Warrior Greatsword Hundred Blades vs Zealot's Defense Popularity

[Cageman.6157]

I understand that damage is seemingly the issue on the skill (and in some parts it is). However that isn't the entire picture. This skill mimics Zealot's defense in some ways, but 1 is far more applied than the other. The major differences contributing to this are the fact that the cast time is lower, and it provides utility. Utility such as projectile blocking, trait procing (with the multi hit feature), and ranged component. All this combined made the lesser dmg than what the new hundred blades will have and the longer cooldown worth it still. Not to mention soon they'll have mobility which means no longer do u need to use a teleport, or land on target first. However where hundred blades lacks is that it does not proc traits, does not have utility, and has a long channel time. Those features cause the lower cooldown, and higher dmg (which is debatable based on one's ability to land it with cc and quickness) to be negligible and very difficult to apply for a 2 slot skill. Not to mention it competes with other skills/bursts since the long channel time overall lowers dps in pvp; when you could instead chain a rotation of damage in that time that eclipses the hundred blades damage. I suggest instead of a damage increase (or alongside it) to simply allow us to move with it, since the theme lately is to remove immobile channels. It provides no utility, and would not impact the meta/strength of the class by much. It would simply allow the greatsword to have more usage outside of mobility and arc slice. For instance hundred blades could use that 6 sec cooldown more efficiently, you could pool more adrenaline with it, or u could remove blind/aegis with the multihit. Simply by adding more mobility you can add more utility to a skill that lacks it. My other proposal is to switch the place of hundred blades with the blade trail. This would allow us to use the cooldowns more efficiently since blade trail is used far more frequently than hundred blades (due to lack of mobility/utlity). However that could cause issues for pve since hundred blades does perform in pve.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

A faster channel would be easier to implement rather than making the current animation mobile. ZD used the flurry animation for the attacks, which is just arm movement, 100B is a full body movement coupled with a leap into the air at the end which would be much more difficult to adjust for movement. A 2-2.5s channel time would make it work, especially with quickness. 

[oscuro.9720]

Moving during 100b wouldn’t make it good. I’d rather something stronger with higher penalty than something that’s still below average with less penalty. It doesn’t need a higher multiplier, it needs to apply that multiplier over a shorter period of time to be of any use in competitive modes.

Moving won’t change that, you might pull off a 100b a couple more times per 100 uses, but it doesn’t change the fact that auto attacks would’ve done 95% of the same job. At that point 100b loses its flavor and is still not good.

You are free to disagree, this is all hypothetical until it can be playtested anyways.

[Lucentfir.7430]

Increasing the damage on 100b and maybe  shortening the cast time would put it in a good place. They're kinda already doing the coefficient increase in spvp but this should also extend to wvwas well.  An interesting thing they could try doing is increase the outgoing damage of 100b by 5% for every hit it lands (cap it by hits and not by per target hit)

[Cageman.6157]

So, yes lowering channel time/increasing dmg can mildly fix that, but it still presents a major underlying issue. Why do 100b over other skill chains that can output more, and proc more with a double adrenaline hit. Or why have it at the 6 sec cooldown (due to being in slot 2) when it requires setup to use, and other skills could swap places and efficiently use the 6 sec cooldown. Finally, how would simply a damage increase on a skill that needs setup, singularly cause great sword to become more incentivized over weapon kits. Right now great sword is really only used for mobility, and even then it's debatable if u even need that over other builds. It doesn't entirely synergize with other weapons either, it's execute dmg on arc slice is not as impressive as before, and it gives no overall utility other than mobility, and a ranged poke. The goal with not simply targeting damage is to give it more identity over other weapon kits, and more of an incentive. The incentive of simply damage is a common failing point to specs since it only lasts as long as it's current state/meta lasts, when a nerf flies by that affects it, or changes the meta against it, then it becomes obsolete. This can be said for most things (since meta dictates a great deal of builds), but simply damage doesn't have as much fall back as something with utility does. So the goal is longevity, and effectiveness. Does mobility with 100b make it hit harder, no. But what it does allow is more frequent use, ability to pool adrenaline, and the ability to remove effects such as aegis/blind, or force invuln (if they were low enough to not want a poke and rest of burst rotation was on cd) by being a filler. Would it be favored over other wpns, more than likely still not, especially when looking at something like axe or dagger. However, allowing mobility could open up other possibilities to later buffs, or allow it to still  perform in metas where it's damage falls off even more, by at least adding a filler to the rotation that lacks mainly cuz of only having mobility, and arc slice. Not to mention 6 secs on a 5 sec wpn swap allows u to more efficiently use the skill, while also no longer having to be forced to chain cc with it (which allows u to maintain an effective dmg rotation/pressure), and allows you to do things like activating it early, then running on a target to land just the final hit kind of scenario. Also yes making/changing animations takes time/effort, but it secures more longevity, or opens up more options in doing something like this, that will expedite the process. Especially on something like warrior, that suffers from having a weapon reworked anywhere from 3~5 times before it becomes acceptable.