Guild Wars 2

What is a better power weapon?

Axe auto attack is weak but ghastly claws do a decent burst of damage and are on a short cooldown. Unholy feast deals moderate dmg rips a boon and gives retaliation, also has a short cooldown.

Dagger (main hand) has a good auto attack chain that can quickly build up life force, while also dealing good dmg. But the other 2 dagger skills are so clunky, syphon life deals less dmg than ghastly slaws has 1 and 1/4 sec longer channel time and a longer cd.
Dark pact deals less dmg than unholy feast and has a much longer cd, but has a nice Immobilize.

It almost looks like if axe had the dagger chian it would be a perfect weapon.

Also is life shypon really that strong of a skill that it deserves a 3 and 1/4 sec channel time, i mean you almost never use it for the whole duration.
Wouldn’t it be better if it had the same channel time as ghastly claws but a bit longer cooldown?

I only like Axe for Unholy Feast. I dislike all the other skills on it.

I personally run Dagger/Focus in PVE and sPvP and Dagger/Warhorn in WvW, just for the swiftness, but Focus is my main offhand weapon.

Axe Autoattack is very slow, sure, it gives Vulnerability, but Focus, if used on a single target without bouncing to any other nearby targets, will put 12 stacks of Vulnerability up instantly. Life Siphon by default has lower damage than Ghastly Claws, but when boosted using traits like Bloodthirst and Vampiric, it hits for much more then Ghastly Claws, and it can’t be canceled by simply walking into the Necromancer.

as for Dark Pact….Ya, nice immobilize…Retaliation is my friend, I need it in my life. ;A;

It depends on what you’re doing. For pvp you can’t use the axe’s range as well so it falls short, but in WvW if you use the range and positioning it can be a good weapon, where using a dagger means you’re following your target anywhere but doing more damage.

I use both on my pvp power build. Axe/Focus Dagger/Warhorn. Open with axe’s condis and a little burst and switch to dagger for utilities (interrupt, immobilize, siphon if needed) or just raw damage.

For PvE I prefer Axe as well. I generally don’t use the Axe 1 much except to stack a little more vulnerability if it’s needed. The vuln is much more valuable when its benefiting 4+ other people instead of just you. The dagger’s siphon is underwhelming (can be a lifesaver though, don’t get me wrong), and an aoe cripple is generally more useful than a single target immobilize for PvE.

The misleading thing about saying Life Siphon has higher damage is that it also has a longer cast/channel time (I think at least one second longer), which lowers the DPS substantially.

Dagger. Daggerdaggerdaggerdagger.

The Axe isn’t quite a power weapon. In my opinion, it’s a survival weapon. You use it when you want to keep your enemy at a comfortable range, while still putting out damage. None of its abilities really have very good damage, but they do apply Vuln and Cripple.

The dagger on the other hand brings the pain. It has a lot of upfront damage in the 1, has direct synergies with the offhand power attacks (Focus 4/Tootyhorn 5), and has an immobilise to help you lay your Wells on someone’s face. Really, if you just want damage, your best options are using either Dagger 1 or Life Blast.

Well, I use both, they synergize pretty well and I’m cool with that.

Rym.1469:

Well, I use both, they synergize pretty well and I’m cool with that.

+1
What I’ve been doing in spvp for a bit.

For pvp power necro its dager > scepter > axe. imo axe isnt even viable

For wvw though you should definetly stick with axe. In zergs youll be spaming piercing ds#1 most time, but when thats not available, the axe#2 is good and #3 very good. +u can trait for a perma 10% dmg boost.
And in small scale axe is still better for range. I only prefer dagger for solo roaming cz ill be up against thieves 99% of time.

Spite VIII. Axe. +10% damage, More base DPS. Period. Add retaliation, AOE cripple (that even hits those pesky little stealth users) easy vulnerability, and greater range + shorter cd’s = more crits.

Dagger is good for mm’s 1v1ing nubs, sacrificing DPS, condi dmg, or crit dmg/life force for a tiny heal (unless you sacrifice even more to make it seem like it’s worth it) And the perfectly timed immobilize on Skyhammer

PSILO.4068:

Spite VIII. Axe. +10% damage, More base DPS. Period. Add retaliation, AOE cripple (that even hits those pesky little stealth users) easy vulnerability, and greater range + shorter cd’s = more crits.

Dagger is good for mm’s 1v1ing nubs, sacrificing DPS, condi dmg, or crit dmg/life force for a tiny heal (unless you sacrifice even more to make it seem like it’s worth it) And the perfectly timed immobilize on Skyhammer

The problem is that for Axe training you have to give up the spinal shiver proc at 50% hp. And in pvp i dont think it is worth it…

PSILO.4068:

Spite VIII. Axe. +10% damage, More base DPS. Period. Add retaliation, AOE cripple (that even hits those pesky little stealth users) easy vulnerability, and greater range + shorter cd’s = more crits.

Dagger is good for mm’s 1v1ing nubs, sacrificing DPS, condi dmg, or crit dmg/life force for a tiny heal (unless you sacrifice even more to make it seem like it’s worth it) And the perfectly timed immobilize on Skyhammer

I just did some testing on the Heavy pvp golem and took the time i needed to kill it with the different builds. (10 times in a row)
all builds used the zerk amulet with runes of scholar and no sigils. all had the same 6/2/0/0/6 traits (unless stated otherwise) with axe mastery/close to death/deathly perception as the only major traits.

Things not taken into account:
-Offhands
-Utilities/Elites
-Different DPS uptime due to range
-Lifeblast enhancing traits (Spite VI/SR VI) – would have taken annoyingly long to wait until Boons wore off

Stats were:
Power 2313
Precision 1659 (39%)
Ferocity 847 (206%)
Condition Dmg 100

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

PSILO.4068:

Spite VIII. Axe. +10% damage, More base DPS. Period. Add retaliation, AOE cripple (that even hits those pesky little stealth users) easy vulnerability, and greater range + shorter cd’s = more crits.

Dagger is good for mm’s 1v1ing nubs, sacrificing DPS, condi dmg, or crit dmg/life force for a tiny heal (unless you sacrifice even more to make it seem like it’s worth it) And the perfectly timed immobilize on Skyhammer

I just did some testing on the Heavy pvp golem and took the time i needed to kill it with the different builds. (10 times in a row)
all builds used the zerk amulet with runes of scholar and no sigils. all had the same 6/2/0/0/6 traits (unless stated otherwise) with axe mastery/close to death/deathly perception as the only major traits.

Things not taken into account:
-Offhands
-Utilities/Elites
-Different DPS uptime due to range
-Lifeblast enhancing traits (Spite VI/SR VI) – would have taken annoyingly long to wait until Boons wore off

Stats were:
Power 2313
Precision 1659 (39%)
Ferocity 847 (206%)
Condition Dmg 100

Scepter < axe < DS < Dagger < DS+axe

hide spoiler

Scepter: (used 2 and 3 everytime they were up)
avg 18,74s
longest 20,7s
shortest 17,4s

Axe: (used 2 and 3 everytime they were up)
Avg. 17,83s
longest 20,2s
shortest 15,3s

Dagger: (only 1 spam)
avg 11,06s
longest 12,3s
shortest 9,4s

DS (NO axe training): (only 1 spam)
avg 12,31s
longest 13,4s
shortest 11,8s

DS (with axe training): (only 1 spam)
avg 10,94s
longest 11,8s
shortest 10,2s

Maybe you should also test ds dps with staff. If i remember correctly it should be about the same like DS with axe training.

Muchacho.2390:

Maybe you should also test ds dps with staff. If i remember correctly it should be about the same like DS with axe training.

Just did and it was about the same as with axe training.
wanted to test axe auto too, but too many kiddos were interfering. made it 3 times and it took about 22s each to kill, so axe auto > staff (damagewise)

btw added Staff times to my previous post

I cannot believe people still try to argue against dagger. It’s been proven a few times by multiple people. It is our highest dps weapon and it should be considering we have to stand on top of our target to use it.

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

Muchacho.2390:

Maybe you should also test ds dps with staff. If i remember correctly it should be about the same like DS with axe training.

Just did and it was about the same as with axe training.
wanted to test axe auto too, but too many kiddos were interfering. made it 3 times and it took about 22s each to kill, so axe auto > staff (damagewise)

btw added Staff times to my previous post

That is not surprising considering staff is more a utility weapon than a dps weapon (with 1200 range).
But DS hits hard with staff since the high base damage of 2 hand weapons ingeneral.

That also the reason why i like to take staff in power builds. You dont need to trait for axe training (and thus you can take the spinel shiver proc trait) and get still the highest damage in ds.