Guild Wars 2

Assuming you have full exotic level berserker gear. What would be better? Greatsword? Or Duel Axe?

Discuss.

Axes by 50 miles

PvE? PvP? WvW? Dungeons? Context my friend.

By the way… Dual axes, not duel

Solo/any sort of PvE where things aren’t moving, probably greatsword since you can land your 100b with no issues.

WvW zergs, greatsword mobility + always being no lack of people to spam 100b on makes it feasible but you’d have to find some toughness somewhere in order to not get blown up.

small scale PvP and dungeons where things are moving around you’d probably be more successful at applying axe damage than trying to land 100b.

That’s imo and kind of just at a glance, though in an ideal world the weapon choices aren’t about what’s better as much as they are about what’s more your playstyle.

For levelling, gs signet build gets the job done.
For dungeons, axe pulls ahead by quite a long shot, but there you should not wear full crit damage, and you should not dual wield them.
In pvp, bull rush + frenzy + hundred blades is fotm for a reason (and really the only thing warriors seem to be used for generally) also, the whirl does give a bit more mobility to the warrior, which is nice. Other then that, the axe is usually better there as well.

For normal pugs, probably greatsword. The evasion on whirling attack is great when your group lacks good support.

Assuming you take advantage of combo fields, it’s hard to say for sure. Don’t think anyone has actually done the math on GS vs. axe. They are probably pretty close.

I used to use dual axes but I find the last two attacks aren’t really so wonderful. I mean they aren’t bad, but I prefer having a warhorn or something. The vulnerability one isn’t any good to me since I already have the second skill, plus 33% chance on critical, plus ‘on my mark’. And the whirling axes are fun but recharge slowly compared to the GS’s similar skills, and I’m uncertain whether it actually does more damage than auto-attack. One axe also naturally keeps their awesome burst skill.

Compared to GS… hm. I’d probably go with GS for pvp simply because even when you miss, it does recharge faster. Unless you want to try to be completely made of glass, in which case you might not live that long. You are wearing berserker gear, so I guess that’s a strong possibility.

Maybe axes & warhorn? Whirling can be used to get adrenaline at least, and you can just try to use the burst skill as often as possible, it hurts a lot.

EDIT: the horn is, naturally, for travel and buffs/debuffs.

it really depends on what you are looking for. regular PvE dual axes are fine, but GS has more dmg (10% flat dmg, -20% recharge, gain stacks of might on crit, +10% to bleeding targets. it adds up to be a lot)
Dungeons not so much, you’ll need CC or some kind of dmg mitigation.
sPvP dual axes are ok, but if you cant finish someone with a f1axe 5 combo you’re gonna be in for some hurt. they’d probably be fine for when you’re pug’ing pvp but prob not the best combo for tourney’s.
in WvW GS is probably the better opetion. lower CD on your main dmg move and two escapes (3 and 5). HOWEVER range is your best friend in WvW. save the melee for when you catch a loner or break the zerg and the enemy is in full retreat.

Edit* uhhh, not sure why part of this is underlined. i didnt do it and its not super important stuff lol.

^does the greatsword even do bleeding? Or are you bleeding them with something else first? I always thought it just added vulnerability on one of the auto-attacks.

if you’re talking about pvp – enjoy being 2 shot by everything including critters.

LameFox.6349:

^does the greatsword even do bleeding? Or are you bleeding them with something else first? I always thought it just added vulnerability on one of the auto-attacks.

If he’s getting the +10% vs bleeding targets (25 points in Arms), he’ll also have 33% chance of bleeding on crit (5 points in Arms). Not exactly reliable when making calculations on paper though.

I’m a crit build dual axe warrior and love it. Much prefer it to Great sword but it all comes down to personal opinion.

@Nanashi
While GS does get -20% cooldown, might on crit, and 10% damage you have to compare with what axe gets, which is…

10% crit damage, 5% damage, and extra adrenaline on crit.

They are both extremely effective in both PvE and PvP

Greatsword: more burst damage
Axe: more sustained damage

Now pick your favorite

Personally, I love dual axes.

Greatsword is about landing hundred blades, which is multiple swings. Easy in pve, harder in pvp against better players who are looking for it.

Axe is about your eviserate, which is a single hit with a lunge after building full adren.

Personally I find the damage from axe to be far more reliable and is less telegraphed.

@Zhaitan : Actually, it’s the opposite.
The axe allows a very fast adrenaline charge, which means great burst damage. Greatsword, on the other hand, rely more on vuln, and 100b. But yeah, 100b is kind of burst damage.

Use a rifle….

With full berserker gear your volley will do like 12k Rifle but will do 6k and kill shot will do 16k. Plus you have that great range cripple.

Also all the people who say “greatsword is all 100b” don’t listen to them. For PvE maybe but in any PvP setting what you should do is rush to get close, whirlwind attack through them, throw your sword (you can do this fairly quickly because you don’t have to be facing the direction you throw if you have a target) then switch to your rifle and volley then cripple again.

Note this is for 1v1 and if there’s more than 1 you shouldn’t fight because 2v1 against as any class is stupid without some sort of advantage (like if you can bait them to a cliff then bullrush them behind you and rifle butt one off).

In a zerg with a lot of people you SHOULD run in and use 100b as there’s people all over and you will usually down 2-5 people. whirlwind attack also does wonders in zergs. user rush/sword throw/riffle to finish off stragglers.