I was originally going to write this as a response to the “Forced to use greatsword” thread but I thought it was a bit too much of a derailed answer. So here’s my own thread on it. I’ve made sword threads before but most, if not, all of them have gone somewhat unnoticed/ignored. If you don’t want this one to exist, go necro the other one but I assure you, it’s probably about 50 pages back by now. I categorised this with spoiler links to give the illusion that this isn’t a massive wall of text 
- Sword Wave’s cone is too narrow. However, due to the nature of the skill, it has to be narrow. 
- Zealot’s Defense is a ranged skill that misses at range (although the I quite like its concept)
- Zealot’s Defense will easily miss a moving target. Give it a moving target and use it at range and all you’ve done is stand still.
- It offers nothing at all to the game’s combo system.
- It generally only works well with crit based builds and effects.
- It offers very little trait synergy outside of Right Hand Strength and Blind Exposure.
- Contrary to what others have mentioned, I find the fact that most of its damage coming from #1 spam is a flaw. Allow me to expand on that, if a weapon can perform better using skillful application of its skills, that makes it more fun and engaging if you ask me and adds a little depth to the weapon. For example, Necro scepter, it can put up to four conditions on a foe and then can deal extra damage based on the amount of conditions on said foe. One could argue that using Flashing Blade followed by Zealot’s Defense is skillful application of the skills but the reality is, the auto attack chain allegedly still does more damage and Zealot’s Defense can easily miss, pretty much lowering the weapon’s effectiveness through skillful play.
- The extra range on Sword Wave is not as good as people make it out to be. If you even use it at range (why?), you won’t hit them the full three times unless you’re really lucky or attacking a very large enemy. You’ll most likely only hit them once, doing a third of its potential damage pretty much nullifying Sword Wave’s only draw, the fact it hits multiple times.
- Surely Flashing Blade could stand to do some more damage?
- The blind is good.
- The teleport is good.
- The projectile absorb is a nice bonus but I doubt many people use it specifically to stop projectiles (Once again, I really like the concept though).
- It procs Virtue of Justice on a single target a little more than other weapons.
This is all very unfortunate because I really want to use sword (preferably with a shield) but I find other weapons are far more flexible and effective.
- Give Flashing Blade some actual damage. Doesn’t have to be a lot. Even damage comparable to Shield of Judgement would be ok, just something please!
- Make Flashing Blade a leap finisher.
- It would be nice if Flashing Blade could be used without a target but I won’t lose sleep over it.
- Allow Zealot’s Defense’s projectiles to hit foes in a line.
- Some have suggested making Zealot’s Defense reflect projectiles instead of absorb them. I’d be happy regardless, although it certainly would address the projectiles it casts missing at range a little and give a little more incentive to use it against projectiles instead of just for burst.
- What if Sword Wave were three quick attacks (using the current animation) in a normal melee arc that each inflicted a 1 sec cripple on up to three targets? That way, we’d finally get a nice enough cripple and Sword Wave would be able to hit foes in a normal melee arc whilst retaining it’s effectiveness against single targets.
Kaimoon Blade – Warrior
Fort Aspenwood