Guild Wars 2

It’s an awful auto attack. It’s on a condition weapon. It does a pitiful 250 damage.

Give ricochet 1-2 bleeds on a 3-4 sec duration.

Once splitblade is used axe has no sustained damage whatsoever. It makes the weapon good for bursting conditions but complete garbage in the sustained department.

If you enter protracted team fights you just feel useless as you’ve used a splitblade that shortly gets cleansed by the random water field, your torch is single target burning and bonfire is a field.

So over half the time you are basically using a useless autoattack that is tickling people for 150-250 damage.

There’s also some serious design flaw with the fact that none of the melee/survival weapons are actually condition weapons. In order for the ranger to have survival, since none of his ranged weapons have them, he needs to pick up a greatsword or sword, yet all these are power based weapons with no sustained condition damage whatsoever.

The ranger lacks sustained aoe condition application relative to the necromancer and the engineer in their respective condition builds. Hell, a condition warrior actually does better aoe conditions with double sword+combustive shot. So do eles for that matter.

I use the Axe on a crit build and I find the auto attack to be fantastic for multiple targets with high damage. While I wouldn’t be apposed to having a bleed on the axe I don’t find it necessary since the sb offers a sustainable bleed.

Aphoticrain.8420:

I use the Axe on a crit build and I find the auto attack to be fantastic for multiple targets with high damage. While I wouldn’t be apposed to having a bleed on the axe I don’t find it necessary since the sb offers a sustainable bleed.

Not for aoe it doesn’t. And the sb is not a condition spec weapon flexible enought to run given it only uses a single condition with a very short poison. It has no chill, it has no weakness, it has no burning, and the very lack of burning itself discards it from any condi build to begin with.

You only run SB with traps.

Ricochet also does less damage than trick shot for aoe, and if you’re running a crit build with axe you’re running the wrong weapon considering the only skill you’ll benefit from is the autoattack as splitblade and the others receive greatly reduced power scaling coefficients due to having conditions tied to them.

Zenith.7301:

Aphoticrain.8420:

I use the Axe on a crit build and I find the auto attack to be fantastic for multiple targets with high damage. While I wouldn’t be apposed to having a bleed on the axe I don’t find it necessary since the sb offers a sustainable bleed.

Not for aoe it doesn’t. And the sb is not a condition spec weapon flexible enought to run given it only uses a single condition with a very short poison. It has no chill, it has no weakness, it has no burning, and the very lack of burning itself discards it from any condi build to begin with.

You only run SB with traps.

Ricochet also does less damage than trick shot for aoe, and if you’re running a crit build with axe you’re running the wrong weapon considering the only skill you’ll benefit from is the autoattack as splitblade and the others receive greatly reduced power scaling coefficients due to having conditions tied to them.

I find the Axe/Axe combo pretty competitive. Speaking for just the main hand axe I find the chill/weakness awesome and yeah splitblade is a bit out of place but its not horrible. How much does trick shot average for? I wont say it is less unless I can actually compare it.

Yeah I agree the Short bow isn’t all that great but the axe doesn’t have burning either but if you have a long CD duration you can stack the bleed up to 9-10 stacks or so which is significant damage.

I understand that you’re saying there isn’t a lot of options for the ranger that keep up constant cd damage at a range. I guess the best way at the moment is to look to runes and sigils to do it. Plus if the Axe has a bleed wont it be the same as the sb?

i run an apothecary beastmaster build with sword torch and SB. I use projectile finishers inside bonfire with the bow for burning , Works pretty well for me :p

Zenith.7301:

It’s an awful auto attack. It’s on a condition weapon. It does a pitiful 250 damage.

Give ricochet 1-2 bleeds on a 3-4 sec duration.

Once splitblade is used axe has no sustained damage whatsoever. It makes the weapon good for bursting conditions but complete garbage in the sustained department.

If you enter protracted team fights you just feel useless as you’ve used a splitblade that shortly gets cleansed by the random water field, your torch is single target burning and bonfire is a field.

So over half the time you are basically using a useless autoattack that is tickling people for 150-250 damage.

There’s also some serious design flaw with the fact that none of the melee/survival weapons are actually condition weapons. In order for the ranger to have survival, since none of his ranged weapons have them, he needs to pick up a greatsword or sword, yet all these are power based weapons with no sustained condition damage whatsoever.

The ranger lacks sustained aoe condition application relative to the necromancer and the engineer in their respective condition builds. Hell, a condition warrior actually does better aoe conditions with double sword+combustive shot. So do eles for that matter.

You make a great point about GS…..and it was something I was thinking about the past few days. I play mostly a solo roamer in WvW. I have come to the conclusion that I NEED GS to do what I want to do. Unfortunately that means a power build. A regen power build lacks a little bit. I just came from a couple of weeks of a zerker build and sentries/yaks died very quickly. It takes far to long now as regen/power. I know for sure a condition build would kill faster but that is pointless with GS.

So like you say, it’s kind of ironic that a defensive weapon works better with a power build.

Chokolata.1870:

i run an apothecary beastmaster build with sword torch and SB. I use projectile finishers inside bonfire with the bow for burning , Works pretty well for me :p

In which case you don’t have offhand dagger, so less poison and cripple and no chill or weakness to cover your condis from getting cleansed. And your setup doesn’t even have cleaving condi application like splitblade.

Might cut it in roaming/1v1 but it sure as hell doesn’t cut it in zerg or team fights.

Why would i take an apothecary build into a zerg anyway ??? Hell, why would i take a ranger into a zerg anyway ??

Aphoticrain.8420:

I use the Axe on a crit build and I find the auto attack to be fantastic for multiple targets with high damage. While I wouldn’t be apposed to having a bleed on the axe I don’t find it necessary since the sb offers a sustainable bleed.

the SB bleed is too restricted (only if from the side or back)

You can already get several sources of bleeding from; Sharpening Stone, Keen Edge, Sharpened Edges, Rending Attacks, Sigil of Earth, and from plenty of pet skills. I agree that the axe could use a little damage boost, but I still like it as it is.

Forzani.2584:

Zenith.7301:

It’s an awful auto attack. It’s on a condition weapon. It does a pitiful 250 damage.

Give ricochet 1-2 bleeds on a 3-4 sec duration.

Once splitblade is used axe has no sustained damage whatsoever. It makes the weapon good for bursting conditions but complete garbage in the sustained department.

If you enter protracted team fights you just feel useless as you’ve used a splitblade that shortly gets cleansed by the random water field, your torch is single target burning and bonfire is a field.

So over half the time you are basically using a useless autoattack that is tickling people for 150-250 damage.

There’s also some serious design flaw with the fact that none of the melee/survival weapons are actually condition weapons. In order for the ranger to have survival, since none of his ranged weapons have them, he needs to pick up a greatsword or sword, yet all these are power based weapons with no sustained condition damage whatsoever.

The ranger lacks sustained aoe condition application relative to the necromancer and the engineer in their respective condition builds. Hell, a condition warrior actually does better aoe conditions with double sword+combustive shot. So do eles for that matter.

You make a great point about GS…..and it was something I was thinking about the past few days. I play mostly a solo roamer in WvW. I have come to the conclusion that I NEED GS to do what I want to do. Unfortunately that means a power build. A regen power build lacks a little bit. I just came from a couple of weeks of a zerker build and sentries/yaks died very quickly. It takes far to long now as regen/power. I know for sure a condition build would kill faster but that is pointless with GS.

So like you say, it’s kind of ironic that a defensive weapon works better with a power build.

Sharpening Stones, Sun Spirit, bone fire + swoop, keen edges, Sigil of Geomancy,Runes of Krait (only 5 on land 1 on aqua breather, then again that’s only if you wanna take your bleeds as far as possible). You can thank me later.

@OP maybe if you stopped trying to smash the Square Block through the Circle Hole you wouldn’t be so frustrated with Axe, it’s a power + control weapon that’s capable of using condis due to one skill. That’s not a condi weapon, a condi weapon is something like Mesmer or Necro Scepter where just about every skill on the weapon applies a damaging condition, or a better example, engi pistol where EVERY damaging condition is able to be applied.

Axe is not a condi weapon, it can be used for condi damage when paired with a torch or a dagger, but that doesn’t make it a condi weapon.

I love my Axe/Dagger and Axe/Warhorn combos. I’m getting up to 20 stacks of bleeds with up to 6 stacks of might… so I’m dropping an average of 109 to 121 ticks per bleed and just watching the targets bleed out as I run away is hilarious

I would like a small boost to Axe damage, sure, but I think I do fine as is.

I think #1 needs a small damage boost, but not much.

2. I would love to see split blade not “split” or apply the 6 stacks of bleeds to all targets it hits instead of 1 stack per blade like it does now. If they changed it to applies 6 stacks on all targets hit that would make the axe far more competitive.

3. Is fine.

4. Needs travel time sped up a bit the return hit misses way to often. Or add a cripple effect to the out going hit.

5. needs the root effect removed and damage increased. 4-5K damage for a channeled ability that roots you? 100 bro’s (yes I know the proper name, but like calling it that instead) can be reduced to under a 7 second recharge and hit for over 7K consistently. At least make the skill compete with that.

Other than that Axe is probably the most solid group fight weapon we have atm. Gives range, hits up to 3 targets with auto and adds a bit of condi and CC.

I think people don’t understand the fact that as a ranger on a condi spec you simply have no sustained condi aoe.

Let me put it in perspective for you. Necros can aoe condi sustain. Engineers can aoe condi sustained. Eles can condi sustained.

It’s not about relying on 15 sec+ cd’s aoe fields, or the fact that you need to spec 30 into skirmishing for traps to be worth anything.

As a ranger you simply will not be able to damage groups of people anywhere as good as an ele or engineer or necro, and that’s a problem in formats where aoe sustained is crucial.

Giving axe auto a bleed would help with that sustained.

Ranger is the one ranged profession with very poor aoe options. Barrage is on a 25 sec cd, does pretty much no damage compared to other aoe skills, and our other weaponset aoe is a bonfire that needs offhand training to be the size of a trap. That’s as far as actuall aoe goes. And neither are low cd options that you can use very frequently in a teamfight compared to other classes.

Zenith.7301:

I think people don’t understand the fact that as a ranger on a condi spec you simply have no sustained condi aoe.

Let me put it in perspective for you. Necros can aoe condi sustain. Engineers can aoe condi sustained. Eles can condi sustained.

It’s not about relying on 15 sec+ cd’s aoe fields, or the fact that you need to spec 30 into skirmishing for traps to be worth anything.

As a ranger you simply will not be able to damage groups of people anywhere as good as an ele or engineer or necro, and that’s a problem in formats where aoe sustained is crucial.

Giving axe auto a bleed would help with that sustained.

Ranger is the one ranged profession with very poor aoe options. Barrage is on a 25 sec cd, does pretty much no damage compared to other aoe skills, and our other weaponset aoe is a bonfire that needs offhand training to be the size of a trap. That’s as far as actuall aoe goes. And neither are low cd options that you can use very frequently in a teamfight compared to other classes.

feels like the ranger is being forged to play a support role as apposed to the lone wolf ranger we are made out to be…..