Bladesworn Feedback Thread

[Loboling.5293]

I had a real hard time getting into the Bladesworn, but I think the spec does offer something unique and is actually a lot of fun. 

My main gripes are the strange interactions for weapon swap. I'd like warrior to keep weapon swap.

Obviously, skills 2 & 3 on gunblade are way too long. But if they give back weapon swap, I think it'll be much better. 

I'd even argue that f2 should be your gunblade, f1 should be your "burst" & dragon trigger. This will be more streamlined for warrior mains. You get a new weapon though f2, but f1 still bursts on your regular weapons and activates dragon trigger in the gunblade.

I also think the berserker should get it's burst skill back, but that's another story. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

53 minutes ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

I edited my post with some other things. But perhaps your idea to move the heal on Immortal Dragon is better.

 

That can leave might generation to unseen sword (imo thematically the best skill for might gen) and still leave a spot for something unique. Now What would that trait be? I assume an Armaments trait? SInce once more warrior has no skill type trait. 

 

Munitions Warehouse:  Armament skills provide Might(3 stacks for 6s) and aegis (5s ICD on aegis) on use. 

Here is another idea to replace Fierce as Fire:

Hidden Dragon: Using the last charge of an ammo skill drops a smoke bomb at your feat that blinds enemies for 2s every second for 3s. 15s ICD. Leaves a smoke field.

Though I agree that explosions need another trait too. Maybe Each of the GM tier traits could add an effect on explosions which would affect all the Dragon Slashes anyway since they are explosions?

 

Immortal Dragon: Explosions heal for 8% of their damage dealt.

Unyielding Dragon: Explosions ignore blind. Dragon Slash becomes unblockable and stuns (0.5s-5s).

Daring Dragon: Dragon Slash has a lower maximum charge level but reenters Dragon Trigger if you can pay the flow cost. Explosions grant positive flow rate.

 

No ICDs on any of those btw.

 

[Antares.9720]

I loved the idea of it but it feels really lack luster being stationary while in dragon trigger even though the DMG numbers are crazy high its so easy to be stunned when you aren't mobile. A balance between decent damage while being more mobile would be nice in dragon trigger and being able to have multiple gunsaber skins would be amazing as weapon customization is such a big thing in this game.

 

Thank you for the early access you guys are doing a great job!

[Revaign.6593]

I've been playing a core Warrior since I started playing the game, was looking forward to an elite spec I'd actually be interested in playing, but from what I've tried out so far with Bladesworn, it feels very clunky and has less payoff than my core spec. There's so many things the warrior has to give up to commit to the dragon strike/dragon slash gimmick. Lose a weapon set, lose mobility, lose skill flexibility in order to support the clunkiness of the flow/strike system, lose the ability to use your elite skill unless you're in a specific weapon set, the list goes on.

As it stands, there's no chance I'll be switching to this spec, it feels like roleplayers and gunblade fanatics will like it, and that'll be about it. Sad that there's so many conditions and so much specificity on something that looks like it would be such fun on the surface.

My suggestion would be to lose the weapon set specificity, and just give us the Bladesworn elite skills in addition to our regular kit. Also flesh out the Bladesworn skill tree to support other builds. As it stands, the skill tree is hyper-focused on flow/dragonslash/ammunition mechanics, and doesn't add anything meaningful to gameplay outside of using the gunsabre. Either that or lose the idea completely and give warriors an actual ranged spec, because we still don't have one.

Godspeed! Hoping for good changes down the line.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

47 minutes ago, Decayuss.8062 said:

Time to throw my hat into the ring. Although a lot of the criticism so far that's been addressed shares a fair bit of what I have to say.

Talking about the specialization itself from a conceptual level: I really, really love it. I was concerned about what Warrior would get due to the dwindling number of weapons that we don't already have access to, and I think from a conceptual level this knocked it out of the park. 

Granted, when I saw the reveal I thought that maybe what would happen is offhand pistol can be combined with a main hand weapon (mace would be a crowd control based two handed weapon, sword would be condition based, and axe would be power based). Different than what I imagined, but nonetheless good.

Though I will say the idea that this is supposed to be a "calm and focused" kind of Warrior has already been taken by the Spellbreaker. While I do get that Berserker is something that's Arenanet wants to conceptually distance themselves from, I don't think we need to constantly try and stay away from the part of the Warrior that's... y'know. Not so calm. 

Aesthetically speaking, different gunsaber skins would be nice, as well as the ability to sheathe it out of combat. But now let's get on to the actual skills, which I have a lot to say about. Keep in mind I say this after spending around 12 hours whacking a Combat Golem. My interest in Guild Wars 2 is almost exclusively difficult PvE content. I will in no way say I have PvP experience with this specialization, but based on what I know about Guild Wars 2 PvP, there are some assumptions I will make. And at the end of this I'll also go over how I think it could perform in Fractals. 

Let's start with the Pistol, since I think this is the most forgettable part about this entire elite specialization, which is kind of a shame. Creating a new offhand weapon for the Warrior will always be a challenge because Axe's damage still remains king, Mace is for crowd control and decent damage, offhand sword and torch (Berserker) is a must for condition, and Warhorn is... under whelming. Warrior's support abilities in general are very underwhelming compared to the absolute insanity some of the more overtuned classes of the game can pump out. But that's fine. I would never consider a Warrior a support based class unless an entire specialization is centered around it.

Why are the skills underwhelming? It's obvious the intent for this is damage, it contains no crowd control or utility. But why would you ever take pistol over an axe? The pistol has very little range advantage, the self knock back is questionable at best, and Gunstinger (4) is a necessity to get another 6 charge shot in. Coincidentally, it has the same cool down as Whirling Axe. So overall, Warrior has been given an off hand that does not out range or out damage axe off hand. Extremely underwhelming, and quite unnecessary. The vulnerability is mediocre compared to the traded off damage, and the aegis feels like a weird cherry on top.

But who cares about the pistol? I'm here for the Gunsaber.

 

It's a mixed bag.

The auto attack chain unfortunately just reuses the Greatsword attack animation, and does ever so slightly more damage (still less than Axe.)  Its explosion is pointless, given how pointless explosions are in general (I'll get to that later).

Blooming Fire (2) is also a damage skill whose damage is mediocre at best, and whose recharge time is absolutely insane. (Insane recharge timers will be a common theme for a lot of these skills). Its damage is alright--less than Hundred Blades, but you can move while casting it and it's faster. Still less than Whirling Axe. Which lets you move and strikes enemies around you. There is also a very, very clunky and unusual end lag at its animation that can REALLY be felt when you try and cast Artillery Slash (3) afterwards.

Speaking of, let's get to it! For an instant cast ability, this thing does some pretty good damage. Cripple is nice, range is decent, combo finisher, but the recharge time... holy hell the recharge time. Thirty five seconds!? Let's compare that to Throw Axe, the Axe 3 ability (noticing a pattern here?) Ranged physical projectile combo finisher that deals decent damage and gives cripple. With a recharge time of TEN SECONDS. There are only 2 charges, and it has a cast time of only a quarter of a second. But it also gets the bonus of doing up to double damage based on your target's health. The cripple plus this passive makes it ideal for chasing down or finishing off opponents.

Cyclone Trigger (4). Uh... Huh. Neat skill, but it does less damage that Dual Chop (Axe 4), the blocks missiles is something that's a little pointless considering Warriors could just use a shield off hand, or one of this specialization's own utility skills (Bulletproof Barrier). All in all, this skill isn't that bad, but it seems to not fit very well in the specialization. But wait, there's a recharge time of FORTY SECONDS. 1 second recast between each cast, which is not bad considering Rifle was butchered with a 2 and a half second recast time, but what's so powerful about this skill that justified a forty second count recharge!?

Last, and very certainly least, Break Step (5). It's the mobility skill whose damage is negligible, recharge time is unnecessarily long at 40 seconds, and grants a random boon that you could just get for Axe 2 (which does more damage). But worse yet is how freaking clunky this skill is. It'd be nice if you stopped at your target instead of just going right through them. For a melee weapon, I get that this is supposed to be a gap closer, but Warrior already has that in its Greatsword (3 and 5). The dash would synergize well with one of its traits if it wasn't such a long cool down, and pointlessly clunky in close quarters.

Overall, every single skill in the Gunsaber just does something less effectively than what Warrior already has. Axe skills all do more damage and grant the same self boons (plus quickness), have a faster recharge time, faster cast time, have very little end lag, and is just an overall better choice for pure damage. And for utility, Warrior has it spread across its other weapons. Granted, most of this utility is useful in PvP only, but I never expected Bladesworn to be a PvP specialization. Spellbreaker is, and will likely always, be king for Warrior PvP. But since Gunsaber is required to take for Bladesworn, it tries and ultimately fails to make up for the lack of utility you'll be getting for other weapons. Its damage barely justifies its existence, and its self beneficial utility is laughable at best (which isn't unusual for Warrior considering how overtuned classes like Mesmer are.)

What makes the gunsaber stand out, or at least is supposed to, is the little "explosive" tag at the end of 4 out of 5 of its abilities (would it have killed balance to make it all 5?) What does this do? Nothing except interact with a single trait, granting Ferocity whenever an explosion is triggered. That's a cool buff, make no mistake, but is this weapon (plus the pistol's) true potential really in just getting 250 Ferocity? When Blood Reaction (Berserker) gives a huge percentage based on precision?

Before I move on, what would I fix about the weapons? Pistol either needs a range or a damage upgrade--something to make it worthwhile to take over axe. Because as of right now, it's a slower, clunkier, and subpar axe.

The same kind of goes for the Gunsaber. Greatsword ironically has a lot of mobility, which is useful in PvP. Gunsaber lacks this, and lacks the damage as well to keep up with Axe/Axe. Its refresh cool downs are absolutely absurd, making the Elite skill a necessity and not even a complement to the kit (something Headbutt did a lot better for Berserker). The end lag on 2 absolutely has to be done with, and the explosions NEED something more to interact with than just a passive ferocity buff. I'll make more suggestions for that later.

And then there's Dragon Trigger. Good old Dragon Trigger. When I saw the damage this thing pumped out in the live demonstration, I LAUGHED and couldn't wait to try it out. And, well... wow did I never imagine standing completely still for so long to be so awkward. In Open World, I think it'd be faster to just kill random mobs with literally any other weapon. In PvP, even with Daring Dragon (I'll get to traits in detail later), the damage is really, REALLY not justified. So that means this is all to use on big bad guys. Bosses. And you know what? That's fine. 

The charge time is a little excessive, but nonetheless the damage is kind of worth it (In PvE alone). The repositioning skill could use more visual flair, and the Aegis skill is... yeah, I get the need for it. But the worst part about this is how cancelling out of it just gives you NOTHING. back. Those Charges don't stay there (at least for a small duration) to maybe set up a clever use for another combat encounter, or to trick enemies into thinking you're going to use Dragon Slash only to stow your weapon and save it for when they least expect it. It's a bit unsual how the Charges are visible without entering Dragon Trigger, even though their use is exclusively in using Dragon Slash (That'll come up again in one of my suggestions). 

The thing about Dragon Trigger is it's hard to justify it in anything other than open world events, or instanced bosses. Which hey, might be the point. But the problem them becomes that outside of that--where does the gunsaber fit? Its own damage and utility is dwarfed in every way by Axe/axe alone, but it seems as though Arenanet is so desperate for us to use gunsaber that they lock Dragon Trigger behind switching to it. What makes Berserker so good is that it's useful in almost every scenario, and its payoff ranges from the instant you activate it and use your burst skill, to fifteen seconds down the line when you've completely demolished a big baddie. Dragon Trigger, on the other hand, is situational at best, and while its damage is nice, seldom justifies the amount invested into it (gaining flow and then standing completely still, careful to not use a single action that would break it unless you lose all of your progress).

Adding insult to injury, it's unclear just what skills break Dragon Trigger. Obviously skills with a cast timer will do it. But why do some of my Signets without a cast time (Signet of Fury) break Dragon Trigger, while Shouts and Flow Stabilizer don't?

Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger are the main pulls of this specialization. But the former is a worse DPS weapon that you're forced into using with no real synergy with the rest of the specialization (due to its inability to generate the needed Flow to actually use Dragon Trigger). The ladder, on the other had, is a hyper specific situational big damage ability that will never see competitive use, is only good for big bad bosses, and just makes you stand there awkwardly for five seconds doing nothing in what's should instead be a more interactive and precise use of skills and cool downs. Compare using Berserk and trying to get as many Decapitates off as possible to using Dragon Trigger and pressing one button after a set amount of time. I get that the theme of Gunsaber is supposed to be "calm" and "focused," but that doesn't mean it needs to be boring.

I'll say this right now: Dragon Trigger will NEVER be balanced in PvP. As it is, it's underwhelming. But the only thing that could ever justify building up that much flow and making yourself stand completely still for five seconds--hoping that your target does not dodge, use crowd control, an invulnerability, or their 3 second burst combo to annihilate your health bar (2 instances of Aegis won't save you here)--is one shotting them. And we all know that can't happen. I wouldn't want it to anyway.

 

But let's move on from the Gunsaber and go on to the rest of the class, the utility skills and the traits.

Warrior Utilities are a little bit tricky. Because in every single case other than open world and PvP/WvW, you will only be able to take one utility trait. Why? Because banners. Fractals? Banners. Raids? Banners. Strike Missions? Banners (I'd hope so anyway). And as I already established, Bladesworn is very obviously not a PvP specialization. 

It's not as though I can blame groups for wanting nothing but Banners from Warriors, though. The boons/support they provide is negligent compared to the absolute insanity of specializations like Firebrand, Druid, and Chronomancer. Stances and Signets can be useful, but in an organized group, provide nothing new or substantial. Physical skills are good for Crowd Control, and paired with Peak Performance can give some decent damage boosts. (Peak Performance, however, is useless in Dragon Trigger because it lasts for 6 seconds, and Dragon Trigger needs 5 seconds to cast. Buffing Dragon Slash by 10% sounds nice until you realize that just taking Signet of Power gives a better buff without you even doing anything). 

The gist of what I'm trying to get at is Warrior's utility skills need to be GOOD to ever try and justify taking them over Banners that groups will demand you play. And even if you don't take banners, it's not as though the alternatives are even worth taking most of the time. Spellbreaker is almost exclusively for PvP, and Rage skills are taken for increasing Berserk's duration, and nothing more.

Combat Stimulant (Healing Utilty) is pretty nifty. The boons it gives to self are justified for a power class (though I would have liked to have seen more might), and it synergizes pretty well with the rest of the kit. Can't use it during Dragon Trigger, though. And that's a bummer.

Flow Stabilizer is the ONLY good utility aside from the Elite of this specialization. Seriously. This thing goes well with Warrior's own abilities providing stability, it combos with itself, and it helps out the entire specialization. Fantastic design on this one.

Bulletproof Barrier is good for PvP/WvW scenarios, a place where Gunsaber likely won't thrive. So I don't think this'll ever be useful in PvP. If it REFLECTED projecticles then that could have a lot more applications, even in raids. But nah, can't have Warriors doing anything other specializations can do a lot easier, can we? Also the fact that it does not generate flow is kind of disappointing.

Same thing goes for Electric Fence, a CC skill that has the potential to immobilize a bunch of enemies that happen to be in a line and are already crippled. Why would you take this over Throw Bolas for a targeted immobilize or Stomp for a CC breaking AOE knock up? I haven't the slightest idea.

Dragonspike Mine is the only other than Flow Stablizer that seems to synergize with Gunsaber (disappointing that none of them do). Except I don't know why evading backwards is needed for a melee specialization. And it also doesn't have charges, unlike what the rest of the specialization is supposed to have.

Tactical Reload is a REALLY good Elite skill. But the problem is it's a necessity when playing Bladesworn due to you being forced to take Gunsaber. It synergizes well with older skills like Shouts (that you'll likely never use because other specializations can give boons a lot easier), but nonetheless it does add to a very decent flow for a DPS rotation or in making sure the Gunsaber itself isn't just sitting there auto attacking, waiting for its 25-40 second recharge timers for mediocre damage.

2 out of 5 utilties are worth taking in my opinion. Which isn't terrible, but is really bad on Warrior due to the immensely lackluster utility kit warriors already have, relegating them to be bannerslaves until the end of time.

Now I can finally get to the Traits. And I'll first start things off a little backwards with Guns and Glory. Because this is the one, the ONLY part of Bladesworn that interacts with explosions, providing a small ferocity buff that stacks duration. That's... neat. The buff is neat, the duration is so long you're likely to never run out of it, but is that really ALL we get? We get a cool unique explosion mechanic on every ability that just does mediocre damage and give us more Ferocity? Meanwhile Berserker gave us what was it... 7 to 14% more ferocity based on precision!? And a 20% damage buff!? Plus 300 power in Berserk? I get that this is specialization is--like Spellbreaker--trying to distance itself from being Berserker, but it's very obviously a power based DPS class with burst potential. Thematically different, but functionally the same at its core.

 

But let's move on to the other Traits, which there isn't much to talk about.

First line of traits has some decent options, all centered around increasing Flow. It's nice to have this built in to the Traits rather than being forced to take certain Armaments or other Warrior utility skills you'll likely never take due to being a Bannerslave. Unseen Sword, however, is a bit odd considering the fact that using Dragon Trigger/Dragon Slash puts your weapon swap on cool down. (I'll get that more later.) River's Flow is obviously intended to work with Combat Stimulant, since Warrior's other heal skills are on far too long of a cool down to ever be reliable for it. Swift as the Wind has a lot more applications, but they're very limited because--once again--you're restricted to Gunsaber most of the time. Which has a single, janky movement skill. All in all, this trait line is conceptually wise, but doesn't synergize as effectively. Which is ironic because core Warrior traits synergize much better with building flow (Burst Mastery comes to mind immediately).

Dragonscale Defense is meh. I'd replace it with... I dunno'. Maybe something that doesn't force your weapon swap on cool down after using Dragon Trigger? Or delete that mechanic to begin with. Dragonscale Defense is just forgettable.

The second line... wow. What an absolute waste. Lush Forest. Always take Lush Forest. Why would you ever want Burning damage on a power specialization? Or a small, useless barrier? Lush Forest. Nice design, but it stands out only because it's the obvious choice.

Already went over Guns and Glory. There NEEDS to be a better buff, or more interaction with explosions than just this lame trait.

Finally we get to the last 3, each buffing Dragon Trigger. I think these are fine--a heal, an almost guaranteed Dragon Trigger, and... Daring Dragon is really finnicky. Because Dragon Trigger goes on cool down if you don't activate it within like half a second. And the damage on a level 5 Dragon Trigger is so ridiculously low this is never worth taking.

My impression of the Gunsaber traits is that most of these should just be defaulted, Lush Flow specifically. They don't synergize too well with Bladesworn, much less the Gunsaber itself. They're underwhelming, and it's quite astonishing that Core warrior traits do much better for damage and flow than the Gunsaber's own trait line does.

So what are my overall impressions with Bladesworn, and what do I think should be fixed? Because rather than complaining about how underwhelming a lot of it is, I have a few solutions in mind.

Pistol, firstly, is forgettable. I don't think making a main hand pistol would remedy the issue, but I think some range and more damage would do it wonders so it could at least hold a candle to the absolute beast that is Axe 4 and 5.

The Gunsaber itself is very, very slow with little damage to back it up. It can have some okay-ish burst options, but its cool downs and end time lag, specifically on Blooming Fire (2) is a really, really janky rotation killer. Its explosions need to have more than just a Ferocity bonus attached to it.

This basically goes for the rest of Bladesworn. Most of the older weapons, traits, and even utility skills synergize better with Bladesworn than its own kit. There are more options for building flow outside of Bladesworn that in Bladesworn itself. Explosions on the Armaments are negligent, there's better ways of using crowd control, and the rest on Dragon Trigger with Dragonspike Mine is okay on an otherwise useless skill.

The thing about Flow is there's either too much or too little of it. Literally taking one or two Flow generating Utility skills, (Flow Stabilizer, the currently bugged Signet of Fury, Berserker stance, or a combination of things like Balanced Stance and Flow Stablizer) generates so much flow that Dragon Trigger's cool down can't keep up with itself.

Taking these out of the picture, however, and Flow generates too slowly. It'd be nice if I could switch to Axe immediately after Dragon Trigger and take advantage of something like Axe Mastery to get it all back, but I can't do that. My weapon swap goes on cool down for trying to play Bladesworn. Gunsaber itself provides no way of giving Flow, so the weapon doesn't even synergize with its own specialization.

And the traits range from being acceptable to underwhelming. Lush Forest is so good that I don't know why the other 2 exist in the first place, but then there's things like Unseen Sword, which doesn't synergize well with a specialization that puts your weapon skill on cool down more often than it needs to be, counteracting something like Fast Hands that hs been a staple for Warrior's generally underwhelming DPS. 

The specialization has some neat ideas, but it doesn't synergize with itself while sometimes synergizing too well or not effectively with older traits, weapons, and utility skills.

Lush Forest and Tactical reload are so necessary to take that they're literally the only option for making sure you're not sitting there auto attacking. While other traits and utilities outside of Bladesworn improve its toolkit in different ways, its own traits and utilities make it necessary to even function with more than just auto attacks. In neither Spellbreaker nor Berserker was this the case

 

So what would I fix?

First of all, Explosions need another purpose. Maybe there's a trait that generates flow for every explosion made? Or what if we can LEAVE Dragon Trigger without activating Dragon Slash, and keep those 10 charges that sit there and do nothing until we enter Dragon Trigger? What if using Gunsaber skills consumes those to generate explosions that can then do a lot more damage, or reduce Gunsaber's own excessively long cool downs? Maybe explosions reduce the cool down of your ammunition skills, giving the specialization nice synergy with its own weapon and older ammunition weapons. (Rifle is still borderline useless).

Or what if Explosions generate charges that will quickly diminish, thereby giving a small window of reducing the exceptionally long charge time of Dragon Slash? Like what if using Blooming Fire gives 3 of the 10 charges, but they will disappear in 2 seconds or so if you don't go into Dragon Trigger? And maybe they could simultaneously be used to power up Cyclone Trigger, giving it explosive properties for more damage and launching out shrapnel/reflecting missiles?

This last part is more about the Charges, but I feel as though they should have more of a purpose than just Dragon Slash. They sit there above your weapon bar, completely empty, taunting you with more purpose, but ultimately they do nothing but empower Dragon Slash. 

Secondly, for the love of God remove the mechanic that puts Sheathe Gunsaber/weapon swap on cool down after Dragon Trigger. I know the intent of this is to use Lush Forest to reduce its cool down and get back to your other weapons, but why make players jump through hoops to do the one thing that makes Guild Wars stand out? As as I said earlier, Flow can generate so fast with one or two utilities that swapping to another weapon--which DOESN'T have access to Dragon Trigger (that's something I'd change as well) can be an absolute waste of time and energy. 

The weapon takes away both swapping weapon in combats, and basically using any other weapon due to needing to camp Gunsaber for Dragon Trigger. If you don't want this to happen, either remove the need to unsheathe your Gunsaber for Dragon Trigger, or rid the weapon swap cool down after using Dragon Trigger. Getting rid of both of them would be supreme. Or maybe improving Gunsaber's ludicrously low damage with exceptionally high cool downs could be a good start.

I'm certain there will be other people who voice their PvP changes, but I have nothing to input on improving it. It's obviously not a PvP specialization. Spellbreaker's name basically screams it. So I wouldn't want to take this into PvP to begin with. But based on the feedback I've seen, Dragon Slash needs to do more for less.

Lastly, the utility skills that aren't Flow Stabilizer need to be completely reworked. The only way they synergize with Bladesworn is explosions--which are plentiful--and resetting Dragon Trigger's Cool Down, which is unnecessary because it's so painfully slow that I wouldn't want to re enter it right away, and flow generates at a fast enough pace to keep up with its cool down with just 1 or 2 right utilities or traits.

What if some of the Utility skills immediately puts the Warrior in Gunsaber from another weapon, and performs some cool attack that consumes flow or Charges (if my idea for Charges were implemented?) Or what if they, themselves, consume Charges to become more powerful and thereby generate more flow? Or what if they actually generated flow to begin with? Why is Flow Stabilizer the only one in all of this that generates flow, while every single Rage skill in Berserker increases the duration of Berserk?

I tried this specialization for hours on the DPS golem, and got some pretty kitten solid numbers after experimenting (about 30K DPS). The problem is that it's so slow, limiting, and isn't synergized with itself that it feels as though there just isn't enough to make it fun. Conceptually this is a sound, solid specialization that I adore. But in practice, it leaves a lot to be desired from its own traits, utilities, and ultimately underwhelming weapon.

I'm going to stop this post since it's already dragged on enough. Hopefully my breakdown of each skill, utility, and desired improvements can be read by someone!

This is a very good write up.

[Traveller.7496]

I really wanted the pistol to be main hand. 

[Gatvin.6510]

I will say, the trait that lets you Dragon Trigger until you run out of flow is really sweet. Not necessarily useful, but spamming DT 2 is a blast.

Also to the people worried about getting locked in place using DT, don't worry Deadeye has the same feature and it's worked out fine for them. 😄

Edited September 22, 2021 by Gatvin.6510

[RuQu.8394]

1 hour ago, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

@RuQu.8394 Have you played around in PvP on it now to cross compare? Those PvP CDs sound much more reasonable for Open World to fix a lot of the clunkiness with Gunsaber. 

That would be kind of funny if they accidentally swapped them. They might've been worrying about it being overtuned in PvE so did this (making it faster with lower coefficients in PvP) to test things out. Here's hoping we get the CD's reduced as those shorter ones would fix a lot of things from a DPS/pacing perspective when camping in Gunsaber.

Very great catch!

EDIT: Comparing Gunsaber (PvP) vs Greatsword (All) vs Axe (PvE) Cooldowns

1. Auto vs Auto
2. 10s vs 8s vs 6s
3. 15s vs 10s vs 10s
4. 20s vs 15s vs 12s
5. 20s vs 20s vs 15s

As you can see, Gunsaber PvP cooldowns MUCH more closely reflects the cooldowns of other skills from PvE

I'm pretty limited in total possible play time, so I've fiddled around with the two that interest me but not done much using of them in game modes I don't tend to do. Between work and family, not a lot of time to get good enough at PvP to be worth the time investment in a mode that is strictly competitive.  Testing them there wouldn't tell me much...my poor performance in that mode would make even the most OP spec seem marginal!

 

But yes, as a matter of pacing it seems like they may have balanced Bladesworn around an expectation of full or nearly full Alacrity uptime...while giving it no access to Alacrity on its own.  So it plays "as intended" in PvP and solo PvE is left feeling slow and ungainly.

[Decayuss.8062]

39 minutes ago, Psycoprophet.8107 said:

This is a very good write up.

Thank you!

[AquaBR.9250]

Overall pretty fun, but here somethings id like changed:

When i use the F2 it puts on cooldown the F1 to change to my regular weapons, that so so so bad, some rotations are limited to gunsaber and dragontrigger. Btw dragontrigger should be avaible even when not with the gunsaber equiped, theres no need to press an extra buttom (F1 then F2) to use your burst skills.

 

I kinda miss my rifle's burst skill tho, if you want to go an extra mile with this spec make a F2 for every weapon, it doesn't need to have 3 attacks like the gunsaber, just a thing we hold and release, while having the dragontrigger 4 and 5 too.

 

Dragontrigger 2 and 3 should be ground targeting.

 

Dragontrigger 3 is very underwelming, i don't feel like using it unless you increase the range to 1200, is a predictable skill easy to dodge, in WvW is impossible to use with this range, having to stand at 900 range in WvW to use your burst is suicide, i died several times trying to use this in in WvW fights, and if you use dragontrigger 5 and 3 you cover the same distance dealing MORE damage and also get closer of you target, so theres no real point of using DT 3 instead of the other 2, also change how the projectile works, it follows the ground instead of going a straight line to the target, this fell very clunky in certain terrains.

 

Artillery Slash should receive a buff, maybe deal more damage the higher the range and lower cooldown, we have one less option of weapon set, we need that ranged value.

 

I know this guy's pistol is not meant to be a ranged weapon but, i doesn't feel too different from a melle off hand weapon like a dagger or axe, the 5 skill should have its range increased to 360 to feel like a medium range weapon.

 

In general flow generation feel in the right spot, time to charge the dragontrigger too

 

 

[oscuro.9720]

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Here is another idea to replace Fierce as Fire:

Hidden Dragon: Using the last charge of an ammo skill drops a smoke bomb at your feat that blinds enemies for 2s every second for 3s. 15s ICD. Leaves a smoke field.

Though I agree that explosions need another trait too. Maybe Each of the GM tier traits could add an effect on explosions which would affect all the Dragon Slashes anyway since they are explosions?

 

Immortal Dragon: Explosions heal for 8% of their damage dealt.

Unyielding Dragon: Explosions ignore blind. Dragon Slash becomes unblockable and stuns (0.5s-5s).

Daring Dragon: Dragon Slash has a lower maximum charge level but reenters Dragon Trigger if you can pay the flow cost. Explosions grant positive flow rate.

 

No ICDs on any of those btw.

 

Personally, I would be partial to one of them granting might gen on explosions (probably unyielding dragon?) given the lines lack of offensive boons, and the integration of might enhancers in core warrior’s lines.

But I think it’s a really good idea to add explosion modifiers to each of the GM skills. I was trying to find a place where they fit, and I agree that the GM line is probably best. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by oscuro.9720

[Apolo.5942]

Saving Bladesworn

 

All my fears from the demo were not only confirmed but new issues have been brought to the table.

 

There is a laundry list of things that need fixing so...

PVE
The entire elite can be condensed in 1 word, "Why"?. The spec it self can not do more damage than other specs, otherwise it is direct power creep.
Thus you only get another option, doing something different. Does this do something different?, is it a better healer?, is it a better buffer?, does it offer viable builds for say Celestial builds?. The answer to all this questions is NO.

So for starters i would suggest you scrap ALL traits, and add functionality through them.

1-Suggested options to be made available through traits:
-Make ALL explosions Cause conditions.
-ADD party buffing on ammo spent, all ammo spent, ammo reload. Different triggers for different effects.
-ADD party buffing on F2 ammo charge/discharge.

 

2-Weapon restriction needs to go. This comes back to again the original question "why"? why would i kitten my self with a forced weapon, which makes it awkward to use, since it is not just weapon swaping and you need to go into to it to then use F2. Why would i make things more complicated for my self, since this add essentially nothing i cant do with just wielding 2 axes.
Suggestion, get rid of weapon restriction, remove regular burst and add gunblade as a "kit", always available and no weapon swaping CD restrictions, just like an always on kit.

 

3-Gunblade skills suck, period end, they offer nothing over Sword or Axe and the CDs are insane. Make pve CDs same as PVP ones. Add utility, if this is a special weapon, then it needs to have it all, spike, interrupt, cap closer and disable. Find a way to make it work.

 

4-Flow, cap it to 30, 100 is unrealistic

PVP/WVW

1-Gunblade damage is Risible

2-F2 damage is Risible

3-No sustain with out pistol

4-Rooting on F2 is a non starter.

5-All the same questions about utility and "why"? apply doubly so, on pve damage is on par, on pvp/wvw you dont even have that to justify the elite.

6-Gunblade 10 times more awkward against real live human opponents.

 

-Utilities and Elites.

You need to SCRAP ALL OF THEM.

-The elite swings from extremely powerful to incredibly useless and you are forced to take it. Reduce cooldowns scrap the elite and add something else.

-Utilities are just not impactfull neither on pvp or pve.

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Apolo.5942

[JVJD.4912]

I like the concept of this spec and am backing it  based on that  , however I do not see how it is effective in pve let alone pvp.

The 5 base skills either are slow,  do no damage with 4 th being pointless and 5th being a discount Greatsword charge. 
The main skill F2 dragon Slash , I can see the potential damage but its execution which includes a charge time and position mattering a lot  makes the skill unreliable.  

There is only one way to play this spec currently that is get max flow F1 F2 and 1  then swap again and repeat , is this worth it ? well I tried killing a veteran Hydra,  it did not allow allow me to execute this combo  .  After several repeated fails I just went double axe (which  I was equipping at that time ) and killed it without this nonsense. Which tells me the base class Warrior > Bladesworn

That said what does Bladesworn do better other than being flashy with a new weapon type ? Besrerker has good dps,  Spell  breaker  tanky in Berseker gear and excellent Utility.  This class spec I am not seeing any functional benefit.

I also do not  see now this class works in pvp . I  am basically telegraphing my action to the opponent  "Hey man I have big hit  coming your way do not move or evade, for like 10 seconds and  let me hit yeah "  🤣

Honestly if you copy paste the Greatsword skills, burst and everything and make an explosive finish  to match the aesthetic of this specialization   It would be waaay better. than the current. 

To end this , I total support the first post of this thread no matter what in a group setting we are flag carries.  That's about it. 

[kmark.8519]

 Result of my testings in PVP_only:

- Total lack of boons (might) and condi cleanse (without a full shout build) makes this spec very weak in PvP. It also means that Tactics is a mandatory trait line (for shouts, else you die in 1 second in any situation), so as Strength for might generation, basically you can't select any other trait line for pvp, its more pigeonholed than previously the Discipline requirement.

- Gunsaber #1 skill autoattack chain should provide some boons, possibly Might on the 2nd step of the chain. Damage should be slightly improved as well.
- Gunsaber #2 is ok imho
- Gunsaber #3 is ok imho
- Gunsaber #4 should have condi cleanse: remove a condition per target you hit with it? this would help a lot with this spec's sustain
- Gunsaber #5 this skill is bugged or something, I couldn't hit anyone (or anything, not even the target golem) with it, character just dashes through with zero effect

- Dragon Trigger #1 needs a significant increase in damage, it's very lackluster
- Dragon Trigger #2 pointless skill really, very clunky, barely hits, weak damage, no reason to use it
- Dragon Trigger #3 this was totally useless for me, but maybe I just need more practice with the range/aim here...
- Dragon Trigger #4 is ok I think, it has it's use
- Dragon Trigger #5 the tiny teleport is pointless, I tested it out and you can't teleport out from a standing still necro's hitbox... lol 🙂

- The heal skill is pretty awesome, my favorite part of the class so far

- Utility skills are mostly useless, might as well just remove them, you won't be able to slot anything else but shouts or stances anyway... 1 good utility skill is the Flow Stabilizer, that's good and useful

- The Elite skill is pretty awesome for a shout heal build, completely useless for anything else.. I don't know if this is good or bad, but if I have to decide I'd keep it because at least this way it has one really powerful use

- Pistol skills are very weak, not sure what's the fuss about them, I mean supertiny range and push me away from melee? why? 🙂 and the damage of 5 is tiny for the cost of I kite myself away from my target that I have to glue to... really wtf moments here... both shield, warhorn, axe offhand and greatsword are lightyears better options than the pistol OH, at least in PvP mode

+1: - Weapon swap mechanic is very unintuitive this way, it should work for the normal weapon swap button and then activate Dragon Trigger with F1.

Edited September 22, 2021 by kmark.8519

[fluffypaws.2860]

I'm glad I decided to move away from Warrior in the last month. Bladesworn reinforces that decision (for context I play PvP).

@Psycoprophet.8107
has written an excellent feedback post and I agree with the points raised.

[Axl.8924]

Hello first time tester of a warr spec ever and first time to bladesworn.

The moves feel alright but the loss of energy real fast feels kinda odd.

 

I'm kind of confused you can sheathe your gunblade and it drains your energy sometimes out of battle sometimes it seems like the gunblade in battle doesn't drain. the whole actual gunpart does.

 

Am i making sense to you folks?

 

[Zera.9435]

DISCLAIMER: I don't enjoy WvW or PvP, and I don't raid because I can't find a raid group.
This long post is for the devs. Feel free to not read if you are just a player.

PISTOL:
- Dragon's Roar (5) is an okay opener/trash mob clearer. I think it's fine as it is overall, but the flow it provides is lackluster.
- Gunstinger (4) feels genuinely helpful with damage, aegis, gap closure, and ammo all in one skill. The only real complaint I have with it is the short range. I understand that its main purpose is to reload skill 5, but a little more range as a movement skill would be a very nice QoL improvement. Increasing the ammo reload from 3 to 4 would also be really nice, but perhaps unnecessary.

The overall point of the spec seems to be to build up flow as fast as possible and maintain it, so why would I take pistol over off-hand axe? Axe 5 is the only realistic way of building it up fast enough to make it usable before everything dies, or worse getting killed.

UTILITIES:
- Flow Stabilizer: the equivalent of a healing skill for flow. If you don't use it Dragon Slash is dead. Plus it gives the much required stability  for this spec.
- Dragonspike Mine: works great as a stun break/escape skill. It sets up Breakstep (gunsaber 5) nicely. Great that it benefits from Warrior's sprint, but it needs to give some flow.

- The wall skills I see only being really viable in WvW, and they give no flow...

ELITE: Tactical Reload feels adequate given its short cooldown for an elite skill. The only thing I feel would make it perfect would be for it to be instacast (like a shout) so as not to interrupt the charging up of Dragon Slash (just like Flow Stabilizer works).

Maybe consider making one of the grandmaster traits increase the effectiveness of Tactical Reload from 1 to 2?

TRAITS:

- Immortal Dragon(GM1): The self healing of this trait says it heals for 8% of the damage dealt, but it is actually less than that. For example, at one point I did 66416 damage on a target and I was only healed for 3474. However, 8% of 66416 is 5313. That should have been the base healing with 0 healing power. The tooltip does not match the actual healing done.
- Unyielding Dragon (GM2): It has a very nice payoff IF you can pull it off. High risk/reward, the trait itself (not Dragon Slash) is fine as it is.
- Daring Dragon (GM3): This certainly reduces the 'pressure' of watching your charges accumulate, but the payoff is not adequate (fault of the skill, not the trait). The reduced damage of the lower level charge is just not worth sitting there waiting to charge, unless of course the intent is to do less damage over all. I mean at the full charge of 5 the base damage was less than 5k. A crit would have likely been less than 20k. Why use this spec at all when Decapitate from Berserker hits just as hard if not harder for a lot less effort (and WAY more often)?

The other six (lower tier) traits I feel are situational and somewhat subjective. I can think of situations where switching things up would be a good idea depending on the situation, but I like to think most players are like me in that we don't want to be switching traits around between every encounter.

GUNSABER: I feel the gunsaber does a terrible job of providing flow (the resource, not the flow of combat).  Is it damage dealt or number of hits that determine the amount of flow? I couldn't figure that out. We basically MUST use axe 5 as opener with Axe Mastery  to make flow viable.
 

- Breakstep (5) is only good close the distance, and is a huge mistake to use while actively hitting a target because it moves you a fixed distance no matter what (unlike Rush on GS). This skill should function more like Rush on GS, where it moves you to your target, up to a max distance, and if no target is selected, you just go max distance.

- Cyclone Trigger (4) feels moderately balanced as both a defensive and offensive skill. I have no real issues with it. I LOVE that it hits 5 targets. It just sucks that a lot of dangerous foes channel their projectiles for longer than 1.5 seconds. Maybe make it so that blocks give flow, or make it reflect instead of block?
- Artillery Slash (3) just begs to be spammed due to the seemingly low amount of flow provided by gunsaber as a whole. Damage is meh. I think the skill's actual damage is not what the tooltip says. Tooltip says 1006 on my character, but it only did a little over 200 damage to a beetle in Verdant Brink.
- Blooming Fire (2) is also meh, and I think it should have its ammo count increased from 2 to 3 to further help with flow generation. It also feels like this skill's actual damage is not what the tooltip says.
- Skill 1 seems to be okay as it is, but maybe consider making the final hit (explosion) hit 5 targets instead of just 3 to help with flow generation.

Overall the damage of the gunsaber on its own feels lackluster for what is supposed to be a secondary weapon. I feel like the damage on the tooltips don't match the actual damage done. I kind of dread swapping from axe/axe or axe/pistol to gunsaber. Once I use Dragon Slash I feel like I have to switch off gunsaber to build up flow again. Even then, the weapon swap cooldown delays Dragon Trigger even further. Without Flow Stabilizer I feel that gunsaber feels like it's not viable as an alternate weapon to axe/axe or even axe/pistol for flow generation. Once Dragon Slash is used up, gunsaber feels more of an obstacle than an asset.

DRAGON TRIGGER/SLASH:
This spec revolves entirely around this one skill and its charge-up mechanic. As such, it requires its own section and, unsurprisingly, the most work.

First, I absolutely LOVE that Dragon Slash has three different versions of itself, making it highly adaptable to situations. Am I surrounded? Is my target a bit out of melee range? Do I want to close the gap to my target? Is my target out of melee range and backed to a cliff edge? Is this bounty in 'Melee only' or 'Range only' mode? Dragon Slash has an answer to all of these situations. Kudos to you guys for anticipating these various situations.

1. FORCE: Excellent and simple to understand: cleave really hard in melee range. The long charge/pay off feels just okay in PvE. I'm told it's garbage in PvP and WvW, but I don't care for those game modes.
2. BOOST: No escaping me! I feel it has very good range and mobility (if not immobilized). I feel the only thing it is missing is "remove movement impeding conditions", or at the very least remove immobilize, especially since it does overall less damage than Force. Additionally, it doesn't seem to be affected by Warrior's Sprint. The long charge/pay off is meh.
3. REACH: A good third option that I foresee being used less often than the other two, but still good to have as an option. Only real drawback is that it does even less damage than Boost. The long charge/pay off is hardly worth it at all with it's low damage.

4. TRIGGERGUARD: This skill absolutely helps to improve to usability of Dragon Slash, but one quick cast of a short aegis is often easily negated by the fact that all the really dangerous foes unleash their damage in multiple packets of damage in quick succession. You block one hit, and then face the other 3+ incoming attacks from a single foe. Maybe make it so a block gives some flow? 2 ammo on this skill feels fine.
5. FLICKER STEP: This skill also really helps with the usability of Dragon Slash. I like that, with a little bit of luck and skill, you can use it to 'sidestep' dangers while still being able to reposition back to original spot if needed. 3 ammo on this skill feels just right.

The changes I would like for you to consider for Dragon Trigger/Slash:

If keeping the base charge rate the same:
- Make Dragon Trigger provide 1 stack of stability (so it can kind of function like Full Counter).

- Make it so that being hit by CC (if the 1 stack of stability is removed) instantly fills the charges (synergy with above).

-If no CC occurs, then make taking a hit while charging immediately provide 1 charge (multiple hits = multiple charges). This will make opponents (in pvp or wvw) think twice about hitting into it. In PvE we're getting hit constantly, so the charging will   occur at a much more usable rate.

Or you can ignore those ideas above and simply make the charging occur at a logarithmic rate, where it charges the first few charges quickly and tapers off for the last couple charges. At least that way we can get 6 or 7 charges relatively quickly and, if the situation allows, wait for the last few charges.

Maybe consider making the damage consistent across all three? Additionally, it would be nice to be able to at least be able to rotate the character in place with the camera while charging.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Zera Allimatti.2541

[nopoet.2960]

Stupid question: Do we loose stats by using the popsword?  It's not technically equipped... or do we carry over the stats from the swap weapon? No sigils right?

[cryorion.9532]

Here goes a bit more detailed feedback after some more thinking (this is focused on PvE).

 

Issues with Bladesworn:
Current Bladesworn mechanics and design is overly complicated. Whole spec revolves around Dragon Slash and ammo spam too much. Most Bladesworn ammunition skills (both weapon and utility skills) are bland, weak and only good to be spammed to trigger Lush Forest trait. Compared to core warrior, Berserker and Spellbreaker, it takes too much preparation to kill basic mobs, using Dragon Slash on veteran/elite mobs simply takes too much time, other warrior specs can deal with those faster. Compared to previous specializations, Bladesworn is least versatile.
Dragon Trigger is too vulnerable to interrupts.
What is overly complicated: Bullet count of 10; Flow amount of 100; Having to go into F1 in order to enter F2; Too many ammo skills that Bladesworn is encouraged to spam;
What is lacking: better protection/ability to avoid damage and crowd control effects while charging Dragon Trigger;

 

Not all of these changes are needed to improve Bladesworn. It is possible that the spec would be aboslutely brokenly overpowered with all these changes being applied. My goal is to point out an issue with certain part of Bladesworn and possible solution to fix/improve it.

 

Change bullet count from 10 to 3.
Reason: To be more intuitive and reminiscent to core warrior bursts; each charged bullet does set damage where 3rd one does highest; removing redundant damage tiers (bullets) for simplicity and cleanliness. More about charging Dragon Trigger later.
 
Change flow from 100 to 30.
Reason: To be more intuitive and reminiscent to core warrior adrenaline mechanics.

 

Flow
New Flow mechanic is inconsistent. Some skills grant Flow directly while other grant buff that increases flow generation rate. Flow doesn't really come from hitting enemies but rather from activating specific skills that don't even do damage (with some exceptions like Axe Mastery or Merciless Hammer traits and so on). This is counterintuitive to warrior class and this Flow generation often feels random.

Possible solution: All Gunsaber skills would each generate XY Flow if they hit enemy. This would require a bit more balancing so the Flow generation is not overtuned but also not too slow.

 

Change Dragon Trigger (F2) to be usable from normal weapon set without Gunsaber having to be equipped first.
Reason: Current design disincentivizes leaving Gunsaber (F1) because if you leave F1, then you can't enter Dragon Trigger and have to wait for F1 cooldown. This change allows to use normal weapon set without worrying about being unable to enter Dragon Trigger directly (for example when F1 is on cooldown). This should give Bladesworn better flexibility.

 

Change: If F2 mode was entered from normal weapon set, allow Bladesworn to leave F2 directly into normal weapon set.
Reason: This should give the spec better flexibility.

 

Gunsaber skills
Lower damage on Gunsaber skills makes sense as they have ammunition and the specialization encourages spamming ammunition skills. However, utility aspect of these skills is very underwhelming.

Autoattack chain seems reasonable, simple with Explosion on last attack that helps to upkeep Guns and Glory minor trait.
Blooming Fire has nothing, just medicore damage. Artillery Slash has only cripple and nothing else. Cyclone Trigger has projectile block which is very situational at best.

These skills only exist so they can be spammed to get cooldown reduction from Lush Forest. This creates spammy nature of the elite specialization, but the spammed stuff is quite boring.

Break Step (Gunsaber 5th skill) is weird skill because it doesn't stop on target, but goes through. If anything, I would suggest adding leap finisher on this skill for some interesting interactions with combo fields. This skill could also get an evade effect added if it had its ammunition count removed, this would be a lot more useful and helpful for Bladesworn.
There is no iconic skill that would feel awesome on Gunsaber weapon, all skills are bland, uninteresting, weak.
Possible solution: Simply remove this ammo spam design and instead make all skills to have impactful effects that are worth using for their actual effects, instead of just mindlessly spamming them to trigger Lush Forest trait.

 

Dragon Trigger (F2) has multiple issues
Issue number one: Unable to avoid aoe damages and crowd control skills in more intense situations. Aegis and blink skills are not that useful because multi-hit skill will immediately strip aegis and blink has too short range without any other protection.
Possible solution: Remove ammunition from 4th and 5th skill. Add stability on Triggerguard and change Flicker Step to dash with evade effect. Increase dash range from 300 to 450.
Reason: Pulling off more reliable and consistent Dragon Slash is more important for practicality of the spec than just increasing its damage. In PvE, these changes aim to help with open world issues where mobs strip aegis immediately and use cc skills often. Also, stability on Triggerguard would synergize nicely with Flow Stabilizer.

 

Issue number two: Long charge time. A 5 seconds charge time for maximum bullet stacks is ridiculous, especially in open world PvE. Just to see what I mean, take Bladesworn to Crystal Oasis and kill Hydra mob with it, try to kill it with fully charged Dragon Slash. If there is Dust Mite Twister mob, that is great bonus to showcase how prone Bladesworn is to interrupts.
Possible solution: As mentioned before, decrease bullet count from 10 to 3 and change charge time per bullet to 1 second.
Reason: With lower maximum bullet count of 3, max charge time would be 3 seconds (which is better than 5 seconds). This would help cast strongest Dragon Slash sooner, but still retain its visual cue for PvP/WvW for enemies to react to it. Dragon Slash damages would have to be adjusted accordingly though.
To add, 3 damage levels of Dragon Slash are more clear and simplistic than 10 damage levels, same with Flow amount of 30 instead of 100 (which is also more intuitive since core warrior had always 30 max adrenaline).

 

Utility skills
Utility skills are too underwhelming. They are ammo skills so they are meant to be spammable. However, their effects are weak, boring and uninteresting. At least Bulletproof Barrier and Electric Fence should be changed so they are not ammunition skills anymore and their effects should be improved signifciantly to be more impactful. Electric Fence should be changed from light field to lightning field because light field makes no sense at all. With leap finisher added to Break Step as mentioned above, this could create some interesting interactions.

 

Traits
Traits overall seem to be fine except Fierce as Fire. This trait doesn't make sense since it applies burning and Bladesworn doesn't have any synergy with conditions.
Explosion effect is quite underused in traits, only one minor trait gives buff on Explosion. What about something more interesting, like e.g. Fury/Might application on Explosion, instead of useless Fierce as Fire trait?

 

Pistol off-hand

Personally, I'm sad that the pistol didn't get more love (like additional pistol main-hand). 😞
Pistol off-hand has some nice numbers on pistol 5 skill, easy to "prestack" Guns and Glory buff with it. Synergy with pistol 4 is also nice, but it ends here. This is sad.

Not sure about solution here, the pistol off-hand is nice for start of a PvE rotation, but that's it.

 

Conclusion

What I am hoping from updated and polished Bladesworn is that it is more practical, flexible and versatile in various situations, like Berserker and Spellbreaker. Core warrior, Berserker and Spellbreaker can simply deal with mobs of any difficulty quickly without having to waste time preparing their special mechanics and without being so easily shut down.

[singanushiga.5803]

I'll be mostly talking about Spvp/Wvw. The reason I started to play Gw2 was Vaanss's montages. I loved Warrior's smooth pvp style, it was so simple, effective and fluid. I loved core Warrior, Spellbreaker and Berserker and played a lot even though they have been nerfed many times (same for Ranger). I was hyped, trusted you for spec design by looking what you did before but... Ngl, I personally found this new spec so clunky, it's pvp style totally a mess for me. I'm so disappointed. Even if you buff it's damage, probably I'm not going to play it again in beta. I hope that next 3 specs are going to be fine and you're going to polish this spec until actual release.

[Smoosh.2718]

41 minutes ago, kmark.8519 said:

Gunsaber #5 this skill is bugged or something, I couldn't hit anyone (or anything, not even the target golem) with it, character just dashes through with zero effect

You didnt hit anyone because the damage is behind you, the explosion behind you is the damage, so if you wish to do damage you need to be running away not running towards.

[Ezikeo.5047]

Played alot of WvW and PvE, this spec lacks alot of synergy with other trait lines. Also alot of skills and traits are underwhelming.

Flow/Adrenaline also needs to be addressed, it is extremely slow to generate, either add more passive Flow regen or make it so our attacks generate Flow.

Below are my thoughts and suggestions.

 

Weapon:

- Gunsaber #1 Auto-Attack Chain: Add might to the attack chain.

- Gunsaber #2 Blooming Fire: Works well.
- Gunsaber #3 Artillery Slash: Works well.
- Gunsaber #4 Cyclone Trigger: Needs to be 2 seconds, also add reflect projectile to it.
- Gunsaber #5 Break Step: An evasion frame needs to be added to the dash.

 

Stance:

- Dragon Trigger: 4 seconds of Stability and Aegis needs to be baseline when entering the stance.

- Dragon Trigger #1 Dragon Slash—Force: Skill sometimes doesn't do damage when I am on top of the target or if they are       slightly elevated, this goes for targets that are downed also. 

- Dragon Trigger #2 Dragon Slash—Boost: Sometimes when used it will ignore collision, sometimes gets stuck in wall. Works fine otherwise.
- Dragon Trigger #3 Dragon Slash—Reach: This skill misses alot, something with it not registering damage.
- Dragon Trigger #4 Triggerguard: This needs to be changed into a 3 second block(Shield Stance).
- Dragon Trigger #5 Flicker Step: Range needs to be increased to 450.

 

Traits:

 - Major Master Fierce as Fire: This trait makes no sense in the kit, the spec is power based. Change the trait to

One in the Chamber: The final round of ammo on a weapon skill does 20% more damage.

[Kuya.6495]

My experience with the spec has been only in PvP, but first what I liked:

1. Out of all 6 new elites so far, this one is my favorite.  Both in terms of style but also design. 

 

2. I like how you made the ammo system use a core mechanic of this elite and how it works with other ammo based utilities in the core war kit (shouts and physical skills).

 

3. After finding out about how low the damage is on the dragon trigger, I switched to a bruiser build using tactical reload with shouts. It worked very good for side nodding and pretty good support in a team fight. I used unyielding dragon for massive CCs during team fights and I found that worked well when cleaving the downed. 

 

Now for criticisms/suggestions:

 

1a. The problem: The damage on dragon trigger is extremely low given how long you sit on the trigger for a full 10 charge. Even if you spec for full glass, it still feels like gunsaber 2 does more damage. I imagine that you were afraid of people using unyielding dragon and with a max charged dragon slash absolutely wrecking the enemy team with 5 second stuns and instantly downing low HP enemies. 

 

1b. Solution: there's a lot you can do. You can raise coefficients in pvp so the damage is highly dependent on using full glass to get very high damage out of dragon trigger.  Or, if your main concern is the stun, put a trait in the other two GMs that raises dragon trigger damage (you would have to balance this with pve since the spec already does like 50k dps) so if people want their high damage dragon trigger, they can't have the unblockable stuns as well. 

 

2a. Problem: When you enter dragon trigger and use it, the cooldown is also applied to your weapon swap as well. This makes sense in pvp since it makes for good counterplay to pressure a bladesworn after he uses dragon trigger but it's completely unnecessary in pve and spoils damage rotations.

 

2b. Solution: you should remove the cooldown for swapping out of gunsaber after dragon trigger in pve. It doesn't make sense there. Now for pvp, I still think it's a good idea to keep it so the bladesworn can't immediately change to mace/shield and turtle you. Now if you are forced to stay on gunsaber, there needs to be more defensive play on the weapon so you're not completely helpless while you wait for weapon swap. Consider adding evade frames on gunsaber 5 and consider extending the duration of missle block for gunsaber 4. 

 

Again, good job on the elite. It's really fun to use and it's a real blast watching several bladesworn dash around the arena trying to see who can anime who first.  I love watching bladesworn vs bladesworn duels!

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Kuya.6495

[UNOwen.7132]

Honestly, I get the feeling people arent using the dragon trigger correctly in PvP. Youre not supposed to charge it the full way. Let it rip at 2 or 3 charges, then use hidden dragon to reenter, that is much more effective.

[Master Ketsu.4569]

2 hours ago, AquaBR.9250 said:

When i use the F2 it puts on cooldown the F1 to change to my regular weapons, that so so so bad, some rotations are limited to gunsaber and dragontrigger. Btw dragontrigger should be avaible even when not with the gunsaber equiped, theres no need to press an extra buttom (F1 then F2) to use your burst skills.

 

 

 

This here is the main problem I had with it. Since F2 is effectively your adrenaline burst, having it locked on all other weapons adds an unnecessary layer of "Clunkyness" to the spec.

Edited September 22, 2021 by Master Ketsu.4569