Bladesworn Feedback Thread

[Neo Mortem.3627]

Bladesworn, first off, is a horrible name for a Warrior profession with pistol as its weapon. Secondly, why give it a pistol at all the doesn't seem to synergize with the rest of the weapons already available to warrior? The Harbinger suffers from this as well, where you give them a weapon but didn't really think about how it works with other weapons.

 

Bottom line, nobody will really use this class. Warrior is mainly used for Banners, and the F1 skill which often provides high damage or a heavy CC. They're easy to use at a moments notice since the adrenaline can be charged quicker than the "ammunition" and force required to use the Bladesworn's Dragon Stance. Nobody will be able to stand still long enough to get a full charge in a Raid, PvP, or even WvW setting without having to move (which cancels the stance) or get nuked by other attacks and be downed.

 

I would have preferred to see a melee staff Warrior instead of a pistol off-hand warrior. Not only would it have been more useful and interesting, but it would fit better to the region of the world we're going to than a "gunblade" gunslinger"

Edited September 23, 2021 by Neo Mortem.3627

[Daywalker.9710]

This spec is my second favourite in beta 2, with elementalist being least. The spec is different to some degree but changes can definitely make it feel more fun and smooth. For example, dragon trigger could be used outside of using the gun blade when using your actual weapons. Another is the stationery charging of the dragon trigger which I think takes a lot of fun out of this. I understand that it rewards you with more dmg in response, but it would feel so much more fluid being able to move around with it and not being stuck in one spot. Heck, nerf the dmg if you must, I'd still take the ability to move freely with it just because it would be so much more fun. Pistol I have no issues with, potential idea could be to increase skill 5 range but not fussed. Thank you! 

 

 

[Smoosh.2718]

40 minutes ago, Neo Mortem.3627 said:

Secondly, why give it a pistol at all the doesn't seem to synergize with the rest of the weapons already available to warrior?

It would have if they made it mainhand instead of offhand...
Pistol + Mace - Allows you to CC from afar, cause vuln and then burst away with your gunblade.
Pistol + Sword - Provides you with a block and a ranged cripple + torment
Pistol + Axe - A real damage monster for range and melee with no defence (the go ham or go home build)
Pistol + warhorn - mobile range support
Pistol + Sield - Defence and a CC for more sustain.
Pistol + Pistol - for maximum class synergy with flow generation.

[Gatvin.6510]

I've been enjoying this in PvP. DT is definitely interrupted more often than not, but I can sometimes get it off in duels, and occasionally in group fights. (if I make it through my opponent's first round of stuns, which relies a lot on "Shake it off", and the ability to reload it with the Gunblade ult.) I like the tradeoff of getting rooted by your own technique, but in a game that intrinsically punishes standing still as much as GW2 does, anything that roots you in place needs some extreme bonuses to see real use.

 

Dragon Trigger skill 2 has some clipping issues. Probably nothing too unusual with mobility skills, but if no one's mentioned it, I'm mentioning it here. It's not unusually to find oneself suddenly inside a wall after using DT 2

 

Daring Dragon has some wierd interactions with pressing attack keys repeatedly, where it will queue up an attack from the normal gunblade moveset and cancels re-entering dragon trigger.

[CJH.2879]

In regards to the Bladesworn, I actually liked it in the end, I found it very confusing at first, but once I knew what I was actually doing, it wasn't so bad! The pistol I felt wasn't overly that useful when compared to other offhand weapons, but as for the main weapon with the f1 ability, I liked it! Needed some serious tweaking on the traits & skills, but I believe I got there in the end! Have a look below! Hope it helps! 

 

Hi all, I managed to come up with some viable builds with the elite spec beta classes, *as is*, via mixing & matching traits, skills, equipment & weapons! If you're struggling, try this out, it has all 3 elite specs that have very good survival & decent dps! The Catalyst has massive healing potential if you f2 & 1-5 (which also gives a frost aura), before doing an f1 for the dps again >> (With a Staff of course!) These experiments are, *as is*, so feel free to change them up, but yup, overall they work! So check them out: >>

 

 

[Smigleesmits.7540]

Dragon Trigger skill 2 "Dragon Slash-Boost" feels like it should be ground targeted skill shot for better control.

Skill 1 "Force" should have a more impressive visual effect, perhaps the image of a dragon flashing briefly when it is fully charged.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Smigleesmits.7540

[Icuhtnurh.9146]

This is, beyond a doubt, the worst idea Anet has ever not come up with themselves.. This is CLEARLY A Final Fantasy ripoff of Squall form FF8 and the Gunblade class from FF14.. 

 

Your Limit.. I mean Focus.. builds slowly in combat, until ultimately you stand still and scream while loading your gunblade.. I mean gunsaber.. and select one of your 3 limit breaks to perform.. The only thing you are missing is an emote to twirl the sword over your head after you kill something and play that little tune..

 

 Embarrassing attempt at poaching players from FF's attention aside.. The spec is such that, in PvE at least, one can be good at this even by pure accident. It is a skill-less spec. Also, Warriors using magical projectiles while a dedicated magic class (elementalist) still hasn't figured out what a long range weapon is for? Not stellar..

 

 The only good I have taken from this spec is it FINALLY made Greatsword into something playable for me on Warrior.. If I could make regular greatsword behave like this one does (even barring the area blast effect), I would probally love warrior more in general tbh. I'm gonna stick with Spellbreaker for the foreseeable future.. Please find some originality for warrior going forward.. When I saw Warrior was getting Pistol as a weapon for it's Elite Spec, I was excited and curious to see how it would be implemented, only to find it was barely a side thought on the spec's construction (I suppose you just ran out of things to do and since you couldn't make Greatsword an elite spec weapon, you had to waste a slot somehow). I was hoping for something of a mid range gunfighter, and what I got was a Final Fantasy ripoff.. 

[Neo Mortem.3627]

1 hour ago, Smoosh.2718 said:

It would have if they made it mainhand instead of offhand...
Pistol + Mace - Allows you to CC from afar, cause vuln and then burst away with your gunblade.
Pistol + Sword - Provides you with a block and a ranged cripple + torment
Pistol + Axe - A real damage monster for range and melee with no defence (the go ham or go home build)
Pistol + warhorn - mobile range support
Pistol + Sield - Defence and a CC for more sustain.
Pistol + Pistol - for maximum class synergy with flow generation.

Ok, but the point is that they didn't, and they didnt even care. They really just gave them a different set of greatsword skills without changing greatsword.

[bruakumfd.4817]

I know that I already commented. However, I wanted to add my dad's criticisms. He said that he tried to use the Skills given, and he kept dying. He also said the lack of weapon swapping was annoying since he couldn't use a rifle to get an enemy off of my mom.

[Shin Ryu.5802]

My quick take on bladesworn:

The weapon:  Pistol is an off-hand only that happens to be almost completely irrelevant.  If a warrior is going to get the pistol, why not have it be something that can be equipped in either or both hands?  Well, again, it's because it's largely irrelevant, and primarily only exists for flavor.

The utility skills:  Appropriately enough, most are conducive to optimizing the specialization's new profession mechanics, the Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger.

The profession mechanics:  Is primarily a gunblade from Final Fantasy VII, with the serial numbers filed off and re-branded as a "Gunsaber."  For whatever reason, adrenalin is replaced with "Flow," because the concept of channeling "Ki" to power up what are essentially iaido sword techniques was apparently too radical.  The gunsaber is actually not a bad weapon; it's just a variant greatsword.  However, there is literally no reason to play one unless one intends to make their fighting strategies around maximizing its unique ultimate technique, Dragon Slash, which is ostensibly hella kewl.  Like, almost as much damage as an Arc Divider-spamming berserker can do in five seconds, but in a single all-or-nothing strike that can be interrupted, canceled, and placed on an 8 second cooldown by just about everything--including but not limited to taking a single step in any direction.

Want to know ultimate frustration?  Try using Dragon Slash against a swarm of dust mites.  Yeah, dust mites.  *sigh*

Since we're pretty much stuck with bladesworn as the new warrior elite, I may as well offer some suggestions for making it a bit more playable:

--When Dragon Trigger is activated, either pin the character in a manner similar to when the deadeye uses its Kneel skill, or allow for greatly reduced movement speed without causing Dragon Trigger to completely cancel and go into cooldown.  

-Allow Dragon Trigger to be canceled without being forced into its full 8 second cooldown.  If a person chooses to voluntarily dodge out of it, perhaps shorten the cooldown to 3 seconds.   Having to restart Dragon Trigger to build up power from scratch is already punitive enough.

-Actually, would it kill the concept entirely to allow for Dragon Trigger to be unbroken by dodging?  That way, Triggerguard and Flicker Step could be scrapped in favor of adding two new variants of Dragon Slash.   Just thinking out loud...

-I'm a bit surprised that there wasn't a Pulmonary Impact style delayed damage burst added to any of the existing Dragon Slash variants.  It's a pretty well established trope to have the sword master protagonist attack with blinding speed, then for the enemies to react to the damage after a delay, usually after the sword is re-sheathed.  Perhaps that could be incorporated into a new Dragon Slash variant.

[Gorilla.4120]

I really don't have anything new to offer that hasn't already been stated by others. As someone that is only interested in playing competitive game modes (WvW/PvP), I haven't seen anything in the last two beta tests that would compel me to purchase End of Dragons when it comes out.

[gmmg.9210]

On 9/21/2021 at 9:43 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.

• Pros:
• The gunblade and the spec are in the right direction with the fun anime style gameplay, looks cool also
• Lots of sustain which other specs like SB duelist lacked
• Really simple but good elite skill
• Interesting new heal, not quite mending I guess but still very usable
• Not forcing us to use Fast Hands anymore is an interesting change of pace 
• Artillery Slash is fun, and has great range 😄
• The Armament abilities are a unique idea, even if some of the skills are underwhelming atm

 

Cons:

• Dragon Trigger hits like a wet noodle in pvp. The power coefficient is way too low which only encourages it to be spammed for mobility and quick stun potential. This needs a buff. There's left over "flow" always just sitting around while in combat most of the time also
• Break Step needs better range than 450, as even with two charges its barely moving us anywhere. Buffing the range will also push people away from quick dumb Dragon Trigger bursts for mobility.
• Blooming Fire is using the Eviscerate animation too precisely which isn't good, as that was meant to be a slow telegraphed massive attack. The speed of the animation should be faster by a bit and less clunky. Or simply buff the damage on this to justify the slow eviscerate animation.
• Overall the damage is lacking tbh.
• Feeling too pigeonholed into using shouts. This is alright for now but Defense and Arms especially need reworks and buffs. Stances are being openly neglected in the traits and it's making me question if Anet even has any Warrior mains...
• Flicker Step needs better range (and possibly more charges). If you've already committed to an anime teleporting warrior, might as well have this be a super cool ability with some good range and crazy anime style blinking going on. Just an opinion yes but for what it's worth.
• Maybe just me but Bulls Charge feels like it doesn't synergize at all now with this current spec. Seems smarter to take another shout or Endure Pain(?). If that's the point then alright fair enough but it just feels like a waste of one the warriors most historically used and fun abilities.

[AllDatAngst.4208]

Small stuff:

- The first three icons for the dragon trigger are almost identical. Making these more distinct would go a long way towards user friendliness. 

- I'm not sure what the purpose of the self-push-back on the pistol is. Pistol overall feels underwhelming. There's almost no reason to ever leave gunsaber.

- The trait icons look unfinished compared to the others on warrior.

- I do look forward to playing Overly Dramatic Anime Swordsman.

 

The big thing:

- I feel like the charge mechanic is out of place with current glameplay. Combat is fast and mobile, and organized groups in most gamemodes lean towards strong burst damage. I don't feel like this would play well in that atmosphere. A trade might be to create an AOE around the BS that pulses damage as they charge. The longer the charge, the stronger the AOE, then they can unleash their full attack. The AOE damage encourages getting close in (and heightens the risk of getting hit) and allows the Bladesworn to contribute to DPS. It's just that having no damage output + being stationary for several seconds seems counterintuitive to gameplay.

[DanAlcedo.3281]

3 hours ago, Mighty Cole.7849 said:

I really don't have anything new to offer that hasn't already been stated by others. As someone that is only interested in playing competitive game modes (WvW/PvP), I haven't seen anything in the last two beta tests that would compel me to purchase End of Dragons when it comes out.

Same here. 

From what we have seen, the only Change to the Wvw Meta is that Mesmer can do dmg now. 

Catalyst could maybe make Ele viable again but we will see

"sigh" Looks like a few more years of Firebrand for me then. 

[Caedmon.6798]

This also wont be a great spec for blobbing or guild raiding. Besides playing shoutheal,but speaking from a dmg point of view,it has nothing that other warrri specs cant do better,dmg wise.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Caedmon.6798

[ItsBooscuits.6791]

So I mainly play WvW so this is only an opinion for that game mode.

So ive tested it and only it for the entire beta 2. What ive come to realize in WvW the pay off for using the burst skills are almost punishing, i ran scholars and even on zerker scholars I was better off only using the dragon skills as cc because for it to deal as much damage as a normal ability i would have to get about 4 charges, which btw the charge system as fun as it may be is very unrealistic for any pvp scenario due to the amount of time it takes to get any relevant damage from it. Either make the charge quicker for pvp scenarios or increase the damage across the board of the dragon 1 2 and 3 skills as of now i only use it for cc to follow up into my normal gunblade skills or other weapon. Also remove the seperate weapon cooldowm from entering the stance Its annoying that I can go from gunblade to axe for example no problem but its frustraiting that if i go from axe to enter gunblade so that i can use the f2 skill that i cant use my f2 skill then swap back to axe. Your punished both in damage and warrior mechanics for using the f2 skills.

Also if we can swap from gunblade to our normal weapon just by a weapon swap that would be cool rather than using f1 it makes it so your muscle memory is horrid for any other warrior spec. Thats just my opinion be brutal if you want too ive dueled and roamed on the spec for about 15 or more hours in game time and thats just what ive experienced.

[mortrialus.3062]

Movement skills are clunky.  Breakstep you either want to go towards a target or away from a target.  But if you use it to get close to someone it'll shoot you past them.  It's awkward.

Gunsaber needs a better defensive skill than the projectile block. 

It's weird that dragon trigger puts your weapon swap on full cooldown.  I don't see why Bladesworn shouldn't be able to Dragon Trigger and then hop into their other weapon set like a normal warrior using a normal burst skill.

You also can't stow weapons to cancel cast anything while in Gunsaber mode.  Which is weird because you can stow cast on photon forge. 

Dragon Trigger as we see struggles to hit things, as this video shows. 

These I consider the normal clunkiness we should expect with a beta.  I can see these getting fixed.

On the otherhand

The damage is overnerfed in general.  Even on standard gunblade skills.  Like to a baffling degree.  Like why does Blooming Fire, the main bread and butter melee damage skill, crit for 1.5k to 2.5k in PvP on a zerker amulet?  

Dragon Trigger needs to be actually very valuable with a moderate amount of charge.  And considering how many ways I can counter Dragon Trigger as a mesmer with interrupts or just moving away from it, I actually am 100% okay with a max charge Dragon Trigger being the highest damage you can get in SPvP.  But ideally Dragon Trigger should be very good with just 3-4 charges and really trying to do a max charge is just memes or recognizing an insane opportunity.

These things I don't see getting fixed.

They are fixable, but I don't think CMC's balance philosophy will allow a lot of what holds it back to be fixed beyond clunkiness and jank.   And I think that's why this round of beta specs is sparking so much outrage. 

Edited September 24, 2021 by mortrialus.3062

[LadyKitty.6120]

After playing it for half a day in instanced PVE content (fractals and raids), Kitty would say that Dragon Slash-Force is overperforming by about 15% even with the skill and reliance on teammates it requires to do that damage in real game situations.
Even though Dragon Slash-Boost isn't much behind, it would probably be okay to leave it about same level as Force due to Boost being a forward dash that isn't blocked by platform edges which makes it reaaaally dangerous skill to use and also out of range when it finishes so it kinda needs to be worth that disadvantage damage-wise if anyone ever needs to use it. Ofc you could use it to dash to boss to do its "slightly less than Force"-damage but at that point you can just use Flicker Steps to blink to boss for better damage with Force.
Currently top-tier players are doing about 52k at golem and Kitty's doing 42k as typically "85% of benchmark" player so something like 15% nerf to Dragon Slash-Force and 10% nerf to Dragon Slash-Boost would be pretty justified, making it still a super-high risk, super-high reward build to play in PVE. Nerfing normal gunsaber skills would be pointless due to already being relatively weak and making up just 15% of total damage to begin with.
Dragon Slash-Force currently makes up about 85% of Bladesworn's DPS build's damage so 20% nerf would be a bit too harsh as 20% nerf would reduce the dps potential to about 42,5k Since Bladesworn needs to be the most selfish build in the whole game to not defenestrate big portion of the damage and actually requires knowing the bosses inside out to reap that reward, having Bladesworn around 45k benchmark would be reasonable as the sheer difficulty makes it nigh impossible to get even close to full potential on most bosses (except dps golems like Mursaat Overseer, Gorseval and Deimos), not to mention that when you're loading the Dragon Slash skills, bosses often phase (Samarog and Slothasor as most annoying examples) and mobs are already dead so it's hard to get full benefit from fully loading the slash..

Also, Kitty's noticed that sometimes Dragon Slash-Force fails to hit the target even when in melee range and there's nothing that would cause blind. Unless Kitty's accidentally moved before finishing though she's already somewhat mastered standing still for the cast due to ranger's Whirling Defense and elementalist's Meteor Shower <.>

Also, cancelling Dragon Slash doesn't cause F1 weapon swap to go on cooldown BUT successfully using Dragon Slash does. So in other words, cancel/interrupt doesn't count as weapon swap but Dragon Slash does. Is this intended behaviour (sounds weird thing to do) or a bug?  
If it's a bug, fixing it would make rotations including normal weapons more viable (though only axe+axe works for DPS, SO BOOST THOSE MACES'(+25%) AND HAMMER'S(+40%) DAMAGE DANG IT!) so you can choose between axes for damage or something like hammer or maces for CC (Boost Staggering Blow's Knockback to 240/300 while at it so you can actually do some knocking for mechs). Though with ammo system synergy, rifle is actually the 2nd best normal weapon for Bladesworn due to being ranged and benefitting of those ammo reload stuffs as well.

[ListenToMe.5130]

BUG: Gunsaber weapon rarely generates its light golden trail. I've only seen it a few times. Usually it appears as a basic trail.

Edit: Trail does not work w/ Daring Dragon trait.

Edited September 24, 2021 by ListenToMe.5130
My own confusion.

[Lahmia.2193]

Please remove the Gunblade scabbard. It is visually unappealing and doesn't even fit properly at the moment.

[Face Eater.6179]

The concept of Dragon trigger is awesome but the implementation just doesnt work. 

 

The pistol doesnt feel like it belongs or has any real impact on the spec or playstyle. It feels like the entire spec was designed around Dragon trigger and ONLY Dragon trigger, like you use one skill to unleash a massive attack and then nothing else.

 

Most of the traits are either about improving flow to enter Dragon trigger faster or about improving Dragon trigger itself. There are no traits that really improve the pistol specifically.  It feels like they realized that a new espec is supposed to have a new weapon so they sort of threw the pistol in there as an afterthought.

 

Gunsabre skills are underwhelming. 1, 2,  and 3 are just variations on "do a bit of damage" and none of them have any utility or additional effects. 4 and 5 are marginally more useful. 

 

This leads into another problem. We are forced to use the gunsabre, but its abilities are lacklustre.  This feels even worse when you leave Dragon trigger and are trapped using the gunsabre because the weapon swap goes on cooldown. If we have no choice but to equip this weapon then it needs to be incredible.

 

Standing still for 5 seconds for a full charge is not recommended in PvE and is a Guaranteed death sentence in PvP. Dragon Trigger needs to apply both protection and stability when its activated.

 

The major master traits all only affect ammunition kills. This isnt a problem on its own, not every trait is usable with every build. The problem is that all three are on the same tier, which means that if you're not using ammunition skills you are forced to take a dead trait that will do nothing for you. Each of these traits should be on a different tier so you can either avoid them or choose to specialise into ammunition-buffing traits if you want to.

 

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Face Eater.6179

[Raolin Soulherder.3195]

To their credit, Bladesworn has good utilities/elite and does a better job of synergizing with the rest of its class compared to the other e-specs. However, the payoff of sitting stationary so long seems a bit feeble, at least for pvp. People aren't going to sit right on top of you and let themselves be hit. I feel like you risk so much sitting in one place while the other team whales on you (AoE's, etc) as you charge up, and then the damage you finally dish out doesn't compare to the damage taken. It's such a big telegraph and buildup that it is easy for opponents to pull out of range or simply LOS you, wasting all of your buildup. Or forcing you to use it prematurely in its weakened state just to ensure a hit. 

 

It's like a worse version of Gun Flame (no movement, much less range) or Kill Shot (much less range), unless the enemy is stupidly standing right on your face. 

 

it will be useless in WvW fights with all the movement, and only really good for killing NPC's to PPT. Seems like purely a PvE spec. 

 

[trunks.5249]

On 9/21/2021 at 7:42 PM, Drakhar.1389 said:

Many things hit harder for far less investment. Lich autoattacks, True Shot, Gunflame, Arcing Slice, etc. All of which hit over 10k, and the most I've seen from Dragon Slash is 7k.

after some testing i think about it you are right. i just didn't pay attention it seems less because my ranger has great regen when i get hit with Condi and protection when i dodge so hits don't seem has hard . after reading this i tried another toon that doesnt always has a good amount of passive regen or protection. if you are asking why didnt this guy already know this. its because i only have played ranger since game came out

[crewthief.8649]

So, contrary to CMC’s musings, changing flow to 100 was not a good idea. Suggestion:

 Change flow to 30 so that it synergizes with all of the core adrenaline-building traits. OR, buff the flow-generating ability of those traits (which seems like more work). 

Edited September 24, 2021 by crewthief.8649

[Surolam.1490]

The base class "feel" is still there, but with a noticeable, interesting shift. IMO, it's neither heavily over- or under-powered, but is a worthy addition to the game. It has a significant change to the _rhythm_ of play, and getting your combos & sequences set up is more important than for most of the other elite specs we've seen. Once you charge up your "flow" (a.k.a. adrenaline), and pull the "Dragon Trigger" F2, you need to sit there for a few seconds to get max effect - no movement, no skill use. Also, you just have to be in combat to gain flow, you don't have to actively smash things, so it may pay to kite folks around for a bit before you pull the Dragon Trigger. Flow charges more slowly than adrenaline, but there are some skills & traits to help with that. You choose between three "Burst" skills which are all useful in specific situations, instead of having a single per-weapon burst. The off-hand pistol is okay, and the utility skills are decent, but the real action here is in using the Gunsabre (F1).