This is coming from a casual player who mainly does PVE and open world.
For starters, the Bladesworn is by far my favorite elite spec thematically, but I feel the name Bladesworn doesn’t fit the E-spec identity and the exotic class names that GW2 is known for. The names Blazer or Slayer would be more fitting, but this is just a small gripe I have lol. Now, I understand this is beta and that damage outputs won’t be accurate, so I won’t focus on the numbers during my feedback.
Pistol:
- I think its solid, does the job and I wouldn’t change anything about it really. It’s a damage weapon on a warrior, it makes sense it’s purely offensive.
Gunsaber:
- I think the Gunsaber abilities are solid and cover most bases. The animations are neat and the gun bullet effects are a nice touch.
- Having Ammo abilities is fun and an interesting playstyle for warrior. That being said, I do believe that even though they have Ammo, the actual cooldowns on them once they have all been used is quite long (some are 25-35 seconds). Although Tactical Reload does make this bearable.
- Break Step should break Immobility/crippling, it only makes sense that it does (its in the name).
Dragon Trigger:
The biggest issue is having to build Flow then channel it into the Charges/Bullets for 5 seconds while remaining still to get access to Dragon Trigger just to use ONE offensive ability and then have Dragon Trigger go on cooldown. The issue is obvious in just how many hoops Bladesworn has to go through just to use the mechanics. It technically has to balance 3 “resources” just to have it pay off (Flow, channeling time, Charges).
If the theme of Bladesworn is all about “charging” your Gunsaber, then literally having a Flow/Adrenaline bar and filling it up should fill that criterion for “charging your gunsaber” alone, but just with less hoops to go through.
I understand that “standing still” and Dragon Slash’s damage being determined by how many charges you have is part of the theme you guys are going for, but it just feels clunky on how much ramp time there is.
Dragon Trigger Feedback:
- The cast time for Dragon Trigger needs to be gone or shortened drastically if entering it needs to be telegraphed (maybe 2-3 seconds).
- The cooldown for Dragon Trigger after being interrupted or accidentally moving is too long.
- Being forced into one place isn’t necessarily bad especially with the defensives and mobility abilities 4 and 5 provides. However a movement speed reduction would suffice just as well because at least moving wouldn’t kick us out of DT.
If you’re interested, my suggestion for an alternative way Dragon Trigger could work.
Alternative Dragon Trigger:
- Get rid of Flow/Adrenaline entirely for the E-spec but keep the Charges/Bullets (let’s say 10 Charges like how it is currently)
- Bladesworn has an abundance of Ammunition abilities. Dragon Trigger would be built around this feature.
- By spending an Ammo ability, the player would gain one Charge/Bullet per Ammo spent. (This works very similar to core Mesmer generating clone/combo mechanics.)
- E.g. Using one Artillery Slash would grant one Charge.
- This way, players know just how many Charges they have on hand, an idea of how much damage their Dragon Slashes would do, giving them more options if they want to enter Dragon Trigger now or wait till Charges 10/10 to max out damage.
- Utility skills would focus on increasing the chances of generating Charges.
- When the player is satisfied with the number of Charges accumulated, they can then enter Dragon Trigger at lower cast time.
- This alternative places more emphasis on the large amount of Ammunition that Bladesworn already possesses and actually utilizes them in a meaningful way unique to this spec, which honestly suits the theme of the spec.
Anyways, that’s my feedback.
Just want to say keep up the good work folks and I hope you take some of these suggestions onboard.
