Guild Wars 2

So I’m really having trouble deciding what to make my melee weapon in my weapon swap. So far I’ve liked GS, hammer, and sword/shield. However, the sword/shield doesn’t do very good AOE.

Anyway, I’m using a rifle for range, so I’d prefer some AOE on my melee. Any suggestions?

Axe + Mace can, but gets highly out-classed by GS.

I read in this forum fequently because warrior is my main class. Often enough I find sentences like GS>Axe/Mace>rest

So I am wondering why is Axe/mace so strong?
OK Axe is a nobrainer, its chain does high damage and axe2 is nice to tap mobs in events and adds vulv.. burst can deal serious damage.

But why Mace?
It has a attack that stacks 4 vulv on ONE (?) target. Most classes stack Vulv via crits or other effects that it can reach max stack amount quite often in groups. .I never tested mace offhand in action but is the damage of 4 that high?
5 is a AOE knockdown. According to the Tooltip It has longer cooldown than axe5 for example and does less damage

So why is Mace Offhand superior to others? Just because of the 4 Vulv on mace4? or are there any other factors I am too blind to see?
It would be nice if someone could enlighten me.

Monki.5012:

So why is Mace Offhand superior to others? Just because of the 4 Vulv on mace4? or are there any other factors I am too blind to see?
It would be nice if someone could enlighten me.

The 5 ability on Mace is just the bee’s knees. It is an AoE knockdown with a long range which has shorter cooldown than the Hammer’s 5 which is only single target and short range.

This an obvious and huge advantage over the Hammer’s 5 Knockdown. So if Knockdown is your thing, Mace is where it’s at.

Oglaf.1074:

Monki.5012:

So why is Mace Offhand superior to others? Just because of the 4 Vulv on mace4? or are there any other factors I am too blind to see?
It would be nice if someone could enlighten me.

The 5 ability on Mace is just the bee’s knees. It is an AoE knockdown with a long range which has shorter cooldown than the Hammer’s 5 which is only single target and short range.

This an obvious and huge advantage over the Hammer’s 5 Knockdown. So if Knockdown is your thing, Mace is where it’s at.

In PvE maybe, but in PvP the hammer or off hand shield is far better for CC locking, the burst skill is a lot harder to react to.
Mace 5 is rather slow and rarely actually affects anyone unless they are in point blank range. But this case is really only for AoE CC

If you are looking for flat aoe damage then axe/axe is what you are looking for.

But the OP is looking for a AOE Weapon.. I assume he/she is talking about multiple mob damage not CC.

So Axe/mace is >Axe/axe just because 1 sec of knockdown? Maybe in PvP but in PvE most mobs are immune to CC anyway. I just cant understand why some people think a stunwhich doesnt work always is superior to the bursting ability dual axe has.

In terms of controlling I like the hammer more because with it and the right runes/traits you can have fury active 90%+ uptime without activating any other skills.

For pure DPS, Axe/Axe > GS because 100b is immobile and the GS has a crappy burst skill (Eviscerate is arguably the best Warrior burst skill), whereas with Axe 5 you can move with your target.

I only use GS when I use my sPVP stun build (stun/knockdown, then immediately 100b). Otherwise 100b, which is your main GS damage dealer, misses more often than not and also makes you vulnerable to AOEs.

All melee weapons attack in an arch. The only one to my knowledge with something similar to a PBAoE is the 3rd chain on hammer auto-attack. Axe 5 does very little damage, is on a long CD, and doesn’t do hardly any damage compared to axe auto-attack. Mace 5 is a line AoE on a long CD so hardly counts as AoE at all cause you won’t be killing anything with it. And the greatsword? well… it’s the greatsword. Just go with the hammer.