What's a better melee weapon: Greatsword, dagger or sword?

[AESOkami.1072]

I've run LB/GS for a long time, but after seeing all the praise the sword has been getting, and seeing as how Soulbeast gets released tomorrow, I'm thinking about changing.

 

What do you guys think?

[Aomine.5012]

In which game mode?

 

For general traveling around map quickly, GS will be fine despite its terrible dps, but with the introduction of Mount, this advantage may be obsolete.

 

For Power build, obviously sword axe. It's doing almost 35% more damage than GS, and currently the highest dps weapon set for power ranger.

 

Dagger may likely be the condition weapon choice in raid/ fractal for condi ranger, depending on how Anet buff the dagger attack speed.

Otherwise it'd be inferior to axe. Need more dps testing after the launch to figure this out, so it's useless to speculate at this moment.

 

As for PVP, sword is better for bunker build because of 2 evades built in it. Dagger will likely be useless because it has no defensive skill built in it, nor is it good in engage/ disengaging, and it also severely lack burst damage, and it's not a reliable weapon to spam condition on someone because it lacks pbaoe.

 

For WvW, GS's leaping skill may still be important for engage and disengaging.

[AESOkami.1072]

> @Aomine.5012 said:

> In which game mode?

>

> For general traveling around map quickly, GS will be fine despite its terrible dps, but with the introduction of Mount, this advantage may be obsolete.

>

> For Power build, obviously sword axe. It's doing almost 35% more damage than GS, and currently the highest dps weapon set for power ranger.

>

> Dagger may likely be the condition weapon choice in raid/ fractal for condi ranger, depending on how Anet buff the dagger attack speed.

> Otherwise it'd be inferior to axe. Need more dps testing after the launch to figure this out, so it's useless to speculate at this moment.

>

> As for PVP, sword is better for bunker build because of 2 evades built in it. Dagger will likely be useless because it has no defensive skill built in it, nor is it good in engage/ disengaging, and it also severely lack burst damage, and it's not a reliable weapon to spam condition on someone because it lacks pbaoe.

>

> For WvW, GS's leaping skill may still be important for engage and disengaging.

 

For PVE mode. And thanks for your reply.

[ProtoMarcus.7649]

**Greatsword** Is a PBAoE burst weapon with lots of utilities - evade on auto, gap closer (leap finisher too), block with knockback counter attack and interrupt

 

**Sword** Is a "DPS" hybrid wep (leaning towards power) with some mobility skills - evades, gap closer (and leap finisher)

 

**Dagger** _main hand_ Is a Condi heavy wep with leaps but no evades, so no damage mitigation - still have to wait for release to see how it performs but it already feels like a high risk low reward weapon

 

I guess it depends on the situation

Sword is the better DPS wep but GS has solid burst (despite being utility-focused) with their appropriate builds

[ITheNormalPerson.9275]

It's worth mentioning that sword is undoubtedly better than GS, and dagger is undoubtedly better than both axe, when it comes to benchmark dps.

 

**But**, if you don't care about benchmarks, it comes down to what type of playstyle you enjoy. In open world, the pros and cons of weapons are a bit different than they are in instanced content.

 

### Greatsword

* it has a relatively high burst, lending itself to killing weak mobs quickly.

* On top of that, it has good stacking of vulnerability (if you aren't maintaining 25 vuln and aren't doing group content, vuln definitely starts to fill the difference in dps between it and sword)

* A great mobility skill (albeit mounts will make this less useful

* A good defensive skillset, which lends itself well to not having to waste time/money WP-ing back after a random blow downed you into a high damage AoE (I'm convinced this happens to everyone in HoT maps on a daily basis)

 

### Sword

* Has more versatility, with warhorn stacking boons, or axe for CC/reflects, for example

* Still has a fairly decent defensive skillset

* As mentioned, it definitely does outdamage greatsword

* It's just over-all a good choice that can also be taken into instanced content

 

### Dagger

* In theory, was matching mainhand axe's - one of our current highest dps weapons - DPS. With the recent buffs, it is undoubtedly the highest DPS weapon in our arsenal.

* Uses the ammunition mechanic. Albeit this isn't particularly a pro, I think new mechanics are always super sweet. I'll use a weaker weapon with an epic skillset over a lame weapon with high dps any day.

* It has quickness on #3, which is a strong boon that really starts to add up over time (Especially with the plethora of boon stacking available to soulbeast)

* If you enjoy condition damage, it's the only condition based melee weapon we have

* As with greatsword, it also has decent access to vuln application, lending itself well to solo-debuffing (and in a condi build, the condition duration will benefit it even more, I believe)

* Dagger has an okay mobility skill, similar to heartseeker. Definitely outperformed by greatsword, however.

* Also has the versatility of sword, however with a bit extra, in my opinion, since condition based builds can benefit from warhorn/torch/dagger, as opposed to just warhorn/axe.

* Keep in mind it's not officially released yet, so take this with a grain of salt for the next 2 weeks or so.

 

Keep in mind this is intended for solo/open world content where you aren't going for pure max dps, and aren't relying heavily on group buffs. Personally, in open world, I'm extremely excited for Soulbeast!