Guild Wars 2

Since the patch I’ve been playing around with dual axes (who hasnt) and I noticed I literally never weapon swapped because it just wasn’t needed. Who’s going to swap out of a 300 increase in ferocity? So I had a thought. What if I ran a build with FOUR axes – simply for the on-swap effects in the discipline line. Thoughts?

(For clarification, I know the two sets would share cds, but they’re pretty low on axes anyway)

Well, axes don’t give you any defense or mobility. It’d be fine if you were doing general pve but you’d be murdered pretty fast in pvp or wvw.

More importantly, you should know that the 300 Ferocity you get from Axe Mastery is inferior in every way to the competing trait Berserker’s Power. Both give +20% damage, but AM only gives it when you crit while packing two axes…. BP gives it to you on every hit (crit or not) and doesn’t restrict you to any particular weapon.

Basically, there’s no reason to take AM over BP.

Choppy.4183:

Well, axes don’t give you any defense or mobility. It’d be fine if you were doing general pve but you’d be murdered pretty fast in pvp or wvw.

More importantly, you should know that the 300 Ferocity you get from Axe Mastery is inferior in every way to the competing trait Berserker’s Power. Both give +20% damage, but AM only gives it when you crit while packing two axes…. BP gives it to you on every hit (crit or not) and doesn’t restrict you to any particular weapon.

Basically, there’s no reason to take AM over BP.

With the new signet mastery it’s real easy to maintain 100% crit chance. If you are running an all axe build I don’t see why you wouldn’t take the axe trait.

I don’t see any difference on my damage BP and AM so i always pick AM since i’m GS/Axe/shield

Julie Yann.5379:

With the new signet mastery it’s real easy to maintain 100% crit chance. If you are running an all axe build I don’t see why you wouldn’t take the axe trait.

Because there’s an opportunity cost to maintaining a 100% crit chance. Basically, you’re investing resources (gear stats, signet passives, etc) just to get the AM bonus % to approach BP’s. Except a BP build can channel those same resources into ferocity or power, so it will still win out.

Also, the very fact that AM requires you to stay on double axe to even be in the running is a huge opportunity cost unless double axe is clearly the best choice of weapons. Short of, “I just find it more fun”, it’s hard to think of a scenario in which it would be the optimal weapon comp. Even then, BP is still a better trait choice.

jayson.6512:

I don’t see any difference on my damage BP and AM so i always pick AM since i’m GS/Axe/shield

With AM, you’re getting +10% damage only when you crit with your axe set.

With BP, you’re getting +20% on every hit on axe and gs, as long as you manage to land a full burst at least every 10s.