1 handed sword

[Sansar.1302]

The mecanical changes to sword made the weapon realy bad and useless 

It is hard  to get a-net to revert changes but this is a must, ranger had as it where few usable weapons then they mecanicaly nerf one of them it intoo the ground.

[Downstate.4697]

It was always useless as the orginal design was based on you running a build where your pet did all the damage.

[Sansar.1302]

4 hours ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

It was always useless as the orginal design was based on you running a build where your pet did all the damage.

I find that not true at all, yes it did/dont have any burst but the sustaind dmg where decent.

Now with having to use the jump back skill to acces the evade its totaly useless

[Teratus.2859]

I like Sword but I agree with the Serpent Strike change.

 

The old skill kit was worse though imo, having the leap attack locked behind a retreat strike.
The better change would have been to keep Serpent Strike on the 3 skill and put Hornet Sting after Monarch's Leap instead.

 

[Sansar.1302]

1 hour ago, Teratus.2859 said:

I like Sword but I agree with the Serpent Strike change.

 

The old skill kit was worse though imo, having the leap attack locked behind a retreat strike.
The better change would have been to keep Serpent Strike on the 3 skill and put Hornet Sting after Monarch's Leap instead.

 

 

I find that i actualy never need the leap in that way , i mainly used it to leap into healing spring (and the backward leap where important for my melle ranger to actualy reposition to leap into the healing spring where i also blasted it with wh5)

by these changes they also managed to nerf healing sping in a big way for me to the point that i never use it 

 

[Teratus.2859]

3 hours ago, Sansar.1302 said:

 

I find that i actualy never need the leap in that way , i mainly used it to leap into healing spring (and the backward leap where important for my melle ranger to actualy reposition to leap into the healing spring where i also blasted it with wh5)

by these changes they also managed to nerf healing sping in a big way for me to the point that i never use it 

 

I use it all the time, partially as a mobility tool but mostly for combo field effects.

I mainly run a LB and Sw/Ax combo on my main and it's a little weak in the CC department at times so I often use Sword 2 to leap into my electric wyverns F2 lightning field to trigger an extra daze CC.

Handy for solo playing which is where I mostly spend my time.

[kharmin.7683]

In what format?  I run sword/dagger on my core ranger main in OWPvE and have no issues with it.  Coupled with the tiger pet F2, it's not terribly bad for melee.  Works pretty well with my untamed, too, in melee swapping back and forth from leashed to unleashed.

 

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

9 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

In what format?  I run sword/dagger on my core ranger main in OWPvE and have no issues with it.  Coupled with the tiger pet F2, it's not terribly bad for melee.  Works pretty well with my untamed, too, in melee swapping back and forth from leashed to unleashed.

 

Except it doesn't work well with Untamed. At least, not in serious content.

 

OWPvE is a very different beast from any other PvE mode- dungeons, strikes, fractals, raids. There are a lot of things that work even if the design is bad compared to instanced PvE. The buffs to it were nice, but for a modern day MMO it doesn't work out well, and needs a rework. Just like almost everything else ranger has.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Ah 1H Sword...

I'll fight for the old way back because to me sword is primarily kiting weapon (like Staff). 

So, retreat => leap was very helpful because you could kite easily this way, either double retreat, or feigning retreat.  Having serpent strike on a separate key was also useful because you didn't have to engage to do it--you could evade at any point.  Finally, I liked the lock on effect (despite sometimes yeeting off cliffs), because it essentially allowed chasing without any extra skill usage, and also had very good damage potential.

Now sword is pretty messed up, because you have to engage to do anything useful with it.  Have to engage to get serpent strike and have to engage to get the CD on hornet sting.  Problem is now the latent flaws are glaring.  Hornet sting has always been bad, but before was less glaring to me as was just a toggle that had a more useful component, not an entirely separate skill.  Making it a dedicated skill, it needs to do more.  Damage on sword has always been bad as well, but with the sticky aspect it was useable--now it's bad because of how the animation works.

Essentially tldr; sword originally was meant as a defensive weapon so there never should be an offensive leap as the first component of any skill; and if it has been changed to be offensive it needs offensive tools (like gs block).  Since anet seems to want everyone to do everything, may be a case for Aegis somewhere here.

[Zyreva.1078]

1 hour ago, Gotejjeken.1267 said:

Ah 1H Sword...

I'll fight for the old way back because to me sword is primarily kiting weapon (like Staff). 

So, retreat => leap was very helpful because you could kite easily this way, either double retreat, or feigning retreat.

You can still do all those things. Mobility has actually improved, because you aren't forced to use garbage hornet sting (which roots you in place and ends up being not worth using for mobility ever since it isn't affected by movement speed anymore) in oder to access your mobility skill.

Quote

Have to engage to get serpent strike and have to engage to get the CD on hornet sting.

You don't have to actually land sword 2 to access serpent strike and cd reset on hornet sting didn't exist prior to the changes, so it's hardly a nerf even if you don't land it.  Ofc it is still not that great to not have the evades aviable on demand, but the weapon always had it's issues. I actually prefer the current state over the old version (and i used it a lot back then, so it's not like i didn't know how to use it). It's mainly sword3 that's could need some improvement. But overall it is still a solid weapon that is viable in many different builds.

(Unfortunately it has fallen off in PvE since anet had to ruin the near perfect mh weapon balance ranger had by making axe the go to weapon for everything).

 

Edited July 19, 2022 by UmbraNoctis.1907

[Gotejjeken.1267]

1 hour ago, UmbraNoctis.1907 said:

You can still do all those things. Mobility has actually improved, because you aren't forced to use garbage hornet sting (which roots you in place and ends up being not worth using for mobility ever since it isn't affected by movement speed anymore) in oder to access your mobility skill.

You don't have to actually land sword 2 to access serpent strike and cd reset on hornet sting didn't exist prior to the changes, so it's hardly a nerf even if you don't land it.  Ofc it is still not that great to not have the evades aviable on demand, but the weapon always had it's issues. I actually prefer the current state over the old version (and i used it a lot back then, so it's not like i didn't know how to use it). It's mainly sword3 that's could need some improvement. But overall it is still a solid weapon that is viable in many different builds.

(Unfortunately it has fallen off in PvE since anet had to ruin the near perfect mh weapon balance ranger had by making axe the go to weapon for everything).

 

 

Yeah, think it's just backward now to me. 

Basically, I don't want to engage on a weapon with no defensive skills outside of kiting; which even means serpent strike, it was nice before just to use it as an evade without having to leap somewhere first (as the leap is easy to interrupt).  

I wouldn't mind the leap / engage being first if they add something to it defense-wise.  Because at the moment the only reasonable defense is into smoke field, otherwise feel like you're going to have to switch off to gs or something if in melee range (speaking competitively).  

Essentially (pulling out the way WAY back machine here), I miss this:

 

Not only was the game obviously far more balanced, sword just WORKED.  For me at least.  I loved the original iteration of the weapon =(.  

[kharmin.7683]

23 hours ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Except it doesn't work well with Untamed. At least, not in serious content.

 

OWPvE is a very different beast from any other PvE mode- dungeons, strikes, fractals, raids. There are a lot of things that work even if the design is bad compared to instanced PvE. The buffs to it were nice, but for a modern day MMO it doesn't work out well, and needs a rework. Just like almost everything else ranger has.

That's why I asked.  🙂

I guess YMMV, but I was running Sw/D on core ranger prior to untamed and have found untamed to be better with this weapon combination than core, for the ability to unleash and re-leash with the pet.  In both builds (core/untamed), I have high interaction with my pet(s) which I feel are complimented will with Sw/D in melee.  Perhaps those who find it less useful aren't using the pet skills during combat as much as I am?  Dunno.

No, I don't engage with high end content (fractal/raid/SM) so yeah, it works well for me in what I do.  I'll have to accept your word on it being not as viable in "serious" content.

No argument with ranger needing a rework/overhaul.  I would only worry that Anet would make things worse by doing so.

[RainbowTurtle.3542]

34 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

I guess YMMV, but I was running Sw/D on core ranger prior to untamed and have found untamed to be better with this weapon combination than core, for the ability to unleash and re-leash with the pet.  In both builds (core/untamed), I have high interaction with my pet(s) which I feel are complimented will with Sw/D in melee.  Perhaps those who find it less useful aren't using the pet skills during combat as much as I am?  Dunno.

Pet skills in instanced content (at least damaging ones, things like ilboga f2 arent) are currently spammed for alac untamed builds. Sword just isn't great because for instanced content you need to spam CC for Fervent Force (which is why condi alac untamed even has an axe/axe hammer build, more CC to spam sharpening stone with).

[kharmin.7683]

14 minutes ago, RainbowTurtle.3542 said:

Pet skills in instanced content (at least damaging ones, things like ilboga f2 arent) are currently spammed for alac untamed builds. Sword just isn't great because for instanced content you need to spam CC for Fervent Force (which is why condi alac untamed even has an axe/axe hammer build, more CC to spam sharpening stone with).

Thanks for that insight! 🙂

[anduriell.6280]

No thank you. I agree new sword feels bland but the locking-leap in autoattack was so annoying to deal with. Anet just needed to fix the leap within the AA, that the only problem. 

Current design is not bad either. It needs to fix the AA chain so all attacks cleave 3 targets thou, anet devs in their custom of doing only half of what was promised. 

So it is a no way Jose to revert to the old nightmare. 

[enkeny.6937]

I like the sword, (PvE,) but I don't think it is good, that using #2 #3 skills is lowering the dps. Especially Monarch's Leap, it is only useful for gap closing.
Ok, they have evade and defensive, but...
After reading the "gameplay standards": 
"One of these standards is that your #2 skill should be damage-positive if possible- something you want to use whenever it is available as a regular part of your gameplay." 
well, rangers usually don't get standards.