Guild Wars 2

The #5 still sucks by being stationary and doing terrible damage, but at least you get the burst of maul on path of scars (it actually does more damage), with a 900 range on the skill, that also pulls people.

And you get that on top of monarch’s leap, serpent’s strike (poison for more pressure), and a much better auto than greatsword.

I know some people will miss their Swoop, but just learn to use double leap on sword 2 and you’ll hardly notice the difference.

Until they actually buff greatsword auto and fix maul to not be so bad with 3 puny vuln stacks, you do much better running sword/axe.

I switch between the two constantly and I am not seeing any noticeable difference from yesterday. …maybe it’s just your choice in Gear?

ilr.9675:

I switch between the two constantly and I am not seeing any noticeable difference from yesterday. …maybe it’s just your choice in Gear?

I run berserker.

Sword mainhand has much more sustained damage. The damage you’d have from maul is more than made up by path of scars, which is basically a ranged maul when both hits land (and does a bit more damage actually).

On top of that you have access to a leap cripple so you are not so easily peeled with your sword auto, you’ve got poison to decrease the efficacy of heals so you stand up better to bunkers/condition specs, and monarch’s leap works much better with longbow.

The only real thing you lose is a mobile projectile blocker. In exchange for that you get a ranged aoe pull with your maul equivalent in offhand axe.

I think you are correct in saying that s/a damage is better than GS. Plus the in combat movement is fantastic. I can’t duplicate the movement of GS though. I can do it ok when fighting and want to bail. I don’t gain any distance though if already moving forward.

I like my Hunters Shot>Drake’s Lightning Breath>Hilt Bash>Maul combo but with path of scars you can set up some interesting burst secuences as well. I wouldn’t call one set superior over another though.

I don’t know, I think it’s just me, but I personally like the ferocity and playstyle of the GS.

GS isn’t really much more “ferocious” than Sword. I mean Sword is pretty in your face. As for Axe OH. Path of Scars is great but actually getting it to hit twice is next to impossible.

NinjaSonic.1392:

GS isn’t really much more “ferocious” than Sword. I mean Sword is pretty in your face. As for Axe OH. Path of Scars is great but actually getting it to hit twice is next to impossible.

If you use it in melee range it’s actually very doable. Which this weaponset will do.

Moreover, landing Maul is just as hard as 2x PoS. It’s this kitten bear animation delayed before a hit lands, it’s as easy to dodge as warrior skills.

And when people use hilt bash as an argument I wonder who they are fighting, because 70% of the time when I use it and a target is moving away with swiftness the attack misses. You pretty much have to be on top of someone for hilt bash to hit a moving target.

If you run longbow sword/axe is also godly because you can combo monarch’s leap into a longbow switch so well.

I dropped greatsword in wvw for the first time last night. It felt great. I chose sword/warhorn and axe/axe with valkryie build. Then I went with sword/warhorn and LB. Then I got anxious: all the tools are so good, it’s hard to pick just one. That’s a little scary but very good for gw2

Try running into a group of players and cast Muddy Terrain>Entangle>Whirling Defense, and Whirling Defense suddenly doesn’t seem as weak anymore. You have to remember that the axes are AoE weapons.

And what if you run both GS and Axe / Axe, they combine very well betwen each other.

You can use path of scars, which has almost no after cast and you can cancel it with a ricochet and then start to wind up a splitblade, by the time they get pulled to you (if you hit them twice, to do so, you have to choose a time when they are not going to doge it, like when a thief starts to hearthseeker or yust running in a straight line towards / away from you) you will hit them in the face most of the time unless the pull bugs (doesent pulls them the full distance) and inmediatly swich to GS and maul them in the face and swich to a drake and hilt bash and sic em so they use their super one shot tail swipe attack.

Or something like that.

Whirling Defense is terrible. It does like 6-7k damage for a 5 second channel in berserker gear (in the same time I could have easily done 10k with just sword auto cleaving) that roots you in place. You’re opening yourself up to a melee train for no reason. It’s a poor man’s counterattack.

I run Lightning Reflexes, Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Stone with beastmaster’s signet. You need these to survive in team fights with berserker gear. Maybe you could substitute signet of the hunt for muddy terrain, but I would never take entangle over RaO as I don’t fancy getting nailed by a static field into a 10 second root and then get blown to pieces.

uri.6521:

And what if you run both GS and Axe / Axe, they combine very well betwen each other.

You can use path of scars, which has almost no after cast and you can cancel it with a ricochet and then start to wind up a splitblade, by the time they get pulled to you (if you hit them twice, to do so, you have to choose a time when they are not going to doge it, like when a thief starts to hearthseeker or yust running in a straight line towards / away from you) you will hit them in the face most of the time unless the pull bugs (doesent pulls them the full distance) and inmediatly swich to GS and maul them in the face and swich to a drake and hilt bash and sic em so they use their super one shot tail swipe attack.

Or something like that.

You could, but you’d have no ranged option and a mesmer/engineer would just kite/cc you to death.

Ranger melee is meant to supplement his ranged capacity. Ranger melee is pretty easy to kite/disengage from so I always want a ranged option to fall back on and chase with.

I can see it for spvp, just not wvw unless you run with a melee train and got elementalists who can stun things down for you.

Zenith.7301:

Whirling Defense is terrible. It does like 6-7k damage for a 5 second channel in berserker gear (in the same time I could have easily done 10k with just sword auto cleaving) that roots you in place. You’re opening yourself up to a melee train for no reason. It’s a poor man’s counterattack.

I run Lightning Reflexes, Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Stone with beastmaster’s signet. You need these to survive in team fights with berserker gear. Maybe you could substitute signet of the hunt for muddy terrain, but I would never take entangle over RaO as I don’t fancy getting nailed by a static field into a 10 second root and then get blown to pieces.

I don’t understand the choice of offhand axe, if you don’t want to do any AoE damage. Seems like a waste of weapon slot, if you’re only using the pull. Especially since you already have increased movement speed from Signet of the Hunt or Rampage As One.

I can tell you from experience that mesmers and engineers especifically are no problem, ¿why? , because they use a lot of proyectiles / have a lot of multihit skills , so just find a good moment to use your axe 5 and they will eat half fo their life because of reflected proyectiles + retaliation.

Also, axe is a ranged weapon.

Kasama.8941:

Zenith.7301:

Whirling Defense is terrible. It does like 6-7k damage for a 5 second channel in berserker gear (in the same time I could have easily done 10k with just sword auto cleaving) that roots you in place. You’re opening yourself up to a melee train for no reason. It’s a poor man’s counterattack.

I run Lightning Reflexes, Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Stone with beastmaster’s signet. You need these to survive in team fights with berserker gear. Maybe you could substitute signet of the hunt for muddy terrain, but I would never take entangle over RaO as I don’t fancy getting nailed by a static field into a 10 second root and then get blown to pieces.

I don’t understand the choice of offhand axe, if you don’t want to do any AoE damage. Seems like a waste of weapon slot, if you’re only using the pull. Especially since you already have increased movement speed from Signet of the Hunt or Rampage As One.

Because path of scars is just as good burst as maul, but it’s ranged to boot and has a pull.

Whirling Defense is not AoE. I’m sorry for you if you call a 6k 5 second channel AoE, but it shows clearly you haven’t played aoe specs or classes.

uri.6521:

I can tell you from experience that mesmers and engineers especifically are no problem, ¿why? , because they use a lot of proyectiles / have a lot of multihit skills , so just find a good moment to use your axe 5 and they will eat half fo their life because of reflected proyectiles + retaliation.

Also, axe is a ranged weapon.

Mesmer auto is not reflected. Engineer bombs are not reflected. You can’t reflect all their ranged attacks. The moment you selfroot to whirling defense you’re just opening the gap further and when WD ends you are stuck with two melee weapons you can’t melee with because you just let the guy open distance.

I don’t run axe mainhand because it’s terrible on a power spec and because I use sword/axe+longbow. I’m not willing to give up the mobility/defense of the mainhand sword, and I’m not willing to give up the cc+burst+stealth of the longbow.

Zenith.7301:

Kasama.8941:

Zenith.7301:

Whirling Defense is terrible. It does like 6-7k damage for a 5 second channel in berserker gear (in the same time I could have easily done 10k with just sword auto cleaving) that roots you in place. You’re opening yourself up to a melee train for no reason. It’s a poor man’s counterattack.

I run Lightning Reflexes, Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Stone with beastmaster’s signet. You need these to survive in team fights with berserker gear. Maybe you could substitute signet of the hunt for muddy terrain, but I would never take entangle over RaO as I don’t fancy getting nailed by a static field into a 10 second root and then get blown to pieces.

I don’t understand the choice of offhand axe, if you don’t want to do any AoE damage. Seems like a waste of weapon slot, if you’re only using the pull. Especially since you already have increased movement speed from Signet of the Hunt or Rampage As One.

Because path of scars is just as good burst as maul, but it’s ranged to boot and has a pull.

Whirling Defense is not AoE. I’m sorry for you if you call a 6k 5 second channel AoE, but it shows clearly you haven’t played aoe specs or classes.

How can it have just as good burst, when Maul has half the recharge time?

AoE = Area of Effect. Whirling Defense hits multiple foes in an area. That’s why I call it an AoE skills.

Zenith, chill out. Whirling defense is used to clear a large mob (don’t ignore the power of retaliation), to reflect projectiles, and to stack vulnerability. It is, I guess, technically a cleave. I’ve found it fantastic in dungeons and have been using offhand axe for many months already.

Personally I like the off-hand axe, but I tend to play more of a support roll and primarily use #5 for its whirl finisher.

So…Zenith is telling us to use an offhand axe, and then telling us whirling defense sucks and we shouldn’t use it?

Sorry bro, your contradiction confuses me. I’ll stick to my longbow/greatsword build kthx.

I used to play with longbow sword+dagger for massive condition and control.
Was excellent till I switched to double bows and realized bow swapping lead to an amazing ability to snipe people out and control areas and dish out mass condition damage.

Now if I continue to play ranger i’ll probably go with axe/dagger, short bow.

I don’t like the short bow, I prefer the longbow shortbow tanky dps combo, its what I really optimized my ranger for.

Axe+dagger is one of my favorite ranger kits.

Kasama.8941:

Zenith.7301:

Kasama.8941:

Zenith.7301:

Whirling Defense is terrible. It does like 6-7k damage for a 5 second channel in berserker gear (in the same time I could have easily done 10k with just sword auto cleaving) that roots you in place. You’re opening yourself up to a melee train for no reason. It’s a poor man’s counterattack.

I run Lightning Reflexes, Signet of the Hunt and Signet of Stone with beastmaster’s signet. You need these to survive in team fights with berserker gear. Maybe you could substitute signet of the hunt for muddy terrain, but I would never take entangle over RaO as I don’t fancy getting nailed by a static field into a 10 second root and then get blown to pieces.

I don’t understand the choice of offhand axe, if you don’t want to do any AoE damage. Seems like a waste of weapon slot, if you’re only using the pull. Especially since you already have increased movement speed from Signet of the Hunt or Rampage As One.

Because path of scars is just as good burst as maul, but it’s ranged to boot and has a pull.

Whirling Defense is not AoE. I’m sorry for you if you call a 6k 5 second channel AoE, but it shows clearly you haven’t played aoe specs or classes.

How can it have just as good burst, when Maul has half the recharge time?

AoE = Area of Effect. Whirling Defense hits multiple foes in an area. That’s why I call it an AoE skills.

You seem to be confusing burst with sustained. Burst is fitting a damage spike within a small time window. For the feature of a global, Path of Scars does as good if not more.

I burst with path of scars, monarch’ leap back, and my longbow is already ready to be switched to for a rapid fire. By the time I finish rapid fire, I’ve sneaked some point blank and autos, stealth with hunter if he’s in my face, and switch over to s/a where my Path of Scars should be back up.

I’m berserker as a ranger with 30 in marksman, 5 in WS, 20 in skirmishing, and 15 in NM. I cannot stay in melee with berserker gear against superior glass cannon specs so I gotta use my burst from melee weapons quickly, use a couple of the melee weapon evades to land poison while my pet is damaging the guy, and disengage back to longbow burst.

You can call WD aoe all you want, but when I told you I can already do more aoe with my sword auto or barrage if I want, there’s no point of telling me about axe offhand being an aoe weapon when you’ve got superior aoe options and the main usage of axe offhand is not in the terrible whirling defense, but having a ranged maul spike damage ability that also acts like temporal curtain from mesmer.

Chopps.5047:

I dropped greatsword in wvw for the first time last night. It felt great. I chose sword/warhorn and axe/axe with valkryie build. Then I went with sword/warhorn and LB. Then I got anxious: all the tools are so good, it’s hard to pick just one. That’s a little scary but very good for gw2

I was wrecking roamers with axe 5 last night in WvW. The new retaliation with it is lots of fun. I found it really helps with thief stealth and reduces their burst if you can time it right … and gives a little of it back to them. Also, stealthing into a group + entangle + axe 5 was fun. Even if you die, you’ll get a rally.

I don’t play a thief so I don’t know much about the profession. I had a d/p thief trying to gank me last night. The new axe retaliation on axe 5 was awesome. At one point I think I used axe 4 for the pull and then LB 4 for the throw … it was actually quite hilarious. I wish I could have recorded it. LB #3 really helped to gain an edge. Eventually, he just left because he couldn’t kill me. I count that as a win.

Clearly, ppl that claim that offhand axe is not usable in high end tpvp shouldnt claim to even be playing high end tpvp in the first place.

OGDeadHead.8326:

Clearly, ppl that claim that offhand axe is not usable in high end tpvp shouldnt claim to even be playing high end tpvp in the first place.

No kidding, if you WD ontop of a downed player the enemy team usually will not even go near them out of fear of what that added damage and vuln will do to them in the team fight, not to mention I’ve noticed a lot of enemies are hesitant to attack you with Melee now too due to the retal.