Bladesworn Feedback Thread

[wingzero.6279]

34 minutes ago, Gomes.5643 said:

So i went back to my favourite spot for testing and had a blast again. With the new changes the class feels so much more responsive. I kinda miss the ability to oneshot veterans and elites a little due to the nerf but will take that for the shorter build up time always. With Sword/Pistol the flow skill and the traits that gives flow and stability on movement skill I kinda never had a problem to bring dragon slash through.

 

But would still advocate for acess to stance on the other weapon set ......

i'm actually confused why people didn't just pop the trigger earlier than max stacks before...
there wasn't really anything stopping you from hitting 1 after 3 seconds instead of waiting for the full 5

sure you wouldn't get the max out of it, but you also wouldn't consume the full bar so you're given the option to do less damage but get out of the stance to use other stuff, or keep hanging out for massive outburst.

i personally love high risk, high reward playstyles and the first run of bladesworn really felt rewarding to me.

will add, i don't look at DPS numbers or anything that would be considered meta, viable etc, i just wanna play to have fun xD

 

[artharon.9276]

2 minutes ago, wingzero.6279 said:

i'm actually confused why people didn't just pop the trigger earlier than max stacks before...
there wasn't really anything stopping you from hitting 1 after 3 seconds instead of waiting for the full 5

sure you wouldn't get the max out of it, but you also wouldn't consume the full bar so you're given the option to do less damage but get out of the stance to use other stuff, or keep hanging out for massive outburst.

i personally love high risk, high reward playstyles and the first run of bladesworn really felt rewarding to me.

will add, i don't look at DPS numbers or anything that would be considered meta, viable etc, i just wanna play to have fun xD

 

 

 

exactly, I don't understand why anet is keep listening to these people. the spec is no longer fun anymore dead before it was born kitten. 

 

4 things ANET

 

1 undo all the nerfs you did,

2 take action and start giving warriors proper range, boons, utilities, and fields. 

3 sort out whtever technical issue is with the collision detection

4 then nerf or buff what you must, not before.

 

 

[Naturalistwonder.7845]

Bladesworn feels overall less fun and less fluid than during the first Beta.

I don't mind the damage nerfs but all traits/functionally changes made it feel worse.

 

Conceptually one of the most fun specs in the batch so it would be sad if it gets hated because of counterproductive changes.

[Zappi.8307]

Just some of my thoughts, even if most of it has probably been said before.

General Impressions:
-Trigger charge-rate change is nice but the result is that short charged bursts now do literally no damage, even in PvE (maybe make scaling linear instead of exponential?)
-The (expected) Lush Forest nerfs make the cooldowns on Gunsaber absolutely ridiculous and unjustified with the pathetic damage they do. A low cooldown ammo reset as elite doesnt make it more fun
-Flow generation only seems to begin 3s after entering combat, is that intended?
-Getting cancelled during charge doesnt return any flow/prestack ammo making an entire flow bar wasted ontop of the wasted channeltime, feels as bad as losing adrenaline/flow when dying on war
-There s no real mobility outside of breakstep (~35-40s CD for 450 range is meh)
-Gunsaber feels pretty slow and autochain a bit weird (I'd prefer faster spells that get interrupted by F2 charging to create some kind fast-stop-fast-stop gameplay flow)
-Please turn Dragon Trigger #2 and #3 into ground targeted skillshots
-Armaments outside of Flow Stabilizer dont do enough to be worth casting
-Pistol skills seem fine actually, just not better than Offhand Axe in PvE
-Gunsaber could be a little longer for my likings

Comparision to Rev/Rant:
-Every single skill on gunblade has less range/damage than greatsword on rev which actually feels good/fun to play imo
-Rev GS #2 has 3s CD on a big 5 target cleave that has high dmg, while Gunblade #2 has low range, lower dmg, 3 targets but ~20s CD)

-Rev GS #3 has up to 900 range and 8s CD, Breakstep is a joke in comparison (its also a better version of Rush)
-#5 on a good hit does half the dmg of a fully charged Trigger Skill

Edited December 1, 2021 by Zappi.8307

[Asreal.9543]

On 9/21/2021 at 10:43 AM, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

Let us know what you think about the bladesworn! What do you really like? What needs to be improved or adjusted?

Found a bug? Let us know in the bug thread.

 

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

Edited December 2, 2021 by Asreal.9543

[TwoTongues.5163]

Bladesworn........................................... I don't even know where to start. I wish the dev team that came up with this new e-spec would answer 1 simple question. Why would I play this new espec over whats already available to me on Warrior?. Another thing, and this is me being generous, although I appreciate the attempt at a creative theme with Bladesworn there is absolutely nothing that it offers that would ever lead me to take it over any other mele build in the greater warrior kit. And pistol..............really?................why would I take pistol when literally anything else available to warrior in their off hand is better and offers more. Gunsaber is just another great sword. I honestly find this to be lazy design. It even shares animations with great sword. Minimal interactions with explosions, Flow takes to long to build and diminishes way to fast, the blink is pathetic, the utility skills offer nothing of any real value that would make me choose them over whats available in the rest of the warrior kit.

 

The cats out of the bag when it comes to power creep too. Why nerf the DPS. It was the only thing that made BS even marginally playable. At this point just make enemies more of a dps sponge. We are almost a decade into this game, course correcting now when it comes to DPS is too little too late. If I'm going to offer any solutions or ideas on how to improve BS and make it more playable, it would be this. Just don't play BS. Any other warrior mele build is better, has actual trait synergy, and is nowhere near as clunky. I'm actually surprised at how agitated I feel about not just this e-spec but like 80% of them. I'm usually the  "screw it. it's just a game kind of guy" but between the 4 year absence on addressing alliances, the complete lack of communication up until very recently, very spotty balance, and the IBS fiasco, now these e-specs. I just don't know............................ maybe I belong in the part of the GW2 community with an overdeveloped sense of entitlement. I'm just left feeling frustrated, and Bladesworn is what pushed me over the edge.

[felix.2386]

100% guaranteed anet did not play test this, not only that, but this design choice is made by novice designers and i'm not buying end of dragon

Edited December 2, 2021 by felix.2386

[Gorem.8104]

7 hours ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

Yep, that's why I mentioned Fury on Flow Stability is fine right now, better if they actually make it with Stability in mind. They treat it as a bundle as opposed to a proper weapon swap (even got prompted that I couldn't drop the bundle when I was in the training area) so it's essentially killed Sigil of Vision. 

That sucks, so much 😞 It was so much better being treated as a weapon swap... We just can't have nice things 

[Gorem.8104]

4 hours ago, Naturalistwonder.7845 said:

Bladesworn feels overall less fun and less fluid than during the first Beta.

I don't mind the damage nerfs but all traits/functionally changes made it feel worse.

 

Conceptually one of the most fun specs in the batch so it would be sad if it gets hated because of counterproductive changes.

To be fair here, that is warrior in a nutshell. First beta showed promise, looked fun, had high numbers and just needed some tweaking and QoL. But they wouldn't let that live for long so before release at EoD they made sure to nerf the class and make it worse so that no one plays warrior, we can't have new players playing warrior after all they really cannot allow the class to look fun. 

[PseudoOAlias.4279]

Gameplay Feedback:

 

Please make it so you can weapon swap in the air (currently you can't drop bundles' which is a HUGE ISSUE for sPvP & WvW.)

 

Make DT Boost aim in the direction your camera's facing instead of your character, or better yet, give it a targeting arrow similar to chrono shield 5. If there's a way to aim at something else, or change your direction that you're going to go with this I haven't found it.

 

Rename Flow Stabilizer. It really needs to still give stab imo. Even 2s. But failing that "Furious Flow" or something similar might fit the new Fury Boon.

 

Thx for your hard work! ❤️

 Pseudo

 

@Cal Cohen.2358@Cal Cohen.3527

[ens.9854]

Gunsaber feels like warriors worst weapon, basically a handicap, when it should be the best. It's a katana with GUNS attached for heavens sake. But it plays like a kitten greatsword.

The damage is low (egregiously so). The utility is low with absurd cooldowns... 2 break steps = 1 rush, movement and damage wise, but its 40 seconds to recharge half of it. It has no evade and an absolutely minimal projectile reflect - it will not keep you alive to stall for dragon trigger.

Instead of dragon trigger feeling like a bonus (like burst skills), it basically has to carry the entire elite spec because of how bad gunsaber is.

 

PS: gunsaber animations are great, good job animators

[covahlam.6391]

The more I play bladesworn, the worse it feels. Some of the other especs got significant buffs since the previous beta and bladesworn can't keep up in pvp.

- The gunsaber damage is still badly undertuned. Here's the thing. We're forced to take it in exchange for losing a set of sigils and weapon swap, so if anything, the gunsaber needs to be slightly overtuned as compensation.

- The gunsaber provides literally no defense besides a bit of projectile block. Again, this thing is mandatory (inflexible), so it needs to provide more.

- Make dragon trigger work on the regular weapon set or better yet, return the core bursts. These weapons were clearly designed around having burst skills and are completely neutered without them. Seriously, go use mace or longbow on bladesworn and tell me that they work. Giving up one weapon + its burst for the gunsaber + dragon trigger is fair, the current implementation is not.

-Pistol should be mainhand. Remember how gunsaber offers no damage mitigation? At least let the bladesworn poke from range before wading in. Bow and rifle are not great in general but are utter trash on this spec, so they can't reasonably be used.

-Give the bladesworn a major master tier trait that doesn't rely on taking ammunition skills. All three of them are literally useless with many weapon/utility combinations.

-Give the bladesworn a real teleport skill as a utility. Flicker step is a meme. Literally every single other class has one now and several of those classes that had them previously picked up new dashes and leaps. Not giving bladesworn a real teleport is tantamount to saying that you want it to be bad.

-Related to my point above, rework the utilities because they are incredibly weak. This marks the  second wartior espec in a row with basically all garbage utilities.

Edited December 2, 2021 by covahlam.6391

[anbujackson.9564]

8 hours ago, wingzero.6279 said:

i'm actually confused why people didn't just pop the trigger earlier than max stacks before...
there wasn't really anything stopping you from hitting 1 after 3 seconds instead of waiting for the full 5

sure you wouldn't get the max out of it, but you also wouldn't consume the full bar so you're given the option to do less damage but get out of the stance to use other stuff, or keep hanging out for massive outburst.

i personally love high risk, high reward playstyles and the first run of bladesworn really felt rewarding to me.

will add, i don't look at DPS numbers or anything that would be considered meta, viable etc, i just wanna play to have fun xD

 

Thats because of damage calculation. You got exponential increases per bullet instead of linear. Meaning, that low bursts barely do any damage and they count at the most as t2 burst, if not t1 depending on your bullets. Any attack not at max charges is a huge loss, especially now when you cant reduce the cooldown of F2 with lush forest anymore.

Well since they reduced the coefficient of your bursts, the loss got reduced a bit I guess. 

The less damage you do, the more likely you can just go axe berserker. That spec at least feels fluid, except the glaring issues it has in general (no manual exit as the only mode in the freaking game).

[Neva Eilhart.5347]

I hate the nerf on Lush Forest. The whole mechanic is now basically waiting for your skills to charge up to max charge. Tying Lush Forest to the max charge only is a bad decision, and here's why :

 

It becomes incredibly clunky for 3 charges skills : you have to use the charge once (down to 2 charges - grants a Lush Forest proc), and then be careful not to use it again, but rather have to wait before it's back to the 3 charges max to use it again in order to get another Lush Forest (because the 2 to 1 charge wouldn't proc it since it's a 3 charges skill)... So, the 3 charges are useless because you have to use only the first 2 charges in order to maximize the Lush Forest procs.

Plus, if you use that 2nd charge (down to 1), you'll be punished even more because not only you won't get a Lush Forest proc, but you'll have to wait twice the time to get it back to the max charge count to get a Lush Forest proc...  Which is completely counter intuitive and works against the general gameplay. This is a bad design.

It's the same, albeit not as noticeable, for 2 charges skills : you'd rather wait for the charge to get back to its maximum before using it again, than depleting your skill and having to wait for the entire two charges to be back before using it again...

Edited December 2, 2021 by Neva Eilhart.5347

[Unwol.7935]

Well, since the core mechanic of aiming the dragon trigger skills has not changed from the last beta, I won't be playing this spec going foward. (and now that lush forest is gone, I can't even hope to use bladesworn as a better shouty healer)

 

Copypaste from last beta:

I feel the three dragon trigger skills should really be aimed via ground targeting (see Greatsword - Whirlwind Attack for that), as all of them have an aiming element involved (either due to not hitting 360 ° around the player or by moving or shooting in a specific direction).

Forcing the player to tab-target or target an individual enemy via mouse is VERY counter to everything I've seen before in terms of targeting with similar abilities in this game. It is clunky to the point where I actually get frustrated.

[alex.8417]

at the present time
I don't know if it's more profitable to play Spellbreaker and berserker, but you can do more damage in competitive mode (PVP and WVW) with the other elite SPEs, even core warrior is more efficient and less clumsy, it's even ridiculous.

 

With ZERK stats [PVP and WVW] I do in automatic attack [chain] 1k or even 2k max and I don't talk about the other skills of the Gunsaber kit, and the left hand gun, the damage is non-existent.

 

But the most blatant is all the preparation of Dragon Trigger, which for me is the most frustrating, for a max charge I get 5k to 6k, it's just a shame for a CaC attack that is easily predictable.

 

Let's compare what is comparable, there is not even a need to compare.

 

And that's how Anet thinks they're selling their extension, it's not even out yet and it's starting to be all Nerf.

Congratulations Anet, congratulations 👏

[Tessa Astralfall.9051]

Was really looking forward to the he updated blade sworn.....

 

So the pvp and wvw specs are total trash.

And with the overall damage from dragonslash getting nerfed in pve I can no longer see what anet was thinking. Berserk is better in all aspects in pve and all other warrior specs are better in pvp and wvw. I am truly saddened to see a spec that was cool being so lame it was a dps beast that is now a kitten no support other than banners but zerker does that better. 

Most of the other classes are getting new utility and added boons. War was getting a new king of dps in raids but now I fear it's never going to see the light of day. I have been a warrior main since beta and with the ups and downs I am really happy with spell breaker and berserker. Make dragon slash usable in all game modes. It makes no sense to use a skill that requires you to stand still for 10 sec then crit for 10k... in wvw 10sec ÷ 10k 1k per second. Auto attacks hit for 4 to 5 k in wvw. So 10 strikes for 40k to 50k and you can move. You should be able to one shot people if you can hit them with dragon slash. Fix the ratios please.

[Geoff Fey.1035]

6 minutes ago, Tessa Astralfall.9051 said:

So the pvp and wvw specs are total trash.

• Would increasing the Dragon Slash coefficients in PvP/WvW help resolve some of that issue so it hits harder?
• The self-root is weird, but they've reduced the charge time to 2.5s (max) which is only 0.5s higher than similar self root skills. Would changing it to Deadeye kneel (i.e. you can dodge and have you 5 skills) help solving some of the vulnerability feel?
• How does the Gunsaber itself feel? (has lower CD in PvP/WvW, but the damage is also lower)
• Do you find any utility using the Armaments or are you stuck using Core Warrior skills?

[Borked.6824]

Random thought... what if Dragon Trigger had the option of being used on command, without the flow, but invoked a sort of fatigue cost?  One of the glaring issues is the tedium of getting into stance, getting in range, building flow, and hoping the cards are right for your planet-destroying damage to line up.  It's clunky.  Having to waddle my fat warrior kitten over to my target is dumb, and I have 2 perfectly good range abilities sitting in my Dragon Trigger stance.  I wanna use those!  Not in a minute.  Right now.  Make it less clunky, but with an "adrenaline" flavor and make us pay for hubris.  

Edited December 2, 2021 by Borked.6824

[wingzero.6279]

11 hours ago, anbujackson.9564 said:

Thats because of damage calculation. You got exponential increases per bullet instead of linear. Meaning, that low bursts barely do any damage and they count at the most as t2 burst, if not t1 depending on your bullets. Any attack not at max charges is a huge loss, especially now when you cant reduce the cooldown of F2 with lush forest anymore.

Well since they reduced the coefficient of your bursts, the loss got reduced a bit I guess. 

The less damage you do, the more likely you can just go axe berserker. That spec at least feels fluid, except the glaring issues it has in general (no manual exit as the only mode in the freaking game).

i get it did less damage at lower charges, and yes the damage increase was exponential, but that's a risk you take when you really need to get that hit off. hence the high risk, high reward.

maybe they could've kept the old way but changed the coeffecients.
make the 5th charge do more but the next few after slightly less.
that way you get the option, do i wanna go for big kitten numbers and get the boosts from T3 adrenaline spending, or go for a T2 spend and do a bit less but still a good chunk of damage

i enjoy my berserker, have a condi one that's fun to play, but the first batch of ellite specs made me actively go out playing my warrior to get ready to switch over because i had a ton more fun as the bladesworn.

that fun felt a bit left behind in this run.

[Fomivee.3065]

Spec is still fun although damage got overnerfed IMO.

 

First things first - I don't get thrown and stuck in wierd places anymore like during previous beta - YAY! I don't get interrupted while channeling the (now not so) nuke. YAY!

 

Now to the worse side - half of the core traits are plain dead with the spec which is a shame. Flow building has an odd... flow? I have my bar constantly full while waiting for dragon trigger to go off CD. I don't think it's how it's supposed to be?

Edited December 2, 2021 by Fomivee.3065

[Smoosh.2718]

I'm really not seeing the drive to play this spec, its trying too hard to be something else while being confound in a greatsword. Explosions aside, there is nothing new about this elite spec at all. All the animations on Greatsword 2.0 are the same as the normal Greatsword attacks.
Id like to say it feels like it has impact on its attacks, but it doesnt (other than its burst attacks), the skills feel like they are lacking, not so much in its damage but its utility and function. Blooming Fire on Greatsword 2.0 really struggles to hit targets moving away due to the delayed explosions in 3 different locations, this should change to function as a repeating aoe explosion from the target struck by the attack with the debuff - Blind (its called blooming Fire, where is the bloom currently?)

Still stands Artillery Slash needs 0 changes, this skill functions fine, arguably still the weapons strongest skill sadly due to the ability to quickly pull off 3 rapid shots.

Cyclone Trigger doesnt provide the warrior with any defences other than missile blocks. Personally Id like to see missile block be removed from this weapon skill and replaced with either blur or evade so it can be used as a reactionary defence skill.

Break step, I am still unsure on the direction you are going with this skill, its like Rush but worse (better in the fact it doesnt yeet you the other way, but worse due to what it does) You move, half the distance, you sometimes do not do any damage due to the explosion happening at point blank, you provide fury (just like every other skill trait and weapon skillalready does). As others have suggested make this feel new... make it a shadowstep, make it a teleport / leap something that isnt just a copy and paste of already existing warrior skills. (I'm seriously tired of the warriors greatsword play and really want something new, this is not currently scratching that new itch)

As for the burst skills, Force and Boost appear to function fine (damage numbers can change), Reach however, id love to see more untily on this, why not play more on this by taking aspects of the warrior skill 'Wild Blow'. Fire a ranged shot at your target causing X damage upon impact, a secondary explosion will detonate causing a launch on the target, any foe hit by the launched target will be knocked back as well. This would provide this skill with use within other modes such as WvW or SPvP to prevent a reserection, or to save an ally from being finished. Allowing you to then use your bursts offensively and defensively.

Burst modes teleports, way too short.


Now my biggest bane on this whole spec that ruins pretty much all enjoyment for me...

The fact that the pistol is on the wrong hand, with the shortest range ive ever seen in any game and the lowest payoff compaired to other weapons in the same slot.
You could then argue 'But you can use Dragon's Roar, Gunstinger and then Dragons Roar again for damage bursts' you could, but you could also press axe 5 once and the same thing is dead, more effeciently.

The weapon works with itself but not with any mainhand weapon other than sword (some will say, 'but it works with axe' did it though? did you find you had to keep moving forwards to get back into range after using your offhand skill? if anything the weapon works well with itself but against all mainhand weapons bar sword (due to the leap))

Where is the range?! Where is my chance to play warrior and feel refreshed as if im playing a new class with a new style of gameplay? Where is the mainhand mid ranged weapon which quite a few have been asking for for years? Warrior has an abundance of melee weapons, it doesnt need any more. Warrior lacks in its chance to play mid range with an option to kit out the off hand slot with any of the warriors current offhand weapons (which all would work with pistol mainhand, ive listed over why in previous posts (this does not go the other way around with what we currently have) Mainhand allows warrior players to have Shields, Warhorns slotted for defence or even play agressive with an axe in the offhand or hybrid with a sword. This would open the doors to support style warrior play as a midliner able to run towards people in need of aid. (You dont see real life support units upfront in the fight, they hang back).

 

This pistol needs... MUST become mainhand else its truely dead in the water before its even out fully. You could even keep the current offhand as it is (so your dev time isnt wasted), but the pistol needs mainhand weapon skills if its truely to bring something new.

There are no projectiles, not one. Meaning making a legendary weapon for warrior currently is monumentally stupid as you see none of your hard work in action. (with the way the gemstore is going aura's and weapon looks mean next to nothing now anyway).

Electric Fence - Make this stun or daze, i really dont care pick one that is actually themed for an electric fence, I have never touched an electric fence before and become crippled or rooted for touching it twice. Change light field to Lightning due to the theme.

Bullet Proof Barrier - Damage on hit seems counter productive, change function explodes when in contact by a foe, like an AOE mine. Provides defence when active and explodes on contact making it a defensive Area denial skill. Might see use with a change like this.

This one tilts me a little due to its insane compatability to a ranged weapon, yet we never got one.
Dragonspike Mine - you're creating distance from targets engaging with you, this would see use if pistol is made into a mainhand, its counter productive to use it with melee weapons equiped. Yes it recharges Dragon Trigger but why? with the new changes and the right traits this tool tip is useless.

Warrior has been the class i have put 90% if not 95% of my play time into and to see 3 different Elite specs provide almost the same style of gameplay each time, gets very tiresome.

Also I get the fact we're going to Cantha and you want to go ham on the canthan theme on everything... but why? This was the perfect chance to make elite specialisations based on the Aetherblades to show a more real feeling of development of classes, as if they were prepairing to go south so you picked up a new set of skills before heading over. Having all the classes currently themed with the same setting feels very dry, almost as if you're trying to show homage to something but hold them back.

So if there is nothing they take away from all the feedback bar one factor then I at least hope its this:

MAKE PISTOL MAINHAND

[Decayuss.8062]

Well here we are again. I'm back for some Bladesworn Feedback, coincidentally this is the only Elite Specialization I will give feedback on because it's the only one I play. Because I only play Warrior--I'm literally a one trick pony in this game.

So, starting things off, it's good to see that some of the feedback in the previous iteration of Bladesworn was addressed, and has resulted in some general improvements. But overall, I feel as though the class has been unnecessarily nerfed. There was some nice changes that opened up build diversity (being able to switch weapons out of Dragon Trigger), but the nerf to Dragon Slash and the lack of any changes to Gunsaber does make the specialization weaker than I think it needs to be.

I will say right now that I am biased into thinking that Bladesworn should be an incredibly strong DPS specialization because Warriors have been relegated to being Bannerslaves for the past nine years. In most instances, Warriors lack both the support utility and damage to compete with some other classes that can just break the game on their own, and I think it's high time Warrior has been given a proper, true, heavy-hitting DPS specialization. And that seems to be the intention behind Bladesworn, which I like. But there are some things holding it back that I'm going to get in to. 

I will once again preface that I say all of this in the perspective of someone whose interest is exclusively in difficult PvE content, with maybe some Open World sprinkled in. I speak about Raids and Strike Missions, but primarily raids. PvP and WvW don't interest me anymore, but from what I can tell, Bladesworn isn't all that great in PvP. But to me, that's fine. As I said in my last post, Spellbreaker literally screams: "I'm a PvP specialization," so the thought of taking anything else a detriment to whomever wants to. Now let's dive in.

I'll first start things out with thorough feedback on the changes made.

Dragon Trigger is a bit of a tricky one for me to dissect. Essentially what has happened is its execution has been faster in compensation for its damage being low. Given how atrociously slow and vulnerable a Warrior was, this is a good thing. However, the damage nerf I think was a bit too much. I understand the need to nerf it, and I think it would be TOO good if the old damage was kept, but being cut by more than half does make it feel weaker than it needs to be. It raises the question of why should I put all of my eggs in one basket that doesn't hit as hard as it should, when I could just use two axes, go Berserk, and spam Decapitate for a ton of damage? And I'm speaking exclusively about the fully charged versions--with this nerf, Daring Dragon's damage is laughably low. Against a golem, a build using it pulled off less than half of the DPS as one that didn't use it. While I think the nerf to its damage is a necessity, and the reduced charge time is a good thing for more active gameplay, I think it might be a little too much. 

 

One thing I will say about Dragon Trigger, actually, is that all of its Dragon Slash iterations should get better visuals. When charging up, when unleashing Force, Boost, or Reach, the visual flair is lackluster. Something as kitten as "Dragon Slash" should maybe have.... something Draconic about it? And having a clearer visual indication for when Dragon Slash is Charging would be kitten. And an aura that gets stronger the higher the charge level becomes? This is nothing related to gameplay balance, but just something I want for Bladesworn, and ESPECIALLY Dragon Trigger. It's the signature part of Bladesworn's kit, and I think it could use some love and actual draconic visuals. 

 

Moving on, the Gunsaber skill changes are unfortunately almost nonexistent. Which is weird because I know for a fact most people do NOT like it. I'm hoping there are changes in the works, but Gunsaber isn't a fun weapon to use. I'm first of all glad that Break Step (Skill 5) has been fixed so you don't awkwardly go through your target. But why is there nothing to fix the weird end lag on Blooming Fire (2)? (Use 2 followed by 3, and then 4 followed by 3, and you will see EXACTLY what I mean.) Why does the auto attack animation reuse greatswords? I'll get to the skills in depth later, but I just want to express my surprise that Gunsaber itself received very, very little changes.

Same thing for Pistol. Most people, myself included, don't seem to like it too much, so it's disappointing to see that there are only movement related changes made to it.

 

The changes to Flow Stabilizer are weird considering the fact that Warrior has plenty of options for Fury. On-demand Stability during Dragon Trigger for a specialization where even the smallest bit of CC can completely break its main damage source was needed. And it's unfortunate that it's gone.

Weird that Signet of Fury didn't receive a change I pointed out. It has no cast time, but takes you out of Dragon Trigger. But things like Shouts and Flow Stabilizer don't.

For Fierce as Fire... Yes. Yesyesyesyesyes. Good that the burning damage was gone, as it was really useless for a specialization that is power only. Its new buff is a pretty nice touch. And would make for a good alternative for the ... old Lush Forest. ....

Speaking of, Lush Forest changes. Why? The old Lush Forest was really, REALLY good. The reason why people took it was because it was THAT good, and the other two options were useless in comparison. With the changes to Fierce as Fire, I can see that these two could compete reasonably well. However, now that Lush Forest was nerfed into the ground, Fierce as Fire is the new go-to option. I find it incredibly ironic that the changes to Lush Forest were made because people would empty their ammunition skills to proc it as often as possible, while Fierce as Fire's new effects encourage the EXACT same playstyle, just with different effects. While I don't mind Lush Forest not recharging Sheathe Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger, I think the nerf was way too much. The one second internal cool down is unnecessary, and given how long the Gunsaber's cool downs are, when are people actually going to have more than one chance to use the first ammunition skill without using Tactical Reload?

Dragonscale Defense's change was obviously made because of Flow Stabilizer's change. But one stack of stability is not enough.

Talking about the last three traits in unison... Immortal Dragon is fine and all, but with the damage nerf to Dragon Slash, could the healing be boosted a little please? Or what if it granted you Stability for every charge gained during Dragon Slash instead of Protection? I could see myself using it if that were the case.

Unyielding Dragon is good. I love where it's at. 

Daring Dragon is still pretty useless due to its extremely low damage, which has been nerfed further due to the overall Dragon Slash nerfs. But I do like how the bug is fixed.

Overall, I think some of the changes made here are for the better. And if only those changes were made, I would consider Bladesworn an amazing specialization that would just need Gunsaber fixed. Unfortunately, I think the nerf to Dragon Slash was perhaps a little too hefty, and the change to Lush Forest was unnecessary and has now placed Fierce as Fire on the top with the exact same playstyle you wanted to avoid. Honestly I would love it if the old Lush Forest was a minor trait--that would be AMAZING.

But let's move on to things not addressed in the patch notes, especially the Gunsaber. Because I still don't like it.

First, however, I will start this pistol. I still don't really like this weapon, although I think it does have its niche use of being more of a burst option compared to Whirling Axe. It has slightly lower damage, but it is much faster. However, I feel as though Warrior needs something better than this. I don't know what it is, but Pistol is just basically a different damage option that can work a little better with Bladesworn due to its reliance on ammunition. And provides nothing else of benefit.

Now I can get to Gunsaber. At this point I think Dragon Slash is just a matter of damage adjusting and visual enhancing, but Gunsaber still feels like the worst part of this specialization. In the previous version of Bladesworn with Sheathe Gunsaber going on cool down after Dragon Slash, Bladesworns were basically forced to camp Gunsaber, and didn't like it because of how lackluster the weapon felt. Now with that gone, Bladesworns are likely seldom using their Gunsabers for anything purposeful other than to spend ammunition charges to gain stacks of Fierce as Fire.

With the changes made to Lush Forest, it's become even more apparent how ridiculously long the cool downs for Gunsaber are. And it becomes even more obvious when someone doesn't take Tactical Reload. The lowest is Twenty five seconds, and the highest is forty. With recharge times that high, I would expect these skills to either hit extremely hard, or provide an insane amount of utility. They do neither. While I understand it's there to encourage Tactical Reload, if that is absent, Warrior now has a weapon with cool downs too long to ever be considered useful. 

Once again, the auto attack chain is nothing special because explosions are nothing special (disappointing that there is still just a single minor trait that interacts with them). And, yet again, the greatsword animation is reused. Please give us something different.

The 2 skill, Blooming Fire, STILL has that nasty end lag on it. Its damage is negligent, its cool down is insane, and once again, its only purpose is the lackluster explosion feature.

Artillery Slash, the 3 skill, is nice just because of how fast it is. No cast time, half a second recast. Amazing. But it does less damage, has a much longer cool down, and has less utility than Throw Axe. Once again, relegating its use only for making explosions and expending charges. (That's going to be a common theme for Gunsaber).

Cyclone Trigger should, as I said last time, maybe reflect? Or what if it blocks a projectile it generates an explosion? That would be neat, and even more so if explosions did anything other than generate a Ferocity buff.

And then Break Step is forgettable. It's mobility with little damage and range. Though it's weird that enemies are damaged at the STARTING position, as if this is supposed to be a run away method. Even though Greatsword has two much better, more mobile skills to do just that.

Once again that is the general feel of Gunsaber. Because of its low damage, low utility, and extremely long cool downs, it just feels like a worse weapon option. And the unique part of it, the explosions, just give you a ferocity buff that is so easy to generate that I mostly forgot it was even there. 

In addition to the lackluster use, Gunsaber also does not even synergize with its own mechanic, Flow, at all. The only thing that does is Axe through Axe Mastery. While I understand Flow is supposed to generate slowly, the problem is that it generates too slow at the start of combat, but once an encounter has had enough time to get going, there is too much of it. This was the case even before Dragon Trigger consumed less flow per charge, but now it's even more apparent. With just using Axes, or having one simple utility skill, Flow is overabundant, and nothing is done with it. Wouldn't a trait that generated flow for creating explosions be nice? 

This also ties in to the Utility Skills. Flow Stabilizer once again remains the only one that is worth taking, aside from Tactical Reload. But Tactical Reload isn't worth taking because it's that GOOD anymore--it's worth taking because Gunsaber is worthless without it. The cool downs are just too long. And with the nerf to Lush Forest, it's unbearable. So why bother? Take Signet of Rage, generate Flow, and stay out of Gunsaber as much as you can. Is that the kind of playstyle that should be encouraged?

Bulletproof Barrier and Electric Fence will always confuse me. The former because I don't know why or how it's supposed to synergize with Bladesworn at all. And the ladder because... the same thing. But Bulletproof Barrier is a bit of an exception because it is the Warrior's only consistent way of blocking projectiles without keeping themselves preoccupied. Electric Fence, however, is just a mediocre AOE hard soft CC that can situationally immobilize people. Why take that over the many Physical skills that can use Crowd Control? I don't know. And again, no flow for either of these. Just Explosions for that Ferocity buff you'll have up at all times anyway.

Dragonspike Mine has a bit too long of a cool down in my opinion. It's nice that it actually interacts with Dragon Trigger, something I feel as though more of the utilities should do.

Now let us finally go through traits one at a time. With the Major Adept Traits, I don't think there's a problem with them. Especially with Unseen Sword now that weapon swapping is plausible. 

I already said earlier that I think Dragonscale Defense should give more Stability--because it's very much needed.

And for the Major Master Traits, Lush Forest should go back to its former self. Fierce as Fire is a very good change, but is ironically encouraging the exact same playstyle they wanted to avoid with changing Lush FOrest for different reasons. But please don't change it. Let people do what they think is best. Unshakable Mountain is forgettable. What if generating an explosion created a barrier? 

Guns and Glory is, for the millionth time, the only way that Explosions matter in Bladesworn. And it's a buff that is almost impossible NOT to keep up. Almost every Gunsaber skill is an explosion. Pistol 5 is an explosion. Dragon Slash is an explosion. While I think this skill should be kept, I once again think Explosions need another purpose.

And then Major Grandaster traits. ... I've already went into detail on each of these above, so I don't think there's anything more to say.

Most of my suggestions for improvements are embedded within the discussion of everything surrounding Bladesworn. While I do like the idea for this specialization, in concept, I still think it needs some refining. The removal of Sheathe Gunsaber's cool down from using Dragon Trigger was a godsend that opened up a lot of build diversity options. However, the Gunsaber, the Utility Skills, and the Traits do not seem to encourage this in the least bit. They encourage never using Gunsaber because it's too weak, to never take anything other than old Warrior Utility skills and banners because they are your ONLY way of generating flow, and the Traits only give minor boosts to damage or defense at the cost of basically just playing the class. While I do like the damage boosts, they are underwhelming because, again, Gunsaber is underwhelming, and Dragon Slash's nerf damage is a bit much.

I think a faster Dragon Slash that is slightly weaker is the right move, but I think it's a little TOO weak right now. Bladesworn will never see competitive PvP use, but to me that's fine because, again... Spellbreaker is a thing. However, in Open World and Instanced PvE scenarios, it is far too slow with too little damage. Meanwhile there are classes like Mesmer and Guardian that can explode tons of damaging effects all at the same time while never relegating themselves to standing still for that long. Bladesworn needs to go through one skill at a time, wait for it to finish, wait for Flow to build up, switch to Gunsaber, and then wait two and a half seconds to actually pump out some damage. And then it just watches its flow meter and charges sit there doing nothing for the rest of the time until Dragon Trigger is off cool down.

I'd love to see more interactions with its explosions and Charges. I'd love to see a complete rework of its utility skills to allow Warriors to become something other than Bannerslaves, and I would love to see the Gunsaber become its own weapon other than a reskinned Greatsword with lackluster damage and worse mobility. It has potential, and I certainly can't cover everything I want or the problems I have in this post, but I hope this was sufficient. Some of what I have said echoes my first post, but that's because I saw no mention of it. Dragon Slash was something appropriate to focus on, but the Lush Forest bit was confusing to me because Bladesworn has many, many other problems other than a playstyle you guys don't like, but created with Gunsaber's exceptionally long cool downs and the inability to sheathe it after Dragon Trigger.

One of those problems have been fixed. I hope more is in the future. I hope to see more artistic flair with the specialization as well. Right now it's kind of lacking, and I know more can be done.

That's about it for me. Thanks for making this specialization a thing.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Decayuss.8062

[BlackSheep.2195]

Off-hand, melee pistol was the biggest disappointment, and nothing can make it better. At least give a ranged main-hand pistol to Warriors, considering that you forced a melee weapon as default to Bladesworn.

Gunsaber's appearance needs to be more eye-candy and have an option of stowing it in the sheath.

Gunsaber's last auto-attack strike is too slow for the small amount of damage it deals( buff the damage or make it faster).

Break step skill needs more damage, more distance range, and pierce through the enemies without stopping when hitting a target, should have a ground target in the path.

Dragon Trigger:
Triggerguard could give additional and a shorter recharge (20 sec).

The flicker step should travel more distance (at least 600).

Utilities: Dragon spike mine and Electric Fence still terrible.

[Unicorn Luna.5204]

Anet I'm a big fan of yours so it pains me when you do something unusual and disappointing.

#1 A big shock to me was that Bladesworn was the spec I enjoyed and played the most in its first beta. Previously I have almost never played Warrior because I just find it boring in general. It felt significantly unique to other classes due to how the trade off and pay off in dragon trigger worked. 

#2 I absolutely do not like the dragon trigger nerf. If the duration and damage was lowered to accommodate players who were struggling to get the trigger charged up to max then I feel that the proper thing to do is advise those players to just use dragon trigger earlier. It would provide them with the exact same circumstance that this nerf fills while enabling players who want to go for the big gamble to still do that. The trade off and pay off don't interest me now, it feels like just another swinger of metal objects. Which is essentially what warrior does, it just feels much less unique now than it did.

#3 I don't remember if dragon trigger had a different cooldown before but now I'm sat waiting for this cooldown while I'm also sat at max flow for several seconds before I can use it. I'm not even trying that hard to build flow after the first. This does not feel like an improvement.

I really really enjoyed the gamble of the previous dragon trigger iteration and was so excited to fool around with it in this beta. As it stands now it'll be the first character I delete to test other specs, I'm not even sure if I'll log into it again during this run. Warrior is being shelved back on the "meh" pile.

Man! It was going so well!

Edit: Also still not keen on the static skin for gunblade. I didn't mind when I felt the class was a blast although to be honest the gunblade is an unwanted necessity -which was less of a problem when dragon trigger was more effective. Now they're BOTH crap.

Edited December 2, 2021 by Nayaru.4716