Review: QuickSworn

[Rishnock.6230]

Hello. I got pink Diviner's Armor, and rather than get 2 pink trinkets I was able to use my purple backpiece and neck. Here is the updated build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PKgEcEWWKji5x6Yu44LVFfB-zRZYBBZtFFIE4IhLsMioASPBUbW2dbD-e

 

Changes to rotation:

• You cannot open with banners. You have to get some flow first, and load a single charge into Dragon Slash in order to cash in on soldier's focus. 
• Combat Stimulant can be used to re-align your banner CDs so they don't come off CD while in Dragon Trigger.

 

I was able to test this on the special forces training golem with the following settings:

• Average Enemy
• Conditions on Golem: All
• Boons on Self: Alacrity, Quickness, Might, Fury, Swiftness, Regen, Resistance

 

Results:

• Average DPS of 16.5k, with the first 20% of the test benefitting from Warrior's Cunning.

 

 

In addition, I tested how the rotation is affected by a drop in Alacrity. The rotation becomes very clunky, as it is relying on Tactical Reload to come off CD at the right moment during the Gunsaber phase. There's really no getting around that you cannot keep up quickness if you don't have Alacrity.

 

You can slightly alleviate the clunkiness without Alacrity by casting Combat Stimulant twice before swapping to ax. You may also have to camp Gunsaber every other cycle to get an extra Blooming Fire (if you do it every cycle you risk running your flow dry). Also, without Alacrity the clever use of Signet of Fury for flow is held back because you can't get the passive back up in time for the Axe/Warhorn Dragon Slash.

 

Comments:

In a vacuum, the rotation is fun and fluid while under the effects of Alacrity. But I must point to the fact that it isn't in a vacuum:

• I needed to get a full set of armor, 2 trinkets, runes, a sigil, special food, special utility item to enable this build. From a philosophical standpoint, this is fine if the Quickness role is something that is to be leaned into - generally you have to build a character for their specialization. 
• Still, I tested my Harbinger. In full Viper's, Sigil of Malice, Sigil of Demons, Runes of Nightmare, I only needed to swap 2 traits to get full quickness uptime. I don't have to go on a mission to re-gear..
• On top of this, my Harbinger can pull 22k DPS while Quicking under the same golem conditions, compared to the QuickSworn's 16.5k. The QuickSworn is not competitive with currently existing classes and needs to be brought to the same level, or all Quick specs brought to some middle ground.
• My personal take-away, though, is that Firebrand, Harbinger, Mirage, and all other classes that can function as a boon-support should be made to go on a re-gear quest. Harbinger's shroud talent needs an uptime nerf such that they need ~6 pieces of ritualist gear and a trinket, just like this build. In addition, there should be more "Rune of the Firebrand" like runes (and numbers adjusted accordingly) as options for condition Quickers, because Ritualist has less concentration on it than Diviner's.

 

The QuickSworn is held back a bit because of the 5% drop in crit chance from the previous patch. It is most likeley that Anet will add this back into Discipline, leaving this as a pain-point that will likely stick around, but I cannot use a Sigil of Force, nor can I choose to take more Berserker's or Dragon's gear if I desire.

 

The previous patch also eliminated the damage component from Warhorn 4, which could have been used to make Dragon Slash do 25% more damage on the Axe/Warhorn phase. If this was added back in, I estimate the 16.5k going to 17.5k. Even still, Warhorn's damage was only competitive before because a Dragon Slash could hit for 160,000 - 180,000 in a full Berserker build, while in this build it would only hit for 130,000. Not that I wouldn't want to see a damage component on Warhorn come back, but I would much rather be using Pistol or Axe and it's hurting DPS significantly.

 

The amount of Quickness Duration on skills missed the mark a bit: 

• Warhorn in particular - with Tactics and not Discipline, it cannot be used more than once every 20 seconds anyways even with CDR or Alacrity. The 10% base Quickness is incredibly tiny for having to throw away Pistol or Axe.
• Banners are an obvious pain point. Even as boring Quick-Sticks, they only give between 8% and 8.33%, multiplied by (1 + Boon Duration). I'm trying to manage my CDR for a measly 14.5% Quickness per banner. The banner trait is still in Discipline, but I don't think the build wants to throw away a trait since it's not competitive as is. It would also be nice if I could take a second utility instead of a banner, but maybe I say that because banners are like Scrapper gyros except they take a long time to cast and don't actually have any flavor. 
• Martial Cadence works decently well imo. It gives the build something to think about. Still, I miss the 3 second CDR it gave, especially since now the entire build revolves around CDR. If it had the CDR still, the Alacrity problem would be fixed, and banners would have more Quickness uptime. 

 

More thoughts on CDR and the mandatory Alacrity problem: 

 

Another way to help with the Alacrity problem would be to provide a source of self-Alacrity. One option is Combat Stimulant's second use. Right now it can be used to mitigate Quickness downtime for the Warrior, but it doesn't help with giving Quickness to allies and doesn't help with getting Tactical Reload at the right time. If Combat Stimulant did 5 sec of Quick as well as 5 seconds of Alac, it would help.

 

There's also the fact that you can only get 1 Throw Axe CDR per Axe/Warhorn cycle. The CD is 10 seconds, and you have 6.75 seconds max (minus animation time) where you can be in Axe/Warhorn. You'd need Alac as well as 2 CDRs to barely squeeze it in with animation time. I don't think this extra CDR would really buy a new break-point, (maybe a tiny bit more quickness out of banners), but it's kind of noticeable in the gameplay since you're on the hunt for cashing in CDRs.

 

Thoughts on other Warrior specs:

 

Bladesworn is the only of the 3 Elite Specs that gets CDR, so power quickness kind of has to be relegated to it alone. I think people wanted to be able to Quickness regardless of which Elite Spec they chose, since only like 1/3 of warrior fans actually like Bladesworn. If the design philosophy here is that an Elite Spec needs to enable boon uptime, like Lush Forest's CDR, then Spellbreaker and Berserker should have something that lets their their Power variants enable Quickness uptime too. Condi-Quickness-Zerker can use Rune of the Firebrand along with Ritualist gear, but the base Quickness on skills is still a bit abysmal and you need full ritualist (I haven't tested though, I'd need to go on another gearing odyssey).

 

Discipline would be a good place to put CDR. Considering all Warrior Elite specs are gonna want (Arms/Strength) + (Tactics) for quickness, as that's where Martial Cadence resides, Base Warrior can use Strength/Tactics/Discipline as a quickness option. Idk if people want that though. And of course, CDR isn't the only way to enable boon uptime.

Edited July 5, 2022 by Rishnock.6230
Typos and Formatting

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I've been doing a 100% BD build on my warrior using Arms/Tact/Discipline. Opening with TTL/Signet of Fury if I don't have offense protocol up, otherwise I just dive in.  Cadence + Heighted Focus works fine for solo quickness uptime. Cavalier Runes/celerity sigils too if playing solo OW work good too.

But yeah, in a group setting you'll need a banner or two for AoE uptime. IMHO what needs to happen is for Soldier's Focus to be deleted. Make Marching Orders just give 3 Might in an AoE on burst use. Soldier's Focus should have no CD, but halve the base heal and double the scaling and proc off of USING a burst not HITTTING with it. Martial Cadence should then give 1s of quickness based on tier of adrenaline used (NOT ON HIT) with no CD. That would let it exist on its own as a quickness/heal support without having to shoehorn quickness into banners. Banners can then be worked properly to supplemental support (either as facet style buffs, or as kits like tomes/weapon kits/conjures with revamped support skills unique to each banner, but with said banners only existing one at a time in that they not longer become placeable objects)

[Jzaku.9765]

Even if they made Warrior easily upkeep quickness, it's irrelevant because you're competing for the same slot on the team as Firebrand which Warrior cannot possibly hope to compete with.

The sheer amount of carry potential and utility Guardian(extended by Firebrand) has completely blows any of the other quickness providing classes out of the water. You can look at the play rates on GW2 Wingman to see the full grim story: https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/popularity

Firebrand outstrips every other quickness providing spec in every area so much so that the play rate for Firebrand is higher than the play rate of every other quickness spec combined.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

At face value, sure. But if Tactics were made into a easy heal/quick/might support role relying on using the Burst, then Banners could be reworked into support kits themselves. Things very much like Tomes in effectiveness, then you have something that can compete with Firebrand/HAM.

[Rishnock.6230]

6 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

The sheer amount of carry potential and utility Guardian(extended by Firebrand) has completely blows any of the other quickness providing classes out of the water. You can look at the play rates on GW2 Wingman to see the full grim story: https://gw2wingman.nevermindcreations.de/popularity

Firebrand outstrips every other quickness providing spec in every area so much so that the play rate for Firebrand is higher than the play rate of every other quickness spec combined.

 

Disclaimer: I'm a PvE player, so forgive me if I neglect thinking about open world, WvW, or PvP. 

 

To your point, my desire for the game as a whole is that the Alac Boon Support and the Quick Boon Support role be specialized roles that several classes can fit into. If QuickBrand and HealBrand are dominating in those roles, they should be nerfed tremendously to make room for competition. Other people want new QuickWarrior to fit into the current version of the game, but I don't think that's healthy because current Firebrand and other competitors like Harbinger are not in a healthy state, imo. I don't want to be able to [kitten] out 100% Quickness uptime and 25 might stacks to the team without physically having to spec and gear the character for it. I also want providing boons to the team to feel impactful, so if you aren't doing your role as effectively as you could be, you'd feel it (without it being too punishing).

 

I really like Heal Scrapper, because you have an entire gameplay loop dedicated to getting might up on allies, and you don't just press a button for insta-25 might or generate it by auto-attacking/performing your standard DPS rotation. I think that's healthy, and it means there is actual gameplay associated with the Boon Support side of that class. That is to say, I like the IDEA that this QuickSworn build must alter their rotation entirely in order to provide Quickness. I don't dislike the build, but its numbers are just not up to par with the current iteration of the game.

[Rishnock.6230]

15 hours ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Soldier's Focus should have no CD, but halve the base heal and double the scaling and proc off of USING a burst not HITTTING with it. Martial Cadence should then give 1s of quickness based on tier of adrenaline used (NOT ON HIT) with no CD. That would let it exist on its own as a quickness/heal support without having to shoehorn quickness into banners. Banners can then be worked properly to supplemental support (either as facet style buffs, or as kits like tomes/weapon kits/conjures with revamped support skills unique to each banner, but with said banners only existing one at a time in that they not longer become placeable objects)

 

Removing the CD on Soldier's Focus is interesting. But coming from the Bladesworn perspective, it'd just mean that running Dragonspike Mine is more effective than managing CDR, so your rotation would just be the standard DPS rotation. 

However, some traits in the game change based on what elite spec you are running. Dhuumfire for necro, for example, changes total burning time and internal CD depending on if you are Scourge or Harbinger or not. If Soldier's Focus's 10 sec ICD was only on Bladesworn,  it'd keep QuickSworn interesting while enabling core Warrior and Berserker.

 

Also, if there was still 1 banner that provided quickness after the re-work at double the current uptime, the above build would be able to still utilize its CDR strat. Ideally, the build would only need 1 banner though and then can run a second utility.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

7 minutes ago, Rishnock.6230 said:

 

Removing the CD on Soldier's Focus is interesting. But coming from the Bladesworn perspective, it'd just mean that running Dragonspike Mine is more effective than managing CDR, so your rotation would just be the standard DPS rotation. 

However, some traits in the game change based on what elite spec you are running. Dhuumfire for necro, for example, changes total burning time and internal CD depending on if you are Scourge or Harbinger or not. If Soldier's Focus's 10 sec ICD was only on Bladesworn,  it'd keep QuickSworn interesting while enabling core Warrior and Berserker.

 

Also, if there was still 1 banner that provided quickness after the re-work at double the current uptime, the above build would be able to still utilize its CDR strat. Ideally, the build would only need 1 banner though and then can run a second utility.

Imo, if Lan's suggestion of Banners being a defensive and offensive proc don't go through, you can easily put some Quickness as part of Banner of Strength's active skill (I would call those skills 'Inspire!'). Then you get Superspeed in Discipline as well as Fury, BoD and BoT remain defensive and Elite retains the finisher/rally.