Guild Wars 2

In either hand. I’d just like to know the best aspects of axes, how they play into the overall playstyle, etc.

Is #1’s bouncing all that handy?

Does #2 have any real benefit, or does the spread make it hard to really utilize?

It seems #3 is pretty potent with both Chill and Weakness, does it have any other strengths OR are those conditions not as useful as they seem on paper?

Can #4’s travel time get in the way of its function, and is pulling an enemy to you really all that wise?

How useful is #5 overall? There are a lot of aspects to it, which ones are the most noteworthy?

Furthermore, does it do well with Power or Condition? Or should damage not even be a consideration, and the focus should be more on its utility?

Any and all other input is appreciated.

im running LB + s/a atm. the pull does up to 11k dmg ( 1hit when the axe travelles to the target and up to 2 hits when travelling back, each hit for 3,6k dmg ) thieves that run direct to you are easy prey. axe5 is good for staying on downed ppl or defence wise when a lot of range dmg is incoming

axe mh is only viable in a condition or hybrid build.

1 has a passable power coefficient, so you can use it as a mid-range bouncing direct damage source. It’s okayish for condition damage when paired with a fire field from a torch or a trap, but the 20% finisher doesn’t make it very appealing. Bouncing abilities are great if there’s both a visible enemy and a stealthed enemy you’re fighting. The bounce (or lack of one) from attacking the visible enemy will tell you the general area where the stealthed enemy is (or isn’t). Bouncing attacks also have an advantage over general AoE in that they can hit a single target multiple times. Rangers themselves are very susceptible to this: Bouncing attacks will bounce between their pet and themselves several times, typically hitting both more than once. This means that bouncing attacks are probably at their best in 1v2s.

2 is primarily only useful when used at point-blank. You’re almost guaranteed to get at least one projectile finisher, which can be useful if thrown through either healing spring or a fire field.

3 is very strong if you stack condition duration. Chill is an incredibly strong condition. The weakness is just sort of there. Weakness is pretty strong too, I guess, but since it relies on my pet actually landing an attack, I’m not holding my breath.

4 is primarily for direct damage and CC. It scales pretty well with power, so OH axe sees some use in burst-type builds. Pulling people to you can be useful to land either a 3 or a 2 more reliably. As for whether that’s a good idea to try to do so, that’s really up to individual circumstance. Do you want an enemy on top of you? Usually I don’t think of such things since CC is CC, it prevents the enemy from doing what he wanted to do for a moment or two. The CC component isn’t super reliable anyways because of its long travel distance before returning.

5’s main use is in PvE for an incredibly long duration reflect against certain mobs. For PvP…there’s a lot of things to consider. It doesn’t deal very much damage, so if you’re looking for damage, you’re probably better off spamming 1. The reflection is decent, but the incredibly obvious animation makes it pretty clear to stop using projectile attacks for the duration. The retaliation is just sort of there, unnoticeable. The skill itself roots you, so it’s a very dangerous skill to try and use. I would recommend using it to reflect just one or two projectiles before cancelling it, since that’s typically when your enemy realizes you’re reflecting attacks and starts to think of another plan. If you use it actively like that, it isn’t too bad. Standing still for 5 seconds doing nothing is just kind of stupid unless you really need to just buy time and you know your opponent has no other way to deal damage to you for the duration.

Overall I’d say the axe/axe set is workable. Offhand axe is for direct damage, Mainhand axe can go either way.

In PvE , I run my power/crit ranger with sword/warhorn and axe/axe,
My attacks involve stacking lots of might that I share with my pet cats. I have a sigil of strength in my MH axe and a sigil of accuracy on my OH axe.

Axe #1:
Mainly effective as opening attack against multiple mobs and for tagging when running with a zerg. This is much better than SB #1, imo. This allows me build up a nice stack of might.
Versus single targets, axe #1 is near useless cos single-target damage is crap. You want the bounce for damage vs multiple mobs.

Axe #2:
I rarely use it. As said, you need to be point-blank, and if that close, I have swapped to sword/warhorn. Might be better for condition rangers.

Axe #3:
I use this in situations to chill moving targets so my cats can hit them. Used more than Axe #2, but not really part of my main attack rotation.

OH Axe #4:
I use this a lot. The double hit does decent DPS, and I use the pull on tougher mobs to bring them into melee range, then swap to sword/warhorn to finish them off. Very effective.

OH Axe #5:
Again, I use this a lot. I use Axe #1 to aggro lots of mobs to bring them in. then unload Axe #5. This is almost OP’ed between the damage, the reflection and the stacks of might I have up, nothing is left standing by the end of the attack. If there is still a vet mob up, then I swap to sword/warhorn to melee them down.

I only use axe for tagging mobs for loots. Outside of that I do not use it.

Throwing away, sorry I had to xD

What do I use the axe for? When I’m dual wielding and need a ranged weapon. We are limited to only two main hand weapons with four offhand options.

Axe 1. In terms of single target damage the axe does some of the lowest damage available to the ranger bordering close to a point blank lb shot. However when facing two or more enemies the damage output shoots up to a much more respectable number (even if the damage is spread out.) It is an odd tool on the developer’s part to have a lower coefficient class use a low coefficient weapon that relies on bounces.

2. Since these axes pierce I find this to be my main damage dealer against groups on a relatively low cool down with the axe. Spreads out bleedings like nothing and when traited to bleed on crit has the potential to spike the bleeds on your opponents. Even if it is for only 2 seconds before going back to it’s 5 bleed stack the extra damage comparing the 10 stack bleed to the 5 stack bleed is nothing to scoff at.

3. One of the ranger’s most reliable ranged options. On the worst ranged weapon. In any case this skill is one of the best reasons why you want to use an axe main hand. The slow is not cripple but frost so it adds another, stronger, condition to the table that makes it harder for enemies to chase/run. The extra weakness tacked on to it is icing on the cake if the pet ever lands a hit. One of the slowest projectiles we have but it has VERY strong projectile tracking because of it and is harder to dodge because of it’s speed.

4. Axe OH 4 – Just a case of a win more skill. If you catch an opponent with this skill it’s because you’ve already crippled/slowed/damaged your opponent to the point that your going to win regardless. The tracking and return is terrible and only bads will ever get hit by this thing without help. Yes it gives us access to CC with a 1 hander but it’s so bad I feel the only time this skill is reliable is when you free aim it or aiming at a nearby wall to reflect it back faster.

5. Axe OH 5 – Ever try using this skill and compare with the mesmer’s phantasmal warden? The animation is the same but the ranger’s sphere of protection is smaller! WTH! Anyways this skill is actually pretty decent the first three seconds it is used. Mostly to provide pressure to anything close to the ranger with both retaliation and some vulnerability the axe OH 5 is also great for closing off choke points from ranged or throwing back a projectile or two when targeted. Especially useful against other rangers, hambow/killshot warriors, p/d condition thieves but not so great against other classes.

Playstyle
Point of view – Group WvW.
Used as MH :
Crit build for WvW zerg.

MH:
Better option than sword in a multi-target setting, when I want to use an off-hand (warhorn).
- Each bounce has a chance to crit, which means 3 chances/AA, and even more on #2 (though there is a bug in power scaling with #2, doesn’t work )
- I almost don’t use #3, because it’s single target

OH
- I only take OH while sieging… the pull is nice, but not that strong (does not pull from all the travel distance, only on half, when it comes back, and only one target).
- I don’t take it for fights because #5 roots me, and skills that roots in melee means death…

I don’t use axes for solo roaming, because AA is bad against one target.

This is only from the PoV of a wvw roamer. Since axes have a a chance to hit a single target more than once, I’ve never used another ranged weapon. When 1 v 1, fight at areas with some mobs, critters, and more often than not, you’ll be hitting them for double damage. Remember to kite the mobs. More often than not, your auto will hit more than theirs, kind of weird thing to say but in practice it really is in a dynamic environment. While flipping camps, the supply depot is also considered a target so you can fight your enemy there and the axes will bounce to the depot and back again. Fighting rangers near their pets help too for obvious reasons and you’ll find that more often than not you’ll be the only one with a pet.

The axe 3 skill I consider a must for myself when dealing with melee classes. With so many ways for them to negate mobility issues, I don’t feel secure when I run out of dodges, and weapon swap is on cooldown. So I love the near perma weakness application.

I don’t use off-hand axe…

so…

Toolbox.9375:

should damage not even be a consideration, and the focus should be more on its utility?

I won’t echo what everyone above has said but I’ll focus on this question. I run GS/axe+axe in an organized group in WvW. My focus is on how much I can lockdown the enemy and let the real damage-dealers do their thing. Axe 3 and 4 are great for getting the occasional straggler... chill them, pull them, switch to GS and finish them. But I feel axes shine when paired with all the Immobilize we have access to. Snare your enemies in place and use Axe 1, 2 or 5 and watch the numbers tick. They may not be massive numbers but like I said, that’s the job for the real damage-dealers in my group.

Aegael.6938:

1 has a passable power coefficient, so you can use it as a mid-range bouncing direct damage source. It’s okayish for condition damage when paired with a fire field from a torch or a trap, but the 20% finisher doesn’t make it very appealing. Bouncing abilities are great if there’s both a visible enemy and a stealthed enemy you’re fighting. The bounce (or lack of one) from attacking the visible enemy will tell you the general area where the stealthed enemy is (or isn’t). Bouncing attacks also have an advantage over general AoE in that they can hit a single target multiple times. Rangers themselves are very susceptible to this: Bouncing attacks will bounce between their pet and themselves several times, typically hitting both more than once. This means that bouncing attacks are probably at their best in 1v2s.

2 is primarily only useful when used at point-blank. You’re almost guaranteed to get at least one projectile finisher, which can be useful if thrown through either healing spring or a fire field.

3 is very strong if you stack condition duration. Chill is an incredibly strong condition. The weakness is just sort of there. Weakness is pretty strong too, I guess, but since it relies on my pet actually landing an attack, I’m not holding my breath.

4 is primarily for direct damage and CC. It scales pretty well with power, so OH axe sees some use in burst-type builds. Pulling people to you can be useful to land either a 3 or a 2 more reliably. As for whether that’s a good idea to try to do so, that’s really up to individual circumstance. Do you want an enemy on top of you? Usually I don’t think of such things since CC is CC, it prevents the enemy from doing what he wanted to do for a moment or two. The CC component isn’t super reliable anyways because of its long travel distance before returning.

5’s main use is in PvE for an incredibly long duration reflect against certain mobs. For PvP…there’s a lot of things to consider. It doesn’t deal very much damage, so if you’re looking for damage, you’re probably better off spamming 1. The reflection is decent, but the incredibly obvious animation makes it pretty clear to stop using projectile attacks for the duration. The retaliation is just sort of there, unnoticeable. The skill itself roots you, so it’s a very dangerous skill to try and use. I would recommend using it to reflect just one or two projectiles before cancelling it, since that’s typically when your enemy realizes you’re reflecting attacks and starts to think of another plan. If you use it actively like that, it isn’t too bad. Standing still for 5 seconds doing nothing is just kind of stupid unless you really need to just buy time and you know your opponent has no other way to deal damage to you for the duration.

Overall I’d say the axe/axe set is workable. Offhand axe is for direct damage, Mainhand axe can go either way.

The Weakness on Nr 3 can be used with Black Bear for a total duration of 25 seconds of weakness. The howls done by certain pets does a tiny tiny bit of damage, thus they get to apply the weakness. Makes it easier to apply.

Other pets that can apply the weakness from Axe 3 reliably is Alpine Wolf, Wolf, Moas, Marsh Drake, Lightning Drake, Spiders and devourers

MH: Useless
OH: One of the best offhands in the game? (Super high damage, CC pull, Vulnerability/Retaliation, Reflect)

Kain Francois.4328:

MH: Useless
OH: One of the best offhands in the game? (Super high damage, CC pull, Vulnerability/Retaliation, Reflect)

Imo mainhand axe is a viable weapon in Pugs or in envorements requiring some aoe damage youre not ascertain and in certain pulls blah blah :P

The axe offhand is purely situational.

tl:dr when soloing packs, doing dungeons with ppl the axe is a good aoe wpn… considering the sword does the cleave as well, but hey – isn’t it nice to go full zerg as a ranger in a pug dungeon, only to see youre the only melee there between staff guards, stupidly traited warrs and whatnot…

I love being a ranger!

I would never join such a group. They´re wasting my time and it´s boring to play like this.
Imo Axe 1 is rly bad. 2-5 are good or at least “ok”.

Depends on the game mode, for solo I think having axe MH as a swap weapon is incredible as chill + weakness is great condis for harder fights, and it is also the most reliable AoE weapon we have from range.

I am also sort of in axe/axe camp over SB tho for swapwep in general, I just like the things the offhand brings to the table as well as having Mh for utility/aoe. Works good as backup

edit – as an aside, it can be really neat to axe #4 into axe #2 if you have a dual set, for massive damages total. It’s like the one time I use that ability and expect actual damage, if the enemy gets slinged, before swapping to sword (or GS if I’m feeling radical).

Axe 1 for tagging mobs like arah , mel 2nd beacon, etc
Axe 2 good in pvp if you can land all 5 axes (meaning you pretty much have to be in pointblank range)
Axe 3 great in pvp (chill + weakness)
Axe 4 great in PvE… high damage + pull + peircing… line up the mobs and watch this thing work wonders
Axe 5 highly situational in all game modes (if you are getting bombed with range damage, pop this for nice survivability. If you want to tag alot of mobs in a point blank range, pop it. Hits everything.

Also note, that off hand training trait in the wilderness survival increases the radius of our Axe 5 whirling circle… very useful to cloud your party members in when range is coming in heavy. everyone inside the circle will not get hit by range, which makes off hand training a must have if you want to use axe OH to its full potential