Swords vs. Axes

For a long time, every warrior in sight was using a Fiery Dragon Sword, or a Fellblade, why is everyone suddenly switching to axes? Did they suddenly nerf Swords or overpower axes?

dude axes suck I see no reason everyone should do that swords rule.Its coz axes r stronger and so people trade their speed for power

The sword to axe change came with experience. The axe looks like a worse choice at first glance because some times you can beat the odds and continually hit the low end damage. But factoring in the crits the DPS of the axe is higher then the sword. Also the axe can give more condtions. I am not bias in this I think they both suck I like KD/aftershock warriors.

People do not trade speed for power they both attack at the same rate.

The two weapons are equal, and there is nothing more to it. Many caulations were done based on damage, and they came out nearly equal. Personally, I just like a high min. low max so swords suits me just fine.

IMO, axes are better. axes have more skills and more options and for an example cyclone axe>hundred blades.

and swords look cooler than axes

Axes have one more skill that causes a condition than a sword, so thats not a good reason. And cyclone axe vs hundred blades isn't even a comparison.. Hundred blades strikes ~twice~ against all foes adjacent, cyclone axe hits once for 4-10 more damage. Also, swords and axes are nearly equal.. I personally like swords more, since it fits with my style more I suppose.

Go axe if you want to cause lots of deep wounds.

Go sword if you want to make things bleed.

Axe has a FAR and beyond higher damage potential than sword does. It does have a different condition possible (weakness--superior to sword's bleeding, many way), and all of these things that axes do are powered by adrenaline while swords require energy, which warriors don't tend to have a lot of.


With that said, I use swords.

Why? Axes need to have hits to activate their cripple, which is annoying in PvP. Hamstring requires energy. Axe rake requires seven hits + dismember already hit.

But beyond that, applying it more broadly, axes generally cannot do things "at will". In other words, not only sword damage, but sword skills are more controllable. In other words, you'll be able to immediately savage slash to interrupt that spellcaster instead of waiting for disrupting chop to charge (granted, doesn't take that much, but still adding an extra variable in that you have to charge it first).


Axes are very good, and I personally think so as well. However, I think the main reason is that a lot of people are suddenly realizing that axes do more damage with their critical hits and are jumping on the bandwagon for axe, just as they did for sword before.

So, axes have their merits, as do swords, as do hammers, though most of these switchers choose mostly to be part of the crowd. You decide for yourself what you like best.


Edit: To above poster: Actually, sever + gash does both bleeding and deep wounds when used together. Axe just has the extra weakness from axe twist. Sever/Gash isn't that much harder to inflict thatn dismember in any case.

Just to add, I personally am also a fan of final thrust, as it does the finisher role very well in most cases.

Hundred blades strikes twice at opponents in a small area in front of you. Cyclone strikes once at every enemy around you. And cyclone has a higher refresh rate.

Hundred blades is good for attacking single opponents. Cyclone is much better for groups.

Let's all jump on .... Hammer!

I have two almost identical characters, except one use sword, the other one use axe. Somehow I like my axe-wielding little gal more the sword one. For some reason, I think some long sword is too large for a girl to run around with.

Wish they implement... scissors

All the weapons but hammers are huge on females... Hammers just dont look as big as the y should compared to the others

I think the two weapons are used for different situations. I like axe for just pure dmg, b/c it has more adrenaline skills then swords and can apply more conditions to your foes. Also, the overall dmg of an axe is higher in a given time frame, and if you got lucky you can deal a lot more dmg using axe than swords.
I like swords when you want to be a meat shield to try to suck up all the dmg and try to survive. Sword is the only weapon that can block attacks and deal dmg at the same time (Ripose and Deadly Ripose).
For me I chose axe over sword at this point b/c:
1. I farm alone, I have to deal enough dmg by myself.
2. Most axe skills require adrenaline, most sword skills require energy, and I don't have alot of energy, especially w/ an enchantment on me
3. Pretty much all the conditions a sword can apply starts w/ bleeding and some things dont bleed, such as the undead and enchanted sword, hammer, etc. And axe conditions start w/ deep wound which can be applied to everything.
BTW, if you really want to deal dmg big time as a warrior, use a hammer.

I've been an axe user the whole game because I liked axes' skills better, but perhaps the calculator on this site had something to do with it. According to it, an ideal axe (35%dmg+) will deal 21.85dmg per second (rounded to 22) or 32.6 dmg per second (rounded to 33) with frenzy (when axe attribute is up to 16). An ideal sword (35%dmg+) will deal 21.34dmg per second (rounded to 21) or 31.85dmg per second (rounded to 32) with frenzy. Most sword users who've used axes before (that i know of) chose swords over axes only because they thought swords had a higher dps despite liking axe skills better. Now that they realize at higher mastery skills, axes have both better skills and dps, mabey they are switching.

Hammers suck, people know about KD, and will solve it pretty quickly, so Hammers is out of game, now its swords and axe. Well easy, people can get others to half health but cannot finish them because so many healers, with sword it'd be easy, keep making them bleed so they keep using that attuntment, keep doing that they be out of energy. 6 - 28 v 15 - 22, in the end the sword is better because you might have unlucky time and keep hitting with 6, your not allways going to hit with 28. But sword is more on safe side, + it looks the best. Now if there was a fiery dragon axe maybe I'd be on the axe side.

Well stated.

Actually, Hundred blades often strike more foes than Cyclone axe. Cyclone axe strikes all foes adjacent to you, for a tiny bit of extra damage, whereas Hundred Blades Strike your opponent twice, then all opponents adjacent to your target twice. considering my sword damage, I would be dealing about 130 dmg in splash range. It's almost like a short range Fireball. ***EDIT*** FURTHERMORE, it's a lot easier to hit a larger number of targets with Hundred Blades, considering with Cyclone, it requires a lot of enemies to be surrounding you, whereas Hundred Blades strikes in a splash damag formation, you could run up to a clump of casters (Sages, hunters, chaots, etc.) and hit all of them for a high amount of damage.

Axes work better for builds with low energy that concentrate on adrenal skills, especially Warrior/Monk smite builds using Balthazars Spirit and For Great Justice to charge their skills quicker. Axes also have an armour penetrating attack skill, which is useful against the Warrior/Monk builds where you need to get some damage into them in a hurry. The weakness to this type of build is a Mesmer spell such as Soothing Images, which totally screws you up because you don't gain any adrenaline while affected by it. The two axe skills requiring energy also recharge faster than the sword energy-based skills.

Swords work better for builds with a bit more energy, as more of their skills are energy based. This makes them less vulnerable to the Soothing Images spell, but more vulnerable to energy-stealing spells.

Both weapons attack at the same rate. Only hammers attack slower.