Guild Wars 2

I’ve tried out about almost every combination of traits with sword/sword and sword/pistol and was left mostly underwhelmed. Chronomancer will bring some nice changes like increased speed which is crucial for a melee player to close gaps or dance around harder hitting melee like guardians, thieves, and warriors. But melee mesmer needs much more.

My biggest gripe with using mainhand sword is that it’s incredibly hard to stay on the target. Before clone death traits such as cripple on clone death, or weakness on clone death, in combination with poison on doom sigil gave amazing control to make being a melee mesmer viable.

Melee needs to be able to close gaps and stay on the target to apply pressure. Also, being a low armored class, melee mesmers need to be able to do some kiting to dance around the other heavier hitting melee classes like thieves, warriors, and guardians. Currently, it’s incredibly difficult getting in and out of their range to deal damage and avoid their very hard attacks.

I’d like to propose some buffs for melee mesmers.

Melee mesmers desperately need is much more access to cripple and weakness. Dueling is the sword tree, but the traits aren’t practical in pvp for a melee mesmer. The trait, Imagined Burden, that applies cripple to all greatsword skills should have gone to sword. Greatsword mesmers were already, arguably, the best kiters in the game. You need to stay on the target to proc vigor and get ferocity stacks. But it’s inconsistent with melee attacks if there’s no way to reliably snare the target. Snares also helps melee mesmers dance around harder hitting melee like thieves, guardians, and warriors to be able to get close and create gaps to avoid their big attacks. Currently, it’s not very feasible to to get close and get away easily from those very hard hitting attacks.

Sword ileap clone should have distortion for at least 4 seconds after spawning, so the teleport isn’t wasted before you can use. The teleport from ileap is super important for melee with a range of 130 to close gaps with ranged targets. But it’s also extremely important and can be used strategically to deal with other melee whose attacks destroy it instantly.

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

All phantasms should spawn the way Phantasmal Disenchanter does, in relation to the target’s location and not the caster. Too often the Phantasmal Swordsman waste a lot of time trying to get into position to attack the target.

The trait, Maim the Disillusioned, that applies torment on shatter should also allow sword auto attacks to apply torment, so it can be possible to make a viable melee-condition build. Currently, swords only stack well with power, and this change will make swords a viable option for players who prefer the general feel of just being melee.
I personally don’t like using scepter or staff, would love the option to run a condition build using swords.

These improvements will only increase the variety of viable builds in pvp. More options and build variety only adds to the gameplay and quality of the game.

Thank you

Let me know what you think of my suggestions.

One question, I’m unsure what build you’re running but have you tried playing with master of fragmentation? Cripple on F2 is nice.

I do like the suggestion to move the cripple part of imagined burden to sword. While I thought adding cripple to GS was nice, iBerserker already does that. If this were to happen, I’d just add the cripple to fencer’s finesse. This would spread access to cripple around a bit more and not pigeon hole one to GS or master of fragmentation.

I’m unsure about torment on sword. Vulnerability has always seemed weak but you also have that boon rip. Maybe change vulnerability to very small duration weakness on sword AA. Might be to strong especially in light of the cripple suggestion. Without that though it might be OK.

As for your other suggestions, they’ve been debated much in the past and no change is likely going to happen.

An auto attack that strip boon, a powerfull damage skill that make you invulnerable, a clone+swap skill to help you to catch the enemy with damage…
Yeah, sword is a very bad weapon fos pvp. No one use it.

The only thing true is that the swordphantom can spown near the enemy, but it alsodo a leap to catch the enemy. A sword need a low range, that’s why you have to not be distant 600 or less from the enemy to use it.

Mesmer have a lot of good movement skills, teleport. more skills to flee from a fight than to enter in, but that phantom leap to the enemy and inflict cripple + swap, to catch a enemy is better than the 50% of leap skills in the game.

About sword skill 2, Blur is still a very powerfull skill and skills that grant immunity )a complete immunity) can be only defensive skills like they actuall are.
You hit a enemy while no one ncan do anything to stop you. That’s one of the best skill on the game! (a enemy can evade, but every skills can be avaded).

I don’t think that the sword need to be powered up. Not for pvp.

Cripple on Fencer’s Finesse would be lovely – I’d take that. Much better having it there than on greatsword.

Something needs to be done about the summon delay on the ileap clone since the patch it is more awkward to use. And even giving the clone 2 seconds of protection or something so that it isn’t instantly cleaved making swap useless would be nice.

I agree the spawning of the iSwordsman could be done in the way you describe – it would be better than the current way.

Your Blurred Frenzy suggestion – the’ve already removed invuln for a reason as it was deemed too powerful, so that’s not coming back.

iRiposte could do with some quality of life changes so it is more responsive.

Torment on sword would be crazy if native and it doesn’t quite fit the theme (though I wouldn’t say no to a trait for that!)

I use it for sword 2 , rest are just gravy.

I’ve read all your responses and they’re all valid. I’d like to talk about sword 2, Blurred Frenzy, invulnerability change to evade. When that was changed to an evade, balance in the game was very different than it is now. In accordance to the current state of the game, invulnerability on sword 2 would be a fair change. Guardians and warriors that exist now have incredibly strong melee builds, whilst mesmer melee builds pale in comparison. We can argue that heavies traditionally are more adept at melee, but in this game, even a caster that builds to melee should be on par with heavies that melee. I’m not saying we should be able to stand toe to toe with them, of course we have our own way of mitigating damage and dealing damage, but it’s not on par with theirs.

Btw, I know that Blurred Frenzy can be used for defense. The problem is you don’t have a choice in only defense or only offense. If you decide to save Blurred Frenzy to use defensively, it still attacks. So the attack you’re trying to evade with it, is still very likely to hit the targets you’re trying to avoid taking retaliation damage from. The offensive or defensive nature of the skill isn’t exclusive to each other, they’re both mutually inclusive and always happens at the same time. And I’m not saying the skill is bad. It is definitely one of my favorites, but in practice, the skill needs this change with the current state of the game.

Second, I wanted to talk about my idea to put torment on sword auto attack. In a condition build, sword’s auto attack damage is incredibly low. It would be a fair move if sword’s auto attack applied conditions if one wanted to trait for it and go a condition route. The damage wouldn’t be any higher than a scepter’s auto attack. The difference may be that sword attacks a little faster than scepter so the possibility of stacking more torment would make it closer to scepter, since scepter #2 can put 5 stacks of torment at once. All it would do is give the option to use the same scepter build you normally would use, but with swords instead. The boon strip on sword auto chain would be a fair exchange from not having scepter’s #2 skill to apply 5 stacks of torment, and #3 skill that applies 5 stacks of confusion.

About mesmer’s mobility. One justification that even I used to make for mesmer’s lack of 25% speed trait or utility skill was that we made up for it in having great in-combat mobility. That in-combat mobility just isn’t reliable anymore since the change that made ileap’s clone death prohibit a teleport to its last location. You used to be able to still move to that location even if it died instantly, now when it dies instantly, which very common, all you did was waste time pressing the skill button. You can’t teleport to its location, and clone death traits were removed so the clone does nothing when dying. It’s just that, nothing happens a lot of times when using sword #3. Mesmer’s in-combat mobility is inferior to that of melee warriors, guardians, thieves, elementalist, and rangers, and I can no longer make the justification of having better, or equally different in-combat mobility.

I’m sure things I’m stating now have been debated before. I think it’s alright to bring them back up. The balance in MMOs is a living, always changing thing. Some things that weren’t good back then are good now, and vice versa. *It’s a smart move to revisit old changes that just can’t be justified anymore in the current state of the game. * Buffs are always reconsidered when they seem to be too strong, but nerfs should also be reconsidered when those changes become too weak.

I know people reading the title are probably thinking that I’m crazy, mesmer burst and condition spam has never been better. That’s true, but not for main hand sword.

As Mogar put it, sword has gone the way of only using it for quick #2, and switching out of it as soon as possible to get back to doing damage.

The only thing i really don’t like about MH sword is how clunky iLeap feels post-patch. It was much smoother before, but the added delay feels kinda weird.

Being unable to swap with a dead iLeap clone is a good thing for me, as it adds counterplay.

Iavra.8510:

The only thing i really don’t like about MH sword is how clunky iLeap feels post-patch. It was much smoother before, but the added delay feels kinda weird.

Being unable to swap with a dead iLeap clone is a good thing for me, as it adds counterplay.

I like that the clone dies although would prefer if it takes more than breathing on it to kill it, at least for the first second after spawning.

I don’t like as you say how awkward it is to use with this summon delay – I think they should revert this change.

I kinda agree that sword needs better ways to chase. Right now iLeap is still pretty bad at actually stopping anyone who decides to run away.

Stuff like this, though…

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

This is pure “l2p” territory. Yes, there are times you’ll retal-bomb yourself with Blurred Frenzy, especially if you’re not paying attention. But it’s an amazingly good defensive skill for its low cooldown. You can facetank all kinds of nasty combos with a pretty minimal resource investment.

ASP.8093:

I kinda agree that sword needs better ways to chase. Right now iLeap is still pretty bad at actually stopping anyone who decides to run away.

Stuff like this, though…

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

This is pure “l2p” territory. Yes, there are times you’ll retal-bomb yourself with Blurred Frenzy, especially if you’re not paying attention. But it’s an amazingly good defensive skill for its low cooldown. You can facetank all kinds of nasty combos with a pretty minimal resource investment.

It’s not a learn to play issue. You can’t use the skill if there are targets in front of you that has retaliation or it will do more damage to you than to them. That’s a fact. There’s no way of getting around that until you strip the boon or wait for it to expire. Well of course you weigh the pros and cons of if it is worth it doing damage to them at the expense of yourself. But it remains that if the targets in front of you has retaliation you won’t use it. It’s common to end up n situations where you need to use it for evade, but there’s no difference between evading it and using it cause you will take the same amount of damage. Now, I deselect the target and try to face and use it, similar to how Eles would use ride the lightning to escape from their target. I find it needlessly inconvenient.

Hot Boy.7138:

ASP.8093:

I kinda agree that sword needs better ways to chase. Right now iLeap is still pretty bad at actually stopping anyone who decides to run away.

Stuff like this, though…

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

This is pure “l2p” territory. Yes, there are times you’ll retal-bomb yourself with Blurred Frenzy, especially if you’re not paying attention. But it’s an amazingly good defensive skill for its low cooldown. You can facetank all kinds of nasty combos with a pretty minimal resource investment.

It’s not a learn to play issue. You can’t use the skill if there are targets in front of you that has retaliation or it will do more damage to you than to them. That’s a fact. There’s no way of getting around that until you strip the boon or wait for it to expire. Well of course you weigh the pros and cons of if it is worth it doing damage to them at the expense of yourself. But it remains that if the targets in front of you has retaliation you won’t use it. It’s common to end up n situations where you need to use it for evade, but there’s no difference between evading it and using it cause you will take the same amount of damage. Now, I deselect the target and try to face and use it, similar to how Eles would use ride the lightning to escape from their target. I find it needlessly inconvenient.

Ideas have been bandied around in the past including reducing the number of “hits” that blurred frenzy does, to minimise retal damage – as well as buffing the damage of each hit so it can actually be used to deal good damage.

Curunen.8729:

Hot Boy.7138:

ASP.8093:

I kinda agree that sword needs better ways to chase. Right now iLeap is still pretty bad at actually stopping anyone who decides to run away.

Stuff like this, though…

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

This is pure “l2p” territory. Yes, there are times you’ll retal-bomb yourself with Blurred Frenzy, especially if you’re not paying attention. But it’s an amazingly good defensive skill for its low cooldown. You can facetank all kinds of nasty combos with a pretty minimal resource investment.

It’s not a learn to play issue. You can’t use the skill if there are targets in front of you that has retaliation or it will do more damage to you than to them. That’s a fact. There’s no way of getting around that until you strip the boon or wait for it to expire. Well of course you weigh the pros and cons of if it is worth it doing damage to them at the expense of yourself. But it remains that if the targets in front of you has retaliation you won’t use it. It’s common to end up n situations where you need to use it for evade, but there’s no difference between evading it and using it cause you will take the same amount of damage. Now, I deselect the target and try to face and use it, similar to how Eles would use ride the lightning to escape from their target. I find it needlessly inconvenient.

Ideas have been bandied around in the past including reducing the number of “hits” that blurred frenzy does, to minimise retal damage – as well as buffing the damage of each hit so it can actually be used to deal good damage.

I think that’s a good idea if the length of the evasion from it isn’t shortened.

Curunen.8729:

Ideas have been bandied around in the past including reducing the number of “hits” that blurred frenzy does, to minimise retal damage – as well as buffing the damage of each hit so it can actually be used to deal good damage.

Agree 100% here. The individual hits tend to be too low and that creates the issue the OP is talking about. Making it do the same damage in 6 hits instead of 8 would go a long way in helping the Retal issue. Of course this is a “be careful what you ask for” issue, because we don’t want them to shorten the Evade part of the skill. ;-)

Oh yeah of course, the duration of blurred frenzy should remain as it is – if they touch that then I along with probably many others will be up in arms. >:(

I wish I had thought of your solution beforehand so I could have included it in my original post. I feel like people are so against my idea for a return to invulnerability that it can discredit all my other ideas.

But I’d like to keep the focus of the thread on all of my suggestions as a whole: greater access to cripple and weakness on sword, distortion for 4 seconds on iLeap clone so it doesn’t die during the window to switch places, and a little rework of Maim the Disillusioned to include torment on sword auto attack to make it viable to play as a melee condition build, if one chooses to go that route.

I like to think of myself as someone who can easily be swayed by a better idea. I’d love to hear more ideas about my ideas for improvements or your own ways to improve mainhand sword builds.

Hot Boy.7138:

It’s not a learn to play issue. You can’t use the skill if there are targets in front of you that has retaliation or it will do more damage to you than to them. That’s a fact. There’s no way of getting around that until you strip the boon or wait for it to expire. Well of course you weigh the pros and cons of if it is worth it doing damage to them at the expense of yourself. But it remains that if the targets in front of you has retaliation you won’t use it. It’s common to end up n situations where you need to use it for evade, but there’s no difference between evading it and using it cause you will take the same amount of damage. Now, I deselect the target and try to face and use it, similar to how Eles would use ride the lightning to escape from their target. I find it needlessly inconvenient.

You can shatter the boon off while Frenzied. You can activate Frenzy to soak a big hit and then break out of it early. You can, like you said, turn around and take a swing at the air.

I feel like complaining about retal vs. Frenzy is like complaining about reflect vs. Rapid Fire. It’s a great skill and it’s in no way made useless by retal.

ASP.8093:

Hot Boy.7138:

It’s not a learn to play issue. You can’t use the skill if there are targets in front of you that has retaliation or it will do more damage to you than to them. That’s a fact. There’s no way of getting around that until you strip the boon or wait for it to expire. Well of course you weigh the pros and cons of if it is worth it doing damage to them at the expense of yourself. But it remains that if the targets in front of you has retaliation you won’t use it. It’s common to end up n situations where you need to use it for evade, but there’s no difference between evading it and using it cause you will take the same amount of damage. Now, I deselect the target and try to face and use it, similar to how Eles would use ride the lightning to escape from their target. I find it needlessly inconvenient.

You can shatter the boon off while Frenzied. You can activate Frenzy to soak a big hit and then break out of it early. You can, like you said, turn around and take a swing at the air.

I feel like complaining about retal vs. Frenzy is like complaining about reflect vs. Rapid Fire. It’s a great skill and it’s in no way made useless by retal.

Comparing blurred frenzy and retaliation to rapid fire and reflect is a good example to prove your point. I never thought of it in that way. Someone suggested a little earlier that changing the number of strikes from 8 to less is a better solution to the issue, and I agree.

Bump

Shameless attempt to keep my thread on the first page in hopes it will be better seen by someone on the balance team.

Mainhand sword needs a buff? What about offhand sword? I’ve never seen anyone use that.

Cecilia.5179:

Mainhand sword needs a buff? What about offhand sword? I’ve never seen anyone use that.

I’ve always used off hand sword. I have never not used it. It’s actually a really strong weapon just as it is. The swordsman is quick and hard hitting, and the block is great, but the counter also hits very hard. Of course, only if you’re a berserker or assassin’s gear set up. A change could be made to the placement of the iSwordsman on spawn, but I don’t know if it’s right to ask for much else.

A lot of people would like a faster response from the block, but I think the delay is necessary since it hits so hard. It gives people a chance to dodge it.

If i were to ask for two things:
1) off hand sword block shouldn’t make you drop the orb in spirit’s watch.
2) a trait that gives the block a condition counter attack, instead of power if one wanted to go the route of a melee condition build.

I think OH Sword #4 should be changed to a full ~2 to 3s block, with the option to counter-attack anytime during that 2s, cancelling the block. If you let the 2s run out, you get no counter attack at all.

I also think the counter should be very hard to avoid, even if that means lowering the damage a bit. I mean, it’s a counter! A counter attack is all about abusing your opponent’s weakened defenses caused by his/her own attack. Having an easy counter against a counter attack is…well…counter intuitive!

I agree the iSwordsman is “pretty good”. It’s a bit niche actually, not very good in team fights, but it’s not bad. The issue is really the #4, which in theory provides defense, but in actuality it really doesn’t, due to the odd & quirky way in which both Mesmer blocks work. (Which incidentally is also the reason why you drop the orb. I think this is from a Diversion-like temporal effect that no longer is actually providing any evade/invuln? The same issue happens with Mirror Images for no good reason at all. This effect provides 0 benefit, and on that map actually hurts us. Also it seems to be the source of that pesky delay that makes the blocks nearly useless from a defense point of view, as you take more damage then you block when trying to get your counter-attack in.)

I’m sure Fay/Pyro can explain it much more detailed and accurately, but something is amiss with those darned blocks and Mirror Images. ;-)

Making the #4 a true block would go a long way in providing an actual alternative OH to Torch. We simply have no OH defensive options until the Shield comes, but even that looks to implement that same clunky block…only twice in a row? You really need that defense, especially in a Power build, and this is IMO why so few people take OH Sword. The Phantasm is leaps and bounds (no pun!) better than the Torch one, but clearly The Prestige has such a strong and reliable defense as compared to Illusionary Riposte. (Not to even mention the offensive aspect of Stealth.)

I mean it’s got over twice the CD of IR and a really terrible Phantasm, but still far more people choose Torch and have for a very long time. (Long before the current PU I mean.) So no, OH Sword is not really OK. It’s the block that needs a fix to give this OH a reasonable & reliable defensive component, and then we’ll see it be truly competitive with Torch and the soon to be released Shield.

I totally agree with Windwalker on the block aspects of OH sword 4.

I think all our blocks (scepter 2, sword 4 and soon shield 4) should be changed to work in the same way as ranger GS 4 and the new revenant sword block – ie, channeling a block with optional counter that becomes available to use when you block one hit.

I also like Windwalker’s idea for the change to sword#4 block skill.

The issue with the block and mirror images is that it does a slight teleport a step away. That slight teleport causes the orb to drop. I would like to see that fixed.

A channeled block similar to ranger’s greatsword block would be awesome, if we had the option to decide when to counter during that time frame of the block.

I’m surprised you mentioned the taking of more damage by trying to land the counter attack off. I thought I was the only person with that issue. Lots of times I have to dodge right after the block, and counter attack never goes off because it takes so long.
I’d like to see your ideas and my ideas implemented.

shameless bump.

I figured this is a good time to get attention to what I think needs a buff for pvp.
With sword being mesmers only melee option, primary use of it should be viable in competitive play.

wat ? u hez to b kitting me meng

Kaizoku.1298:

wat ? u hez to b kitting me meng

I wish I could say I was, but this is important to me.

Sword is fine. iLeap needs QoL fixes, but other than that Sword shows up in 3/4 of our PvP builds as it is.

All sword needs is for Illusionary Leap/Swap to work consistently. That’s really all.

Mesmer definitely doesn’t need buffs in PvP. We’re in a good place.

You should not change evade to invuln on sword 2. As far as I know, all invuln skills make you recap points (example distorsion). The devs want some possible counter play to the skills if you keep the point (ex. signet of stone and endure pain: still susceptible to condition and control)

And honestly, the sword is probably one of the best weapon in the game period. Stop bumping this thread and let devs focus on actually unbalanced stuff.

Silverkey.2078:

And honestly, the sword is probably one of the best weapon in the game period. Stop bumping this thread and let devs focus on actually unbalanced stuff.

Do you actually play melee only in pvp? Do 10 matches using only sword in main hand and then tell me it’s fine.

It needs more access to cripple.
It needs access to weakness.
Sword 3 isn’t reliable to stay on the target.

Sword 3 clone really does need some sort of distort/evade for at least the first 2s of summoning.

and sword 4 counter needs a faster animation or the same distort effect. It currently is more of a liability when ever used against more than one opponent.

Hot Boy.7138:

Silverkey.2078:

And honestly, the sword is probably one of the best weapon in the game period. Stop bumping this thread and let devs focus on actually unbalanced stuff.

Do you actually play melee only in pvp? Do 10 matches using only sword in main hand and then tell me it’s fine.

It needs more access to cripple.
It needs access to weakness.
Sword 3 isn’t reliable to stay on the target.

I mostly play PvP, and while I often play condi with scepter, I also play sword often and in particular I have played sword the past week. Blurred frenzy is just an amazing skill, our AA is good in particular counting the boon removal. 3 is a great skill in principle, but I agree is not that reliable. But even with this weighted in, the sword is very good. For mesmer, sword and staff are my 2 favorite weapons.

While I am in principle always happy about improvements, I just think the sword is far from the most urgent. There are bugged traits (duelist’s discipline), clunkier weapons (scepter) and skills (mantras have been good for a short while…) , unbalanced traits (CS, PU), unused skills (Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter) etc…

Also, just a parenthesis, very few people professions work well in “melee-only” (I would argue only warrior does thanks to the huge mobility on GS; ele D/D is not really melee). We have the ability to swap weapons and good ranged weapons (GS/staff). Mesmer is a caster class, it does not have the best tools for melee-only.

Silverkey.2078:

Hot Boy.7138:

Silverkey.2078:

And honestly, the sword is probably one of the best weapon in the game period. Stop bumping this thread and let devs focus on actually unbalanced stuff.

Do you actually play melee only in pvp? Do 10 matches using only sword in main hand and then tell me it’s fine.

It needs more access to cripple.
It needs access to weakness.
Sword 3 isn’t reliable to stay on the target.

I mostly play PvP, and while I often play condi with scepter, I also play sword often and in particular I have played sword the past week. Blurred frenzy is just an amazing skill, our AA is good in particular counting the boon removal. 3 is a great skill in principle, but I agree is not that reliable. But even with this weighted in, the sword is very good. For mesmer, sword and staff are my 2 favorite weapons.

While I am in principle always happy about improvements, I just think the sword is far from the most urgent. There are bugged traits (duelist’s discipline), clunkier weapons (scepter) and skills (mantras have been good for a short while…) , unbalanced traits (CS, PU), unused skills (Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter) etc…

Also, just a parenthesis, very few people professions work well in “melee-only”. We have the ability to swap weapons and good ranged weapons (GS/staff). Mesmer is a caster class, it does not have the best tools for melee-only.

I think that mentality is what’s wrong on the forums.
A lot of people have the crab in a barrel mentality.
Everyone is clawing at each other because they feel like it’s not enough resources for what you think needs fixed and what I think needs fixing.

Developers should strive to balance all weapons for pvp, and all traits. I’m not trying to undercut anyone else wants and say that sword should be the number one priority, but I think it needs attention.

I would be happy to run with another melee wep and swap in combat between that wep and sword, unfortunately sword is the only one.

I agree sword has an amazing auto attack, but you will have a very hard time staying on the target to land those hits for a few reasons that need to be looked at.

Hot Boy.7138:

I think that mentality is what’s wrong on the forums.
A lot of people have the crab in a barrel mentality.
Everyone is clawing at each other because they feel like it’s not enough resources for what you think needs fixed and what I think needs fixing.

Developers should strive to balance all weapons for pvp, and all traits. I’m not trying to undercut anyone else wants and say that sword should be the number one priority, but I think it needs attention.

I would be happy to run with another melee wep and swap in combat between that wep and sword, unfortunately sword is the only one.

I agree sword has an amazing auto attack, but you will have a very hard time staying on the target to land those hits for a few reasons that need to be looked at.

By bumping your post on top all the time, you’re clearly saying that your problem is more important than the other because it needs to be on top of the discussion. Funnily enough, I am now helping you with that.

All weapons and traits should be balanced to have a place somewhere. But not the same can be said about all weapon combination or trait combinations. There will necessarily be good combinations with good synergy and also bad combinations. So if you want to run full melee, nobody will prevent you from doing that, but you can’t require the developers to make it work, because it is currently a bad combination. Sword is in the PvP meta for mesmer, because it is a strong weapon. On the other hand, it needs a ranged weapon associated to it, mostly GS.

If you want to stay melee, you have to invest in higher defense and sustain. That is what I have been doing this week (bunker mesmer/chronomancer). I had a staff, but I remained most of my time with sword main hand, defending a point. I had cleric amulet. And it worked very well, because I didn’t care too much about enemies kiting me. Actually, that was somewhat what I hoped as a point defender.

Not all weapons should do everything, they have a role. Mesmer’s sword is a good defensive weapon, not as good as a sticky weapon.

I really wish they would change iLeap to function similar to our spear… We leap forward do some direct dmg and cripple the target, then we can use the secondary skill to teleport back to the location we leaped from and leave a clone behind. This way we can use sword for mobility out of combat, we can use it for direct dmg/cripple reliably and we can use the first half of the skill in phantasm builds.

Mikkel.8427:

I really wish they would change iLeap to function similar to our spear… We leap forward do some direct dmg and cripple the target, then we can use the secondary skill to teleport back to the location we leaped from and leave a clone behind. This way we can use sword for mobility out of combat, we can use it for direct dmg/cripple reliably and we can use the first half of the skill in phantasm builds.

This is a good idea. Make it a real leap and have the clone serve as an escape mechanism.

Actually I’m quite fond of being able to teleport to people up ledges and other things using ileap.

In fact once I had the clone summon delay post patch work in my favour on forest keep – I cast it on an enemy mesmer who blinked up to the raised level while I was mid cast – the delay in clone summon caused it to appear up top right on him which allowed me to follow immediately.

I would only be in favour of a “reverse leap” if we teleported forward without requiring a target like a reverse phase retreat, and could go up ledges and other things, and then had the option of swapping back. I’d even be ok with them removing the stunbreak and raising the cooldown if it was done properly.

I actually really like iLeap’s mechanics as it is, the only change I would make to it is for the clone produced to have distortion for the duration that the swap is available, so it can’t die during that time frame.

Hot Boy.7138:

My biggest gripe with using mainhand sword is that it’s incredibly hard to stay on the target.

- Sigils, perhaps? Sigil of Ice provides chill. You also have phantasms and clones that stay on the target quite nicely

Hot Boy.7138:

Melee mesmers desperately need is much more access to cripple and weakness.

- Have you heard of Sigils?

Hot Boy.7138:

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

- Or you can watch your opponents buffs and not use it when he has retaliation

Hot Boy.7138:

All phantasms should spawn the way Phantasmal Disenchanter does, in relation to the target’s location and not the caster.

- Agreed

Hot Boy.7138:

The trait, Maim the Disillusioned, that applies torment on shatter should also allow sword auto attacks to apply torment

-Again, sigils

Yakubyogami.7586:

Hot Boy.7138:

My biggest gripe with using mainhand sword is that it’s incredibly hard to stay on the target.

- Sigils, perhaps? Sigil of Ice provides chill. You also have phantasms and clones that stay on the target quite nicely

Hot Boy.7138:

Melee mesmers desperately need is much more access to cripple and weakness.

- Have you heard of Sigils?

Hot Boy.7138:

Blurred Frenzy needs to give invulnerability instead of evades like it used to. Half of the time you can’t use it because you’ll do more damage to yourself than to the target because of retaliation.

- Or you can watch your opponents buffs and not use it when he has retaliation

Hot Boy.7138:

All phantasms should spawn the way Phantasmal Disenchanter does, in relation to the target’s location and not the caster.

- Agreed

Hot Boy.7138:

The trait, Maim the Disillusioned, that applies torment on shatter should also allow sword auto attacks to apply torment

-Again, sigils

Use sword in main hand only for 10 matches, trying your own suggestions, and tell me how that works out for you.

Mainhand sword needs a buff?
You’re kidding right?

I’m certainly not at the upper echelons of sPvP elo wise, but I’ve had a huge amount of fun in my matches playing a psuedo-melee mesmer mixing melee sword/torch with ranged GS. For utilities I grab distortion, decoy, and veil (as well as group stealth for my elite) specifically so I can sword 3 in, spam 1 combo to strip boons if possible, and 2— followed by a safe stealth distortion escape and the switch to gs for ranged burst.

OminousClouds.4517:

Mainhand sword needs a buff?
You’re kidding right?

Yeah, I am serious. If you scroll up, you will see that I thoroughly explained why it needs a buff.

Hot Boy.7138:

OminousClouds.4517:

Mainhand sword needs a buff?
You’re kidding right?

Yeah, I am serious. If you scroll up, you will see that I thoroughly explained why it needs a buff.

Yes, you “want” a buff because you think sword should do everything. It seems you haven’t realized the point of having different weapons per class.

Silverkey.2078:

Hot Boy.7138:

OminousClouds.4517:

Mainhand sword needs a buff?
You’re kidding right?

Yeah, I am serious. If you scroll up, you will see that I thoroughly explained why it needs a buff.

Yes, you “want” a buff because you think sword should do everything. It seems you haven’t realized the point of having different weapons per class.

A lot of people in this thread are really nasty in their attitudes and in the tone in which they’re typing.

You can agree.
You don’t have to agree.
Either is fine, but the bad attitudes and nasty tones in which some you respond are unnecessary.

Try to keep a cool head and try not be so emotional. This is a change that’s important to me, but at the same time it’s not something I would feel the need to lash out at anyone about.

I’m not looking for anyone’s approval.
I’m trying to get the devs to take notice to something I feel is an issue.

I’m not new to the game and I’m not an amateur player, I’ve been playing mesmer as a main since beta. I have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about and I have a thorough understanding of the class and all game mechanics.

To offer my 2 cents: I kind of think the sword’s alright to be honest. The autoattack’s fine, blurred frenzy is fine (making it distortion creates problems—take Inspiring Distortion, for example), and iLeap, contrary to popular opinion but in my own, is fine. I think the way the clone leaps now makes more sense.

Hot Boy.7138:

Silverkey.2078:

Yes, you “want” a buff because you think sword should do everything. It seems you haven’t realized the point of having different weapons per class.

A lot of people in this thread are really nasty in their attitudes and in the tone in which they’re typing.

You can agree.
You don’t have to agree.
Either is fine, but the bad attitudes and nasty tones in which some you respond are unnecessary.

Try to keep a cool head and try not be so emotional. This is a change that’s important to me, but at the same time it’s not something I would feel the need to lash out at anyone about.

I’m not looking for anyone’s approval.
I’m trying to get the devs to take notice to something I feel is an issue.

I’m not new to the game and I’m not an amateur player, I’ve been playing mesmer as a main since beta. I have a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about and I have a thorough understanding of the class and all game mechanics.

I’m a very peaceful person, not looking for conflicts usually. But I don’t like YOUR attitude. You are not open to discussion, and you bump your subject all the time because you think people HAVE to agree with you. That is why I am more aggressive, not because of what you are asking.

You say the sword needs a buff, and explain your reason. Most people agree skill 3 is clumsy, but this is something that have been mentioned many times. On the other hand, people disagree with your other arguments (I mean seriously? applying MtD to the sword??) and also suggest you ideas and the only thing you answer is “try it yourself you’ll see it sucks”. But people have tried it, and it does not if used in the right context. You can weapon swap, but for some reason you’re too stubborn to equip other weapons.

There is only one weapon which does not work in melee: the greatsword. All the other actually work better in melee: the scepter AA is faster in melee, the staff is better in melee because you can use chaos storm on your enemies and you at the same time + phase retreat for some chaos armor. So even if you had good reasons to want to stay in melee (for example defending a point), you can use all other weapons but the great sword.

When you start a discussion, you have to be prepared to receive opinions and to listen to them and try to understand them instead of just discarding them.

If you do that, I will not get somewhat aggressive.
Sorry for that

Really, the only OP points I empathize with are iLeap and oh sword #4.

I don’t really think iLeap should give distortion…as we have enough distortion and I don’t think we need to buff inspiring distortion any further. I would rather see iLeap reversed…have the mesmer leap in first and the clone spawn where we started…then have the swap take us back out of melee. This is more in line with what sword mh is all about. Dancing in and out of melee to get our blurred frenzy and an AA chain in. This would possibly give our clone a little more chance at not getting insta-gibbed as well as the mesmer would be the focus of the attacks until the swap.

I think oh sword #4 could use a 1s evade frame, not distortion…for both the mesmer and the clone…that would be more fitting than a sustained block.

I agree main hand sword is very weak…. where is the 8 k firegrab At least you didn’t get a war horn haha that does nothing and ugh Specialization that says memsers please touch me in inappropriate places.

The sword 3 movement can be a bit more fluid… but then again it could be worst. Mesmer will become a less skillful class since everyone can play it under it’s current status. Cough Cough you might be common metas like Burn eles, Signet Necro hybrids, Guardian spam bunker, 1 buttone Warrior Rampager worst or Mesmers … oh wait. Touché