Warrior Update suggestions to bring our class to 2022 standards

[Kaemon.5384]

Hello everyone, I've been thinking about writing down this (WARNING: long) list of suggestions for some time now. With the Banner rework coming in a few months, while I hope ANet doesn't just murder banners and makes something useful instead of kill our class even more, I also feel like it is a good chance to rework some other things. Yeah I like to dream xd.

 

 

Some of these suggestions are not new and I think everyone would agree with them being implemented asap. Other suggestions are more personal and not everyone will like it but I'm writing them down just in case it can help the balance team brainstorm something good out of it. My suggestions are not anything special and are focused mainly on weapons; traits and utilities are mentioned in a minimum part since I think they require a bigger work. I hope ANet reads this thread and at least consider some of these changes.

 

 

Greatsword

1. Autoattack (Skill 1): now it hits 5 targets up from 3.

So we have this giant sword with slow swings and a skillset that excels in AoE attacks. Why is this thing not hitting 5 targets? In sPvP and PvE this is hardly a problem balance-wise, while in WvW where this change would matter the most, remember that you have to be in melee in order to hit literally anything with this slow af attack, and dealing damage in melee in WvW is not exactly the simplest thing to do. And that's without even considering Blind-spam and condi-spam in general. So again, why is this 3 targets still?

 

2. Hunder Blades (Skill 2): now it's 10% faster and hits 5 targets up from 3.

This is a revert from an old nerf that didn't make sense back in the day and now is makes things even worse with the general state of the class. Its numbers are lower than Axe 5 that hits 5 targets in 360° and allows you to move, why is this self-rooting cone skill not allowed to hit 5 targets again? Also the 10% animation speed increase is to make it a bit more responsive and feel better to use.

 

3. Whirlwind Attack (Skill 3): cast-time removed and now it's instant cast.

This is not the first time someone proposes this change. This skill is an evade, why does it have a cast time? Bring it to 2022 standards.

 

4. Bladetrail (Skill 4): projectile speed increased by 15%.

Again, more responsiveness.

 

5. Arcing Slice (F1): now it's 10% faster and uses Arc Divider animation.

Faster animation to make it feel closer to Arc Divider which is an amazing burst and one of the most satisfying skills to use. On the other hand, the Arc Divider animation is a more personal request based on my taste, I mean, my charr looks like it has a stick in his kitten whenever I cast Arcing Slice so yeah it would be nice xd. Feel free to ignore it if you don't agree.

 

Longbow

1. General: all the projectiles are now 10% faster to increase responsiveness.

I think this is needed overall to not make using this weapon feel like kitten in general. Again the "bring it to 2022 standards" argument.

 

2. Arcing Arrow (Skill 3): projectile is now 25% faster.

Now THIS in particular is especially painful. I think it's the worst AoE skill in the game simply because of how slow it is to hit. Especially in PvP modes it's a joke. I'm ok with Warrior not being awesome in ranged scenarios but this is too much.

 

Rifle

1. Autoattack: (Skill 1): decreased cast-time to make it more responsive.

Self-explanatory. I didn't put a % because I feel like some fine testing is needed to not make it too much. Remember it applies Might on vulnerable targets.

 

2. Volley (Skill 2): now its channel is 20% faster.

This is again another old suggestion. Just do it it's not like you are gonna break the game or something.

 

3. Explosive Shell (Skill 3): now it's instant-cast.

Cast time makes this skill difficult to use in a bad way. It has an AoE-cone that hits targets behind the main target, which is a nice feature but hard to take advantage of because of the cast time. This skill also applies Vulnerability, without the cast time this skill would flow a lot better with the rest of the skillset.

 

4. Rifle Butt (Skill 5): replaced with something useful.

I didn't think of what could possibly replace this skill yet but one thing I know is that if someone gets close to me I don't want to push it back, I'm a Warrior kitten, I just take axes out and slice the poor soul in pieces. Also if for some reason I don't want to get close, Brutal Shot (Skill 4) is good enough to help me get out of trouble. This skill is useless and redundant.

 

5. Kill Shot (F1): now you can move while channeling it.

Something something 2022 standards... Please at least put this in the game and allow me to move without feeling like I'm actively punishing myself for using this skill.

 

Sword

1. Final Thrust (Skill 3): cast-time halved; damage increase threshold lowered to 30% down from 50%; now its cooldown is halved whenever a foe below the health threshold is hit.

With these changes we actually get some more gameplay and decision-making out of this skill. You can still use it as an opener in condi builds, but now on power builds you actually get some reward from using it correctly. It also strenghtens the Sword identity as a hybrid weapon.

 

2. Impale (Skill 4): now inflicts Bleed instead of Torment; now inflicts Slow.

This change makes the condition damage from the Sword more easily cleansable in exchange of having Slow. Having Slow strenghtens the purpose of this skill as a tool to catch and cripple foes that are far from you. It also gives Warrior the access to a new condition that we can barely apply right now.

 

3. Riposte (Skill 5): now inflicts Slow; stacks of Bleed applied lowered to 4 down from 8.

Here we trade-off a bit of damage to have more access to Slow, making off-hand sword a stronger duelist weapon.

 

4. Flurry (F1): now you can move while channeling it.

I mean this doesn't need explanation it's a kittening meme at this point xd. Maybe add some block/evade/parry or something to it too to make it better since even with this change it is still a bad burst skill.

 

Pistol

Pistol is a missed opportunity on multiple levels. One simple thing that many are asking is making it a main-hand weapon. So here we go...

 

1. General: Pistol is now a main-hand weapon. Skill 4 and Skill 5 are now Skill 2 and Skill 3. Its autoattack is now a projectile that bounces 3 times from the main target to other secondary targets nearby. Damage numbers and cooldowns adjusted accordingly with the change.

Like Thief shortbow! Now we too have our ranged-tagging toy for PvE events. I mean, Warrior is one of the worst farmers, with this we would not have this problem anymore. Also Pistol main-hand means Pistol/Shield, Pistol/Warhorn etc...

 

Gunsaber

I'm not gonna say anything special here since I don't like Bladesworn as a class and I didn't play it enough to say anything meaningful about it. Anything except one thing...

 

1. General: Gunsaber now replaces completely one of your weapon sets. Using your weapon swap button, both in combat and out of combat, will switch to and from it to your other remaining set. Dragon Trigger is moved to F1.

This change is to make the button-pressing between other specs more consistent and less clunky. F1 should be the big hit, always. I don't want to use F1 to weapon swap, I don't have a third option anyway so I don't understand why ANet didn't just put Gunsaber as a permanent weapon set. This I think should be implemented asap as a fix tbh.

 

Hammer and Mace

Hammer is bad overall, it has no purpose in PvE, and now in PvP modes it's useless because of the damage nerf on CC. Mace, while not being as dead as Hammer, is in the same boat. At this point it's clear that ANet likes the CC change and won't revert it, even if it hurts Warrior more than other classes. I don't think that ANet would make Warrior the exception giving us back the damage in all the skills, so the only thing that ANet can do right now for the Hammer is to repurpose it and make it a condi weapon with some CC. Fill its skills with Confusion maybe? Mace could also receive some love too in that sense.

In the meantime, I think a compromise can be reached...

 

1. Earthshaker and Skull Crack (Hammer F1 and Mace F1): now deal damage again in PvP and WvW.

Bladesworn can deal kitten damage AND stun people at the same time thanks to a trait. Berserker deals damage still with the Primal Bursts versions while inflicting Daze. I mean it's not like it's not in the game already. Just be consisent and give these two skills its damage back, burst skills should be impactful, it feels wrong to hit single digit damage with a hammerstun or a kittening mace hitting your head deep in your brain.

 

Utilities

I don't have many suggestions here, there's too much work to be done, too many utilities that are underwhelming or straight useless. I'll just propose changes to what I feel like are the worst offenders.

 

1. Healing Signet: active effect now heals for 5320 health up from 2320.

Ok ANet, you think having 344 passive healing from this signet in PvP and WvW is a problem for the balance of the game, yet you allow Bladesworn shout build to exist and you even buffed it and you also allow other classes to passively heal even more than what our old signet did back in the day. But ok, I don't want to argue with that and I'm not going to suggest a revert of the nerf even if I'd like to have my old signet back. What you could do instead, is to give its active counterpart an increase in healing to not feel like a wasted slot and make it a bit more interactive. Cmon ANet devs you too know that it's useless as it is right now.

 

2. Winds of Disenchantment (Spellbreaker Elite): now the bubble follows your character again.

If you are not gonna revert the nerf and leave it as it is in this useless state, at least give us back this. Let the bubble follow me, it's not that powerful anymore but if it can follow me it can have a purpose still while also being again less clunky to use and more satisfying. It also would make it a bit more viable in sPvP. This change in particular should be put in the March 29 balance patch, as the nerf destroyed Warrior's WvW viability and we are risking months of nothingness.

 

 

Again, I hope ANet reads this and at least takes some idea for future work. Also ANet please don't murder us with the banner rework, right now banners are the only thing that keeps us afloat in PvE meta. We are already a meme, please give Warrior some love. And please do something about WoD in March 29 patch. PLEASE!

 

 

If something is not clear sorry I'm not an english native speaker.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Kaemon.5384
typo

[Fueki.4753]

Your ideas generally seem nice, but I don't agree with trade-off nerfs like your Riposte idea. In it's current iteration - and even with all your ideas implemented - playing Warrior already is the trade off.

Also, I don't like your idea of the not-a-sabre replacing weapon swap. Arenanet simply needs to enable weapon swap in combat. Necromancer, Reaper, Harmbinger, Spectre, Holosmith and Firebrand all can swap weapons/kits in combat while having superior F-abilities, so it's only fair for Junksworn to also have weapon swap enabled.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[Zekent.3652]

GUNSABER: Should've been built based on ranger's GS standars.
ARMAMENTS: Needed better things, but the elite and heal are 👌.

On pvp: it's almost nothing without tactics, lacks of constant damaging pressure.
On wvw: unless for roam, no.
On pve: almost everything on pve is good, this spec is good on pve until you loose a massive chunk of damage for a missing dragon slash.