Guild Wars 2

I have seen plenty of published builds/youtube records where WWW wellomancers run with staff and axe/horn

but i never seen power builds with dagger offhand, though it seems like the dagger is better suited for zerg vs zerg clash.
dagger 5 is AOE weakness.
dagger 4 has wonderful synergy with chilling darkness.
dagger range also is 900 while the horn range is much closer.

anybody runs WvW with axe/dagger?
(power builds are: 30/10/0/0/30, 20/20/0/0/30, 0/20/0/20/30 )

You’re giving up a lot by taking it. The other options are tooty horn which gives you a lot of swiftness, constant Cripple application to 5 nearby targets, and a cone daze, and the Focus, which gives you a huge lump of single target burst and boon hate+chill. The dagger is definitely good, but Horn and Focus both seem to fit a ZvZ and 1v1 better than the Dagger.

Well because it has more aoe. And having swiftness to keep up with your zerg is important as you dont want to take sol or sw as utility skills in zerg fights.

But if swiftness is not a problem offhand dagger is fine too. For zerg fights i would never take focus as it lacks good aoe.

For 1v1 or small group fights all offhands are good for power builds, no matter what some other necros may say. The reason is that the offhands all bring different utilities for power builds (for pure damage all offhands are bad, but thats not thier function so it is fine).

I run conditions and even I have oh horn just for swiftness, it synergizes well with plague also.

In zerg, your personal condition removal is cool if you take Consume as heal, most of the times. Inside the zerg, there’re many condi cleanses so you don’t really need another one. For Chilling Darkness… You know, it’s kind of short duration, balanced around Well of Darkness.
Weakness may be cool, but it gets cleansed pretty quickly.

Very recently I started roaming/testing this D/D hybrid build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAoYWjMaF7pbmb07JEoH9CuAiRPOmghZoK4OA-j0CB0CAUFYk3gEIQEJIZmCRZqasVTFRjVdDT5CQHbR1SBsoyI-w

Seems kind of off, but it actually really impressed me.

Sarrs.4831:

You’re giving up a lot by taking it. The other options are tooty horn which gives you a lot of swiftness, constant Cripple application to 5 nearby targets, and a cone daze, and the Focus, which gives you a huge lump of single target burst and boon hate+chill. The dagger is definitely good, but Horn and Focus both seem to fit a ZvZ and 1v1 better than the Dagger.

you’re not giving up anything actually. it’s a condi cleanse.

I use an Offhand Dagger for my Power build I find the additional Condition transfer + blind to be incredibly useful especially against bit telegraphed attacks (Like Rush, Signet of Spite ect.)

Though I was talking to someone about this yesterday I think that everyone has “their” offhand that they just find an affinity for.

For the longest time people told me I should use a Warhorn or Focus with my Dagger on a power Necro so I used the Focus and it was alright but I started using Dagger and it just feels at home so use what you feel most comfortable with not what people say is the most popular.

I have to agree with others here. For powermancers of any type Warhorn and Focus seem to win out, even though offhand dagger has bouncing condition transfer/blinds (maybe chilling) and an area weakness. This is mainly because Deathly Swarm doesn’t play as well in large groups like ZvZ. It can be hard to hit with as its slow and highly telegraphed and you need to be facing your target or else it fails going to full CD. Locust Swarm is fire and forget, great for the area Cripples, self Swiftness, a 1550+ heal more or less from Vampiric and gives 2% LF gain per hit (or per pulse?).

Basically Warhorn is a perfect weapon for zerging, as everything on Locust Swarm helps you get from one side of an enemy to the other, while CCing and still being alive in a nice and cozy DS. Condi removal from zerg should help you out until you switch to Staff for Putrid Mark, which is a much better and more reliable condi clear in a zerg atmostphere.

For me dagger OH is a no go simply because the condi transfer part of it will fail if you are blinded youself. I would very much prefer dagger sometimes but that alone spoils it, for me at least.

I use Dagger offhand in power builds all the time while roaming, but nothing beats the warhorn in a zerg.

Constant area damage, constant area cripple, and the amazing lifeforce generation is a plus too. Focus is too suited for single targets, and dagger offhand condition cleanse isnt really needed.. the blinds are nice, but the damage on dagger abilities doesnt come close to the damage locust swarm will give you.

Warhorn is useless. Dagger as off-hand is the best you can get.