Axe vs Sword

I have been trying different combinations each BPE with my Warrior. I have now tried Hammer, Sword and Axe.

But what I really want to discuss is Axe vs Sword. Both attack at the same speeds so can make good use of stacking benefits, so lets discuss which is better.

Last BPE, for the first time, I tried the Axe. Here is a quick review of my findings, I purchased a max damage axe (6-28 I think it was) from Lion's Arch from a guy that had 6 of them all max damage with different effects. I also didn't have alot of problems finding a +1 on hit -1 energy axe grip to apply. But I was a little disappointed with the results. I tried a number of skills with the axe and found that they had radically different effects. Whilst sometimes, the hit was excellent, the damage variance from an axe really took alot of the consistency out of making this a good weapon choice IMHO.

Penetrating Blow. Knowing the effects of armour penetration, I had really high hopes with this skill. Unfortunately, due to the very large damage variance out of using axe, the 50% pen was oftentimes wasted.

Executioner's Strike. I found this to be a good skill since it delivered high bonus damage each time it was used and didn't rely on Axe's variance for good damage as Penetrating Blow does.

Axe Twist, Axe Rake and Dismember were all staple skills and very good for delivering conditions (which the axe does well).

In summary, I really like the conditions, speed and the ease of getting a good axe. however I found the damage a little too unpredictable at times. I would prefer to do consistent damage that I can rely on, rather than hitting for 36, then hitting for 8 the very next attack.

Sword.
Well Everyone seems to use one these days ... and the skills have all been very well publicised and analysed. So I will keep it breif.

There is something to say about low damage variance, you know what you are going to do and you can rely on it. Conditions are considerably harder to inflict than those on the axe, however there is a very large sword skill pool to choose from. Skills like Final Thrust, Galrath Slash etc.. are staple to sword wielder and with good reason. Finding a good sword is very hard to do, and the prices are greatly inflated.

I really think the sword is a much better option than an axe in its current form.

I really think the Devs need to look at the axe and narrow the damage variance a little to make the axe more of a valid choice in comparison with the sword. 50% damage penetration has the potential to be an excellent skill, but doesn't help alot if you hit for minimum damage.

in my personal opinion i like the sword better, but in reality i think it depends on the build u r running at the moment. I mean with axe there are a lot of skills to make it effective, where sword i find that u only need 3 skills (sever artery, gash, final thrust) and uve got a good combo there. this lets u run off into other attributes for extra damage defense, etc. like with a sword a shield is always useful. so go tactics, and there u go u hve room for healing signet, and a good skill u can only use with swords(riposte), u block the next attack and your attacker takes 1-32 damage, only 4 adren. then u can branch off into your other proffesion and take skills from there. Where with axe the way u want to go u hve 5 skills listed, and if u dont go with penetrating u hve four. Good with conditions i agree with your 3 other attacks. u can then go elite for cleave, extra 1-16 damaage, only 2 adren. then the rest can go into your other proffesion. plus if u want u need some tactics and get some good health with healign signet that way. then u hve 2 skills left for a secondary proffesion, which way will u go then. although i think when going warrior/ranger with the axe u can put like some into beast mastery for a pet and then have one skill, comfort animal for pve prob and then in pvp u can use one that effects your pets damage output, defense, or theone where your pet gains health with every blow. well theres my opinions...

I'd still like to see one handed and two handed variants of ALL the Warriors weapons, personally. I've never understood why the Axe has such a spread with it's damage... I can't logically explain why this would be so, unless it's just make it unique to that weapon.

But yeah, a two handed axe, and 2 handed sword, and a one handed hammer would be nice... if just to add variety. I dunno, maybe it's balance issues or something... not really a big deal, it just would be nice.

Until cleave gets fixed (if it ever gets fixed) I don't see much reason in taking swords over axes.

I always choose axes over swords for one simple reason:

Disrupting Chop.

The sword is nice, what with all that reliable damage and their high-powered skills like Final Thrust and Galrath Slash, but once you witness a bunch of warriors lose to a heal-spamming monk because none of the warriors have any disrupting skills. That low adren requiring, high cooldown inducing skill looks better and better.

i agree i think they should have variances of the weapons

like a 1 handed and 2 handed sword and then 1 and 2 handed axes. Although i think the 1 haned hammer would look kind of weird, instead of that i guess a one handed type hammer could maybe be like a mace weapon. maces are kind of like hammers, so that would prob work. this would give everyone more options and would be cool.

Er, what exactly do you mean? Cleave sucks right now, it's in no way a reason to take axes over swords.

He means cleave sucks, so axes are better than swords. If cleave were to be fixed ie; made stronger then maybe swords would be better than axes.

Cleave needs a slight adjustment in the amount of damage it does (more), or a set state of armor penetration. Right now, there are ways to abuse cleave and get it to be used every other swing of yours, which already makes it a far better choice than executioners axe, but that is my opinion of the skill. It does need something more to make it elite other wise it is a gimped power attack that uses adrenaline instead.

Basically, if Cleave is good, Axes are good. If Cleave sucks (which it does, hard. 4 adrenaline makes it worse than most other Axe skills), then Axes are worse than swords.

In the abstract, the two weapons are virtually identical in terms of damage per time and swing speed. It really comes down to which skill line you like better, and if you'd rather have variance or predictability in your DPS.

Peace,
-CxE

Didn't cleave used to be 2 adrenaline? When was that changed? (Yeah, I've been busy).

The main problem I find with the axe is when you start using timed skills etc... that use armour penetration. When you use other skills in conjuction with an attack, then you expect it to be nice. The damage variance with axe can mean that you are using multiple skills to little effect, or "wasting" them. Swords don't have the same drawback.

Cleave was changed about a month ago - the change was a 'leak', so it wasn't widely talked about, but it got nerfed, hard. It's pretty much unusable now.

Regarding skills with axes - for every time you get a low roll and you end up doing very little, you'll get a high damage hit and more than make up for it. The average is still the same - just the variance changes. You'll remember the time you hit for 6 3 times in a row, but don't forget the times when you land 3 straight criticals and absolutely rock someone with it. Over time, it all balances out.

Peace,
-CxE

I’ve been thinking about making an axe warrior lately. Disrupting Chop looks very nice. Use Skull crack for elite spot, won't have the dilemma about whether to use Final thrust or not once Skull crack finally filled up.

So far all good.

The problem is of course damage, yes in the long run the avg. dps is solid, but in a 30 sec battle one could be really unlucky. What about exec strike, is it really worth a spot then? And damage buffs is an even bigger question mark.

A buff like Berserker Stance looks really interesting though, the two energy skills in the axe line aren't looking too hot, you need something to do while adrenaline charges, so let it charge faster. And axes could possibly be the melee weapon that benefits the most from increased attack speed, by getting more of those precious critical hits in a given timeframe.

Beserker Stance is nice, but I'm a little put off by the 'end once you use skill' aspect of it.

While I have never used it, Battle Rage seems to be the epitome of all things Warriors want, speed boosts and adren-spamming.

Make that Exec Strike go for every 4 strikes instead, so you effectively do the same dps as the Cleave elite, except now you are far more versatile due to the additional benefits of Battle Rage, and less damage delivered in small chunks means less of it is absorbed by AL.

Edit: silly me, you actually do TWICE as much damage with Exec + Rage than Cleave.

[COLOR=DarkSlateGray]although once battle rage ends, dont u lose all your adren., isnt that kind of a drawback, what are u dong when all your adren runs out and u hve to wait for battle rage to recharge, i guess u would hve to just let it charge by its self...[/COLOR]

To my knowledge, Battle Rage only requires 4 strikes of adren to activate - meaning you can just activate Battle Rage again to overlap it, thus never facing the adren penalty (unless of course, it turns out that Battle Rage 'blacks out' while it's activated, in which case you will suffer the penalty).

ok the best axes are 6-28 from memory ... what are the stats on the best swords?

best sword is 15-22 or 16-22.

anyway, axe vs sword, i usually go axe mainly for its interuptions, damage is secondary. if i ever wanted to do both damage and interupt, ide go hammer - which i do.

basicly

sword for quick damage
axe for interuptions

Or one can be lucky and end it in 20 seconds. You're not going to go too far in this game if you aren't willing to play the percentages.


Yep, you can do that. It's a bit tricky to get the timing down, but if you do the drawback isn't that severe - you use it right after your big adrenal skills, costing you one strike of adrenaline on your other skills in the process, usually.


15-22.

Swords are 15-22, Axes 6-28, Hammers 19-35, Bows 16-28, Wands/Staves 12-22.

Peace,
-CxE