Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow warriors!

I imagine at this time you are either doing one of two things:

- Looking up Crushing Blow on GW2Wiki.
- Thinking Crushing Blow is the Burst of the mace.

Or you might be the only person seemingly aware of every name of every weapon skill on the warrior, hence you know its is in fact the Mace 4, in which I still inquire onto you the following like everyone else: Is it weak?

Obviously I would not ask if there wasn’t a dilemma for the skill in itself, I think there actually is once you take into account what it is. For reference, here is the link to Crushing Blow:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crushing_Blow

For those who aren’t capable of opening the link, here is the simple version:

- It is a melee cleaving target attack doing about ~35% more damage than the auto-attack of the main-hand mace (the 1st or 2nd), with another quarter second channel (exactly 50% longer, mace is funky).
- Said cleave inflicts four stacks of vulnerability for eight seconds.
- The cooldown is 15 seconds.

….Giving you a moment to process the information while I get another drink.

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Back. So, reflecting on the mace off-hand as a whole, the only thing I believe holding back its true potential would be this skill. Mace 5 does a linear knockback nuke on a long but respectable cooldown. And, its target limit is unlimited. …Unless they changed it since the last time I checked a month or two ago, but if you popped mace 5 without a target, it would send a rippling knockdown nuke through a zerg, leaving a nice reminder that they just got flattened by one warrior!

Then comes the black sheep, Crushing Blow. What was the intent of this mace skill? It seems like it was meant as a means for additional vulnerability from your off-hand weapon which no other weapon provides. However, think about how we as warriors apply vulnerability in general. I am willing to bet the first thoughts were of ‘On My Mark’ or the minor trait Rending Strikes. Heck, even the Rifle Brutal Shot applies 8 stacks of Vulnerability on a 12 second duration, the cooldown is EXACTLY THE SAME AS CRUSHING BLOW! Some would argue that the rifle is a 2-handed, and I have previously talked about the rifle’s disadvantages…but from my point of view the mace-offhand is the least used weapon we warriors have! Is that off the mark folks?

I often consider why Off-hand mace warriors are in such low-play in any environment, and I must say, when you compare the other off-hands, at least each skill has an influence in the fight.

Crushing Blow as it stands leaves no impression of crushing anyone.

Ergo, I propose one of the following:

- Crushing Blow applies Weakness as well for the same duration. Synergizes with Sundering Mace, makes Mace builds a bit more viable I like to think.
- Increase duration of Crushing Blow Vulnerability to 12 seconds, successful warriors should be rewarded by landing the blow again and again with more stacks.
- Change it. I do not know, that’s another reason I called you all here.

So, do you agree with my assessment? Am I wrong? I want to hear what you think, please.

Then what will we use for PVE? Not axe cus its horrible dmg. Not shield cus its even worse dmg. Not horn cus its also 0 dmg. Not sword either cus its for condi. Crushing blow= a 4% DPS increase for the entire team. Thats pretty significant if you look at it that way

Carpboy.7145:

Then what will we use for PVE? Not axe cus its horrible dmg. Not shield cus its even worse dmg. Not horn cus its also 0 dmg. Not sword either cus its for condi. Crushing blow= a 4% DPS increase for the entire team. Thats pretty significant if you look at it that way

In terms of speed-clearing, two things:

- Mace-offhand DPS/Support wise is the choice for an alternate dual-weapon set. Axe is only good for Fury and AoE, Shield is blocking in case you seemingly forgot how to dodge, Horn provides AoE weakness/Vigor, as well as rips roots and slows off for speeds and sword…erm, sword looks nice!

- None of the changes I suggested nerf the mace-offhand, in fact all were BUFFS, mace-offhand needs BUFFS! Please re-read again, and if I was not clear before, I intend to buff or rework Mace 4!

Thank you.

I remember in most MMO’s the mace is used as a weapon that breaks armor and by design is a heavy hard hitting weapon. The description “Crushing Blow” is very accurate, as that what a mace does, but the damage/amount of vuln isnt on par with what the phsyical design and representation of a mace has been. Mace has a history of being the weapon to bully the light or heavy armors into being weak for the DPS’ers to eat up after. It doesnt have to be huge DPS but it should have Weakness moved from the 3rd AA chain to the first and have CC along with the vuln skill.