Axe Rework

Hey, this isn't about balance, I just think Ranger's axe is kind of weirdly designed, and I kinda wanted to change it up. I wanted to make it a sort of melee ranged hybrid weapon with an emphasis on control.

1. TomahawkWhile targeting an enemy in melee range - Cleave through enemies in front of you, inflicting Bleeding.While targeting an enemy at range - Throw your axe at a target, inflicting Vulnerability.

2. Path of ScarsThrow your axe in a line damaging and bleeding enemies on the way out and crippling foes hit on the way back, dealing increased damage.

3. Winter's BiteWhile targeting an enemy in melee range - Strike and chill your target with an attack that is guarenteed to crit, bleeding them. Your pet's next attack inflicts weakness.While targeting an enemy at range - Throw an axe that is guarenteed to crit, chilling your target and making them vulnerable. Your pet's next attack inflicts weakness.

4. Chop DownSweep the area in front of you, dealing damage and knocking enemies down.

5. Whirling DefenseGain superspeed and spin for a brief duration while on the move, dealing damage to nearby enemies every interval and destroying projectiles that come near you.

I’d much rather WD remain stationary if it means we get to reflect projectiles instead of just destroy them, that being said, this kinda set up for Axe is pretty much exactly how I’ve wanted axes to be, forever.

Love using axes are a ranged weapon, but I’d love to be able to just hack someone in Melee down with them too to avoid projectile hate.

I've had to post so many times that WD would be completely busted overpowered if it were to be mobile without a huge nerf to its damage. Especially so with a knockdown built-into OH axe.

Currently it has a coefficient over 9.0 when the vuln is factored in, and a radius already larger than the standard melee attack range.To put things into perspective, malicious backstab is hitting people roughly at a 2.7 when it's most commonly used, max-malice with malicious 7 capped DJ is a hair over 3.4, and mind wrack is a 3.2. When you account for setup times, WD reigns supreme over the former two for damage, and ranger already has a very reliable damage threat which can force enemy cooldowns very early before even being threatened back themselves in the form of PBS+RF.

Whirling Axe with movement + superspeed baseline is way overkill, and even without the superspeed, QZ just opens up the combo. Add in Sic 'Em, Soulbeast's +750 offensive stats, damage modifiers from the various trait options available to it, the sustain the kit brings, unblockable attack access, and the possibility of OWP, this skill could hit an upwards of 120k on its own on one target and another 70k on several more, while being invulnerable to melee and safe from projectiles.

This also potentially gives soulbeast better access to weakness than most professions, despite weakness being a signature part of various others' trait lines, and generally speaking, soulbeast does not need improved durability; as it currently stands, soulbeast has the longest power-damage invuln chain available in the entire game with the stout pet merge, SoS, and passive SoS in MMS.

Auto-crit abilities are also not really well-explained considering it makes for anti-synergy with WD since you will need crit chance on a multi-hit build to make it worthwhile. And I don't understand why it's even there to begin with. Ranger already has amazing crit/precision access via Skirmishing and WS with additional support for on-demand fury via Live Fast, Moa Stance, and RoA. Guaranteed crits are the result of heavy investment in other classes and are usually only applicable to individual skills. The best option of this is available as a grandmaster option in a historically-weak traitline for Hidden Killer for the thief, which was only very recently updated to apply to more than just stealth attacks, and this is in a class without on-crit condition damage like the ranger has.

If you want your build to do something, it should need to make sacrifices. This just makes A/A really overpowered for little reason and doesn't really add much skill expression or depth to the kit at all. If anything, it takes away the nuance.

Axe is already in a great spot and doesn't need any changes, let alone a complete rework.

1. Skill variations based on range have already been done, but it's just values like damage or condition stacks.Changing the attack pattern is a really interesting thought. It could be 3-attack chain. The first attack would throw the axe if no enemy is hit, then the 2nd and 3rd hit would be only melee, and not throw the axe even if the enemy moves out of range, flipping back to the first skill on its own if too much time passes without hitting anything as usual like all attack chains do. This way it isn't a skill that always hits whether enemies are close or move away, but a skill that switches to melee when enemies get close, then reverts to ranged after a bit if they move away.This could be done with more skills in more weapons of more professions. For example, some longbow skills could get a minimum range, and getting too close to someone with a longbow would change the behavior of some of the skills to trip or smack enemies when they are too close to fire that skill at them.
2. As I will say in 4. I prefer path of scars to stay mostly the same in spot 4. For this one I do not like having a fan of projectiles. I would prefer if the character threw 3 consecutive projectiles in a line instead 5 in a fan, each hitting 5 enemies and having 100% projectile finisher chance instead 20%. These projectiles would deal 2 bleeding each per target instead 1. This new skill could be called something like "Triple Throw".Maybe have a little more oomph, like having 3 charges and firing each projectile individually, but dealing extra conditions for each additional time the same target is hit: First 2 bleeding, second +1 bleeding and torment, third hit +2 bleeding and +2 torment and +crippled if the target has 3 or more torment. This version could be called "Serrated Blade" instead.
3. I'm not against guaranteed criticals, but I'd rather not have them as part of a skill that is available without further conditions. I prefer when it's something like trait that gives a guaranteed crit every 10s when flanking, or every time the 3rd skill of an autoattack chain hits. Something that requires getting there.For this one I'd like Honed Axes to actually replace the skill. I love weapon traits that replace one of the skills with a new version of it.

   Instead just making it AoE, it would make Honed Axes replace Winter's Bite with a new skill called "Winter's Embrace". Winter's Embrace would be similar to Winter's Bite, but it would hit 5 targets and make your pet also deal Torment for 4s if it hits a Chilled target and gain resistance for 4s if it was Chilled.

4. I prefer the path of scars pull here. If you equip a melee weapon in the main hand, it helps drawing enemies to a whirlwind.Maybe there should be an additional conditional effect to justify naming it 'of scars'. For example, it could deal a short bleeding for each enemy hit on its path. So if it hits 3 enemies, the first one gets 1 stack, the second 2 stacks, and the 3rd 3 stacks, and when it comes back the third would get +4 stacks for a total of 7, the second +5 for a total of 7, and the 3rd +6 also for a total of 7. Or it could deal more damage the less health the ranger or their pet has, stealing health if the ranger health is under 25%, or gain stacks of an effect that are consumed with Whirlwind defense hits to deal bonus damage.
5. I would not make this one mobile. Rangers have pretty good access tostability and being able to chase enemies while also reflecting projectiles and dealing retaliation would be a tad too much.