sword 1, 2 and 3, please change

Sword 3 does not connect if the target moves 3 inches to the left.Sword 2 is clunky and slow.

My suggestions:Make 1 power coefficient higher, get rid of might on 3rd chainMake 2 a leap that summons BEES on the target (or just a leap) (this situation has been made worse with the addition of yet more bees!)Make 3 and evade to the side with a pbaoe instant strike.

That Harry Partridge reference was fantastic.

Hornet's leap needs its cast time reduced to be either instant or a 1/4 sec cast with an evade starting immediately during it.

Serpent's Strike needs a flat out damage buff. Why does thief's flanking strike hit so much harder while having only a fraction of the cooldown?

Warrior's whirlwinf is also an evade and yet it also has lower cooldown and much more damage than serpent's strike.

I'm still waiting for the Crippling Thrust on the sword auto chain to cleave up to 3 targets.

I would change serpent strike with dagger 2 and give sword something new instead. 2 high damage strikes. First remove 3 boons, Second deactivate random utility skill for 7 second. With these changes, sword could be a really nice combo breaker.

Sword 2 evade should cripple and Sword 2 leap should knockdown crippled enemy for a little increase in skill reload. Sword 2 is hard to hit and a loss in damage by using. Its too slow for an evade and its a very obvious skill. It needs a really big finish or it will not really be used.

My ideas;

• Make all the attacks cleave 3 targets.
• Make Hornet Sting instant cast, a leap finisher and begin the evade immediately upon activation.
• Make Monarch's Leap not flip back to Hornet's Sting after a time period, instead it stays as Monarch's Leap so it can be used as a gap closer. Add a 1s Knockdown.
• Keep the serpent animation, but make this skill more like Smoke/Unrelenting Assault with two powerful strikes. Make the evasion and attack separate so you can still get the evasion if used without a target.

It would be nice, when Hornet Sting at least lasts for 6 seconds instead of 2.5s. So, with the sword cd reduction you can use it until, the skill is recharged.As well, Serpent's Stike should leave it's poison, get a dmg buff and should get a new effect or other conditions. Maybe vuln and weakness or a 1/4s daze.

I miss the old auto attack that glued you to the enemy in PvP.

@AimEd.3519 said:I miss the old auto attack that glued you to the enemy in PvP.

You mean the old Slash > Kick > Pounce auto with the 3/4 second animation lock at the end (you can't stow the leap) that always got you killed, and will get you killed even harder now with the elite specs?

The changes to Sword auto was admittedly a bit wacky looking, but it is so much better functionally now since you can cancel it to do other clutch things. Reading that someone uses it for the auto-aim is a first for me in 5 years...

@Ralkuth.1456 said:

@AimEd.3519 said:I miss the old auto attack that glued you to the enemy in PvP.

It's not just the control improvement, the attack range is better with new AA too.

Do you guys know all melee attack actually has a "phantom range" that it can hit beyond what the animation / tool tip hint (your aa can still hit when tool tip bar shows red), because 130 range is alot further than what the animation shows?

Back then sword aa can't hit at max range of melee weapon because it'd glue yourself as close as possible toward the enemy. This is particularly deadly to the user when they try to fight against numerous aoes of the enemies.

The animation for the new auto is garbage. They should have kept the old one without the animation lock leap. So you would still do a roundhouse kick on your opponent.

That animation felt super agile and graceful whereas this one is so bad, you just unnaturally twirl your sword.

I do really miss the old animation with the jumping. Kinda wish they'd keep it.

More importantly though, Sword is lackluster. Skills don't do anything remarkable. "Hey, look, I swung a sword! I swung a sword again!"

The autos need to cleave 3 targets on all attacks and do some proper damage. It's been 5 years, and you keep doing it with the soulbeast dagger: every single auto ranger chain deals pathetic direct damage. One would think that Anet at least did some golem testing and realized that even with pets, just autoing on a golem deals way less damage than other classes. Greatsword needs the same auto treatment for that matter.

Hornet Sting needs a faster activation, similar to the evade on daredevil's staff. The flip skill needs to stay longer and not immidetaly flip back so that we could actually get some use out of it. Some additional CC to the cripple wouldn't hurt...

Serpen't Strike needs to.. well, first of all hit the target. Wouldn't hurt to buff its damage too. It is horrible compared to other classes' evade skill.

The "new" auto animation is kinda meh, but functionality over looks, so I don't care.

Will they ever do any of these changes? No. Of course they won't.

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:My ideas;

• Make all the attacks cleave 3 targets.
• Make Hornet Sting instant cast, a leap finisher and begin the evade immediately upon activation.
• Make Monarch's Leap not flip back to Hornet's Sting after a time period, instead it stays as Monarch's Leap so it can be used as a gap closer. Add a 1s Knockdown.
• Keep the serpent animation, but make this skill more like Smoke/Unrelenting Assault with two powerful strikes. Make the evasion and attack separate so you can still get the evasion if used without a target.

The knockdown might be to strong. A daze would be justified i think. But i agree in all means. The idea of monarchsleap staying forever would be very interesting and would give us a unique sword gameplay. Hornet sting needs a better cast time, evade frame and aftercast.Sepent strike needs a connection path improve, should also cleave and should get an increased power coefficient. It is telegraphed so hard you can see it miles away.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:My ideas;

• Make all the attacks cleave 3 targets.
• Make Hornet Sting instant cast, a leap finisher and begin the evade immediately upon activation.
• Make Monarch's Leap not flip back to Hornet's Sting after a time period, instead it stays as Monarch's Leap so it can be used as a gap closer. Add a 1s Knockdown.
• Keep the serpent animation, but make this skill more like Smoke/Unrelenting Assault with two powerful strikes. Make the evasion and attack separate so you can still get the evasion if used without a target.

The KD should be on a single target, I should have stressed that. But I don't think it's too strong. Compare it to Drop the Hammer. 15s CD for a 2s KD to 5 targets from 1200 range. I don't think a 1s KD on a single target attached to a 600 leap on a 6.5/8s CD is game breaking on sword, it's not exactly a burst weapon. It would give us some great utility. I think it fits thematically more than a daze too, since you are leaping into the target :D

@Kahrgan.7401 said:Sword 3 does not connect if the target moves 3 inches to the left.Sword 2 is clunky and slow.

My suggestions:Make 1 power coefficient higher, get rid of might on 3rd chainMake 2 a leap that summons BEES on the target (or just a leap) (this situation has been made worse with the addition of yet more bees!)Make 3 and evade to the side with a pbaoe instant strike.

Sword loses me more fights than it ever wins.

We need a viable melee weapon for our main hand.

Especially since axe doesn't do as much damage as any real axe would do in real life or in fantasy.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:My ideas;

• Make all the attacks cleave 3 targets.
• Make Hornet Sting instant cast, a leap finisher and begin the evade immediately upon activation.
• Make Monarch's Leap not flip back to Hornet's Sting after a time period, instead it stays as Monarch's Leap so it can be used as a gap closer. Add a 1s Knockdown.
• Keep the serpent animation, but make this skill more like Smoke/Unrelenting Assault with two powerful strikes. Make the evasion and attack separate so you can still get the evasion if used without a target.

This is the issue, his second point is one that needs to be addressed by all of the GW2 community.

-CAST times- means we are not experts, we don't know what we are doing.

-Cooldowns- are where the time needs to be 'taken' from the player in waiting for recharge but CAST TIMES should never beon any character who is at max level - our proof we aren't noobs.

Get rid of ALL cast times, coolDOWNS are enough.

@atheria.2837 said:

@InsaneQR.7412 said:

@Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582 said:My ideas;

• Make all the attacks cleave 3 targets.
• Make Hornet Sting instant cast, a leap finisher and begin the evade immediately upon activation.
• Make Monarch's Leap not flip back to Hornet's Sting after a time period, instead it stays as Monarch's Leap so it can be used as a gap closer. Add a 1s Knockdown.
• Keep the serpent animation, but make this skill more like Smoke/Unrelenting Assault with two powerful strikes. Make the evasion and attack separate so you can still get the evasion if used without a target.

You need cast times on some skills for interrupt counter-play, imagine Meteor Shower with zero cast.

We need more cast times, so interrupting is no more a random thing and there are too many skill-bombs out there -.-