I Love the new Axe on thief

[FreshF.5793]

Anybody else in love with the Axe?

Ive done some PvE and the story and it honestly feels amazing. 

Finally!!! We got some cleave 🙂

And the positioning is a lot fun too, to get the best out of Axe 3. ❤️

great Job anet!!

[Doggie.3184]

The new Axe projectile mechanics in a nutshell: 

 

The sound effect gets annoying though

[GewRoo.4172]

7 minutes ago, Doggie.3184 said:

The new Axe projectile mechanics in a nutshell: 

 

The sound effect gets annoying though

For real tho? A/P 3 follows enemies in stealth, goes through walls (!), snipes enemies from walls in wvw, and has a range which is anything but 900 - no matter if you count from the character or the axes on ground. 

[Asra.8746]

You like the buggy mess?

You like waiting for axes to finish flying to their pre-determined destination before having to recall them?

Well, I guess I'm glad to see some people are enjoying it...even though every respectable thief player I've spoken to says they dislike it - most would have preferred A/A option or simply an offhand option instead of yet another single mainhand.

Edited February 28 by Asra.8746

[Nomad.4301]

36 minutes ago, Asra.8746 said:

You like the buggy mess?

Yeah.. I mean the one thing I was kinda looking forward to with this weapon was using it on Deadeye and it would appear(?) to be totally broken on DE, the stealth attacks do not use up any malice and seem to just bounce off (literally you can see the axe bounce off the enemy and not explode) most targets dealing no cleave damage, which means you can't really use M7 and don't really have any reliable rotation with it right now. Oh and in WvW the axe 3 will ALWAYS miss ANY siege, making axe totally useless for clearing out siege of any kind. I don't Understand what that beta 3-4 months ago was even for if these problems are still here today..

I'd also like to mention I'm disappointed that the thrown axes do not inherit any effect from your legendaries, they are just plain wooden axes, they even already have the animations for it (Necro Axe 2).

Edited February 28 by Nomad.4301

[Asra.8746]

It's broken for Specter too. Axe skills do not generate shroud.

[Roche.7491]

How do you unlock the new weapon?

[AlphaReborn.1567]

1 hour ago, Roche.7491 said:

How do you unlock the new weapon?

Easiest way is to go into WvW, talk to the one vendor, buy all the tomes you need (should be 5).  Once you have all 5, it unlocks the weapons for all classes.

[Roche.7491]

1 hour ago, AlphaReborn.1567 said:

Easiest way is to go into WvW, talk to the one vendor, buy all the tomes you need (should be 5).  Once you have all 5, it unlocks the weapons for all classes.

May I know which specific tome for thief’s axe? I want to save some resources.

Edited February 28 by Roche.7491

[AlphaReborn.1567]

At the heroics notary, you need to buy all five white tomes. That completes the collection achievement and unlocks all weapons.

Edited February 28 by AlphaReborn.1567

[Roche.7491]

2 minutes ago, AlphaReborn.1567 said:

At the heroics notary, you need to buy all five white tomes. That completes the collection achievement and unlocks all weapons.

Oh crap that’s a lot. I guess I’ll just option for the story instead. Thanks for the info.

Edited February 28 by Roche.7491

[remorseless.6352]

Axe is the most boring design possible

[Doggie.3184]

3 hours ago, remorseless.6352 said:

Axe is the most boring design possible

Yeah still has the problem of feeling like I only have 1 attack skill and an AA. and two off-hand skills that are useless most of the time (and bugged Daredevil Black Powder combo as I keep reporting). Started to get bored of it at this point.

It's certainly functioning better than beta, just the full 5 skill weaponset is boring. Still desperately need off-hand Axe.

They should also probably make an actual class UI for Axes above ini with diff colors for types. The "Axe Counter" buff is pretty bleh. I'd imagine most people'll be just counting and keeping track in their head instead of trying to look at that tiny icon.

Edited February 28 by Doggie.3184

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

7 hours ago, Roche.7491 said:

May I know which specific tome for thief’s axe? I want to save some resources.

You need all of them, it unlocks all of the new weapons at once.

Advise you do the new PvE story then, there is a story step about 30 minutes into the story that has you complete the collection almost for free (you need 1 stack of congealed screams I think). It will save you the 500 or so WvW currency, if that is what bothers you.

[Kanaima.2546]

13 hours ago, Doggie.3184 said:

The sound effect gets annoying though

The auto-attack SFX gets extremely grating quickly. 

Then there's the animations:

https://youtu.be/OjwhPJS8H4g

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not really sure what the axe was supposed to provide that couldn't have been possible through buffing existing weapons. The short bow already gives us access to inconsequential AoE damage for tagging purposes.

[kidbuu.4071]

44 minutes ago, Kanaima.2546 said:

The auto-attack SFX gets extremely grating quickly. 

Then there's the animations:

https://youtu.be/OjwhPJS8H4g

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not really sure what the axe was supposed to provide that couldn't have been possible through buffing existing weapons. The short bow already gives us access to inconsequential AoE damage for tagging purposes.

SB just needed some buffs, with all that ground targeting it would have been perfect if they scaled it up for competitive mode.

[paper.6230]

This weapon is so unimaginatively designed, I hate it.

I've expressed my feedback here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/140597-expanded-weapon-proficiencies-beta-feedback-thief/page/5/#comment-2040639
The weapon lacks complexity and synergy, as I said there, and I explained the reasons.

For competitive modes it will always be a never-ending source of problems. It encourages passive, yet bullying and annoying gameplay, and this is always going to be frustrating on the receiving end (to an average player).

The weapon only does damage, and if (or when) the damage gets nerfed, then nobody will play it, because it doesn't have anything to justify using it. So what's the next step? Start adding utility to it? How much dev time and money will it cost, how many iterations?

ArenaNet would do everyone a favor if they just got back to the drawing board with Axe and started over. I believe the design is irredeemable at very core idea of it. There's easily 50 different and better ways to make it.

Edited February 29 by paper.6230

[nosleepdemon.1368]

22 hours ago, paper.6230 said:

This weapon is so unimaginatively designed, I hate it.

I've expressed my feedback here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/140597-expanded-weapon-proficiencies-beta-feedback-thief/page/5/#comment-2040639
The weapon lacks complexity and synergy, as I said there, and I explained the reasons.

For competitive modes it will always be a never-ending source of problems. It encourages passive, yet bullying and annoying gameplay, and this is always going to be frustrating on the receiving end (to an average player).

The weapon only does damage, and if (or when) the damage gets nerfed, then nobody will play it, because it doesn't have anything to justify using it. So what's the next step? Start adding utility to it? How much dev time and money will it cost, how many iterations?

ArenaNet would do everyone a favor if they just got back to the drawing board with Axe and started over. I believe the design is irredeemable at very core idea of it. There's easily 50 different and better ways to make it.

The core idea is AoE cleave with longer range than Thief's other AoE abilities. The cost to that is potential setup time for burst, and positioning requirements, which can make it a bit chaotic and unpredictable. I don't think it's broken beyond repair, but Malice / resource usage needs to get fixed for sure. I also sort of wish it was just straight up power damage but that's just my selfish self after buying a pile of Marauder's equipment.

[Laosduude.1690]

It's busted in WvW, so many unpredictable things you can do with it, it'll all get nerfed, so enjoy the bloopers for now. 

I like it a lot as Deadeye condi in casual pve, just unload a bunch of condis with axe/pistol and fractal relic, I dislike the forced shadowstep of dagger offhand, but will prolly have to use it on more stationary enemies.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

1 hour ago, Laosduude.1690 said:

It's busted in WvW, so many unpredictable things you can do with it, it'll all get nerfed, so enjoy the bloopers for now. 

I like it a lot as Deadeye condi in casual pve, just unload a bunch of condis with axe/pistol and fractal relic, I dislike the forced shadowstep of dagger offhand, but will prolly have to use it on more stationary enemies.

Shadowstep sets you up for a stealth and weapon swap, it'd be nice to make it an optional second activation though because yeah that forced reposition is definitely not safe.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

1 hour ago, Laosduude.1690 said:

It's busted in WvW, so many unpredictable things you can do with it, it'll all get nerfed, so enjoy the bloopers for now. 

I like it a lot as Deadeye condi in casual pve, just unload a bunch of condis with axe/pistol and fractal relic, I dislike the forced shadowstep of dagger offhand, but will prolly have to use it on more stationary enemies.

Tbh I really like the movement on axe with dagger offhand, but I play a lot of sword builds in WvW so that's probably why. I've been playing power axe dagger with dash, impact strike and instant reflexes, it feels like playing willbender with boomerangs lol. 

[The Game Slayer.7632]

now axe is dead. the range requirement on dual skill for axe/pistol was just "patched" even though it shouldn't have been.

[Xoranium.6481]

On 11/12/2023 at 1:19 PM, graishak.5406 said:

i do like the the idea of the axes, i would like to have that aoe/cleave niche filled, but i am really afraid this looks like another weapon that will be hardcountered by reflects. it would be really sad if this ends up unplayable in wvw.
 

 

8 minutes ago, The Game Slayer.7632 said:

now axe is dead. the range requirement on dual skill for axe/pistol was just "patched" even though it shouldn't have been.

Yep, fun while it lasted, now it's completely useless

[Emeth Selch.5926]

The axe is nice, but there are many targets it cannot hit. Not sure if intended.

1. Shadow Behemoth portals: skill 3 cannot hit them (miss)

2. Object on the grounds such as landmines: the axe cannot hit them at all

3. Mouth of Mordremoth's body: skill 3 cannot hit it (miss)

4. Jormag/Primordus Ley Line Siphons (Dragonstorm): skill 3 cannot hit them (miss)

 

Those are the ones I've noticed so far, but I believe similar objects will behave the same way with Thief Axe.

[nosleepdemon.1368]

6 hours ago, Xoranium.6481 said:

 

Yep, fun while it lasted, now it's completely useless

That explains why I couldn't land ANYTHING in the zerg fight earlier. I just gave up and thought it was down to skill activation lag. Are Thieves are just destined to be useless in zergs? That's OK I guess, I'm managing to hold my own in roaming now after a week's practice. Between Rev and Thief ANet sure managed to duff up the new weapons. Maybe other professions fared better?

Edited March 2 by nosleepdemon.1368