Virtuoso is clunky.
I haven't read all the comments here but this comes up a lot and I got the same impression after testing virtuoso couple days, mostly in wvw.
For me the clunkiness comes mainly from these bladesong restrictions:
1) Not able to shatter to enemy behind you.
2) F1 and F2 requires enemy target to activate. So basically not able to shatter in place.
The latter also removes synergy with other traits for example inspiration condi cleanse when using shatters. Now you cannot use those shatters for cleanse if you have no enemy in front of you but you have paid the cost for generating the blades to enable the shatters. You have skills you have prepared and even traited to work together but cannot use them.
Given that the shatters have now casting time, they requires blades to activate and are projectiles, I feel that points 1), 2) makes virtuoso gameplay a bit resrictive and makes most of the clunky feeling for me.
One can argue that being not able to use F1 and F2 shatters if there is no path to enemy can save the shatter to be used in the future, and I agree, but having not able to use the skill when you want is bigger loss for me.
And same thing with virtuoso healing skill. Current implementation where healing does not activate if enemy target is not in front of you feels weird. To use healing skill as a healing purposes you basically need to untarget and retarget between to make sure you get the heal. Most people tend to use their heal skill when they need health not when they wanna attack. I think its fair punishment if you try to attack with your heal skill and it misses and your healing skill goes cooldown for that.
As a wvw enjoyer the whole projectile thing makes the class less wanted in organized fights which is sad of course, ranger has the same problem in current meta.
Other than that I like the idea of virtuoso. Sword 3 mobility is nice (I miss the immobilize on swap) and animations are nice. Casting times gives also possibility to counter play which is good design in my option.
So my wish list for improvements:
- Allow bladesongs to be used to enemies behind you
- Allow all bladesongs to be used without targets
- Healing skill activation is not dependent on enemy target position
Thanks :)
