though. Although the new skill change on 2 axe makes it kind of decent. Although to me still a bit slow at times. But dagger to me tends to kill faster without minions. Although the stacking vuln helps in some instances with vets and elites.
If you like axe and daggers just equip axe and and off hand and then dagger with whatever off hand you like.
As for fractals I can’t help you there. Can’t seem to find time or people to help me level in it.

Vyrulisse.1246:

Whatever is fun for you honestly. Most PvE in this game you can do whatever you want and be effective.

This advice is awful. Being able to complete PVE with whatever you want is not the same as being effective.

Classes jump the meta ranking all the time; so if the OP is just leveling a necro because of it’s new found buffs, I would advise you don’t bother. That kind of thinking is going to make you very disappointed with this game. You play a class because you like the theme, not because it’s wanted in teams.

Axe was significantly improved, though the build up still seems a little slow with the AA. Being that you can stay outside of melee range, using minions with power gear will work well. It’s the ranged power equivalent to Scepter Condi.

Obtena.7952:

Vyrulisse.1246:

Whatever is fun for you honestly. Most PvE in this game you can do whatever you want and be effective.

This advice is awful. Being able to complete PVE with whatever you want is not the same as being effective.

The nature of “general PvE” means that you can be effective doing whatever you want in terms of builds so I disagree. He didn’t ask about Raiding or high level Fractals in which case yeah it would not be great advice. General PvE is for having fun doing what you enjoy doing, that’s how it is designed.

Aldath.1275:

I know Power Necro hasn’t Thief or even Revenant killing times on melee but I’ve had faster kills with a Mesmer at that level…

Axe isn’t a melee weapon – it’s a projectile-less ranged weapon, and its balancing takes into account that it’s a weapon whose damage is hard to stop. If you want to do melee damage, generally you need to be using a melee weapon – so for core necro, you’d be looking at dagger.

I think the currently buffed axe is good for what it’s intended to do, but it’s not a melee weapon. Once you get a weaponswap, though, axe/X is a solid alternative to staff for a ranged option on a power build (it will generally do more damage to single targets but isn’t as effective against groups).

well dagger is faster since its auto attack hits 2 targets tho while axe is focused on 1 target. and with dagger u get heals.

Aldath.1275:

Yesterday I tried to start leveling up a Power Necro for general PVE while I can get him Viper for T4 Fracs and Raids. I started with Axe and read many people sayign Axe is strong for PVE but… well… I don’t think so.

I was leveling a Human and by level 7 I was doing the Centaur Camp destroying Renown Heart on Queensdale, and it took me forever and a million years to kill anything with Axe.
I know Power Necro hasn’t Thief or even Revenant killing times on melee but I’ve had faster kills with a Mesmer at that level…

I deleted him after the benchmarks came out yesterday but something inside me calls to try again.

So, is Axe the only option now? Dagger still better? How do I level him up?

Dagger is consistent dmg with cleave AA and some healing. Axe is slow on AA but has good burst on Axe 2. I use both atm and swap weapons frequently. I actually keep Axe/ focus in my backbar when i unlock the GS.

If you wanna play condi use staff and scepter/dagger. Gives good AoE dmg and strong DoTs.

Dagger+Warhorn is still way better than axe, expecially with vampiric traits.
Axe is a ranged 1 target weapon and with traits become really good.
To start, play condition. the scepter will grant you good damage, range and fun.
If you want to kill faster with direct damage, dagger is the way.

In endgame the necromancer is not exactly the most wanted class for raids and fractals (unless you find someone that know how good a necro can be in fractal). Expecially for raids, we’re not so much wanted after the Lich and the epidemic nerfs, but we still find a spot.

Dagger or Axe for levelling.. why not both?
Burst from range with axe and then switch to dagger to kill mobs while your minions keep them busy.

Once you unlock reaper go with Axe, Warhorn and Greatsword (berserker) if power and Scepter, Dagger and Greatsword if condi (viper).

Leveling, definitely axe over dagger. Axe/x and Staff and you will have easy times. Utilities, use either minions or wells.

GS remains superior to dagger (if slightly), so most of the time you’ll camp it. With that in mind, I’d recommend picking axe for having ranged option when you need it.

You will not be able to use GS untill you reach the level 80 and unlock the Reaper Elite Trait Specializzation (if you have HoT), then your best option is go full minions or use some wells as utilities and for weapons use Axe/x (maybe focus) at range using the skill 2 and the AA to engage and then dagger/warhorn to fight.

Vyrulisse.1246:

Obtena.7952:

Vyrulisse.1246:

Whatever is fun for you honestly. Most PvE in this game you can do whatever you want and be effective.

This advice is awful. Being able to complete PVE with whatever you want is not the same as being effective.

The nature of “general PvE” means that you can be effective doing whatever you want in terms of builds so I disagree. He didn’t ask about Raiding or high level Fractals in which case yeah it would not be great advice. General PvE is for having fun doing what you enjoy doing, that’s how it is designed.

Again, being able to do whatever you want does not equal effective. Effective implies a level of optimization. Being able to do whatever you want does not. Being effective in PVE is not limited to raids or fractals either. You can optimize for OW PVE as well. These are not debatable or subjective statements. Offering the advise that you can do whatever you want and be effective is bad advice because it’s not true.

axe is trash. if you’re a core necro you’re supposed to run dagger/focus + warhorn in offhand.

Axe is most certainly not trash. The #2 on it was always a great damage dealer, even more so now with the recent buff to it and 3 now hits twice against enemies under 25%, which can just finish off trash enemies for you while you focus on other things. I use Axe/Focus and Greatsword and I am able to steamroll anything in general PvE. I even use it in T4 fractals and it works just fine.

Use Spite (trait focus and axe), blood magic and reaper and you will be dealing great damage + having survivability.

Dagger is technically stronger but axe is a very good power option for range. So you could always equip dagger/warhorn and axe/focus and you’ll be set.

Sublimatio.6981:

axe is trash. if you’re a core necro you’re supposed to run dagger/focus + warhorn in offhand.

Axe does the same DPS above 50% now as dagger, and more damage than dagger with vuln stacks.

FrostDraco.8306:

Sublimatio.6981:

axe is trash. if you’re a core necro you’re supposed to run dagger/focus + warhorn in offhand.

Axe does the same DPS above 50% now as dagger, and more damage than dagger with vuln stacks.

Is that single vs single target or does the axe have same dps single vs three targets (if dagger was 3, cant remember).

Personally I find it odd to even argue – you can maintain DS almost indefinetly anyway, lol.

for lvling just use dagger/x for melee and axe/x for range.

dagger was nerfed to 2 targets.

Rapier.3675:

for lvling just use dagger/x for melee and axe/x for range.

dagger was nerfed to 2 targets.

*buffed

It use to be single target.

axe trash, never use it in pve.
d/w/f

Axe is single target, no boons of ur team( because u are outrange) no one will insta res u if u hug a ground.

lol, axe don’t have ranged penality so you can use it melee.. if you know how to not interrupt Ghastly Claws.

Spite/Soul Reapering/Reaper
Do your normal GS rotation and use Axe/Warhorn paired with shrouds combo, wich is a nice dps increase if you spin in a useful field: Locust Swarm, Ghastly Claws, Enter Shroud, Soul Spiral, AA chain with Burning ‘til 2 sec before weapon swap (finish the chain), Exit Shroud, Ghastly Claws, Weapon Swap.
Try to place your well an let it work while you are in shroud to gain Advantage of Reaper’s Onslaught ferocity.

The most important thing is to not being locked in Axe for the bad AA and use Unholy Feast only when you can proc the second effect on min 3 nearby foes.

Dawdler.8521:

FrostDraco.8306:

Sublimatio.6981:

axe is trash. if you’re a core necro you’re supposed to run dagger/focus + warhorn in offhand.

Axe does the same DPS above 50% now as dagger, and more damage than dagger with vuln stacks.

Is that single vs single target or does the axe have same dps single vs three targets (if dagger was 3, cant remember).

Personally I find it odd to even argue – you can maintain DS almost indefinetly anyway, lol.

If it was 3 targets wouldnt you just be using DS anyway? So yea….

Buffs: Realistic power – 5 GOTL stacks, Spotter, Frost & Sun spirit, Banner of Strength + Discipline, Empower Allies, Alacrity. 5 Boons (Quickness, Fury, Might, Regen, Swiftness)
No food
Stats: 100% Berserker ascended
Runes: Scholar
Sigil: Force
Traits: spite 112, blood 331, reaper 232
Infusions: 11 +5 power, 2 +5 condi dmg
Golem: 1 mln health, all conditions
Utility skills active: Signet of Spite
——————————————————————————————————-
GS autoattack: 15.794
Dagger autoattack: 15.559
Axe autoattack: 10.834 (with axe trait)
Axe auto + 2 on cd: 14.029 (with axe trait)
Staff auto: 7.087
RS auto (traited Reaper’s Onslaught): 14.584 (life force refilled once by two focus 4 and dagger auto)
DS auto : 10.849 (soul reaping line instead of reaper. dhuumfire gave slightly better dps than death perception which gave 10.587) (DS entered on staff for weapon strength)

Sublimatio.6981:

Axe autoattack: 10.834 (with axe trait)
Axe auto + 2 on cd: 14.029 (with axe trait)

Axe’s AA it’s absolutely to avoid when possible.

We can say that casting Ghastly Claws and then enter Reaper Shroud (with dhuumfire) is the way to go for Axe users.

This seems to have really gone off track, given he was asking which is better for leveling out of dagger and axe.
In short I’d say bring both. Dagger/warhorn and Axe/Focus. Engage with a/f #4 then #2. Swap to d/w #5 and auto attack.

if you want the burst, its better to have axe/wh and dagger/focus. however, if the mob isn’t going to die withing the burst, its better to camp dagger (champions etc)

@Vitali – no. If you are core necro, you don’t have access to reaper shroud. If you are reaper you should camp GS or go viper. Viper does 10000 more dps.

Sublimatio.6981:

Buffs: Realistic power – 5 GOTL stacks, Spotter, Frost & Sun spirit, Banner of Strength + Discipline, Empower Allies, Alacrity. 5 Boons (Quickness, Fury, Might, Regen, Swiftness)
No food
Stats: 100% Berserker ascended
Runes: Scholar
Sigil: Force
Traits: spite 112, blood 331, reaper 232
Infusions: 11 +5 power, 2 +5 condi dmg
Golem: 1 mln health, all conditions
Utility skills active: Signet of Spite
——————————————————————————————————-
GS autoattack: 15.794
Dagger autoattack: 15.559
Axe autoattack: 10.834 (with axe trait)
Axe auto + 2 on cd: 14.029 (with axe trait)
Staff auto: 7.087
RS auto (traited Reaper’s Onslaught): 14.584 (life force refilled once by two focus 4 and dagger auto)
DS auto : 10.849 (soul reaping line instead of reaper. dhuumfire gave slightly better dps than death perception which gave 10.587) (DS entered on staff for weapon strength)

I’m sticking to this class because it’s fun AF, I get Reaper tonight but GOD… It’s sad to see we’re doing Mesmer levels of damage… We might as well be the 2nd weakest power build :/ As far as I know…

these are just autoattacks. power reaper dps is around 23.5k. still worse than power rev or hammer guard

Still it’s sad to see, Axe is a very satisfying weapon and well, looks like it is definitely underpowered compared to the rest of the Power kitten nal.

Aldath.1275:

Still it’s sad to see, Axe is a very satisfying weapon and well, looks like it is definitely underpowered compared to the rest of the Power kitten nal.

Eh, not really. We’re comparing it against dagger and greatsword, which are both melee weapons, while axe can do most of its damage at a 900 range. It’s typical across all professions that melee weapons will either have better damage, better defences, or both compared to ranged weapons.

If you’re expecting to be in melee 100% of the time, then yes, you probably just want to stick to a melee weapon (and dagger gets the added bonus that Life Siphon does have some range, so you don’t even have to be in melee 100% of the time with it). If you are expecting to be out of melee for long enough periods that it’s worth swapping, however, then going axe/focus and dagger/warhorn is a worthwhile option. Having a melee set and a ranged set is a common strategy.

I run a Viper geared Reaper with D/D & GS.

Curses: 3 -1- 2
Soul Reaping: 3 – 2 – 3 (Sometimes I’ll run Blood if I’m solo)
Reaper: 2 – 3 – 2
Heal: Consume – BiP, Epidemic, Suffer – Elite: Plaguelands.

I’m pretty much unkillable outside of Raids (which I don’t run on this character anyway). I would highly suggest running with a Dagger, mostly because of the leech you get, coupled with Shroud makes you pretty much invincible. I use a second dagger because of the transfer + blind, with Chilling Darkness, you inflict more bleeds. I switch to GS on bosses and such so I can spam Gravedigger and Shroud.

Faction.4013:

I run a Viper geared Reaper with D/D & GS.

Curses: 3 -1- 2
Soul Reaping: 3 – 2 – 3 (Sometimes I’ll run Blood if I’m solo)
Reaper: 2 – 3 – 2
Heal: Consume – BiP, Epidemic, Suffer – Elite: Plaguelands.

I’m pretty much unkillable outside of Raids (which I don’t run on this character anyway). I would highly suggest running with a Dagger, mostly because of the leech you get, coupled with Shroud makes you pretty much invincible. I use a second dagger because of the transfer + blind, with Chilling Darkness, you inflict more bleeds. I switch to GS on bosses and such so I can spam Gravedigger and Shroud.

Why not scepter? You are kinda hampering your own build.

Sublimatio.6981:

Buffs: Realistic power – 5 GOTL stacks, Spotter, Frost & Sun spirit, Banner of Strength + Discipline, Empower Allies, Alacrity. 5 Boons (Quickness, Fury, Might, Regen, Swiftness)
No food
Stats: 100% Berserker ascended
Runes: Scholar
Sigil: Force
Traits: spite 112, blood 331, reaper 232
Infusions: 11 +5 power, 2 +5 condi dmg
Golem: 1 mln health, all conditions
Utility skills active: Signet of Spite
——————————————————————————————————-
GS autoattack: 15.794
Dagger autoattack: 15.559
Axe autoattack: 10.834 (with axe trait)
Axe auto + 2 on cd: 14.029 (with axe trait)
Staff auto: 7.087
RS auto (traited Reaper’s Onslaught): 14.584 (life force refilled once by two focus 4 and dagger auto)
DS auto : 10.849 (soul reaping line instead of reaper. dhuumfire gave slightly better dps than death perception which gave 10.587) (DS entered on staff for weapon strength)

One problem with this. All conditions gives the target vuln. Which this shows the damage both in an optimal setting, this does not show the difference between axe and dagger on targets with no vuln or conditions…..

In addition to the around 1.6k damage you get from Mark of blood when it procs. This also would drop dagger damage.

@Frost

Vulnerability isn’t that uncommon even running on your own. It’s incredibly easy as necromancer to stack high and long lasting vulnerability with a majority of our weapons or traits.

Also why are you mentioning a staff skill when you are comparing axe and dagger? Do you mean blood bond?

FrostDraco.8306:

Why not scepter? You are kinda hampering your own build.

Mostly for Life Force generation. I definitely get that Scepter would be optimal, but in the solo & Open World, I prefer to run MH Dagger and spam Shroud every few seconds.

FrostDraco.8306:

One problem with this. All conditions gives the target vuln. Which this shows the damage both in an optimal setting, this does not show the difference between axe and dagger on targets with no vuln or conditions…..

In addition to the around 1.6k damage you get from Mark of blood when it procs. This also would drop dagger damage.

you always have vuln on world bosses, dungeon bosses, fractal bosses and raid bosses, champ trains etc. if you need to cast some vuln for a trash mob you have focus and well of suffering for that, can even trait rending shroud for that. also gs3 when reaper.

dont see why you have problem with blood bond (which you have mistaken for mark of blood). – in group you are not going to benefit from it since everyone will immediately use up one stack and poof. in solo it will add about 70 dps so pretty irrelevant.

Lahmia.2193:

Rapier.3675:

for lvling just use dagger/x for melee and axe/x for range.

dagger was nerfed to 2 targets.

*buffed

It use to be single target.

my bad.

Sublimatio.6981:

FrostDraco.8306:

One problem with this. All conditions gives the target vuln. Which this shows the damage both in an optimal setting, this does not show the difference between axe and dagger on targets with no vuln or conditions…..

In addition to the around 1.6k damage you get from Mark of blood when it procs. This also would drop dagger damage.

you always have vuln on world bosses, dungeon bosses, fractal bosses and raid bosses, champ trains etc. if you need to cast some vuln for a trash mob you have focus and well of suffering for that, can even trait rending shroud for that. also gs3 when reaper.

dont see why you have problem with blood bond (which you have mistaken for mark of blood). – in group you are not going to benefit from it since everyone will immediately use up one stack and poof. in solo it will add about 70 dps so pretty irrelevant.

You do realize that all of that pretty much defeats the general purpose of ever testing a build for open world damage right?

If you aren’t going to do a benchmark properly, don’t get mad when someone has a critique for inconsistencies or control factors.

Also its not one stack per person if you are doing a SOLO benchmark, which is why its misleading. You yourself are using all 5 stacks. Whats 5 × 70 bro? It’s still a dps increase which deviates from showing the weapon strength alone with traits. Especially since a person may not even be running bloodmagic. Which makes it even more skewed, also due to how vampiric presence procs per hit, and has no ICD, which skews the results again.

Call it pedantic, but i seem to have a higher threshhold for evidence than other people here.

If you’re pedantic maybe try to do your math yourself. You gain ~70dps if you use 4 stacks of blood bond, so what you just wrote (5×70 – thats not how calculating dps works LOL) just ridiculed you.
Moreover, in first paragraph you speak about testing for open world, but in third paragraph you magically change your mind and it’s now a solo benchmark, so you’re quite inconsistent for a pedant.
Vampiric presence doesn’t ruin anything, since it’s present in all of the setups as it’s the meta trait. (for solo and open world both, if you magically change your sides again)

Apart from that, I have nowhere stated what my numbers are meant for. These are just clean, precise results of autoattacking with meta traits and gear and realistic buffs. You are just being petty because you don’t like that GS wins (yeah, even without blood bond)

Open world has more than just hitting bosses with train of other people. I know some people play that way, but not everyone does.

Also, I thought we were comparing axe and dagger, not axe and greatsword? If you’re going power reaper, than greatsword is practically a given in PvE. Greatsword + dagger/X is making you pretty heavily committed to melee.

Sublimatio.6981:

If you’re pedantic maybe try to do your math yourself. You gain ~70dps if you use 4 stacks of blood bond, so what you just wrote (5×70 – thats not how calculating dps works LOL) just ridiculed you.
Moreover, in first paragraph you speak about testing for open world, but in third paragraph you magically change your mind and it’s now a solo benchmark, so you’re quite inconsistent for a pedant.
Vampiric presence doesn’t ruin anything, since it’s present in all of the setups as it’s the meta trait. (for solo and open world both, if you magically change your sides again)

Apart from that, I have nowhere stated what my numbers are meant for. These are just clean, precise results of autoattacking with meta traits and gear and realistic buffs. You are just being petty because you don’t like that GS wins (yeah, even without blood bond)

Are you daft? Especially because I’ve been one of the biggest advocates for GS on this forum?

You insult your own intelligence dude.

As some dudes already posted,dagger is really good for power necro in open PVE.Fast attacks,cleave and solid dmg.Also boosting might stacking with spite tree.Axe is good for single target,thou i believe dagger is higher dps there aswell.Just try it out,equip dagger,clear some npcs,than try the same with axe and you get the feeling.

I ended up switching back from GS S/SR/Re to dagger S/Bl/Re for a few reasons in open world. The dagger trait means I dont need to run signet of the locust and can use another utility.

Also dagger adds a bunch of survivability. #2 when you + the life siphon can heal you for 4~5k+. Incase people didnt know the dagger trait procs at the end of the cast of a skill not before so as long as using this skill puts you over 75% hp when it ends it will have a 8s cool-down. Also has 600 range so can back off which still doing damage. Also has a coeff of 3.24 when things are bleeding which isnt too bad for what it does.

Its no GS for raw output but I can solo stuff I wouldn’t otherwise be able to and the extra utility freedom is pretty cool.

Just wish they would lower the lf gain per strike and reduce the aftercast like thief since you cant even stow weapon the almost half second after the chain ends. Necro originally had the stronger dagger auto as well as this would go a long ways to improving Necro dps, fluidity and D/F as a strong weapon set.

I’m still using my gs condi necro and for me, it’s still viable, combined with some minions as well. I suggest it.

Kenneth.7536:

I’m still using my gs condi necro and for me, it’s still viable, combined with some minions as well. I suggest it.

Viable? Dude right now its meta.

FrostDraco.8306:

Kenneth.7536:

I’m still using my gs condi necro and for me, it’s still viable, combined with some minions as well. I suggest it.

Viable? Dude right now its meta.

I mean, depends if he’s camping greatsword or not. Since pure condi gs is worse dps than pure power.