Lol this is basically just a double nerf, youre right tho desync is the problem. One that seems elusive and unfixable. Lunge is needed for all melee weapons clearly since they all have them. Unfortunately it isnt enough to combat desync still
100% agreed, GA is a carry weapon not a support weapon. Hammer is a support weapon.
Back when we had lunge I didnt even run Grav well and i loved it. Being backline with Reap/Charge/Maelstrom was the most fun ive ever had with GA. Being pidgeonholed into abilities is literally what kills classes and weapons. This is why hatchet players are so angry with their limited play styles. When there is a meta forcing you into a specific build you know there is a balance problem. Idk if ags plays their own game because its never recognized at all or addressed in any way.
That video I built specifically for Sword with GA as a support tool. 150/150/150 Attributes, benefiting the sword more (as my sword is better than my GA). Sword attacks faster, I’m playing to my characters strengths. If I had a powerful GA, I’d run 300 Str… I will be trying that once BB is released.
Every weapon doesn’t need to have the same Homing Translation (lunge) distance Light attacks, the difference is what creates weapon Diversity. You can poke enemy players through friendly allies with a Spear Heavy while a GA you cannot. Thats some cool gameplay scenarios.
We’re agreeing, just differently 
if the suction was increased, while the slow remains the same, the slow portion doesn’t matter. The key is sucking targets into the center and they cannot dodge out, unless using a movement ability. (An ability trade off). Since desync delays the root debuff showing accuractly and timely, it makes it hard to visually see your escape window. If you wait ~1 second, you can escape a G-Well consistently. I often run to the center on purpose, to trigger the root faster, to escape faster.
Well, you have 6 abilities to choose from across 2 weapons. When players are in ‘combat’ they walk instead of running and sprinting away from you. If you’re throwing light attacks in hopes they connect on a running target, thats not how to go about it. As it hardly works for any melee weapon. (Again, desync making this harder this patch specifically as you cannot cut-off a target reliably)
That is not the problem, that is how I use it, in MY build.
I fight many GA/WH players who do extremely well using GA as their main weapon damage weapon, at 200 or 300str, with WH being their ‘utility’ weapon to place targets into combat. The amount of life-steal a GA has combined with Thwarting strikes makes the GA a very powerful weapon when players go toe-to-toe
Thanks
cb
Your posts seem like advocating to your specific build when its such a small subset of players. Most players using GA are looking for the ‘class fantasy’ of wielding a large chasing weapon to smite and punish their foes with. Unfortunately we will have to wait for the greatsword to use as another supporting weapon, basically just an overly sized casting blade. Greatsword is the only thing keeping me going at this point. If its a let down like GA then thats it for me. Melee just isnt fun anymore. Theyve ruined every bit of the melee class fantasy. Even games like world of warcraft have melee range ‘leeway’ that allows for your weapon damage to connect at a distance to combat desync and latency and the best part is its the SAME for every single weapon.
Also this is negligible, thwarting strikes only provides 1.5% more BASE damage compared to enchanted which is basically standard in all weapons like firestaff and so on. Its the difference between a 1000 damage hit and a 1015 damage hit. Its not that special
What’s your problem when using the great axe? Light attacks are not connect on who? Light / Medium / Heavy equip load?
Specifically for me, when I run medium GA, its harder to ‘lock down’ a light armor wearer, the distance of light roll is really far. Medium vs Medium melee is easy, they dodge, you dodge. Medium vs Heavy even easier.
When I run light armor GA myself vs Light, its a cake walk as we keep the same pace.
Maybe light armor is the culprit (combined with Desync-ing attacks) and not GA homing
Even against heavy users as a light user, stopping just short of being inside their character model and into a swing as they are pressing W is time enough for them to be completely out of the range by the time the server and the client calculate it. Yes its a desync problem but its also the lunge range closer to 2m than 3.5m. My argument is that if they cannot fix desync, which it doesnt look like its going anywhere in fact it gets worse with every update. Then they have a responsibility to at least normalize it with the other weapons like every other MMO does for the sake of balance. Ive seen some of your videos and even the sword and shield falls short often (which has a lengthier lunge than ga) in this regard. Normalize. All. Lunges. Except maybe spear because thats clearly a special range reliant weapon
Yeah, just add a small root to Reap directly. Or move [Gravity] over to Reaper tree and swap it with something else. I just hate Roots and think they should be removed/reduced across the board.
100%
I think you are missing the point behind this post (and many others). It seems our experiences with GA have varied. I have a “powerful GA”. I have 3 actually. I have multiple sets of 625 gear for both PVP and PVE. Ive been running 300/200 now since almost launch, maining Great Axe the entire time. Experiencing it from launch, until now.
I am not posting this because GA needs buffs. GA is a current meta weapon and one of maybe top 3 strongest weapons in the game right now.
Why I made this post, is not because I am having ANY problems in the game.
So why did I make this post?
@ryanrendon89 nailed it. Great Axe used to be AMAZING fun when we had the 4.5m Basic Attack Tracking. In fact its one of the reasons I played GA in the first place. I never liked Gravity Well as an ability, ever. Throw your axe and create a vortex to pull them in. I saw this as a PVE AOE ability and not a PVP focused ability.
Frankly, if it were up to me, they would remove Grav Well from Great Axe at this point. I think its dumb and doesnt even fit the weapon. However, the recent patches/rework of Great Axe, have made the weapon useless aside from having Grav Well.
So if Grav Well was removed, the Great Axe would be garbage.
Id love to see Whirlwind more viable. Id love to see Execute be a main “PVP” ability.
Hell, if you removed Grav Well and simply gave GA players “Berserk” from the Hatchet, I would enjoy that more than Grav Well LOL!
Point being - I want less focus around AOE CC and Grav Well and more focus shifted over to the GA basic attacks, and other abilities.
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100% support this
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CC on a DPS weapon doesn’t really make sense anyway. Debuff/CC should be a class in the back, not a main DPS build.
Id agree, however I do think having “slows” on DPS weapons is OK. Maybe not massive slows, but something that allows you to “stick” to targets easier.
These are examples from Warhammer, that I think had some REALLY fun Bruiser Builds:
Examples:
Chosen: 
Marauder: 
But there were very few, if no, “prone” abilities or “roots”. It was all very Melee Oriented and focused around applying slow, so that you could stick to those targets.
This is the direction I’d rather have them focus on, rather than using abilities like Grav Well to slow/root players.
-For Gravity; It’s a good mechanic if the inhaler works properly. But rooting it after pulling makes it god damned. This root should be removed.
-Fir Ice Shower; it should be just a wall. To prevent enemy sudden attacks. No slowdown, no root. You hit the wall and can’t sleep. He would have a versatile advantage in battle, strategically.
Sounds legit, most of the painful game play right now is the lag/desync triggered by the mass abundance of GA/WH/IG AOEs, the root/dmg slaughter death ball could be survivable, given high skill evaluation of most pvp players… the lag etc. Just seals the deal. Fix that, the easy kills go away, the Meta drifts to something else that can kill mobile targets easier… maybe BB/GA or something else. Who knows, as long as the GA/IG is getting easy kills it will be the build of choice.
Do you mean Gravity WELL? Or [Gravity]?
Edited OP, I agree. Thanks!
100% Agree here as well. IDK if reduce range of roll is the best option. Frankly, the amount and speed of stamina regen in this game seems overtuned to me. The fact you can dodge and then immediately start to regen stamina seems like it could be a better target for “dodge nerfs”.
So keep Dodge Roll as is, but instead put a longer “buffer” in there on when players expend stamina, to when stamina starts to regen. This will be an indirect dodge nerf. So dodge still retains its effectiveness, but cannot be spammed as much.
Maybe a ~2 second delay on when stamina is spent, to when it can start to regen. This might also make perks like [Nimble] more desirable as they could make a larger impact on the ability to dodge more often.
As long as you can walk away from melee the game needs hard cc.
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Or just disallow the ability to “walk away from melee”.
Other games have solved this problem without “hard CC” I dont know why everyone jumps to needing hard CC as the solution.
For example, a VERY simple solution was added to Warhammer (huge focus on open world PVP) and all tanks (and bruisers) got abilities LIKE this:
This literally solved the problem of melee not being able to stick to targets. They needed to get within melee range first to apply a slow.
Just slap this on a few abilities and/or make it a perk and/or make it a new weapon coating/honing stone, take your pick.
Melee players dont NEED Hard CC. In fact I think PVP games should avoid almost all “Hard CC” if balanced correctly.
You misunderstood. Right now you can just walk away from melee the desync we have now making that problem even worse. I’m saying you can’t remove grav and shower until that is taken care of. I’m all for removing grav and shower completely.