Guild Wars 2

My question is the following: Could it be advantageous for the standard ranger/druid power build to run a torch as off-hand weapon besides the sword instead of an axe?

When playing PVE, I find it hard to maintain high levels of might in fights that last longer than 15 seconds because in lfg fractals or the open world, you often have to cater for yourself if you want boons and after our initial might burst, it starts dropping very quickly even with might generating pets like the smokescale.

Therefore, I am thinking: If I drop the off-hand axe and instead put down a fire field, instantly blast might with Clarion Bond and apart from that do the usual stuff (WHaO, SotP etc.), wouldnt i end up with more damage output? The trade to me seems the pretty good damage of axe 4 but in return i get might both for me and my pet.

Do you guys think this would be worth it?

PS: Haven’t tried it out yet but will do now, see how it goes. I’ve got an ascended torch with Sinister stats lying around which is obsolete due to Vipers’ and I can change this into Berserker.

Hmmmh… Not sure about it. Can’t tell.
Torch is better in DPS if you are 25 mighted and have a banner even in Berserker (if all ticks of torch hit and fights takes long enough).

But for your situation I’m really not sure. My guess is still no but I don’t have that tested. 3 might is way too little trade off for the damage of Axe.

But what you can do is take Torch and use bonfire > Swap to Warhorn and blast #5 > Swap to Axe and engage combat. That will most definitely bring you the most damage output when we are talking about general PvE.
Axe is a burst option and stuff dies too quickly for Torch to take it’s full over-time effect. If we are talking about open world / dungeons / lower fractals.

why not just slot guard for the might instead?

Prophet.1584:

why not just slot guard for the might instead?

Depends on whether you/your pet are being hit.
It’s a very bad might steroid for PvE given how slow their attack speeds are.

Tragic Positive.9356:

But what you can do is take Torch and use bonfire > Swap to Warhorn and blast #5 > Swap to Axe and engage combat.

Listen to that OP. Except I’d change things around on the LB weapon slot to avoid having to choose axe for off-hand so swaps are simple double-clicks. Could even have a bit of fun with it (like I do) when you’re bored.

Torch > Bonfire > Swap to Warhorn > Call of the Wild > Hunter’s Call > Swap to Longbow before Hunter’s Call hits mid-cast > start S/A+LB rotation or whatever.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Tragic Positive.9356:

But what you can do is take Torch and use bonfire > Swap to Warhorn and blast #5 > Swap to Axe and engage combat.

Listen to that OP. Except I’d change things around on the LB weapon slot to avoid having to choose axe for off-hand so swaps are simple double-clicks. Could even have a bit of fun with it (like I do) when you’re bored.

Torch > Bonfire > Swap to Warhorn > Call of the Wild > Hunter’s Call > Swap to Longbow before Hunter’s Call hits mid-cast > start S/A+LB rotation or whatever.

Yup, that would be the most efficient way to do it.
Even though it seems impossible theoretically, a weapon can be changed during mid-cast of Hunter’s Call (WH #4) and the ability would still succeed regardless of being “interrupted”.
The effect takes place somewhere in the 1/4 of the cast rather than at the end of it.

You probably wouldn’t want to do that often since it’s a pain in the buns with the timings but I like to try practicing this myself from time to time.

Yeah, too late on the swap, you’re screwed. It’s fun to inventory-weapon swap skills to get the most out of stuff at times. Ranger has some fun inventory-weapon swap combos.