I messed with this spec in PvE and WvW; here are my thoughts. I've never been a really optimal player, I main Celestial Berserker and don't try to make competitive builds but will offer my thoughts at least as a roamer and as a Warrior main player. Overall I think the feel is better than the first beta and the changes to charge generation in Dragon Trigger are very welcome, but it still has a lot of glaring issues (at least the way I see them). Please let me know if I'm playing it incorrectly or have misunderstood something!
In terms of numbers:
In PvE: Max charge Dragon Slash's damage feels perfect. With no precasting and a berserkers set with strength/discipline, I got 30-40k on full charge dragon slash, and 70-90k on a crit, which feels satisfying enough to be a noticeable BIG LETHAL SUPER MOVE but not enough to delete bosses. The low charge Dragon Slash's damage is somewhat lacking, but not enough to be a big issue, especially when you'll probably be wanting to do full charge anyway in open world.
In WvW: Incredibly, incredibly undertuned. Just to test it, I got 25 might on the very same DPS build and let a full charge Dragon Slash rip on a Salamander Drake and it hit for not even 2.5k (it didn't crit, but it would have still done a measly 5 or 6k on a crit - and this is on a weak creature, without armor or buffs). I've seen it hit for not even 2k on players. Greatsword autoattack sometimes does more on a crit. Forget even entering Dragon Trigger for your purported Big Damage; getting that much flow to do that is, in my experience, extremely difficult, and Gunsaber is really hard to properly hit with, not to mention the fact that people can still jump over it when they see the telegraphed animation. Combined with the general deficiencies of the Gunsaber's damage, coodowns, and utility, Bladesworn is very weak in competitive gamemodes right now.
In terms of general gameplay feel:
The overall feel of it is clunky and strange to me. Gunsaber is very slow and the damage is lackluster, and the cooldowns are very unforgiving for a weapon you're kind of supposed to be sitting on as your entire profession mechanic. I had to rebind F1 to my weapon swap key and F2 to F1 for it to play remotely smoothly as a real second weapon and not as a bundle, and it still felt really awkward to use. The Lush Forest change made sense, but also made Lush Forest a very useless trait; you get a big burst of cooldown boosts from it at the very beginning of a fight when you're pressing buttons, but cooldowns on Gunsaber are far too long and the trait basically de-activates afterwards because you're never going to reasonably get back to full ammo on a skill - and if you do, it's all for a single second of cooldown reduction. Fierce as Fire feels good and provides a slight but noticeable damage increase.
Personally, I think that Gunsaber's cooldowns should be reduced and its damage improved. I also think that Dragon Slash should be buffed significantly in terms of damage so it actually feels rewarding as a profession mechanic; one of Warrior's defining characteristics is good timing with bursts, but when I can do more damage and have better options with Decapitate spam, Arc Divider, or Flaming Flurry on berserker builds, there's no reason to play Bladesworn when the entire gimmick - the big payoff supermove - doesn't have a big payoff at all. When you combine these deficiencies in Bladesworn with the general balance problems in Warrior, it creates an awkward feeling that makes it uncomfortable to play.
To summarize how I feel and what I would want to see changed:
- Gunsaber in its current iteration is undertuned and unforgiving, incredibly slow, and lacks the damage to be worth the commitment, mainly in competitive gamemodes; I think the damage should be increased, the cooldowns decreased, and maybe some utility should be added to make things like Break Step useful after the speed decrease, like an evade
- Gunsaber feels clunky and difficult to use, and doesn't really function like the second weapon it's designed to be; it should be stowable, maybe function with normal weapon swap, and either not restrict our core bursts or allow us to enter Dragon Trigger while not in Gunsaber mode
- Dragon Slash's damage in competitive gamemodes is incredibly low and not even remotely worth the commitment even after the change to the speed to get to max charge
- Utilities are slightly lackluster and provide little to synergize with the class; even Flow Stabilizer isn't very good
- Please let us stow the gunsaber, it feels so, so awkward carrying around that massive thing when there's a stylish scabbard right there, I'm not just saying this because I'm an RPer
TL;DR the animations and the concept are really, really cool, and the recent batch of changes are a massive step in the right direction, but the damage on Gunsaber in general and especially Dragon Slash in competitive is poor and not worth the commitment, and it feels clunky and not like a second weapon should; it doesn't flow in the way Warriors are used to with their weapon sets and bursts
