Bladesworn Feedback Thread

[Jokubas.4265]

My quick feedback after jumping between the three new specs is that the Bladesworn was the most immediately appealing to me (without going over each ability carefully and planning combos that might make them stand out better).

1) I like the Gunsaber, but as it's essentially just a new weapon type there are a few oddities. As I saw mentioned in this thread almost right away, I think I would prefer it be on the normal Weapon Swap keybind at the very least.

2) I haven't dove into it enough to find some skill interactions that might make up for it, but by default the generation of Flow seems to be way too slow. I almost lost the entire bar just going from one enemy to another nearby enemy when I first tried building it up, and ultimately had to intentionally stall a fight significantly to even activate Dragon Trigger to try it out.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Jokubas.4265

[Sio.1325]

1. Flow builds up too slowly, maybe make "berserker stance" and "signet of rage" work with it.
2. Flow depletes too quickly in order to build up in between mobs in PvE.
3. When in the burst stance, your stance cancels if you move; maybe it should just take 3 extra seconds more to activate the burst instead of rooting the warrior in place.
4. Damage is underwhelming; at full flow you should do something like 14k because of the difficulty of pulling it off.
5. When dual wielding, you should have access to your normal burst.
6. Dragon Slash requires 3 button presses to use!!!?
7. You've made conditions OP in the game yet this spec is severely lacking.
8. One of the burst skills could be a multi strike hit.

Will you be able to change the look of the gunblade?

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Sio.1325

[Anodic.6712]

Break Step feels a little awkward to use in combat since it propels you past enemies when Gunsaber is mostly a weapon people will use in melee.

In PvP, I think that Blooming Fire and Artillery Slash could use slightly more damage. Just a little bit though.

Edited September 22, 2021 by AnodicShadow.3647

[xXxNikiGoesWildxXx.3678]

Very cool and nicely made spec, only 1 thing that can be too much is a lot of ammo skills, i don't feel like slow massive charging attack fits into piano button spammer theme, just think again...

[Bunny.9834]

Out of all the elite specs... this is the most satisfying to play for sure. 

The spec is the easiest to learn I feel and the reward for charging up DSlash is super nice to see.

When you're doing 100+k damage on a Marauder Stat on a difficult HoT HP boss, you can't help but feel that instant gratification. 

 

My only suggestion so far is to probably just change how you swap into the Gunsaber. Make it so when you "enter" combat, your weapon swap icon changes in a different "icon" that represents you can now "swap" into a gunsaber. 

 

THEN. Make F1 just for Dragontrigger. 

 

I think this would make the "flow" of weapon swapping a little bit more streamlined similar to when they change Berserker's Primal Burst. Right now, it's a little clunky switching back and forth form Gunblade to your normal weapon. 

 

Overall, the devs did a job well done with this spec. 

[Ruinition.3875]

Um what is this?
 

first of all I was excited to play this because of the gun blade, what a let down.

 

Feels absolutely awful to play, not rewarding at all. It looks like a weapon you get at level 10 which you can never change the look of and takes up a weapon swap, the only skill warrior gets to enjoy. 
 

The damage is par at best and the CDs! Omg! ever time I hit a button I feel like I’m being punished for even equipping Bladesworn. 
 

This isn’t fun. It’s time to kill banner slave, we’ve had enough already. 
 

increase the damage, decrease the cool downs, and give gunblade skins. At least these will give us a reason to even care.

[Azanka Bobo.8145]

The specialization really forces you to stay in the Gunsaber and not swap to other weapons. After using Dragon Trigger the weapon swap is on cooldown and by the time it is ready you have enough flow to go back into Dragon Trigger. Additionally the Dragon Trigger can only be accessed by having the Gunblade out so you are doubly punished for trying to swap to your other weapon set.

 

As for general warrior changes, the Discipline Traitline is almost always required in group content. Faster weapon swap, Damage increase for Burst Skills and overall with Switness, Reduced Burst Strike recharge, along with having the ability for banners to apply to 10 allies, Discipline checks off every box that the warrior wants. There were minor changes to Tactics in order to push it more towards group play but still doesn't see use outside of PvP & WvW. I think the Grandmaster traits should be looked over to increase the power of the warrior and the group, perhaps each including a tie in to the "Soldier's Focus" mechanic.

[Pheex.8932]

I like it so far.

 

The only thing at this moment that I worry about is that, unlike for example Holosmith or Reaper Shroud, where you pop in and out constantly, the gunblade you might spend 90% of your time runninng around with. But since it's no physical inventory weapon you can't change the skin of the weapon.

 

Don't get me wrong it's a pretty cool look, but if I play my warrior over the course of months or even years, or change my appearance to certain themes, I'd like my weapon to match it, or at least have some variety 😛

[Witte.3160]

This specialisation feels like  you are trying to give warriors a taste of engineer, or swapped the engineer elite spec to warriors at some stage of the development. 

 

I'm disappointed that the gunsaber is not an actual weapon but rather an ability to summon a gunsaber. This expansion could have been the perfect time to introduce new weapons instead of specialisations for once. Glaives, halberts, spears, two handed axes, etc. All could have changed up the metas for every class. The balancing act would be similar to what is needed to fine-tune these elite specs.

[Harnel.6810]

I find all the complaints that Flow fills up too slow to be a little laughable; I often have my flow guage at 100 while waiting for my dragon trigger to come off cooldown because I just used it. Why? Because I'm actually building for its usage - the trait that gives me extra flow when I get healed, alongside vigorous shouts so that I can yell myself into having better flow. As a result, I'm consistently able to use Dragon Trigger on enemies even immediately after I get into combat with them.

Dragon Trigger skills feel very good to use in PvE. I've been experimenting with them by running dungeons solo, and in my experience the biggest limiter to Bladesworn's ability to kill champion mobs solo is getting knocked out of DT by a CC effect before they can use it, but that'd be easy enough to solve with some kind of stability addition, which the warrior kit provides plenty of. The way the DT skills simply end encounters with anything weaker than a champion is incredibly fun to play around with.

However, I must complain about the recharge time for ammunition on the gun saber skills themselves. For most weapons, skills range between a 5 second to 35 second cooldown, with the #2 skill generally being between 5 and 10 seconds. With the gun saber, the charges can be burned incredibly quickly as compared to their reload time, almost necessitating the use of the armament elite skill that reloads all your ammunition; the #2 skill, Blooming Fire, has a 25 second recharge timer on its ammunition, which means you can end up being unable to use it for long periods in a fight without cooldown manipulation. This feels kind of bad, and is primarily because of these egregiously long cooldowns; for a weapon that's supposed to be always available, you can very easily lock yourself out of using any of its skills aside from auto-attack just by using it too much, and get locked out for very long periods of time. The gunsaber skills otherwise feel fine to me, as they all deal respectable damage or have understandable utility; it's merely how often you can use them that's a problem.

Regarding PvP balance, I find I must echo what has been said by others - the damage on the dragon trigger skills is simply unusably weak. I don't feel it should be at the level of what it can do in PvE, of course, but in PvP many basic skills from other weapons deal more damage than the DT skills, don't require a charge-up time, and often have good rider effects. The only thing the DT skills have over them in PvP is the ability to get a trait to bypass blocking and blindness and inflict stun.

Armament skills feel underwhelming. It almost universally feels better to use basic warrior utility skills than armaments; shouts in particular benefit from the Bladesworn's love of ammunition while being less finnicky and more effective overall. The main exceptions to this are Flow Stabilizer, which makes it much easier to consistently utilize Dragon Trigger, and the elite skill Tactical Reload, as it allows more usage of any ammunition skill. The others, including the heal skill, I find myself lacking a reason to use over the more effective base warrior skills.

Bladesworn's traits feel potent and effective, as each of them encourages you to build in different and interesting ways. Though, I will note that the grandmaster trait Unyielding Dragon feels significantly more powerful and useful than Daring Dragon and Immortal Dragon.

As an extra note, I feel that the gunsaber should be able to be sheathed the same way normal weapons are, and hang off your hip. This is a minor thing, more a cosmetic wish that I feel would add to the elite specialization than something really necessary, but I feel it would add to the class fantasy of being an iaijutsu master by letting the gunsaber feel present as part of your character.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Harnel.6810

[Rider.6024]

gs #5 should be an evade or dragon trigger should not root nut instead reduce movement speed by 50% and be unaffected by speed modifiers 

 

 

[firedragon.8953]

Hmm, I'm going to have to agree with some other posters.

I'd prefer the gunsaber to be an new actual weapon and not a kit. Offer the chance to get 2 different skins for it in-game with the Bladesworn elite spec achievements (like current elite specs have)--the current one and the ascended weapon version. This would make it possible to add additional skins in the future either through the gem store or available through a few achievements. I wouldn't even care if the gunsaber was only available in one stat combination (to match the determined kit stats).

Besides the aesthetic skin problem, weapon swapping is annoying as mistakes are easily made, locking you out of your other preferred weapon set upon entering battle. Also completely removing burst skills is lame, as it basically makes the warrior (a weapon master) reliant on the gunsaber, even if they are technically meant to be sworn to it it shouldn't afflict us with amnesia. At least give us access the base warrior Tier 3 weapon burst skills.

I like the idea. But I feel the implementation needs some refining.

Edited September 22, 2021 by firedragon.8953

[Sir Vincent III.1286]

Dragon Slash/Trigger

- Dragon slash skills should show in the Weapon Skills tab for evaluation outside combat

 

Lush Forest

- if I used up all ammo from all my skills right now, that's just 8s of reduce CD -- meh.

- if this reduces 1s of CD per ammo used, it will reduce a total of 17s

 

Flame Shell Burst

- burning on a power E.Spec? -- replace this with a 2s smoke field for AoE blind

 

Guns and Glory

- 250 Ferocity with no draw back or trade off? Willbender sacrificed 240 Toughness for 240 Power

 

Immortal Dragon

- this trait is only good when used with Daring Dragon trait, unfortunately, we can't take both

- Combat Stimulant is an awesome heal skill, no need to get heal from Dragon Slash

- if this trait heals you as you consume Flow while in Dragon Trigger stance, then it's a good contender against Daring Dragon

- as it is, it's meh.

 

Overall, it's a fun E.Spec.

[HoBoT.6293]

been playing bladesworn in pvp and the gunblade itself feels problematic as it a) locks you out of one of your weapon sets (thus reducing your flexibility) and b) acts as your second weapon set including the timer to swap back. 

Part of what makes warrior fun to play is the ability to drop burst on a dime with the adrenaline skills, having the gunblade fill that role but take extra steps to get there feels like it opposes the idea of being a mobile, versatile, surgical striker.

[Squigglez.1236]

This is the one I played with the least, mostly because I had the fewest questions about it. The flow generating slowly is part of the design I imagine but it's pretty lopsided. The trait river's flow (extra flow on heal) triggers on might application with might makes right allowing for permanent 2 flow in combat compared to the other traits. You can also bring stability on movement skill which lets you use flow stabilizer for 3 flow every time. These are intended synergies I imagine but as far as I can tell each positive flow is 2 flow per second, and all the methods are kind of blown away by bringing axe mastery. The 2 flow on crit has flow capped out before dragon trigger even finishes recharge. I also think that putting weapon swap into recharge and forcing you to use gunsabre for 5-10s after a dragon slash is unnecessary. As much as people were interested in the almost 500k damage in a single skill I'd personally take a damage reduction for some more fluid gameplay with gunsabre. Having dragon slash reduce movement by 50% like the urn does for vindicator rather than rooting you in place could give it some more versatility. Maybe instead have the ability to load and save a charge periodically through combat so you can spread out the waiting. Instead of having aegis have an active block skill that if successfully used would load shots faster (If this skill blocks an attack load 4 shots kind of function) to encourage using it pretty much anywhere. As it is now only real use I see for this is waiting for a boss to change phases, charge dragon slash where he's going to be when invuln or what have you ends, and then slash to start with higher dps. I don't play pvp and only occasionally scrub it up in WvW but using this seems like a death sentence there.

Edited September 22, 2021 by XDeathShadowX.2619

[UsagiShinobi.2597]

Okay, second beta event time! I provided feedback the first time around for Virtuoso, and now I'll do the same with Bladesworn. I'm a warrior main and I don't really play revenant nor elementalist, so I'll give my feedback just for Bladesworn rather than the other two.

 

I'll put the same disclaimer here that I did on the Virtuoso feedback:

Quote

Something to note: I only play open-world PVE. I'll do dungeons if it's the daily, but I don't do raiding (since I'm awful at it). I also only do WvW for Gifts of Battle when I'm making a Legendary, and I only did PvP to get the Warlord armor skins. So for the past four-ish years, I've been a OW-PvE player. I have no comments on what others have been saying on PvP/WvW/raiding stuff. I'm also not some min-maxing player who cares about getting those last 20 points of Power to increase DPS by .05% or whatever. I'm just here to have fun, beat up world bosses, and play fashion wars 😛

 

As someone who mains gunlance in Monster Hunter, the moment I saw Warrior getting a melee weapon combined with a firearm, I started squeeing and drooling like an idiot. I LOVE the aesthetic of gunblade stuff, and I already know which of my warriors I'll be using this spec on. So I'm already hooked.

 

Does this spec need work? Absolutely. But that's what the beta is for, yeah?

 

I apologize if I'm being overly verbose in my feedback and clogging up the screen with text, but I'd rather be thorough than vague. So let's get into it.

 

 First, the pistol:

- Dragon's Roar has a nice little burst, but I think the range should be extended a bit. Maybe 300-ish, rather than 240? I think it should also have a Blast finisher if you have over 3 or 4 ammo stacks.

- Gunstinger may also need a little extra range, maybe bumped up to 400 or 450. A quick entry dash with aegis that grants ammo is nice for setting up Dragon's Roar, but I'd probably rather use Savage Leap (sword 2). Give Gunstinger a leap finisher as well!

 

Now, how does an offhand pistol pair with mainhand weapons? Sword has some more mobility, mace has some CC, and axe is the poster child of DPS (and the axe throw using ammo helps a little with Bladesworn's whole ammo schtick). But I think I'm gonna have to parrot what a lot of other folks have been saying here...

 

... Make the pistol a mainhand weapon as well! Spellbreaker got daggers for both hands, so why not Bladesworn? A mid-range (900-ish) skirmishing weapon is much-needed for Warrior's repertoire, since longbow and rifle are (in my opinion) more of a "slow and steady" sort of weapon. The main draws for me using Longbow/Rifle are its burst skills -- a big condi AOE for combo finishers, or a giant burst of DPS damage. While Rifle does synergize well with the Lush Forest trait -- that 1 second cooldown for Rifle ammo skills is huge! -- I feel like I'm using a rifle on my Bladesworn out of necessity (needing a ranged weapon) rather than because I wanna go pew pew.

 

A mainhand pistol would help, I think. Quicker shots than Longbow/Rifle, meant for close-to-mid-range skirmishing. Sort of like ranger Shortbow, and how it encourages evasion and flanking. Whether pistol/pistol would be more for power or condi is a good question. Rifle is power-centric, and Longbow is condi. Having pistol/pistol be between the two (DPS bursts with Dragon's Roar alongside maybe some burn/bleed attacks) is probably the most obvious answer.

 

Okay, on to the Gunsaber. Firstly, yes, please give us more skins. I mean, don't get me wrong, it does look cool as hell! But fashion wars is the real end-game meta 😛. I realize there isn't a precedent for kits/transforms having skins, but I think that's just untapped gold right there. Kit skin sets for Gunsaber, engie kits, etc.? Trust me, my wallet is already emptying out at the thought of that.

 

Also, the sheath for it only appears when you have it equipped. Since it's such an integral part of the spec, I think the blade should be permanently shown on the character, even when not wielded. (For the purposes of fashion wars, you could "hide" it through the equipment screen, just like helmets/shoulders/gloves and other sheathed weapons). Yes, I know clipping would be an issue, but it's just a thought.

 

The base Gunsaber skills do need reworking. The damage seems too low, and the ammo recharge times are very high. I frequently find myself a few seconds into combat with literally every weapon skill (other than the autoattack) on cooldown. And while I'm fine with it being more power-focused rather than condi damage, it's still severely lacking in conditions. A little bit of cripple and that's it. Not even vulnerability? Heresy!

 

- The autoattack is decent. Nothing fancy, and lets you keep Guns and Glory up. The animations are too similar to base greatsword in my opinion.

- Blooming Fire should affect more than three targets, and have a longer range/bigger radius. Maybe around the 240 range mark?

- Artillery Shell is nice. Gunsaber desperately needs that 900-range attack to ensure you maximize flow before/between battles.

- Cyclone Trigger should reflect projectiles if you have the Shield Master trait (Defense). It should also have a slightly longer block duration. Giving it a whirl finisher would be nice, too.

- Break Step isn't great  -- Bull's Charge has a longer distance, has CC, evasion, has a leap combo, and has less cooldown! Have Break Step damage enemies along its path and give it evasion and leap finishers, at least. It also needs a tooltip for how big the blast is at your location.

 

Onto Dragon Trigger. (Gosh, I'm talking a lot, aren't I?). Well, since I'm playing open-world PvE, I'll be saying something that a lot of other folks have been saying: I'd have more info on Dragon Trigger if I could activate it more often! Flow caps at 100, but so many skills that grant adrenaline are like a drop in a bucket. If I ever want to use Dragon Trigger, I have to have Flow Stabilizer and Berserker Stance to even think about getting maximum Flow! And with how quickly it drains, I'm essentially only using Dragon Trigger against bosses/champs. I have to dedicate two utility skills to keeping up my main ability that I might not be able to use. Flow generates too slowly, period. Skills that grant adrenaline should grant double or even triple the amount when converted to Flow. And there is something absolutely painful about being CC'd during Dragon Trigger and losing it all. Hugest oof ever.

 

Because of how long it takes to build up Flow, there isn't really any point in picking anything other than Daring Dragon. Unyielding Dragon for CC? I'll just do core warrior hammer. Immortal Dragon's healing theoretically seems nice (8% of a burst attack sounds like a lot!) but to get good use out of it, you have to sit there for all 10 charges to build up, making you a sitting duck. Daring Dragon at least lets you make use of all the Flow you worked your butt off to build up!

 

(Which... full disclosure, the dash attack is SUPER cool and so satisfying to cut through a group of enemies with. As much as I've been griping about stuff, every time I use Dragon Slash - Boost and slice through a bunch of foes, I get the stupidest, giddiest smile on my face. I love it. I absolutely love it.)

 

The other traits are a bit underwhelming for the most part. Lush Forest is essentially a requirement for using this spec with how long the ammo count cooldowns are. Unshakeable Mountain's barrier should probably be coupled with Resistance and/or Stability, and Fierce as Fire's flame shell has a tiny AoE and does barely any damage. Unseen Sword was hard to work around, as was Swift as the Wind because of egregious cooldown times. River's Flow was the only one I could reliably work with, because I could use it with Shake it Off with Vigorous Shouts (since I needed a stunbreak/condi cleanse). Guns and Glory's 250 Ferocity boost is excellent, and I have nothing bad to say about it. Dragonscale Defense, I think, should pulse Protection and perhaps also Stability, since Dragon Trigger makes you the biggest target in the world, even more so than a Deadeye using Kneel! (At least Deadeyes can still dodge!).

 

Like... on one hand, I get it. The aesthetic of a master swordsman in that classic poised-to-strike stance, before unleashing a deadly attack... it's awesome. Chef's kiss. Reminds me of those wonderful and cheesy old samurai movies from the 50's and 60's. I feel like you can't not have an homage to that with a Canthan-themed warrior elite spec. But, again, sitting duck. I'm just playing PvE, I can't imagine how easy it is to CC and pick off Bladesworns in WvW zergs!

 

Okay, now the Armaments. (Phew, I've been writing a lot! Please forgive me and my wordiness 😅)

 

Combat Stimulant is interesting. It's like Defiant Stance imo -- you need to time it well, or the payoff will be punishing. Roughly the same healing as "To The Limit!" but spaced out and without "TTL!"'s adrenaline-to-flow conversion. Consuming a second charge to gain boons is a cool concept, but if you time it poorly, you could be dead in the water (perhaps literally). I think, instead of consuming a charge for the boons, it should briefly grant you access to a second skill that gives you the boons, before flipping back over to the original Combat Stim skill if you choose not to use it. (Sort of like Daredevil's Fist Flurry). If you choose to get the boons, you don't get the secondary heal, BUT it won't consume an ammo charge of the heal. You'll still have two recharging uses of Combat Stim, and you just decide whether you want to pop it for boons or for actual heals. Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense 😅.

 

Flow Stabilizer is essentially a requirement. You can't not have it on your skill bar, so long as Flow charges as slow as it does currently. The stability is nice, at least.

 

Bulletproof Barrier was definitely made for PvP/WvW. It's hardly useful in open-world PvE. Very little damage, so there are better ways to get an explosion for Guns and Glory.

 

Electric Fence also seems like it was made for PvP/WvW (anything that creates a line effect has "chokepoint denial" written all over it 😛). I can't see many PvE uses for it, unless you're really desperate to escape from a group of enemies. At that point just use Bull's Charge or some other long-range leap ability. Maybe if it caused a bit of Daze/Stun, or Knockdown on crippled enemies?

 

(Side note: Bulletproof Barrier and Electric Fence look too similar to me. I think Electric Fence should be, instead of a tall barrier, look like scattered "electrical caltrops" with sparking arcs of electricity between them.)

 

Dragonspike Mine is the obligatory stunbreak, and the evade is nice (a little bit of "insurance", since a flat stunbreak can end up meaning nothing if you get stunned right afterwards!). Quite a long distance dodge too! The dodge does need a skill fact for it, and the skill also says it has no channel/activation time, but it very much does. The mine it leaves behind is much like Fierce as Fire's flame shell -- tiny and useless. Also, recharging Dragon Trigger isn't really useful with how slow Flow is to gain. A 35-second cooldown stunbreak/evade should have more than a puny mine and a useless recharge.

 

Tactical Reload is, like Flow Stabilizer, basically a requirement. With how long the cooldowns are for the Gunsaber and the armaments, I've found myself using this elite skill more than any other Warrior elite skill! I think it shouldn't have an activation time, and simply 'happen'. Other than that, it's not great, not terrible. (insert Chernobyl reference here). To me, it's less of an ultimate ability like Battle Standard, which can change the tide of battle, and more of a required part of the ammo-recharge rotation. Recharging every ammo skill is huge, and that can make it hard to balance. If you're using, say, sword-sword and not using many ammo-based utility skills, then this elite won't mean much. But if you're using a rifle, shouts, armaments, and swapping to the gunsaber a lot, then this elite can mean life or death. One little skill can carry so much on its shoulders!

 

Finally, on the topic of weapon swapping, being locked to one weapon + gunsaber, Dragon Trigger, and so on. I agree that, at least, you should be able to enter Dragon Trigger without needing to equip the saber first. And because your core bursts are gone, you're relying on the gunsaber and Dragon Trigger to dish out your big hits. The issue is the low damage of the Gunsaber, the slow buildup of Flow, and the fragile nature of sitting in Dragon Trigger. I think, like Spellbreaker, you should still have your core bursts, but they only perform their Level 1 bursts (consuming 33% of the Flow bar). Combine this with a higher/faster Flow gain rate, and you'll make my warrior main heart happy.

 

Okay, I've spent over two entire hours writing up this whole rambling spiel. I won't blame you if you only skim it.

 

In essence: the aesthetic is awesome, and when I can use it, Dragon Trigger makes me feel like a kitten. The spec just needs an all-round buff on damage/cooldown times, better Flow mechanics, and a main-hand pistol to round out the warrior's ranged weapons.

 

Thank you for giving us these Beta tests, and I hope you find some valuable information in not just what I've said here, but in all the data you collect here on this thread. I hope the road to finishing End of Dragons goes well for all of you at ArenaNet.

 

PS: The next Guild Chat stream better feature even more water bottles. A comical amount.

[Caramel Ham.4891]

I played a bit but the new f2 abilities dont seem to mesh well with the flow of the game nor the warrior class. Having to stand still to channel the skill completely ruins the flow of the combat. I would rather be able to move while channeling and have it be balanced around being able to move than to standing still. 

 

Also, using the f2 skill also makes the going back to your weapons button go into cooldown. This again ruins the flow of combat. Let me use the f2 skill and then instantly go back to my regular weapons. There's just too much waiting around with this Elite spec. Waiting around to build Flow, waiting around to channel f2 skills, waiting around to go back to regular weapons. 

[Acelidon.1358]

Another meme tier warrior spec. Good for one-shotting open world mobs and nothing else.

[Sidestep.2069]

I think the whole ammo system for Gunsaber needs to be removed, instead let the Gunsaber's weapon attacks consume a charge much like thief's initiative. Add a new minor trait that replace [Dragonscale Defense] with "[Advanced Reload] Critical hits have a 50% chance to gain a charge while in combat." This way you can accumulate charges for Dragon trigger attacks or use it for weapon attacks outside of trigger, and maybe lower flow rate to 50 instead of 100 to balance the charges gained outside of Dragon trigger. Probably adjust the charges and rework Flow according to Dragon trigger's attack frequency. Canceling Dragon Trigger's stance retain the charges outside of Trigger stance.

[Blooming Fire] consume 3 charges, now blinds 3 targets?

[Artillery Slash] consume 2 charges, maybe increase damage to 1200 and applies 2stacks of vulnerability per hit (Main damage outside of Dragon Trigger)

[Cyclone Trigger] Consume 5 charges, should be a like binding blade's animation that shoots 5 projectiles crippling 5 targets for 2sec within 600 range

[Break Step] Consume 4 charges

[Tactical Reload] Grants you full 5 charges and refreshes Dragon trigger.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Sidestep.2069

[Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713]

Sorry, but Bladesworn seems to be in a bad or very early, unfinished state right now. It misses the point of what a Warrior is and I would almost think that Bladesworn was accidentally put on Warrior instead of on Engineer. This is further strengthened by the fact that Warrior already has an elite specialisation that is focused on burst damage; Berserker.

 

The gameplay is very clunky, unlike any other part of the game. The contrast is enormous.

 

Skill feedback:

1. The main attack skills are interesting utility-wise but too low on damage.
2. The healing and elite skill are nice.
   1. It would be nice if the healing skill did not end Dragon Trigger, but perhaps this is a balance decision. Consider splitting PvE/PvP if that is the case.
3. The utility skills are bad. They actually have very limited utility.
   1. Give reflection to Bulletproof Barrier, lower its duration and ammo count to balance if necessary.
   2. Electric Fence; feels like a weaker, AoE version of Throw Bolas. To set it apart make the combo field Lightning instead of Light. Cripple and Immobilize are mostly useless[*], please just give this field a 1-second stun to foes that move into it, then a second 1-second stun to foes who remain in the field when it ends.
   3. Dragonspike Mine; again with the cripple, and feels like Engineer again. Make the skill more physical; rename it to "Dragon kick" or something. Instead of a mine, kick the enemy stunning them for 1 second and pushing the Warrior back. This way it feels like Warrior, and can still be used for the same purpose it seems to have been designed for (setting up Dragon Trigger).

 

Traits feedback:

1. Move Gun X Sword to the first Major tier, possibly granting its benefits to both Swift as the Wind and  Unseen Sword. This allows a way to play Bladesworn without the gunblade, such as an ammo-focused shouthealer. Maybe builds that focus on support or utility instead of just raw damage.
   1. Alternatively, make Gunblade into an actual weapon instead of a kit. This helps with muscle memory and weapon swapping, and achieves the same purpose.
   2. This would require the rework Dragonscale Defense, and of at least one third-tier major trait as well, probably Immortal Dragon.
2. River's Flow; make this increase outgoing healing instead of incoming.
3. Second-tier major traits are great, Guns and Glory is a good example of a perfect trait, very useful.
4. Unyielding Dragon and Daring Dragon are also nice.

 

Additional feedback:

1. Pistol is nice but please also add mainhand pistol.
2. Gunblade should have additional skins or at the very least dye channels.
3. Equipped legendary weapons should influence how Gunblade looks
4. Consider renaming the specialisation to prevent confusion with abbreviations; BS (Berserker), BS (Banner Slave), BS (Bladesworn)

 

[*] in endgame PvE content (raids, strikes, fractals, DRM's), because bosses just ignore it for the most part. It has a minor impact on CC bars but that's no reason to use the skill at all.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713

[HotDelirium.7984]

My Catalyst just came here to suck up some of this extra energy it's professional mechanic can't generate. Blessings!

[TOOTHBRUSHDUCK.9035]

The  idea of the bladesworn is really cool, but the execution feels... like it comes short. Having the gunsaber replace  your other weapon set when you can't customise or control it all just feels weird, especially since we have no way to build it up more. Maybe it could benefit from greatsword and ranged skills? And the flow builds up extremely slowly, and the actual charge for the dragon trigger is even more horrible, especially since every CC and most skills or movement take you out of it with no refund, makes it incredibly punishing, but the reward is good at least. Maybe have it increase crit chance with charges, and excess crit change becomes crit damage? That way a full charge would more reliably hit hard, and not have a chance to just hit for a bunch of damage with not much else.

 

Only used the pistol a tiny bit, and I have to agree that it's range is pathetic, it felt like it was essentially a dagger.

Perhaps with the elite spec, one weapon set becomes the 'gunsaber', in this case a greatsword and pistol, so you can equip them up with sigils and the bonuses you want, but also swap to a normal weapon. Then the F2 could simply automatically swap you to that weapon, in addition to activating the charging, which still needs some love.

Overall, most of the time it felt like a downgrade to use the gunsaber instead of, say, a greatsword for simply attacking enemies in the open world, and  it's damage is simply mediocre, with extremely slow skill recharges.

Edited September 22, 2021 by ninjavortexduck two.4019

[scerevisiae.1972]

One of the most polished and fun e-specs so far. The whole kit is pretty nice and the utilities are genuinely useful. Pleasantly surprised. 

[Mik.3401]

I like the fact they tried to make the spec a bit more complex as far as warrior goes. I played on a bit in PvP and just few points I noticed :

- activating the focus skills from gunblade feels a bit clunky, I found myself feeling most safe using it to cleave bodies

- I don’t agree no weapon swap is an issue, the kit feels like and entire new weapon and pressing F1 is basically a weapon swap

- the skills appear quite unrewarding, they all felt kind of similar to be hone despite doing different things, it felt like they fire in melee or at range and that’s it

- the utilities don’t seem to be any good

 

It was fun to try but playing spell breaker after it felt so much better and more rewarding

Edited September 22, 2021 by Mik.3401

[Vancho.8750]

I think that in PVP and WvW, Dragon trigger should charge faster if Arenanet wants to be at Ok damage numbers, so in there it should fully charge in lets say 2 seconds instead of 5 and do comparable damage to other Heavy hitting attacks GS Ranger Maul for example, it does around 5k damage without many modifiers and buffs at 3/4 cast time( of course you can stack it allot hire with glass build and what not but the realistic average number is around 5k in most games) , so Dragon trigger to be comparable should hit a cap of 10k in pvp for 2 second full charge baseline (and more if you go all out with the glass build prep).
For 5 second cast it should do 25k unbuffed, which doesn't make any sense, for one it oneshot people and if it doesn't the mechanic doesn't make lick of sense to exist since reaching max charge which is really really hard to do doesn't net any reward over doing quick charge. 

Another option is making Daring Dragon insta fill the bullet bar by taking set amount of  flow and doing normal burst damage, basically Decapitate  3/4 cast 4500 base damage with marauder crit and you repeat quick casting the skills till you run out of flow. You just enter the stance and cast it reposition cast it reposition cast it and you do normal damage , making it normal Burst skill with comparable cast time to the rest skills in the game.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Vancho.8750