Guild Wars 2

So I’ve gone through some effort to try out axes on my ranger. I am trying to start this thread on a positive note, because it’s all too easy to complain about stuff sometimes. After a good week of trying it out and getting used to the weapon, using two sets (glass cannon and balanced pow/precision/condition/toughness), I’ve come to some conclusions.

Ricochet is the basic attack that bounces between three enemies. Its damage is lower than swords and long-range shot at close range. The bounce is excellent for when you’re fighting anywhere between 2 and 4 enemies. This is a very mild aoe attack for medium damage, and generally reliable, but eventually does fall short damage-wise. If you use balanced stats, its damage will be unremarkable. If you use berserker gear, you will get a decent use out of it, but it isn’t anywhere near as good as longbow’s main attack. Regardless, it’s an automatic aoe attack, and can be useful for whittling down enemies, especially with some bleeding from traits/sharpening stone.

Splitblade is very easy to compare to shortbow’s Poison Volley. It’s quite useful for anyone who has reliable condition damage, but don’t expect the direct damage from the skill to stop/scare an enemy. The true perk of the skill is that it pierces the enemy, and all the blades can apply their bleeds to a single target, as well as anyone else standing behind them. If there is one amazing skill on axes that needs no changes, it’s this one. Mobile, durable condition built rangers will love this.

Winter’s Bite is better in theory than it is in practice. Against players, I have often missed it due to them running out of range, strafing awkwardly, or dodging. Against computer enemies, the one chill won’t do much good as the enemy likes to use numbers against you. Then the skill needs to recharge for its ten second duration. It is an excellent skill for temporarily halting a tricky enemy, but it has the same damage as ricochet, without the bounce. Use it on hard-hitting enemies (like veterans) or a warrior that’s running at you.

Offhand skills are very different. They’re not part of the same theme in my opinion, but as a ranger you only have one other main hand weapon, which is a sword. That made me want to find some synergy with main hand axes.

Path of Scars is the only guaranteed combo finisher for axes. Its damage is slightly less than a mid-ranged Long Range Shot, but it pierces without needing traits, and returns to you afterwards. Unfortunately, its 15 second recharge time severely restricts your use for the skill. It’s quite a challenge to dodge/kite your enemy while trying to get them to stand in the way of your returning axe. This leads me to believe that a slightly shorter recharge time and a short cripple would complete the skill. I only use this skill because it’s there, and everything else is on cooldown.

Whirling Defense might be my favorite skill on rangers. It has to be said – it looks amazing! Your character doesn’t just twirl around, s/he actively dual-wields the weapons and dances in place, like the agile warrior that s/he is. Like many axe skills, this one does high damage at low levels, but eventually only does medium damage near 80. It makes you stay in place for it to keep working, and I don’t really disagree with that. The vulnerability is very useful as it’s twelve stacks that last for 10 seconds. The second feature of this skill is that you can reflect projectiles back at the enemy, making it a surprisingly efficient defensive weapon. It is also a combo finisher (whirl), which means you’ll be hurling fire bolts if standing in a trap. I have no real complaints about this skill, but be careful when using this in melee, as its damage isn’t particularly great to justify such a vulnerable position (use ‘protect me’ or the more reliable signet trait, unfortunately those are one-offs).

In conclusion
For dual-wielded axes, I would use a combination of power and condition damage, along with agile survival skills or traps. In my opinion, the axes have very modest stats and features. They have a bit of everything, but lean towards rangers who want to inflict some condition damage. Winter’s Bite can help you kite enemies as they suffer from a potential six stacks of bleeding, and sharpening stone adds something else to it. Short bows have more condition skills, but they don’t allow for much customization, as rangers have four offhand options. Offhand axes have one skill that I never managed to find particularly useful (path of scars), but you might be able to combine it with a combo field to get some use out of it. Whirling Defense is fine to me.

Things that might make axes more viable

• Ricochet* is only really good against 2-4 enemies. Anything higher and you’ll want a proper aoe skill. It might want to get a very slight damage boost.
• Winter’s Bite* would be really good if the chill was a small aoe. It would keep people from zig-zagging away, and allows you to hit tightly packed groups of enemies, making it more reliable in both pvp and pve.
• Path of Scars* Could get the tiniest improvement, but I don’t know what exactly. Cripple would help to make the returning axe hit (or forces them to dodge roll) while you’re trying to avoid melee range.

I wouldn’t complain about the two other axe skills.

Thanks for reading xD This is probably too lengthy for most people (and I’m a real nerd-girl sometimes), but I appreciate anyone who got this far – perhaps this makes you want to try axes for a bit, too? Opinions are welcome.

loved axes during lvling and on overfarmed events, im now almost at the 5k kill mark with axes. Ricochet is highly underestimated and works exceptionally well against EXACTLY 2 enemys, no more no less, every axe will bounce back to your initial target, effectively dealing 2x the amount of dmg, and thus, beeing more effective in pure dps on your main target than any other ranged weapon, except melee.

its also nice against enemy mesmers or rangers, because rangers who keep their pet close (ranged pets) or fight in melee got the same situation of every ricochet hitting them twice.

Mesmers i generally find almost unbeatable as a ranger, however ive seen best chances of winning with axes, because their illusions die after 2-3 ricochet hits, sometimes the Mesmer also gets multiple hits with every ricochet, depending on how many illusions he has out at the time or how they are positioned.

path of scars: remember you dont need your enemy to be standing still to take the second hit, you can also move by yourself into the direction you want it, the axe will follow you. Playing with Axes is basically like Sivir in LoL, for those who know it.

Yea, I’ve generally found that in PvE a mainhand axe is good for a temporary swap to get a bit of AoE or to use for a ranged weapon while you make use of a particular offhand.

In PvP, it tends to shine on condition builds since it allows you to throw a lot of bleeds on a target instantly with a close ranged splitblade.

For offhand axe, it seems to fill the niche of being a decent offhand that does more damage than dagger or horn, but less than torch. However, considering how problematic conditions and stacking burning can be in PvE (at least in groups), it still is a very worthwhile weapon. The projectile reflect is also great for some dungeons.

In PvP, it really feels like an overall subpar weapon. A dagger provides much better defensive utility and gives a way to snare enemies. The torch also doesn’t suffer from the condition stacking issues that you can run into in PvE, so it serves as a much stronger damage dealing option.

It’s damage gets lower at high levels? That’s too bad, currently while leveling it is my favorite weapon.

I always found longbow, in spite of its apparent flaws (which will really be fixed soon), to be better in general. It does more damage and has a great aoe thing about it. Like Rocklin said, if you have exactly two enemies, then the axe basically doubles in damage. But you still do more damage to that one target by shooting once with the longbow. One bonus is that you have more mobility and it’s slightly faster.

Part of the reason why I made this thread thingy was because people complain so much about axes. I wanted to try and be positive so I went and did what a lot of people who get their information on the forums don’t do! Experimented D:

I’ll totally try a condition ranger with an axe sometime, I think.. if I can spare the coins :) But I do sort of stand behind the idea that axes can use a minor boost. They don’t have as many traits as bows do, and path of scars seems too bland / limited to be a guild wars 2 skill.

Still fun to play & be different :)

one longbow shot damage is more then an axe double hit from a ricochet?….nnnooooooo……