Decayuss.8062

First off, thanks for your insight on this topic. Since I'm more or less taking a break from the game (and haven't done all that much on it the past few months), I probably won't have much more to reply with, but it's nice to know at least some of the sentiments I have are shared. While I do agree that so many of the EoD Strike Missions are anti-melee, I still think Bladesworn suffers the most from it. And it goes back to my thought that its over reliance on Dragon Slash is what makes it unfun. Perhaps changing Gunsaber to make it stronger as opposed to changing Dragon Slash would create a solution wherein I'd find it less crippling, but I still think that other specializations have it easier when it comes to position-based mechanics and timing. If they mess up their timing; oh well. Maybe they missed one skill, maybe they just need to wait a few seconds to continue their rotation. If you mess up Dragon Slash? The punishment is monumentally more burdening on your DPS than it is with any other specialization in the game. But again, maybe that wouldn't be a problem if Gunsaber was a more reliable source of damage. I can certainly see the sentiment in how satisfying it is to be able to have the foresight to land Dragon Slash, however. And how it is appealing as its departure from the core Warrior. Though personally, I don't see it as a positive; Bladesworns need to have that foresight (and sometimes luck) just to keep up their DPS with classes who can go through their piano (or sometimes simplistic) rotation while dodging, moving, and hardly risking anything going wrong. It does cycle back to what I said just a few moments ago, but my point is more so that Bladesworn's skill floor (which can still be riddled with unfortunate timing, needing to use a lackluster utility skill, and bad luck) is far too high to be fun in my book. But I still respect your opinion on it either way. And I'm glad we see common ground with Gunsaber; I've hated this weapon from the start. (Why does Blooming Fire still have that nasty end lag on it?)

As a bit of disclaimer before I get into the meat of this post: the first is that I am exclusively talking about End of Dragon's Strikes. That's because for the past few months, it's basically all I've been doing in the game; not much else about it appeals to me anymore, and my own static switched to running those every week. But I think it's paramount to address Bladesworn in this context, as its not the same as an Elite Specialization being retroactively underwhelming or overpowered in a previous expansion's content. And if the nature of strikes in End of Dragons is anything to go by, Bladesworn might have an even rougher time in the future. As of right now, however, I'm no longer going to be playing the game for a while. The upcoming patch notes addresses basically zero of the core problems I have with Bladesworn (and I presume some other people have as well), and Warrior is a class that I adore. But across the board, it's suffering, and its most powerful specialization is unfun to play. I am well aware that Bladesworn is, in actuality, doing very well in its DPS. And I think Warrior as a top tier DPS whose sole job isn't to just give people banners is a long time coming (unfortunately, I don't think this extends to the rest of its specializations). But what I'm mostly talking about here is how FUN it is to actually play the class; how well does it feel to play Bladesworn in End of Dragons Strike Missions? Especially in Challenge Mode. Kind of awful. The biggest issue here comes in its most prominent source of damage, the main 'draw' for the class, what all of it revolves around: Dragon Trigger. From the moment this ability was revealed in the livestream, I knew that it was going to be a balancing nightmare. Because Dragon Trigger is the opposite of fun; what made it 'fun' in its beta stage was its absurd amounts of damage. But even then, it was still a chore to use. Since then, that damage has been severely downgraded; still exceptionally powerful, and it charges faster, but that doesn't address the core issue. Dragon Trigger is an extremely frail move that ironically requires little effort or skill to pull off, and despite being the highest single damaging skill in the entire game, still feels weak because of how essential it is to Bladesworn, and how easy it is to mess up. There are so many negative thoughts I have about this skill that it's actually hard to articulate it into words, but I'll do my best. The first being that it is the antithesis to Guild Wars 2's fast paced combat; no moving, no dodging, and waiting several seconds to push one button. One slip up of the player's fingers, and it's all over. There have even been some EXTREMELY unfortunate circumstances where I, say, use a fully charged Dragon Slash, watch the animation go off, watch my skillbar change back to Gunsaber, and I just so happen to move forward, which for some reason CANCELS the animation and in the end no damage comes out. Nevermind the countless ways a Dragon Trigger can be canceled on purpose for someone interested in keeping themselves alive--it's so frustratingly easy to accidentally cancel it and lose all of your DPS. Bringing this back to the title, the End of Dragon Strike Bosses make it such a hassle to actually land this skill on them: Mai Trinn does NOT stop dodging, moving, or turning herself invincible for the first part of Aetherblade Hideout. Scarlet's phase is a hazardous minefield and her slams make the already strenuous timing of Dragon Trigger an absolute headache. Ankka constantly jumps and gives herself invincibility animations, and her fight is bloated with floor traps, crowd control suction, one-shot exploding Quaggans that require constant movement, and more ways to make a Bladesworn move at the worst possible time. Kaineng Outlook is the only time where Bladesworn starts to become a little bit fun, until you hit the final phase of Minister Li--trying to stand still for a few seconds to do your DPS rotation in a phase that is bloated with movement and positioning based mechanics that will kill you or your entire static is just asking to have a bad time. The problem that arises from this is how fewer and further between Dragon Trigger's can become, and when almost the entirety of your DPS output revolves around that ONE skill that is mind numbingly easy to miss, cancel, be knocked out of, or just use at a bad time, that isn't fun. Nevermind the fact that I think Dragon Trigger isn't fun to use; it's frustrating to try and use. A lot of other classes in the game do have some skill, or group of skills, that they rely on for heavy DPS; but not only is Bladesworn's lifeline connected to this one skill, but failing to use it correctly is monumentally punishing to the player in a way that turns it into high risk, mediocre (but mandatory) reward. The Flow required to actually go into Dragon Trigger goes against Warrior's core principles as well: Adrenaline is a simple, straight forward mechanic with the intent to reward the usage of skills and abilities with a single, powerful burst skill. Bladesworn, on the other hand, doesn't do that; the flow is generated passively, with little input from the player. There are ways to increase its output, but they're all passive, lackluster skills with no actual power behind them. And even once that is built up, it takes further time to actually channel the intended move that you were waiting for the entire time. Make no mistake, just one or two flow skills in the middle of combat makes its presence abundant, but when it all circles back to standing still and waiting, it gives the class the feeling of further passivity; you're not actively trying to get flow. You're just going through your skills (one of them is quite easily my least favorite weapon that I'll get to in a moment), until you can stand still, wait, and pray that your one 'good' skill actually lands. If it doesn't because you: Pushed the movement skill too early, were forced to dodge, got CC'd, your target was smart enough to get out of range (or just so happened to jump/dash out of range like a few EoD strike bosses), your target turns invincible, and so, so, so many other things. What I'm trying to get at with this is that Bladesworn's excessive reliance on this one skill that goes against the core of what makes Guild Wars 2 fun feeds into an endless cycle of what is, in my opinion, just disheartening. It does feel nice to pull of a Dragon Trigger, but that's the only thing about the class that feels nice; and what that's the only thing that you need to do, while simultaneously being the one thing that is so easy to mess up, it's not satisfying as much as it is frustrating. The last bit of criticism I want to tack on here is that I don't think the forced weapon on Bladesworn is a great weapon at all; its damage is lackluster and its cooldowns are excessive, making the elite skill Tactical Reload a necessity rather than a complimentary skill to take. Its synergy with Dragon Trigger is nonexistent; nothing you do in Gunsaber really affects your Dragon Trigger aside from Fierce as Fire, which even then, Pistol 5 does a much, MUCH better job at fulfilling that quota. On the topic of skills, Overcharged Cartridges was a nice change from the previous one, but it adds yet another small thing to cast before using Dragon Trigger; and its complete lack of any sound effect, very subtle animation, and slight change in its skillbar doesn't make it easy to keep track of whether my character actually used the thing. In the past I've tried vouching for Gunsaber to not only be a stronger weapon, but it (and explosions in general) to have a more substantial impact on using Dragon Trigger. I'm certain there's someone else out there that's made much better suggestions than I could ever, but I wanted to voice my opinion now that I'm more or less taking a break from the game; as it stands, Bladesworn is an incredibly unfun specialization to use. Its damage is fantastic, and I'm sure the top players perform very well with it. I couldn't be more glad that Warrior has FINALLY gotten something that can be seen as a top tier DPS. But the amount of hurdles a Bladesworn needs to both jump through and avoid in a class that is excessively reliant on one slow, lackluster skill is what really brings down the specialization. That, and everything else just seems like a mish-mash of skills you can use in the meantime before you expose yourself and pray nothing bad happens when you go into Dragon Trigger. Mai Trin, please do not dodge, do your revenant invulnerability attack, or dash when I have finished charging my one DPS move and push that one button; and I sure hope that I don't press the W key too early after watching its animation go off. I think that's about it. Thanks for reading.

Well here we are again. I'm back for some Bladesworn Feedback, coincidentally this is the only Elite Specialization I will give feedback on because it's the only one I play. Because I only play Warrior--I'm literally a one trick pony in this game. So, starting things off, it's good to see that some of the feedback in the previous iteration of Bladesworn was addressed, and has resulted in some general improvements. But overall, I feel as though the class has been unnecessarily nerfed. There was some nice changes that opened up build diversity (being able to switch weapons out of Dragon Trigger), but the nerf to Dragon Slash and the lack of any changes to Gunsaber does make the specialization weaker than I think it needs to be. I will say right now that I am biased into thinking that Bladesworn should be an incredibly strong DPS specialization because Warriors have been relegated to being Bannerslaves for the past nine years. In most instances, Warriors lack both the support utility and damage to compete with some other classes that can just break the game on their own, and I think it's high time Warrior has been given a proper, true, heavy-hitting DPS specialization. And that seems to be the intention behind Bladesworn, which I like. But there are some things holding it back that I'm going to get in to. I will once again preface that I say all of this in the perspective of someone whose interest is exclusively in difficult PvE content, with maybe some Open World sprinkled in. I speak about Raids and Strike Missions, but primarily raids. PvP and WvW don't interest me anymore, but from what I can tell, Bladesworn isn't all that great in PvP. But to me, that's fine. As I said in my last post, Spellbreaker literally screams: "I'm a PvP specialization," so the thought of taking anything else a detriment to whomever wants to. Now let's dive in. I'll first start things out with thorough feedback on the changes made. Dragon Trigger is a bit of a tricky one for me to dissect. Essentially what has happened is its execution has been faster in compensation for its damage being low. Given how atrociously slow and vulnerable a Warrior was, this is a good thing. However, the damage nerf I think was a bit too much. I understand the need to nerf it, and I think it would be TOO good if the old damage was kept, but being cut by more than half does make it feel weaker than it needs to be. It raises the question of why should I put all of my eggs in one basket that doesn't hit as hard as it should, when I could just use two axes, go Berserk, and spam Decapitate for a ton of damage? And I'm speaking exclusively about the fully charged versions--with this nerf, Daring Dragon's damage is laughably low. Against a golem, a build using it pulled off less than half of the DPS as one that didn't use it. While I think the nerf to its damage is a necessity, and the reduced charge time is a good thing for more active gameplay, I think it might be a little too much. One thing I will say about Dragon Trigger, actually, is that all of its Dragon Slash iterations should get better visuals. When charging up, when unleashing Force, Boost, or Reach, the visual flair is lackluster. Something as kitten as "Dragon Slash" should maybe have.... something Draconic about it? And having a clearer visual indication for when Dragon Slash is Charging would be kitten. And an aura that gets stronger the higher the charge level becomes? This is nothing related to gameplay balance, but just something I want for Bladesworn, and ESPECIALLY Dragon Trigger. It's the signature part of Bladesworn's kit, and I think it could use some love and actual draconic visuals. Moving on, the Gunsaber skill changes are unfortunately almost nonexistent. Which is weird because I know for a fact most people do NOT like it. I'm hoping there are changes in the works, but Gunsaber isn't a fun weapon to use. I'm first of all glad that Break Step (Skill 5) has been fixed so you don't awkwardly go through your target. But why is there nothing to fix the weird end lag on Blooming Fire (2)? (Use 2 followed by 3, and then 4 followed by 3, and you will see EXACTLY what I mean.) Why does the auto attack animation reuse greatswords? I'll get to the skills in depth later, but I just want to express my surprise that Gunsaber itself received very, very little changes. Same thing for Pistol. Most people, myself included, don't seem to like it too much, so it's disappointing to see that there are only movement related changes made to it. The changes to Flow Stabilizer are weird considering the fact that Warrior has plenty of options for Fury. On-demand Stability during Dragon Trigger for a specialization where even the smallest bit of CC can completely break its main damage source was needed. And it's unfortunate that it's gone. Weird that Signet of Fury didn't receive a change I pointed out. It has no cast time, but takes you out of Dragon Trigger. But things like Shouts and Flow Stabilizer don't. For Fierce as Fire... Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Good that the burning damage was gone, as it was really useless for a specialization that is power only. Its new buff is a pretty nice touch. And would make for a good alternative for the ... old Lush Forest. .... Speaking of, Lush Forest changes. Why? The old Lush Forest was really, REALLY good. The reason why people took it was because it was THAT good, and the other two options were useless in comparison. With the changes to Fierce as Fire, I can see that these two could compete reasonably well. However, now that Lush Forest was nerfed into the ground, Fierce as Fire is the new go-to option. I find it incredibly ironic that the changes to Lush Forest were made because people would empty their ammunition skills to proc it as often as possible, while Fierce as Fire's new effects encourage the EXACT same playstyle, just with different effects. While I don't mind Lush Forest not recharging Sheathe Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger, I think the nerf was way too much. The one second internal cool down is unnecessary, and given how long the Gunsaber's cool downs are, when are people actually going to have more than one chance to use the first ammunition skill without using Tactical Reload? Dragonscale Defense's change was obviously made because of Flow Stabilizer's change. But one stack of stability is not enough. Talking about the last three traits in unison... Immortal Dragon is fine and all, but with the damage nerf to Dragon Slash, could the healing be boosted a little please? Or what if it granted you Stability for every charge gained during Dragon Slash instead of Protection? I could see myself using it if that were the case. Unyielding Dragon is good. I love where it's at. Daring Dragon is still pretty useless due to its extremely low damage, which has been nerfed further due to the overall Dragon Slash nerfs. But I do like how the bug is fixed. Overall, I think some of the changes made here are for the better. And if only those changes were made, I would consider Bladesworn an amazing specialization that would just need Gunsaber fixed. Unfortunately, I think the nerf to Dragon Slash was perhaps a little too hefty, and the change to Lush Forest was unnecessary and has now placed Fierce as Fire on the top with the exact same playstyle you wanted to avoid. Honestly I would love it if the old Lush Forest was a minor trait--that would be AMAZING. But let's move on to things not addressed in the patch notes, especially the Gunsaber. Because I still don't like it. First, however, I will start this pistol. I still don't really like this weapon, although I think it does have its niche use of being more of a burst option compared to Whirling Axe. It has slightly lower damage, but it is much faster. However, I feel as though Warrior needs something better than this. I don't know what it is, but Pistol is just basically a different damage option that can work a little better with Bladesworn due to its reliance on ammunition. And provides nothing else of benefit. Now I can get to Gunsaber. At this point I think Dragon Slash is just a matter of damage adjusting and visual enhancing, but Gunsaber still feels like the worst part of this specialization. In the previous version of Bladesworn with Sheathe Gunsaber going on cool down after Dragon Slash, Bladesworns were basically forced to camp Gunsaber, and didn't like it because of how lackluster the weapon felt. Now with that gone, Bladesworns are likely seldom using their Gunsabers for anything purposeful other than to spend ammunition charges to gain stacks of Fierce as Fire. With the changes made to Lush Forest, it's become even more apparent how ridiculously long the cool downs for Gunsaber are. And it becomes even more obvious when someone doesn't take Tactical Reload. The lowest is Twenty five seconds, and the highest is forty. With recharge times that high, I would expect these skills to either hit extremely hard, or provide an insane amount of utility. They do neither. While I understand it's there to encourage Tactical Reload, if that is absent, Warrior now has a weapon with cool downs too long to ever be considered useful. Once again, the auto attack chain is nothing special because explosions are nothing special (disappointing that there is still just a single minor trait that interacts with them). And, yet again, the greatsword animation is reused. Please give us something different. The 2 skill, Blooming Fire, STILL has that nasty end lag on it. Its damage is negligent, its cool down is insane, and once again, its only purpose is the lackluster explosion feature. Artillery Slash, the 3 skill, is nice just because of how fast it is. No cast time, half a second recast. Amazing. But it does less damage, has a much longer cool down, and has less utility than Throw Axe. Once again, relegating its use only for making explosions and expending charges. (That's going to be a common theme for Gunsaber). Cyclone Trigger should, as I said last time, maybe reflect? Or what if it blocks a projectile it generates an explosion? That would be neat, and even more so if explosions did anything other than generate a Ferocity buff. And then Break Step is forgettable. It's mobility with little damage and range. Though it's weird that enemies are damaged at the STARTING position, as if this is supposed to be a run away method. Even though Greatsword has two much better, more mobile skills to do just that. Once again that is the general feel of Gunsaber. Because of its low damage, low utility, and extremely long cool downs, it just feels like a worse weapon option. And the unique part of it, the explosions, just give you a ferocity buff that is so easy to generate that I mostly forgot it was even there. In addition to the lackluster use, Gunsaber also does not even synergize with its own mechanic, Flow, at all. The only thing that does is Axe through Axe Mastery. While I understand Flow is supposed to generate slowly, the problem is that it generates too slow at the start of combat, but once an encounter has had enough time to get going, there is too much of it. This was the case even before Dragon Trigger consumed less flow per charge, but now it's even more apparent. With just using Axes, or having one simple utility skill, Flow is overabundant, and nothing is done with it. Wouldn't a trait that generated flow for creating explosions be nice? This also ties in to the Utility Skills. Flow Stabilizer once again remains the only one that is worth taking, aside from Tactical Reload. But Tactical Reload isn't worth taking because it's that GOOD anymore--it's worth taking because Gunsaber is worthless without it. The cool downs are just too long. And with the nerf to Lush Forest, it's unbearable. So why bother? Take Signet of Rage, generate Flow, and stay out of Gunsaber as much as you can. Is that the kind of playstyle that should be encouraged? Bulletproof Barrier and Electric Fence will always confuse me. The former because I don't know why or how it's supposed to synergize with Bladesworn at all. And the ladder because... the same thing. But Bulletproof Barrier is a bit of an exception because it is the Warrior's only consistent way of blocking projectiles without keeping themselves preoccupied. Electric Fence, however, is just a mediocre AOE hard soft CC that can situationally immobilize people. Why take that over the many Physical skills that can use Crowd Control? I don't know. And again, no flow for either of these. Just Explosions for that Ferocity buff you'll have up at all times anyway. Dragonspike Mine has a bit too long of a cool down in my opinion. It's nice that it actually interacts with Dragon Trigger, something I feel as though more of the utilities should do. Now let us finally go through traits one at a time. With the Major Adept Traits, I don't think there's a problem with them. Especially with Unseen Sword now that weapon swapping is plausible. I already said earlier that I think Dragonscale Defense should give more Stability--because it's very much needed. And for the Major Master Traits, Lush Forest should go back to its former self. Fierce as Fire is a very good change, but is ironically encouraging the exact same playstyle they wanted to avoid with changing Lush FOrest for different reasons. But please don't change it. Let people do what they think is best. Unshakable Mountain is forgettable. What if generating an explosion created a barrier? Guns and Glory is, for the millionth time, the only way that Explosions matter in Bladesworn. And it's a buff that is almost impossible NOT to keep up. Almost every Gunsaber skill is an explosion. Pistol 5 is an explosion. Dragon Slash is an explosion. While I think this skill should be kept, I once again think Explosions need another purpose. And then Major Grandaster traits. ... I've already went into detail on each of these above, so I don't think there's anything more to say. Most of my suggestions for improvements are embedded within the discussion of everything surrounding Bladesworn. While I do like the idea for this specialization, in concept, I still think it needs some refining. The removal of Sheathe Gunsaber's cool down from using Dragon Trigger was a godsend that opened up a lot of build diversity options. However, the Gunsaber, the Utility Skills, and the Traits do not seem to encourage this in the least bit. They encourage never using Gunsaber because it's too weak, to never take anything other than old Warrior Utility skills and banners because they are your ONLY way of generating flow, and the Traits only give minor boosts to damage or defense at the cost of basically just playing the class. While I do like the damage boosts, they are underwhelming because, again, Gunsaber is underwhelming, and Dragon Slash's nerf damage is a bit much. I think a faster Dragon Slash that is slightly weaker is the right move, but I think it's a little TOO weak right now. Bladesworn will never see competitive PvP use, but to me that's fine because, again... Spellbreaker is a thing. However, in Open World and Instanced PvE scenarios, it is far too slow with too little damage. Meanwhile there are classes like Mesmer and Guardian that can explode tons of damaging effects all at the same time while never relegating themselves to standing still for that long. Bladesworn needs to go through one skill at a time, wait for it to finish, wait for Flow to build up, switch to Gunsaber, and then wait two and a half seconds to actually pump out some damage. And then it just watches its flow meter and charges sit there doing nothing for the rest of the time until Dragon Trigger is off cool down. I'd love to see more interactions with its explosions and Charges. I'd love to see a complete rework of its utility skills to allow Warriors to become something other than Bannerslaves, and I would love to see the Gunsaber become its own weapon other than a reskinned Greatsword with lackluster damage and worse mobility. It has potential, and I certainly can't cover everything I want or the problems I have in this post, but I hope this was sufficient. Some of what I have said echoes my first post, but that's because I saw no mention of it. Dragon Slash was something appropriate to focus on, but the Lush Forest bit was confusing to me because Bladesworn has many, many other problems other than a playstyle you guys don't like, but created with Gunsaber's exceptionally long cool downs and the inability to sheathe it after Dragon Trigger. One of those problems have been fixed. I hope more is in the future. I hope to see more artistic flair with the specialization as well. Right now it's kind of lacking, and I know more can be done. That's about it for me. Thanks for making this specialization a thing.

Thank you!

Time to throw my hat into the ring. Although a lot of the criticism so far that's been addressed shares a fair bit of what I have to say. Talking about the specialization itself from a conceptual level: I really, really love it. I was concerned about what Warrior would get due to the dwindling number of weapons that we don't already have access to, and I think from a conceptual level this knocked it out of the park. Granted, when I saw the reveal I thought that maybe what would happen is offhand pistol can be combined with a main hand weapon (mace would be a crowd control based two handed weapon, sword would be condition based, and axe would be power based). Different than what I imagined, but nonetheless good. Though I will say the idea that this is supposed to be a "calm and focused" kind of Warrior has already been taken by the Spellbreaker. While I do get that Berserker is something that's Arenanet wants to conceptually distance themselves from, I don't think we need to constantly try and stay away from the part of the Warrior that's... y'know. Not so calm. Aesthetically speaking, different gunsaber skins would be nice, as well as the ability to sheathe it out of combat. But now let's get on to the actual skills, which I have a lot to say about. Keep in mind I say this after spending around 12 hours whacking a Combat Golem. My interest in Guild Wars 2 is almost exclusively difficult PvE content. I will in no way say I have PvP experience with this specialization, but based on what I know about Guild Wars 2 PvP, there are some assumptions I will make. And at the end of this I'll also go over how I think it could perform in Fractals. Let's start with the Pistol, since I think this is the most forgettable part about this entire elite specialization, which is kind of a shame. Creating a new offhand weapon for the Warrior will always be a challenge because Axe's damage still remains king, Mace is for crowd control and decent damage, offhand sword and torch (Berserker) is a must for condition, and Warhorn is... under whelming. Warrior's support abilities in general are very underwhelming compared to the absolute insanity some of the more overtuned classes of the game can pump out. But that's fine. I would never consider a Warrior a support based class unless an entire specialization is centered around it. Why are the skills underwhelming? It's obvious the intent for this is damage, it contains no crowd control or utility. But why would you ever take pistol over an axe? The pistol has very little range advantage, the self knock back is questionable at best, and Gunstinger (4) is a necessity to get another 6 charge shot in. Coincidentally, it has the same cool down as Whirling Axe. So overall, Warrior has been given an off hand that does not out range or out damage axe off hand. Extremely underwhelming, and quite unnecessary. The vulnerability is mediocre compared to the traded off damage, and the aegis feels like a weird cherry on top. But who cares about the pistol? I'm here for the Gunsaber. It's a mixed bag. The auto attack chain unfortunately just reuses the Greatsword attack animation, and does ever so slightly more damage (still less than Axe.) Its explosion is pointless, given how pointless explosions are in general (I'll get to that later). Blooming Fire (2) is also a damage skill whose damage is mediocre at best, and whose recharge time is absolutely insane. (Insane recharge timers will be a common theme for a lot of these skills). Its damage is alright--less than Hundred Blades, but you can move while casting it and it's faster. Still less than Whirling Axe. Which lets you move and strikes enemies around you. There is also a very, very clunky and unusual end lag at its animation that can REALLY be felt when you try and cast Artillery Slash (3) afterwards. Speaking of, let's get to it! For an instant cast ability, this thing does some pretty good damage. Cripple is nice, range is decent, combo finisher, but the recharge time... holy hell the recharge time. Thirty five seconds!? Let's compare that to Throw Axe, the Axe 3 ability (noticing a pattern here?) Ranged physical projectile combo finisher that deals decent damage and gives cripple. With a recharge time of TEN SECONDS. There are only 2 charges, and it has a cast time of only a quarter of a second. But it also gets the bonus of doing up to double damage based on your target's health. The cripple plus this passive makes it ideal for chasing down or finishing off opponents. Cyclone Trigger (4). Uh... Huh. Neat skill, but it does less damage that Dual Chop (Axe 4), the blocks missiles is something that's a little pointless considering Warriors could just use a shield off hand, or one of this specialization's own utility skills (Bulletproof Barrier). All in all, this skill isn't that bad, but it seems to not fit very well in the specialization. But wait, there's a recharge time of FORTY SECONDS. 1 second recast between each cast, which is not bad considering Rifle was butchered with a 2 and a half second recast time, but what's so powerful about this skill that justified a forty second count recharge!? Last, and very certainly least, Break Step (5). It's the mobility skill whose damage is negligible, recharge time is unnecessarily long at 40 seconds, and grants a random boon that you could just get for Axe 2 (which does more damage). But worse yet is how freaking clunky this skill is. It'd be nice if you stopped at your target instead of just going right through them. For a melee weapon, I get that this is supposed to be a gap closer, but Warrior already has that in its Greatsword (3 and 5). The dash would synergize well with one of its traits if it wasn't such a long cool down, and pointlessly clunky in close quarters. Overall, every single skill in the Gunsaber just does something less effectively than what Warrior already has. Axe skills all do more damage and grant the same self boons (plus quickness), have a faster recharge time, faster cast time, have very little end lag, and is just an overall better choice for pure damage. And for utility, Warrior has it spread across its other weapons. Granted, most of this utility is useful in PvP only, but I never expected Bladesworn to be a PvP specialization. Spellbreaker is, and will likely always, be king for Warrior PvP. But since Gunsaber is required to take for Bladesworn, it tries and ultimately fails to make up for the lack of utility you'll be getting for other weapons. Its damage barely justifies its existence, and its self beneficial utility is laughable at best (which isn't unusual for Warrior considering how overtuned classes like Mesmer are.) What makes the gunsaber stand out, or at least is supposed to, is the little "explosive" tag at the end of 4 out of 5 of its abilities (would it have killed balance to make it all 5?) What does this do? Nothing except interact with a single trait, granting Ferocity whenever an explosion is triggered. That's a cool buff, make no mistake, but is this weapon (plus the pistol's) true potential really in just getting 250 Ferocity? When Blood Reaction (Berserker) gives a huge percentage based on precision? Before I move on, what would I fix about the weapons? Pistol either needs a range or a damage upgrade--something to make it worthwhile to take over axe. Because as of right now, it's a slower, clunkier, and subpar axe. The same kind of goes for the Gunsaber. Greatsword ironically has a lot of mobility, which is useful in PvP. Gunsaber lacks this, and lacks the damage as well to keep up with Axe/Axe. Its refresh cool downs are absolutely absurd, making the Elite skill a necessity and not even a complement to the kit (something Headbutt did a lot better for Berserker). The end lag on 2 absolutely has to be done with, and the explosions NEED something more to interact with than just a passive ferocity buff. I'll make more suggestions for that later. And then there's Dragon Trigger. Good old Dragon Trigger. When I saw the damage this thing pumped out in the live demonstration, I LAUGHED and couldn't wait to try it out. And, well... wow did I never imagine standing completely still for so long to be so awkward. In Open World, I think it'd be faster to just kill random mobs with literally any other weapon. In PvP, even with Daring Dragon (I'll get to traits in detail later), the damage is really, REALLY not justified. So that means this is all to use on big bad guys. Bosses. And you know what? That's fine. The charge time is a little excessive, but nonetheless the damage is kind of worth it (In PvE alone). The repositioning skill could use more visual flair, and the Aegis skill is... yeah, I get the need for it. But the worst part about this is how cancelling out of it just gives you NOTHING. back. Those Charges don't stay there (at least for a small duration) to maybe set up a clever use for another combat encounter, or to trick enemies into thinking you're going to use Dragon Slash only to stow your weapon and save it for when they least expect it. It's a bit unsual how the Charges are visible without entering Dragon Trigger, even though their use is exclusively in using Dragon Slash (That'll come up again in one of my suggestions). The thing about Dragon Trigger is it's hard to justify it in anything other than open world events, or instanced bosses. Which hey, might be the point. But the problem then becomes that outside of that--where does the gunsaber fit? Its own damage and utility is dwarfed in every way by Axe/axe alone, but it seems as though Arenanet is so desperate for us to use gunsaber that they lock Dragon Trigger behind switching to it. What makes Berserker so good is that it's useful in almost every scenario, and its payoff ranges from the instant you activate it and use your burst skill, to fifteen seconds down the line when you've completely demolished a big baddie. Dragon Trigger, on the other hand, is situational at best, and while its damage is nice, seldom justifies the amount invested into it (gaining flow and then standing completely still, careful to not use a single action that would break it unless you lose all of your progress). Adding insult to injury, it's unclear just what skills break Dragon Trigger. Obviously skills with a cast timer will do it. But why do some of my Signets without a cast time (Signet of Fury) break Dragon Trigger, while Shouts and Flow Stabilizer don't? Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger are the main pulls of this specialization. But the former is a worse DPS weapon that you're forced into using with no real synergy with the rest of the specialization (due to its inability to generate the needed Flow to actually use Dragon Trigger). The ladder, on the other had, is a hyper specific situational big damage ability that will never see competitive use, is only good for big bad bosses, and just makes you stand there awkwardly for five seconds doing nothing in what's should instead be a more interactive and precise use of skills and cool downs. Compare using Berserk and trying to get as many Decapitates off as possible to using Dragon Trigger and pressing one button after a set amount of time. I get that the theme of Gunsaber is supposed to be "calm" and "focused," but that doesn't mean it needs to be boring. I'll say this right now: Dragon Trigger will NEVER be balanced in PvP. As it is, it's underwhelming. But the only thing that could ever justify building up that much flow and making yourself stand completely still for five seconds--hoping that your target does not dodge, use crowd control, an invulnerability, or their 3 second burst combo to annihilate your health bar (2 instances of Aegis won't save you here)--is one shotting them. And we all know that can't happen. I wouldn't want it to anyway. But let's move on from the Gunsaber and go on to the rest of the class, the utility skills and the traits. Warrior Utilities are a little bit tricky. Because in every single case other than open world and PvP/WvW, you will only be able to take one utility trait. Why? Because banners. Fractals? Banners. Raids? Banners. Strike Missions? Banners (I'd hope so anyway). And as I already established, Bladesworn is very obviously not a PvP specialization. It's not as though I can blame groups for wanting nothing but Banners from Warriors, though. The boons/support they provide is negligent compared to the absolute insanity of specializations like Firebrand, Druid, and Chronomancer. Stances and Signets can be useful, but in an organized group, provide nothing new or substantial. Physical skills are good for Crowd Control, and paired with Peak Performance can give some decent damage boosts. (Peak Performance, however, is useless in Dragon Trigger because it lasts for 6 seconds, and Dragon Trigger needs 5 seconds to cast. Buffing Dragon Slash by 10% sounds nice until you realize that just taking Signet of Power gives a better buff without you even doing anything). The gist of what I'm trying to get at is Warrior's utility skills need to be GOOD to ever try and justify taking them over Banners that groups will demand you play. And even if you don't take banners, it's not as though the alternatives are even worth taking most of the time. Spellbreaker is almost exclusively for PvP, and Rage skills are taken for increasing Berserk's duration, and nothing more. Combat Stimulant (Healing Utilty) is pretty nifty. The boons it gives to self are justified for a power class (though I would have liked to have seen more might), and it synergizes pretty well with the rest of the kit. Can't use it during Dragon Trigger, though. And that's a bummer. Flow Stabilizer is the ONLY good utility aside from the Elite of this specialization. Seriously. This thing goes well with Warrior's own abilities providing stability, it combos with itself, and it helps out the entire specialization. Fantastic design on this one. Bulletproof Barrier is good for PvP/WvW scenarios, a place where Gunsaber likely won't thrive. So I don't think this'll ever be useful in PvP. If it REFLECTED projecticles then that could have a lot more applications, even in raids. But nah, can't have Warriors doing anything other specializations can do a lot easier, can we? Also the fact that it does not generate flow is kind of disappointing. Same thing goes for Electric Fence, a CC skill that has the potential to immobilize a bunch of enemies that happen to be in a line and are already crippled. Why would you take this over Throw Bolas for a targeted immobilize or Stomp for a CC breaking AOE knock up? I haven't the slightest idea. Dragonspike Mine is the only other than Flow Stablizer that seems to synergize with Gunsaber (disappointing that none of them do). Except I don't know why evading backwards is needed for a melee specialization. And it also doesn't have charges, unlike what the rest of the specialization is supposed to have. Tactical Reload is a REALLY good Elite skill. But the problem is it's a necessity when playing Bladesworn due to you being forced to take Gunsaber. It synergizes well with older skills like Shouts (that you'll likely never use because other specializations can give boons a lot easier), but nonetheless it does add to a very decent flow for a DPS rotation or in making sure the Gunsaber itself isn't just sitting there auto attacking, waiting for its 25-40 second recharge timers for mediocre damage. 2 out of 5 utilties are worth taking in my opinion. Which isn't terrible, but is really bad on Warrior due to the immensely lackluster utility kit warriors already have, relegating them to be bannerslaves until the end of time. Now I can finally get to the Traits. And I'll first start things off a little backwards with Guns and Glory. Because this is the one, the ONLY part of Bladesworn that interacts with explosions, providing a small ferocity buff that stacks duration. That's... neat. The buff is neat, the duration is so long you're likely to never run out of it, but is that really ALL we get? We get a cool unique explosion mechanic on every ability that just does mediocre damage and give us more Ferocity? Meanwhile Berserker gave us what was it... 7 to 14% more ferocity based on precision!? And a 20% damage buff!? Plus 300 power in Berserk? I get that this is specialization is--like Spellbreaker--trying to distance itself from being Berserker, but it's very obviously a power based DPS class with burst potential. Thematically different, but functionally the same at its core. But let's move on to the other Traits, which there isn't much to talk about. First line of traits has some decent options, all centered around increasing Flow. It's nice to have this built in to the Traits rather than being forced to take certain Armaments or other Warrior utility skills you'll likely never take due to being a Bannerslave. Unseen Sword, however, is a bit odd considering the fact that using Dragon Trigger/Dragon Slash puts your weapon swap on cool down. (I'll get that more later.) River's Flow is obviously intended to work with Combat Stimulant, since Warrior's other heal skills are on far too long of a cool down to ever be reliable for it. Swift as the Wind has a lot more applications, but they're very limited because--once again--you're restricted to Gunsaber most of the time. Which has a single, janky movement skill. All in all, this trait line is conceptually wise, but doesn't synergize as effectively. Which is ironic because core Warrior traits synergize much better with building flow (Burst Mastery comes to mind immediately). Dragonscale Defense is meh. I'd replace it with... I dunno'. Maybe something that doesn't force your weapon swap on cool down after using Dragon Trigger? Or delete that mechanic to begin with. Dragonscale Defense is just forgettable. The second line... wow. What an absolute waste. Lush Forest. Always take Lush Forest. Why would you ever want Burning damage on a power specialization? Or a small, useless barrier? Lush Forest. Nice design, but it stands out only because it's the obvious choice. Already went over Guns and Glory. There NEEDS to be a better buff, or more interaction with explosions than just this lame trait. Finally we get to the last 3, each buffing Dragon Trigger. I think these are fine--a heal, an almost guaranteed Dragon Trigger, and... Daring Dragon is really finnicky. Because Dragon Trigger goes on cool down if you don't activate it within like half a second. And the damage on a level 5 Dragon Trigger is so ridiculously low this is never worth taking. My impression of the Gunsaber traits is that most of these should just be defaulted, Lush Flow specifically. They don't synergize too well with Bladesworn, much less the Gunsaber itself. They're underwhelming, and it's quite astonishing that Core warrior traits do much better for damage and flow than the Gunsaber's own trait line does. So what are my overall impressions with Bladesworn, and what do I think should be fixed? Because rather than complaining about how underwhelming a lot of it is, I have a few solutions in mind. Pistol, firstly, is forgettable. I don't think making a main hand pistol would remedy the issue, but I think some range and more damage would do it wonders so it could at least hold a candle to the absolute beast that is Axe 4 and 5. The Gunsaber itself is very, very slow with little damage to back it up. It can have some okay-ish burst options, but its cool downs and end time lag, specifically on Blooming Fire (2) is a really, really janky rotation killer. Its explosions need to have more than just a Ferocity bonus attached to it. This basically goes for the rest of Bladesworn. Most of the older weapons, traits, and even utility skills synergize better with Bladesworn than its own kit. There are more options for building flow outside of Bladesworn than in Bladesworn itself. Explosions on the Armaments are negligent, there's better ways of using crowd control, and the reset on Dragon Trigger with Dragonspike Mine is okay on an otherwise useless skill. The thing about Flow is there's either too much or too little of it. Literally taking one or two Flow generating Utility skills, (Flow Stabilizer, the currently bugged Signet of Fury, Berserker stance, or a combination of things like Balanced Stance and Flow Stablizer) generates so much flow that Dragon Trigger's cool down can't keep up with itself. Taking these out of the picture, however, and Flow generates too slowly. It'd be nice if I could switch to Axe immediately after Dragon Trigger and take advantage of something like Axe Mastery to get it all back, but I can't do that. My weapon swap goes on cool down for trying to play Bladesworn. Gunsaber itself provides no way of giving Flow, so the weapon doesn't even synergize with its own specialization. And the traits range from being acceptable to underwhelming. Lush Forest is so good that I don't know why the other 2 exist in the first place, but then there's things like Unseen Sword, which doesn't synergize well with a specialization that puts your weapon skill on cool down more often than it needs to be, counteracting something like Fast Hands that hs been a staple for Warrior's generally underwhelming DPS. The specialization has some neat ideas, but it doesn't synergize with itself while sometimes synergizing too well or not effectively with older traits, weapons, and utility skills. Lush Forest and Tactical reload are so necessary to take that they're literally the only option for making sure you're not sitting there auto attacking. While other traits and utilities outside of Bladesworn improve its toolkit in different ways, its own traits and utilities make it necessary to even function with more than just auto attacks. In neither Spellbreaker nor Berserker was this the case So what would I fix? First of all, Explosions need another purpose. Maybe there's a trait that generates flow for every explosion made? Or what if we can LEAVE Dragon Trigger without activating Dragon Slash, and keep those 10 charges that sit there and do nothing until we enter Dragon Trigger? What if using Gunsaber skills consumes those to generate explosions that can then do a lot more damage, or reduce Gunsaber's own excessively long cool downs? Maybe explosions reduce the cool down of your ammunition skills, giving the specialization nice synergy with its own weapon and older ammunition weapons. (Rifle is still borderline useless). Or what if Explosions generate charges that will quickly diminish, thereby giving a small window of reducing the exceptionally long charge time of Dragon Slash? Like what if using Blooming Fire gives 3 of the 10 charges, but they will disappear in 2 seconds or so if you don't go into Dragon Trigger? And maybe they could simultaneously be used to power up Cyclone Trigger, giving it explosive properties for more damage and launching out shrapnel/reflecting missiles? This last part is more about the Charges, but I feel as though they should have more of a purpose than just Dragon Slash. They sit there above your weapon bar, completely empty, taunting you with more purpose, but ultimately they do nothing but empower Dragon Slash. Secondly, for the love of God remove the mechanic that puts Sheathe Gunsaber/weapon swap on cool down after Dragon Trigger. I know the intent of this is to use Lush Forest to reduce its cool down and get back to your other weapons, but why make players jump through hoops to do the one thing that makes Guild Wars stand out? As as I said earlier, Flow can generate so fast with one or two utilities that swapping to another weapon--which DOESN'T have access to Dragon Trigger (that's something I'd change as well) can be an absolute waste of time and energy. The weapon takes away both swapping weapon in combats, and basically using any other weapon due to needing to camp Gunsaber for Dragon Trigger. If you don't want this to happen, either remove the need to unsheathe your Gunsaber for Dragon Trigger, or rid the weapon swap cool down after using Dragon Trigger. Getting rid of both of them would be supreme. Or maybe improving Gunsaber's ludicrously low damage with exceptionally high cool downs could be a good start. I'm certain there will be other people who voice their PvP changes, but I have nothing to input on improving it. It's obviously not a PvP specialization. Spellbreaker's name basically screams it. So I wouldn't want to take this into PvP to begin with. But based on the feedback I've seen, Dragon Slash needs to do more for less. Lastly, the utility skills that aren't Flow Stabilizer need to be completely reworked. The only way they synergize with Bladesworn is explosions--which are plentiful--and resetting Dragon Trigger's Cool Down, which is unnecessary because it's so painfully slow that I wouldn't want to re enter it right away, and flow generates at a fast enough pace to keep up with its cool down with just 1 or 2 right utilities or traits. What if some of the Utility skills immediately puts the Warrior in Gunsaber from another weapon, and performs some cool attack that consumes flow or Charges (if my idea for Charges were implemented?) Or what if they, themselves, consume Charges to become more powerful and thereby generate more flow? Or what if they actually generated flow to begin with? Why is Flow Stabilizer the only one in all of this that generates flow, while every single Rage skill in Berserker increases the duration of Berserk? I tried this specialization for hours on the DPS golem, and got some pretty kitten solid numbers after experimenting (about 30K DPS). The problem is that it's so slow, limiting, and isn't synergized with itself that it feels as though there just isn't enough to make it fun. Conceptually this is a sound, solid specialization that I adore. But in practice, it leaves a lot to be desired from its own traits, utilities, and ultimately underwhelming weapon. I'm going to stop this post since it's already dragged on enough. Hopefully my breakdown of each skill, utility, and desired improvements can be read by someone!