This was brought up in the past and I have a feeling we may see it in a expansion… Just no telling when that will be… I’m guessing 1-2 years at the earliest unless they drop a major content patch adding a weapon or 2.
I’m not going to argue over opinions of how terrible it would be to have the 30% minion damage back in the death tree or anything… The game at the moment only has minimal impact from traits so builds are more or less small tweaks to a pre set weapon and a few useful utility skills which in most cases are very very situational..
Anyway back on topic of the axe… The only parts of the axe that need love are the no.1 getting a chain and the no1 and 2 getting 100-150 extra range…. The damage on no.2 is fine as is and gets a good boost with the grand master axe trait… The no.1 getting a chain is needed since most players feel like it’s weak because the damage is divided into 2 hits so it’s 2 small hits which feel very weak…
Here’s the chain for no.1 I was suggesting in my thread.
Rending Claws – 2 hits for 236 total + 2 stacks of vulnerability 5 seconds 3/4 second attack
Agonizing Claws – 1 hit for 236 + 1 stack of vulnerability 5 seconds same damage in 1 hit so that it feels larger but is not 3/4 second attack
Reap Impurities – 1 hit for 260 + small life siphon basesd on each condition on the target… Allow the +50% siphon to affect it… You could have it do 25 siphon per condition so the trait would make it 37 per… 1 second attack 1/4 longer due to the damage boost
That being the chain for no.1 would make it feel like it’s doing more damage when it’s only really hitting harder on the final hit which has a slightly longer attack speed…. The chain would make it so you can’t sustain 10 stacks of vuln just auto attacking but sustaining 5-7 stacks I think would be better if you had a chain that had a slightly harder hitting last hit anyway…
The other suggestion I made was to add 100-150 bonus range to the axe just to give it more viability in more situations like wvw… I honestly don’t think it should have 900 range like the scepter because it’s more of a mid range direct damage weapon… Having 700-750 range on the no.1 and 2 would solve most issues… No.3 I don’t think needs a damage boost just because of how it functions…
Also on a random side note I don’t know why people hate the life siphon traits…. 25 damage – 37 traited… That doesn’t seem like much and while I admit it doesn’t give much health that’s still free damage that procs on all damage you do…. The axe no.2 hits 8 times which is 200 free damage on top of the final numbers… or 296 when traited… While that doesn’t sound all that astounding I still prefer it as it is since it adds a small amount of sustained damage to things like death shroud and auto attacks… The only time I find it useless is with slower attacking weapons.
I just edited the post to a more thought out suggestion which I think conveys my thoughts better…
The best way they could fix it is to make it give 5% life force per utility , 7% per heal and 30% on elite….. Or just a 5% for all of them… That’s all they would need to do so that we have more life force generation.
Oh kitten no, that would be terrible.
I was talking about the 30% minion damage back to the minion tree instead of having it on the tree that has the axe…. Move the axe trait to T2 and move the minion 30% damage to T2 death magic… It was like that during the beta weekends idk why they changed it.
Really it’s ok for a few situations but it’s just to situational for what it’s worth… The cooldown needs to be cut in 1/2 for it to really be effective… Once every 45-60 sec would have been best.
I’ve found this to work in some cases in pvp though but most of the time it falls flat due to most people having 2 or 3 cc abilitys + 1 removal to negate the fear…. While it serves it’s purpose the cooldown is just to long to justify using it over something else.
Wanna know what fear is even longer….. Have a thief steal from you in wvw or pvp… That fear is 4 seconds without any % duration increse.
I don’t understand what dagger abilities have to do with minions?
And if you’re using an axe in one MH, why wouldn’t you use dagger in the other main hand as the two obviously have the most synergy of the mainhand options where Axe is concerned.
This thread is showing some very narrow views of how to build a necro. I stand by my earliest comment that Necros still have no idea what to do with the Axe.
There’s multiple situations you need to be further then melee range and the axe at 600 usually just isn’t enough… It’s best to have scepter or staff as your off weapon for those situations. In pvp yea that’s fine running both though not all that effective… But in pve in group events or dungeons it’s just not good to run that way… I think you don’t understand how to build a necro if you’re focusing on all close and mid range when there’s so many encounters that require you to switch from mid to long range… And daggers as I said do more damage + no.3 holds the target in place for 3 seconds so your minions don’t chase them around…
My point is all weapons could technicly be considered MM weapons the axe is no different… But the axe isn’t pidgen holed into that 1 role…. I main a power/crit damage / survival balance build in pve and I run bip and sig of undeath… The 3rd I swap out between a few abilities… I do a decent amount of sustained damage with my axe and have staff for those long range encounters…. I focus mainly on axe/death shroud though….
1 key thing people seem to miss when you’re playing in death shroud… If you have the axe traits the damage is applied to death shroud meaning you hit harder with that then if you were using the staff. I do this all the time get on average 6k life blasts above 50% and 3k below this is based on giganticus lupicus in Arrah exp The ranged rez and self buff is good and I swap out my 3rd ability depending on the situation….. Most people think I suck just because I focus on this build but honestly it’s fine…. The animation when out of death shroud though is just annoying…. you flail your arm back and fourth… A chain and a little range is all that’s needed to fix the weapon.
Anyways that was off topic I know… Just saying I’m a Axe necro main.
@Dakiaris
The reason why Axe is considered a MM weapon more then any other, is the vuln stacking.
This is the only way to boost our minions damage other then the spite trait.
That’s why most people consider it a MM weapon.
It’s considered a MM weapon because of the fact the MM 30% damage is in the same line as the axe… Honestly they need to move that to the MM tree so people stop considering it a MM weapon.
Vuln stacking is on multiple weapons in the game gs warrior/sword mes and axe necro Most people are just tagging it as a MM weapon because of the fact it has vulnerability stacking….. I don’t know if you know this but the dagger has a 3 second Immobilize and paired with the focus you can actually cc something and deal more damage as a mm then with the axe…. Everything about the Dagger is more suited to MM as are the traits armor based on minions up % toughness = power… People are just using the It’s a MM weapon to try and distract people from the fact the dagger fits that role quiet a bit better…. The axe is supposed to be our mid range direct damage weapon that does ok sustained with moderate burst from the no.2… Right now what makes it feel like it’s limited to MM is the fact the no.1 feels weak and the vulnerability stacking seems like it’s best used for that… Though as stated by me before it’s not enough of a damage boost over the dagger to justify calling it a MM weapon.. Give my post a read and tell me what you think…
edit
If this came off jumbled or doesn’t make sense just ignore it I have issues putting my thoughts into words… I’ve done extensive testing with the axe / dagger and minions and it just doesn’t justify why people say axe is a MM weapon when the dagger out preforms it by a long shot.
Saying the axe is a MM weapon is like saying the Dagger is a MM weapon because if you trait you can do vamp and get armor per minion… It’s a mid damage direct damage weapon…. It’s no.1 is the main issue along with the shorter then average mid range…. I make some suggestions to change it here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Suggestions-for-the-axe/first#post911572 The damage on the Axe doesn’t exactly need a buff it’s mainly that the no.1 feels so weak due to it being 2 small hits making the damage seem low…. That suggestion gives it a 2 small weak hits – medium hit – hard hit feeling without actually breaking the class and giving it a more sustained damage feeling…. The range also helps it out in most situations…. Comment there if possible as it sounds more viable then a flat out damage buff.
The necromancer isn’t really built for burst but at the moment the numbers feel low even for sustained damage. Currently the no.1 on the axe without power is 236 damage over 2 small hits and gives 2 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds at 600 range. The main issues I have with this is the animation feels really lazy and there’s no chain attack to a buildup of a slightly larger hit, the topper is the range feels to short to use in most situations. My solution to this would be to add a chain attack with different animations and a 3rd hit that does 10% more damage then the first 2…. Here’s my suggestion.
Rending Claws – 2 hits for 236 total + 2 stacks of vulnerability 5 seconds 3/4 second attack
Agonizing Claws – 1 hit for 236 + 1 stack of vulnerability 5 seconds same damage in 1 hit so that it feels larger but is not 3/4 second attack
Reap Impurities – 1 hit for 260 + small life siphon basesd on each condition on the target… Allow the +50% siphon to affect it… You could have it do 25 siphon per condition so the trait would make it 37 per… 1 second attack 1/4 longer due to the damage boost
The power scaling on all 3 hits would be the same so that the numbers could easily be changed if to high. This would allow power/crit axe builds to feel better because the damage per auto would feel as if it was scaling good when in fact it’s only +10% damage on the 3rd hit with a small flat life steal tacked on.
My second suggestion would be to give the axe another 100-150 range to allow it to attack targets at a slightly longer range and let it be useful in places like wvw and some dungeons no.3 would not be affected like this 600 range is fine there…. It wouldn’t be quiet as long range as a scepter which is 900 but it would allow the axe to be usable while defending walls and mid range fights… I’m also thinking of this for pve on bosses like giganticus lupicus which you need more range to fight to best effect…. The range boost would also help dagger users who generally build for a more power oriented build by giving them some range on fights like that.
TL;DR
Add a chain attack to the axe no.1 with a small damage boost every 3rd hit and give the axe 100-150 more range so that it’s a little more viable in ranged only situations. if you read this please go back and read the whole thing if you would I would like to get opinions on these changes
(edited by Dakiaris.2798)
Yes you can epidemic the immobal from the dagger but as Nurt said it cuts the duration down a little because it doesn’t reset the duration it just spreads the current duration onto the enemies.
The necromancer isn’t really built for burst but at the moment the numbers feel low even for sustained damage. Currently the no.1 on the axe without power is 236 damage over 2 small hits and gives 2 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds at 600 range. The main issues I have with this is the animation feels really lazy and there’s no chain attack to a buildup of a slightly larger hit, the topper is the range feels to short to use in most situations. My solution to this would be to add a chain attack with different animations and a 3rd hit that does 10% more damage then the first 2…. Here’s my suggestion.
Rending Claws – 2 hits for 236 total + 2 stacks of vulnerability 5 seconds 3/4 second attack
Agonizing Claws – 1 hit for 236 + 1 stack of vulnerability 5 seconds same damage in 1 hit so that it feels larger but is not 1/2 second attack
Reap Impurities – 1 hit for 260 + small life siphon basesd on each condition on the target… Allow the +50% siphon to affect it… You could have it do 25 siphon per condition so the trait would make it 37 per… 1 second attack 1/4 longer due to the damage boost
The power scaling on all 3 hits would be the same so that the numbers could easily be changed if to high. This would allow power/crit axe builds to feel better because the damage per auto would feel as if it was scaling good when in fact it’s only +10% damage on the 3rd hit with a small flat life steal tacked on.
My second suggestion would be to give the axe another 100-150 range to allow it to attack targets at a slightly longer range and let it be useful in places like wvw and some dungeons no.3 would not be affected like this 600 range is fine there…. It wouldn’t be quiet as long range as a scepter which is 900 but it would allow the axe to be usable while defending walls and mid range fights… I’m also thinking of this for pve on bosses like giganticus lupicus which you need more range to fight to best effect…. The range boost would also help dagger users who generally build for a more power oriented build by giving them some range on fights like that.
TL;DR
Add a chain attack to the axe no.1 with a small damage boost every 3rd hit and give the axe 100-150 more range so that it’s a little more viable in ranged only situations. if you read this please go back and read the whole thing if you would I would like to get opinions on these changes
(edited by Dakiaris.2798)
Honestly they should change it so the Axe isn’t a minion master weapon…. I love the aesthetic of axe on a necromancer and would love to actually be effective fighting with it without relying on minions…. I use wells and corruptions… Even some Supportive utilities like well of power when I use the axe….. It just sucks that I’m more support and my damage means nothing because it’s so low.
Really if you think about my suggestions the axe no.1 followed by a medium and stronger attack + a trait to extend the range to 900 the weapon would work very well for power focused necromancers and would also allow the use of other skills besides buggy ai minions.
edit
A suggested chain I could say is like this for the no.1
Ghastly claws as it is – Necrosis gw1 skill moderate direct damage – Shadow strike gw1 skill nuke damage… Higher damage if the enemy is higher health could be changed to higher the lower they get
The trait gives a 10% damage boost not 15% and really I only noticed it add roughly 40 damage to my auto attack crits and around 200-300damage to my no.2 which isn’t that drastic for a grand master. The no.3 should deal more damage based on the targets health I think also… Like a weaker aoe heart seeker.
(edited by Dakiaris.2798)
Honestly I prefer Bag of crushed dreams
All I want for winters day this year is
1. A long ranged direct damaged oriented Necromancer weapon.
2. More bug fixes.
3. More bug fixes.
4. More bug fixes.
5. Rebalance some of the weapons on some of the classes axe necromancer
And that is all!!
I don’t know if this has been reported but when you’re hit hard enough to instantly be downed from death shroud you are downed with much much lower health then if you were downed without touching death shroud at all…
I’ve tested this multiple times and every single time I can only take 1-2 hits before being completely killed vs the 5-10 like normal and this is with 0 downed penalty so it’s the full amount you can have when downed.
From what I can tell death shroud has it’s own weapon power so the staff has nothing to do with it…. It only gets the benefits of the stats on the weapon. If that’s not the case then it’s odd that I deal the same damage with the axe as the staff when in DS.
The damage of the axe being so low is because it’s a semi ranged weapon and it applies vulnerability though the great sword on the warrior deals 3-5x the damage and applies a longer vulnerability….
Honestly I love my axe on my necromancer the only thing I wish they would do is give us a chain attack on the no.1 that does a light/medium/heavy damage combo like with most other weapons…. I would also like a trait to extend the range to 900 because at 600 range you’re at HUGE risk on any boss fights in pve and in wvw you get decimated if you’re even within 900 range in most cases…. Even in Spvp I find the Axe to be lackluster due to the short range and low damage that it does…. With minions you would think it would work well but the minion ai doesn’t work well enough in general to rely on that…. As it stands I usually just pop focus no.4 and bip and use my no.2 then go death shroud to shoot a few times with the stacking might…. I just hate how death shroud is 90% of the damage in my current build even though I’m specced to focus on AXE not ds.
As it stands the axe is supposed to be our ranged direct damage option but it falls flat in that regard…. I still use it but that’s because I want them to see the numbers and change it some day… I’ll hold out till that day comes.
edit
I just started messing with the scepter without redoing my spec or even getting same stats on the weapon…. I noticed I’m doing roughly 3x the axe damage on the auto at roughly the same speed… The dots from the poison and bleeding up it further and the no.3 hits for the same as the no.2 for the axe on most situations…… This seriously needs to be looked at.
(edited by Dakiaris.2798)