Guild Wars 2

Thats really it. I enjoy it everything about it for MH, it just doesnt just hard enough. OH if 5 had a reduced cool down it would be good kittennit… or atleast some movement. KK thanks, done complaining now

hit hard enough- sry tired and in typo mode

The auto needs to be doubled if not trippled in damage done. Splitblade should pierce or the axes should bounce. Same for winter’s bite.

Rangers are really wanting for a ranged weapon with sustained aoe. Thief shortbow and ele staff and engineer grenades just put ranger to shame in ranged aoe.

you know, I see a lot of people make Rangers and say “im going to use SB/LB and ownnnn” but really… a Ranger with SB/LB is just straight worse than a thief with their SB. They do more damage with AA, have the best blast finisher that does crazy damage and one of the best, if not the best evasive attack.

Back on topic, I agree with you 100 percent. No reason for my axe to hit as pathetic as it does. The only time ive ever done real damage with it was when Iwas power/prec/cond mostly, and had torch in the other hand. Even that though, I was using the torch just to combo with the axe and it still wasnt worth it. Like I said I love how the Axe works I just wish the damage was higher

I’d like to see them change the axe so you can built it for either condition or crit damage (although we all know the latter would win until they fix the issues with power/precision/crit damage scaling in comparison to condition damage).

Something like allowing us to trait the axe to hit two additional targets (so it bounces up to five times) and it can bounce back to the original target. Maybe give some kind vulnerability effect on it’s bounces as well so it can be a kind of power weapon which gives good damage in the form of multiple hits on one target as well as party support in the form of spreading short duration five stacks of vulnerability on each target it hits. This would make the axe be more reliable in AoE situations, do more damage to a single target (assuming their is something for it to bounce off of – they could make it so that it bounces off of allies giving them some kind of buff if there is only one enemy around so it’s still viable during boss encounters) and it acts as a kind of support weapon by spreading weak and short duration stacks of vulnerability.

Give a second way to build the axe which builds more into the condition damage side of things. Bleeds on crit (separate from the crappy one second trait) or something like that. If they are going to have these awkward hybrid weapons (the axe trait supports a power build via crit damage, but Split Blade is a condition damage attack which is ironically best used in melee range) give us the trait choices to support the different styles of play.

A couple of the balance devs said they wanted to give more meaningful trait choices and that traits really make the difference between good weapons and bad weapons, you can take one look at ranger weapon traits and a glance at warrior weapon traits and see that building for weapon on a ranger is one of the more disappointing and weak areas of the class. Most ranger weapon traits offer flat DPS increases or cool down reduction. These things are helpful but they are nothing compared to might and vulnerability on crit and they certainly not interesting gameplay or build choices.

I hardly ever use axe mainhand because it just hits so weak if there is only one target. The chill is great but with the pathetic damage on axe 1 if there is only one target is just bad.
With two targets its fine when you get two hits on the main target out of one attack.
I think they should add +50% damage to the first hit and keep the bounce as it is.
So first target gets 150% damage of what it is now, the bounce still do 100% (like it is now).
That way more people would use the axe. Shortbow is so much better to me especially because of the dodge on SB3 and the 1200 range.
I tried a duel vs a trap ranger. With the axe I just lost every time while with the shortbow he had not the slightest chance to win.

Zenith.7301:

The auto needs to be doubled if not trippled in damage done. Splitblade should pierce or the axes should bounce. Same for winter’s bite.

Rangers are really wanting for a ranged weapon with sustained aoe. Thief shortbow and ele staff and engineer grenades just put ranger to shame in ranged aoe.

Splitblade does pierce.

Ranger ranged damage needs a complete redoing.
Marksmanship trait line is rubbish- Opening Strike

Longbow- Arrow flight speed needs a buff, Rapid Fire needs a damage and a channelling speed up(Crossfire does more damage than Rapid Fire WITHOUT considering the bleeds)

Shortbow- Good as it is, I wouldn’t mind our 3 giving some swiftness too however. It is best used with a pet that has condition damage to max damage from 4.

Axe: Mainhand needs a huge buff, 1 and 2 need a damage buff. Ricochet needs to use the axe skin equipped, a vulnerability debuff would be nice too. Offhand it’s fine, just needs lower cooldown.

Axe Mainhand is good for condition build, i’ve tried it with power/crit build and its pretty awful.

Offhand is just awful.

All I’m hearing is “we want more damage”.

Any of you notice that #3 let’s you keep 100% up-time on weakness on your opponent? That’s on top of it chilling them.

Splitblade let’s you instantly stack several bleeds in one hit (learn to shotgun them).

I only use the axe in my condition builds, so the auto-attack is always going to be bad to me since it’s direct damage so just a filler when my other stuff is on cooldown (or I can throw it through fire fields).

Offhand Axe doesn’t suit me, but I have seen some put it to good use. Probably could still use some tweaks though as right now it is not as versatile as our other weapons and as such is why you don’t see it used much, if at all, by most rangers.

I use offhand axe all the time, particularly in PvE. Signet of beastmaster + signet of stone + whirling defense has netted me 40,000 point crits against bosses in dungeons. But, yeah, like usual, Sebrent is right on the mark.

Ha, thanks CHopps.

You bring up a good point, though. Off-hand axe has a place in PvE. You know that warden that Mesmers summon that people love because it blocks/reflects projectiles? The ranger can do that. It’s quite nice. The ranger is even better at it though because you have more control over it. Try some of the following:

• Pet swap + Whirling Blades
• Healing Spring + Whirling Blades
• Whirling Blades + any other combo field from your allies
• Whirling Blades in dredge fractal (be prepared to cackle maniacally)
• Dog KD -> Pet Swap + Whirling Blades -> Dog KD again -> Dog Immobilize
  • Your target just ate your quickness’d Whirling Blades and has the 12 stacks of vulnerability from it.

Honestly, if there was a trait in my current trait lines to reduce the cooldown, I’d swap to it every time I ran into the dredge fractal. Harpies too.

Really, I just want more utility from this. If I could move while doing #5 and #4 gave me some utility beyond just “I do damage”, you can bet I’d be running OH Axe more than in these projectile heavy environments.

I’d laugh my head off chasing someone while I was doing whirling blades. Maybe even make lawnmower noices while doing it … though my wife would really think I’d lost it then.

Offhand axe, if you could move with the Channeled Attack, would be be ok..

It’d be a good Power Weapon

Main Hand Axe though is a condition weapon, and the Chill+Weakness is incredibly powerful.

If find the whole offhand axe concept wrong. Path of scars doesn’t do anything that a bow with piercing arrows doesn’t do better and it’s bad physiology to throw heavy penetrating weapons with the off hand. There’s no reason to use the offhand axe based only on path of scars.

Whirling defense has the numbers and useful missile blocks. However it just looks chaotic when paired with a main hand sword and isn’t working at the same range (medium) as the main hand axe. Rooting the ranger in place for 5 seconds feels completely wrong for both main hand options. Given that this skill is missile defense for rangers it is just not fit for purpose.

Other classes seem to have offhand/mainhand pairings that come together to be more than their parts. Rangers do not. I’d rather see the dual wield weapons completely redesigned rather than just tinkered with.

How to fix oh axe: Increase overall damage…#5 shouldn’t be rooted and casts 3x faster. #4 should cause cripple or immoblize with a bleed.

I have to disagree with anyone who says main-hand axe is a weak berserker weapon. I’ve been a full berserker setup for quite some time, and I’ve found main-hand axe is actually one of the STRONGEST dps weapons for rangers.

Let my clarify; while yes main-hand axe sucks against a single target, it is easily optimized in dungeons where there are mobs of clumped up enemies, I can easily do around 1600 critical damage per bounce un-buffed, whereas short bow does only 1100 crit dmg per shot (while yes those shots are faster, you can’t guarantee they’re going to hit 3 targets, or ricochet back to the original target).

With the “Honed Axes” trait, main-hand axe is very strong. I haven’t had much experience with offhand axe so I’ll reserve judgment. And while yes, splitblade is a condition skill, it can also be used point-blank for raw damage, and is the only main-hand axe skill that applies a damaging condition. Shortbow or sword are much more suited for condition builds.

EDIT: The only improvement I really see main-hand axe needing, is Winter’s Bite bouncing like the auto-attack.

It could be powerful in dungeons, but if i’m going to run a Power build, I have far better weapons to work with then Main Hand Axe.

Sword/Axe would be great though if offhand axe allowed moving on channel..You could stack Vul very quickly and have some good defensive bonus with it.

I generally agree, Xsorsus. I mean, I mainly use it in dungeons because blocks and reflects are so incredibly useful there. They’re quite essential in some encounters. Some people have said they want a reflect/block nerf but I’d really hate to see damage negation go away. It’s a twichty thing that sort of goes back to games like street fighter where parries made the game insanely exciting.

For a game where movement is key, all skills that roots you in place, not just rangers axe#5, feels out of place with the general flow of the game. I sure hope they think about changing the skills that are left that roots you.
Other than that, offhand axe #4 could use some love, a secondary effect added to it, and both of the skills needs a lower cd.
As for axe mainhand, it’s pretty decent, attackrate of #1 could be a bit faster though for the fun factor. All aspects of the axe feels so slooooow…

Sebrent.3625:

All I’m hearing is “we want more damage”.

Any of you notice that #3 let’s you keep 100% up-time on weakness on your opponent? That’s on top of it chilling them.

A lot of people probably don’t notice that because of two things.

1) It requires your pet to be alive. We all know how depending on the pet usually ends for the ranger. Unlike most skills, the ranger has little control over when the weakness lands (if it lands).

2) It’s not in the tool tip. The description says that the pet’s next attack inflicts weakness but it doesn’t list for how long or even displays an icon. It’s another hidden detail in the skill description (is this listed in the tool tips thread already?).

Finally, elementalist staff in earth attunement is able to inflict permanent weakness in addition to throwing out blast finishers every six seconds in addition to another three useful skills (projectile reflection, an immobilise and an AoE cripple). I rarely see elementalists spend much time in this attunement (when I play ele in dungeons I personally only use it for the blast finisher or projectile reflection). Weakness is a fairly ordinary condition and pales in comparison to DPS. A weapon like the ranger axe is going to have trouble for as long as it does such terrible single target damage.

What if the axe was allowed to bounce off of an ally (giving them might or fury when it hits them similair to the mesmer skill Mirror Blade)? That way the axe is always hitting the target twice (unless there are three enemies in range in which case it hits all three enemies) even when fighting against a boss and it’s giving something to compensate for not hitting a second target when you are fighting a single opponent (a DPS boon given to an ally near to the target). It works well for the ranger class design because with the pet, there will always be an ally with you (assuming it’s still alive).

It doesn’t really do much to make the weapon do DPS it isn’t already doing , it just allows the weapon to be more effective against a single target instead of having a massive DPS drop off once a second enemy isn’t able to be bounced off of.

Weakness is one of those undervalued conditions.

It reduces enemy endurance regen … your enemy is dodging half as much.
It gives your enemy a 50% chance to fumble (50% dmg) … your enemy is doing 25% less damage.

Both of these are quite excellent things to do to an enemy, especially seeing as how most people are playing power builds.

Weakness is a 50% chance to do 50% less damage on non critical hits.

It might be good in PVE, but if you’re fighting a person, you’re really only going to get close to that 25% damage reduction against a bunker using soldier’s gear.

If they’re using a power/crit build, they’re generally going to have a critical hit chance that’s 50% or higher. If they have 50% critical damage as well, it’s only an 8.3% damage reduction.

I had thought this as well initially Killsmith until someone was telling me that Weakness is RNG’d before crit. That would mean that weakness indirectly lowers crit chance too since a fumbled attack can’t crit.

I wonder if that’s been tested by anyone yet.

Killsmith.8169:

I wonder if that’s been tested by anyone yet.

Perhaps we should meet up in the mists with a Warrior running signet build (tons of precision) and test it. If you get up to 100% crit chance and still have a fumble occur with weakness, then we’ll know.

There’s also the crit on weapon swap sigils and the opening strike trait that guarantees critical. It might be worthwhile to see if those can fumble as well.

Killsmith.8169:

There’s also the crit on weapon swap sigils and the opening strike trait that guarantees critical. It might be worthwhile to see if those can fumble as well.

Ah, you’re brilliant. Hit me up if you see me online and we’ll head over to the mists for a quick test.

Did you test it? would seem rather wrong if you could nullify a sigil like that or lower critchance, well atleast the sigil since it’s a single use sort of.

Another thing you two might want to throw in those critical/weakness tests, Elementalist arcane skills. I don’t personally play an Elementalist, but their guaranteed crit skills (I believe) sound relevant.

@ Sebrent… I enjoy most of your posts, but if you think damage isnt the main fix for the axe, im not really sure what to think. I enjoy the Axe and ive been using it MH for a long time, but without 25 stacks of might or a lot of crit damage, its been underwhelming. I think it works perfectly with how the Ranger is built, its just ultimately weak. Ive tried it with a condition build as it was fun for awhile but overall even less effective. I guess ill have to reevaluate it

@Azure: I would be fine with the auto-attack on axe doing more damage. Honestly, though, I’d prefer it did some sort of condition damage (but that’s what fire combo fields are for, I guess).

The reason the direct damage on it doesn’t bother me is because of the reason I stated before: I only use my axe in condition builds.

I’m not sure how you used it in a condition build, but I’ve seen many people here on the boards not knowing how to properly “shotgun” someone with the Axe’s #2 skill. That is pivotal to using the Axe as a condition weapon. If you can’t do that, you aren’t going to do much damage to anyone.

Sebrent.3625:

@Azure: I would be fine with the auto-attack on axe doing more damage. Honestly, though, I’d prefer it did some sort of condition damage (but that’s what fire combo fields are for, I guess).

The reason the direct damage on it doesn’t bother me is because of the reason I stated before: I only use my axe in condition builds.

I’m not sure how you used it in a condition build, but I’ve seen many people here on the boards not knowing how to properly “shotgun” someone with the Axe’s #2 skill. That is pivotal to using the Axe as a condition weapon. If you can’t do that, you aren’t going to do much damage to anyone.

Yeah, splitblade is on a short CD so it’s pretty easy to get 10 bleeds on a target with it.