First off, this is not a “Nerf Greataxe” thread, but I will be using the Greataxe as an example of a weapon that feels powerful and effective to use. This will be about PvP primarily. I have a fair bit of PvP experience using Greataxe/Hammer, Spear/Bow, with a smattering of Hatchet and Rapier use in there in Open World, OPR, and Wars. I have no experience playing Mage in any organized PvP.
The Greataxe is incredibly easy to use. What I mean by this is that it’s abilities, attack animations, and lunge-factor allow it to easily and consistently apply its damage to enemies in PvP. The weapon has the widest horizontal cleave of any melee weapon while also lunging forward about the range of a Light Doge Roll on its attacks. Many of its abilities are quite forgiving in how they’re aimed due to their 360 degree or lock-on nature, and it has consistent access to Grit on many of its ability uses (leaving aside 300 Strength). Lastly, the Greataxe has arguably the strongest mobility Ability in the game with Charge, which has Grit, activates immediately, and goes a huge distance, along with several sources of immobilize and pull.
All of the above results in the Greataxe feeling very easy to use in combat. If we then also see that the base damage is one of the highest in the game and many of its abilities (which are near instant) will hit for a total of 200%+ weapon damage (due to double-hits) providing immense burst damage, we can see why a lot of people complain about Greataxe. The Greataxe’s Light Attacks, due to their lunge, tracking, and cleave, are stronger than many damage abilities of other weapons. For comparison, the Light Attack of the Greataxe (with zero Mastery Points) closes gaps better than any Ability on the Spear, while dealing more damage per hit than the Spear’s autos. But again, I’m not here to suggest we nerf Greataxe.
If anyone has used any other melee weapon, you’ve felt the difference in usability. Foes can simply walk away from auto attacks without using a Dodge Roll due to poor targeting, abilities’ visual ranges don’t match their actual range, and a significant lack of lunge/tracking on attacks. As an anecdotal example, you can simply Sprint in circles around someone using a Hatchet and their basic attacks will not hit you - no Dodges required. (Of course, the Hatchet has Abilities that help with this - just pointing out poor basic attack tracking)
There are two non-mutually exclusive paths for addressing this situation:
1. Improve the damage dealt by melee weapons that have a harder time applying that damage in PvP to some degree. A substantive amount, but nothing crazy - I’m not a numbers man, but players should feel like the lack of usability is substantively offset by the gains in power. Currently, I think a lot of players would agree that using other melee weapons can feel like playing the game on Hard Mode. It’s possibly to do well with them, but it can feel like a handicap in PvP at times if you aren’t fully “switched on”. If a melee weapon is very immobile and doesn’t gap-close or track easily, it should feel terrifying to stand toe-to-toe against it!
and/or
2. Bring the usability of the other melee weapons up to the level of the Greataxe. This could take any myriad of forms, from better lunge/tracking, longer leap distance for gap closers (e.g. Feral Rush, Skewer or Vault Kick), or adding easier access to Grit. This would make those weapons feel more responsive and fun, rather than like fighting through molasses.
An unhealthy balance meta is one where everything that is effective gets nerfed until nothing is fun. A better approach is to look at what draws people to a weapon like Greataxe and inject some of that fun into other weapons. The Greataxe feels responsive and versatile, deadly in almost every type of PvP mode and by far the current meta weapon (along with Hammer, which is purely used for its unparalleled CC).
Post Script - It’s worth noting that the above 2 paths for the other melee weapons would be an overall buff to melee combat in general and would need to be counterbalanced by improvements to non-melee combat, whether that be improving iFrames of light armor dodges or some other aspect that I won’t try to conceptualize here. No balance change should be done in a vacuum!