Guild Wars 2

I hit 80 a while ago with my ranger and found that I like the damage of the sword and torch combo, I want to start doing some more dungeons so I’m going to buy some exotic weapons but I was wondering if sword and dagger has more dps. I want dispatch my target quickly and it looked like the sword and dagger would be more effective for that.

Edit: I run with a short bow as my other and focus on power/precision/condition

You would get better responses posting this in the ranger forums not the general discussion.

My ranger is my main; I generally prefer sword and torch over all other weapons (longbow for ranged engagements) because the combination seems to do much, much, much more damage (because of burning damage) than any other combination.

However, that’s only true if there are no cliffs in the vicinity of the fight, no ramps, no bridges, no edges, no jumps, etc. …because the ranger with a sword (because of the absolutely sheer stupidity of ANet’s design for the weapon) with “1” set as auto-attack loves to run off heights to his death…

Axe and torch are another good combination… many fewer suicides. The only problem is that the thrown axe tends to pull in extra mobs.

Sword/dagger would be more for control and evasion than damage, something that has more of a use in sPvP than dungeons. If you’re at all statted for condition damage, I’d go torch all the way. If you want to be more of a team player in dungeons, I’d go warhorn for the #5 boon that everyone nearby can benefit from.

As much as I like the sword, though, what Lord Kreegan said about #1 having the potential to send you kicking and screaming off ledges and cliffs keeps me from bringing it most of the time. You can mitigate that potential by setting the attacks to manual and timing them so that you don’t leap at something that’s no longer there (i.e. killed before your attack connects), but ehh… there’s just still too much of a liability there for me to feel like it’s worth it. YMMV.

Sword/Torch if you’re condition based and use shortbow/GS as your other weapon

Sword/Dagger if you use Axe/Torch as your other weapon.

Lord Kreegan.8123:

My ranger is my main; I generally prefer sword and torch over all other weapons (longbow for ranged engagements) because the combination seems to do much, much, much more damage (because of burning damage) than any other combination.

However, that’s only true if there are no cliffs in the vicinity of the fight, no ramps, no bridges, no edges, no jumps, etc. …because the ranger with a sword (because of the absolutely sheer stupidity of ANet’s design for the weapon) with “1” set as auto-attack loves to run off heights to his death…

Axe and torch are another good combination… many fewer suicides. The only problem is that the thrown axe tends to pull in extra mobs.

I find Axe/Dagger to be better than Axe/Torch. The melee stab/evade lines you up for a perfect 5 hit Splitblade and the thrown dagger provides a nice bleed and cripple.

I run Sword/Axe. The sword is pure dps so it works well with Knight gear (hope you have a toughness set if planning to melee). Only thing Torch does is save you a utility skill slot but overall I would use Flame trap to replace the torch’s fire field but fire and sword combo isnt that great IMO. Sword 2 gives Aura which is decent, and if using Axe, Axe 5 gives the whirlwind combo which is decent also. Frost Trap is awesome for such, and healing Spring for the Sword leap and Axe whirlwind.

I like sword torch in condition builds because torch 4 just does so much burning damage on such a low cooldown. All dagger really offers is one more evade in addition to the sword’s two so it really isn’t worth much unless you really don’t want torch damage. In fact, burning still hits like a truck at low condition damage so even as a power build torch is still viable. Basically damage vs defense