Bladesworn Feedback Thread

[Smoosh.2718]

1 hour ago, Wielder Of Magic.3950 said:

River's Flow:
Can potentially be very good when combined with Combat Stimulant and Tactical Reload, which together would be good for up to 15 seconds of flow..if the Flow this trait generated was more than just 5 seconds. Perhaps this has a higher value in WvW or PvP settings, because in PvE you are just going to grab ‘To The Limit’ for its 15 seconds of Flow Boost or Mending for the buff from Peak Performance.

 

With the 5 seconds from this trait you get less value out of it than out of simply using To The Limit in PvE (because you can’t effectively stack it for a ‘flow burst’). This trait suffers more from how Flow and the Positive Flow buff are currently implemented (and how Positive Flow’s duration is distributed among skills extremely unequally) than suffering from its own design.

I just want to point this out, this is currently the best minor trait out of all the minors for the spec.
Might Makes Right will procc this trait, so it is always up, same with the healing traits in tactics. Making this the best trait to pick if you take either MMR or Mending Might.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

On 9/22/2021 at 10:53 AM, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

These are excellent ideas; thanks for this!

 

I agree with many of the posts here (coming from a PvP perspective): 

1.) Competitive damage is way too low

 

2.) Dragon Trigger is very clunky and very punishing.  Specifically, having any interrupt (either from an enemy or you moving or using a skill) cancel the whole thing and lose all flow is a real problem.  None of Warrior's other bursts work that way; if Arcing slice or eviscerate is interrupted, for instance, the skill goes on 4s CD and your adrenaline is preserved.  Also, having to be in gunsaber AND hit F2 before you can access your best skills is very cumbersome...you have to hit 3 buttons to get off one burst (e.g. F1, F2, 1)!

 

3.) "Flow"  mechanics are, ironically, the opposite of fluidity and runs completely counter to the way other Warrior specs "feel"--which is incidentally much more fluid.  That is, on Core/SpB/Berserker, you develop a rhythm of rotating between damaging and mobility skills which build adrenaline and boons (usually might from Forceful Greatsword, weapon swap, magebane tether; fury from Arcing slice, etc) and effects (e.g., stacks of Berserker's Power or Attacker's insight) which gives the feel of building power and hitting harder as a fight progresses.  It feels fluid and intuitive, and it builds to a crescendo.  With Bladesworn, the Dragon Trigger mechanic effectively makes you stop moving (very foreign to Warrior combat) and sit still for up to 5s (during which time many of your boons and effects will dissipate)... it is anti-flow.

 

4.) Loss of F1 bursts on your normal weapon set drastically limits the utility of that weapon set, as most Warrior weapons are built around their bursts.  For instance, taking Arcing Slice away from GS removes at least 50% of its damage capability.  MH mace is little more than a CC stick at base line, but without skull crack?  It's just....a stick.  MH sword without Flurry is only good for mobility and the very niche role of final thrust when the target is <50% HP.  

 

5.) Pistol should definitely be main hand, and the range of the current pistol skills should be increased.

 

In conclusion, while I think the ideas behind Bladesworn are good and interesting, I think the spec ends up tripping over its own mechanics and falling short of its potential.

 

I have a couple of radical ideas for improvement, largely inspired by @Sovereign.1953's excellent post.  I realize they might sound like a reach, but bear with me...

 

1.) Scrap Dragon Trigger altogether.  Instead, as Sovereign suggested, make DT skills 1-3 be the burst skills available while on Gunsaber and make them available F1-F3.  Either make swapping to gunsaber just use the regular weapon swap key or reassign this mode to F4 or something so as to preserve muscle memory for us Warrior mains that F1=burst.

 

2.) Scrap Flow and return to 3 bars of adrenaline.   The old adrenaline system is tried-and-true, and it "flows" much more effectively/fluidly than Flow does.  It also provides better continuity between Bladesworn and the other Warrior specs.

 

3.)  Return F1 bursts on your non-gunsaber weapon set.  This will be made easier by returning to the old bars of adrenaline as well.

 

These changes would streamline the functionality of the Bladesworn spec and solve many of the problems cited by other posters on this thread.  Specifically:

1.)  access to the gunsaber burst skills will be much easier and will feel less clunky

2.)  removes all the issues with trying to stand still and channel DT in a competitive environment where that is simply not realistic most of the time

3.) vastly improves functionality of your non-gunsaber weapon set

 

If, on the other hand, you feel committed to the idea of keeping DT and flow, I would recommend that you be able to keep any  cartridges that you charge up even if you don't use them.  This would allow a player to briefly charge DT to get 1-2 cartridges, dodge or use a skill as needed, and return to DT later and already have those 1-2 cartridges saved up.  In this way, one could power up the burst attacks over time and not be committed to a "well I'm in DT so I've got to use one of the skills or I lose everything" mentality.

 

 

I wanted to bring this up again because, after thinking on it all week, I am more convinced than ever that the suggestions above would be both the most effective and the simplest way to address the mechanical issues with the class.  The full rationale is above, but the TL;DR version is:

 

1.) Scrap Dragon Trigger altogether.  Instead make the Dragon Slash skills (Force, Boost, and Reach) be the burst skills available while on Gunsaber and make them available F1-F3.  Either make swapping to gunsaber just use the regular weapon swap key or reassign this mode to F4 or something so as to preserve muscle memory for us Warrior mains that F1=burst.

 

2.) Scrap Flow and return to 3 bars of adrenaline.   The old adrenaline system is tried-and-true, and it "flows" much more effectively/fluidly than Flow does (in part because max adrenaline =30 instead of max flow =100).  It also provides better continuity between Bladesworn and the other Warrior specs.

 

3.)  Return F1 bursts on your non-gunsaber weapon set.  This will be made easier by returning to the old bars of adrenaline as well.

 

These changes would solve all of the issues surrounding the clunkiness of DT (including the weapon-swap CD, standing still for an exorbitant amount of time, and having to hit essentially 3 buttons to get off 1 burst (F1, F2, 1-3)) .  Returning the burst to the non-gunsaber weapons allows makes this weapon set have much greater value and offers more dynamic play rather than relying on the gunsaber for the vast majority of offensive skills.  And returning to adrenaline makes the spec integrate so much more easily into all the traits and skills that Warrior has had up to this point.  

 

In short, adopting these changes would allow BS to offer a brand new weapon with 3 new burst abilities while no longer being bogged down with clunky DT mechanics or a different profession mechanic (flow) that does not mesh with the rest of the profession.  

 

Related skill change suggestions:

I realize that anime-style "charge up for your big attack" is part of the idea behind BS, but that feeling can be preserved by tweaking the Dragon Trigger skills.

 

Dragon Slash-Force: self-root with 1s activation.  Keep the 300 range.  T3 burst should do as much damage as Arc Divider

Dragon Slash-Boost and -Reach:  1/2s activation time; no self-root

 

This will make DS-F, the hardest hitter, be situational and likely require a CC to land.  But that's 90% of Warrior skills anyway, so we're used to it.  Moreover, the 300 range will keep it relatively useful.  And the self-root and 1s activation will offer plenty of counter-play.

 

Yes, the damage in PVE would have to be adjusted down to less eye-popping numbers.  The the greater ease of access of these skills and ability to use them without huge charge-ups should more than compensate for that.  Besides, I'd wager that people doing 350-450k in a hit isn't actually all that healthy for the game mode.

 

What about Triggerguard and Flicker Step?

Not needed anymore!  Their existence is predicated on the idea that you'll be standing rooted for up to 5s (which I think the vast majority of people realize is a very bad idea, especially in competitive modes).  Now that you're able to move freely and have at most a 1s activation time, these skills aren't needed.  They do offer some interesting abilities, though, and I could see them being recycled into BS utilities (most of which are pretty useless), especially flicker step.  But that's beyond the scope of this post.

 

What about Burst CDs?

Now that the bursts are no longer locked behind DT, they ought to have regular Burst CDs (8s customarily).  However, I would propose this one variation:

-When using a gunsaber burst, the skill used goes on 8s CD, but the other 2 burst skills that weren't used go on a 4s CD.

-Example: You use Dragon Slash-Force.  It goes on 8s CD.  DS-Boost and DS-reach go on 4s CD.

-This prevents you from bursting back-to-back on the same weapon, but it does allow you to use the un-used bursts faster.  Combined with judicious use of Lush Forest, and you could see rapid bursting from the gunsaber, which I think would be a neat dynamic--one that requires a high skill level to pull off well, and thus offers ways for highly skilled players to "raise the ceiling" of what Bladesworn has to offer.

 

What about DT-specific traits like Daring Dragon?

Yeah, they would need to be re-worked.  While a full treatment is beyond the scope of this post, I personally would like to see options for a more condi-oriented way to play BS.  BS's current focus on power-only builds is a serious design shortcoming, one that will greatly limit the variety of ways to play the spec.  

 

Beyond these changes, damage numbers, pistol skills (should totally be main-hand at least, if not MH and OH), and utility skills all need a lot of attention,  but they can be topics for other posts and other authors.

[Axl.8924]

You know, now that i think of it s ome abilities on warr r ifle aren't half bad.

 

I was using rifle i think 2?  I saw a lot of situational moves but that one in itself isn't bad, and dragonsaber mobility is quite nice in some ways. 

I bet if i could get might stacks bladesworn could be raid viable if we got maybe some dmg increase and also some access to either might or vulnerability.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Axl.8924

[RyRyTheFlyGuy.9104]

1.PvE] I like the feel of it in PvE its fun and does good burst damage I don't know how I stack over all do to me not having any addons but still fun. Flow should drain vary slowly going from mob to mob fights sucks because my flow is gone and takes to long to build up to really do what this specialization is meant to do. But one thing a friend pointed out is, is  Bladesworn good enough to take the place of Banner Slave? a play style I hate but the only good one as of now for PvE? 

 

2.PvP] I'm not rewarded for standing still doing no Dmg and charging up my dragontrigger. The damage is way to low for a full charged attack and is easy to dodge do to the long animation. In theory it should do a massive burst to make up for being a sitting duck that can be knocked around or stunned easily by others. PvP is kind of hard for Warrior all-around due to my class being mid to low tier currently.  Bladesworn is weaker then all other warrior specialization currently.  

 

3.General] The new heal should not take an additional charge to activate the boons. a lot of bugs when dragonslashing players or mobs not on the same flat plane as you. Warrior is so dependent on the skills in the 6,7,8,9,10 skills that the new ones are not good enough to switch out from the old ones.  I feel that warrior may need a change over all to help keep them competitive or fun in PvE and PvP before Bladesworn can be a defining part of the class. I was very excited for this new specialization but it does not fix any of the core issues of warrior in PvE and PvP and after playing it I was disappointed in the end over all despite how cool I think it is. I hope you at Arenanet can make the necessary changes to give warrior players a fun experience in both PvP and PvE for End of Dragons good luck.   

[Zanjii.8214]

Hey just want to give my 2 cents about bladesworn

first i kinda like this spec but we all now it will never be releast in this state , but i hope anet will nerv him in a good way instead just nerving the dmg

 

what i like to see is

Dragontrigger: chargeup time to 2.5 sec ( 0.25 per charge ) and cd increase atlest to 15 maybe 20s

Lush Forrest : iCd 3sec

flameshell burst : Renamed to Ember Bullet , effect : the last ammoniotion of a skill doubles his effect

Dragonscale Defence: Maybe add 1 stack of stability

Guns and Glory : add Precision to Ferocity ( maybe a bit to strong but other classes have stronger passives too XD )

 

and i would be a fan of place the banner trait from disciplin to tactics as grandmaster instead of warriors cunning (master) and martial candence to the master tier

 

what do u think about that

sorry for bad english 🙂

[Unicorn Luna.5204]

Well I was dubious with my initial testings but after this week I've found I'm rather addicted to it for PvE. I generally don't play warrior because it's just not magical or exotic enough for me, but this works and is so very satisfying when I play it well. I quite enjoy where it is and have grown fond of how it plays and what it can do. The risk and the reward feel goooood.

[Coolster.2536]

Damage seems to drop off hard with Daring Dragon. I assumed that Dragon Trigger-Force would do 20k max with 5 charges instead of 40k with 10, but nah. It's 7k max.

 

It is fun to zip around with Dragon Trigger-Boost with Daring Dragon, though!

 

Also a bug: My male Norn sometimes shouts Reach when using Dragon Trigger-Boost

[Tekanos.2019]

Many replies here already, but I will give it a try.

 

Firstly: I main Warrior, as in 99.75% of game time.

Secondly: I solely lend myself to WvW.

 

When I first heard that Warrior was getting "Pistols" I got excited, thinking... will it be Main-hand, Off-hand, or even Dual Pistols! For Great Justice!

 

When I first watched the reveal and then shortly after got my hands on it... I felt instantly disheartened.

 

Now I do understand, that because of the rumour-mill hype in game (that was so vocally loud, that it was time for "Pistols" for Warrior) my understanding may have been a bit skewed from the start, which is no part the fault of the development team of course. 🙂

 

With all that said, I will try to stay concise.

 

Instead of Pistols, here we have an Extra Greatsword... a lesser one at that, of which the "Flow/Charge/Zen Aspect" does not evoke the snappy response needed to keep up with the pace of WvW.

 

The Pistol Off-hand, and the idea surrounding Ammo that can directly lend itself to Rifle seems like a great system. Possibly a system that got overrun by the Gunsaber (Extra Lesser Greatsword) to fit with the Canthan theme, and understandably these things happen to projects.

 

All that said, the Gunsaber which seems akin to the Double Down of KFC, feels like it won't age well. Now it might be too late to put the brakes on that. So maybe the consideration of allowing Pistol to be unattached "Just a nice little addition to all the lovely people who play Warrior" kinda thing, ya kno? 🙂

 

Quick thoughts on Pistol:

 

#4 Gunstinger - (more affectionately thought of as Pistol Whip due to my Star Wars Galaxies heritage) Much like the idea of Rifle Butt, which seems like a fine way to reload; however, the addition of even a 1/2 second Stun would nail it.

 

#5 Dragon's Roar - This extremely short ranged shot seems useful and even fun, though very shotgun-like, which it pulls off by Warriors bold flavor and aroma. The range of it on the other hand makes it hard to discern from the range of a Melee move, which is curiously a shorter range than the movement portion of Gunstinger... maybe consider a bump up to 450 Range so that it feels like less of a... Premature shot.

 

 

[Jzaku.9765]

OH pistol specific feedback:

1.  [Gunstinger]: Should do a little more - I love that this is somehow Warr's first weapon that sets itself up, but [Gunstinger] itself should be doing more than a short duration [Aegis]. Look at Ranger GS's setup skill, [Hilt Bash]. It STUNS for the perfect setup and FULLY recharges [Maul] which is doing 2.625 coeff vs 3-charge [Dragon's Roar] 2.25 coeff. 
   I'd suggest giving Gunstinger [Cripple] and [Daze] to encourage synergy with the support aspects of the Tactics traitline. Also it should have far less aftercast delay - the combo is obviously to Pistol 5-4-5 but there's a really awkward delay before firing off your second [Dragon's Roar].
    
2. [Dragon's Roar]: I really love how wind tech was implemented in this skill, but it should still be hard coded to work with movement-related traits. It's also surprisingly hard to land, I think the range on it could be bumped up REALLY slightly to ~300.  
   I also really appreciate that it was designed to synergize with BSW's "on last ammo round" traits, but:
   [Lush Forest] encourages such degenerate gameplay, nor will spamming an astoundingly weak 1-ammo Pistol5 ever be worth the cast time.
   [Flame Shell Burst] is still far too weak to encourage the condition Sword/Pistol build showed off in the trailer. Running Pistol means you're locked out of Longbow as core Warrior's ONLY other source of burning so you would never get any proper value out of this trait. For reference, running Longbow is giving you an effective 15s Burning on 6cd(4.75 traited)  at the same range vs Pistol 5 spam giving you 2s Burning on 5cd. Yikes. I don't think this trait belongs on this spec at all, and I feel like it's a remnant of a time when the ammo traits triggered on EVERY ammo charge used.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Jzaku.9765

[Jzaku.9765]

Utilities:

1. [Flow Stabilizer]: Shouldn't exist. There are so many skills and effects from core Warrior that grant Adrenaline, make them scale better when converted into Flow instead, and have a trait that applies Stab every time you use a skill that generates extra Adrenaline. As of right now this almost feels mandatory purely because it was designed to alleviate the very slow rate of Flow, when none of the other Adrenaline-generating skills scale properly when converted.
    
2. [Bulletproof Barrier]: Perfect skill would not change a thing. First utility-oriented Warrior utility skill. 
    
3. [Electric Fence]: For a skill that's intended to be used to stop people from running away, 600 range is way too short. I'd suggest to bump it up to 900 range, just like [Artillery Slash] on the Gunsaber which is designed to do the same thing.
    
4. [Dragonspike Mine]: [Lightning Reflexes] is a 30s CD stunbreak that naturally cleanses immob untraited, is the tiny damage and [Dragon Trigger] recharge really worth the extra 5s CD? We're already rate-limited on [Dragon Trigger] by Flow. Also, I'd like to point out  that Willbender got a stunbreak-evade backwards-blind on a 15s CD (30s in pvp) that ALSO flips into a 3s Daze gap closer. What is this lack of parity lol. 

Traits: 

1. Adept Traits: I love the idea of these. I just don't think [Swift As The Wind] should have an ICD. We shouldn't be denied value for chaining movement skills, each with their own CDs.
2. Master Traits: talked about in the above post. But I really really want to reiterate that [Lush Forest] encourages truly degenerate gameplay spamming every ammo skill off CD and starting fights with 0 ammo. Please do something about it before BSW actually releases.
3. GM traits: I love all 3. I don't think [Daring Dragon] has any use in PVE, and I would suggest that for PVE it upkeeps 10-man alacrity with a LOT of Flow generation and Boon Duration investment, in keeping with BSW's CD reduction theme. This would give Warrior a support build to theorycraft and gear for - as of now we haven't have to change gear since Berserker released ~6 years ago. Actually, since launch lol.

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Jzaku.9765

[Jzaku.9765]

Gunsaber skills:

• These CDs are insane. I know they're insane because [Lush Forest] and [Tactical Reload] exists, but isn't this just forcing us to use them to make the CDs reasonable? The core weapon should be functional without mandatory traits and skills to make it feel good.
• On a related note, these skills all do incredibly low damage for their CDs. Take some power out of [Dragon Trigger] and put it into these skills so they feel high value, rather than how it currently is where they're kind of just feeding [Lush Forest].

1. I feel like the auto could stand to do at least 1 extra effect on the final hit, maybe grant some Might or apply some Vuln. 
2. [Blooming Fire]: Just doing damage is fine for a skill 2.
3. [Artillery Slash]: At some point I think maybe we could consider giving Warrior some natural Immobilize rather than always thinking "they could trait Tactics to turn this into Immobilize!". I'm not sure if it should be on this skill specifically, but that's really the impression I get.
4. [Cyclone Trigger]: This should just be a block, that can be traited into a reflect in Defense. At these CDs, aren't these skills far too conservative?
5. [Break Step]: I actually love how this skill functions. Since you can't actually target the landing spot aside from pure skillshot, I think it should be doing damage on it's landing zone as well. 

[Raolin Soulherder.3195]

is it just me, or do the flow generation boosters not stack? I have a ton of things traited to boost flow, but don't really feel much flow gen. The only thing that seems to boost it much is Flow Stabilizer. Seems like flow works like regen, where there are only a couple skills that grant you multiple stacks simultaneously & everything else just stacks duration. 

[Issette.3248]

When I saw the Bladesworn for the first time, I was excited and disappointed at the same time: On one side it looks really funny and adds a lot of interesting new things to the warrior. On the other side, it fills no gaps for the class and doesn't give something it really requires (i.e. a proper heal/support spec).

My opinion didn't change overall, but so far I still had a lot of fun with it, even when many things feel clunky. And I think we can fill some of these gaps with a few changes.

Let's get over it skill by skill and trait by trait:

(One thing: When I call a trait boring, this is not directly a bad thing. A well balanced but boring thing is much wealthier for overall game balance, but does not give us many options in build crafting.)

Gunsaber:

1. Nothing to complain about, just a basic AA skill.

2. Sometimes a bit hard to hit, and not too excited. Add Vulnerability to it to open up some combos with 1 or 3 or even your basic weapon set. And maybe make it an Explosion finisher?

3. Feels nice and is fun. I can clearly see the inspiration for this skill: Axe Throw 😉 But it is even more fun! One of the best skills in the entire set imo.

4. The missile block is okay, but maybe not enough for PvP. Why is this skill not a Whirl finisher?

5. Felt clunky in my first games, later I began to like this skill! Just make it a Leap finisher and it will be fine!

Dragon Trigger:

Overall, you can reduce the charge time by a lot! It feels clunky when it takes that long to charge, even in PvE. (And please go away from exponential damage increase in PvE! This is never a good idea in terms of balance.)

In PvP the three skills feel entirely different, that's fine. But imo the damage scaling could be different for everyone.

1. If you are that close it is hard to charge this skill. You normally use it really fast after entering DT. So, the damage scaling should be higher at lower levels. Additionally there could be another benefit if you charge it for longer, maybe Might or Vulnerability?

2. Most of the time I used this skill from mid range. I think a more linear damage scaling is fine for this skill.

3. This skill feels clunky... I think I never hit an enemy once with it o.O Higher projectile speed maybe? And because you can use it from the safety of a higher distance, you get more time to charge it. So make the damage scaling more to the later levels. (Past Killshot and Gunflame are a good orientation for damage of higher charge levels!)

4. While it is nice to have Aegis on Warrior, it doesn't help too much in my opinion. Aegis doesn't protect against Fear, it is easily removed before a CC and only protects against a single attack and after that it is only available after another second. I think stability would help a lot more in this spot!

5. That's fine! But maybe it is a good idea to add the Aegis to this skill and give skill 4 something else for defense.

Armament skills:

Actually a nice design idea is that you get another effect of the skill if you had the effect before. But some skills feel misplaced and not designed with any game mode in mind.

1. (Heal) One of the most interesting Heal skills so far. But I think it is still hard to compete with Mending in a PvP scenario.

2. Flow Stabilizer: Is fine.

3. Bulletproof Barrier: I don't know when to use this skill. It feels misplaced and seems to have no synergies. Why no combo field?

4. Electric Fence: Still, it is the same for this skill as for Bulletproof Barrier.

5. Dragonspike Mine: The evade is fine and makes this skill actually helpful. Stunbreak is fine. Overall not sure if somebody will take this skill over Shake it off!, Endure Pain or even Balance stance. More synergies with the BS would probably help with that.

6. (Elite) Is fine, even if I get interrupted with it. (Feels a lot more than just 1/2 second of cast time.) Still a bit boring and could be more interesting by adding things like a combo field/finisher or Explosion or something like that.

Pistol skills:

Pistol is in a bad place so far. For PvP, you will still take something for defense/escape in your regular weapon set. This will be a shield or warhorn. In WvW you probably also take warhorn (if BS will somehow be viable for this mode). For PvE you will probably stay on axe for damage, because pistol damage seems to be lower.

4. The skill is okay. Not too exciting.

5. That the skill consumes all charges is an interesting idea. The pushback feels clunky, not sure how to use that.

Traits:

Minor traits:

1. Basic elite spec adept trait.

2. Really bad design! IF you got hit in DT it's mostly too late, because it will be a CC, Fear or high damage skill. And 25 seconds is just too high for a simple passive. (Remember that you made other passives a 300 seconds cd...). Make it, that the effect triggers when you enter DT. And this should be Aegis or Stability or something like that.

3. I think this is okay, even when it is a bit boring.

Adept traits:

1. Is fine, but it is not clear for what kind of healing skills it works. Healing Signet or Adrenal Health are regeneration effects? What about Shout Heal or MMR?

2. Cool idea, works well.

3. There is barely a reason to swap away from Gunsaber. I don't think people will use this ever. If you want to make people use this trait, give us a more synergising weapon (main hand pistol) or maybe add a damage increase to this trait? Or remove it entirely and add an Armament or Pistol trait. Just an idea: Get flow when you use Armament skills.

Master traits:

1. Feels boring and not too helpful. Could be changed or replaced.

2. So what was the point of this trait? It feels totally misplaced in this spot... did you forget to make it an explosion? 😉 Add something like Explosion, Flow Generation, Condi remove or whatever... or replace it entirely. Or something like: If you use your last ammo give Alacrity to surrounding allies.

3. That one is really cool and fun to play! It is actually so passive, but works well.

Grandmaster traits:

Grandmaster traits could change the playstyle of the DT a lot more!

1. Boring skill so far. Imagine this: You keep your DT charges even if you do not activate a DT attack. If you use your DT attacks, heal yourself AND surrounding allies. DT attacks deal less damage. That can make this skill an interesting support option with a burst heal when you need it and give much more flexibility over when to use the attacks.

2. I think this trait is fine. It is actually pretty strong, but if you make the other traits more interesting, it will not look too strong compared to other GM traits.

3. Not sure what this is, maybe I just didn't understand the idea of it. But still an idea to change: DT charge time is doubled, but your DT attacks have additional effects: DT 1 attacks twice. DT 2 lets you return to your starting position. DT 3 moves slower, but the damage is doubled.

Additional thoughts:

Combo fields and finishers:

When changes to combo fields and finishers were added, I hoped for a warrior specs that makes a lot of usage from that. Maybe we get more interesting finishers for the new field on Banner skills or something like that? Maybe some comeback of the Powerful Synergy trait? You could add some more interesting combo fields to the new Armament skills, maybe as a trait? Also add some more finishers to Gunsaber and Pistol?

Main Hand pistol

I agree with many other people: We should get a main hand Pistol too. This could add more synergies with the Armament skills, because Gunsaber doesn't so far.

Armament trait

In my opinion, there should be a trait for each utility skill type for each class! (And also at least one rune too, but that's another story.) Think about replacing some traits like Unseen Sword or Fierce as Fire with one.

Gunsaber skin

Just one idea: Add three different skins that change with the selection of the grandmaster trait 😉

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Rettan.9603

[Mat.7046]

Here i will talk about bladesworn pvp (and wvw roaming).

 

played bladesworn for more than 30 hours during the beta, and i used the number 2 skill of dragon trigger the most since it was the only reliable option and  i often used it for 1-2 bullets for a quick disruption. But when u actually charge it for more than 5 bullets, it felt like the damage increase compared to the 1-2 bullets was unexistent, which shouldn't be the case. If u actually manage to pull off more than 5 charges, you should be rewarded with damage. i felt like the damage with 1-2 charges was good, but as you are building up charges, the damage increase you are getting is not worth the build up and the risk. The aegis lasts for only 2 secs, i would prefer if it lasted 3 or 4 seconds but meh. The teleport, i believe that the HUGE cooldown of it is a stretch considering how short the distance travel is. This skill either needs 1 extra charge, more range or less cooldown( 1 of the 3). Gunsaber skill 2 is not that strong in terms of damage, it's slow, clunky and the range/hit box felt super wierd. Number 3  is INSANE. number 4 is also a good skill but it's lame to call the 1 sec projectile block "defense" of the kit...i would prefer if it blocked for 1 second or if they gave another skill like the one they gave revenant in GS 4. Number 5 range is too short even with the 2 charges combined, it feels like an evade, and i think it works as an evade as far as some people told me o.O, So may as well give it evade.

Overall this build has insane sustain, it's basically getting carried by the shout mechanics, combined with lust forest, new elite skill and the new heal. the sustain that all these provide is ridiculus...But i am not really excited with the idea of getting carried by shouts.. Again.

I also think that the Boon uptime of the bladesworn is not there, playing vindicator and then bladesworn makes the boon problem much more noticable. I play vindicator and i have full boons like i am in a raid. I play bladesworn and i barely have swiftness fury ( the basics) and some might. The shout fixed the fury problem but the swiftness problem remained, number 5 of Gunsaber giving swiftness if u pick the trait for it but it's really not enough... without discipline you're moving so slow..it made me fall asleep. But as the spec works right now, u couldn't give up tactics and strenght..u had to play on ur sustain to bring some decent results. Anyway overall the spec was not as terrible as i thought, but my experience was just in unranked anyway.. If You remove some of the clunkiness, allow us the stow the weapon, remove the wall bugs, the rampage bug, and fix a couple of things, some boon uptime and the dragontrigger dmg, i think this spec could actually have a future in pvp. As it is right now, it doesn't have future in real ranked games thought..but i am sure it can be decent if you actually want it to be. Also i didn't like the fact that u are camping gunsaber 100% of the time...even if you remove dragon trigger CD and allow us to go to our weapon set, it's still cringe.. we don't even have a skill to use flow on our weapon set.. that's ridiculus, we need something to spend flow on in our weapon set.

Without the burst skills, all our existant weapons feels weak, becouse i assume that they were designed with the burst skills in mind when they were balanced, but since as i said we camp gunsaber almost 100% of the time that's barely noticable.. i don't know if that's what you want to achieve thought.

If not giving the pistol to off hand and not main hand was a mistake, becouse it was your chance to design a main hand without the burst skill in mind, and balance it accordingly.

 

Hope this feedback helps even a little bit.

With respect.

[AshenOwl.2485]

I had a lot of fun with Bladesworn, which I honestly wasn't expecting. I've never been the biggest fan of Warrior (no offense, Warrior mains!), but Bladesworn was a lot of fun to play around with and figure out.

[Axl.8924]

9 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

Utilities:

1. [Flow Stabilizer]: Shouldn't exist. There are so many skills and effects from core Warrior that grant Adrenaline, make them scale better when converted into Flow instead, and have a trait that applies Stab every time you use a skill that generates extra Adrenaline. As of right now this almost feels mandatory purely because it was designed to alleviate the very slow rate of Flow, when none of the other Adrenaline-generating skills scale properly when converted.
    
2. [Bulletproof Barrier]: Perfect skill would not change a thing. First utility-oriented Warrior utility skill. 
    
3. [Electric Fence]: For a skill that's intended to be used to stop people from running away, 600 range is way too short. I'd suggest to bump it up to 900 range, just like [Artillery Slash] on the Gunsaber which is designed to do the same thing.
    
4. [Dragonspike Mine]: [Lightning Reflexes] is a 30s CD stunbreak that naturally cleanses immob untraited, is the tiny damage and [Dragon Trigger] recharge really worth the extra 5s CD? We're already rate-limited on [Dragon Trigger] by Flow. Also, I'd like to point out  that Willbender got a stunbreak-evade backwards-blind on a 15s CD (30s in pvp) that ALSO flips into a 3s Daze gap closer. What is this lack of parity lol. 

Traits: 

1. Adept Traits: I love the idea of these. I just don't think [Swift As The Wind] should have an ICD. We shouldn't be denied value for chaining movement skills, each with their own CDs.
2. Master Traits: talked about in the above post. But I really really want to reiterate that [Lush Forest] encourages truly degenerate gameplay spamming every ammo skill off CD and starting fights with 0 ammo. Please do something about it before BSW actually releases.
3. GM traits: I love all 3. I don't think [Daring Dragon] has any use in PVE, and I would suggest that for PVE it upkeeps 10-man alacrity with a LOT of Flow generation and Boon Duration investment, in keeping with BSW's CD reduction theme. This would give Warrior a support build to theorycraft and gear for - as of now we haven't have to change gear since Berserker released ~6 years ago. Actually, since launch lol.

 

You know what they should do? once they scrap the flow make it something else that allows warr while also editing to give warrs a true support spec.

 

I see some threads for this so why not add utility to give them that option?

Imagine if we get a third line for shouts to make shoutmancer support line.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Axl.8924

[Avalon.4809]

I played bladesworn for 1 hour yesterday in pve open world. I didn't understand how a pistol has a melee range. 😕 Seriously? Pistol is invented for a reason. Yes, this is a game, but i think there still needs to be some logic. Making pistol behave as a melee weapon seems really weird to me. Sword/sword seemed a better option for me in open-world. I don't know pvp, but i didn't find much use for pistol in pve.

F2 skill seems fun at first, but I had hard time at using dragon trigger. It is clunky and i didn't get much use of it in open world when roaming alone, since i killed the mobs before gaining enough flow for F2. Resetting it when i have to move removes the fun of F2. It's easy to interrupt due to its stance waiting if i have no stability on me. Either make "Flow Stabilizer" give more stability or make F2 skill#4 has more ammo. F2 skill#5 range is ridiculously low.

F1 skills should have more damage since they are clunky as well. I expected something that finally let me say goodbye to axe, but still axe/axe is a better option for open-world compared to bladesabre. I don't need insane 400k damage after waiting in a long stance with 1 skill. What i want is mobile and fair combat.

Heal skill seemed interesting, but it didn't work well for me in pve and needed to change with another heal skill. "Dragonspike Mine" and "Flow Stabilizer" was useful,  especially elite was very useful for charging the skills. I didn't see much use for others.

Overall, after catalyst, I felt like a tank at legendary bosses, sustain was so easy. However, I didn't do well and sucked while roaming alone and missed my axes.

 

[artharon.9276]

The damage role of this espec is inclined to pve imo but it's my assumption, I didn't have a lot of time to test in pvp and wvw scenarios properly.  

 

Speaking of pve, damage was just fine, mobility is great, that barrier type skills were totally unccessary and needs some change, but what really impressed me the most is after spending time with my shout heals build with monk/harrier gear, I can only say thanks Anet. It was spot on I had a blast for the first time ever keeping the group supported nicely.

 

I disagree with people saying sit 2 minutes charging f2 skills is boring or weak. No it's not, it takes some time to get used to blinking here to there to avoid harm while charging. So I find it quite challenging, and to me that's great to have that option. I find it really interesting, please don't change that. 

 

Wishlist

Please give some stuff we lost with banner bundles nerf back, like adding f3 bundles for support. It's ok if it's going to be weaker than others support. Or completely lacks mobilty in order to apply buffs.

Let us sheathe the gunblade. It looks awkward after the fight is over.

 

 

  

Edited September 26, 2021 by artharon.9276

[suialthor.7164]

Out of the 6 elites tested so far this is 1 of 2 that I think has a good foundation.  My main complaint is that charge time breaks the flow of combat.   Frankly, taking a recess break in the middle of a fight is boring.

[Mesket.5728]

3 hours ago, tesnow.4721 said:

I've never been the biggest fan of Warrior (no offense, Warrior mains!), but Bladesworn was a lot of fun to play around with and figure out.

None taken. Its known by now that this spec mostly (if not only) appeals to non warriors. For warriors this spec is total crap

[Mesket.5728]

20 minutes ago, suialthor.7164 said:

My main complaint is that charge time breaks the flow of combat.   Frankly, taking a recess break in the middle of a fight is boring.

And stupid... putting your sword away in the middle of the fight is the equivalent of a naruto runner

[Ackzar.9156]

Bladesworn feedback 

 

Note: I played Bladesworn mostly in instanced PvE endgame content (fractals, strike missions, raids), so my feedback is based on my experience from this area of the game. 

 

Feedback from the Beta: 

Weapon swap 

It feels bad that your weapon swap goes on cool down after using dragon trigger. In the current dps rotation, you never go back to your main weapon set, after the initial burst opening. Because of this, people are camping the Gunblade until dragon trigger is available again. This type of gameplay where you don’t swap back to your main weapon set, makes it feel detached from the warrior class. Almost all of the spells you use are Bladesworn exclusive, making it feel more like a separate class, than an extension of the warrior class. Warrior is known to be a fast paced class, where you weapon swap often. This is why it feels so out of place to camp the Gunblade and to not be able to weapon swap when you exit dragon trigger. It just feels “clunky” from a warrior class perspective. 

 

Dragon trigger

Dragon trigger feels too spammable. I think the Bladesworn and dps rotation should be centered around dragon trigger, but the way it plays now, you spend half of your dps rotation afk waiting for bullets on dragon trigger. Dragon trigger gives off the idea of being this super powerful spell that has a long channel time. Yet, in the current dps rotation, you spend almost half of your rotation sitting in dragon trigger, 1) because it’s so accessible and 2) because it’s the highest dps option. I think dragon trigger would feel more impactful and give you more of that “super powerful spell” feeling, if it requires more build up. 

 

The Gunblade

The Gunblade itself is okay. It makes sense that it’s a well rounded weapon because you’re locked into using it. In PvE (raids), it feels a bit weak on the damage side. I understand that it can’t deal too much damage when dragon trigger is already dealing 350k damage, but I think shifting the power budget a bit, and giving the Gunblade itself a bit more oomph would go a long way to make it feel more like an actual weapon, and not just a “spam everything so you can get back into dragon trigger” weapon. 

 

Suggestions for the future

Flow-generation

If it was more difficult to build flow, players would be incentivized to include their main weapon set into the rotation, to build up enough flow. I feel like spending less time standing around afk in dragon trigger, and more time spent using skills to build flow, would make the Bladesworn feel more fluid and interesting to play, and make the use of dragon trigger feel more impactful. 

 

Traits

The traits are interesting, and I like them so far. To add to my previous ideas, I would love to see some meaningful decision making in terms of the 5 bullet trait. Currently, you lose out on too much dps by taking the 5 bullet trait. What if the 5 bullet gave you increased flow generation instead of the passive it has now? (Assuming flow-generation is nerfed and takes more time to build up). That way, players are presented with a choice: pick the 10 bullet build where you use dragon trigger less frequently, but it hits harder (which would be good for bosses where you can time it with an exposed debuff), or go with the 5 bullet build where you get to use dragon trigger a lot more, while still having the feel of a smooth rotation as you’re not standing afk for 5sec every time you use dragon trigger. 

 

Conclusions 

All in all, it was a lot of fun playing around with the bladesworn this beta. It felt really polished considering it was just a beta event. I think the dragon trigger mechanic is really fun, and it feels good to see those huge numbers when you land it. But to make it feel like this really cool special ability, I think it should require more build-up, so the pay off feels more rewarding. 

[Curennos.9307]

Also wondering why they're treating bladesworn like holosmith and forcing only one weapon set + gunblade. That worked for holosmith because 

 

1) They have a ton of f1 skills

2) Kits

 

Whereas warrior is losing 'core' f1 skills in exchange for (effectively) new f1, f2, f3 skills and are forced into a particular weapon. It might just be that the gunblade weapon skills feel a tad lackluster at the moment (I don't expect them to be holo-forge level because they do not also make me explode), but it also feels like forcing gunblade/x setup where you only get to choose one weapon was premature. There are multiple ways to fix this, but it feels really lackluster to only get to pick one weapon/pair of weapons.

 

I get that they're trying to focus on ensuring drawbacks are built in from the start (as opposed to building them in later, like the HoT and PoF specs were) but it's a little jarring and it doesn't feel like the spec is compensated properly for it.

Also, it feels REALLY weird to not have a lot of the stuff I do - like landing skills - contribute to flow. Just feels bad. Plus the interaction of trigger w/on-hit of 'burst' skills. IIRC it only counts as 'one' hit that is also charged and much easier to mitigate. Not sure how to go about fixing/compensating for that, if it even needs fixing/compensation. 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Curennos.9307

[troy.3257]

My warrior is my oldest toon ( 6 +years playing GW2) so I have got quite a bit of time and experience on the class.

My opinion on the Bladesworn is its pretty bad.

The utility skills are not very good. The elite though with full ammo refresh is interesting along with low cool down. If it gets nerfed to a longer cool down its worthless though. The off hand pistol is ok but main hand would have been better with shield or axe in offhand.

The gunsaber is silly and looks like it was made by a drunk redneck in his garage. The week long power up is a hot mess.

Might as well use a GS on another elite and have a weapon swap and can skin it however you want.

I would have preferred a dual pistol elite spec with a weapon swap.

I had high hopes for a pistol build on my warrior. A good midrange weapon option  would have been something fresh for warrior. Instead it seems  you tried to reinvent the wheel for something the warrior already has.

[Shin Ryu.5802]

Full disclosure:  I ran the bladesworn in PvE on the Crystal Oasis map; WvW and PvP experiences will certainly vary.

My initial reaction last week was that activating Dragon Trigger for an optimum Dragon Slash burst was too clunky and far too easily canceled by enemies or even the player's own accidental movement.  Since that gimmick was pretty much the only reason for running a bladesworn, that was kind of a big deal.  Now that I've learned to make judicious use of skills like Flow Stabilizer and Trigger Guard to prevent interruptions, it feels a lot better.  The Dragon Slash succeeds far more often, and there's actually something to do while charging up besides accidentally putting Dragon Trigger on 8 second cooldown.

That said, Dragon Trigger could still stand a little improvement.  Some suggested modifications:

-Several people have already mentioned that the Dragon Slash variant icons need some differentiation so players can tell them apart at a glance.  This is probably already in the works, as literally no other skill kit has an identical set of icons for skills.

-I'm not sure why Flicker Step needs to be its own skill.  It would probably suffice to alter the dodge mechanic to become Flicker Step while Dragon Trigger is active as dodges already allow for the player to choose a direction.  This would make it far more useful and accessible in combat.  It would also free up a skill slot to add in another Dragon Slash variant, or way to speed up Flow accumulation or charging.

-Remembering not to move while in Dragon Trigger is a matter of practice and discipline, but it's also--how do I say this charitably?  Unnecessary.  It would make more sense to either have Dragon Trigger root the character in place similarly to the deadeye's Kneel rifle skill, or to allow for a much slower, shuffling walking speed resembling an iaido master circling an opponent.  It's very strange that a daredevil can't even dodge cancel out of many of its staff skill animations but the bladesworn can baby step right out of Dragon Trigger and lose access to it for 8 seconds.

Otherwise, I found some nice synergies with existing warrior skills:  "Shake It Off!" has an "ammo" count (as do most Shout skills), so the Major Master Traits all grant some bonus for using the final "round," and Tactical Reload grants an extra use.  Bull's Charge has a three second knockdown, so chaining it with Dragon Trigger is a viable tactic.  And of course, a warrior's banners never go out of style.

Some of my earlier complaints still stand:  Granting the warrior access to the pistol was largely irrelevant, and having the new core profession mechanic revolve completely and exclusively around Greatsword 2.0 renders weapon choices irrelevant in general, and having an elite core profession mechanic feel this clunky is bad.  However, I am slowly warming up to bladesworn, and it might not be nearly as unfixable as I initially thought.