Guild Wars 2

Let the flame wars begin.

First off, I love GW2. I’ve been playing since Beta, and this game has made some great advancements of the MMO genera (no mob/node tagging etc. among many others). However, with the success of these areas, I feel that certain weapon skills, particularly for the ranger class, have become ignored.

I’ve played all classes, and currently have 5 level 80s; in my opinion by far, the 1 hand weapon skills for rangers are the worst. All weapons are supposed to have a main function; some are better at pvp, some better for pve, some are best for direct damage builds while other are for dots. A lot of the 1h skills for rangers are a mash-up of pve and pvp abilities, and some just being complete trash. To polish the game, this must change. There is currently no set “berserker” main hand weapon for rangers. Greatsword, sword, torch and dagger are for pvp with the blocking, debuffs, snares and dots, while currently off-hand axes and warhorn are for the berserker build of direct damage, yet we can’t have both as our offhand weapons! :-(

AXES

First are main hand axes. The three skills are complete garbage.

Skill 1: Ricochet. Bounce your axe between multiple (3) foes (900 range). This skill is possibly the worst in the game. The damage is lower than 1h swords, and doesn’t even have any debuffs. You can do more damage to 3+ targets in melee with the sword or greatsword just by cleaving auto attacks! And forget about rolling it as your main “ranged” attack, longbow and shortbow offer superior damage and utility, thus making it a space saver ability, aka worthless. REMOVE.

Skill 2: Splitblade. Throw a spread pattern of five whirling axes that bleeds foes (900 range). This is another garbage skill. At range, the axes don’t hit the same target, so you are lucky to get even 1 bleed stack, rather than all 5 on one target. Skill 2 of weapons are supposed to be the “hardest hitting attack” for that weapon. This attack is just a joke, as it does very little damage, direct or dot. REMOVE.

Skill 3: Winter’s Bite. Throw an axe to chill your foe. Your pet’s next attack inflicts weakness. Again, terrible skill. (There was a very good reason why after rolling a Ranger players rushed to get any other weapon besides the 1h axe; terrible!) The damage is low, and the chill aspect only lasts 3 seconds when the skill is on a 10 sec cooldown. The weakness buff to pet is pointless, as other classes have auto attacks/superior skills that apply weakness, making it void of any real use (not to mention black bears have this as their own special attack). REMOVE.

SOLUTIONS!

To make main hand axes at all viable giving Rangers a pve direct damage melee attack, they should be the berserker melee skills for the class. Swords, Greatswords, torches and daggers are best for pvp (with the debuffs, dots and blocking), so the Ranger class NEEDS a pve melee weapon, as in the combo of main hand axe and offhand warhorn. I suggest removing off-hand axes from the game, and combining those attacks into the new main hand skills.

Skill 1: Auto attack = Winter’s Bite (new); Attacks target with chilling strikes. I’d love to see the auto chain (melee, not ranged) like the 1h axe attack warriors have. Since pure damage is more for that class, this attack wouldn’t have to hit as hard or as many times, but should at least attack 3 times with the last attack applying a chilled dot onto the target, lasting until the next end-of-chain-auto, or close to.

Skill 2: Whirling Defense – Block projectiles while damaging nearby foes. This is a lot like skill 2 for greatsword Warriors, does good damage in melee range, but roots the player while casting. This is good for pve, but not pvp, and so will void any crys of “Op in pvp” chants. Instead of the current 25 second cooldown, it could be on a 6 or 8 (up to 10) second cooldown, as the main attack for main hand axes, it can’t be on a 25 second to compete, must be shorter.

Skill 3: Path of Scars – Throw your axe so that it returns to you, striking foes each way. This is a great skill with a range of 900. The pull part of this skill, 450, should be increased to the full distance of 900 so it could set up the players skill 2. A spread pattern, or a 360 aoe attack pull would be great for this as well, but single target as it is now is passable.

With the main hand axe now the berserker weapon for melee ranger, coupled with off-hand warhorn skills of Hunter’s Call and Call of the Wild, rangers will FINALLY have a good PvE melee set.

To recap;

Axes now main hand only, with former offhand axe’s skills worked into main hand.

1 auto chain (new winter’s bite) – 2 Whirling Defense – 3 Path of Scars – 4 Hunter’s Call – 5 Call of the Wild

Main hand axe with off-hand warhorn = Berserker build for melee Rangers in PvE!

dont agree with everything, but yea, ive been complaining about MH axe forever. ANET doesnt seem to care

Agree with that the 3 first kills really need rework (never see lvl 80 rangers use axes.) We do however have a whirling defense already. That is currently the best Axe skill imo….

lol pve much. I use axe all the time in pvp and it works just fine.

Btw chill on auto attack is a stupid stupid idea and path of scars on skill 3 is also nuts (it also isnt a single target skill you can hit multiples with it).

it could do with some buffs, but if anything should be a zerker weapon its one of the swords.

Axes are fine, i use them a lot. Sure, a little damage boost wouldn’t hurt on the MH but the first skill is great, it allows me to hit hidden opponents in keeps / towers by hitting the archers on the walls. The chill is nice to slow down a fleeing enemy.
I do agree, however, that the spread on the second skill makes it very hard to use effectively.

Also whirling defense, i mainly use it for the retaliation. Sure it can do pretty good damage but the fact it’s very slow makes it less damaging than Maul. The retaliation is the redeeming part about it. And i wouldn’t want it as a MH skill.

Yes please, make us more like warriors ’-_-

Winter’s bite is not bad, it is great for catching people and the weakness is 100% uptime if they don’t cleanse.

Splitblade is also good because it a risk and reward thing. If you are a condi bleed ranger, you can put about 8-12 bleeds on the enemy which means at least 4k damage over 4 seconds before stacks start to run out.

I must agree the auto-skill is horrible. It’s good if you can bounce it between two targets and against mesmers because it automatically bounces off to the clones. Same goes for engineer turrets. It does, however, not make up for it’s poor damage and zero utility. I only want to see the axe auto changed to something like

Axe #1:
Your axe bounces once from your enemy. If it bounces to you, it bounces one more time.
Applies 1s cripple if it bounces a third time (this might make it OP)
Range somewhere between 300-450

Example: Let’s say your fighting a player. You switch to your axe and start auto-attacking. The axes now go to your enemy and maybe bounces to minions or something else. You feel confident and go closer to put more pressure on the enemy after applying weakness (-50% damage) to him. The bounce now flies to your enemy, flies back to you and flies out to the enemy again.

When close, the axes would hit the enemy at a steady rate like the SB.

Axe#1 needs love but the others skills are ok.
Why Axe#1? because in a 1vs1 situation it has a very low DPS and a very low attack speed => no pressure
Maybe they could remove the bounce and make it hits harder or they could make it like Splitblade but with only 3 axes and a smaller radius.

To improve the Axe in a global way, they could make Axe’s skills pierce.

Mainhand axe is a pure condition weapon, why in the world would you want to switch it to power, let alone associate it with ‘berserker’?

Axe 1 should apply bleeds and hit harder. Basically like shortbow #1 but without the stupid condition of having to be to the side or back.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Mainhand axe is a pure condition weapon, why in the world would you want to switch it to power, let alone associate it with ‘berserker’?

Axe 1 should apply bleeds and hit harder. Basically like shortbow #1 but without the stupid condition of having to be to the side or back.

The only thing that makes it a condition weapon is the 5 bleeds you can hit someone with in one attack. Chill + pet weakness is useful in all builds and the auto is trash no matter what you are running.

Why compare the cleave of melee weapons to cleave of a ranged weapon? Obviously the melee is going to do more damage. All three weapons hit up to 3 targets.

Also, as has been noted, the MH axe is for PvP/roaming. You can’t really complain about an ele staff being bad in hot join when it’s clearly not meant to do that.

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Mainhand axe is a pure condition weapon, why in the world would you want to switch it to power, let alone associate it with ‘berserker’?

Axe 1 should apply bleeds and hit harder. Basically like shortbow #1 but without the stupid condition of having to be to the side or back.

The only thing that makes it a condition weapon is the 5 bleeds you can hit someone with in one attack. Chill + pet weakness is useful in all builds and the auto is trash no matter what you are running.

Still a bit of a stretch to assume someone running power would bother with MH axe when there are much better power weapons.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Mainhand axe is a pure condition weapon, why in the world would you want to switch it to power, let alone associate it with ‘berserker’?

Axe 1 should apply bleeds and hit harder. Basically like shortbow #1 but without the stupid condition of having to be to the side or back.

The only thing that makes it a condition weapon is the 5 bleeds you can hit someone with in one attack. Chill + pet weakness is useful in all builds and the auto is trash no matter what you are running.

Still a bit of a stretch to assume someone running power would bother with MH axe when there are much better power weapons.

It’s definitely in a ‘hybrid’ limbo state at the moment but I wouldn’t say that it’s a condition weapon in the same way the SB or torch are condition weapons.

Hybrid isn’t limbo when you’re talking about a PvP class that has clear hybrid tendencies.

I disagree with a lot of what has been said. While the axe has condition damage it is pretty underwhelming. 5 stack of bleed would be great if you could connect during normal use. So being range your not going to get the 5 bleeds.

The chill and weakness in my view is best suited for a power build as having a condition based build doesn’t improve the damage. Not being a single target weapon it has its draw back. But it has more damage than the low bow at 1000 range.

Path of scar can be traited to 1200 range (it take more skill to use it properly as the return time is longer).

Rangers lack a good condition weapon. Granted the short bow is nice but the fact you have to flack to get the bleeds means in areas like Eotm when you can’t flank you at an extreme disadvantage. Torch has burning but its a off hand weapon and for me burning is more of a cover condition.

Using main axe as a condition damage weapon I totally can see how this weapon can be perceived as weak.

I know some of you swear by condition damage. In this case I believe condition is a very poor use for this weapon.

Ehh, While Axe 1 is blah in my opinion for all builds..

Axe 2 and 3 are good…2 is a 5 stack of bleed that is 5 separate hits, So if you’re any sort of crit type build you can apply a stupid amount of bleeds by landing it.

3 Is incredibly Good, while the Chill isn’t super great…a 10 second Weakness is incredibly useful.

Axe/horn is fine. specially in PvE and running with a Zerg sometimes good in a 1v1 situation depending on what class you’re fighting.

Aaaand there isn’t much defence in using whirling defense. rather Anet fix the pets first specially if some of our damage output is on them my dogs can’t even hit a moving target.

I agree the AA on the MH axe is horrible, in any sort of build or situation… but the #2 isnt that bad and the #3 is really good.

I can understand the slight issues with #2 of it being essentially a point blank attack on what is otherwise a ranged weapon. Thats is odd, but it does stack 5 bleeds on a very short CD which is not something to take lightly on a condition build.

And #3.. Chill is the best debuff ever.. movement, and then CD speed reduction too? It might only be 3s, but it also has a short CD, and short duration high application conditions are the best. Throw the weakness it gives on there and it more or less turns even a full berserker player into a wet fish.

Axe mainhand:
2 is discussable. 3 is good. 1 is…terrible, just terrible.

They should definitly change it. I would like to see something like this.

1. Throw your axe at your foe and apply multiple stacks of bleed over time. (1 or 2)
2. Rip your axe from your foe for extra damage
3. Strike your foe(s!) and apply 1 stack of torment

Similar to warrior sword 4. With this the weapon could be usefull in diffrent kinds of builds.
Condition based range/lose range, hybrid and direct dmg too.

Axe offhand:

4 is nice.
5 too but. It would be awesome as a ground targeting spell. Chose your targetarea and the ranger rolls to the selected position to protect allies.

Greatsword:
1 needs more dps, remove the evade (add endurance per hit and a whirl finisher) or not. But it should do nearly equal dps to our mainhand sword.

4 Let the players chose when they want to use the counterkick or make counterkick an evade itself.

The skills are fine. I use axe/axe on a power ranger in WvW primarily for clearing camps.

Ricochet actually does pretty good damage when it hits 3 targets, and it also gives you aoe regardless of where your enemies are standing. This si why I use it for clearing camps because its quicker than bows or swords, because I don’t have to group/line up my enemies.

Splitblade – damage is low yes but the kittens mean 5 chances to crit and proc sigil of fire, so it can provide good aoe on the right build.

Winter’s Bite – the thing I like about this is it tracks the target and doesn’t miss. Its also on a pretty short cooldown.

Ricochet – I agree its nearly useless, and I think it is the byproduct of Anet trying way too hard to make every weapon for every profession unique, but forgetting to balance the skills before release.

One interesting thing with Ricochet though is that sharpening stone uses only 1 stack of bleed every time you attack, and even though Ricochet attacks 3 seperate enemies, it still counts as only one attack giving you the ability to apply 5 stacks of bleeds on 3 different enemies with just one use of sharpening stone!

Splitblade – Use it with Sharpended Edges, an Earth Sigil, and Sharpening Stone. Make a point blank attack with it, and watch as 20 bleeds stack on the enemy instantly! This skill is meant to stack bleeds, and not every weapon needs multiple dozens of different roles at the same time.

Winter’s Bite – 3 seconds of chill every 10 seconds with the attack is perfectly balanced, especially with all the runes and other ways to increase chill duration. The other half of the skill is utterly useless, and relies too much on server side A.I. to apply a 10 second weakness debuff. Works great in PvE, works terribly everywhere else.

And yes, I use the Axe in Condition builds, especially with Rabid Gear, because it is our ultimate Condition weapon when dealing with more than one enemy. Single target, shortbow does still win, but not when theres more than one.

Everything at rangers needs a fix.

Fext.3614:

Everything at rangers needs a fix.

Offhand dagger not

I find the MH Axe handy in TA for killing the blooms as it bounces between them, but apart from that it’s not really useful for anything

Norjena.5172:

Fext.3614:

Everything at rangers needs a fix.

Offhand dagger not

Stalker’s Strike could do something more as it’s redundant with serpents strike, dodge with a weak attack + poison. Crippling Talon also needs a massive increase in the missile speed.

Probably u´re right, but the extra (small CD) evade is strong and good/easy to use (Lupicus P1 for example or vs Shattermesmers). More dmg or another additional effect would be welcome.

Crippling Talon…i use it in PvE as a small dmg boost, mobs can´t evade it so i never noticed the slow missile speed.
They should fix the big issues like LB 1/2 or GS or mainhand axe before i think.

Seriously? Winter’s bite is one of the best skills in the game (chill/ weakness is amazing vs wars) split axe with geomancy sigil and ss are amazing bleed burst. And… axe 1 is great if you run carrion in spvp, does decent dmg and hits multiple targets. Awesome synergy with dagger as well.

OH axe is underrated i think… sword/ axe is a lot fun with a power build, the pull is on a short cd and coupled with sword you can stick to a target quite well.

The problem lies with the fact that power ranger’s dmg is crippled because of their pet… i feel like the mechanics of power weapons (lb, gs/ sword/ oh axe) are in a good spot… but none of them have amazing burst (decent but far short of other classes).

Not a ranger here, just came to these forums for a giggle.. and i got one

..Listen guys complaining about rangers (especially axes) .. i have yet not ONCE been beaten by a ranger useing a bow.. those axe/condition rangers are the only kind i take serious in duels no matter tpvp or wvw, especially those berserker glass cannon rangers are a joke, you know how depressing it is as a thief, to Cloak N’ Dagger on a ranger, to go in for a nice backstab.. and realize you killed that fellow with just your opener? … think about your weapon loadouts a little and stop posting brainless.. or in other words “Learn to play your class”

Axe = best melee condi weapon for rangers NA
Also your pet will still apply the weakness even if you miss the chill on Winter’s Bite

Axe 2 and 3 are ok. But 1 is horribel bad, no conditionweapon, and terrible direct dmg.

Rangers need their bows looked at first and first most

After that sword root on skill 1.

than maybe you can go into fine tunning other weapons but the other ones are in a MUCH better position than bows and sword AA.

I love my sword and skill 1 rooting problems have gotten me killed countless times. It takes a while a master but it could be fixed with some code….

Bows are pathetic. (talkin wvw,pvp) Absolutely useless. You wont kill anything with a bow except grubs. Sure you can tag a field with barrage, thats about it.

Shortbow is OK for conditions, but again, the melee weapons are MUCH better. all of them have viable condi applications and better dps than shortbow.

Long bow is easily the worst weapon in our repertoire.

Its sad when the class with the sterotypical bow user character is not even the best ranged player in this game…. hell not even top 5. All other classes have better range options than the ranger does, that’s a fact, don’t even try to argue against it.

I would love to use Axe & probably will but my only complaint about it is that it hits like 3 things especially if you only want it to hit just 1- why the chain effect? I would like to be able to choose that or something….
And with sword, I WOULD use but am not because you can’t seem to break away while using it, not like a warrior for whatever reason a ranger has to stay right up against the foe but when you use sword #2 Hornet’s sting apparently that’s all we rangers get if we need to break away – no actual dodgeroll while trying to break away

Axe one needs rework. The rest of the MH axe skills are for condibuild (except maybe 3, can be used offensively). Don’t make axes a powerwep.

P.S: Splitblade should be able cast from all directions.

my only problem with axe is main hand, specifically skill #2 besides that I think that it is a really decent weapon. it is the only weapon in game that can provide permanent weakness to an enemy. its ridiculous if this becomes a power set, a few tweaks in its weapon skill and its a really good weapon to use IMO.

I like Axe 2 and 3 but the autoattack should scale more like thief shortbow auto when going full zerker. It hits like ~800 on each hit on a full glass ranger while thieves can hit upwards of 2K a hit with Trick Shot.

I do not think Main hand ax switching to a melee weapon would be a good idea. I think with the reduction of range on shortbow, main hand ax suffers in its original role as a skirmishing middle range weapon.

axes are certainly NOT fine. OP, i like your ideas and u should add this to the CDI thread. MH axe is complete garbage for power builds, and only has a role in duels.

Okay first off Axe MH is a condition based AOE (hits 3 targets untraited) weapon. It is part of many of my builds. Dagger OH compliments this MH absolutely PERFECTLY!!!

So if you want to see improvements please ask for more conditions…not power duh.

All durations are merely examples so dont cry about them.
Axe auto can be split into a 3 chain skill (kind of like the mesmer OH Pistol) where the axes cause specific conditions on hit. 1st axe hit, 3s torment. 2nd axe hit, 5s cripple. 3rd axe hit, 1s immobilize.

Axe skill #2. Perfectly fine as is. If you want to see its full effect I suggest, again, using dagger OH.

Axe skill #3. Don’t touch. Chill foe for more kiting possiblities? (I’ve scared people into condition cleansing with it) Hell yes. And the 10s weakness is a bonus because you can use ANY pet to get it.

Besides, all these conditions can be used as buffers to your main damaging conditions that your swap weapon can deal in greater quantities. Example: you deal 11 stacks of bleeding with Shortbow, swap to axe and deal 4 different conditions in about 2 seconds, foe uses condition cleanse and clears 3 of your buffered conditions and not the bleeds stacks.

Please no more hate on Axe.

Axe is a bad conditon weapon (1 2 and 3 are good). SB + Sword/dagger or sword/torch are usually much better.

It needs condition on AA or dmg, or both. But i should not bounce anymore. They can´t, and they will not balance such an AA.
Vs 1 target it´s always useless.
Vs 2 it can be too strong (if 1 targets gets 2 hits)
vs 3 it´s only good when u couldn´t cleave the targets with a meleeweapon.

So i think axe 1 is in a rly bad state of balance. Axe should not be a conditon weapon, it should be a hybridweapon. Probably like warrior sword 4 a chain with direct dmg and conditions.

kitten just no
okay a slight dmg buff on axe mainhand would be okay i think, nevertheless is Axe mainhand a good choice.
Okay on lv 80 all 5 axes of splitblade are weaker then the AA, but do not Forget the bleed that makes it stronger.
And wintersbite is one of the strongest sustain skills the ranger has. We can apply 3s of chill, thats good, plus 10s weakness on 10s cd. Thats almost perma weakness when we do it right. Less dmg from foe and he cant dodge as often then without. Some People seem to underestimate that debuff. And yes we have the bear to apply weakness as AoE for 13s on 40s cd (untraited). But thats not as strong like the axe #3.
Okay warrior can apply perma weakness with mace too..but come one…its warrior he is too strong in general

Removing a weapon choice (offhand axe) is a terrible idea. We need more weapon variety, not less.

And making mainhand Axe a melee weapon would mean that Rangers would have no 1H ranged options at all. That would suck, and again reduce variety.

Axe does need some improvement for sure, but this is not the way to do it at all.

I understand the frustration with the axe but actually like the way it is. I use it in power build with Warhorn and find it quite usefull in PvE and WvW. I think the trick is finding the right skill sequence. If you open with 2 at PB range, you will have just enough time to use 2,3,5,4,1,1,2 before swapping back to main weapons. The issue is that the damage seems a little underpowered vs a single target, so I swap out of this as soon as it lets me. 1h sword will do much more damage vs single target, but is many times not ideal as it keeps you at PB range too long for some things.