Guild Wars 2

Okay sorry, this is probably a common topic but I’ve analysed both and I really can’t make up my mind

Greatsword Pros
high mobility (3 and 5) both on relatively short cooldowns. Can be really useful for warrior since we are so easily kited

Greatsword Con
100b, the GS main damage outputter is very hard to land, even if you cripple/1sec immoblize (with trait) with your 4. However a short cd, 6.5seconds (especially with Trait in Discpline 20)

Axe Pro
opposite of GS, Whirling Axe is easy to hit and is AoE, however longer a cd than 100b, 20 seconds.

Axe Con
a lot less mobility than GS. (i’ll disregard Eviscerate as a gap closer since it has such a short range)

And herein lies my dilemma, the Axe Pro/GS con and Axe con/GS pro sort of even each other out… however, I am wondering, if I it is possible of doing more damage in one full Whrling Axe than 3×100bs (6.5×3= 9.5 sec cd = Whirling Axe cd) that only hits 2 or 3 times per 100b (out of it’s 8,).

In my opinion I think landing only 2 or 3 hits per 100b but doing that 3 times will do a little more damage (cumulatively) than one full Whirling Axe. So that’s why at the moment I’m using a GS over dual axes, but what do you guys think?

Might be subjective, but I feel that Axe/Axe offers much better healing through omnomberry pie/ghost. Especially when jumping into enemy zergs, Axe#5 almost instantly heals you to 100%.
Otherwise Axe#5 is not that great damage wise. Axe auto attack is much better compared to GS though – faster hits → more crits → more procs.

Going double axe on the other hand almost forces you taking either Sword/X or GS as second weapon set to regain some mobility. That means no ranged weapon.

Your comparison is kinda flawed because you compare 100b, the best attack with the greatsword with whirling axe, the worst attack regarding damage.

Whirling Axe has a long cooldown and a long animation time and deals less damage than the auto-attack, only good thing is, it hits 15 times, so with omnomberry ghosts/pies you can get to full health if you whirl in 3-4 targets.

You should compare 100b with eviscerate and auto attacks of the axe.

Eviscerate does nice damage, around 1/2 – 2/3 of a full hundred blades, but does it instantly, you are not rooted and even jumping a bit at the target so you can hardly miss it and as it is instant, you can place some auto attacks too while in the meantime you would still cast 100b.

I played a GS + rifle and an axe/mace + axe/axe build and I have to say that greatsword is a lot more situational, if you can hit every greatsword attack you deal more damage but with axes you can dodge more and you do not need to rely on one attack.

Hope I could help

Whirling axe isn’t too great. The axe auto-attack is the true damage dealer. If you have a proper group the hundred blades can turn into a powerful weapon. Let another person do the immobilizing, dazing, chilling and crippling for you while you go for straight damage. Puts enemies out of their misery in double quick time.

Whirlwind is pretty great on the greatsword also.

^ Whirlwind is GS’s best Damage per a second + has a dodge built in + mobility + 10 second cooldown (8 when traited). Hundred Blade is a down finisher (kill people who are in downed state) or dps for PvE. Other wise once you start it, expect to dodge/whirlwind out of the full sequence to stick to whoever most like try to dodge your Hundred Blade.

tbh i’ve noticed rush in wvw doing nice damage, over 5k crits sometimes, so as far as you can :rush +2 hits +whirlwind – 10k damage in less that 2 second ,and another 2 hits after whirlwind, gs will be supperior to axes. In an group vs group situations axe +axe can do more DPS

for the gs, im not sure what build your running, but with mines i have leg specialist and a sword for swap, i have leg specialist traited and a sigil of hydromancy, one for my favorite combos is to leap with sword cripple which adds immobolize, flurry to immbolize some more, swap to gs activating the freeze blade trail again to immoblize some more and then use hb. the sigil also doubles for a defensive option too because like you mentioned, the gs is very mobile so a freeze is nice with 3 and 5 to escapse.

thats just my opinion for the gs, as for comparing it to axe axe ill let the other warriors compare that

If the auots on Axe is it’s best damage dealer, wouldn’t you say GS is A LOT better than axe? Since with a GS you can spam autos like Axe, still doing similar (maybe a bit less damge) than axes, but with so much more mobility than axes and so much easier to actually stick to your enemy and not let them kite you.

Even if you manage to stick to your target using lv3 Eviscerate every 10 seconds, that’s still less face sticking ability than GS 3 and 5, thus less time to land your autos. Not to mention eviscerate has kitten poor range.

Thoughts?

advantage of Axe(mainhand) over GS

Axe

• Better dps overall on auto attack versus hundred blades
• Allows use of a second weapon (shield/warhorn/mace/axe/(sword – not worth)) and another sigil on offhand
• Burst skill is actually very strong “surprise burst dmg”

GS

• Best mobility + has whirlwind dodge
• Whirlwind technically has a higher dps than auto attack of axe regarding single target dps (if whirlwind is done on a wall, etc.)
• both have long range cripples, but GS is harder to land persay (opinion here)
• Never use burst skill, since berserkers power + heightened focus benefit more throughout than to use the burst skill.

CoaxialMazer.9140:

advantage of Axe(mainhand) over GS

Axe

• Better dps overall on auto attack versus hundred blades
• Allows use of a second weapon (shield/warhorn/mace/axe/(sword – not worth)) and another sigil on offhand
• Burst skill is actually very strong “surprise burst dmg”

GS

• Best mobility + has whirlwind dodge
• Whirlwind technically has a higher dps than auto attack of axe regarding single target dps (if whirlwind is done on a wall, etc.)
• both have long range cripples, but GS is harder to land persay (opinion here)
• Never use burst skill, since berserkers power + heightened focus benefit more throughout than to use the burst skill.

yes, Axe has better dps on auto attacks BUT that’s just on paper, assuming your target isn’t kiting while ccing you. So since GS has a lot of mobility than axe (therefore a lot more chances to actually land your autos), in practice, wouldn’t GS have a higher dps than Axe?

Theoretically its a very close split between the two. For example, Axe/Warhorn has very good close proximity ability to tackle a target with swiftness/eviscerate/cripple/removing slows. Or Axe/Shield with shield block can negate substantial dmg+potential cripples/chills/immobilizes and shield bash+eviscerate and cripple can also battle well in close proximity. While GS offers a slightly larger range of combat, but also costs us all the benefits of the Axe + its offhand. Generally speaking, I say Axe and GS have their places in terms of whats better in certain scenarios.

Since Warriors are superior weapon swappers, most builds consist of axe-(offhand)/GS and constant swapping between the two offers the most dps possible in small/medium range distance combat.

I prefer Sword-Shield/GS in terms of Mobility/DPS as i like the ability to stick to targets longer and for a much longer duration, which is my theory in terms of dps.
Also it allows me to close gaps in far range engagements much easier+faster, which also means that i get more face time =D

Depends on your playstyle imo, Personally i prefer the mobility of the GS. I find dual axes just…very cd heavy, and ur just stuck there wondering what to do and u cant escape or anything. Try this, Duel Axe with a offhand shield on the other for blocking and retreating.