I have tested all the warrior weapons to decide with wich one I want to stick and I noticed that the axe in the offhand is extremly underwhelming.
Skill #4 is barely ok, since it provides fury and the damage is slightly higher than the auto attack (axe), yet the last hit of the auto attack is stronger again wich is not so nice :S
But skill #5 is literally completely useless. First I thought “well it’s weaker than the aa, but it hits 5 targets instead of 3, maybe it shines against 5 targets”. WRONG it still deals less damage per second on 5 targets than the aa does on 3. Now I ask you – why is that? I’ve seen it’s stronger in PvP but why not also in PvE?
I think it either needs a serious damage buff or should destroy projectiles. Even the fact that it applies many vuln stacks or generates much adrenalin are just not engouh.
Any opinions? greez
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
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Only way I can see off-hand axe being viable is if skill 4 got a damage increase and if skill 5 did equal damage to Hundred Blades. The tradeoff for being able to move is a longer cool down
The axe aa deals 7.5% more damage than 100b, so it still would be worse. What is needed is utility such as projectile absrob or unblockable or something rather than more damage.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
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Honestly the damage on it is fine in wvw/spvp and still pretty decent with some zerkness in your setup.
You take axe offhand for the combo whirl . That is the important part. The Fury you get from axe4 is also nice to give you more “fury coverage” (all depending on how you get it… SoR, Runes,Food, Opportunist, FGJ, etc)
Check out the vid from that as if gives you some play example. Of course by now the clips used to make the vid are quite-prehistoric…. pre-sword rework …pre-regensig ….pre cleansing ire…pre-axe offhand boost…. an old 0/20/0/30/20 Tactics build too ( altho inspiring shouts is amazesauce for adrenal control and setting up the spike)
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The best thing I found about axe 5 is that it keeps channeling through dodges (at least used to before I took a break good 6 months ago). Considering the skill is fairly obviously tailored to fighting 5+ mob swarms, this gives you ability to do damage while taking none in return. That with whirl finisher make it a viable, if not a great option. Generally I’d go for utility of warhorn, but axe can be useful in some niche cases.
Anyone that fully understands and compares the other options for offhands that the warrior has with axe offhand will know how terrible it is in PvE. Whether or not somebody likes it is completely different than whether or not it’s actually worth using from an efficiency standpoint.
Anyone that fully understands and compares the other options for offhands that the warrior has with axe offhand will know how terrible it is in PvE. Whether or not somebody likes it is completely different than whether or not it’s actually worth using from an efficiency standpoint.
So it’s a matter of preferred playstyle vs being the most efficient. It also depends on what you are doing in PvE. A dungeon speed run with a group? yeah, axe 5 is lacking significantly. Take something else and do your part. Solo open world roaming? Why not? Its fun, provides a very quick adrenaline recharge, a bit of fury, and an AoE of sorts, useful for tagging multiple mobs in a tight space. At which point I would say that it is more “effecient” than your other options. So in the end it depends on what you are doing in PvE.
I personally "like"" it, but am not going to use it while doing a group dungeon or something. But I mostly solo roam anyway, haven’t run a dungeon in forever.
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Axe offhand is good for PvE. The main purpose of axe off hand is for farming mobs. Axe #5 hits 5 targets so it’s excellent for tagging mobs. That’s it’s nitch. I’m glad warriors have a weapon that is great for farming. I would hate to have to switch to my staff guardian everytime I need to farm mobs for loots. I think each offhand weapon should serve a particular function and I’m glad axe off hand is different than the rest. It’s not the best for dps nor pvp but the best for farming as a warrior.
I’m sorry I missed to tell you I was talking about dungeons and fotm. The damage vs 5 is lower than axe aa vs 3 targets. The whirl is (even if it works) still useless since that little bit for (most dps of a whirl) burning isn’t gonna change anything, also it’s random where the bolts fly.
Even pure axe builds prefer to use Axe/Mace + /Sword for dungeons, since sword #4 is a good single target dps increase. I wish the axe offhand skill #5 would have just the same dps as the axe aa, or at least 80% of it. This would make it viable against crowds, 4 or 5 targets, vuln stacking while gaining adrenalin too very quickly. Right now it’s too weak in pve (not open world) content.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
I agree with the OP in the sense that it really should be improved.
It’s as it stands the least useful offhand all-around for the warrior. If an offhand of ours is going to be completely void of any and all defensive utility whatsoever, it should at least offer options that are worth using over an autoattack chain.
I’m sorry I missed to tell you I was talking about dungeons and fotm. The damage vs 5 is lower than axe aa vs 3 targets. The whirl is (even if it works) still useless since that little bit for (most dps of a whirl) burning isn’t gonna change anything, also it’s random where the bolts fly.
Even pure axe builds prefer to use Axe/Mace + /Sword for dungeons, since sword #4 is a good single target dps increase. I wish the axe offhand skill #5 would have just the same dps as the axe aa, or at least 80% of it. This would make it viable against crowds, 4 or 5 targets, vuln stacking while gaining adrenalin too very quickly. Right now it’s too weak in pve (not open world) content.
Again, Axe off-hand is not meant for dungeon or fractals. I’m not against buffing it so it could be viable as long as it doesn’t destroy it’s main purpose that it’s serving now, which is great for farming mobs. Remember, warriors got to earn a living too.
I use axe-offhand for adrenaline build. I have on all berserker ascended, and mighty infusions in every slot, along with strength runes and the proper sigils for pve.
I use a 4/6/0/0/4, traited specifically for axes, and I find myself doing alot of damage because I’m able to do eviscerate every single time its up.
I mean its all up to your play style really, but I’m throwing in my 2 cents here.
I tried to argue too about eviscerate but A) the high damage of eviscerate is still less than the damage you lost by using axe 5 instead of aa and I have eviscerate up on cd even wihtout using axe 5.
If it’s not ment to be useful for dungeons and fotm, then it’s ment to be doomed. The only reason why it’s maybe viable in some pvp builds is because it deals more damage there.
Sorry but those arguments flaw – can’t find satisfiction.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
If it’s not ment to be useful for dungeons and fotm, then it’s ment to be doomed.
Really? Dungeons/Fractal is only a small fraction of the whole game. Guild wars don’t even cater to dungeons anymore, that they got rid of their dungeon team long ago. In Open world, axe offhand very useful. Not to mention double axe has good dps and with content as easy as in dungeons, any weapon set is viable if you don’t care to have the fastest record speed run.
With the recent change to adrenaline for warriors, axe off-hand is more useful in pvp. If they make Axe #5 block projectile too, axe-off hand usefulness would sky rocket despite not being the optimal set in dungeon speed runs.
Again, I am not against buffing axe off hand. I’m always for more buffs. But even if it doesn’t get utilize much in one aspect of the game doesn’t mean it’s doom. And for dungeons it’s always about the max dps so one off-hand weapon is going to be the best for that and currently it’s the mace. And players won’t use axe-offhand if it’s not better than the mace and if you buff it up to the point that it’s better than the mace. Guess what? You see a new thread complaining that mace-offhand sucks in dungeons and fractal. So the best thing to do is make sure each weapon set serves a particular purpose and that it is useful in different aspect of the game like how offhand warhorn is very useful in wvw setting and axe-offhand is best for open world farming.
If it’s not ment to be useful for dungeons and fotm, then it’s ment to be doomed.
Really? Dungeons/Fractal is only a small fraction of the whole game. Guild wars don’t even cater to dungeons anymore, that they got rid of their dungeon team long ago. In Open world, axe offhand very useful. Not to mention double axe has good dps and with content as easy as in dungeons, any weapon set is viable if you don’t care to have the fastest record speed run.
With the recent change to adrenaline for warriors, axe off-hand is more useful in pvp.
And I stopped reading. Cuz of this: Damage is increased by 50% while in Structured PvP.
That’s the reason why it’s viable in pvp and not in pve. The thread is about PvE Axe Offhand … stop mixing up things. And pve it’s only good for tagging open world wich is not the main endgame. It clearly needs a buff for dungeons and fotm.
If axe offhand became viable more 46060 builds with pure axe would come up and be as viable as the common 65003.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
Before the steal health on crit pie gain an internal cooldown Whirling Axe in an aoe situation was a better “healing” skill than most in the game at that time.
It is a bit odd that the channel isn’t (or if it has changed resently remained so for as long as it had) interupted by dodging. Just seems out of place with most of the mechanics associated with channeled skills.
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I have eviscerate up on cd even wihtout using axe 5.