Improvements to Sword Weaver (PvP/WvW)

I didn't want to ask for any sustain or damage buffs here. I just want the clown show of chasing after opponents while eating damage to end! What do you guys think of this?

• Polaric Leap cooldown reduced from 15s to 8s.

• Flame Uprising now causes magma to erupt beneath the target's feet (600 range) applying 1s of burning and 2s of cripple in addition to its usual effects.

• Riptide now applies 1s of chill per hit.

• Cauterizing Strike cast time reduced from 3/4s to 1/2s and range increased from 180 to 200.

• Shearing Edge range increased from 600 to 900, targets reduced from 5 to 1, and now teleports the weaver to the target if it hits or to maximum range if it doesn't.

• Gale Strike range increased from 170 to 300 and now spawns cyclones that quickly move toward the target, applying 1.5s float if they hit.

• Natural Frenzy range increased from 600 to 900 and the initial strike now applies 2s of chill.

• Twin Strike range increased from 130 to 200 and cast time reduced from 3/4s to 1/2s.

• Tailored Victory cast time reduced from 3/4s to 1/2s and radius increased from 360 to 450.

• Elemental Pursuit (Major Adept) cooldown reduced from 10s to 5s.

• Swift Revenge (Major Master) no longer applies 4s of swiftness upon using a dual attack, but instead applies 4s of retaliation.

• Elemental Refreshment (Minor Master) now applies 4s of swiftness upon using a dual attack in addition to its usual effects.

Yeah, these aren't OP as far as buffs go and they all make sense. Agreed, something like this would be nice for Sword Weaver. It wouldn't even change it that much, would just be a nice quality of life change for a weapon that has severely decreased in popularity.

Decrease the CD of Polaric Leap : all problems solved.

Tbh Id love to see old earth 2 and water 2 CDs back, but I guess rather than that Id like to get some more damage and utility.Like for example Updraft, in sw/d spec it was soooo important to combo with this skill, and since its "adjust" (nerf) its nearly impossible on sword - you need to spend another cc to land updraft properly, and since cc dont deal damage anymore - well, wtf @cmcary.4762 ? d/d for example works, you have different forms of gameplay, like shock aura that allows you to land Updraft. So stupid.Then we have sh*t like Flame Uprising. Is there in this game more clear animation than that? Well maybe sth like Churning Earth, but imo sth with this kind of long animation, meele range and lock in animation should have +50% dmg than what it does rn.Next - Natural Frenzy and Shearing edge adjust (nerf) that made it unable to be cast at targets behind. Makes sword clunky, instead of mobility you sometimes need to stop and wait whole animation, cuz its likely to bug. Meanwhile rev can run around and throw his swords at everything, in front, back, 2 miles away, etc. Another stupid idea.Water/water sword 3 is dogs**t, the least used skill ever in this game. Make it useful, more healing, big chill, whatever.Other than that, just boost its damage. Sword needs to pay in healing power and armor to not be just 20x worse version of thief, rev or whatever other class. So at least give it proper damage. Especially since things like Gale Strike deal no more damage, just flat cc that hardly can be combo'd in 1v1 situations.

Now things that I like from what you suggested:-Gale strike, that would be awesome and made this skill work properly and be useful.-Shearing Edge, this buff might be too much, but would like to see it if my suggestion fails-Tailored Victory, yes, that would actually make a sense since its another SO VISIBLE ANIMATION. Like wtf, playing against ele is like playing poker when you see opponents hand-Swift Revenge and Elemental Refreshment. If you add swiftness to elemental refreshment then I agree. Otherwise dont ever touch Swift Revenge trait, its one of the main Weaver weapons if used properly.

If you look at the main gap closer skills on the sword:

• Polaric Leap --- I don't see this dropping to 8 to 10s cooldown without a removal of the daze
• Flame Uprising --- 8s cooldown is roughly equal to what guardian/condi rev/spellbreaker warrior has

Other skills:

• Shearing Edge --- because you're forced to go into water to use this , I don't believe it will help much to add a teleport but it has chill already so this should not be a large issue if running Elemental Pursuit
• Natural Frenzy --- because of the damage it inflicts in both power and condi variants I don't see this getting soft CC added to it as it would load up 3 conditions at once and provide strong power damage

Traits:

• Elemental Pursuit (Major Adept) cooldown reduced from 10s to 5s. --- honestly this would benefit more than the other things
• Swift Revenge (Major Master) no longer applies 4s of swiftness upon using a dual attack, but instead applies 4s of retaliation. --- if swiftness is going to be applied readily via a minor trait, I don't believe that it needs retal added , if survival is an issue then vigor would be a better choice since you can gain a small amount of barrier off of Invigorating Strikes
• Elemental Refreshment (Minor Master) now applies 4s of swiftness upon using a dual attack in addition to its usual effects. --- would probably make it overloaded , the barrier would likely be reduced or removed

You'd probably want to add soft CC to offhand skills that aren't all that amazing on their own in PVP/WVW for example Flame Wall could have 0.5s cripple on initial strike to trigger the Elemental Pursuit trait while not being overpowered on tempest ; Ride the Lightning could use a slight recharge reduction so that hitting with it would mean a decent amount of gap closers.

At least for WvW , sword weaver really isn't a great choice because it doesn't do anything special you wouldn't achieve on another class and the barrier generation isn't large enough to avoid a huge liability against DPS spellbreakers running Warrior's Cunning. That's on top of not having weapon swap so you end up chasing targets like a headless chicken (even with superspeed), unlike spellbreaker warrior (the other mainly melee class) which at least has a decent amount of gap closers.