Guild Wars 2

So Axe Mastery got buffed a bit and moved to being a GM trait instead of staying a Master trait(same as Merciless Hammer trait).

Problem is that Axe Mastery got moved to being a GM trait on the same line that Berserker’s Power GM trait is at, and therefore making them compete, unlike ALL other weapon traits which can take both their respective traits AND Berserker’s Power.

The buff that Axe Mastery got is a 20% crit damage increased depending on amount of axes used in a single weapon set, instead of a static 10% no matter the amount of axes used.

I ask you this: Is the buff that Axe Mastery got a viable reason to move it to GM and make it compete with Berserker’s Power?

IMO the buff isn’t a viable reason to make Axe Mastery compete with Berserker’s Power and therefore get less damage, while other weapons can get both their respective traits AND Berserker’s Power, therefore making those weapons relatively better compared to axes(unlike axes which need to choose between the Axe Mastery trait and Berserker’s Power trait, they get both extra utility, and maybe damage from their respective traits AND the damage increase of Berserker’s Power trait).
Also 20% crit damage only increase isn’t as good as a normal 20% damage increase(which in turn increases crit damage as well), which with the right conditions can be kept permenant so long as the warrior is able to spam its burst skills.

What’s more Axe users can still take Berserker’s Power instead of Axe Mastery only because the damage bonus is better in most cases, therefore making the Axe Mastery trait weak even to Axe users.

Other people might give a reason that axe is already powerful enough. But is that really a good enough reason to make it not as powerful as it can be compared to ALL other weapons that the warrior can use?

In short if any Anet dev reads this please make Axe Mastery be a Master trait again.(you can even return the crit damage bonus to a static 10%, if need be)
Or even better, make it a Master trait on another line(such as Arms, because lets face it, other then Unsuspecting Foe which is a super situational trait and Blademaster which is mostly a condi damage oriented trait, all the Master traits of Arms are useless for crit damage oriented builds).
Also do take note that because of the fact that Axe Mastery isn’t as good as Berserker’s Power makes players look for a viable source of adrenaline in order to spam burst skills easier and therefore take Furious GM trait(which is supposed to be a condi oriented trait) instead of Dual Wielding GM trait(many people have said that because of that reason, Dual Wielding has become a condi only trait, instead of being a trait that is good both for condi and crit oriented buids).

*Note that this may be a rant of mine, but I’m sure that a lot of the people here feel the same as me.

AM is a trash trait. There’s pretty much no reason to take it over BP, and I suspect it’s placement is more about finding a spot for it than the bonus it provides.

I think they could safely increase the damage bonus by 50%, and there would still be reason to choose BP over AM in some scenarios. More to the point though, it would provide a reason to take AM over BP in other scenarios, and that doesn’t exist now.

Choppy.4183:

AM is a trash trait. There’s pretty much no reason to take it over BP.

Ah, another person with the same opinion as me.

In light of this would you take AM if it was moved to being a Master trait instead of GM? Or maybe if AM was moved to a different line so at least it won’t compete with BP?

Mor The Thief.9135:

In light of this would you take AM if it was moved to being a Master trait instead of GM? Or maybe if AM was moved to a different line so at least it won’t compete with BP?

I’d take it if there wasn’t a better choice to make. Moving it would open up the option to take it and BP, which would be great.

But I don’t find adren generation to be an issue, axe offhand outside of pve would be hard to pull off, imo, and the cooldowns aren’t that severe. So it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where I’d still choose a different trait, even in the Master level.

For example, even if I ran double axe and a greatsword, I’d take Forceful Greatsword in a heartbeat.

Choppy.4183:

I’d take it if there wasn’t a better choice to make. Moving it would open up the option to take it and BP, which would be great.

But I don’t find adren generation to be an issue, axe offhand outside of pve would be hard to pull off, imo, and the cooldowns aren’t that severe. So it’s not hard to imagine a scenario where I’d still choose a different trait, even in the Master level.

For example, even if I ran double axe and a greatsword, I’d take Forceful Greatsword in a heartbeat.

I can understand your reasoning seeing that GS trait is good both for solo and group while as AM is good mostly for solo. BUT what if AM was moved to Arms Master traits? so you can take both GS trait and AM trait AND BP trait.
I mean most of Arms Master traits are crap and because of the competition between AM and BP, it makes Dual Wielding a poor choice as well compared to Furious, making Dual Wielding a condi only trait(since its only synergy is with Blademaster) instead of a hybrid trait that should be good both for condi and crit.

Mor The Thief.9135:

I can understand your reasoning seeing that GS trait is good both for solo and group while as AM is good mostly for solo. BUT what if AM was moved to Arms Master traits? so you can take both GS trait and AM trait AND BP trait.
I mean most of Arms Master traits are crap and because of the competition between AM and BP, it makes Dual Wielding a poor choice as well compared to Furious, making Dual Wielding a condi only trait(since its only synergy is with Blademaster) instead of a hybrid trait that should be good both for condi and crit.

I’d take it if I was running an axe/gs setup and was looking for max power. Other people would be upset because they wouldn’t be able to run Str-Def-Dis.

I think the main reason it’s where it is was for lack of a good place to put it. Pretty much every axe build will want to go power, so putting it in power makes sense. Anet probably recognized that gs/axe is a common comp, so they didn’t want to make it compete with FG.

Buffing the damage bonus from AM by 50% or more and leaving it where it is might be another way to go. But, as it stands, the buff is inferior to the alternative in pretty much every single respect, even on a double axe build.

BP is a great trait, but AM is a permanent. With signets trait you can get 100% crit chance and because BP is on hit it isn’t always easy to get 20% dmg buff. So you will miss a few seconds on dmg if you miss the burst.

Damage wise BP is stronger, but gameplay wise is AM much easier to hold high damage. But it would be nice if AM get a buff to +25% crit damage to make the traits equel.

Ackos.7942:

BP is a great trait, but AM is a permanent. With signets trait you can get 100% crit chance and because BP is on hit it isn’t always easy to get 20% dmg buff. So you will miss a few seconds on dmg if you miss the burst.

Damage wise BP is stronger, but gameplay wise is AM much easier to hold high damage. But it would be nice if AM get a buff to +25% crit damage to make the traits equel.

An AM build that uses double axes and traits/gears to reach 100% crit chance is demonstrably inferior to an axe build that may or may not run double axes and chooses BP. Take the points you’ve put into precision to get your crit chance to 100% and put them into power or ferocity instead while taking BP and you’re almost certainly better off.

Also, with BP, you have two chances to land your burst to get the buff and the buff applies to all weapon sets. Moreover, axe builds are dependent on landing their burst to maintain their dps. So the same scenario that prevents BP from proccing in the one case is keeping dps lower than it should be in the other.

I’m not sure why it would be hard to land a burst in pve, and someone running in pvp or wvw is definitely not running an all axe build or they’d be dead (and that really crimps dps). If they’re running double axe and an alt weapon set, BP wins even with a 100% crit chance, and if they run a single axe the damage benefit is half of BP’s even with a 100% crit chance.

This is difficult.

Right now two things need to happen with AM, it either needs to be buffed to make it favorable to run over BP with axe setups or it needs to be moved.

But I don’t see any strong traits in the Strength Tree that could take the GM slot, which leads to moving traits cross-trees and that’s something I would have to look into deeper to find a good balance (For example, flipping Axe Mastery and CI would be an insane nerf).

So…I got an idea.

Axe Mastery: Critical Axe hits gain extra adrenaline. Gain Might (10 seconds) for each Axe Skill used in combat. (ICD: 2 seconds) Reduce recharge on axe skills.

Originally I thought to not have an ICD, but then I suddenly remembered auto-attacks would count. With consistent might stacks coming in Axe might start competing (Might actually be really nice for PvE, PS gets a buff with GS / AxMc) in might stacking.

Just a couple of thoughts, honestly 150 Ferocity isn’t that great.

Sykper.6583:

This is difficult.

Right now two things need to happen with AM, it either needs to be buffed to make it favorable to run over BP with axe setups or it needs to be moved.

But I don’t see any strong traits in the Strength Tree that could take the GM slot, which leads to moving traits cross-trees and that’s something I would have to look into deeper to find a good balance (For example, flipping Axe Mastery and CI would be an insane nerf).

So…I got an idea.

Axe Mastery: Critical Axe hits gain extra adrenaline. Gain Might (10 seconds) for each Axe Skill used in combat. (ICD: 2 seconds) Reduce recharge on axe skills.

Originally I thought to not have an ICD, but then I suddenly remembered auto-attacks would count. With consistent might stacks coming in Axe might start competing (Might actually be really nice for PvE, PS gets a buff with GS / AxMc) in might stacking.

Just a couple of thoughts, honestly 150 Ferocity isn’t that great.

Here is another thought: switch Deep Strikes with AM and buff Deep Strikes to compensate turning it into a GM trait.

As it is currently Strength GM traits are 2 Crit oriented(AM and BP and 1 “Interrupt” orriented(Distracting Strikes) while Arms Master traits are 2 Condi oriented(Deep Strikes and Blademaster, although Blademaster can be a hybrid trait it is more on the condi side then crit) and 1 “interrupt” oriented(Unsuspecting Foe).

By switching AM with Deep Strikes it evens out the Crit-Condi-Interrupt ratio between the 2 trait lines.

I know that switching those 2 traits seems unreasonable at first since Strength is mostly a crit oriented line, but the fact that it has Distracting Strikes made me realize that it isn’t a bad idea.

That way there will be better synergy if you go either condi sword build, axe(or gs) crit build, and hammer with crit or “interrupt” build.

Example of sword condi build:
In Strength you take Restorative Strength, either Great Fortitude or Forceful Greatsword(if u have a GS equipped) and Deep Strikes.
In Arms you take either Berserker’s Fury or Signet Mastery, Blademaster and either Furious or Dual-wielding.

Example of axe crit build:
In Strength you take Restorative Strength, either Great Fortitude or Forceful Greatsword(if u have a GS equipped) and Berserker’s Power.
In Arms you take either Berserker’s Fury or Signet Mastery, Axe Mastery and Dual-wielding(note that with Axe Mastery Furious becomes unneeded).

Example of Hammer(or mace) build that can be either “interrupt” or crit oriented:
In Strength you take Restorative Strength, either Great Fortitude or Forceful Greatsword(if u have a GS equipped) and either Berserker’s Power(for crit build) or Distracting Strikes(for “interrupt” build).
In Arms you take either Berserker’s Fury or Signet Mastery or Opportunist, Unsuspecting Foe(the only trait good enough for mace and hammer with or without the switch), either Furious(for sysnergy with Distracting Strikes), or Dual-Wielding(if using 2 weapons with being a mace), or Burst Mastery for better chance of higher burst damage.

In short, just by switching Axe Mastery with Deep Strikes there will be better synergy of traits then there is currently.

I think the axe mastery trait shouldnt be a grand master trait it should be a master trait. probably in strenght arms or discipline. which ever has space.

Maybe move it to Arm so people have a reason to pick Arm now?
Probably put it in the master tier because GM has off-hand mastery, which shouldn’t compete the spot for axe.

It actually suits Arm better since axe is a one-hand weapon, and requires an off-hand.

Toxsa.2701:

Maybe move it to Arm so people have a reason to pick Arm now?
Probably put it in the master tier because GM has off-hand mastery, which shouldn’t compete the spot for axe.

It actually suits Arm better since axe is a one-hand weapon, and requires an off-hand.

Exactly my thought!