Guild Wars 2

I would love to hear everyone’s oppinion on how they use their 2nd Weapon set next to their Greatsword. My goal is maximum DPS.

How I see it:
1: Axe-Mace
Great direct damage, 2 vulnerability skills (8 stacks of vuln), knockdown & cripple for CC, Eviscerate (Especially nice with Burst Crit Trait or Intelligence Sigil), “Dual-Wield” trait (5% damage on offhand wielding a sword/mace/axe)
2: Axe- Warhorn
Great direct damage, a vulnerability skill (4 stacks of vuln), cripple for CC, Swiftness-Weakness and Vigour for survivability.
I place this second because the only way a warhorn is equally/more viable is when you have traited “Cull the Weak” (+5%Dmg vs Weakened targets) and “Quick Breathing” (Warhorn skills convert condi to boon). You lack the extra 4 stacks of vulnerability on warhorn, so you NEED Cull the Weak or lose a lot of DPS. Also warhorn doesn’t pop “Dual-Wield” which will make you lose 5% damage on your 2nd set anyway. The only real upside I see to warhorn over mace is the blast finisher and better survivability. But the lower DPS makes it fall to 2nd place imo.
3: Sword – Mace
Decent mobility with leap, fast autoattacks (goes well with on crit sigils), Very good CC with cripple, knockdown + AoE Immobilize (Burst skill), a vulnerability skill (4 stacks of vuln), “Dual-wield”, Final Thrust.
DPS-wise probably even better than the Axe/Warhorn combo, although what you gain in mobility and CC you lose in burst skills with sword. The only skill you can use to REALLY hurt your enemy with this setup is with Final Thrust, and that’s only when your enemy is under 50% health. Bleeds are not that great in zerker builds, which makes the burst skill and autoattack less viable than those of an Axe. You lack 4 stacks of vulnerability vs. the Axe/Mace setup, which means 4% less damage on your target.
4: Sword – Warhorn
Very good mobility with leap&swiftness, fast autoattacks (goes well with on crit sigils), decent CC with cripple + AoE Immobilize (Burst skill), Swiftness-Weakness and Vigour for survivability, Final Thrust.
I place this fourth because bleeds are not that great in zerker builds, which makes the burst skill and autoattack less viable than those of an Axe. You lack 8 stacks of vulnerability, which means 8% less damage on your target, warhorn doesn’t pop “Dual-Wield” so that makes you lose another 5% damage on your 2nd set. Final Thrust(FT) is your Awesomesauce Sword skill, but is less usefull than Eviscerate imo. This is because the high end damage is only dealt when your target is below 50% health on FT. All the downsides of a warhorn over a mace I explained before go here as well. Therefore I wouldn’t use this combo.

Rifle:
Sure, use it in ranged fights. Other than that you will not dish out the same DPS ranged than you would do in melee with the top 4 listed above.

Sets I don’t even hold in account

Other – Axe: Offhand axe is bad in my oppinion. You can get Fury from so many other skills and the Axe 5 skill makes you unable to use other attacks for a while, and the damage that you deal is not even that impressive.

Other – Sword: Condition build? Sure. But bleeds and torment have nothing to do with a zerker build. You’ll just lose too much DPS compared.

Hammer: Just too slow, Hammer has no actual super burst skill like Eviscerate or Final Thrust. You’d need a very lucky crit to even get near those 2 skills. Maybe by wasting 2 trait slots for “Cull the Weak” AND “Merciless Hammer” (+20% Hammer damage on disabled target") you might get close.

Longbow: Again too many conditions for a zerker build. Also less DPS than a Rifle in ranged fights.

Other – Shield: Stuns and Blocks don’t make you deal more DPS

Mace – Other: Mace is like a small hammer. Just too slow for me DPS wise. Also a block, stun and daze will not make you deal more DPS.

If your concern is pure DPS then obviously it’s axe mace.

The 2nd weapon set for a warrior should consider utility more than DPS.

Mace 5 is gd utility.

Therefore sword warhorn for highest mobility, sometimes axe-sword for Lupi (or if the DPS loss isn’t so significant go sword-sword. Why not? So nice to use that sword 2 in 3rd phase. Of course you can just use the axe eviscerate instead).

Longbow when people lack a fire field starter. Or if they can benefit from the immob, etc.

Ask yourself the question: Why would I swap to my secondary set and decide the weapons according to the encounter.
For example: PUG lupicus-> I may need some extra survivability. Go for Axe/Sword. Reason? Axe is still way better than Sword when it comes to DPS. Sword offhand is purely for the block, which can help you survive most of Lupis attacks (granted you react fast enough).
Other example: You want “burst vulnerability” on the mob (for speedkill/speedrun purposes). So you start off with axe/mace #2-#4-#5 on my mark and swap to GS for the rest of the fight.
It really depends on your group and the encounter. Granted GS camping is really the way to go of course.

^ the last part is not strictly true.

From looking at the tests various people did, the DPS difference between camping axe and camping GS is very small, and within that margin where theory crafting begins to fade in usefulness in this game and tweaking assumptions start getting you different results.

One major assumption you make on such tests is that the group always have 25 stacks of vulnerability. If you don’t make this assumption, then camping axe might start to look more attractive because it stacks more vulnerability than pure GS.

Theres also the consideration of the situation at hand. There’s a bunch of fights on which it is very hard to camp GS, Mossman being the first that comes to mind.

Other way round, in practise, gs camping is even better than in theory.
For fights you should pretty much always main gs and change your secondary set depending on the encounter. Normal bosses where a knockback or additional blocks/evades are not needed? Just don’t change your secondary set (Sword/Warhorn for running). You need a knockback and no additional blocks? Axe/Mace is the way to go. You need blocks or are forced to ‘range’ sometimes (big aoes)? Axe/Sword.

Especially your part about X/Sword is wrong, Impale from range + rip while coming closer is arguably best dps you can get.

Just because a weapon has access to conditions doesn’t mean it can’t pack a physical wallop as well.

A longbow’s auto-attack dramatically out-DPS’s a Rifle’s Auto Attack, and it has utility that doesn’t depend on condition damage (Blind/Immob/AoE) And, a combo field’s a combo field, which pays off in spades in group content. Lay down the fire, let a phalanx warrior with a sword jump into it and get pounded by mobs, and enjoy massive Might stacks for everyone!

As a rule except particular encounters, I go Axe/Warhorn with Damage% Axe & Energy Warhorn. That way, I have Warhorn to help slowbies keep up in running sequences while having axe-auto attack if I need to swap for Energy sigil.

If I’m the “puller” in the group, I’ll swap Warhorn to Sword at bosses as #4 usually keeps aggro (I’m looking at you, Agent Spire) and allows me to pull without crippling.

Either go double greatsword with double battle or go gs/axe+mace, open with the a/m vuln skills then just go pure gs for the rest of the fight.

Camp GS. Profit.

Dub.1273:

Other way round, in practise, gs camping is even better than in theory.
For fights you should pretty much always main gs and change your secondary set depending on the encounter. Normal bosses where a knockback or additional blocks/evades are not needed? Just don’t change your secondary set (Sword/Warhorn for running). You need a knockback and no additional blocks? Axe/Mace is the way to go. You need blocks or are forced to ‘range’ sometimes (big aoes)? Axe/Sword.

Especially your part about X/Sword is wrong, Impale from range + rip while coming closer is arguably best dps you can get.

But 100b is a lot more prone to being interrupted (rooted, cannot interrupt at all) than axe AA, and it suffers worse from being interrupted unless you interrupt the last 3 chops of the AA. So wouldn’t that make camping GS worse in an unfavourable situation if the DPS is similar to pure axe even under perfect conditions?

Then you got stuff like Mossman where GS is just unusable.

Dub basically said it depends on the boss or mobs. All of the meta builds are pretty stupid for warriors. There is no skill in PVE besides dodging and knowing the fights the later having nothing to do about skill and everything about knowing somthing. You just either AA or press 2 over and over.