Thoughts on new offhand sword

For pve it's obviously better, as it does way more damage and sword 5 no longer disengages you from bosses which always sucked. For pvp though I'm sad. I thought sword being a mix between offense and defense was cool since you had axe for pure offense and shield for pure defense, and losing the block means you have even less defensive tools to avoid being hit which is critical since you have no condi cleanse. I'm looking at things like the holosmith getting damage buffs of all things, even though it already had insane burst, and wondering how we are supposed to survive against that with no way to block it.

It does do way more damage though, so I guess the new playstyle will be less scrappy fighter and more "either burst someone down fast enough or die".

Revert the changes..

The thought is probably that dual sword will go with a power based Herald/Destruction/Invocation build. Life Leech and holy crap at that quickness gain from Call of The Assassin.Shadow step into a group, legend swap to shiro, quickness coming out your ears, jade wind + slam slam slam, riposting shadows.

I have mixed feelings about losing the block. PvE wise, it made you very tanky and there were a lot of bosses that I could stack under and eat damage. It'll definitely change up how I play, but that may not be a bad thing. I can't play test until later, so I can't say much for now.

I really miss the block, and even the pull, while clunky was fun at times. I'm not saying the new sword is bad per se. I actually enjoy it too, but why not just have give us another weapon? (It has new animations already with these changes) Right now, sword off-hand seems too similar to axe. (Both bring you to your target, and both have some control; the difference is that axe has more condi dmg and sword has more power dmg.)

I'm not against the changes, but I'm going to miss my old weapons... Just turn old off-hand sword into off-hand mace or dagger. We'll have new options, not less. I prefer this.

I’m going to miss Duelist’s Preparation and the sweet UA into Grasping Darkness into Surge Of the Mists burst Combo , I still think the Cost/CD increase on the New Deathstrike is going to make it clunky.

One cool thing you can do with it is gap close on somebody from 1800 away since PT+Sw5 costs 50 energy and PT can be used with the target out of range.

Shackling Wave feels nice too, you can actually kinda surprise people with it now in a 1v1 situation... AND we finally have an ability that scales in damage and effectiveness vs. multiple targets instead of being weakened. Sw4 can actually do some good damage to a Mesmer or Necro with his pets around him while he's caught in a surprisingly long immob (well more the necro than the mesmer, they have tons of escapes.)

But without the block there's nothing it can do that Axe already couldn't, which is just crazy unnecessary... It seems like a change that specifically only benefits the .000001% of the player base that are super into role playing? Honestly, I think I would have been happier if they just left Sw4 the block and made Sw5 the immobilize and left all the extra phase traversing to the Axe.

I think also, while not many people play it, this probably super hurt Renegades as now their only block is on the staff... Womp.

Will oh Axe still be better than oh Sword for the Qntfy condi build? Sword's 5 has chill and there is a certain trait that is triggered by that...Not sure about the overhaul damage tho.

For me it's like a bad Axe now.The block removal feels like a huge nerf.I really don't think Reve needed all this new "damage" from OH sword, but the utility/defence was just fine and very much welcomed.

The incompetence of the balance team strikes again, they tried to solve the apparent "identity crisis" of off hand sword by turning it into a near clone of off hand ax.

After thinking about it some more this really sucks. Not having the block feels awful. Sword 5 is whatever but please revert sword 4

@Flauvious.6195 said:After thinking about it some more this really sucks. Not having the block feels awful. Sword 5 is whatever but please revert sword 4

IKR? heaven forbid having a good reliable Block on a Power Weapon

At first, I liked it but missing the block is insane. I don't know, were people complaining about having a block... on a core off-hand weapon?! I like the change to swd 5 but the second hit is too slow. I pretty much agree with everyone. It's just a shitty version of the axe now.

Before:

PvP: sword + shield = sword + axe >>> sword + swordRoaming: sword + axe > sword + shield = sword + sword

Now:

PvP: sword + shield = sword + axe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sword + a bad copy of the axeRoaming: sword + axe > sword + shield >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> sword + a bad copy of the axe

Axe trounces off hand sword. Before, a debate could have stablished because their roles and tools were different and there were a cost of oportunity chosing one or another; now the off hand sword is just a bad axe with worse cc, energy cost and cooldowns. This also enlarges the gap between Herald and core Rev, because Herald has access to more defensive tools.

I am really going to miss the block. The other thing is, though this is intended to give Power rev a DPS increase, the energy cost on these skills is too much to make good use of them.

I'll say this again, but please give us back our old sword, but turn it into off-hand mace or dagger. There is no reason the revenant can't get an extra weapon. The class needs work, and while I like the new sword, we shouldn't have to lose the old one's skillset.

Offhand sword is a worse offhand axe. The new skills deal decent damage, but that's it. 4 suffers from the same thing as precision strike- damage is spread out when fighting more than one opponent. 5 has a kitten 20 energy cost and 20 second cooldown just so it can be a shorter and blockable Frigid Blitz.

Sword 5 needs to be changed from 20 energy/ 20 sec cd to 15 energy/10 sec cd, and make the 2nd hit faster.Adding the block back would be great as well.

@Loboling.5293 said:I'll say this again, but please give us back our old sword, but turn it into off-hand mace or dagger. There is no reason the revenant can't get an extra weapon. The class needs work, and while I like the new sword, we shouldn't have to lose the old one's skillset.

Then put the new skills in the new off hand (or in a underwater trident). I already crafted a second ascended sword in the past and now will remain unused due the changes. Wasn't using off hand sword, but the changes just deleted that weapon from the game.

My 2 coppers:

Sword 5: the function needed the change desperately. The energy cost is too much though. Energy cost in general is too much since we have freaking cds on top too, but that's another topic.

Sword 4: WTF!!??!!???!!! Why!? The block was the biggest benefit to the weapon. Sword 4 function was great. Bring the flipping block back!

Sword is now just a really bad Axe.

Sword 5 is very very buggy, if you turn even slightly while using it, it will just not fire. and then go on cooldown for TWENTY seconds.

Sword 4 is alright.

Axe has close to the same damage, less energy costs, and lower cooldowns.

why use sword ????

@"Lonewolf Kai.3682" said:My 2 coppers:

Sword 5: the function needed the change desperately. The energy cost is too much though. Energy cost in general is too much since we have freaking cds on top too, but that's another topic.

Sword 4: kitten!!??!!???!!! Why!? The block was the biggest benefit to the weapon. Sword 4 function was great. Bring the flipping block back!

What does "kitten" mean? I see that term used a lot around here and have no clue what it means.

The new sword 5 skill is BUGGED...LOL. In my brief testing it shadowsteps backward some of the time. Very surprising that ANET would foul up a rev skill.

@Flauvious.6195 said:

What does "kitten" mean? I see that term used a lot around here and have no clue what it means.

The ANet censorship autocorrects some descriptive words into cute small cats. Sadly I'm more a doggo guy ¬¬ .

@Flauvious.6195 said:

@"Lonewolf Kai.3682" said:My 2 coppers:

Sword 5: the function needed the change desperately. The energy cost is too much though. Energy cost in general is too much since we have freaking cds on top too, but that's another topic.

Sword 4: kitten!!??!!???!!! Why!? The block was the biggest benefit to the weapon. Sword 4 function was great. Bring the flipping block back!

Took me a while to figure out too. Just censorship like the poster above stated. I was wondering what everyone’s obsession with kittens was.