Gunsaber Needs...Less Range

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

Ok hear me out.

Gunsaber having ranged autos etc was cool up until now because rifle sucked and was not a viable weapon in its own right. But that is (hopefully) changing tomorrow. I sincerely hope that this will usher in an era of warrior's having a meaningful ranged option.

But Bladesworn will have a hard time benefiting from this (at least I competitive modes) because gunsaber is already all ranged attacks. If you take rifle as well...well, when an ele drops swirling winds or an untamed drops its green cloud thingy, you just don't get to play the game for 5-6s because all your attacks get deleted (or worse, reflected).

And it's frankly a tragedy if BS can't utilize rifle well, because there is such synergy with it and all of rifle's ammo skills.

So, some suggestions:

1) remove the ranged AAs from gunsaber. Remove the nasty aftercasts while you're at it. Boost the dmg so that it still hits as hard as it currently does (when hitting both melee and ranged component in melee range).

2) making blooming fire into a Maul-like melee attack. 240 range. Increase damage by 33% and allow each explosion to apply vulnerability.

3) reduce cast time of artillery slash to 0.5s. This becomes our main ranged attack on Gunsaber, so let's not kneecap it with such a long cast; either that, or increase the speed of the projectile so it doesn't miss so frequently.

[Jzaku.9765]

I mean yeah, I always thought making Gunsaber a ranged weapon was incredibly misguided because the root problem was that Core Warrior's ranged weapons are straight garbage. 

Still, bold of you to assume Rifle will be good after the changes. I'm on that copium myself but it's a conscious decision to breathe it in.

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

I personally like the gunsaber range because the fact that you have to root yourself to use dragon trigger will constantly put you farther away from someone who decides they want to move away from you. 

The issue remains that interacting with a bladesworn from range or in melee doesn't put any kind of significant pressure on them. I would like to fight a more interactive bladesworn, not a less interactive one. If you remove the range options, you best believe that I will make it my aim to move in the opposite direction as often as possible, and I don't think anyone wants that kind of fight. 

 

[Dahkeus.8243]

If I were king balance dev, I'd reduce the range damage of gunsaber projectiles, keep the range as it is, then decrease cast times. 

Gunsaber skills are too slow and ranged damage could be toned down as long as melee range damage remains pretty similar.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

16 minutes ago, Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

I personally like the gunsaber range because the fact that you have to root yourself to use dragon trigger will constantly put you farther away from someone who decides they want to move away from you. 

The issue remains that interacting with a bladesworn from range or in melee doesn't put any kind of significant pressure on them. I would like to fight a more interactive bladesworn, not a less interactive one. If you remove the range options, you best believe that I will make it my aim to move in the opposite direction as often as possible, and I don't think anyone wants that kind of fight. 

 

I hear you. But my proposal was to make artillery slash more useable/reliable, so you still have a solid ranged attack on Gunsaber. The idea is to make gunsaber a good "all around weapon" that works regardless of the situation. Currently it's a rifle/great sword combo that doesn't do either thing particularly well, esp bc all the ranged attacks have 900 range compared to rifle's 1200.

If the changes in the OP were made, I'd expect you'd see a lot of rifle bladesworns--initiating the fight at range and closing in with breakstep or DS2 to try to land hard-hitting BFs and autos.

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

1 hour ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

I mean yeah, I always thought making Gunsaber a ranged weapon was incredibly misguided because the root problem was that Core Warrior's ranged weapons are straight garbage. 

Still, bold of you to assume Rifle will be good after the changes. I'm on that copium myself but it's a conscious decision to breathe it in.

Yeah, we'll have to see. From a competitive perspective, the changes to brutal shot, the increased power of explosive shell, and the reduced CD of all ammo skills promises to make this a much more compelling option....provided ANet doesn't gum it up with a bunch of unnecessary aftercasts or something.

For PvE, I imagine that the biggest issue will remain lack of good cleave/AoE. Although, as long as the coeffs are high enough, it could be a reasonable option in boss fights/solo target situations, I'd imagine.

[Widebody.5071]

I love the idea of slinging explosive rounds up the derriere of a kiter while running them down. Much better then before where I had to try to get closer to them without having a means to apply pressure. Now if only they could apply that concept to a greatsword and sword of my choosing.