Onlysaneman.9612

You know what? If I was mistaken on that point, I retract my objection. I still think it's weird, clunky, and badly designed, but alright. I could have sworn axe was more effective. My bad. Working with faulty info.

Look, I have a lot of gripes with Bladesworn, although I don't think the class is beyond tuning up to actually be pretty solid. Make DT a bit less clunky, maybe improve flow generation (the only way I've found to use DT regularly enough to feel good is to burn a slot on Zerker Stance, and every other utility warrior has for building adrenaline just feels... horribly slow on Bladesworn), tune up the Gunsaber skills a bit. All doable, and I'm sure the rest of the forums have thrown out loads of suggestions that should at least give a good starting place on that. One thing that seems right now to be completely unsalvageable right now, however, is the pistol. I genuinely cannot think of a situation where it would be useful. I was hopeful for a 1h main handed ranged option, but that ship has sailed. I'm just talking about what we have and why it doesn't work. What we have: An offhand weapon built entirely around power damage at close range. No utility, no support, no CC. There's one unique pro, which is that is has an ammo skill that can trigger Master traits. Probably only really noteworthy for being a way to build Fierce as Fire ticks immediately. That isn't nothing, but... Why it doesn't work: Axe is better. Full stop. I'm not the first to say it, but OH axe feels better, has more punch, and doesn't push you OUT OF MELEE. It does everything the pistol does while also being better at generating flow. Why the problem is worse on Bladesworn: Now, look, a spec weapon doesn't have to be top of the DPS charts or otherwise best in slot to still be a viable, good option. Neither torch nor SB dagger offhand (mainhand is quite good on its own merits) are all that impressive, although torch fills a unique niche and OH dagger synergizes well with MH. Bladesworn places the demands on any given weapon choice a lot higher, however, by locking you into one set. Any given combination with torch or dagger offhand just has to be roughly equivalent to the second best weapon pick (either 2h or combination of 1h/offhand) for a given build to be worth using. A Bladesworn is locked into ONE weapon pick, which means pistol has to beat out GS for general utility, anything/axe for damage, or anything/shield or mace for defense and CC access depending on what you're doing. Right now it just doesn't do that. Additionally, remember that one benefit to pistol I mentioned? Well, guess what? Every Bladesworn is already locked into a sub-par weapon in Gunsaber which, again, only has one strength. That strength is access to ammo skills. You are not likely to NEED any more ammo skills, and even if you did, utility slots are at a lot less of a premium for Bladesworn than weapon picks. Grab an extra shout or something. Why it matters: Pistol, like so much of the rest of the spec, is aesthetically really cool. I'd love to use it more. But using it shouldn't be something that very obviously feels like handicapping myself for the sake of style. Even here, I'm just talking about Open World events. I've not really taken the time to sit down with it in pvp or any instanced content, where efficiency is a lot more important. Offhand pistol does not have to made into some super-weapon that eclipses everything else we have. What it should do is bring something unique. Ranged damage? A good mix of damage and CC? Boons? Flow generation? Please, just give the weapon something that leaves it with an identity other than "hey, this looks cool." EDIT: Disregard, apparently I am a dingus.

While it depends a bit on the mob, one thing that might be worth considering is that Champs will usually have defiance bars and other mechanics that protect them from certain player abilities. On the other hand, elites do not always have those protections. So while they still will hit like a truck, you might have some luck shutting them down with CC, pulsing blinds, or the like.

Might have missed it somewhere in there, but there's an oversight with headbutt, in that it's probably warrior's most broken (as in not functioning) skill in pvp right now. A while back they changed it to remove stability on activation, and in return it would deal increased damage if it consumed stab. Well, now it's a CC and thus not allowed to do damage, so that change has left the skill busted. Easy fixes would be either to just revert the stab removal or allow headbutt to deal damage again. Just thought I should mention it, as while Anet may not agree with broader balance changes bringing a literally broken skill to their attention ought to warrant a fix... Eventually. Otherwise, good list. I don't necessarily agree with all the proposed fixes, but you've done a really good job of assessing a lot of the problems with individual traits/skills and why they don't work or aren't taken.

So, as somebody who generally does not like thieves (among a few other classes) I feel like I should take a shot at giving my answer for whatever help or satisfaction that might be to OP. Some general context and notes before I get into it. 1) I play warrior almost exclusively for pvp modes, but I've been doing it long enough that I feel I generally have a good grasp of the other professions. 2) I haven't played sPvP in a long time and stick mostly to WvW (where thief roamers are significantly more obnoxious) but I'll try to keep my answer to those areas largely applicable to both. 3) This is all just based on my general personal experience, so take it with a grain of salt. And, finally, 4) I don't have anything personally against thief players, or the players of other classes I don't like. Nor do I necessarily feel they're overpowered or need any sort of nerf (although there are maybe certain things I wish would be tweaked). The short of it is just that I don't generally find thieves fun to fight against. When fighting most classes- even when a given class or build is overtuned- there's a certain amount of back and forth. Both sides will be clearly visible with a few tools for any given purpose (movement, stunbreak, invuln, CC, so on), and attacks will involve some sort of significant tell or animation. If I get hit by a ranger's Maul, it's because either they've managed to exhaust my other defenses, locked me down with a CC first, or I failed to dodge it despite seeing it coming. Same with a holo burst, or to some degree necro marks or DH traps. I may take some amount of damage from auto attacks or other minor sources not really feasible to or worth dodging, but if I die it's going to be mainly because I made obvious mistakes and ate too many big attacks. As far as defenses go, sure, an engi or ranger might stop a good Bull's Charge into burst combo with an invuln, but at least that's a defense that's gone for a good while (likely the rest of the fight). Ultimately, unless one side FAR outclasses the other or is somehow a natural counter, fights between most classes will at least feel like both parties got some good hits in. That FEELS good, and leads to a lot less frustration about the outcome of any given fight. And I know it's maybe not entirely fair, but how a game FEELS to play does matter- we're here to have fun after all. That brings me to thief. You're right, thief does have a different playstyle from most of the classes in this game. Thief attacks are, as you describe, fast and high burst. More important than just being -fast-, however, is that there's no clear single burst to dodge. Thief spikes involve either an attack from stealth (which by definition does not have a clear tell) or a series of quick, high-damage attacks covered by blind or daze before moving back out of range of counter-attacks. Neither these attacks nor the steal/shadowshot/whatever else is typically telegraphed to the degree that other classes' attacks are. I want to point out that, whether thief burst is actually strong in any given meta, this is not particularly fun or satisfying to fight against. Dodging a Maul or a CC meant to set up a Maul feels good, like you've just negated a major offensive tool and can now take advantage and pressure them back. Dodging away from half an auto chain or a heartseeker feels like... kind of a waste of a dodge, even if ultimately the damage negated was worth it. Defensively, thief has kind of the same problem. Thief doesn't have a lot of big defenses. Low armor, low health, not much as far as invulns. So, to compensate they have lots of little bite sized defenses. More dodges. Short blinds. Fast interrupts. And between that they have ways of removing themselves from danger while they wait for those to become available again- stealth skills and teleports. If I manage to hit a DD with Bull's Charge, and they use Bandit's Defense to protect themselves from the followup burst, then they'll have it ready again BEFORE the attack that forced them to use it. Despite landing a key part of any warrior's setup, it doesn't actually feel like I've accomplished anything (just as an example). Whereas if they catch me with a good combo and force an Endure Pain, that skill is done for the next minute while they'll probably be able to burst again in a few seconds. Again, I'm not saying thieves are overpowered, or that there isn't any kind of counter play to what they can do. They NEED all of those tools to be even remotely viable. I'm just trying to expand on your point. If somebody does pvp because they like the combat system and want good fights, it would then be expected that they'd dislike those classes that they don't think provide good fights. This is, I expect, why thieves (and mesmers, who I usually feel similarly about) get a lot of particular hate on here. Both share the tendency towards lots of small, short defenses and being able to do lots of damage without landing singular, clearly telegraphed attacks. When fighting a thief, it often feels like I just have to hope they make a mistake while doing what I can to keep myself alive in the meantime, and winning a fight through one "lucky" hit that doesn't get dodged feels a lot less satisfying to me than seeing an eviscerate coming and catching it with Full Counter or a Bull's Charge into followup burst. There's probably other aspects to it- in WvW they can run away forever, and in sPvP their primary purpose has always been to move around the map, decap, and +1 (which, if you were so inclined, could fairly or not be read as "jump in and ruin what was shaping up to be a good fight"). But as I said, I've been away from sPvP for a bit, so I'll leave commenting on that to others.

While I would love to get a good skirmishing pistol for our next elite spec, I think warrior is fine in terms of number of ranged weapons. We're a mostly melee class, so one mainly power option and one mainly condi option is fine. The problem is that neither is great. On their own, they... do alright, I think, but they're rather clunky. All of a warrior's melee options combo into each other rather well, whether you're running hammer, GS, x/shield, offhand axe, or whatever, nearly any combination will give you a few good options in terms of lockdown, pursuit, defense, or bursts. The eternal shield-bash into burst combo comes to mind. With longbow and rifle, you lose out on all that synergy. Run rifle and you can kite a bit, plink at people for what amounts to alright amounts of damage for a few seconds, but that's it. Okay, you volleyed them, now what? It doesn't lead to anything. They got close, so now you can rifle #5 them. Then what? You've used volley already, so unless you want to sit tight for two seconds while killshot charges you'd better switch to your other weapon- oh, wait, you knocked them out of melee range. Now you have to get close again. For PvE, it'll always just be a matter of numbers. People will bring whatever does the most damage, breaks bar fastest, stacks the most might, whatever. Nothing you can do about that other than some simple buffs. For PvP/WvW, I think both need a little bit of a rework. Give them a clear purpose, make them work better with the rest of the class kit. Make longbow a weapon with more fire, good area-denial. Rifle presently seems built for kiting (what with cripple and the roll-back immobilize), which is kind of the opposite of what the rest of warrior is designed for. Flip it around, make it more tuned to pursue. Change the retreat on 4 so you can use the immobilize to set up a melee burst. Maybe make the bash a daze or 1s stun instead of a knockback. Make the burst a bayonet charge/stab (or, honestly, just anything you can hit with without the enemy being either afk or asleep) that inflicts more movement-impairing conditions. Keep 1-3 with maybe a slight buff to auto damage or making them do more to far-away targets, to either force a full disengage or committing to melee against the warrior. I don't know, I'm just spitballing ideas. TLDR: We don't need more, we just need the ones we have now to work a bit better.