The new Alacrity Bladesworn is missing CC capability

[Fractal Spoon.9280]

As the build currently stands, it does only provide damage and one boon.

While I assume we will get staff as a support weapon to allow for healing options, that won't fix the inherent CC problem it has.

The dps variant of the build relies on the CC that is baked into the grandmaster trait Unyielding Dragon to do provide any meaningful CC and the Alacrity build, which is supposed to be a support build, is now forced into the exact same playstyle but does not have access to that.

My suggestion is making the CC aspect (and ONLY the CC part) of Unyielding Dragon baseline or at least adding it to Daring Dragon, so that Bladesworn will be able to provide meaningful cc as a support.
Even if it only would make a dragonslash cause 250 breakbar damage instead of the 500 that you get on the full dps build (because of the shorter charging time) it would already be a big improvement over its current state.

*edit for clarification:
Bladesworn has 200CC on the Gunsaber on a 30s CD and another 232 on Cartridges, on a slightly higher CD (30-40) (which could be swapped out with Bulls Charge (300CC) , for about 2k dps loss).
Swapping out another skill out such as Dragonspike Mine or Flow Stabilizer comes at a huge dps cost and makes for a non-viable dps build compared to other dps alacs.

Now lets compare this with other alacrity specs:
- On Specter you have free access to Basilisk Venom and Pistol offhand, which is easily 1000CC on a short CD
- On Renegade you have Staff 5(1000) on Swap and Darkrazor (600) Which is maybe ~1500CC on most encounters on a short CD
- On Chrono you can take Moa (600CC) at no loss, have sword 4 which is another 200CC and then GS5 (200) or Focus pull (200) depending on what build you play
- On Mech you have Drop Down (232), Rocket Punch(100), a weapon CC(232), Force Signet(150) and you could even swap out stuff for more CC
- Condi Tempest is the only Build that does have similar CC, but at the same time that build provides Protection, Fury and Might..

 

All the Builds mentioned above do offer more CC or more utility while providing alacrity and  similar damage output at the same time.
Little CC and alacrity is all Bladesworn has (and we would have to trade that CC +dmg for a bit of might with FGJ lol). 

 

- I didn't count Druid because that build does not exist yet, but if we go based on the old build its gonna have a lot of CC capability too.
- Willbender from what I understand will still get changes

- Scourge Alac will still get changes too 



Thanks for reading

Edited June 30, 2023 by Fractal Spoon.9280

[Jzaku.9765]

Yeah I agree that Alac Bladesworn shakes out to be a build that does DPS and gives Alacrity and literally nothing else.

The root cause is because all of Bladesworn's utility skill slots are locked in and almost effectively forced to be exactly:

• [Overcharged Cartridges]: Basically reads deal +15% DPS for Bladesworn, disgusting
• [Flow Stabilizer][Tactical Reload]: Unable to sustain Dragon Slashing off CD without these, because
• [Dragonspike Mine]: Exists and lets you Dragon Slash twice which is busted

Imagine if you said that any other non-Bladesworn Warrior build lacks CC, that would be an utterly ridiculous statement. I'm pretty sure Warrior has the most utility skills of all the classes that read "CC" - the opportunity cost for taking anything else is just too high.

Before the patch I was hoping that less time spent charging due to [Daring Dragon] would alleviate the flow issues, but they slapped the trait to double your flow consumption when charging Dragon Slash, so you end up having to run exactly the same things as DPS Bladesworn. WHY?!

[Lighter.5631]

just take main hand mace😂

[feeper.5287]

9 hours ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

Yeah I agree that Alac Bladesworn shakes out to be a build that does DPS and gives Alacrity and literally nothing else.

The root cause is because all of Bladesworn's utility skill slots are locked in and almost effectively forced to be exactly:

• [Overcharged Cartridges]: Basically reads deal +15% DPS for Bladesworn, disgusting
• [Flow Stabilizer][Tactical Reload]: Unable to sustain Dragon Slashing off CD without these, because
• [Dragonspike Mine]: Exists and lets you Dragon Slash twice which is busted

Imagine if you said that any other non-Bladesworn Warrior build lacks CC, that would be an utterly ridiculous statement. I'm pretty sure Warrior has the most utility skills of all the classes that read "CC" - the opportunity cost for taking anything else is just too high.

Before the patch I was hoping that less time spent charging due to [Daring Dragon] would alleviate the flow issues, but they slapped the trait to double your flow consumption when charging Dragon Slash, so you end up having to run exactly the same things as DPS Bladesworn. WHY?!

You can def play around with utilities on Alac BWS and take Bull's Charge for example. Flow Stabilizer is necessary yes and most likely the elite but I'm getting 30k on the golem with the same setup as DPS BWS and only losing 2k when swapping out the mine/cartridges. Personally I think losing DPS for utility is fair and unlike Berserker you don't instantly destroy your entire build by swapping one utility 

[TiedHam.4923]

What this guy said ^. Yes compared to other "alac with 0 investment" classes it's not great but imo new alacrity Bladesworn is idiotic, overturned, poorly implemented and still idiotic. Old DD was fun, and alac should have been on [Lush Forest] instead. That way everyone gets what they want'. Or at least what ANet wants to give us.

[Kitty.4806]

Well, you can take kick or bull's charge instead of flow stabilizer in my experience, you don't need it anymore.

[Jzaku.9765]

4 hours ago, feeper.5287 said:

You can def play around with utilities on Alac BWS and take Bull's Charge for example. Flow Stabilizer is necessary yes and most likely the elite but I'm getting 30k on the golem with the same setup as DPS BWS and only losing 2k when swapping out the mine/cartridges. Personally I think losing DPS for utility is fair and unlike Berserker you don't instantly destroy your entire build by swapping one utility 

The ONLY skills on Bladesworn that aren't explosions is Gunsaber Auto 1-2 and skills 1-4 on your main weapon set. Theres absolutely no way you only lose 2k for dropping BOTH Mines/Cartridges - I'd love to see your logs. Cartridges alone should math out to ~2-3k going along with your initial 30k number. Dropping Mine means more time camping Gunsaber which has seriously garbage DPS (unless you swap a DPS traitline out for Disc) making it even worse (~22k at best).

Generally I agree that of course it's fair to lose DPS by swapping out DPS utilities for utility. I'm just fairly confident that Bladesworn's opportunity cost is utterly ridiculous for doing so. 

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

If all you care about is the alac, then you don't need the DPS, just pop off the Dragon Slash.

[feeper.5287]

1 hour ago, Jzaku.9765 said:

The ONLY skills on Bladesworn that aren't explosions is Gunsaber Auto 1-2 and skills 1-4 on your main weapon set. Theres absolutely no way you only lose 2k for dropping BOTH Mines/Cartridges - I'd love to see your logs. Cartridges alone should math out to ~2-3k going along with your initial 30k number. Dropping Mine means more time camping Gunsaber which has seriously garbage DPS (unless you swap a DPS traitline out for Disc) making it even worse (~22k at best).

Generally I agree that of course it's fair to lose DPS by swapping out DPS utilities for utility. I'm just fairly confident that Bladesworn's opportunity cost is utterly ridiculous for doing so. 

Oh maybe I wasn't clear enough, dropping both cartridges and mine would def be more a 2-3k DPS loss for sure. I meant only dropping one. I'm still getting the hang of the rotation but I've also had essentially the same DPS swapping out cartridges for might signet. I'd probably drop cartridges/signet for a banner or something first if needed then mine if you need something else. That def wouldn't feel great though