Besides fixing the jank, Bladesworn needs a unique identity

[Lonecap.4105]

(PvP perspective)

To make Bladesworn feel good, we need to compare it to Core, Berserker and Spellbreaker. What can Bladesworn offer over those? Core is pure 1v1, and has unparalleled long duration CC. Berserker is pure teamfight, just DPS or hybridized - Berserker can also roam but it's vulnerable because of roamers with stealth or port access. Spellbreaker is also sidenode.

Bladesworn should be roam. And to accomplish its clunky mechanics and this feat, we can give it short duration but fairly frequent stealth access. Thematically it fits, what with "flicker step" and all clearly thematically channelling into moving faster than the eye can see.

This, coupled with other boosts, could give Bladesworn the identity it needs to be different from other warriors without stepping on Berserker's or Spellbreaker's toes.

 

 

[Kodama.6453]

I highly doubt that anet is willing to give warrior access to stealth, tbh.

Remember from the stream, the portion where they were discussing which combo field to give to the catalyst for the earth attunement? Smoke field was brought up, but immediately shut down with "bad idea, don't give elementalist access to stealth".

I think it is the same for warrior, the class will probably never get access to stealth by themselves. Warrior has alot of highly telegraphed attacks, which could be hidden with stealth. Dragon trigger is the newest addition and I don't think they will allow you to charge dragon trigger unseen without help from another player.

[Lonecap.4105]

7 minutes ago, Kodama.6453 said:

I highly doubt that anet is willing to give warrior access to stealth, tbh.

Remember from the stream, the portion where they were discussing which combo field to give to the catalyst for the earth attunement? Smoke field was brought up, but immediately shut down with "bad idea, don't give elementalist access to stealth".

I think it is the same for warrior, the class will probably never get access to stealth by themselves. Warrior has alot of highly telegraphed attacks, which could be hidden with stealth. Dragon trigger is the newest addition and I don't think they will allow you to charge dragon trigger unseen without help from another player.

No it'd be fine, really. I'm talking about 2-3 seconds of stealth for repositioning. It wouldn't be enough to cover a fully charged Dragon Slash, just partial coverage.

Bladesworn wouldn't be bursting any harder from stealth than any other class that currently can. Even the worst case scenario is Bulls Charge>Axe4>Sword3, but Bulls would reveal you anyway (and it does 0 damage, so its even more fair).

[oscuro.9720]

Where would you put the stealth, if you could choose?

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

10 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

Where would you put the stealth, if you could choose?

I'd turn Fierce as Fire into Hidden Dragon, and have it drop a smoke field that last for 2-3s on a 10s ICD when you expend the last round of an ammo skill.

[oscuro.9720]

1 minute ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

I'd turn Fierce as Fire into Hidden Dragon, and have it drop a smoke field that last for 2-3s on a 10s ICD when you expend the last round of an ammo skill.

How would we access stealth from the smoke field outside of utils? Breakstep becomes a leap finisher? 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Just now, oscuro.9720 said:

How would we access stealth from the smoke field outside of utils? Breakstep becomes a leap finisher? 

Any leap or blast finisher finisher. Savage leap in particular, but kick, rush, BC, or stomp would all work. Doubles as a field to fire ammo through to blind people.

[oscuro.9720]

Just now, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Any leap or blast finisher finisher. Savage leap in particular, but kick, rush, BC, or stomp would all work. Doubles as a field to fire ammo through to blind people.

Mmk. I was just fleshing out the idea. I am pretty undecided on stealth access for the spec, but the idea is sound. Having a blast or leap finisher on gunblade would synergize that concept a lot more.
As far as the actual mobility goes, cleaning up some of the weird cast times and after casts could make the spec significantly more mobile and, imo, will fix up a lot of the problems.

[ens.9854]

It kinda has an identity. You can do respectable damage from range with a melee weapon, which is new for warrior. The problem is the melee damage is garbage so you end up spamming all your ranged attacks even in melee range. And you are locked into saber mode by DT so you can't just swap to axe/x or whatever (which still suffer from the lack of damage mods in the traitline).

[Obtena.7952]

BS is lacking identity? I think that's debatable but if I were to improve it's already existing identity, I would improve the 'explosion' aspect of the class with a few demolition-feeling effects/traits. I mean, we wield a hand-cannon ... so it should probably have some more options to blow things up. 

[Vancho.8750]

Damage reduction that gets lower and lower the more time you charge DT instead of stealth would work better as Warrior RP.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

7 minutes ago, Vancho.8750 said:

Damage reduction that gets lower and lower the more time you charge DT instead of stealth would work better as Warrior RP.

It would. I think there should be a trait that grants you damage reduction per stack of positive flow rate, but your suggestion is a good one too.

[Lighter.5631]

doesnt need stealth, look at rev, perfectly fine roamer, look at mesmer, non meta cuz thief, but strong roamer in matches without thief, or soulbeast, non meta but strong in soloq.

 

roamer means mobility, chase ability, fast and reliable burst damage without the need of long set up.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Lighter.5631

[Lonecap.4105]

1 hour ago, oscuro.9720 said:

Where would you put the stealth, if you could choose?

I would remove the burn on last ammo charge trait and replace it with a new trait that makes you enter stealth for two seconds on last ammo charge similarly to what Lan said.

Also I’d give smoke field access to Dragonspike Mine, as @CalmTheStorm.2364 suggested in the mega thread.

[Lonecap.4105]

18 minutes ago, Lighter.5631 said:

doesnt need stealth, look at rev, perfectly fine roamer, look at mesmer, non meta cuz thief, but strong roamer in matches without thief, or soulbeast, non meta but strong in soloq.

 

roamer means mobility, chase ability, fast and reliable burst damage without the need of long set up.

In my opening post though I inferred that the best roamers have ports onto enemy and/or stealth access. 

[oscuro.9720]

1 hour ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

It would. I think there should be a trait that grants you damage reduction per stack of positive flow rate, but your suggestion is a good one too.

I think that the damage reduction for flow would be best as a replacement for Unseen Sword. Something like:

Flowing Rock: Gain flow when swapping weapons (5s). Incoming damage is reduced by 2% per stack of flow.

Then you can change Fierce as Fire to:

Synchronized Reload: Gain positive flow (5s) when using the last charge of an ammo skill.

Then if you were really looking to link it all the way through GM traits, you could add;

”explosions grant positive flow (5s)” to daring dragon,

then put a universal cap on flow at 5 or 10. That would not only sync the lines vertically, but horizontally as well, giving much more synergy across the class, with the top line giving healing and the bottom line giving damage mitigation (move fierce as fire to the bottom line). The middle line would have less coherence, but has its own strong traits (universal CD reduction, Unblockable unblindable stun, swiftness access).