Guild Wars 2

Well being a free ranger that likes experiments i discovered the shunned mainhand axe is a pretty kitten good deal, at least for running AC dungeon.

Unlike the sword/warhorn meta, the axe/axe set let me clear a lot of trash (mini spiders, gravelings) at range with full control over the situation and much less conditions and blows landing on me.

The allegedly horrid axe auto damage proved to be surprisingly good (nearly 1h sword auto, albeit slower), and the ability to stay at range, freely move while attacking and not worrying about grouping trash together thanks to bouncing proved well worth the cost.

Another story are bosses. I don’t enjoy meleeing spider queen with big red toxic circle under her, and that’s what happens when you don’t range her at all. Axe provided the needed range when that happened, split blade evening the damage loss a bit compared to sword. Plus that chill and weakness from winter’s bite didn’t hurt either.
Sword when opening arrives, axe when it’s a fools errand to melee.
Why not bow? cause she won’t sit calmly waiting for me to clear the trash and then switch weapon set. So either bow or axe/axe from the start.

Similar story with ghost eater. Everyone wants a “pro melee stack” on it, only thing is it spewed it’s aoe right under itself. And being a ranged attacker it wasn’t planning on moving itself anytime soon. Nor was my sword planning on suddenly extending it’s reach. Again axe got the job done. Now why axe and not bows? Cause with bows you can’t use offhand axe.
And whirling defense does a nasty number if it casts it’s wave of projectiles into it. Speaking of which it also does veeery good aoe damage if you’re a damage oriented build.

Path of scars is another reason – interrupting and bringing in those annoying ascalonian necromancers for little face-to-axe was awesome as well. Sword with warhorn don’t give any cc at all.

So in short axes are good;) I’m not saying they’re top meta weapon, but you’ll do yourself a huge favour by making sure you got two nice, shiny axes in your inventory for that inner psychopath of yours;)

Not this again.

I’m a big fan of axe/axe. Keep your distance and if you draw missile fire you have whirling axe. I put my bow away some time ago, but the buffs they’ve been talking about sound tempting for me to actually go back..! Longbow is getting a massive damage buff while axe doesn’t seem quite as good. Not bad mind you but not the same.

I always liked mh axe and I will always keep loving it. I even went for Frostfang without a second thought.
With the update I’ll probably give LB/axe+axe a try instead of my current GS/axe+axe and axe/axe+wh setup.

I saw a lupi solo video where one guy kited the hell out of lupi using axes and it took like 20 minutes. GS attempts give 9-10 minutes it seems.

I think its probably fine in a laid back pug. I once pugged AC with a random ranger that had both frostfang and howler on, which was pretty sick… but he didn’t know what frostspotter was because he didn’t use that, and he somehow had two legendaries with only 2K AP.

I really hope to make frostfang next. My internship is ending this week, so the next two weeks after that are going to be gold farming, WvW, solo Q and GRE practicing all day lol, except on weekends when I’m popular.

-_-.

Stick to axe for offhand only and run it with a sword in your mainhand. You won’t be able to talk people out of kicking you for axe in your mainhand unless you’re joining groups who just don’t care about how long their run takes.

J Eberle.9312:

-_-.

Stick to axe for offhand only and run it with a sword in your mainhand. You won’t be able to talk people out of kicking you for axe in your mainhand unless you’re joining groups who just don’t care about how long their run takes.

Stop being such a hardcore know-it-all player please. All it takes is joining a casual guild that does PvE and off you go playing how you want.

The guild I’m member in never had a problem with me being a ranger and they certainly didn’t care if the dungeon took 2-10 minutes longer. Really, how much are those 2-3 minutes of your life? Not much if I were to answer. No one ever asked me to bring something unless I asked “This or that?”.

Oh geez, we could finish this dungeon in 10 mins but it took almost 12 minutes, THANKS AXE, you ruined the day of a whole group!

The difference of having GS/sword+x and GS/axe+x is barely noticeable in a dungeon run, even less with FGS available.

As long as you run frostspotter I don’t care THAT much, even though I’d probably just use sword.

Not running frostspotter just means you’re either uneducated or a kitten.

nearlight.3064:

Not running frostspotter just means you’re either uneducated or a kitten.

That I agree.

Guise you can’t stack on the spider queen/ghost eater/anything, what are you doing there!

I use MH Axe when I’m mob tagging in Orr (along with OH torch, traps, and shortbow with piercing arrows).

The biggest peeve I have with MH axe is that it requires 2 enemies to actually function (You lose 66% of your DPS against a single target).

Well i tend to do the unthinkable….like:

1. having axe/axe set and sword/wh set! Can you belive it? you can have both!
2. Not running frost/spotter. My build has nothing to do with nature magic so frost is out. Better lay down some traps. As for spotter when possible i use it, but sometimes i do pull out that bow and trait it with piercing arrows for ensured hit in a zerg, and the spotter gets to sit on a bench.

The moral of this topic is: don’t blindly follow meta-sheep, understand why meta is meta but also how all those other weapons, skills and traits can produce amazing results in certain situations:) like axes in ac:)

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Well i tend to do the unthinkable….like:

1. having axe/axe set and sword/wh set! Can you belive it? you can have both!
2. Not running frost/spotter. My build has nothing to do with nature magic so frost is out. Better lay down some traps. As for spotter when possible i use it, but sometimes i do pull out that bow and trait it with piercing arrows for ensured hit in a zerg, and the spotter gets to sit on a bench.

The moral of this topic is: don’t blindly follow meta-sheep, understand why meta is meta but also how all those other weapons, skills and traits can produce amazing results in certain situations:) like axes in ac:)

Just in DUNGEONS use frostspotter. In other areas, like the zergs you mentioned, other things are possible.

MH Axe shines when there’s 2 or more enemies. For single target stick with Sword.

Yeah, frostspotter is required in dungeons, anywhere else frost spirit usefulness drops by a lot.
MH axe against 1 target isn’t good, against 3 targets is good, against 2 targets is great, since it bounces 2 times in the main target so the DPS pretty much doubles.

solrik.6028:

Stop being such a hardcore know-it-all player please. All it takes is joining a casual guild that does PvE and off you go playing how you want.

That’s fine, but then there is zero point to this thread. “Hey guys, I recommend using the worst possible weapon available to my profession.” It’s like saying “I don’t run for speed so here’s something to try: not using a weapon at all and only using a pet for damage.”

By all means do whatever you want with your guild, but why make posts touting the benefits of something utterly useless? If someone is such a bad player they need to use axe, they’re already using axe instead of dying constantly with a sword or greatsword.

Well, there are situations where you can use MH axe… like Twilight arbor to shoot flowers :p

Fluffball.8307:

solrik.6028:

Stop being such a hardcore know-it-all player please. All it takes is joining a casual guild that does PvE and off you go playing how you want.

That’s fine, but then there is zero point to this thread. “Hey guys, I recommend using the worst possible weapon available to my profession.” It’s like saying “I don’t run for speed so here’s something to try: not using a weapon at all and only using a pet for damage.”

By all means do whatever you want with your guild, but why make posts touting the benefits of something utterly useless? If someone is such a bad player they need to use axe, they’re already using axe instead of dying constantly with a sword or greatsword.

You are listing unrealistic examples that don’t reflect the reality of the situation.
There are players who don’t min-max the game to gain 0.5% extra damage and 2% extra crit chance but rather just pick what they like and play.
I really don’t see what your real message is. Why would anyone find fun in doing a dungeon without weapons instead of any available weapon? It’s like “Hey, let’s race with very expensive cars but without the cars!”

Also, if you actually took the effort to think a little then you would realise that joining a guild is not the only “solution”. I simply listed it because it’s the easiest way because all one has to do is trype “Looking for pve guild” at the right place and invites start flying in.

No idea what you are trying to say with the sentence after the question mark…
To me it looks like you are saying “If they are doing X, then they are not doing Y”
like “If you are drinking milk at 8:00, you are not drinking tea at 8:00”

Each weapon in fact can be min-max, depending on situation. How will sword work against spread out mobs that are each interested in different target? Happy cleaving one mob at a time when axe can pick off 2-3 each cast.

Ofc when stacked and not too lethal in melee sword primes axe’s raw damage.
When bossing what do you want? Do most damage face to face with sword?

Or sacrificing your own damage for log weakness on boss and some chill with axe’s winter’s bite?
Again min-max depends on situation and your own goals here.

So my message to fellow rangers is that each weapon is a tool that works wonders in right situation, so don’t let “meta” rob you off a pair of sweet sharp axes;)

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Each weapon in fact can be min-max, depending on situation. How will sword work against spread out mobs that are each interested in different target? Happy cleaving one mob at a time when axe can pick off 2-3 each cast.

Ofc when stacked and not too lethal in melee sword primes axe’s raw damage.
When bossing what do you want? Do most damage face to face with sword?

Or sacrificing your own damage for log weakness on boss and some chill with axe’s winter’s bite?
Again min-max depends on situation and your own goals here.

So my message to fellow rangers is that each weapon is a tool that works wonders in right situation, so don’t let “meta” rob you off a pair of sweet sharp axes;)

In dungeons the only thing that matters is raw DPS on single target foes (bosses).

Taking Axe means you are hurting the team (because you are only doing 33% of the Axe’s DPS as there is nothing to bounce off of, plus bosses are resistant to both chill and weakness so the effects are not used by dungeon runners).

If your team is OK with that, then have fun playing the way you want!

If your team is NOT OK with that, then don’t go to the Dungeon forums complaining about how you got kicked.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Each weapon in fact can be min-max, depending on situation. How will sword work against spread out mobs that are each interested in different target? Happy cleaving one mob at a time when axe can pick off 2-3 each cast.

Ofc when stacked and not too lethal in melee sword primes axe’s raw damage.
When bossing what do you want? Do most damage face to face with sword?

Or sacrificing your own damage for log weakness on boss and some chill with axe’s winter’s bite?
Again min-max depends on situation and your own goals here.

So my message to fellow rangers is that each weapon is a tool that works wonders in right situation, so don’t let “meta” rob you off a pair of sweet sharp axes;)

axe mh doesn’t “work wonders” in AC (even with a typical PHIW group)…

nearlight.3064:

I saw a lupi solo video where one guy kited the hell out of lupi using axes and it took like 20 minutes. GS attempts give 9-10 minutes it seems.

I think its probably fine in a laid back pug. I once pugged AC with a random ranger that had both frostfang and howler on, which was pretty sick… but he didn’t know what frostspotter was because he didn’t use that, and he somehow had two legendaries with only 2K AP.

I really hope to make frostfang next. My internship is ending this week, so the next two weeks after that are going to be gold farming, WvW, solo Q and GRE practicing all day lol, except on weekends when I’m popular.

The ONLY thing Legendary needs is money, so I’m not that surprised anyway.
Many legendary users are terrible players because they spend most of their time grinding money or playing TP instead of improving their pvp skill or dungeon knowledge.

Fluffball.8307:

solrik.6028:

Stop being such a hardcore know-it-all player please. All it takes is joining a casual guild that does PvE and off you go playing how you want.

That’s fine, but then there is zero point to this thread. “Hey guys, I recommend using the worst possible weapon available to my profession.” It’s like saying “I don’t run for speed so here’s something to try: not using a weapon at all and only using a pet for damage.”

By all means do whatever you want with your guild, but why make posts touting the benefits of something utterly useless? If someone is such a bad player they need to use axe, they’re already using axe instead of dying constantly with a sword or greatsword.

Basically this. I figured I wouldn’t have to say much to get this kind of response, and really I’m just trying to help. I’m sure that someone who ’know’s it all’ is a threat to what you want to think, but at the end of the day being realistic is important for some people, even if it’s not for you. :)

Axe+axe / S+wh
group play just swap to sword for single target (boss/champs) problem solved

a guild Organised dungeon group, where changes can be made without up setting other players too much as some builds are 100% inflexiable.

above one guy posted don’t care just take spotter+frost.
all depends on your group situation and generaly pugs don’t like to tweek a groups set up time vs money one person might only have 15mins Tops to get it done and don;t want to risk it.

and god some people find it annoying to just change a few utlity skills .
but don’t mind it , (they are just pugs)honestly speed runs/ good dungeon runs, are much more fun with guildies anyway.

im sure in a Guild dungeon group it’’ll be fine to use axe+axe / S+wh with spotter or frost since they can tweek it in preperation for the event on a calander so its hassle free.

in your case its not a serious dungeon run of sorts, it’ll be all fine with organised groups but not with pugs.

with pugs its better to be safe than sorry and make sure the boss dies , fast and safely to avoid the unco-operative tantrums.

I used to run axe main hand for ~10 months after launch not even touching the bows. Axe is ok, it feels very responsive and chill, but the damage is way too low. You can do some very khuul things like solo some bossed while kiting them because the axe can fire at like 180 degrees which is insane, but you pay the cost by having insanely low numbers. Yes, axe will be better… but for condition WvW/PvP builds, it’ll occupy the same PvE tag-them-mobs niche as always.

After the patch I’ll just stick to my sword/x + longbow for dungeons and pve as they will both get good dps buffs (especially sword perma +10%). It feels way to comfortable being able to switch between great melee dps and skill set and good ranged dmg for braindead PvE.

I don’t have a ranger, however I have been looking at making one recently. I run a guardian, and enjoy doing dungeon runs. I recently met a ranger in a pug party I joined, wielding dual axes, 2 legendary’s actually. I was completely shocked at how much damage this ranger threw out! I was under the impression that axes for rangers sucked. I never got to see the guys build unfortunately, however unless something has changed in the last 2 weeks that made axes not viable again, Id say axes for a ranger seem great, and will be using them on my future ranger.

Galbedir.9178:

I don’t have a ranger, however I have been looking at making one recently. I run a guardian, and enjoy doing dungeon runs. I recently met a ranger in a pug party I joined, wielding dual axes, 2 legendary’s actually. I was completely shocked at how much damage this ranger threw out! I was under the impression that axes for rangers sucked. I never got to see the guys build unfortunately, however unless something has changed in the last 2 weeks that made axes not viable again, Id say axes for a ranger seem great, and will be using them on my future ranger.

Mainhand Axe works against trash mobs because in order to do any DPS it has to bounce off of the first enemy it hits and trash mobs are usually in groups. You’d still be better off cleaving them with Greatsword or Sword attacks, or even using piercing arrows and firing a Longbow through them.

Against bosses (i.e. single targets), Mainhand Axes is the WORST WEAPON YOU CAN POSSIBLY USE AS A RANGER because you get no bounces and thus are only doing 33% of your potential DPS. That’s right, 66% of your already low DPS is gone. You may as well put your pet on perma-passive, wear Nomad gear, and face away from the boss the entire time because that’s about the same level of contribution to the fight you bring.

Offhand Axe is not bad. It has a pull/interrupt and a projectile reflect, both with half-decent damage.

Axe/Axe for trash, Sword/Axe for boss?

Meh, misses out on warn horn which is good party buff…

AdziH.2360:

Axe/Axe for trash, Sword/Axe for boss?

Meh, misses out on warn horn which is good party buff…

Depends on the fight and your party.

If your party is already stacking might well without you and the reflect will come in handy, OH Axe makes sense.

mtpelion.4562:

AdziH.2360:

Axe/Axe for trash, Sword/Axe for boss?

Meh, misses out on warn horn which is good party buff…

Depends on the fight and your party.

If your party is already stacking might well without you and the reflect will come in handy, OH Axe makes sense.

Warhorn main purpose is to maintain fury uptime since not many classes can maintain long duration of fury. (Except Ele)

Aomine.5012:

Warhorn main purpose is to maintain fury uptime since not many classes can maintain long duration of fury. (Except Ele)

Yeah, I always forget about the fury uptime. Once you get into doing dungeons with the same people all the time you get so quick at the fights that boon duration takes a back seat.

Just want to point out that if axe hits 3 targets it is our highest damage AA.

But of course there is certain situations where you want that and where you don’t, ie bosses.

Sube Dai.8496:

Just want to point out that if axe hits 3 targets it is our highest damage AA.

But of course there is certain situations where you want that and where you don’t, ie bosses.

Are you including cleaves from the swords in that calculation? Or pierces from the bows?

Axe is always going to struggle in PvE unless they allow it to bounce off of allies. Most of the DPS scenarios in high end PvE will only have one target to hit, meaning axes will do garbage DPS.

Sword not only attacks faster, it hits harder…

Axe is just plain terrible for a power build.

Would be really cool if the axe auto had a power split mechanic where it always hits for x damage, only when it splits the damage gets divided by 2 or 3 on each target. I think it’s the best way to balance a weapon like that, else it will always be held back by a niche use, and I also think it’s wrong to niche the auto in a system where the weapon selection is the core of your customization. Besides it would sort of make sense, if you picture a world where that move is actually possible. Less need for precision, more power, on one target.

I think the offhand version is awesome though. Path of Scars is one of the best skills, only mitigated by the fact it contends with the excellent Ranger OH choices, and the minor point of having a care if boss CC is needed.

solrik.6028:

J Eberle.9312:

-_-.

Stick to axe for offhand only and run it with a sword in your mainhand. You won’t be able to talk people out of kicking you for axe in your mainhand unless you’re joining groups who just don’t care about how long their run takes.

Stop being such a hardcore know-it-all player please. All it takes is joining a casual guild that does PvE and off you go playing how you want.

The hardcore know-it-all is called zerker meta, and as the name says, it’s the friggin’ meta. So you can do what you want but don’t expect to be taken to a good zerker run.

Sorry, but MH Axe wont be worth using, even with Might on autoattack.

It really pains me to say that as well, considering I quite like a lot of the Axe skins, and I mgiht even be going for a Frostfang soon.

As has been said, the best (and only use) for Axe MH is for larger trash mobs.
Or perhaps, a Vet or Champ with normal foes nearby. Target the Vet or Champ.

Message to the OP: If you post anything in the forum other than max damage builds (the full zerker, noob build) you will incur the wrath of the Ranger forum stooges which always try to make the following points in their advice:

1. I (insert name here) am an amazing player because I deduced that Berserker does the most damage mathematically (even though devs published this for us)

2. I can beat content in full zerker (so I am awesome, baby) and you obviously cant because you like something that is not full zerker, therefore u are a cripple… With a crutch! And can’t use that full set of ascended berserker gear you have!

3. I will kick you and all my friends will too! Yes, i have friends (blush). And they will kick you because if you don’t play how I want you to, then u are PHIW player and u suk because only I can PHIW without being a PHIW player…. Or something. (pant)

4. I am AWESOME at mathematics but can’t seem to calculate that a 30s fight (with 5 participants) will take 30.5s if you bring a non max damage weapon (mainland axe) into a battle and that will make the whole dungeon run take hours longer! I mean if you bring a “weak” weapon into An easy dungeon it will take hours to finish… Right?

5. You should read my META Ranger thread for beginners…. What’s that? It’s no different than the advanced META? No, that’s your imagination!

6. Did I mention I am awesome, while trying to help you? I sometimes forget to brag about myself.

Archon what exactly are you contributing to anything? Are you like the spokesperson for inefficiency?

Edit: Archon aren’t you the person who was laughed out of the forums for saying carrion gear did more damage than berserker’s and then being mathematically proven wrong by quite a few people? Are you back being the people’s champ? Spreading disinformation? If you can speed up my dungeon run I am all ears, I want another legendary.

Fluffball.8307:

Archon what exactly are you contributing to anything? Are you like the spokesperson for inefficiency?

I would like to think of myself as the spokesperson for logic. You and so many others are like carpenters who have a toolbox full of hammers, but swear you must use only a single hammer for all jobs. To make matters worse, you flame anyone for suggesting the other tools. Hence, forum stooges. You think you know more than game designers. It’s annoying.

Archon.6480:

I would like to think of myself as the spokesperson for logic. You and so many others are like carpenters who have a toolbox full of hammers, but swear you must use only a single hammer for all jobs. To make matters worse, you flame anyone for suggesting the other tools. Hence, forum stooges. You think you know more than game designers. It’s annoying.

Spreading disinformation? If you can speed up my dungeon run I am all ears, I want another legendary.

OH!: I forgot. The last time this came up I did the same thing. There have been some dungeon clear challenges on the dungeon subforum. If you, Archon, using a non meta carrion build, can win the challenge and beat all the berserkers, I will give you 1200 gold. I will give it to a 3rd party if you don’t trust me.

Can you people just not accept that others like to play differently than how you play?
There is no benefit for you to actually convince someone to play as you do. (Except if the person is bearbow)

Fluffball.8307:

Archon.6480:

I would like to think of myself as the spokesperson for logic. You and so many others are like carpenters who have a toolbox full of hammers, but swear you must use only a single hammer for all jobs. To make matters worse, you flame anyone for suggesting the other tools. Hence, forum stooges. You think you know more than game designers. It’s annoying.

Spreading disinformation? If you can speed up my dungeon run I am all ears, I want another legendary.

OH!: I forgot. The last time this came up I did the same thing. There have been some dungeon clear challenges on the dungeon subforum. If you, Archon, using a non meta carrion build, can win the challenge and beat all the berserkers, I will give you 1200 gold. I will give it to a 3rd party if you don’t trust me.

You are not getting the point:

OP Post: Hey everyone, I just used axe and found it enjoyable and very strong, you should try it sometime!

Forum Stoog Post: Not this again :-(

Berserker/swords is BIS for damage according to ANET, so if you want fastest clear time, or some other stupid human trick (read burst lupi down) in an organized group, go for it. If you use LFG, bring whatever you want.

Getting back to carrion. I have a full set of ascended occam’s, wupwup’s, and zoja’s weapons and gear. I know they can all be used effectively, so you are disingenuous when you ridicule otherwise.

So you’re saying berserker is the most effective PvE armor set and the others are just for screwing around, yes I get that. Go ahead and screw around.

Fluffball.8307:

So you’re saying berserker is the most effective PvE armor set and the others are just for screwing around, yes I get that. Go ahead and screw around.

Least effective in a group with beginners. No ability to help allies, which is bad choice. Carrion, celestial, knights, Anything > zerker/sword meta in many scenarios.

solrik.6028:

Can you people just not accept that others like to play differently than how you play?
There is no benefit for you to actually convince someone to play as you do. (Except if the person is bearbow)

This argument isn’t from this. Way back when Archon tried to argue against like 60 people that carrion gear mathematically did more damage than berserker. He went on and on and on despite being literally proved wrong. It’s not about playstyle; if he want’s to say carrion is more fun, that’s up to him. But he made the claim is was better than berserker. It seems he has retreated to “it’s better if no one knows what they’re doing” but we shall see.

Fluffball.8307:

solrik.6028:

Can you people just not accept that others like to play differently than how you play?
There is no benefit for you to actually convince someone to play as you do. (Except if the person is bearbow)

This argument isn’t from this. Way back when Archon tried to argue against like 60 people that carrion gear mathematically did more damage than berserker. He went on and on and on despite being literally proved wrong. It’s not about playstyle; if he want’s to say carrion is more fun, that’s up to him. But he made the claim is was better than berserker. It seems he has retreated to “it’s better if no one knows what they’re doing” but we shall see.

Wow, way to take this personally.

I don’t care.
You have no need to justify anything you say by degrading a person.
How difficult is it to just not press that reply button? Try to not press it, try to ignore this thread. It didn’t originate as “Axe is better because FACT1 FACT2 and FACT3” but as someone’s opinion who found axe to be fun. Archon has his opinion and you have yours.

Many used to tell me that I should play zerker here and there, but I didn’t listen because knights or other tankier sets were better. Why did I think they were better? Because I didn’t have the skill to play with the zerker set so the tankier sets were more appealing than the glassy ones. At the moment, I can hop on any set and kill stuff without problems (not claiming that I am the best player in the world)

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Unlike the sword/warhorn meta, the axe/axe set let me clear a lot of trash (mini spiders, gravelings) at range with full control over the situation and much less conditions and blows landing on me.

The allegedly horrid axe auto damage proved to be surprisingly good (nearly 1h sword auto, albeit slower), and the ability to stay at range, freely move while attacking and not worrying about grouping trash together thanks to bouncing proved well worth the cost.

^ This is key right here that I think a lot of Rangers miss.

Being able to do 90% of the same damage Sword provides, but at a distance is definitely worth considering. Zerker Rangers can only take a couple hits before needing to back off and heal. And if you are trying to cleave a mob of 3 or more in a dungeon, you are going to get hit hard and back off anyways.

This only pertains to 2 or more targets though. Single target, stick with Sword for max damage.