Let's talk about Daring Dragon. (A modest proposal)

[Haywire.3495]

--PRELUDE: THE QUICK RUNDOWN--

It sucks.

 

https://i.imgur.com/E2LJWqa.png
fig.1: "I'm dumb and I have no friends and Unyielding Dragon kittened my wife."

In concept, it's the most fun and exciting of Bladesworn's tier 3 traits, offering a meaningful tradeoff that significantly changes how you use your core mechanic.  Unfortunately, theory doesn't translate to practice here- because of the way Dragon Trigger's scaling works, capping it at half charge leaves it so limp-wristed that there's no point even using it regardless of how spammable it is.  You kitten yourself so hard just by taking this trait that it has no realistic use case, even before we start talking about opportunity cost.

 

https://i.imgur.com/OfYFxWd.png
fig. 2: The obvious correct choice.

 

I propose a radical solution that will not only create a niche for a tragically shafted trait, but open up a whole new playstyle for this specialization.  Lads and ladn'ts, for your consideration... (drumroll please...)
THE CONDITION BLADESWORN.
No I'm serious hear me out.

 

--I: PUTTING THE DARE IN THE DRAGON--

Daring Dragon adds a scaling bleed to Dragon Slash.

 

https://i.imgur.com/UUmjN5H.png
Fig. 3: Imagine a particularly bloody samurai action movie.

The linear scaling of condi stacks makes more rapid usage of lower-charged Dragon Slashes a viable option, and makes it a similarly powerful burst attack for the hypothetical condition build we're setting up here.  This would also inherently mean very different playstyles for the condi and power variants of the spec.
Result: Rather than being a useless joke option, Daring dragon is now a competitive trait with a different use case than Unyielding Dragon.  The rest of Bladesworn, however, is not at all conducive to a condition build...

 

--II: ROUNDING OUT THE KIT--
Fierce as Fire adds conditions to ammo and explosion attacks, and scales off bleed application instead of ammo use.

 

https://i.imgur.com/XdypVX4.png
Fig. 4: Numbers are only loose suggestions for illustrative purposes.

Thus the condi bladesworn becomes armed.  Firstly, the gunsaber, loaded as it is with ammo and explosion attacks, becomes a potent condition weapon.  Secondly, the choices for the primary weapon open up.  The longbow- already a likely frontrunner- gets a nice buff, compensating well for the loss of its burst skill; the rifle, with plenty of ammo skills- including a multi-hit and another explosion- becomes a plausible alternative; and the pistol becomes strong enough to carry whichever main-hand you choose to pair with it.  The stacking direct-damage buff remains, but in a form that's more interactive with the rest of warrior's kit and removes the incentive to spam utility skills.
Result: Fierce as Fire remains the designated DPS trait but now serves that function for both condi and power builds, and in a more engaging and interactive way.  Yes, we're buffing a trait that's already mandatory in its role, but Unshakable Mountain and Lush Forest remain unique enough in character to have their own independent use cases outside of instanced PVE.  Now we can turn our attention to the flow-generating traits on the adept tier...

 

--III: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER--
River's Flow is reworked to instead give synergy with bleed application.

 

https://i.imgur.com/BQV5ttM.png
Fig. 5: This might also merit a name change.

A flat increase to incoming healing is boring.  A flow generation buff that might as well be passive (in conjunction with Might Makes Right) is also boring.  Instead we have a sustain amd flow generation option that, like Unseen Sword and the newly reworked Fierce as Fire, requires aggression to work; also like the newly reworked FaF, working off bleed application makes it more interactive with the rest of warrior's kit and also lets power builds work it in if they so choose.
Result: condition builds have a means of generating flow that synergizes actively with their kit, and a means of sustaining themselves that can compete with the combo of Might Makes Right and Unyielding dragon.  Power builds looking for a bit more sustain or not liking Unseen Sword for whatever reason have a plausible alternative, given that the new FaF gives them access to bleed.

 

--CONCLUSION: *uNsHeAtHeS kAtAnA*--

The condition bladesworn uses repeated Dragon Slashes to inflict large amounts of bleeding, with the potentially high damage output mitigated by the difficulty of sitting in Dragon Trigger for long periods of time.  It has access to both ranged and melee options for its primary weapon and can make effective use of the gunsaber.  It has means of generating flow and sustaining itself that tie in with other warrior options, particularly the Arms traitline.  A tragically underwhelming trait becomes the core of a competitive build that opens up a new playstyle- and all we had to do was completely overhaul two other traits!

 

Thoughts?  Additions?  Criticisms?  Scathing insults?  Let's hear 'em!

Edited September 10, 2022 by Haywire.3495

[oscuro.9720]

It’s a sound idea. I feel like that fierce as fire might be over stacked. However, I don’t really have an alternative and adding some sort of condition set to explosions would be rather important to tie together a condition build, so idk. 

As for the Adept tier, I don’t think adding more healing sources to Blade is a good idea. Granted this would reduce the shout healing slightly, but I feel it could give rise to something more kittenous. Instead, placing a condition set on Unseen Sword might be a better idea, and could help work in more cover conditions, which warrior tends to lack (I.e. When swapping weapons, apply conditions to nearby foes; blind, weakness, cripple. Gain 1 stack of positive flow). This would also start to put more high-skill aspects into blade to help raise its ceiling so it’s floor can be lowered (weapon swap to access an area blind can be used much in the same way as Core Guard F1 blind). This is really just an opinion though.

As for the actual idea with Daring Dragon, I quite like it.

All that aside, your idea may be good, but oh. My. Gosh. Your formatting is beautiful ❤️

Edited September 11, 2022 by oscuro.9720

[Haywire.3495]

Thank you for your kind words! 😁  I agree that the new FaF seems like a lot, but off the top of my head all I could think of to tone it down would be something along the lines of a reduction to the gunsaber's power damage tacked on, but that seems out of place on the designated damage trait.  I do agree that bladesworn already has a lot of access to healing, but I feel like the tradeoffs here are positioned in such away that truly abusing them would be too awkward to work well.  Putting cover conditions on Unseen Sword is certainly an interesting idea but I feel it risks overloading a trait that already has little competition; perhaps putting a similar covering condition application on a different trait in that slot would work.

[oscuro.9720]

2 minutes ago, Haywire.3495 said:

Thank you for your kind words! 😁  I agree that the new FaF seems like a lot, but off the top of my head all I could think of to tone it down would be something along the lines of a reduction to the gunsaber's power damage tacked on, but that seems out of place on the designated damage trait. 

Yea, I ran into the same issue when I was looking at it thinking it could go somewhere else, but there was really no where natural it would fit. Perhaps just removing the bleed, so it’s burn+damage increase? Or maybe it won’t be so bad since it’s just bleed, which is fairly innocuous. Or possibly swap it with vulnerability, which gives the trait more flex between power and condition builds. That was just my initial impression when seeing it. I assume the numbers are pve numbers for the durations? Because 4s burn per explosion in competitive would be much too high. 
 

Actually the more I think about how that trait would work, I like the idea of putting conditions on explosions with a trait. 
 

7 minutes ago, Haywire.3495 said:

 I do agree that bladesworn already has a lot of access to healing, but I feel like the tradeoffs here are positioned in such away that truly abusing them would be too awkward to work well.  Putting cover conditions on Unseen Sword is certainly an interesting idea but I feel it risks overloading a trait that already has little competition; perhaps putting a similar covering condition application on a different trait in that slot would work.

Rivers flow is the default trait rn in competitive modes, unseen sword is generally not great, which is why I put it there. I don’t know how it is in pve tbh. Perhaps we are looking at this from different views (I’m assuming you are looking at it from a pve perspective?), because the combination of your Rivers Flow and Daring Dragon would be very strong in competitive modes on a spec that already has insane healing. Just a difference of opinion/gameplay focus I think. The whole thing is well structured and would improve blade, regardless. If Blade’s healing wasn’t completely busted rn I would probably like the trait quite a lot.

[Haywire.3495]

Yeah, I'm mostly looking at a PVE angle with the assumption that these numbers (painstakingly obtained via rectal extraction) would be heavily adjusted for competitive modes.  As for the healing in competitive modes, it largely relies on Might Makes Right in conjunction with Unyielding Dragon and the Tactics/shouts axis, correct?  My impression is that a build running both Strength and Tactics plus my reworked traits could potentially achieve problematic levels of self-healing, but at the expense of really doing much else with the build.  I do agree that it's a potential sticking point though.

The more I think about putting some cover conditions on Unseen Sword the more I like it, but now I'm wondering if I could come up with an interesting way to do that on Swift as the Wind instead.  Hmm...