User:Mediggo/Weapons
Your weapon is the extent of your will. Here's a quick summary of each weapon as well as specific role it is most effective in.
Protip: Use browser search (Ctrl-F) to search for "hammer", "support", "condition damage", etc. build keywords.
One-handed[edit]
One handed weapons are versatile, and all but scepter can be used in both hands, though not by all professions. Bladed one handed melee weapons and pistols are capable of immense damage, while "blunt" weapons like mace and scepter offer a more defensive playstyle with their control abilities.
Axe 
[edit]
- Roles: Damage
- Attributes: Power, Precision, Critical Damage
- Trait lines: Discipline, Skirmishing, Spite
With axes necromancers and especially warriors are capable of striking quickly multiple times for high damage. For rangers, axes for both hands are ranged throwing weapons. Warriors wielding axe as their off-hand weapon gain additional multi-hit attack skills.
- Warriors turn axes into critical hit machines, thanks to their high damage, critical-enhancing traits and rapid attack speed (six hits compared to the usual three for their chain).
- Rangers can attack even distant foes with axe skills multiple times, thanks to bouncing and piercing attacks.
- Necromancer's axe is their "raw power" mid-range weapon which can accumulate vulnerability on a single enemy very quickly while not giving up on damage dealing capability.
Example skills: Triple Chop, Ricochet, Unholy Feast
Dagger 
[edit]
- Roles: Damage
- Attributes: Precision, Critical Damage, Condition Damage
- Trait lines: Skirmishing, Critical Strikes, Earth Magic, Blood Magic
Daggers, capable of being used in both hands for all except ranger (who can only wield it as off-hand), are mostly capable of close-range attacks and some balanced support skills, many inflicting conditions.
- Ranger's off hand only dagger skills can apply bleeding and poison as well as evasion and a ranged attack, making it suitable for defensive play which focuses on condition damage.
- Thief uses daggers to dish out single target damage at close range. Dancing Dagger and Cloak and Dagger all provide additional utility, while dagger dual skills compliment the role defined by main hand weapon.
- Elementalist uses daggers to cast close and mid range spells. Main hand dagger skills excel in damage and offensive support while off hand dagger skills provide defensive abilities while still being suited for offensive playstyle.
- Necromancer uses main hand dagger to attack single foe at a time and to quickly gain life force. Off hand dagger skills can inflict many conditions on foes as well as transferring them off the necromancer to their foes.
Example skills: Crippling Talon, Death Blossom, Drake's Breath, Deathly Swarm
Mace 
[edit]
Maces are just like small hammers. Guardian's mace skills focus on AoE effects and supporting allies, while warrior's mace skills consist of heavy-hitting technical attacks. Warriors can also wield a mace as their off-hand weapon for more control skills. Both professions gain skills that block, making mace ideal for defensive playstyle.
- Guardian uses mace to heal and protect allies.
- Warrior main hand mace skills focus on defense by blocking attacks, interrupting enemies and debuffing them with weakness. Off hand mace skills leave enemies suspectible to further attacks.
Example skills: Symbol of Faith, Pulverize
Pistol 
[edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Precision, Condition Damage
- Trait lines: Firearms, Critical Strikes, Dueling
Pistols can be used in either hand. It is "ranged-only" projectile weapon with emphasis on inflicting damage, conditions and interrupts from distance. Many pistol attacks count as 20% or full projectile finisher.
- Engineer uses pistols to inflict many damaging and controlling conditions on their enemies. Their pistol skills also have most area of effect attacks across all pistol users.
- Thief's pistol skills focus on single target damage, though their off hand pistol skills are more suitable for defense for their interrupting and blinding attacks.
- Mesmer uses pistol in off hand only, casting either a phantasm to deal heavy single target damage at long range or Magic Bullet do interrupt multiple enemies simultaneously.
Example skills: Static Shot, Bola Shot, Phantasmal Duelist
Scepter [edit]
The scepter is a versatile long range weapon, notably used in main hand only. It often offers rapidly hitting channeled attacks for the wielder while also providing chain skills for mesmer and necromancer.
- Scepter is the guardian's ranged weapon, guardian being the only profession with 1,2k unit range specter attacks.
- Elementalist uses scepter to for various kinds of attacks depending on their attunement. Fire attunement and earth attunement scepter attacks provide a notable amount of condition damage.
- Mesmer can use their chain skill to create clones rapidly while either blocking enemies or making them hurt themselves in confusion with the other skills. Mesmer's scepter skills only target single foe at a time.
Key skills: Orb of Wrath, Dragon's Tooth, Ether Clone
Sword [edit]
- Role: Damage
- Attributes: Precision, Condition Damage
- Trait lines: Radiance, Arms, Skirmishing, Dueling
Swords are all about versatility, mobility and technique. It doesn't matter which profession you play; with sword skills you can leap or roll to improve your positioning to continue attacking or for rapid getaway. After spear, it is the most commonly wielded weapon type, available to five different professions.
- Guardian's third chain skill hits all foes it can reach three times, making it ideal for proccing Justice. Their other sword skills have impressive range and versatile effects suitable for both offense and defense.
- Warrior's sword attacks focus heavily on inflicting bleeding. With main hand sword they can quickly close distance between them and their foe or leave them crippled and kite away.
- Rangers wielding a sword gain two evasion skills, making sword useful for defense. It is also very useful for staying close to the enemy thanks to leap and crippling attacks.
- Sword is the only melee weapon of thief which is capable of constantly affecting multiple foes, and is suitable for both offense and defense, as well as condition removal.
- Mesmer uses sword to attack multiple foes, making them vulnerable while avoiding attacks by summoning illusions, blocking and making use of distortion granted by Blurred Frenzy.
Examples: Sword Wave, Savage Leap, Serpent's Strike, Infiltrator's Strike, Blurred Frenzy
Two-handed[edit]
Two handed weapons are characterized by long reach, which manifests as either range or area of effect attacks, or both. They are also most profession specific weapons, four of them being available only to a combination of two professions each.
Greatsword [edit]
- Role: Damage
- Attributes: Power, Toughness, Precision
- Trait lines: Zeal, Arms, Domination
Greatsword skills revolve around mobility and/or powerful AoE attacks.
- Guardian can apply retaliation on themselves, pull enemies to them and attack them all simultaneously, dealing immense damage.
- Warrior can swoop over the battlefield with two damaging movement abilities, make enemies suspectible to further attacks and deal immense close range AoE damage.
- Ranger uses greatsword more defensively; they can evade and block attacks and disable their attacker.
- Mesmer uses greatsword has a ranged magic weapon, using attacks with large AoE and high damage.
- Example skills: Whirling Wrath, Hundred Blades, Enduring Swing, Phantasmal Berserker
Hammer [edit]
- Role: Control
- Attributes: Power, Toughness
- Trait lines: Valor, Defense
Hammers are melee nukes; weapons of mass destruction and controlling your opponents. Warrior's hammer has a freakishly high number of control skills; five, if counting in their burst skill. Guardians take a more supportive approach with their hammer skills. Overall hammer is a defensive weapon like its one-handed counterpart, mace.
- Guardian can prevent enemies from reaching their allies or getting away. They can also make use of frequent blast finisher ability to create combos on their own, such as area retaliation.
- Warrior can cripple, knockdown and push enemies to protect themselves and their allies or just keep their enemies unable to move while pounding on them.
Example skills: Banish, Hammer Shock
Longbow [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Power, Vitality, Condition Duration
- Trait lines: Tactics, Marksmanship
Longbow is, in warrior's case, their access to long range AoE abilities and support skills via burning arrows and burst-created Fire Field. Ranger's use of longbow relies on being able to attack from great range while avoiding close encounters.
- Warrior can deal immense burning damage with their longbow. It is especially useful for creating combos when using Stronger Bowstrings trait which increases range of attacks but also makes them all combo finishers.
- Rangers wielding longbow have access to the longest range player skills in the game and some means to control distance between them and their foes.
Example skills: Combustive Shot, Long Range Shot
Rifle [edit]
- Role: Control
- Attributes: Precision, Condition Duration
- Trait lines: Arms, Firearms
Rifles are long range weapons, mostly focusing on single target damage. Rifle users have options to allow piercing of enemies, providing a different angle on targeting multiple foes.
- Warrior uses a rifle to initiate combat by attacking a single enemy from distance, to snare and finish off a fleeing foe.
- Engineer uses the rifle with more utility, to control positioning while dealing more AoE damage than warrior's rifle.
Example skills: Aimed Shot, Jump Shot
Shortbow [edit]
- Role: Damage
- Attributes: Condition Damage, Condition Duration
- Trait lines: Wilderness Survival, Trickery
Shortbow is very useful against groups of foes you need to kite away from, as it always provides evasion skills and has faster attack speed albeit shorter range than longbow.
- Ranger's use of shortbow focuses on single target elimination and control.
- Thief uses shortbow to launch explosives or set up poison fields for large AoE damage. They can also utilize Cluster Bomb to trigger blast finishers rapidly.
Example skills: Quick Shot, Trick Shot
Staff [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Boon Duration, Healing Power, Condition Duration
- Trait lines: Honor, Water Magic, Chaos Magic, Death Magic
Staff is a defensive weapon used to cast long range and AoE spells. Guardians can use the staff for buffing up groups of allies, or for warding, while scholar professions can use the staff to cause all manner of offensive and defensive effects in large areas.
- Guardian's staff is a mid ranged weapon most suitable for defense, party support and AoE damage.
- Elementalist gains superior support abilities when using staff. They can create areas of healing, grant swiftness to allies and slow down enemies before nuking them all simultaneously.
- Mesmer's staff skills affect many allies and enemies simultaneously, causing many conditions and granting various boons.
- Necromancers wielding staff have access to variety of marks which function similiar to traps, causing many conditions. However, their slow recharge time requires making use of other weapon set more frequently.
Example skills: Symbol of Swiftness, Healing Rain, Chaos Storm, Mark of Blood
Off-hand only[edit]
Besides being able to wield in off hand only, these weapons offer a notable amount of support and control abilities, in contrast to more damage-oriented main hand weapons.
Focus [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Vitality
- Trait lines: Zeal, Inspiration, Spite
Focus provides support skills which largely depend on profession wielding it. In most cases, it grants defensive support and control skills which allow blocking.
- Guardian can use focus to momentarily shield enemies or punish enemies while healing allies. Their focus skills have rather long recharge time, requiring making use of the other weapon set.
- Elementalist can protect allies from projectile attacks and make themselves temporarily invulnerable.
- Mesmer can also protect allies from projectiles while wielding focus, doubly so when using the trait Warden's Feedback which allows them to reflect attacks.
- Necromancers can use focus to remove several boons from an enemy at once. Their focus skills recharge fastest.
Example skills: Ray of Judgment, Comet, Phantasmal Warden, Soul Grasp
Shield [edit]
- Role: Control
- Attributes: Vitality, Toughness
- Trait lines: Valor, Defense
Shields, rather obviously, provide characters with additional defensive skills. Shields can be used to protect not only oneself but their allies as well.
- Guardian can grant protection to allies and shield them from projectiles.
- Warrior uses shield to momentarily shield themselves from all attacks or lash at enemy with it.
- Engineer can use their electrified shield for various sequence skills, including blocking, reflecting and disabling enemies.
Example skills: Shield of Judgment, Shield Bash, Static Shield
Torch [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Condition Damage
- Trait lines: Radiance, Wilderness Survival, Domination
Use of torch revolves around fire, but varies for profession. For ranger, it means natural heat and use of fire as burning weapon. For guardian, it is the flame of zeal, and provides magical effects which burn foes and cleanse allies. Mesmer embraces use of fire as element of magical trickery.
- Guardian can cure conditions from their allies and burn their foes.
- Ranger can set areas aflame, creating fire fields for allies to combo with.
- Mesmer can stealth and burn enemies, cause confusion and grant retaliation to allies while wielding a torch.
Example skills: Zealot's Flame, Bonfire, The Prestige
Warhorn [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: Boon Duration
- Trait lines: Tactics, Nature Magic
Warhorn is a support PBAoE weapon. It can affect many allies as well as foes simultaneously. It often provides some manner of increase in mobility either to the user or all nearby allies, as well as blast finisher ability.
- Warrior can grant swiftness and vigor and remove snaring conditions from them, while weakening enemies.
- Ranger can summon birds to attack single target, or grant many boons to themselves, their pet, and all nearby allies.
- Necromancer can daze enemies with warhorn and summon damaging swarm of locusts which also increases their movement speed.
Example skills: Call of Valor, Hunter's Call, Locust Swarm
Aquatic weapons[edit]
Not much to way about underwater weapons, except that it's good to pay attention to your trait build's possibilities for using traits to enhance recharge time of your underwater weapons as well as adding other interesting effects. While underwater, characters also have different set of slot skills as not all of them are available while underwater.
Harpoon gun [edit]
- Role: Damage
- Attributes: Precision, Critical Damage, Condition Duration, Condition Damage
- Trait lines: Arms, Firearms, Marksmanship, Deadly Arts
Long range weapon suitable for controlling enemies or attacking them from afar.
- Warrior's harpoon gun attacks deal more damage the further their target is. They can make a single foe vulnerable or bleed, and keep them at bay while keeping firing.
- Engineer can only use harpoon gun to control enemies while underwater, and therefore it is highly recommended to use a weapon or device kit such as Grenade Kit alongside it.
- Ranger's harpoon gun skills can deal immense damage in short amount of time with various conditions and high damage attacks.
- Thieves use harpoon gun to attack enemies from distance when they cannot afford to stay in melee; they can cripple, bleed and poison their foe.
Example skills: Mariner's Shot, Net Wall, Feeding Frenzy, Escape
Spear [edit]
- Role: Control
- Attributes: Power, Toughness, Vitality
- Trait lines: Radiance, Arms, Wilderness Survival, Acrobatics, Dueling, Deadly Arts
Either quickly close in on your foe, or pull them to you, and give them a beating in underwater melee!
- Unlike other professions, guardian uses spear to attack from medium range. Their spear skills involve high damage and multiple hit attacks.
- Warriors can pull foes to them, block and stun them before unleashing a barrage of slashes and stabs.
- Ranger can avoid incoming attacks with a spear while ensuring their foe cannot flee them.
- Like ranger, thieves using a spear can block, evade and counterattack continuosly, thanks to their initiative.
- Mesmers can pull enemies into a Vortex and create localized slipstreams to push back enemies or travel rapidly while attacking.
- Necromancers switching to spear gain highly damaging melee skills. However, they lack skills to avoid incoming attacks.
Example skills: Spear of Light, Mariner's Frenzy, Man O' War, Shadow Assault, Feigned Surge, Deadly Catch
Trident [edit]
- Role: Support
- Attributes: -
- Trait lines: Honor, Water Magic, Inspiration, Curses
Trident is used to provide magical underwater support. Trident also has, across all professions, most means of controlling characters' and foes' elevation while underwater, via sink and float.
- Guardian can cleanse conditions from allies and burn enemies. They can also reflect projectiles and grant retaliation.
- Trident is the only underwater weapon elementalists can use. It mostly has ranged low damage attacks, though they possess area of effect skills and overall more underwater skills than any other profession.
- Mesmer uses trident to buff allies with various boons including swiftness and retaliation.
- Necromancers wielding a trident can bleed their foes rapidly while weakening, poisoning and chilling them.
Example skills: Symbol of Light, Rock Anchor, Siren's Call, Crimson Tide
