Guild Wars 2

I have been using Sword/Warhorn and Longbow for forever in my frontline, tankish build. What I am curious about is whether the built in evade from the gs autoattack and the block are worth the loss of the evades from sword? I don’t so much care about the debate on damage etc, but for pure survivability is switching to gs worth it? Thanks.

Swords survivability benefit is on demand evade. So as you learn enemies animations I think it becomes more effective defensively. It’s evades can also be used on demand without having to hit targets to go through a chain. kittenhat guy 1200 units away is teeing me up 2 or 3 works with sword. GS uses it’s 4 on a much longer cd.

For pile fights Advantage GS I think. For 1v1’s probably sword.

I will give you my perspective, I play with both GS and Sword/Horn and switch regularly between the two in combat.

GS is what I typically have out as it requires less micro managing and the auto evade is great for mob fighting. In PvE you can actually get it to sync with Enemy attacks to go off everytime they attack. Just toss in a #2 from time to time to keep it in sync and you will be laughing at Champs in no time. The #4 is amazing for closing on ranged when #3 is on cooldown and the #5 comes with a bonus with pets next hit does 50% more damage.

Sword after watching videos and experimenting with it, it is extremely mobile weapon especially if you take auto target off and auto attack. The amount you bounce around makes it really hard for enemies to pin you down. The #1 chain stacking might is also great with pets especially when paired with RaO and Horn #4 you can get 25 stacks of might up on you pet in a short time. I then Swap to GS and #5 and watch my pet get an insane hit (if I lined it up right with its attack chain for its big hit attack, paired with raven f2 which you can time is godly).

I pack the LB in my sack for when I know that there is no way I am getting into melee and back out alive. They are both extremely powerful weapons. My general experience is for general defensive survival play the GS is my go to. If I want to switch up and apply more pressure to my targets and can forgo defense (single target 1v2 etc.) I switch to the sword/horn. Sword/horn is also my swap when I want to turn my pet Super Sayan with RaO.

I think it’s preference and context when you really get down to it.

But something to keep in mind that avoiding damage while standing in place and avoiding damage while moving both have their own sets of pros and cons. Sometimes moving is just not an option, sometimes it’s the best option.

From a pure defense perspective, I’d say GS because of the evade on auto-attack and the block that either gives you a longer duration of protection from projectiles compared to the evade or an enemy knockdown that protects you for longer than the evade.

The 1h sword comes close with the right offhand (dodge from dagger or projectile block from axe), but the GS still edges out (pun intended) ahead a bit.

However, if you did consider damage, then you’d have a better case for the 1h sword since it has higher dps itself and increases your pet dps with the might buff.