Guild Wars 2

This isn’t a new topic, I’m sure, but I’d like to get some opinions (and maybe answers) as to why exactly the auto chain for the Axe was changed as much as it was.

Way back when it was changed, I can’t seem to remember any complaints, balance-wise, about the chain, and I trawled the forums much more often back then. I recall the number crunchers doing the math on overall DPS and the canceling of triple-chop and it turned out that canceling it gave you more DPS. However, that was also back when triple-chop was able to be canceled by pressing 1 during the chain. Now that they’ve changed that, I can’t seem to find a reason why exactly the damage was so far back-loaded on the long axe chain.

I can’t speak for the other axe-wielding warriors out there, but I would personally love to see that changed back. The spike may be higher overall for crit-damage stacking if you land every hit, but it’s so unreliable to get that last hit as to be almost prohibitive to use it in a PvP setting.

Maybe this is the wrong time to bring this up, considering the upcoming Hammer nerfs, but maybe we can sidetrack the discussion of the nerf that was obviously coming (justified or not) and get some opinions.

i hate new axe auto period, the final hit spike i lame and awkward and most noticeable in pvp when u miss it when for dodge/etc, almost always for force me to use frenzy jsut to land a 6 hit stupid kitten attack just for the 6th hit, if they had problem with axe 6thhit being lame sauce slow to provide good dps if not being canceled they should have just speed up the animation of it or balance the animation time between the attacks.
to be honest hot landing the 6th hit right now rip so much dps out of you and with this hammer nerf, things aint looking good for my hammer/axe build

You can barely gain double chop in pvp so this nerf wiped out axes from dps builds.
Dmg from axe was nerfed by 75%! This is the most disappointing change in GW2

It’s not even acceptable in PVE, since if you dodge you destroy the chain and get your dps wrecked.

I know anet doesn’t balance around PVE, but assuming the same buffs for every profession Sword/* guardians were already outclassing warriors in DPS, and now they will be getting an addition 5% buff on Dec 10. It’s smewhat embarrassing to know that the only real value a warrior has anymore in pve is carrying around a banner.

By 75%???? kitten no wonder i wasn’t doing ne damage when i spvp. kitten they tell us they want to diversify builds. Atm full zerker warrior is usesless in spvp.

Somehow devs admitted to their fail about axes with increase of whirling axe dmg by 50% (sic!) but only in spvp. In wvw you still can do kitten with this crap.

Axe was made for high direct dmg. Now when balls were cutted off, you can only watch your fail in pvp. There is absolutely nothing that can save your kitten .

If Axe lacks meaningful control and utility, it SHOULD be the highest-damaging weapon by far. And it’s definitely not, especially against any type of PvP setting where no one in their right mind lets you hit them with a 6th auto. Axe 2 blows, axe 4 is redundant and axe 5 is a god-awful melee channeled ability that does pitiful damage. Eviscerate hits for less than a backstab and is terribly telegraphed.

And that’s why it’s utterly useless right now, both in main and offhand.

Axe is not that great in SPvP or small group WvW for the reasons mentioned above. But its a solid choice for PvE especially with mace offhand. I know there is a better thread around here but this one shows the axe dps compared to GS.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80299-axemace-axeaxe-viability-against-generic-greatsword/

Basically axe has comparable dps assuming you can land all the hits while giving you the ability to move around as well.

In WvW its an interesting mainhand. I always try to stay away from FOTM builds and use different weapons and trits. With some help from the forums and practice, axe main can be devastating in zerg battles for a few reasons.

1. You have to remember that you do not need to land the axe chain on the same person, when you are in the thick of things and have stability on your chain will almost always finish, though rarely on the same person. This also comes in hand during skill lag battles, usually the auto attack is the only thing that works and you can still go to town.

2. AoE vulnerability and a nice way to charge adarline.

3. Kind of a meh cripple but a decent recharge. I would love to see this become a better gap closer.

Eviscerate has a very short range but packs such a punch people often time do not expect it and not a bad burst skill.

Why are you linking not actual calculation?

That’s how it looks like after patch:
Axe Chain: Moved the damage more toward the end of the chain without reducing overall DPS.
- Chop: Reduced the damage by 9%.
- Double Chop: Reduced the damage by 12%.
- Triple Chop: Reduced the damage of the first two hits by 20%. Increased the damage on the final hit by 75%.

Every single hit was nerfed as hell up to 75% at the end if you failed with final chop. I saw that final chop in game maybe few times in very mindless zerg fights.

ANet says (this is right BTW) you can’t have high dmg, control (and so on), in one weapon. But how the hell can you land all this chain without insane stun or something else????

Now axe has no dmg, no decent tools, nothing at all. For example :GS has higher dps, gerat mobilty, one “end fight” button every 8 s (Hundred Blades) , great fury recharger – Arcing Slice, it takes only 2,4 seconds to land all chain (axe – 3,6 s and gives you nothing except higher dps, GS gives you also Vulnerability for 8 s! in chain)

Only one decent axe skill Eviscerate needs glass-cannon build to be effective, but if you count only on one close-range attack in fight – you are doomed.

I think the only one reason why they did it is Eviscerate (especially in combination with stun weapons). They are continuing with Eviscerate „nerf project” (Burst Mastery dmg is going down with next patch)

They force you to choose axe as addition not main weapon, and this is just sad.

Thank you for your attention

I think it would be good idea if last hit in chain would be 3 second stun.

I just wanted to bring back the axe as a point of discussion. Does anyone else besides me still run axe mainhand? It’s so rare to see another one in WvW nowadays.

My opinion is that the change to the auto chain was unnecessary after the Triple Chop cancel fix. I mean, as a weapon, the Axe was designed to be aggressive and short-ranged, which I like. But right now that’s a fairly dangerous playstyle in the midst of ranged condition loading and the “reward” isn’t reliable. Can anyone give a definitive reason as to why that change was made and hasn’t been addressed other than “axe is useless now”?

jalmari.3906:

I think it would be good idea if last hit in chain would be 3 second stun.

Yeah.. what warrior’s really need is another reason for people to cry about stunbots.

Alex.4150:

By 75%???? kitten no wonder i wasn’t doing ne damage when i spvp. kitten they tell us they want to diversify builds. Atm full zerker warrior is usesless in spvp.

With the way Anet keeps nerfing us, we’ll be useless in everything by this time next year.