Guild Wars 2

I just realized that the reason MH Axe is not a viable competitive weapon is because by taking it, we lose out on the survivability and movement we’d get from using another weapon in its place.

If Splitblade or Winter’s Bite had an evade/leap attached to them, MH Axe would definitely find its way into more builds.

Also, if Ricochet was made into a melee attack that applied a condition like poison, that would be beneficial too. Right now, Ricochet is pretty much useless. It doesn’t do any damage at all, is super slow, and no one really cares about it.

that should be placed in Dagger OH,

shadowpass.4236:

Also, if Ricochet was made into a melee attack that applied a condition like poison, that would be beneficial too.

Hum, no ? You have Sword that can put poison and now Dagger MH, both at melee. Leave Axe at what it does, being used in both Power or Condi builds.

shadowpass.4236:

Ricochet is pretty much useless. It doesn’t do any damage at all, is super slow, and no one really cares about it.

Ricochet hits hard and the AA is fine, it only needs to have it’s bounce back.

As for Evade, you have OH Dagger. I do agree that we could have at least have better leap or evades in MH/OH choices. They could actually rework OH Axe.

@Krispera, what power ranger build uses MH Axe and is viable in high tier play? I don’t think there is one.

Our offhands are fine. OH Dagger 4 could use its range increase back, but other than that, Axe is pretty useless in PvP as a MH weapon in competitive play.

shadowpass.4236:

@Krispera, what power ranger build uses MH Axe and is viable in high tier play? I don’t think there is one.

Our offhands are fine. OH Dagger 4 could use its range increase back, but other than that, Axe is pretty useless in PvP as a MH weapon in competitive play.

It’s still used in other contents than PvP. I’m more of a PvPer myself, but I’ve come to realise that weapons don’t have to be viable in all mode.

Your suggestions aren’t going to make it more viable with poison or evade/leap.

If you follow meta builds, sure, you’ll never see someone play Axe. Nobody used S/D with Staff before Season 4-6, yet it became meta because it was posted on it. If you want to do your own thing, Axe is doing just fine as a burst/support oriented pet/beastmastery.

It’s good at what it does : might stacking, damage and debuffing. Condi for those that use it as condi.

Krispera.5087:

shadowpass.4236:

@Krispera, what power ranger build uses MH Axe and is viable in high tier play? I don’t think there is one.

Our offhands are fine. OH Dagger 4 could use its range increase back, but other than that, Axe is pretty useless in PvP as a MH weapon in competitive play.

It’s still used in other contents than PvP. I’m more of a PvPer myself, but I’ve come to realise that weapons don’t have to be viable in all mode.

Your suggestions aren’t going to make it more viable with poison or evade/leap.

If you follow meta builds, sure, you’ll never see someone play Axe. Nobody used S/D with Staff before Season 4-6, yet it became meta because it was posted on it. If you want to do your own thing, Axe is doing just fine as a burst/support oriented pet/beastmastery.

It’s good at what it does : might stacking, damage and debuffing. Condi for those that use it as condi.

Weapons should be viable in all gamemodes. I’ve never heard of a PvE specific weapon, nor a PvP specific one.

The fact is, we lose too much survivability and movement by taking MH Axe. If we were given those options, it would become a much more attractive weapon.

Axe is viable in PvP, just not used in high level. I’m not saying there is specific weapons for modes, I’m saying there are weapons that excel better at certain modes.

I don’t believe making Axe a melee range weapon will solve it’s viability in high level PvP. Nothing stops you to play Axe at melee range. It’s one of its advantage when you look at the Longbow. Its damage will stay constant at any range.

Again, you don’t sit in one weapon set in PvP. Use the secondary weapon as a leap/evade one and GS fits well.

Is SBow used in high level PvP ? Not really. Is it viable ? Kinda. It has poison, evade, daze/stun, which are both things you asked. Is it used ? No. SBow, on paper, is super PvP oriented, but it’s still not meta PvP.

You don’t see many Hammer rev in PvP, but it’s used in WvW. Is Hammer viable in PvP ? Arguably, yes. It’s good at what it does best, huge burst damage. Is it the best weapon for Rev in PvP ? Not really.

It’s not because something is not meta that it’s bad.

axes have never been viable in pvp (outside of MH axe on condi builds), and they just need to be revamped. they’ve been steadily buffing them over the months/years, but as you said they lack evades and mobility. Torch and sword are pretty garbage as well, but sword can work ok with WH. the main problem with ranger has always been garbage weapons. I’m holding judgement on MH dagger, as they will have to tweak it. OH dagger is quite good on condi builds, but dagger 5 needs ammo.

This weapon is in a good spot.
The auto coefficients could see a little boost but as a hybrid weapon its in a good spot.

Survivability with this weapon relies a bit on kiting, I mean it is a (mid) ranged weapon, you can’t have low risk AND high reward

Winter’s Bite also does a good job at adding some survivability – Chill is a very powerful effect, as is weakness. both lower enemy movements and reduces enemy offensive efficiency.

While I disagree with leaps and evades,

• Auto attack does need some revision in its numbers. Base 295 dmg (15% increase) on 0.85 coefficient (20% increase) would be a minimal yet welcome change
• Split blade needs to be unsplit for different game modes

P.S. Winter’s bite actually pulls off reaaally good numbers -

• Perma Weakness uptime
• High Chilled uptime and when traited,
• The AoE packs a solid punch. With some ferocity, I often seen 4-6K crits (on 8s CD, AoE)