Guild Wars 2

Just started lvling my warrior and will use him for dungeons and wvw mostly. I want to do significant dmg. Right now I’ve been using S/A for PvE. I love the sword burst skill (the immobilize part) and the number 2 skill to catch kiters. Once I’m lvl 80 with exotics, how much dmg will I be losing if I go with MH sword over Axe? Is MH sword even viable in WvW as a damage dealer?

Main hand Sword is wonderful in WvW. I’ll take the leap over the Axe’s vulnerability any day.

Not that much viable.

Many people have condition remover, plus you’ll never have the time to build proper bleeding before getting shot down.

Direct damage is infinitively better.

Though I agree, leap and F1 are a blast.

ALSO, I love off hand axe #5 with omnom berries, but I’ve been reading off hand mace is becoming popular. Thoughts?

Mace IMO seems to be more situational, “i need to KO that line of ppl, now!” VS Axe, again, is just straight up more dmg, great for WvW zergs and dungeon trash, yes?

Mace as main hand is good for tanking, hardly viable in a pvp fight IMHO.

Though you can always annoy people with that, kind of stunning them every now and then.

Mace as offhand is good yes, if you don’t like whirlwind go for it.

Bleeding is a nice bonus on Sword, but don’t stack Condition Damage. Bleed gets really low bonus from Condition Damage, plus there is the stack limit and stuff. Go for pure and raw damage.

Sword > Utility, while Axe > Damage. Depends on your second weapon set really. With sword, all the skills AND the burst serve as utility (even the burst can be used defensively: immobilize and leap away).

Or, you can just use both :p Axe/Mace can be your pewpew dmg set and Sword/Shield utility.

Imo sword could actually beat axe in dps, simply cause its easier to keep on your target (assuming PvP/WvW) with savage leap + hamstring + flurry (which combos well with hundred blades, or any other hard to land skill). Of course axe does more dmg per second on any target, but for some reason, sword feels so right. Mobility feels like the most important thing for warriors in general. If we get kited, doesn’t matter if axe does more dps than sword, if the player is standing still, than more or less your gonna kill the target with axe or sword. IMO i choose sword over axe for many reasons, but axe definitely is a strong mainhand weapon for pure dmg.

Have all those weapons. So you can switch around when the time arises.

Mace mainhand is actually very good for pvp, you bait out the enemy stunbreaks in a flash. The strikes are also far harder to dodge seeing as the animations are fast and compact.

Get a greatsword, use your mace to poke and prod for stunbreaks. Whenever you use your mace burst, switch to hb without frenzy. Most twitch players will break out of a normal hb and most newbs will eat most of it anyway.

When the target is out of stunbreaks, do the same but with frenzy. Profit…

On topic:

In WvW the sword will fair decently in the damage role, although it does have conditions it is more of a hybrid weapon than a condition one. It’s actually far better as a utility/movement weapon. Best to pick it If you consider a hybrid damage build or yur other weapon set is slow as all hell (anything that isn’t gs or warhorn)

The axe is king of melee damage though.

I’m in the same boat as the OP, I love the sword for the leap and synergy with leg specialist. When it comes to damage it’s lacking compared to MH axe, since it depends on the use of bleeds.
I’ve always been an axe guy but lately I’ve just been loving the leap, the only reason I haven’t fallen head over heals for sword is because I can’t duel in 1 v 1s successfully like I can with the axe. Maybe I need more practice or its just not my play style, but axe just mows kids down where sword just gives them a few paper cuts.

I usually go sword/shield/rifle in WvW (0/10/30/30/0), and I noticed that a lot of people actually don’t cleanse. They’ll just wait out the 12s bleed.

So today I geared towards condition damage—which wasn’t that expensive (undead runes, corruption jewelry, karma armor, sup. corruption sigil).

It was amazing! I tore through whole zergs with condition damage and laughed as I raked in the badges!

Just kidding. I’ve been winning some 1v1’s and 2v2 because I block alphas and they run away with 5-6 stacks of bleed on them which is about 6k of damage. In pvp they spec for survival. In wvw zergs, they spec for spike damage. All in all, I’m liking condition damage for sword since it gives time to recover from crowd control while unnoticed damage ticks away.

Sword > Axe simply because it allows you to use Signet of Stamina instead of Bulls Charge. Don’t need Bulls Charge when I have flurry to set-up combos.