Do you think they will give some love to Sword?

[Demonhead.7584]

After seeing the recent hotfix mention updates to core class weapons, namely a review of their damage output, am I alone in hoping that they will give sword some love?

They seem to not mind re-working the use/usability of auto-attacks and the AA chains, so I am hoping (although not holding my breath) that Sword may get a minor rework or buff. It hits a little like a wet-noodle outside of the stealth-attack (and certainly looks like one when using s/p 3 lol)

Edited July 5, 2022 by Demonhead.7584

[SoftPup.3048]

Please please please please. I want to use a cool rapier or maybe work on The Shining Blade but its worthless on Thief outside of (maybe?) PvP.

[Stx.4857]

I hope they do.  I still play with mainly sword because I'm stubborn, but yeah the dps sucks.

[ZeroTheRuler.7415]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:27 PM, Emilie.8193 said:

Please please please please. I want to use a cool rapier or maybe work on The Shining Blade but its worthless on Thief outside of (maybe?) PvP.

100% it needs the ranger treatment.

PS. The shining blade is a awesome legendary. Actually I was making it and had everything for it, then switched to nevermore at the last minute lol... It is sitting in the bank 50% done right now.

[Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497]

On 7/1/2022 at 9:34 AM, Demonhead.7584 said:

After seeing the recent hotfix mention updates to core class weapons, namely a review of their damage output, am I alone in hoping that they will give sword some love?

They seem to not mind re-working the use/usability of auto-attacks and the AA chains, so I am hoping (although not holding my breath) that Sword may get a minor rework or buff. It hits a little like a wet-noodle outside of the stealth-attack (and certainly looks like one when using s/p 3 lol)

 

They guttered daggers auto-chain saying bit was something like 16% damage reduction. But its only 16 if you could land the last hit of the full chain. In reality the damage was much worse, nearly thirty percent, as you realistically will only land one or two on another player. Their reason was thiefs relied too much on the auto attack and wanted them to use their weapon skills more. Meanwhile... They did nothing to encourage us to use the weapon skills more which is still on a tight resource. Never mind that most of thiefs weapon skills on melee weapons ARE NOT designed for damage.

 

I highly doubt they are going to do anything reasonable or kind.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by Leo Schrodingers Cat.2497

[Nyel.1843]

Fairly new to Thief and I found the Sword to be terrible. What exactly is its use case?

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

11 minutes ago, Nyel.1843 said:

Fairly new to Thief and I found the Sword to be terrible. What exactly is its use case?

Noob stomping by teleporting back and forth, basically. Its useless against veteran players, and its useless in PvE (beyond the cleanse) because confusing monsters has no effect.

 

Spectre does get some group healing out of it but its very small.

 

The evade and boonsteal variant is at least somewhat useful in some encounters, but there's other classes that do a much better job at that task in groups.

Edited July 7, 2022 by Hannelore.8153

[kash.9213]

6 hours ago, Nyel.1843 said:

Fairly new to Thief and I found the Sword to be terrible. What exactly is its use case?

Infiltrators Strike has reach but can also reach different levels of terrain. 

Tactical Strike is good utility in front or from behind.

Flanking Strike leads to a boon rip which takes an entire stack instead of just the base boon. Flanking Strike is also a nice evade which can be directed however you want if you de-target or toggle to action cam if you want to hold your target, just get used to angling your camera to keep it's turn wide or tight. 

Dagger or pistol with it brings good utility. 

Auto can feel like fighting through mud in a bad dream though and no Fields to work with and no leap or blast for Black Powder if you take pistol off hand. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by kash.9213

[LyraOrpheo.8450]

I've always thought S/D and S/P #3 dual attacks were backwards. S/D should've been a flurry of dual blade attacks while S/P should've been a *teleports behind you and shoots you*

That aside, I can't imagine they will since Sword's primarily a weapon favored by PvP where its pretty strong. Maybe the PvE only values for Pistol Whip so its burst damage and sustain can be comparable to other spammy Power builds like power mechanist, but from a design point of view Flanking Strike's not a good PvE skill.

Edit: Another skill I'd like to see upgraded is Shadow Strike, call it Arsonist or Saboteur Shot where it works the same way except at the start the thief drops a molotov cocktail into the floor and creates a 150ish fire field which applies modest burning, plus any more from repeater or your autos's projectile combo finisher

Edited July 7, 2022 by LyraOrpheo.8450

[Mincsk.6028]

16 hours ago, Nyel.1843 said:

Fairly new to Thief and I found the Sword to be terrible. What exactly is its use case?

Blink around like a gnat to annoy things attacking you. I used sword to catch running targets for my team to dps because sword gives such little damage you need another player to dps the target after you catch it. Don't bother w/thief imo devs ignore buffs for it and constantly nerf it.

[Jugglemonkey.8741]

Sword dagger can do decent damage in WvW if you take critical strikes, but with the shadow arts changes it would be insane not to run that line and most builds dont have room for both. Acro needs a serious rework to support the set, and it could really do with some of it's auto attack damage being restored along with dagger. That change never made much sense to me. 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Jugglemonkey.8741

[Infinity.2876]

I've been playing sword dagger daredevil in pve and spvp (2v2) after the patch and it works better than staff somehow. I will be investigating this further.

 

Here is the build Link

Stealth attack is nice if you can hit from behind

3 does everything

2 does everything else

5 is ok if you can land it

Boon rip, condition damage, soft and hard cc, evade, stealth,(all without the dodges) what more do you want?

P.s.

The dual wield even positions you for the stealth attack

Edited July 9, 2022 by Infinity.2876

[Dante.1508]

I doubt it they are too obsessed with their firebrand metas..

[Warkind.6745]

S/D acro is still a beast in WvW.  A lot of people don't know what to do with a thief that doesn't need to stealth, and you can really chunk someone by pairing mug with larcenous strike. 

[Dagger.2035]

It’s fine in PvP.  It just needs a coefficient bump in PvE.