Guild Wars 2

I ask this because after trying sword, and trying to maintain the utility the WH and torch give me personally, I’ve come to the conclusion it is just as worthless as the axe (I normally use):

• #2b misses more often than it lands the hit.
• #3 – see #2b (especially frustrating when “in range”).
• #1 rooting AKA the Masai Dance of Death.

Why does the sword even get advocated?

KyreneZA.8617:

I ask this because after trying sword, and trying to maintain the utility the WH and torch give me personally, I’ve come to the conclusion it is just as worthless as the axe (I normally use):

• #2b misses more often than it lands the hit.
• #3 – see #2b (especially frustrating when “in range”).
• #1 rooting AKA the Masai Dance of Death.

Why does the sword even get advocated?

Because people turn off auto attack, and say it takes skill to use. They will tell you its the highest dps weapon a Ranger can use, even though that dps is counted against a single stationary target. Also they will tell you l2p and the sword doesn’t “root” you you just don’t know how to use it.

Basically.

Well, it’s a great weapon, auto-attack or not. It’s one of the quirkiest in the game, but quirky is good in my opinion, and “traditional” rather boring (no offense.) I know the normally stated weaknesses, but it does have many awesome aspects to it that no other weapon in the game has (wonderful animations, free evades, companion’s might stacking, sticks to the enemy, etc.)

If you don’t like it, use something else. There aren’t that many other main-hand weapons for the Ranger, though. Don’t just use it to be a “meta”-guy/gal, but IMHO, it’s worth practicing using the sword rather than just fooling around with it for a few hours and being too hasty in saying that it sucks. HOWEVER, if after hundreds of hours you still feel it doesn’t fit your playstyle, just go for Greatsword perhaps, if you want to go melee (which I personally would.)

I am not the type to say: “sword or GTFO!” but surely I can’t say it’s a bad weapon at all. I use it almost always, and not just to be cool or fit metas-it’s just a fun weapon to wield, in addition of being spectacularly effective as well.

About the “skill” thing-it takes practice, not necessarily inordinate amount of “skill.” I don’t use it to brag about game “skills” I don’t care about, but because it’s a fun weapon, and for my builds, a better fit than Greatsword (which I once liked too, but am not using that often anymore because of the new Maul.)

Not sure what this say’s about the Ranger Class, but to ME, the only viable option was Condition Build using Sword Main hand… S/D, A/T. I harp a lot on the current state of the Ranger Class, but not so much this build, I found it competent in wvwvw. PvE, any number of builds work.

Edit: Thing is, when you get in melee range of someone, then Pet AI becomes less an issue, you have your fields to work with… Just better synergy.

Sword – love it or hate it. I bounce between the two but currently love it. Its very different and has a very high skill ceiling to use to the fullest – I havent hit it yet. And axe is just too low dps esp. 1-1.

Star Ace.5207:

If you don’t like it, use something else. There aren’t that many other main-hand weapons for the Ranger, though.

I was taking your post seriously until this. Granted, you nailed it: I only used a white vendor sword for two hours or so, while also searching for T6 mats in Orr, to get a feel for it (again). Yes, you get two free evades with #2a and #3, but if you cannot reliably connect with those two weapon skills, all the evades in the world is not going to kill your enemies for you.

So I’m left with the impression: both (and our only; so I “wtf” at your quoted suggestion) main hands we have suck. If you want to use off-hand axe, or dagger, WH or torch, you better suck it up with the two horribad main-hand weapons. And I know horribad, I use A+WH already.

Is it purely a L2P issue, or is the sword objectively not much better than the axe and are you better served only using 2H weapons on a Ranger?

The wonky mechanics of the sword are a big part of why I got frustrated with the ranger class and have largely shelved my ranger in favor of a thief.

The sword isn’t unplayable and you can work around the mechanics, but it just makes the class feel very stiff and clunky, which is a shame since I really liked the swashbuckler style of having a 1h sword-wielding ranger.

I wonder how the GS compares in DPS to the 1h sword now. I know the buff it just receives was small, but I don’t recall it being that far behind the 1h sword, last I checked either.

Sword ftw <3.