Guild Wars 2

I’ve been messing with an Axe build lately.

My goal was to have near 100% crit chance.

A pic of my stats shows what I got, but mind you there’s a +9% critical chance added when my adrenaline is full (my traits in next comment) (note: My crit rate is sustained, until I am downed, due to sigil of perception. There’s also an invisible +10% crit dmg addition from my traits for Axe Mastery)

My gear is sadly not optimized, since I don’t have the gold for all of it. Armor is full exotic, 4 berzerker, 2 rampager’s pieces, and my goal is to have 5 superior runes of the ranger, 1 superior rune of the eagle, but currently I am running 2 superior runes of the ranger + 4 major runes of the ranger. Ascended amulet is the rampager’s equivalent (max stat being precision). The rest of my accessories are non-exotic mix of precision and power, as best as I saw – this is the part that could really use improvement, and which I feel would bring the build to 100% crit rate)

My problem is this: There’s surprisingly few axe related traits. I have to run A/S or A/A in order to get the +5% dmg bonus from dual wielding, If I don’t run that… well… then I could easily substitute my weapon for a GS, and switch to the GS traits, like get might on every crit… which is pretty much on every hit due to near 100% crit chance.

Are there any better ways to setup axe? Am I missing some obvious axe-related traits? I feel like the axe is kind of an afterthought in the traits.

The only downside of GS I can think of is that I need 25 stacks of perception, which then becomes useless. So I need 2 GS to switch out when done stacking that.

With Axe/Sword I can have sigil of perception on offhand, and some on-crit sigil (currently Air) on my axe, and not worry too much about switching out.

The dual wielding and the crit bonus from axe mastery does also give me +15% damage, while GS would give me +10% only… but GS would also give might on every hit, and may or may not have slightly higher dps to begin with – I’m really not sure.

Anyway, here’s my trait distribution. My last trait on the Arms line is Rifle related simply because my alt weapon is a Rifle, and I couldn’t find anything axe related to put there…. which brings me back to my question in the post above.

1) Try Axe/Mace or Axe/Shield. It’s a way more solid buildup
2) On-Crit sigils are mostly bad. Some of them might be fine but most have way to long cooldowns to be worthwhile. I take it, you want the 100% crit chance for a guaranteed eviscerate crit?
Then slot something giving you either more crit chance or a higher damage, you can actually crit easily on that eviscerate. You might even want to slot a ruby orb in your axe. If you are after high sustained damage for PvE, slot the fireblast sigil tho to mow down trashmobs slightly faster.

I did run Axe/Shield for a while, but as I said, to get the 5% damage bonus for dual wielding I need two weapons in hand. To get the 10% crit damage bonus from Axe mastery I need that first weapon to be Axe. Mace… might work.

I already have very near 100% crit chance. The remaining few percent would likely be filled in if I upgraded my current 4 accessories (with the exception of amulet) to Exotic. I don’t think I need to add anything more directly on any weapon to gain crit chance to achieve 100%.

I didn’t make my build just to get higher damage on Eviscerate. Full time crits seemed like a good idea – and I have decent power and crit damage addition. (200% for axe)

My alternative to Sigil of Air, since it does have 10 sec cooldown, is the Sigil of Earth.
60% chance to cause bleed, and 2 second cooldown. The bleed itself isn’t that significant, but the fact that the Arms traitline gives me +5% against bleeding enemies seems like another good way to add damage. This could also give me good reason to pick the Deep Cuts to extend the bleedtime and thus my extra +5%

Though, again, it seems that I’m out of axe-related traits to pick from.
There are only 3 Axe-related traits, 2 of which I have, and the third only grants extra adrenaline on crit – which is not entirely useless, but not significantly useful either.

I’m gonna try to build an axe build for my warrior these days.
Gonna be an evisc wvw duel build tho, utilizing the 50% crit chance against stunned opponents trait and using kick(:D), shield bash and other cc skills to get off guaranteed 8-9k eviscerates while still having high toughness(full cavaliers trinkets with ruby jewels).

Gonna see, if I get it rolling.

Axe/mace is great because the mace gives you a second source of vuln, and a second ranged attack.
Axe/shield probaly needs the reflect trait to shine.

~~Also, 5 signet builds are the devil! Begone, impure abomination!

naphack.9346:

~~Also, 5 signet builds are the devil! Begone, impure abomination!

Why? Because it’s lazy? The +200 precision I get from those five signets, and the added bonuses they provide – power, prevision, defense, regen-like effect, and faster adrenaline, seem worth it.

Though the downside is that there’s a severe lack of condition removal, which can easily be my downfall. On the other hand, condition removal once every 20 seconds ends up not doing much for me anyway, except waste a few seconds to cast.

I could also substitute Signet of Stamina over one of the others for condition removal once per 45 sec, plus the extra endurance for dodging… which does wonders for survivability.

Your build idea seems interesting, though I think building something around a single skill usage isn’t that productive (at least pve, in pvp it has different balance).

Axe/mace… maybe. More vulnerabilty, in addition to Cyclone Axe, and a knockdown could be useful. Axe/Shield is really useful for interrupts, but again, axe/shield would drop 5% damage.

To get 100% crit chance, you would need food to achieve. Alternatively, Berserkers eq with Superior Rune of Eagle or Ranger will do the job with 30 in Arms.

Are you building for PVE? If so, this build will serve you well. If it’s for wvw or pvp then it’s good luck as you have locked down your utility slots for signets. No CC or break stuns will get you downed frequently.

The first thing, you should learn is that these 5% damage are not 5% of your damage output.
All the damage increments are added up and then multiplied with your base, thus, these 5% damaeg increase will end up raising your overall damage by about 2% at best.
These 2% damage can already be dished out by having an extra block and staying on your target longer with the added survivability.
For example drop the 5% trait entirely and skill, like 20/30/10/0/10, skilling reflect on block and you suddenly got a way of eating ranged opponents alive.

And the Signet build is bad, because it kills your utility. Slotting FGJ Is more useful than slotting the might signet. In drawn out fights in a single area, drop another signet for a banner of discipline and you suddenly get+170 precision and +15% crit damage from a single slot.
Another problem with Signets is the lack of Stunbreakers. On paper, Dolyak Signet looks like Balanced Stance, until you factor in, that BS is a stunbreaker.
Granted, Warriors don’t have much good utility, but the ones they do have do not only have the potential of giving yourself more bang for your buck than signets, they also help any players around you(FGJ, Banners) a great deal.

Of course, if you want to farm Trashmobs, Banners are probably the wrong choice.

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

ZenonSeth.5739:

naphack.9346:

~~Also, 5 signet builds are the devil! Begone, impure abomination!

Why? Because it’s lazy? The +200 precision I get from those five signets, and the added bonuses they provide – power, prevision, defense, regen-like effect, and faster adrenaline, seem worth it.

Though the downside is that there’s a severe lack of condition removal, which can easily be my downfall. On the other hand, condition removal once every 20 seconds ends up not doing much for me anyway, except waste a few seconds to cast.

I could also substitute Signet of Stamina over one of the others for condition removal once per 45 sec, plus the extra endurance for dodging… which does wonders for survivability.

Your build idea seems interesting, though I think building something around a single skill usage isn’t that productive (at least pve, in pvp it has different balance).

Axe/mace… maybe. More vulnerabilty, in addition to Cyclone Axe, and a knockdown could be useful. Axe/Shield is really useful for interrupts, but again, axe/shield would drop 5% damage.

In wvwvw or sPvP i would kill you first because I know you have almost no utility. drop some of the signets, and pick up FGJ. Between that and SoR you have plenty of fury time. Fury= +20% crit chance. It’s really a waste to stack your crit chance beyond 55% in My opinion.

With the amount of fury warrior can stack we can be at a constant 75% crit chance not including Adren crit chance increase. you might want to Stack more crit damage though. My Support Hammer/gs Has more crit damage and more useful utilities then that.

I guess what I am trying to say is, signet builds are nice for leveling, not much good for anything else.

ChaosDoom.8459:

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

Longbow F1 + Baner of Discipline(blast) + arcing arrow(blast) + pick up and plant banner(blast)+FGJ+Warbanner(for good measure) = 18 Stacks of AoE might.

ChaosDoom.8459:

To get 100% crit chance, you would need food to achieve. Alternatively, Berserkers eq with Superior Rune of Eagle or Ranger will do the job with 30 in Arms.

Are you building for PVE? If so, this build will serve you well. If it’s for wvw or pvp then it’s good luck as you have locked down your utility slots for signets. No CC or break stuns will get you downed frequently.

Yes, PVE. I don’t do pvp with my warrior, have other toons for that. I’m also pretty sure I don’t need any sort of food with my current setup. Like I said – if my accessories are upgraded, I will most likely get 100% (currently the 85% showing has +9% at full adrenaline = 94%)

naphack.9346:

The first thing, you should learn is that these 5% damage are not 5% of your damage output.
All the damage increments are added up and then multiplied with your base, thus, these 5% damaeg increase will end up raising your overall damage by about 2% at best.
These 2% damage can already be dished out by having an extra block and staying on your target longer with the added survivability.
For example drop the 5% trait entirely and skill, like 20/30/10/0/10, skilling reflect on block and you suddenly got a way of eating ranged opponents alive.

And the Signet build is bad, because it kills your utility. Slotting FGJ Is more useful than slotting the might signet. In drawn out fights in a single area, drop another signet for a banner of discipline and you suddenly get+170 precision and +15% crit damage from a single slot.
Another problem with Signets is the lack of Stunbreakers. On paper, Dolyak Signet looks like Balanced Stance, until you factor in, that BS is a stunbreaker.
Granted, Warriors don’t have much good utility, but the ones they do have do not only have the potential of giving yourself more bang for your buck than signets, they also help any players around you(FGJ, Banners) a great deal.

Of course, if you want to farm Trashmobs, Banners are probably the wrong choice.

It’s unfortunate if you’re right, that things like +% damage traits don’t add as much as one might think. Edit: IF you are right. I couldn’t find exact information how all those +% damage traits affect damage. I will have to test in pvp with steady weapons.

It’s also sad that FGJ might indeed be a better choice. Sad in that, more or less all warriors run it, and I can’t seem to escape making a build without it. (also I could never quite get my autocast on it to work correctly at all times)

Banner of discipline’s +170 precision would more than make up for loss of 80 precision by replacing two signets. The downside is that its duration is what – 1min? With Recharge of 120, that means an average gain of 85 precision, assuming full time usage. The +15% critical damage would be nice to have, though its only for half the time again. Still, for longer battles that might work out better….

naphack.9346:

ChaosDoom.8459:

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

Longbow F1 + Baner of Discipline(blast) + arcing arrow(blast) + pick up and plant banner(blast)+FGJ+Warbanner(for good measure) = 18 Stacks of AoE might.

ChaosDoom.8459:

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

I always find it interesting how people tend to leave out the durations of such things. 15/18 stacks of might is great, but it’s also not obtainable incredibly often. I’m not sure if it ends up averaging more or less damage over time to be honest, but it’s pointless to ignore that its not a constant thing.

True, my build doesn’t get as much sheer power during those 15/18 stacks – but it has sustained damage.

And back to somewhat my other point – if I use GS instead of axe, and just change 2 traits around, i can get a stack of might on every hit with greatsword (the 100% crit rate is useful here). That might not amount to as much since those stacks last.. I think around 5 seconds, but its quite sustainable and against large groups, likely to stack up high.

Edit: After some consideration, and some math, I realized that I could substitute 2 of the signets with other skills, and instead equip a superior sigil of accuracy on my offhand. This would equate to 1% higher crit chance over all (2 signets = 40 precision ~= 4% crit chance, while sigil is +5%).

Since I feel from playing this over the last day that conditions are my bane, I think Healing signet for Mending, and Signet of Might for FGJ.

Still not sure how to compensate for the other approximately 6% accuracy given by unused signets yet – perhaps gear upgrades (for which I need to get the gold first) might offset it enough.

ZenonSeth.5739:

naphack.9346:

ChaosDoom.8459:

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

Longbow F1 + Baner of Discipline(blast) + arcing arrow(blast) + pick up and plant banner(blast)+FGJ+Warbanner(for good measure) = 18 Stacks of AoE might.

ChaosDoom.8459:

In PVE, FGJ+Signet of Might+Battle Roar (If you are Charr)+SOR = 15 stack of Might

I always find it interesting how people tend to leave out the durations of such things. 15/18 stacks of might is great, but it’s also not obtainable incredibly often. I’m not sure if it ends up averaging more or less damage over time to be honest, but it’s pointless to ignore that its not a constant thing.

True, my build doesn’t get as much sheer power during those 15/18 stacks – but it has sustained damage.

And back to somewhat my other point – if I use GS instead of axe, and just change 2 traits around, i can get a stack of might on every hit with greatsword (the 100% crit rate is useful here). That might not amount to as much since those stacks last.. I think around 5 seconds, but its quite sustainable and against large groups, likely to stack up high.

Edit: After some consideration, and some math, I realized that I could substitute 2 of the signets with other skills, and instead equip a superior sigil of accuracy on my offhand. This would equate to 1% higher crit chance over all (2 signets = 40 precision ~= 4% crit chance, while sigil is +5%).

Since I feel from playing this over the last day that conditions are my bane, I think Healing signet for Mending, and Signet of Might for FGJ.

Still not sure how to compensate for the other approximately 6% accuracy given by unused signets yet – perhaps gear upgrades (for which I need to get the gold first) might offset it enough.

The Might stack will be up often enough. In PVE, any build would work whether it’s 5 signet, high crit or even shout heal build.