I don’t think a WH/GA can beat anyone in a 1v1, really. You just have to dodge their WH CC and maelstrom. I just pop berserker and spam Lmb and dodge their abilities. They cannot do much. I can do the same thing with an evade rapier with penetrating backstab. A spear definitely can kill a WH/GA.
I do think it’s fine that the GA/WH is weak in 1v1s because most of their abilities are AoE.
Pretty sure spears cant kill bruisers too as long as they preserve charge. You can just dodge after getting hit and walk away from a spear
Thats just hatchet movespeed buff, non charged heavy from hammer tracks through your light dodge if you get hit once. So you can’t escape (non hatchet) if you get hit unless you waste 2 dodges at which point there are greataxe abilities to cc or pull you in.
Anyway, point is → GA/WH is not OP or super strong, But its not weak either lol.
Based on those comments, I think you are trying to run away with the spear. I don’t think you need to do that. Just use light attacks until they use an ability and then punish them while they are in their long WH animations. With the hatchet, once they maelstrom, I just stand on top of them and spam LMB and dodge what I can. They cannot do much.
Dex is so much better than strength builds in pvp its honestly no contest. Spear and rapier are leaps and bounds better in pvp for any 1v1 situations. its the cooldowns mostly. I also think GA and warhammer do not hit hard enough for how slow they and they have way too long of recovery frames.
SnS, GS, and hatchet are where it’s at for melee, in my opinion.
But, yes, running 150 dex with those builds are probably better than 300 strength.
I think most people use 210 str/ 150 dex/150 con or builds with less con.
The GA plus something else is decent for chasing people, but the damage is pretty low.
I mean ppl pick up 2 big slow weapons so kinda should expect they might have some big issues vs ppl using smaller, faster weapons.
But if you try ss/wg or ga/ss or whatever - you can do stuff you could not before. But they want to have this crazy aoe cc and be able to kill any other build in game. Including other mele, tanks, mages and bows.
I don’t think greataxe has crazy aoe cc. It’s alright at chasing, but not good enough really and if you get caught by a grav well I dunno what to tell you unless your boxed in you can literally just dodge once to get out of it lol. The warhammer is still in a good state as far as utility goes.
You have GW - no other ability in game can setup kills like this one.
You have maelstorm - no other ability can protect you and your group in rang from all range attacks like this one
So its not aoe heavy as WG but have 2 abilities that cant be replaced by any other weapon abilities. They are very strong and very unique.
Gravity well isn’t all that powerful like I said you have to be really bad to be caught in it or already surrounded. Maelstrom to protect you from range is a bad take I would have this removed for almost any other benfit you could think of its only really good functions are the little pull, it’s pretty quick damage, and potentially has weaken. The aoe is not very large so you have to basically be in someone to pull them and it roots you. It is very easy to escape and has a long cd for what it does
In 1 vs 1 sure. How you replace it on wars?
Who cares
AoE weapon vs single target weapon. You want to 1v1 then pick a weapon that isnt AoE.
No melee weapon is single target. The greataxe doesn’t have that big of an aoe range with basics it is a small arc capable of hitting a few targets. The aoe skills are between 2.5 to 4 meter radius the other Half of skills are essentially single target with mediocre damage and long cds. It has lower single target dps than the firestaff and that is an aoe weapon as well.
and does firestaff have any utility ?
rends? weaken ?
No ?
got ur answer
greataxe only has weaken, but firestaff should get some sort of utility.
Ga also has, selfheal, haste, several empowerements, roots & fortify ye.
oh and dont forget the best. and all absorbing projectile eater 
not a great argument. You have to take damage while doing your aoes with greataxe. FS gets to do its damage in relative safety, also gets haste and fortify with easier conditions. Getting to absorb projectiles for a ~ half a second every 20 seconds is not very good lol. people keep bringing that up like its so amazing. It is pretty awful I would rather take literally any other thing than that. I would rather have a point to put it in something else more useful. Also I was talking about single target dps being lower with the greataxe than the FS so bringing up empowerments is already encapsulated in that, so is pointless. It actually shows even more why it is an issue. You can also use Ice gauntlet pylon/ Ice storm and continue dpsing with fire staff for even futher dps. If you are talking about the .33 sec root its more of a detriment to have if they have any freedom it ruins your pulls. Gravity well has it but again see above.
10% on light armor > dead skill point
10% haste for 5 sec with 10 sec cd ( which u allready loose 1-2 sec in the burnout animation.
Armor is meaningless to this discussion as its not tied to weapons, so not sure why that matters. the greataxe haste outside of bloodlust (which is pretty easy to outrun or sometimes just doesn’t work when the cursor is on someone and again is meaningless to the point I am making) is not great you need to hit two guys for it to proc to stand around to hit them some more it’s not like you can use that to get away or reposition with any sort of ease.
Didnt you know that guy is “the best spear in the west?”
You can’t question anything spear related when it comes to this guy.