Looks like two of those roadside sign-spinning advertiser guys (holding signs for tax relief or new condos or whatever) got into a fight. "This is my corner you ruffian!"
Balance is something they are obviously striving for. I think the real question is how should these two weapon types be balanced. What should the trade offs be for using the different weapons and how should it affect playstyles.
One thing we do know is your weapon only affects/changes your basic attack/combo ability. Besides that both builds will be using the same abilities. If this works similar to wow(at least how wow used to be) and your abilities scale more off slow 2handers then one handers, we could see 2-hander's builds be more bursty ability focused and dual weilding be more sustain damage, focusing on auto-attacks and ulting more. I like this kind of difference/balance between the 2 kinds of builds.
Looks like two of those roadside sign-spinning advertiser guys (holding signs for tax relief or new condos or whatever) got into a fight. "This is my corner you ruffian!"
I heared of that sign spinning thing. It's an american thing. So Americans spin sings. Europeans spin twohanded shields, with spikes
Both two-handed shields and dual-wielding shields have been dismissed, sadly. I see a small issue in the initial post: you present it as if two handed melee weapons were used very often. This was not the case, they were in use for a short period of time, and after that, they became more of a symbol than a weapon, as having shorter, quicker weapons are better to abuse weakness as well as defend yourself. The bigger your weapon, the easier you are outmaneuvered, which might end up being the cause of defeat.
I mean that is just factually untrue. They were incredibly popular across the globe in one form or another. Just one good example would be the Katana which was most often used in two hands. The Claymore in Scotland,. The Zweihander.These just swords in the two hander market. I could go on, but these weapons where in use for hundreds of years.
Additionally they are actually far more defensive than a short quick weapon for the simple reason of reach. A short quick weapon can be good in the right scenario but you have to expose yourself to get within reach to strike against a far more powerful weapon that is a two hander. Certainly some are much more cumberson than others like hammers, but two handed swords are not the defensive pushovers you may think they are.
In regards to GW2, I think your points are actually a bit off. For Necromancer, Greatsword has always been their best power weapon since the expansion released, and now it's used as a condition damage weapon too. For Warrior, Greatsword was literally the only weapon they used in higher end content (except for mace/shield for occasional CC and blocks) until about 3 months ago when condition damage took over, but greatsword is still their strongest power weapon, and is still widely used. Now, Mesmer I'll give you that greatsword is weak, but they shoot laser beams out of it so Idk there. For Guardian, Greatsword is their strongest weapon period and is almost always taken if they're willing to go melee. Rangers can use Greatsword to good effect, but it's been so long since I've seen a Ranger using a non-condition or healing build that I'm willing to let that one count against me.
So basically 2 out of the 5 available classes have greatsword being their strongest weapon, 2 out of the 5 have it as their strongest weapon for one of their builds (with Warrior's build being major, Ranger's build being best for power but weak overall), and 1 out of 5 uses it weirdly and it isn't strong, but it has amazing animations and some decent utility so there's that.
Edit for hammers:
Warrior doesn't use hammer, I'll give you that. However, Engineer elite spec builds all use hammer, especially in PvP. Revenant uses hammer as their only ranged weapon, so even though it's not too strong, it's still widely used. Guardian uses hammer in GW2 not for the best damage, but decent damage in addition to a lot of CC and utility and therefore is often taken in raids and fractals (like dungeons but with different scaling) and is widely used.
So for hammer, 2 of 4 classes have widely used builds that make use of hammer, 1 of 4 uses it as their sole ranged weapon and therefore uses it a lot, and 1 of 4 doesn't use it so there's that.
So in what I was writing up I am comparing all DPS builds for all classes. And it was true at lerast at the time of writing that no 2h build is competitive top tier DPS. For some classes it may have been the best power option. But not the best DPS for that class, or that class was not DPS credible. In warriors case the only reason an endgame raid team would bring along a greatsword warrior was to might stack. His own DPS was pretty aggressively meh. For Guardian the hammer auto attack is higher DPS than greatsword if you just cut off the last auto attack.
I will grant it is a decent option for several classes in PvP Due to utility, and some burst. Even there not often the best. I really like greatsword longbow on ranger for PvP for example, but I feel some of the other options would be better if I was not stubborn.
Consering ESO, 2H is great as primary weapon in pvp for most stam builds. The weapon skills are pretty good and very versitile, the ultimate is not bad either.
It is an OK weapon for PvP but for example the sword and board can do damage very close to 2h,while being more defensive, and having more CC. The Ultimate is terrible IMO would rather bring Dawnbreaker, or usually one of the class ultimates. The only big reason for 2h is an execute if your class lacks one.Oh but you could dw and get an AOE execute. lololol
Dont get me wrong. I still am like as stubborn as an ass in the sun. I use two handers in PvP all the time. But I the reasons are not many these days. Then in PvE they simply can not compete.
Both two-handed shields and dual-wielding shields have been dismissed, sadly. I see a small issue in the initial post: you present it as if two handed melee weapons were used very often. This was not the case, they were in use for a short period of time, and after that, they became more of a symbol than a weapon, as having shorter, quicker weapons are better to abuse weakness as well as defend yourself. The bigger your weapon, the easier you are outmaneuvered, which might end up being the cause of defeat.
I mean that is just factually untrue. They were incredibly popular across the globe in one form or another. Just one good example would be the Katana which was most often used in two hands. The Claymore in Scotland,. The Zweihander.These just swords in the two hander market. I could go on, but these weapons where in use for hundreds of years.
Additionally they are actually far more defensive than a short quick weapon for the simple reason of reach. A short quick weapon can be good in the right scenario but you have to expose yourself to get within reach to strike against a far more powerful weapon that is a two hander. Certainly some are much more cumberson than others like hammers, but two handed swords are not the defensive pushovers you may think they are.
To get some more historical background
The King of historical battlefields was the polearm, a two handed weapon, through all ages. But after it the shield ruled for a very long time,and with it the one handed weapon. Only in late Medieval the two handed Longsword become popular thanks to Armor being so advanced that Shields were redundant.
Other two handed weapons were sprinkled through out history, but the Polearm is the KING of two handed weapons and melee weapons at all
Comments
One thing we do know is your weapon only affects/changes your basic attack/combo ability. Besides that both builds will be using the same abilities. If this works similar to wow(at least how wow used to be) and your abilities scale more off slow 2handers then one handers, we could see 2-hander's builds be more bursty ability focused and dual weilding be more sustain damage, focusing on auto-attacks and ulting more. I like this kind of difference/balance between the 2 kinds of builds.
NOTE: I always play 2-handers
Additionally they are actually far more defensive than a short quick weapon for the simple reason of reach. A short quick weapon can be good in the right scenario but you have to expose yourself to get within reach to strike against a far more powerful weapon that is a two hander. Certainly some are much more cumberson than others like hammers, but two handed swords are not the defensive pushovers you may think they are.
I will grant it is a decent option for several classes in PvP Due to utility, and some burst. Even there not often the best. I really like greatsword longbow on ranger for PvP for example, but I feel some of the other options would be better if I was not stubborn.
Dont get me wrong. I still am like as stubborn as an ass in the sun. I use two handers in PvP all the time. But I the reasons are not many these days. Then in PvE they simply can not compete.
The King of historical battlefields was the polearm, a two handed weapon, through all ages. But after it the shield ruled for a very long time,and with it the one handed weapon. Only in late Medieval the two handed Longsword become popular thanks to Armor being so advanced that Shields were redundant.
Other two handed weapons were sprinkled through out history, but the Polearm is the KING of two handed weapons and melee weapons at all
Dual Wield? very niche in historical context.