How would you rate Bladesworn during this beta?

[Gorilla.4120]

I understand there may be a disparity between game modes (E.g. might be great in one and terrible in another) but please vote on your over all experience.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Mighty Cole.7849

[Apolo.5942]

Terrible, needs a major overhaul if not a complete redesign.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

I'll say no to complete overhaul or we may end up with an even more rushed work that may be unviable for months post-release. 

 

Me and many other mains have explained in great detail the changes that are required to make the spec go from 3/10 to 7/10. If they want to hear us for once they will. If they don't, I'll be ok roaming in HoT and PoF for open world and sporting my respective elite specs. 

[Smoosh.2718]

I honestly want to see them add mainhand pistol to Bladesworn (Also rename the class to Bulletsworn - makes more sense)

And make some changes alike to what i have put here:

 

[Harak.8397]

"Bulletsworn" doesn't exactly roll off the tongue either...

I'll summarize my thoughts this way: Bladesworn is more work than Berserker for similar results. It may have access to Aegis, teleport and stability while in DT, it's still extremely vulnerable in that state for a payoff I can get in Berserk mode and still be mobile.

Not going to lie though, it is fun to play.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

Bad / 10. 

The long and short of it is:

1 hour ago, Harak.8397 said:

Bladesworn is more work than Berserker for similar results

With the added stress that I am primarily interested in pvp, where Berserker is the worst elite spec in the game for the current meta, and even then with some elbow grease you can hit good numbers with it.

The elaboration:

The theme of it is interesting. However, the theme has the mechanics of the class (and thus the class's viability in most run of the mill scenarios) in a headlock and refuses to let it do anything. 

Flicker step is a good idea, but the port distance is too short to be of any benefit versus anyone sentient. 

Using the burst locks you in to gunsaber for a few extra seconds for some reason. 

You have to swap to Gunsaber to get access to Dragon Trigger, which means it has 50% uptime even if you have the flow for using it. 

Fully charging the Dragon Trigger takes 5 seconds of uninterrupted pause, during which people can move out of range or interrupt you with any cc. Only failing to dodge the strike, attempting to block it, or attempting to blind it is punished. Making the strike invulnerable to blocking or blinding  upon traiting was a *good idea.* It addresses the heart of what troubles warrior, which is why I didn't rate it rework/10 . The investment required to make it work though is so vast that it doesn't matter how good of an idea it was.

Failing to dodge the strike is not even punished heavily. on a full glass build you do less damage on a crit for the 5 second charge than you would for landing whirling axe, which is both easier to land and has a lower cooldown. 

Dodging the strike is incredibly easy. It is avoidable by jumping, walking perpendicular to the slashes direction or being on a marginally higher elevation than the warrior. 

Bladesworn's flow mechanic being named such is a cruel joke. The profession feels like the antithesis of flow and a degradation of the fluid combat I picked up GW2 for in the first place; it is physically unpleasing to play. 

It feels like Anet is afraid to let it perform. Of course, things are subject to change because it is a beta, but I am left to conclude  this was Anet's earnest attempt at hitting the sweetspot for pvp damage, and even then there's still the mechanical issues on top. Even though it is a beta, my first few hours playing the class were rife with revulsion, and I have never felt that on any other class that I have played so far, even if I wasn't immediately good at it.

I'm sure its better in pve, where enemies don't dodge or move in evasive ways. In PvP though, where warriors are already the lowest performing class denomination in the game, this feels like a swift kick in the ribs. 

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[sneakytails.5629]

I will be taking a long break from GW2 over this, and the bad directx11 rollout (for me anyways).  I want to give them time to update those things and get alliances right and fully fleshed out. In the meantime I have D2R, a bed, a wall mounted monitor, and a controller.

[Geoff Fey.1035]

Definitely needs several adjustments, primarily centered around Flow & Dragon Trigger/Slash.

Foundational concept seems to have some merit, but it definitely needs a revamp as the design is antithesis to both Warrior and GW2 combat as a whole.

I remember Daredevil & Revenant in Beta vs. HoT Release and they were wildly different animals (i.e. Daredevil felt horrid, was released fun; Revenant condi was amazing, was released Power Sword Herald 1-1-1-repeat was the only viable build until 2017). Hopeful we'll see something similar to the Daredevil's full release in Bladesworn.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Geoff Fey.1035
Power Sword Herald

[Mesket.5728]

Terrible, they will powercreep this to the roof to convince people and then nerf it to the ground. Some QOL can be done but in my opinion there is no room in warrior for this espec. It comes here to fill the only role we already and it does it in a weird way. BS will suffer as weavers suffered from static rotations.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

16 minutes ago, sneakytails.5629 said:

I will be taking a long break from GW2 over this, and the bad directx11 rollout (for me anyways).  I want to give them time to update those things and get alliances right and fully fleshed out. In the meantime I have D2R, a bed, a wall mounted monitor, and a controller.

Yeah I'll be buying D2R soon myself. Won't be taking a break from GW2 though,  just splitting my play time. D2 is just one of those timeless classics that is fun no matter what.

[Kodama.6453]

Played it for some hours today and gotta say, I quite enjoy it.

Obviously, it is not perfect right now and can use some adjustments. Like giving access to dragon trigger in your other weapon set, too and make the dragon trigger skills not miss elevated enemies and such. But the general gameplay is really fun for me.

With the right setup, you can build up flow really fast and spam dragon trigger all day, oneshotting alot of stuff in PvE.

Pistol was fun for me to play as well, love the unload mechanic (obviously, it has been a mechanic I suggested myself before this came to be here) and the visuals are quite nice.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Kodama.6453

[UNOwen.7132]

It needs some adjustment, but the core is fine. It needs some number buffs, a larger range on some gunsaber moves and maybe a few small added mechanics, and a whole lot of dejanking, but its a pretty nice spec. Very flavourful and fun.

[ens.9854]

Wow! I thought people were just being critical with their feedback.

I think it is 90% okay. Skills do not need complete overhauls (maybe some utility added to weapon). Some traits DO, but I don't consider that to be a major thing. With some damage adjustments and animation/QOL (aftercast on DT and other attacks, swapping etc) tweaks it will be almost there. I think it is so frustrating to play because it is so close to being fluid and rewarding and then you run into something glaring like fumbling the weird hotkeys, goofiness getting into/out of DT, getting locked out of weapons, or feel like you are swinging a wet noodle outside of DT.

[draxynnic.3719]

Voted OK/5, but that's mostly to keep Bad in reserve for stuff that's definitely worse. Maybe OK minus.

 

I think there's a fair amount of QoL polishing, at the very least, needed to make it really work. Should be able to Dragon Trigger without the gunsaber already out (it's an iaijutsu move, after all), and the channel is just a bit long for fluid GW2 combat. Sure, there are other long channels such as tempest overload, but they generally have at least some effect while channeling, while Dragon Trigger/Slash is entirely backloaded. Maybe reduce the damage in PvE to account for the shorter channel. PvP damage probably doesn't need it.

 

The elevation issues I've been hearing about really need to be fixed too. Giving it a thicker hitbox vertically should do the trick.

 

There's potential there. Certainly not a 'go back to the drawing board' situation. However, it's also certainly not just a case of tweaking the numbers either.

[Lonecap.4105]

Just for clarity anet: players who voted Ok and above are PvE players.

Those who picked bad or terrible are PvP/WvW players

[Vancho.8750]

44 minutes ago, ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Just for clarity anet: players who voted Ok and above are PvE players.

Those who picked bad or terrible are PvP/WvW players

The "PVE players" (more like players that don't see beyond DPS numbers)  will be singing another tune if the damage was not overblown, since the whole thing is clunky as kitten. Also I think Bladesworn is kitten for PVE cause it is yet another Damage spec, that is unneeded , it doesn't bring anything new to the game that helps the group, anything that can help the group is from core warrior. On the  level of purpose Bladesworn is pointless.  

[draxynnic.3719]

59 minutes ago, ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Just for clarity anet: players who voted Ok and above are PvE players.

Those who picked bad or terrible are PvP/WvW players

Nah, but the main problem in a PvP context is the long channels. ArenaNet decided that it wasn't appropriate to have a oneshot move, but the payoff just isn't there. And it will never be there for a 5s channel where you're mostly immobile and defenseless (a couple of aegises and a few short blinks don't go far in PvP) where the payoff is all at the end. The only payoff that COULD justify that is the sort of thing that would be an 'interrupt this guy now or somebody dies' level of impact, and I don't see that happening.

 

In PvP modes, I think you might actually be better off just not using DT at all.

 

Cut the channel time in half, though, and we might be getting somewhere. PvE players will probably accept suitably reduced damage in exchange. In PvP... the damage has already been cut.

 

It's still better than Catalyst, and maybe a tad better than Willbender (albeit with different problems). Harbinger and the two V's both feel/felt like they're in better shape (the Viktor urn needs work, but at least Vindicator's whole mechanic isn't based on it).

[Grand Marshal.4098]

Another sad part about this is that to make Bladesworn work remotely okay ish in pvp scenarios, you need to once more, sport the classic strength build. Which imo is boring asf to see in all specs. Why anet? Why miss the opportunity to make BS something strong and boost a line like Arms a bit to promote some new gameplay. 

 

Cause ngl, Arms fits Bladesworn nicely, be it vuln on burst, flow on crit and more unblockable access. 

 

[Mesket.5728]

28 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Cut the channel time in half, though, and we might be getting somewhere.

 

cut the channel in half AND make the damage double and you might have yourself a regular burst skill again in PVP

[Jzaku.9765]

(For PVE)

Realistically I'd be fine with just removing [Lush Forest] because it encourages super degen gameplay keeping all skills at no ammo. Bump down CDs to compensate. Spec will probably be fine after this.

 

Copium-wise I'd like for Daring Dragon to give 10-man Alacrity in PVE, since it cripples the DPS already. Give me some kind of viable support Warr to build for...

 

So yeah I think considering the theme of the spec is set in stone and expecting major overhauls is a childish dream, I don't think it's too far off being usable. 

[Valik Shin.9027]

i really don't wanna vote on this because its different across game modes. It has real potential in PvE with some minor tweaks. Even as is i could see it in niche roles for certain fights. In PvP and WvW it would need major retooling, probably to the point of a complete revamp of DT. If this big long cast burst is what they want then they should just make it good in raids/fractals and forget about the rest

[TOOTHBRUSHDUCK.9035]

3 hours ago, ProverbsofHell.2307 said:

Just for clarity anet: players who voted Ok and above are PvE players.

Those who picked bad or terrible are PvP/WvW players

Even as a pure PvE player, I voted bad mostly cos it needs to be modified a fair bit, not because it's necessarily bad, but it's still just largely unsatisfying in pve due to the long channels that are interrupted by every enemy in the game immediately

[Fueki.4753]

I voted for the complete rework.

This simply isn't what Warrior needs at all.

All it does is taking the warmed up seat in the only role (melee Banner DPS) that the Warrior specializations and core already sit in.

A specialization that focusses on support and/or ranged damage is what Warrior should have gotten.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

24 minutes ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

(For PVE)

Realistically I'd be fine with just removing [Lush Forest] because it encourages super degen gameplay keeping all skills at no ammo. Bump down CDs to compensate. Spec will probably be fine after this.

 

Copium-wise I'd like for Daring Dragon to give 10-man Alacrity in PVE, since it cripples the DPS already. Give me some kind of viable support Warr to build for...

 

So yeah I think considering the theme of the spec is set in stone and expecting major overhauls is a childish dream, I don't think it's too far off being usable. 

Best ideas I've seen and come up with so far to give this spec a more interesting role are:

 

Grant offensive boons on using an armament (trait) - >swiftness 5 sec, might 3 stacks for 5 sec, Fury for 4 sec. 

 

Tactical Reload grants 1 sec of alacrity per non-ammo skill on your bar (impacting non ammo traits as an elite). 

 

Flow stabilizer grants 3 stacks of stability for 5 seconds for up to 5 comp or 10 allies PvE. 

 

Mass alacrity should become a thing in Martial Cadence imo where you can pump AoE alacrity on marching orders activation like 6 seconds of AoE alacrity. Numbers can change. 

 

This increases overall build diversity by being a core line and allows for tactics to not clash with lush forest, which needs to see its feature changed to using any ammo type skill. 

 

 

 

 

[Jzaku.9765]

11 minutes ago, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

Best ideas I've seen and come up with so far to give this spec a more interesting role are:

 

Grant offensive boons on using an armament (trait) - >swiftness 5 sec, might 3 stacks for 5 sec, Fury for 4 sec. 

 

Tactical Reload grants 1 sec of alacrity per non-ammo skill on your bar (impacting non ammo traits as an elite). 

 

Flow stabilizer grants 3 stacks of stability for 5 seconds for up to 5 comp or 10 allies PvE. 

 

Mass alacrity should become a thing in Martial Cadence imo where you can pump AoE alacrity on marching orders activation like 6 seconds of AoE alacrity. Numbers can change. 

 

This increases overall build diversity by being a core line and allows for tactics to not clash with lush forest, which needs to see its feature changed to using any ammo type skill. 

They're not going to give usable quick/alac on a core spec, because that would mean every espec on that class will be able to do it. That might sound good to a casual, "more build diversity!" but from the dev pov thats destroying possible build ideas to compartmentalize into especs. 

Which is why Warrior has banners, obviously. The reason why we got 3 DPS specs in a row.