Guild Wars 2

I was browsing the weapon skill window in game, when I noticed it said Axe 1 had an activation time of 1/4 (it also says this on the wiki). This didn’t look right so I decided to look into it, and I am finding that it has an activation time closer to 1/3 instead of 1/4. I posted the reasoning on why this matters and how I got that below, but I could use a second opinion or a second pair of eyes on all of this in case I am wrong or missing out on something.

First off to answer why does this matter?, if the activation time is closer to 1/3 instead of 1/4 it means that we are attacking ~30% slower than we should be. Since the axe is a slow weapon to begin with this may not mean a whole lot in short fights (such as in SPvP and WvW) , but in PVE and dungeons where you are more likely to be hitting multiple targets with high hp for quite some time this will hurt us a lot more. The reason why this is not a big deal in the PvP content is because there is no group who will let you get that close and hit them for many minutes at a time, in PvE and dungeons this is a lot more common when you clear trash mobs or adds or groups of veterans. The group of monsters that takes us 130 seconds to clear right now should actually take us 100 seconds (maybe even less since I rounded the 30% number down) if the activation time implemented in game is wrong.

My first test was actually very rough, and I used it to confirm my doubts. What I did was use a stop watch to time how long it took to throw 30 axes (88 Ricochets since I didn’t time up to the last two bounces), I timed my character taking 31.2 seconds for the 88 bounces. This gave me an activation time of .354 seconds, which made me look into this further.

The reason I did a second test was to confirm the first one, and to get a more accurate activation time. This time instead of using a stop watch I recorded my character attacking the practicing dummies in Lions Arch for 30 seconds @ 40 FPS (I don’t use the whole footage since that would take too long), using a recording lets me get actual time stamps for each axe thrown and an error for each time stamp (+/- 0.025 seconds). The times I recorded for 10 throws are as follows:

1st attack 0.000 seconds (reference point and when the first damage number popped up)
2nd attack 1.050 seconds
3rd attack 2.125 seconds
4th attack 3.225 seconds
5th attack 4.300 seconds
6th attack 5.475 seconds
7th attack 6.475 seconds
8th attack 7.525 seconds
9th attack 8.725 seconds
10th attack 9.700 seconds (didn’t count last 2 bounces again so 28 ricochets)

Using the above, I get an activation time of .346 +/- 0.050 which agrees with my first test and give us a more accurate activation time.

tl;dr I think we attack >30% slower with Axe 1 then intended.

Now Anet will nerf the axe too…….

urdriel.8496:

Now Anet will nerf the axe too…….

Why would they nerf it, when it is attacking slower then they intended?

We are talking about SAME Anet that is nerfing ranger in each patch??

urdriel.8496:

Now Anet will nerf the axe too…….

Huh?! Did you read the post? rolls eyes

It is ironic though, that Rangers can throw a dagger and an axe further than they can shoot a bow. befuddles the mind…

Anet should have made the LB a standard 1500 (since Rangers are the ‘snipers’ of the game – or should be) and kept the SB distance as is.

The nerf was both unnecessary and unjustified. Regardless, they would do what they want to do. It’s not a class loved by ANet by any stretch of the imagination.

Mjolniir.2541:

urdriel.8496:

Now Anet will nerf the axe too…….

Huh?! Did you read the post?

it is called irony.

urdriel.8496:

Mjolniir.2541:

urdriel.8496:

Now Anet will nerf the axe too…….

Huh?! Did you read the post?

it is called irony.

sarcasm*

But can we get back to the topic? this topic does not have any thing to do with the balance patch.

Axe has a .25 activation time and .75 aftercast. Basically it means 1s per attack.

Puandro.3245:

Axe has a .25 activation time and .75 aftercast. Basically it means 1s per attack.

There is no mention of an after cast on the skill in game or on the wiki though.

This is problem affecting pretty much all ranged weapons in the game to various degrees and is the main reason why Longbow was so bad before this patch.

Minute.7293:

Puandro.3245:

Axe has a .25 activation time and .75 aftercast. Basically it means 1s per attack.

There is no mention of an after cast on the skill in game or on the wiki though.

Doesnt mean it doesnt exist. People who test stuff (like me) know about it since Beta. Aftercast is a real thing.