I don't know where Jarkko's got his numbers from, they don't tie in with mine at all.
One nice thing about WAR is that there's very little randomness in the numbers, so the quick test detailed below is quite accurate. As far as it goes, anyhow.
Attacker: Swordmaster, rank 25.
Stats (without S/S or GS): 233 Str, 189 WS, 484 W, 340 T.
Defender: Darkscale Cold One, rank 27
Weapons:
Sentry Greatsword: rank 24, 2.8 speed, 45.0 DPS, 44 Str, 32 WS.
Sentry Falcata, rank 24, 2.8 speed, 31.0 DPS, 26 Str, 12 W.
Sentry Pavise, rank 24, 224 block (18.9%@25), 12 Str, 26 T.
Note: These are all rank 24 renown items and therefore offer the fairest comparison I can give.
My most damaging cycle is Ensorcelled Blow, Intimidating Blow, Dragon's Talon. This cycle takes 5 seconds but it is unsustainable, I can go maybe 40-50 seconds on this cycle before running out of AP. However, if the fight lasts more than 50 seconds my DPS is generally completely irrelevant, I'm either hitting someone being healed or tanking in PvE.
Damage (mitigated):
Autoattack - physical
S/S 63 (34)
GS 91 (46)
Ensorcelled Blow - spiritual
S/S 100 (34)
GS 117 (35)
Intimidating Blow - physical
S/S 100 (53)
GS 116 (59)
Dragon's Talon - spiritual
S/S 71 (21) + 71 (21)
GS 80 (24) + 80 (24)
Analysis (note that these number are rounded for display here, but not in my calculations):
Autoattack DPS for S/S is 22.5 (63/2.
Autoattack DPS for GS is 32.5 (91/2.
Ability DPS for S/S is 68.4 ((100+100+71+71)/5)
Ability DPS for GS is 78.6 ((117+116+80+80)/5)
Total DPS for SS is 90.9.
Total DPS for GS is 11.1.
Autoattack for S/S is 25% of total DPS.
Autoattack for GS is 29% of total DPS.
GS DPS is 22% higher than S/S DPS.
These numbers are for actual damage (ie after mitigation) but proportionally the numbers before mitigation are very close to those after.
A couple of other things to consider.
As strength increases, the amount of DPS contributed by the autoattack reduces. I do not stack strength (my stats are quite balanced between offence and defence), but if I did, the advantage of wielding a greatsword would diminish even further. Also, I can AOE about five mobs down and still finish the fight with close to full health using S/S but have trouble with two or three when using a GS.
Overall, I feel very squishy when using a greatsword and don't really feel like I enough extra DPS to compensate.