A Question to my Fellow Warrior Primaries...

My first ascended character is a warrior primary. I understand that hammer builds are usefull in PvP. However, that is not my goal here. I still have a bit to play as I'm just outside of Droknar's in the ice cave town. I haven't done the mission yet.

My question is this: In PvE in the latter stages of the game, which weapon type do you prefer, and also find most effective?

I currently use a sword, but was considering an ax. I don't want Hammers for PvE because there is no shield. In essence I want "real GW world" talk on which is best, and why.

Also, I can't seem to find the boss who has "charge." I know it's outside of Droknars.

Thanks!

Hi, I suggest axe or sword, learn the skills and pick which suits u best. I can take u to the "charge" boss =) Hit me up ingame.

if you want to be a disrupter, you'd primary want to be a hammer warrior. personally, i like a sword or axe for the reason that you already stated in which you can have a shield.

Thanks for the posts. I do not want to be a disrupter build. I want to draw enemy(mob) attention and take the fight to them in a "hurtful" way so my casters can be free to do their thing. Thus a hammer is not my weapon of choice for the quests, missions, etc.... I want to deal heavy damage, and be a meat shield.... lol So it's either ax or sword. I just want opinions on which you all like best and why!

**edit** I am currently a W/Mo(was a W/E), but have access to all the towns that I can change my secondary build to suit whatever works best.

Sword or Axe



Elite Skills



Now, if we could only make a rule that people use the search function.


Ohh and your cute little title, helps no one try to use the search. If I want information about Sword or Axe and I do a tittle search I will not get your thread.

But great work making a well thought out long lasting thread.

I was asking on YOUR own experiences. I have seen the stats many times. What would you like to tell me about which one you prefer, personally? That's what I'm after here.

Dark,

I am an endgame W/Mo and have found that of the skills I like the sword/str/tactics line the best.

Strength allows you sprint and armor penetration while tactics allows stances (gladiators anyone?) which are important to accomplish what you want. The sword line has bleeding which IMO is very nasty. Combine that with the power of Final Thrust and I think the sword line is better stand alone than the axe.

Now if you have others that can bleed the enemy, then axe is really awesome, but stand alone I don't think axe is nearly as powerful as sword.

As far as pulling aggro, the only way I have been able to do that effectively is to be way ahead of my party, and let all the baddies mob onto me before the squishy classes close in. This is where Gladiators Defense comes in handy.

Anyway, to sum it up Sword= Bleeding+Final Thrust, both of which are very important in a stand alone Warrior, IMO.

Good Luck

if your conserned about heavy damage then Axe is what I hear is the best cyclone axe alone will put out more damage than a sword just for the fact you are hitin more than one target..

I go with a sword for pure strike - mob cant evade or block if you arent in a stance.. final thrust great damage sticky to use. Those are my only skills up that do damage.. My skill bar is as follows Berserkers Stance-Pure Strike-Final Thrust-Sprint-Watch Yourself-Plague Touch-Shield Stance-Res Sig with 12in Str-Swd-Tactics..

on second thought if you are enjoying your self and accomplishing things then why worry.. IMO make your own unusual build one you can post here and people will laugh and poke fun at you but you alone know it is a succesful build because you alone have made it and mastered it...

I'm still trying to find my niche with the sword. I usually have sever artery, gash, Gal---(sp?) gash, frenzy, for great justice, sprint, rez, and while I was an elementalist secondary, I used whirlwind as well for it's knockdown.

My armor is mixed. I have a platemail helm, gladiator bracers and "pants", and the rest is knights(All 1.5K). Thus I have 23 energy to work with.

*edit* I have my attributes in sword(currently), tactics and strength. The leftover points are currently in my monk healing in case I bring mending. I much prefer the healing sig since right now it heals 100 and doesn't use energy.

LOL what a loser

I've tried the sword, axe and hammer, and I've settled on the axe.

The hammer is good for disrupting and knocking down the enemy, but its a bit too slow for my style of play. The sword is best so long as you go against bleeding foes. You can make a viable non-bleeding build but it'll be eng intensive, rather than adr.

I prefer the axe because it's quicker than the sword and doesn't depend on bleeding for adrenal skills. You can also disrupt and cripple with it if needed, and you have penetrating blow which has +20% armor penetration for a measly 5 adr.

My Wa/Mo smiting build (str/axe/smite/healing):

Res/judge's insight/penetrating blow/executioner's strike/banish/smite/healingbreeze/balthazar's spirit

With four attack skills, 2 adr & 2 eng, you get to basicaly use them continuosly when you have Balthazar's spirit going, and you get +20% armor penetration & holy damage on very attack if you keep Judge's insight going. It's been working good for me so far.

lol my armor is mixed as well.. Knights chest legs n helm with wyvern arms n legs.. for my ShadowKnight look.. 8P..

I may be a minority on this one but I dont use sever artiry did in the begining but stopped once i started encountering mobs that would and would not bleed in same maps and missions bam 1-2or3 spell/skills wasted...

keep watch your self up its more for your teamates than you.. and find shield stance great since your keeping your shield.. oh and get berzerkers stance or what not instead of frenzy its in a town near draknors.. I like it alot better than frenzy (just got it last week)..

Excellent! I will try something like this with the ax, as well as play around with the sword builds others gave and see what I like.

I take it that bleeding, like against the undead in Kryta, will be ineffective in the ring of fire area. It this mainly correct?

If your second class is Ranger, you could use Cyclone Axe teamed up with Apply Poison and damn does that take care of your enemies quick.

Hm... Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather not bring in strength/tactic issues into a debate over weapons. Swords have their purpose of dealing average stable damage, axes are known for their fluxuating but potentially strong DP's. I have played all three weapons significantly and I'd still go with axe. To me, swords require too many things in order to really have their things excel. I see no point in mentioning power attack seeing as how both a axe and sword warrior can use it, so it all comes down to the Axe/Sword skills.

In just a normal swinging manner, a sword usually beats an axe, but the axe can sometimes beat the sword.. However, your focus should be on the skills, not neccesarily on the swing attack themselves.

Galrath slash is about equal to Executioners axe although executioners does slightly more.

Savage Slash is an interrupt that costs mana and has a damage factor along with the attack. Disrupting chop is also an interrupt but it costs adreniline and can disable a skill the opponent is using for 20 seconds.

Seeking blade is pretty much same as Swifting Chop, nothing real popular on either side.

However, despite the similarities, there are countless differences that can mean an effective warrior or a work-in-progress.

Since warriors only have 2 regen pip, they cannot rely on spamming energy skills because that isn't an option. Therefore, they are granted the use of adreniline. Both energy and adreniline combos can be equally counterable, so you just have to look for the easiest one to use, which I often find is adreniline.

Final thrust is the ONLY unique adreniline sword attack skill. It allows up to a +64 (12 swords) damage every 10 hits. It's quite amazing, unfortunately, it also requires your opponent to be below 50 health to really make it shine past axe skills, top that off with a "Lose all adreniline" factor and it's potential has become rather limited.

Gash is only capable of adding 9 damage (12 swords) at a cost of 7 adreniline, the real usage of gash is the fact it can add deep wound to an opponent. Unfortunately, it's damage capabillities make it somewhat useless past that.

On the other hand, axes have been granted much more adreniline attack skills. The skill axe twist is reusable for another 16 damage (12 axes) for only one more adreniline. Penetrating Blow is capable of +17 damage with 20% armor penetrating for 2 less adreniline than gash. Even considering final thrust's BEST case scenario (The opponents hp is below 50% and you pretend that you keep your adreniline), Final thrust will deal +64 while penetrating blow will do +51.53 (Defender has 60 armor).
Now lets compare cleave to final thrust. At 4 adreniline per usage, cleave will be used 2.5x until final thrust can be used, 2.5 x 22 = +55 damage compared to +64. (Still considering opponent HP<50% and no adreniline loss)

When I decided to stop worshiping swords, I found out that axes are actually the stabler ones skill-wise. IMO, skills are much more important than basic swings.

I love using axes. First off, let me say that despite the general consensus that swords have a higher dmg over time due to their high minimum damage, according to the calculator on gurus, axes at higher mastery levels get a higher dps due to critical hits (if you have a high axe mastery that is). With that off my chest, let me say that I used swords at first, but have switched to axes and have never gone back. For PVE, cyclone axe is better than hundred blades imo, and deathlord has said, axes skills are more easily spammable than the sword's.

I still don't see why people use adrenaline skills for swordsmen. Take my advice. Warriors Endurance and ALL energy based skills for sword, saving one slot for Final Thrust. It won't matter then that you lose all adrenaline, since it is the only adrenline skill you will have. Pure Strike still deals extra damage, Power Attack, Savage Slash, Seeking Blade. That's 5 attack skills plus WE which leaves you two slots to do something else. You can basically spam all these attack skills for 20 seconds out of 30. Armor Penetration and Criticals come on skill use, so if you're swinging your sword with a skill every time, your chances for large damage increase.