Guild Wars 2

Is it bad? I’m getting mixed feedback.

I joined the game 5 days ago. Picked a ranger and surprisingly enough double axes became my weapon of choice despite me initially wanting nothing to do with melee. Axes just turned out to be so much fun that I fell in love. Paired them with Beastmastery as a primary specialization. Resounding Timbre, Natural Healing and Honed Axes. We Heal As One, Protect Me, Sic ’Em, Search and Rescue (swapped for Signet of the Hunt depending on the situation) and Strength of the Pack.

I don’t like the other one-handed weapons or the short bow. Greatsword and longbow are fun but since I already have the close range AoE niche nailed down with the axes, I’m leaning towards the bow. Interested in staff whenever I can start training as a druid.

So far I had no issues with survivability with this set-up. I’m only wearing white vendor gear but have soloed both veterans and champions. The shouts give access to constant regeneration and swiftness.

Am I playing the class wrong?

No, in fact, full shouts and Resounding Timber are the basis of one of our best builds in PvP because the constant regeneration allows Druids to generate Astral Force continually, and the Swiftness allows them to drop Natural Stride and take Celestial Shadow instead.
Although Axe+Axe is not optimal in higher-end content, you’ll do more than just fine in general PvE content.
You can also think about replacing Search and Rescue with Quickening Zephyr, then spamming 1 and getting an easy 10-15 might.
Also Rampage as One, then hitting a bunch of enemies, then using We Heal As One for instant 25 Might

Not at all.
PvE pretty much anything goes.

PvP it’s probably an unpopular choice because of the lack of mobility and survivability. For example, staff has a movement and projectile denial. Greatsword has a movement and block. Sword and dagger have many evasion frames and a movement skill.

As far as the utilities the same applies.
PvE anything goes. You could remove Signet of the hunt and add natural stride for +33% movement if you have druid. (Ancent seeds may also combo well with path of scars).

PvP shouts are a great choice because of their synergy with Soldier rune. I made it to legend 3 seasons in a row by running (we heal as one, protect me, search and rescue, Signet of Stone, and strength of the pack).

Meanma.5623:

Is it bad? I’m getting mixed feedback.

I joined the game 5 days ago. Picked a ranger and surprisingly enough double axes became my weapon of choice despite me initially wanting nothing to do with melee. Axes just turned out to be so much fun that I fell in love. Paired them with Beastmastery as a primary specialization. Resounding Timbre, Natural Healing and Honed Axes. We Heal As One, Protect Me, Sic ’Em, Search and Rescue (swapped for Signet of the Hunt depending on the situation) and Strength of the Pack.

I don’t like the other one-handed weapons or the short bow. Greatsword and longbow are fun but since I already have the close range AoE niche nailed down with the axes, I’m leaning towards the bow. Interested in staff whenever I can start training as a druid.

So far I had no issues with survivability with this set-up. I’m only wearing white vendor gear but have soloed both veterans and champions. The shouts give access to constant regeneration and swiftness.

Am I playing the class wrong?

I literally run Axe/Axe + Staff with full shouts in every game mode and have never had an issue with survivability, or group support, and when I have RaO running I actually have some nice damage.

It’s one of the weapons you play when you don’t want to play with LB or SB. It adds a little spice to Ranger gameplay. It’s different.

Like most of commenters, I mostly use A/A and Staff (for mobility, heal and projectile hate) with Shouts. Easy 25 might and overall good damage for ranged (Ricochet (I am still very very salty about the bouncing nerf)) or melee combat (Whirling Defense). Path of Scars damage is pretty good if you land a 2x hit.

I always mix the build, I mostly stay BM/Marks/Druid (Remorseless with SotP and being stupid with Signet of the Wild (50% dmg boost PoS ? Scary) or Moment of Clarity when you interrupt with Path of Scars).

I also swap with Nature Magic to get even faster 25 Might, it helps to boost the Pet damage and give long lasting boons.

I sometimes go BM/NM/Marks with Axe/Warhorn and Axe/Axe for ultimate burst and DPS. Sometimes wear a Sword/Axe and Axe/Warhorn instead.

You will never get into competitive with that.
…
But if you are up for some random games and are not afraid of flames and loses … Why not? I made a hunter specifically to role-play Harley Quinn a few years ago. And yes, she has Axe/Axe and babies (hyena pets).
And I did almost every open world content and guild missions with her. No problems at all. Of course – I could have been 20 times more useful but Ranger is there for buffs, not DPS, so what gives…?

I personally run Axe/wh , Sword/axe with my beautiful Astralaria

Sword/axe is no brainier and dish out high dps while keeping some utility.

Axe/Wh is quite nice in any outdoor pve since it tags quite easily, has aoe cc, has good buffs, and now after Hunter Calls buff, combining it with quick draw is a quite a dps boost. It’s literally similar to rapid-fire, but on a warhorn :P (Since it only takes 1 second to cast, instead of 2.5 sec)

Tragic Positive.9356:

You will never get into competitive with that.
…
But if you are up for some random games and are not afraid of flames and loses … Why not? I made a hunter specifically to role-play Harley Quinn a few years ago. And yes, she has Axe/Axe and babies (hyena pets).
And I did almost every open world content and guild missions with her. No problems at all. Of course – I could have been 20 times more useful but Ranger is there for buffs, not DPS, so what gives…?

Why do you expect a 5-day old gw2 new-comer to be competitive lolz..

Aomine.5012:

Why do you expect a 5-day old gw2 new-comer to be competitive lolz..

Because he said he’s playing in white gear and one of his questions was if he’s playing the class wrong.

If he goes into fractals, raids or even dungeon speed runs like that – he’s going to be a burden which is the definition of playing the class wrong.
For having fun while leveling and exploring – nobody cares and it is fun indeed. Which means it’s perfectly fine even if he is playing the class wrong. Because no one gives a snap.

This game now offers content that won’t be beaten by power of friendship alone, anymore. Role-players belong to open world content. No one wants them in their group once grinding.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Aomine.5012:

Why do you expect a 5-day old gw2 new-comer to be competitive lolz..

Because he said he’s playing in white gear and one of his questions was if he’s playing the class wrong.

If he goes into fractals, raids or even dungeon speed runs like that – he’s going to be a burden which is the definition of playing the class wrong.
For having fun while leveling and exploring – nobody cares and it is fun indeed. Which means it’s perfectly fine even if he is playing the class wrong. Because no one gives a snap.

This game now offers content that won’t be beaten by power of friendship alone, anymore. Role-players belong to open world content. No one wants them in their group once grinding.

lol, back in the days when I’m 5-days old, I’m not concerning about Raid or Fotm or whatever XD.

Instead of him worrying those, he should be concern about getting used to the game, the map, the control first. Before he tackle anything challenging, he should at least explore the maps, catch all pets, enjoy the story-mode of the game, challenge the HoT map, fully unlock the specialization and so many things that should take on priority for a new player, rather than blindly charge into hard content like Fractal or Raid.

If he wants to get into pvp or fractal, there’s always Meta-battle out there for him to copy-paste into a more functional build.

Try to put yourself into the same situation before you give a new player advice.
What do you do, what are you concerning about when you first join GW2?
Raid? Fractal? ranked PVP? None of those right?

Aomine.5012:

Snip

He came here asking.
… I gave him the correct answer.

He never specified where does he want to take those. I told him everything him could have asked and everything he could have had in mind.
On the other hand, why would you mislead him into thinking that people want him to play with A/A ? And where would he know about metabattle as a newcommer?

Instead of searching for kitten to poke, how about actually trying to help the guy who asked you to ?
Sugarcoating will only hurt newcomers. A/A is not a way to go. There are much more efficient ways of game-play. Or do you rather want to take a chance to see if he’s going to make 5 different threads about PvP,WvW,FotM,Dungeons and Raids when he gets there? And in case he won’t, you’ll let him suffer from blame, accusations and “bearbowism” just because you were too soft to tell him earlier?

No, Sir. I have always been here to say everything straightforward. If you think I’m mistaken, you’ll have to bring either proof or data. If he learns now, he won’t have to learn useless now and then the right way again as you suggest.

@OP
My former point stays. A/A won’t harm you yet but you should refrain from using it in party content. No one’s going to be happy about you using it.
http://metabattle.com/ is a good site to bounce and get ideas from.
And if you’ll be wanting some more ideas, UnitedChi and me created pretty complex and useful builds for all kinds of situations so I can look for them if you’ll want. You’ll need something different than A/A once you level up.

Tragic Positive.9356:

You will never get into competitive with that.
…
But if you are up for some random games and are not afraid of flames and loses … Why not? I made a hunter specifically to role-play Harley Quinn a few years ago. And yes, she has Axe/Axe and babies (hyena pets).
And I did almost every open world content and guild missions with her. No problems at all. Of course – I could have been 20 times more useful but Ranger is there for buffs, not DPS, so what gives…?

This post you first posted give nothing at all other than calling the build is useless.

You could have just share your own build and explain why it’s optimal and why that build he’s using is unoptimal.

But instead all you do is accusing me for misleading him, despite I actually share some of my builds and tell him why it’s usable?
You’d be more productive to actually just link Meta-battle to him if he is concerning about things he probably never heard before in his first 5 day of GW2. (raid/fractal/pvp)

He’s not playing a new class and try it out, he’s new to GW2.

I kinda remember why I stopped posting for months in gw2 forum.
I’m just reminded again about how toxic the gw2 forum has always been.
Have a nice day sir. (I won’t be replying again)

Tragic Positive.9356:

…I made a hunter specifically to role-play Harley Quinn a few years ago. And yes, she has Axe/Axe and babies (hyena pets)…

The fact you called the Ranger “A Hunter” nullified your entire post.

Oh dear. This thread blew up.

First of all, thank you everyone for taking the time to reply! I was indeed wondering about whether axes and pets works for open world content but it’s good to know that if I would like to do instances then this build won’t go through very well. I looked at metabattle.com but most of the options were for druids.

One thing that would be great to know is the difficulty of all these playstyles. I got a letter to enter the Ascalon dungeon but I’m afraid to do so as I don’t want to be that person pulling the whole group back.

I had a stroke some years ago and a number of TIA since then which effected my dexterity. I’m not the fastest peach in the patch and I click my skills so I’m not sure if there is any build that could be played well enough so that I wouldn’t be a hindrance to my team? Or should I stick to open world only?

Hey Meanma.

I’m sure there are some fellow rangers happy to help you out in the ascalonian dungeon, of which I am one. You can add me in game, and we’ll get through the dungeon without being pressured, and enjoying the content which is new for you.

I won’t be online much this week, so maybe there are also other players that could do this

Meanma.5623:

Oh dear. This thread blew up.

First of all, thank you everyone for taking the time to reply! I was indeed wondering about whether axes and pets works for open world content but it’s good to know that if I would like to do instances then this build won’t go through very well. I looked at metabattle.com but most of the options were for druids.

One thing that would be great to know is the difficulty of all these playstyles. I got a letter to enter the Ascalon dungeon but I’m afraid to do so as I don’t want to be that person pulling the whole group back.

I had a stroke some years ago and a number of TIA since then which effected my dexterity. I’m not the fastest peach in the patch and I click my skills so I’m not sure if there is any build that could be played well enough so that I wouldn’t be a hindrance to my team? Or should I stick to open world only?

I mean in all honesty double Axe isn’t BAD, and you could certainly run it in high end fractals and in PvP and still get to legend. The only place you may not be able to run them is raids, and that’s purely because most people want ONLY the metabattle builds, and that no one really wants a ranger, they only want Druid (even though ranger is either the highest or second highest in terms of condo damage). If you had a guild or a group of 10 friends to raid with I’m sure double Axe would do fine so long as it fit your build.

If you need help with any content, message me in game (United Chi).

Also if you’re just curious about other builds. Check out my thread here.

Meanma.5623:

…

I had a stroke some years ago and a number of TIA since then which effected my dexterity. I’m not the fastest peach in the patch and I click my skills so I’m not sure if there is any build that could be played well enough so that I wouldn’t be a hindrance to my team? Or should I stick to open world only?

(sorry for the long post but it might explain the situation)

Dungeon stories are usually the casual content, which means running anything is fine.
Other paths are usually being farmed, and there will be a lot of people being harsh towards you if you do not run the already mentioned “meta” builds. You’ll either have to adapt or stay away from those. They are not nice and might even be harmful to your health. But don’t worry, people still open up casual dungeon parties and there are some really nice and helpful guilds that do not care about meta.

The reason why A/A is not the best choice at lvl 80 is because mh Axe deals very little damage by itself and works only as a might stacking weapon. And once you get to level 80 and start doing party content – people will start expecting you to provide certain buffs, just like there will be classes that will provide 25 might for the party, making mh Axe redundant.

Having that self-might with A/A is fine for casual content where “selfish” works best. If you’ll get enough trait points, I’d recommend Nature Magic (NM) in combination with Beast Mastery for the A/A playstyle. You’ll be keeping your pet constantly mighted since NM copies the same boons you get to your pet. And don’t bother with Druid before lvl 80. It’s technically the support traitline (offensive and defensive) that everyone loves in a party, but doesn’t offer much for leveling.

Just keep in mind that there will be lvl 80 content where A/A is not really welcome. Mh Axe is our go-to condition weapon while Oh Axe is our go-to power weapon. Gluing them together wastes a lot of potential DPS and utility-wise that other people might view as slowing them down.

<phew>
I hope that explained everything that the discussion was about.
Taking your health condition into consideration – you should just experiment around what works for you. Ranger is one of the few classes without a complex DPS rotation. We do most by auto-attacking and watching 2-3 DPS abilities. Sword is a considerable mention, assuming you’re doing the most by simply watching the character auto-attack and waiting for the dodge.

Dear Tragic Positive,

Thank you very much for the long reply. You have answered all that I have been wondering about. Seems I have picked the right class, considering my situation.

What a lovely community! I have added you lot as friends but I suspect all of you are playing on the US side? I’m on EU.

Short answer: no, you are not playing the class wrong for the content you described.

Longer answer: For more demanding endgame content, yes, you will need to abandon A/A. If that level of PvE is something you’re interested in, invest the effort in learning the current meta builds for the present state of the game. You’re right in that most of those builds are for druids, but learning mechanics like quick draw (from the Skirmishing line) are definitely things you can (and perhaps already did) work on.

If you like the axe as a mainhand weapon and have issues rapidly pressing keys at a sustained pace, might I suggest trying condition ranger? If super duper top max dps is not your goal, condition builds are nice for stacking condis on the enemy, and then taking a slight breather as they tick away. With a power build, no key press = no dps.

I was so surprised to see this here! I also play Axe+Axe Beastmaster but with conditions. I have a weirdo build that uses Path of Scars to pull enemies into my traps then I use Whirling Defense to spread the conditions. This has so much synergy because the pull from Path of Scars activates Ancient Seeds and then as soon as the trap pops you automatically trigger the root and condition effect.

The bonus +250 Ferocity on the Honed Axes trait means you can wear Viper’s gear and still have Whirling Defense hit like a truck. It’s not optimal for raids, but it does work well with Vipers gear, so you’re just a trait/weapon swap away from our highest DPS build. I love the build for solo PvE.

Forgot to link the build

voltaicbore.8012:

If you like the axe as a mainhand weapon and have issues rapidly pressing keys at a sustained pace, might I suggest trying condition ranger? If super duper top max dps is not your goal, condition builds are nice for stacking condis on the enemy, and then taking a slight breather as they tick away. With a power build, no key press = no dps.

Actually, this works the other way round.
Condition DPS is the complex one that has to keep track of all the cooldowns, especially the quick-draw proc, while power beats a lot from auto-attacks.

Hmmh, but if you had “damage” while roaming and stuff in mind, yes, that’s true. Condis are slow early but then ramp up if the fight lasts longer, which makes them look “less DPS” where mobs are low on HP.
For elaboration, Condis have better DPS on champions and veterans, but less DPS on everyday mobs.

Not sure how do they work for leveling. Never tried it, actually. Might be a nice and less dynamic alternative for the OP.

Meanma.5623:

What a lovely community! I have added you lot as friends but I suspect all of you are playing on the US side? I’m on EU.

Eu here too

Tragic Positive.9356:

voltaicbore.8012:

If you like the axe as a mainhand weapon and have issues rapidly pressing keys at a sustained pace, might I suggest trying condition ranger? If super duper top max dps is not your goal, condition builds are nice for stacking condis on the enemy, and then taking a slight breather as they tick away. With a power build, no key press = no dps.

Actually, this works the other way round.
Condition DPS is the complex one that has to keep track of all the cooldowns, especially the quick-draw proc, while power beats a lot from auto-attacks.

Hmmh, but if you had “damage” while roaming and stuff in mind, yes, that’s true. Condis are slow early but then ramp up if the fight lasts longer, which makes them look “less DPS” where mobs are low on HP.
For elaboration, Condis have better DPS on champions and veterans, but less DPS on everyday mobs.

Not sure how do they work for leveling. Never tried it, actually. Might be a nice and less dynamic alternative for the OP.

I’ve leveled condi on my Mesmer and engi and it seemed just as fast as with a power build, faster in areas that had sturdier mobs. Also due to the stat line condi gear is generally on makes you tankier too

Durzlla.6295:

I’ve leveled condi on my Mesmer and engi and it seemed just as fast as with a power build, faster in areas that had sturdier mobs. Also due to the stat line condi gear is generally on makes you tankier too

Which naturally allows for tagging more NPCs at the same time without such a risk as in berserker… Yes, it actually makes a lot of sense, now thinking about it.

I leveled almost all my characters through PvP tomes, which makes me lack in data here. Thanks for providing all the useful information from this field.

Tragic Positive.9356:

voltaicbore.8012:

If you like the axe as a mainhand weapon and have issues rapidly pressing keys at a sustained pace, might I suggest trying condition ranger? If super duper top max dps is not your goal, condition builds are nice for stacking condis on the enemy, and then taking a slight breather as they tick away. With a power build, no key press = no dps.

Actually, this works the other way round.
Condition DPS is the complex one that has to keep track of all the cooldowns, especially the quick-draw proc, while power beats a lot from auto-attacks.

Hmmh, but if you had “damage” while roaming and stuff in mind, yes, that’s true. Condis are slow early but then ramp up if the fight lasts longer, which makes them look “less DPS” where mobs are low on HP.
For elaboration, Condis have better DPS on champions and veterans, but less DPS on everyday mobs.

Not sure how do they work for leveling. Never tried it, actually. Might be a nice and less dynamic alternative for the OP.

Yeah, note the qualifiers – not really into max dps, liking axe MH. Now that I know you don’t really open-world level, your comment makes more sense. The vast majority of open-world mobs do not hold up very well against even modest attempts at a good condi rotation, mixed with pets and AAs. Bosses and the occasional veteran mob offer what seems to be the only real chance for most open-worlders to practice anything approaching the meta condi rotation.

Quick draw isn’t terribly hard to keep track of, imo, since it only applies to one move at a time. This means you get to prioritize your rotation around the one move that works best on swap. Yes, to maximize effectiveness of quick draw, you do need to develop an instinctive sense of when some moves come off CD, but (A) it’s not exceedingly difficult and (B) you can do a passable job in not-so-tightly-tuned content without that level of play.

In my experience condi druid is also a ton more forgiving in dungeons as well. As Durzlla already mentioned, the stats on condi gear leads to a decent margin of sturdiness. If you bring a shortbow, you even get a shoot-and-evade, which is nice. The most relaxing aspect of it, for me, is the ability to fit an evade in here and there and lose very little in terms of consistent dps output, as both the pet and condis do their thing while you escape from danger.

I actually run axe as mainhand with a beastmastery druid and traps as a condi build, works pretts well in PvE and WvW

Hey Meanma! o/

Another weapon setup you may want to experiment with could be Axe/Torch.

This game has this thing called Combo Fields. Basically, when you use Torch ⁵, it sets down a Fire field with deals condition-based damage to anything that moves within. When when you throw your axes across them, or that they bounce across the fire field, your axes will themselves also deal fire damage.

The torch is not the obvious visceral “oh it makes so much sense to use this as a weapon” for the ranger, but it turns out being very useful, especially when you’re fending off multiple opponents in close quarters.

Zoberraz.2694:

Hey Meanma! o/

Another weapon setup you may want to experiment with could be Axe/Torch.

This game has this thing called Combo Fields. Basically, when you use Torch ⁵, it sets down a Fire field with deals condition-based damage to anything that moves within. When when you throw your axes across them, or that they bounce across the fire field, your axes will themselves also deal fire damage.

The torch is not the obvious visceral “oh it makes so much sense to use this as a weapon” for the ranger, but it turns out being very useful, especially when you’re fending off multiple opponents in close quarters.

Especcially in the jungle a must for trash clear^^

Pocket Raptors.
-shudders-

Ditto raptors plus mushrooms

Hi! Casual here and A/T makes great combos. Drop the fire field, swap to bow, and unload! Drops tons of burn. If your targets won’t hold still, drop the fire field on yourself and fire from it. You will still apply the extra burns. A/T is very fun for open world.

Ditto raptors plus mushrooms

Hi! Casual here and A/T makes great combos. Drop the fire field, swap to bow, and unload! Drops tons of burn. If your targets won’t hold still, drop the fire field on yourself and fire from it. You will still apply the extra burns. A/T is very fun for open world.

So I have leveled to 40 to familiarize myself with the class then used the boost to have some decent equipment to start with. This meant that at first I sported a full Soldier’s kit with longbow and greatsword. Eventually made enough gold to start experimenting and got brave enough to switch that defensive gear for something more damage oriented. Unlocked the first few druid abilities and played around with the staff but overall found the whole thing to be lacklustre without a big group to run around with. Usually it’s just my friend and me putzing around together.

Here is my current set-up. I’m only doing open world PvE. Enjoy running around discovering all the little nooks and crannies of each map, doing events, doing jumping puzzles and listening to all the NPC dialogues. No dungeons, no fractals and definitely no raids. Would like to do dungeons and maybe give fractals a go sometimes but only with fellow casuals. I know that with my disabilities I’m not up to snuff to play with the big dogs which is alright.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAT3XnUqAtqgtCC2CCctghCh67ioNA8WPG+BeAa3HIlYNinZB-TRCBwABuIAp09MRJI09HSY+DwTKwyBUwoyPcq/AA-e

What do you all think? I was thinking of having Trooper runes instead of Ranger ones but I found that I have access to so much regeneration that I can usually outheal conditions. The ones I encounter the most often, cripple and poison, I can cleanse with dodging every 10 seconds anyway.

Right now I’m trying to make enough gold to create a gear set around condition damage. Would keep the axes but switch the longbow for a short one and trade in Skirmishing for Wilderness Survival. Unsure about the utility skills yet.

Definitely keep skirmishing in a condi build, especially with double axes. Trait for bleeds on crit + increased bleed dmg, because bleeding will be your main dmg source with the weapons you mentioned. This also means, you should use offensive condi/hybrid gear with precision and power, to make some use of the decent physical dmg of offhand axe. Viper is the best dps condi gear, but sinister or rampager can work too as easier to get alternatives.

As utilities i would take traps and eventually sharpening stone. As traitlines I’d recommend SK + WS and either BM or Druid. NM does not much for a condi build.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Definitely keep skirmishing in a condi build, especially with double axes. Trait for bleeds on crit + increased bleed dmg, because bleeding will be your main dmg source with the weapons you mentioned. This also means, you should use offensive condi/hybrid gear with precision and power, to make some use of the decent physical dmg of offhand axe. Viper is the best dps condi gear, but sinister or rampager can work too as easier to get alternatives.

As utilities i would take traps and eventually sharpening stone. As traitlines I’d recommend SK + WS and either BM or Druid. NM does not much for a condi build.

Adding to your post,

BM will give you more damage than Druid will and will makes your Axe even better at AoE damage and give it a little bit more power damage due to the ferocity, and will up your pets overall usefulness.

However, Druid will give you some support and utility, so if you’re trying to round your build out and not go full damage it’s a good option to take, and if you’re condi you won’t lose out on too much damage by being in the avatar state due to your condos still ticking.

And I would definitely run traps if you’re doing double Axe since your 4 is a 100% combo finisher that’ll hit everyone in a line twice (so 2 stacks of burn through flam trap), it’ll add some AoE condi application to WD, and your trained 3 skill (the AoE explosion will add finisher conditions to everyone hit). It’ll also apply to the 1 and 2 skill, but it’s not 100%.

Tbh, I don’t know if I’d even take sharpening stone with dual axes, you might gain more from taking spike trap for some CC and if you take Druid you would absolutely want to trade SS for either the daze glyph, damage boost glyph (probably best option for PvE), or the condi glyph.

I liked dual axes in some dungeons scenarios. I kept them in my inventory when my guild was running dungeons frequently. I also had a greatsword, shortbow and longbow in my bags too. Beserker spec (this was before HoT). I had fun with it. Never really went beastmaster, but play what is comfortable for you. If you find a spec YOU are happy with, enjoy it. There is a reason I play with my 4 friends. Play what you want, how you want. We have an individual who is the first to die at every boss fight. We still don’t tell him how to play, We accept him. We just make it work. It doesn’t look pretty, but we don’t care.

Dual axes are fine. If you like Beastmastery for your open world gameplay, you really should look into Sw/A though. You can do some really great damage with Sw/A.

You will have great ways to self might stack to 25 at which point the might gain from bouncy axes wont do much (anything) for you. Make sure to invest in +5% damage sigils and the food that gives you +8% or +10% damage when you move. With either weapon set, you won’t regret it.