Skills - Swift Chop

Guild Wars Guru

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

You can view this database entry at: http://www.guildwarsguru.com/skill/121-swift-chop.
You may add your comments in this thread.

Quintus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2005

"Securing the Vale" quest from Van the Warrior in Yak's Bend or bought from Firstwatch Sergio in Lion's Arch.

gou

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2005

globally warmed england

the discarnate

currently broken, does do listed damage on block but not as extra to original damage (which IS blocked) and does not give deep wound either

Agild Greenfinger

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

IMO wild blow is better alternative to this skill...

swift chop requires the opponent to block the attack to be of any real danger...which imo is too conditional and a bad one at that...I guess in pvp with aegis around it's properly a bit more useful. although it does says that it can't be evaded hitting someone with a stance or enchantment that increases the chance to evade you will only hit for an extra 16 damage at full axe attribute.

depending on what you want there are other axe skills that will do what swift chop do just less conditional....disember for deepwound and executioners strike will hit for +10-32 dam. or you can use the elite eviscerate(sp?) to combine these two skills into one

now for the same amount of energy and 1 second more recharge wild blow will result in a critical hit and end any stance the foe was using, meaning that the rest of your team will now be able to deal damage to your foe...and most likely that will result in more damage than your +32 dam with full axe attribute. ontop of that wild blow is an unlinked attribute, meaning that it will work to it's fullest potential regardless of how you've spend your attribute points.

swift chop will excel with enchancements that blocks though...but I can only think of three such; Magnetic aura, swirling aura and Aegis.

Man With No Name

Man With No Name

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Manchester, UK

W/

Wild Blow is more of an Arena skill...

You'll meet lots of stances in the Team Arena's -- things like: Distortion, Whirling, Escape, Gladiators, Bonetti's and so on...

As it's likely the Warrior will be the main damage dealer and since you might be playing with complete strangers -- sometimes you can't just switch target and spike as a team in a co-ordinated fashion.

You need to kill a specific person and doing a one off hit with Swift won't work -- whilst ending their stance with Wild Blow and continuing to hit will.


As for Swift Chop...

GvG is a different game -- with a team of eight people you can spike with a lot more firepower and break the general killing order.

It's there ( in GvG ) that Swift Chop is a better choice. A simple stance doesn't really pose a problem, we can switch targets and spike someone else. No loss of adrenaline and the +21 damage ( even more when you critical ), make it a better choice than Wild Blow.

We're not really concerned with slowly killing people through Enchantments -- we want to remove them and hit them quickly with a large burst of damage.

Swift Chop is usually a better choice than Penetrating Blow too -- since your Armour Penetration ( from Strength ) will stack with common buffs like Judges Insight whilst PB is fixed at 20%.

Agild Greenfinger

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man With No Name
Wild Blow is more of an Arena skill...

You'll meet lots of stances in the Team Arena's -- things like: Distortion, Whirling, Escape, Gladiators, Bonetti's and so on...

As it's likely the Warrior will be the main damage dealer and since you might be playing with complete strangers -- sometimes you can't just switch target and spike as a team in a co-ordinated fashion.

You need to kill a specific person and doing a one off hit with Swift won't work -- whilst ending their stance with Wild Blow and continuing to hit will.


As for Swift Chop...

GvG is a different game -- with a team of eight people you can spike with a lot more firepower and break the general killing order.

It's there ( in GvG ) that Swift Chop is a better choice. A simple stance doesn't really pose a problem, we can switch targets and spike someone else. No loss of adrenaline and the +21 damage ( even more when you critical ), make it a better choice than Wild Blow.

We're not really concerned with slowly killing people through Enchantments -- we want to remove them and hit them quickly with a large burst of damage.

Swift Chop is usually a better choice than Penetrating Blow too -- since your Armour Penetration ( from Strength ) will stack with common buffs like Judges Insight whilst PB is fixed at 20%. actually going by your reasoning swift chop is just a wasted skill slot alltogether in GvG.

if you can simply change spike target, then you have no use for swift chop...rather than using swift chop, simply change target and use that skill for somethign that doesn't require the opponent to block and something that deals more damage by itself...such as executioners strike.

also according to guildwars skill database...swift chop only deals +16(at max axe attribute) if it's not blocked, not +21.

entropy

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

N/W

you mean 16 at 12 axe mastery or at 16 axe mastery because that is max attribute cause im don't think its +16 correct me if I'm mistaken. Swift chop is the better choice. Penetrating you only get +10% armor penetrating which is pretty crappy since it doesn't stack with strength. Wasn't it that wild blow made you lose all adrenaline and if i'm correct wild blow Sucks just plain sucks ass. This is still a great skill because it isn't adrenaline related so therfore you can use it when you need it and its not adrenaline dependent. The fact is the more lower cost adrenaline skills you have the more adrenaline you lose or you weaken the higher cost ones more. just like how cleave sucks . Because of that you can't spike as often or you just waste adrenaline. Without blocking its better anyway so is there something I am not getting?

Man With No Name

Man With No Name

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

Manchester, UK

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Agild Greenfinger
actually going by your reasoning swift chop is just a wasted skill slot alltogether in GvG.

if you can simply change spike target, then you have no use for swift chop...rather than using swift chop, simply change target and use that skill for somethign that doesn't require the opponent to block and something that deals more damage by itself...such as executioners strike.

also according to guildwars skill database...swift chop only deals +16 (at max axe attribute) if it's not blocked, not +21.
My reasoning...??

My reasoning is that hitting an opponent once every 4 seconds by Swift Chopping them alone won't kill them -- just as hitting them every 5 seconds with Wild Blow won't. We need to hit with our adrenaline based attacks. But that's not to say we shouldn't carry a skill to deal with Evades and Blocks -- if only to help build up adrenaline for the spike -- and this is what Wild Blow doesn't do.

The fact it's energy based is a blessing.
The fact it can't be evaded or blocked like Penetrating is a blessing.
The fact it helps build adrenaline against blocks and evades, unlike Wild Blow is a blessing.
The fact it's recharge is short, unlike Warriors Cunning is a blessing.
And "Deep Wounding" everyone who's blocking is a nice side benefit -- if only to make more work for their Monks.

It does do +21 damage @ 16 Axe Mastery. A wasted skill slot......far from it.


And why would I carry Swift Chop instead of Executioners..?? I'd carry both. A typical Axe user will have:

Sprint, Frenzy, Eviscerate, Exe Strike, Swift Chop, Utility Skill, Secondary Skill, Rez Sig.


To summarise it:

If I wanted to kill a specific person who uses multiple long lasting Stances -- I'd bring Wild Blow

If I wanted to kill a specific person in a Ward, enchanted by Guardian etc -- I'd bring Warriors Cunning

If I wanted to build up adrenaline through evades and blocks, achieve the most spike damage possible against a target that will be debuffed, whilst not being completely powerless against Stances, Wards or Enchantments -- I'd bring Swift Chop

Agild Greenfinger

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Man With No Name
My reasoning...??

My reasoning is that hitting an opponent once every 4 seconds by Swift Chopping them alone won't kill them -- just as hitting them every 5 seconds with Wild Blow won't. We need to hit with our adrenaline based attacks. But that's not to say we shouldn't carry a skill to deal with Evades and Blocks -- if only to help build up adrenaline for the spike -- and this is what Wild Blow doesn't do.

The fact it's energy based is a blessing.
The fact it can't be evaded or blocked like Penetrating is a blessing.
The fact it helps build adrenaline against blocks and evades, unlike Wild Blow is a blessing.
The fact it's recharge is short, unlike Warriors Cunning is a blessing.
And "Deep Wounding" everyone who's blocking is a nice side benefit -- if only to make more work for their Monks.

It does do +21 damage @ 16 Axe Mastery. A wasted skill slot......far from it.


And why would I carry Swift Chop instead of Executioners..?? I'd carry both. A typical Axe user will have:

Sprint, Frenzy, Eviscerate, Exe Strike, Swift Chop, Utility Skill, Secondary Skill, Rez Sig.


To summarise it:

If I wanted to kill a specific person who uses multiple long lasting Stances -- I'd bring Wild Blow

If I wanted to kill a specific person in a Ward, enchanted by Guardian etc -- I'd bring Warriors Cunning

If I wanted to build up adrenaline through evades and blocks, achieve the most spike damage possible against a target that will be debuffed, whilst not being completely powerless against Stances, Wards or Enchantments -- I'd bring Swift Chop what I meant is that you said wild blow wasn't of much use in GvG since if you encountered someone in a stance you could simply change target...this exact reasoning goes for swift chop aswell. instead of spending time and a skill slot building up adrenalin thru blocks/evades simply change target to someone not in stance or not enchanted and build adrenalin normally rather than every 4 seconds.

also I like to question wether or not swift chop is indeed better at building adrenalin than wild blow. swift chop will grant you 1 strike of adrenalin every 4 seconds while breaking the stance with wild blow and continuing attacking will grant you 3 strikes of adrenalin in 4 seconds with the 1.33 seconds attack speed of an axe...add in a speed buff and it's more. not only that but as mentioned before breaking the stance will allow the rest of your team to attack normally and deal damage not only you(every 4 seconds), which will result in higher damage than you could get with a swift chop.

like I already said swift chop will excel with enchantments however because of the higher damage output...but really you should consider simply hitting the target with some enchantment stripping(It's gvg and your in a cordinated team, someone should be packing enchant removal) since it will give similar benefits as to breaking the stance. allowing you to free up the swift chop slot for something better.

"The fact it's energy based is a blessing."- wild blow is also energy based and cost the same...yeah you loose all adrenalin but no adrenalin is required, so obviously if your smart about it you use it while you have no adrenalin or when you haven't built up too much. also as I mentioned you break the stance and you will built up 3 strikes of adrenalin in 4 seconds...so recouping the lost adrenalin shouldn't be too much trouble. even if you just want to use swift chop as a cheap 5 energy +21 attack skill, there are alternatives to this use power attack for +10-26 dammage.

"The fact it can't be evaded or blocked like Penetrating is a blessing."- wild blow can't be evaded or blocked either...also I wasn't the one who brought up penetrating blow, no need to make a bullet point comparison with a skill I never wanted compared.

"The fact it helps build adrenaline against blocks and evades, unlike Wild Blow is a blessing."- I've already covered this, breaking the stance will make you build three times the adrenalin in the same time frame.

"The fact it's recharge is short, unlike Warriors Cunning is a blessing.
And "Deep Wounding" everyone who's blocking is a nice side benefit -- if only to make more work for their Monks."- again I never brought up warriors cunning so no need to comparing it...wild blow only have 1 second longer recharge nothing serious, seing as most stances have longer recharge.(distortion has 5 second recharge but that still matches wild blows recharge) I agree deepwounding is a nice side benefit but it's only triggered on a block, if the opponent is using an evasive stance you only get the +16/21 damage. use wild blow and apply deepwound afterwards if you want, now you've deepwounded someone that was in an evasive stance.

with that said swift chop isn't all awful...like I've already said it excels with enchanctments(even though removing the enchant will probably be better, but now we're comparing wild blow and swift chop) even moreso with aegis since that's a party enchant and you can't simply change target.

a couple of things for wild blow though...

like I've already said it's an unlinked attribute which is a huge plus seeing as it will work to it's fullest potential regardless of how you've spend your points.

it works on ALL stances...although the main interest will probably be to end defensive stances that grants bonus to block and evade, it also works with any other stance speedbuffs, attack buffs etc. stances that swift chop will do jack shit about.

as a side note is there some sort of bonus damage at attribute 16? and how do you then see what damage it is....I just went by the guru damage ranges.

The Son Of Morgoth

The Son Of Morgoth

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

Maryland

The Servants Of Morgoth

N/

Much better warrior damage skills than this......

entropy

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

N/W

w/e Swift chop is always on my axe warrior bar. I mean What am i going to take penetrating? The puny 20% armor penetrationg that doesn't stack with strength makes it not even worth my adrenaline. It Weakens my other adrenal skills Or I just waste adrenaline. If you want another adrenaline skill take axe rake. Works well enough. Eviscerate+executioners+axe rake for a high dmg spike + cripple