I dont see anybody talking about making axe better for ranger. Is this because it is so horrible that it’s a lost cause?
I would really like to see it redesigned to either a full condi or full damage weapon and not it’s current hybrid state where it is horrible in both roles.
It’s much more like it has been mentioned way too many times for anyone to bother anymore.
The weapon is horribly user-unfriendly. It was and is going to stay that way. I will believe ANet cares when they prove us so.
And the rest of us like myself don’t want a weapon viable for Condition builds to get the well-known shortbow or Healing Spring treatment.
When you consider the offhand is open to whatever you want, I think axe compares pretty favorably to the mesmer staff. Edit: They both actually are “profession mechanic” weapons if you think about it.
Both have a weird AoE ranged attack that gives boons and does okish damage (via pet and slightly increased condi ticks in ranger’s case), and then utility and bigger damage on other skills. With axe you get big damage from 2 and presumably 4 and 5, or they can be more defensive with offhand dagger.
I think people get too hung up on the low power damage of the auto. Stick earth and agony on it or something, and then use the other 4 skills and your bristleback F2. There is a reason it’s been a popular/meta weapon for over 3 years. (Well, 2, in that we don’t really have great condi weapon choices.)
Projectile speed, casting time and after casting time are pretty bad too. How many time I canceled the skills…
Pretty much this. MH Axe isn’t too far off from being what it aims to be. Small little QoL alterations to it would make a world of difference.
Reduce cast time of Split Blade from ¾s to ½s.
Reduce after-casts of Ricochet, Split Blade, and Winter’s Bite.
Possibly up the Might duration on Ricochet from 3s to 5s.
Cosmetically, prevent the off-hand weapon from disappearing while casting skills 1-3. (Robert Gee corrected this for Necromancers within 2 weeks.)
Other things to consider for it is the AOE effect on Winter’s Bite from Honed Axes becoming baseline with the weapon and maybe applying a condition on opponents Ricochet strikes IF the bounce strikes another foe. Similar to DH Longbow auto attack that applies Cripple to all enemies struck if the bounce strikes another foe. Make it a weapon that punishes opponents for grouping together.
That, and the Honed Axes trait could use a lot of fine-tuning as the only thing useful on it is the 20% cooldown reduction, which is a standard on weapon traits. The added Ferocity and effect that amplifies only 1 of a possible 5 axe move set is weak, and quite frankly doesn’t deserve to be a GM tier trait. My 2 cents.
With all the projectile hate in the game, plus the blocks, etc, I don’t think cast times/aftercasts/projectile speed/gmtrait buffs would save the weapon. Making it have a melee nonprojectile aa chain coupled with the above would be a good bandaid.
What I consider the real solution is that they get rid of it’s hybrid nature and change it’s skill/mechanic to be optimal for either power or condi, instead of suboptimal in both.
The damage on main hand axe is great for building on kill sigils and often out puts more damage than the long bow aa when fighting two or more targets. So when leveling or gaining for masteries you will output more damage than lb and gain xp because your hiting more targets.
It is not a single target weapon. Yes the grandmaster trait is bs and really is in the wrong line.
long bow is primarily a single target weapon. Main hand axe is a multi target weapon. When compared to our primary range weapon (lb) in a power set up axe can preform better. Yes piercing on long bow will blow axe off the water but, it a big playstlye change.
Axe doesn’t need to be changed to melee. We already have two power melee weapons.
Too many people are too hung up on big numbers. Axe is a lot like the sword in that you don’t see a lot of big numbers but, if you add up the damage done in that second or second and a half; the damage isn’t bad.
Each weapon has its role, axe does great in its role.
In order to properly understand the big picture,
everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth.
Make mh axe more viable vs single targets. Either allow #1 to bounce off of allies when there aren’t enough enemies around, and/or change Ricochet damage from 33%-33%-33% to 50%-25%-25%.
I feel like I’m repeating myself, this is something that’s been suggested before, time and time again…
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Axe doesn’t need to be changed to melee. We already have two power melee weapons.
Too many people are too hung up on big numbers. Axe is a lot like the sword in that you don’t see a lot of big numbers but, if you add up the damage done in that second or second and a half; the damage isn’t bad.
Each weapon has its role, axe does great in its role.
Axe has a role of condi. And it’s role is condi only because we have no other condi weapon. And that’s the end of the explanation.
Axe is not like Sword. Sword is “the” weapon because of maths and efficiency. Axe is our “meta” weapon because we have literally nothing else.
I said axe is like sword in that sword damage doesn’t appear to be that high but once you calculate the damage done in its auto chain it proves to be one of our highest dps weapons.
Axe is like that in that the little bounces don’t appear to be doing all that much damage but in fact can out dps lb.
Axe is a multi target range weapon to say that it must be a condi weapon because we have no other weapon is madness. Its also why many of you find axe so underwhelming. The math suggest axe could be (vs multiple targets) our highest dps ranged weapon but some of you consider it a condi .
In order to properly understand the big picture,
everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth.
I said axe is like sword in that sword damage doesn’t appear to be that high but once you calculate the damage done in its auto chain it proves to be one of our highest dps weapons.
Axe is like that in that the little bounces don’t appear to be doing all that much damage but in fact can out dps lb.
Axe is a multi target range weapon to say that it must be a condi weapon because we have no other weapon is madness. Its also why many of you find axe so underwhelming. The math suggest axe could be (vs multiple targets) our highest dps ranged weapon but some of you consider it a condi .
How would Axe outDPS Longbow in a multi-target situation where LB can hit 5 targets but Axe only 3 of them, and doesn’t have any spike ability unlike LB Barrage and Rapid Fire ?
Care to elaborate?
He’s probably comparing auto-to-auto without augments. Which, isn’t a good thing to do anyways since (MH) Axe is a self-buff, condition, debuff/snare weapon. Why this conversation is arising again is beyond me.
Let’s stick on how MH Axe, and to an extend, OH Axe maybe improved upon other than treading through the same tracks. This also goes for Honed Axes since, you know, “synergy.”
