Rest In Peace Bladesworn

[someguy.4107]

   When you first arrived in the EoD trailer as the poster child of the new expansion some: where skeptical, others disappointed, but most where excited to play every weebs wet dream. Your growing pains where many. A couple of them even got ironed out within a year of your release! No more waiting 5 seconds for a 4-6K attack in WvW/PvP. Even with a vast majority of your "growing pains", like unreliable damage on all but Cyclone Trigger and Dragon Trigger - Boost, the warrior community found a way around a sizeable amount of your jank. Accepted your jank is some cases. Looking at a Boolean algebra table just to know which Dragon Trigger wouldn't bug out cause you're standing on a small hill, or they're standing next to a tree, was a fun mini-game for some of us warriors.

   You released with 3 grandmaster traits that offered 3 unique and varying playstyles. The skill ceiling and player expression couldn't have been higher. Immortal Dragon made solo'ing PvE a breeze. Just charge Dragon Trigger and swing. Simple, easy and fun for anyone that wanted to give Bladesworn a try. Unyielding Dragon brought high damage and even higher skill expression. It wasn't just charge and swing anymore. We could quickdraw to snipe a guardian attempting to resurrect their teammate or snipe an important heal skill during a duel. With stun locking down the enemy, we could weapon swap to cancel the ending lag of Dragon Trigger to maximize combo and damage potential opening the door to a whole new level of Bladesworn skill. Daring Dragon whittled down anyone in your way. Dragon Trigger - Boosting from enemy to enemy with superior mobility and moderate damage felt liberating. A sense of movement that warrior never had before.

   One by one, each of your playstyles was erased lowering the skill ceiling and player expression. First was Daring Dragon. Not many played Daring Dragon outside of open world PvE, so most of us didn't see how great a loss this was at the time. Seemingly, to make up for axing Daring Dragon Anet buffed Unshakeable Mountain to the point of having chip damage & low burst damage immunity at the cost of spamming all your skills mindlessly. This persists even to this day. Now with only two unique playstyles left for Bladesworn; Unyielding Dragon had its stun removed. This single change killed the decision making of Dragon Trigger. Quick drawing Dragon Trigger - Reach to snipe important skills gone. Weapon swapping after landing any Dragon Trigger to cancel ending lag maximizing damage or follow up on a stunned opponent gone. No point when they can keep running out of the follow up damage. 

   Here we are. The only playstyle left is that of Immortal Dragon. Full charge and swing. Simple... All 3 playstyles are now the same. Quick drawing Dragon Trigger - Boost isn't effective anymore either with the added delay preventing us from making snappy movements. No more dodging that boss AoE with a last second DT-Boost.

   We'll remember you Bladesworn for all the movement, weeb cosplay, and fun you gave us. You can sleep easy now. Anet will still parade your hollow carcass around with Unshakeable Mountain turning all the remnant Bladesworns into button mashers though. Can't have you sleeping too easy. You're attached to Warrior after all : )

[Jackthetripper.9035]

Not gonna read all that but I do agree the the grandmaster traits are a bit lacking in competitive modes

[Fueki.4753]

It's Warrior. It was to be expected that variety doesn't last very long.

Edited December 17, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[SkyRight.2370]

@Jackthetripper.9035

I'm curious why you come to a text-based communication medium if not to seek out and read good, informative posts. If ANet was like you Bladesworn would be dead... 🤔

 

Good thing they're not and the spec is only getting better. /s (Just in case that wasn't clear ... )

[Myror.7521]

@someguy.4107 nope i was disapointed since start cause it was just another dps spec xD

[someguy.4107]

@Myror.7521 I felt the same in the beginning. It took some hours of playing around for me to learn about all the movement & playstyle potential. Stumbling across Dragon Trigger cancelling for faster punishes was a game changer. Didn't have to worry about zooming off cliffs anymore with Boost and I now had instant follow ups. This spec was another DPS spec, but it's window of player skill expression was much larger than the others for me. Even little movement techs, like about facing Pistol 5 then running forward to use the blowback to push me faster forward, enthralled me to no end. 

   This is just a eulogy. Anet doesn't read threads that they don't post/pin, so this was for me and anyone else who misses what's gone.

[Lithril Ashwalker.6230]

Here I am a fellow weeb itself as a thief main...I'm seeing this as a passionate cry for specialization adjustment and I'm thinkin'... "this is how thief feels"

 

I hope your class and mine get weeb love brother 

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

Maybe they gave up on Bladesworn. But I'm sure they might give it another look a year or two from now. If enough people stopped playing the espec, they'll change stuff around. It's what happened with warrior hammer. Everyone just stopped using the weapon because the constant ridiculous and silly changes. That's when Anet finally changed it because it was so evident that hammer was thrown away.

[DownDrisis.4826]

2 hours ago, Verdict is Vengence.6912 said:

Maybe they gave up on Bladesworn. But I'm sure they might give it another look a year or two from now. If enough people stopped playing the espec, they'll change stuff around. It's what happened with warrior hammer. Everyone just stopped using the weapon because the constant ridiculous and silly changes. That's when Anet finally changed it because it was so evident that hammer was thrown away.

I genuinely can't tell if this is supposed to be sarcastic. But there's no /s so I'm going to assume not.

Depending you picked either the best or worst weapon to compare Bladesworn to. The hammer buffs did literally nothing. All it excels at is making it so people learning the game / in bronze / silver can't play. Along with rifle it's tweaks just added nuonce to the kitten sandwich (gross ANet censor bots) that it already was. And if that's your thing, I guess you go? But there's probably a homeless grandmother somewhere that needs kicking instead.

Doubly because all of Warrior's weapons now are terrible. Gunsaber included. Saying/hoping that Bladesworn might get fixed in "a couple years and brought up to the mighty standards of hammer" is like saying you might have a good bowel movement if you hold off on using the bathroom for a couple days.

 

OP's post is well, deserved & honestly I quit playing back after they dumpstered boost the first time. But it's nice to revisit every so often to witness the Warrior community so split between execeltly written, solid feedback, and the star children who have never touched another class, don't know the joy of functional buttons, are and still enjoying while ANet beats them on Warrior. Saying kitten like "no really, this time they can change."

Good lord. Aim higher. You've all suffered enough.

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

12 minutes ago, DownDrisis.4826 said:

I genuinely can't tell if this is supposed to be sarcastic. But there's no /s so I'm going to assume not.

Depending you picked either the best or worst weapon to compare Bladesworn to. The hammer buffs did literally nothing. All it excels at is making it so people learning the game / in bronze / silver can't play. Along with rifle it's tweaks just added nuonce to the kitten sandwich (gross ANet censor bots) that it already was. And if that's your thing, I guess you go? But there's probably a homeless grandmother somewhere that needs kicking instead.

Doubly because all of Warrior's weapons now are terrible. Gunsaber included. Saying/hoping that Bladesworn might get fixed in "a couple years and brought up to the mighty standards of hammer" is like saying you might have a good bowel movement if you hold off on using the bathroom for a couple days.

 

OP's post is well, deserved & honestly I quit playing back after they dumpstered boost the first time. But it's nice to revisit every so often to witness the Warrior community so split between execeltly written, solid feedback, and the star children who have never touched another class, don't know the joy of functional buttons, are and still enjoying while ANet beats them on Warrior. Saying kitten like "no really, this time they can change."

Disagree. They brought damage back to earthshaker which was the most egregious change when they nerfed CC. The CC traits put in are also fun, which I put above all else.

I don't know who the Youtuber is and I don't care. "removing hammer would be a positive..." - that dude's words. That's too hyperbolic to even begin to engage with. He even said mace was better. Way too over the top. That's why Anet disrespects warrior players openly on streams. Too many people saying the silliest things because they're over emotional and hyperbolic.

Now, I never said hammer was perfect. It sucks in 1v1, especially against thief. It also still gets defeated by elevation which is the most infuriating thing with hammer since launch.

But I still have fun with it. It's my favorite melee weapon when it comes to clouding an enemy zerg. You can just smash and dash. It could use a revamp like many other classes' weapons.

[Vepa.6073]

Here to pay my respects, and pour one out for all the bladesworn homies

[Guy.9207]

Bladesworn has always been rocky as a spec in my opinion. It went from "OH MY GOD THEY DEAL 1 MILLION DPS IN ONE HIT" to "OH MY GOD THEY ARE SO HARD TO KILL IN PVP" to "Oh we can give alac now."

It has always been broken, either in an overpowered way (gigachad DPS and sustain which got gutted), or in almost if not downright unplayable way (off-hand pistol kek). There isn't really a moment where someone looks at Bladesworn and say, "Oh, it seems to be in a decent spot", because there's always something that breaks about this spec, whether in numbers or fundamentals.