Guild Wars 2

Honestly, it’s useless as a grandmaster because Berserkers Power is 10x better. The best thing to do would be to move it to master tier. Think about how much damage could be done by slotting AM and BP together!

You should title it “Please move Axe Mastery.” I thought you were suggesting changing how the trait works. Anyways, I agree with you that Axe Mastery should be moved to Master tier so that it has a chance to be pick. I would like to add that Merciless Hammer should also be moved to Master Tier. It just makes sense to have all weapon traits moved to master tier so they don’t compete against grandmaster traits.

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

they should add reflect to axe mastery to make things a bit more interesting and instead of the obvious choice, berserkers power

Well, a very short reflect.

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

It’s not 20% burst damage increase, it is 20% overall damage increase for 10 seconds after hitting with a burst skill (except Longbow, because it’s bugged). It is extremely strong if you can keep it up, which shouldn’t be too hard with Furious (Arms) or Burst Mastery (Discipline).

pdavis.8031:

Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me.

I hesitate to ask knowing what the answer will likely be, but which axe skill is so useful and good that the cool down of it is a big deal and in which game mode?

The problem with axe is that the auto attack is better than all the other skills. The only one worth using is the axe throw when you aren’t in melee.

The spin does less dps than the auto attack, and they both can hit 5 enemies… so what’s the point of the spin? The fury chop is useless, and the vulnerability chop is rarely worth using because it interrupts the axe chain. You are highly incentivized to let the axe chain complete itself uninterrupted for the third part which does the highest damage.

The axe grandmaster really sucks. Reducing the CD on these abilities is quite pointless. The ferocity gain is nice, but not as good as the 20% flat damage GM its competing with.

I think the axe could use some work. Mainhand seems fine, but offhand axe skills are garbage.

Tipper.6973:

The spin does less dps than the auto attack, and they both can hit 5 enemies… so what’s the point of the spin?

The spin (Axe 2) is what inflicts the Vuln (4 stacks for 8s), which makes it worth fitting into a rotation if Vuln isn’t already stacked.

But I agree with everything else you wrote, and with the topic in general. I love mainhand axe for its auto, its spin-to-vuln, and Eviscerate, but the trait would be pretty meh even if it weren’t competing directly with the glorious overlord of the Strength line, Berserker’s Power.

The new trait system would seem to heavily constrain future tweaking or expansion, though (in addition to being very narrow in scope as it is). Were Axe Mastery moved, what would it replace?

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

Why? Axe’s main ability is #1 anyway.

YuiRS.8129:

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

Why? Axe’s main ability is F1 anyway.

Fixed for you

pdavis.8031:

YuiRS.8129:

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

Why? Axe’s main ability is F1 anyway.

Fixed for you

Eviscerate’s CD isnt affected by Axe Mastery though…

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

the axe skill cooldowns are insignificant without the trait.

7.5-15% extra crit damage.
Just thought that should be said somewhere.
While we on the topic.

Tipper.6973:

The problem with axe is that the auto attack is better than all the other skills. The only one worth using is the axe throw when you aren’t in melee.

The spin does less dps than the auto attack, and they both can hit 5 enemies… so what’s the point of the spin? The fury chop is useless, and the vulnerability chop is rarely worth using because it interrupts the axe chain. You are highly incentivized to let the axe chain complete itself uninterrupted for the third part which does the highest damage.

The axe grandmaster really sucks. Reducing the CD on these abilities is quite pointless. The ferocity gain is nice, but not as good as the 20% flat damage GM its competing with.

I think the axe could use some work. Mainhand seems fine, but offhand axe skills are garbage.

I agree that the axe off- hand needs some serious reworking, but I have admit that axe main-hand isn’t that bad. Axe 2 is good for when things get crowded, and it’s always great to land F1. It would be nice if F1 gave some type of healing effect, or if axe mastery gave a small heatlth regen when you crit.

Gerrand.3085:

Well, a very short reflect.

I know it’s short but I did not feel like going on a rant.

Pyrophobia.6592:

Gerrand.3085:

Well, a very short reflect.

I know it’s short but I did not feel like going on a rant.

You miss-interpreted me there. I’m for a reflect, but it needs to be extremely short in duration, like half a second on cast ^^.

The only change to axes I’d need to make them base line viable would be an addition on axe 5 (or a trait for all warrior attacks with whirl finishers) which made the specified attack capable of redirecting up to one unused hit to each existing target (possibly for 50% damage). So if axe 5 [were to]* hit 3 enemies each second, the 2 unused hits would be redirected to 2 of those 3 targets per second. On my character, thousand blades does about 9000 a second and whirling axe 3200 a second. With this change, whirling axe could do 6400 damage to a target if there are less then 5 – making the skill more applicable is most PvE scenerios.

• apparently, removing the [] bit results in the 5 and the “hit” being kittened out of the post -.-

Lightsbane.9012:

pdavis.8031:

I like axe mastery. Having the 20% reduced CD is pretty much awesome. But thats just me. Personally I like the CD reduction over the 20% increase in burst damage.
But to each their own I suppose.

the axe skill cooldowns are insignificant without the trait.

Perhaps. But I still like it and use it regardless. It is less optimal? Sure. Do I care? Not really. I like it and will probably continue to use it.

The problem with Axe Mastery, and warrior axe (actually, warrior skills/traits in general), is that it’s just numbers. Pretty awesome numbers, but then whatever gives the biggest dps (ie BerserkerPower in this case) makes every other numbers-based option redundant.

What warrior Axe lacks is utility (this could be said of Warriors in general).
So maybe adding something like “Boon-rip on Crit” (or even more Vuln though that’s just numbers too, I’m sure others will have ideas) will give Axe Mastery (& warrior axe) its own distinct flavour.

What if 5 becomes F1, F1 becomes 5.
then adrenaline level 3 gives reflect?..