Guild Wars 2

As a GW2 Vet who’s only mained warrior, I can’t for the life of me stress how disspointing it is when as a full berserker warrior WITH quickness, using two of the most iconic weapons known for being pure damage, I get out DPS’d by almost everyone. This has to stop. Axe/Axe already has 2 major problems and that’s the absolute lack of mobility with also no block/evading skills. So why is it logically to reward a greatsword, which has good mobility and evasion, with more overall DPS?

Let me put it in simpler terms, if you trade mobility and defense for a weapon line up that doesn’t even hit as hard as other weapons which don’t have to make that trade off, why bother?
I’m currently holding a Frostfang in my bank, haven’t soulbound it for a long time because if I did, I would want to run double axe but the viability is so lack luster that I would regret it.

All I’m saying is that logically this makes no sense to make these weapons hit for mediocre damage based on what you’re giving up, not to mention Warrior’s can already be kitted easily so axe/axe is even more illogical to run.

I suggest, and I think I speak for the majority of Axe/Axe lovers
-Buff the overall damage on the weapons
-Make the Axe Mastery Trait tier 2/improve it
-Make eviscerate land…
-Make that kitten axe 5 reflect missiles…if a thief can do it why can’t the warrior?

Or, add in a specific trait or runes that directly increase the overall attack speed of axes to make up for the damage.

Thanks for your time.

Why not leave the trait where it is, but add a boost to axe attack speed of 10% per axe? Then put a medium leap on axe 4 and call it a day.

EDIT: 10% per axe may be too high…

Choppy.4183:

Why not leave the trait where it is, but add a boost to axe attack speed of 10% per axe? Then put a medium leap on axe 4 and call it a day.

EDIT: 10% per axe may be too high…

The 10% per axe would be nice and would make axe/axe ideal in PvE but it would still lack in pvp since you would still have to close the gap between you and said opponent and if you can’t hit them, even a 100% attack speed increase is pointless then.

Don’t forget I added a leap to the second axe, so closing would be about on par with the sword main hand.

In retrospect, I also think the +10% per axe is fine given you’d be foregoing Berserker Power. Factoring in the ferocity gain that’s already there, that’s a pretty solid dps trait.

Axe attack speed boosts are dumb because they dont stack with quickness and in raids you’ll have perma-quickness. Simply put the axe auto attack chain needs a massive damage boost.

could make the axe 3 a chain pull that immobilized instead of cripple.

minion.1987:

could make the axe 3 a chain pull that immobilized instead of cripple.

Yeah, I remember that being discussed about a year ago or so. It’s an interesting alternative that would provide warriors with a tool they don’t already have.

That said, I’d personally prefer to leap into a cluster of targets or leap out when needed, than pull one or more targets to me (especially with all the stability around).

Choppy.4183:

minion.1987:

could make the axe 3 a chain pull that immobilized instead of cripple.

Yeah, I remember that being discussed about a year ago or so. It’s an interesting alternative that would provide warriors with a tool they don’t already have.

That said, I’d personally prefer to leap into a cluster of targets or leap out when needed, than pull one or more targets to me (especially with all the stability around).

actually we used to be able to do that in old days

with 2 points in tactics for immobilize on cripple

KhainPride.3987:

Choppy.4183:

minion.1987:

could make the axe 3 a chain pull that immobilized instead of cripple.

Yeah, I remember that being discussed about a year ago or so. It’s an interesting alternative that would provide warriors with a tool they don’t already have.

That said, I’d personally prefer to leap into a cluster of targets or leap out when needed, than pull one or more targets to me (especially with all the stability around).

actually we used to be able to do that in old days

with 2 points in tactics for immobilize on cripple

Nah, he means a chain attached to the axe that pulls people toward you when hit (either one or several targets), rather than immob on cripple (that trait still exists, btw). It’d work like Pull on the Guardian’s Binding Blade skill.

Two simple changes that would go considerable lengths in helping axe/axe in pve:
-Make Axe Mastery a master tier trait (send Great Fortitude to GM, maybe buff it a bit)
-Allow Duel Wield (+15% atk spd trait) to stack with Quickness.

Both of these changes would provide obvious dps increases to an axe/axe build. But quite importantly these change would also have very little effect on other builds, minimalizing resulting balance concerns.
And at least one, if not both, of these changes would be incredibly easy for the devs to implement.

Going more into “rework” territory, maybe something like Axe 2 [Cyclone Axe] deals increased damage per stack of vulnerability on the target.
The leap idea is neat, but what about making it a follow up to Axe 3 [Throw Axe]? Throw the axe crippling the target, and then leap at them. Something like a 300-500 leap range. Nothing too long since it’s a combo.
Alternatively as mentioned before, making axe 4 [Dual Strikes] a leap would be good. An off hand with a leap would be really nice and actually give OH axe a bit of a place. Animation might be a bit awkward though, which is a shame since the current dual strike animation is cool.
And as long as axe 5 [Whirling Axe] is a notable dps increase over the axe auto attack, I think its fine without adding anything extra to it such as reflect. (idk if it is or not, just saying it should)

Overall I think its fine if axes don’t have much utility. But if they are going to be entirely dps focused, then they at least need to be able to do that competently.

Axe/axe is a power-build weapons set. Berserker trait line is more effectively utilized in a hybrid build. That’s probably a bit of your problem, too.

~EW

Honestly they should just make axe/axe when u use a specifc trait line DO more damage (as a solo player) then forceful greatsword. Forceful greatsword can then be better for overall group damage with its might share, and the gs can be a better defensive weapon overall and all that like it currently is. But make AXE/AXE have SIGNIFICANTLY more damage potential then gs like the OP stated. This will be an easy fix. The damage increase will be offset by the lack of defense in axe/axe…so it will come out balanced at the end of the day where axe/axe is a situational weapon but an effective one.
Obviously you can just nerf it for pve…..if for whatever reason we need balance in pve. Why do we need balance in pve? its easy as can be to begin with.

Also I’d actually make eviscerate do more damage but make it even harder to land…or decrease the number/frequency of eviscerate usage and increase its damage. We honestly don’t need more things that are easy to land….look at arc divider.

Pretty easy to spot a double axe user. I’m really concerned for this game though. It seems they favour gameplay where everyone has an easy time landing the hits but the hits do less damage….and the only timing or dodging u need to worry about is ur damage reduction/blocks. Needs to be more displacement amongst the damage values. Dodging an enemy burst or combo should be a big deal…..yet the only big deal is how much dmg reduction and healing u can dish out.

axe/axe is a great way to reintroduce CLAWS OF DEATH into the game. There really needs to be things that can instant kill new/unsuspecting players. You shouldn’t be able to approach every fight the same way like its a ‘whack a mole’ game as the most effective strategy.

What people don’t understand is that to put good DPS on GS you root yourself (2 and 5) for qute a bit of time + you need to be able to connect with bladetrail, when axe allows you to freely move way more as your only skill that you have to be carfull of is f1. And at this point axe just needs a rework, we dont need another spam 1 ftw weapon

ADTempys.6382:

What people don’t understand is that to put good DPS on GS you root yourself (2 and 5) for qute a bit of time + you need to be able to connect with bladetrail, when axe allows you to freely move way more as your only skill that you have to be carfull of is f1. And at this point axe just needs a rework, we dont need another spam 1 ftw weapon

I disagree with this, Greatsword has always been the 1 vs 1 and team weapon on DPS warrior builds. Pre hot in 1 vs 1 warrior used mace shield with greatsword and there was alot of things you could do with greatsword.

I mean basically the 3 skill on axe is the 4 skill on great sword and the 5 on axe axe is 2 on greatsword.

But the 1 skill on Great sword is better, the 3 skill is better and the 5 skill compared to axe axe 1-2-4 skills. Even the F1 skill in beserk form is better on greatsword.

So you can argue that GS has limitations which is a odd thing to say about the best weapon on warrior by far.

Im wondering if you wrote this post because they buffed axe?

If we are being honest axe kind of sucks, sword kind of sucks and hammer definitely sucks.

This goes for alot of classes though. On thief d/d and s/ anything just isnt as good as staff or d/p in 1 vs 1 or team fights. You can say the same things for alot classes.

Warrior is in the same spot weapon choices wise as many classes. Because arms has the increased weapon speed trait line, power having the axe boost. Then you have defense and zerk spec lines being mandatory. Its near impossible to make quality PvP builds anymore that dont look near the same as someone elses.

Grouch posted on the PvP forum that they have limitations on what they can do for PvP.

Well im reading in between lines and i assume he said yeah we all know the problems but we cant fix them. There are a ton of posts on each professions thread to make the PvP scene better but Anet doesnt want to make PvP better. They are trying to balance it for PvE, raids, and to a lesser extent WvW and PvP.

Everything we need to know about balance in GW2 is looking at the skills. Elite banner cd time 240, rampage 180 and headbutt 16sec. Beserk form actually does more damage then rampage now, banner cant revive downed players if they have psn and less then 50% health. You take into account all the condi be thrown around as well as pulsing stability. It makes for 2 of the warriors elite skills useless in PvP.

So dont feel bad if you cant make axe/axe work because i couldnt and Anet wont fix and PvP issues it isnt high on the priority list and not because the PvP team doesnt want to fix it. If there is still a PvP team.

Since he is speaking about DPS and quickness I assumed he was speaking of PvE, so I answered PvE wise, absolutly 0 thoughts about other game modes in my reply

ADTempys.6382:

Since he is speaking about DPS and quickness I assumed he was speaking of PvE, so I answered PvE wise, absolutly 0 thoughts about other game modes in my reply

ohhh i apologize then, the Op first paragraph talks about how axe/axe has no mobility, blocks and does less damage then GS so i assumed PvP.

what if the axe furious strikes or whatever the trait line thing was gave quickness or something else to axe’s boon lineup? Axe 4 as well what if that gave quickness or something else that gave a burst of damage. Axe really just copies gs but in a bad way at this point. axe 4 giving fury. Make axe revolve around something like quickness? that would be cool imo. WOuld have to make all axe skills register quickness as well…which was long overdue for every weapon. axe 5 affected by quickness would be more useful, same with eviscerate. axe 1 on the last strike of the combo could give 1s of quickness or something mbe ‘when traited’…..just little thing here and there? Key is to differentiate between axe builds that use doulbe axe and are traited with the furious strikes/or axe mastery whatever…..vs those that are the meta gs+axe/shield where gs is the main weapon.

The main reason I wrote this post is because of the common logic of anyone in pretty much any game running two handed axes being the “damage dealer” or “berserker” even Anet acknowledges this with their NPC’s. So because theyre purely melee and have 0 way of dodging and or closing gaps, they rely on heavy damage yet, when us warriors do the same thing, we don’t get the same results at all. I speak on behalf of both PvE AND PvP.

PvE wise, I run GS/Axe+Shield for the swap combo etc. but if I ran two axes, I would be laughed at since I’m not doing the best damage.
PvP wise, well…unless they’re glass cannons with no idea how to dodge, you’re dead.

tl;dr buff axe damage to the point that it’s a threat when they get close to you and not a complete joke.