Guild Wars 2

New to Ranger and just tried Sword and noticed using the #1 ability roots me in place, could some one please explain to me if I am doing something wrong?

I noticed in GW2 by simply strafing and moving around my target I mitigate much damage but when I try to do it with sword the animation breaks and I assume so dose my damage?

It would be nice to get confirmation from a developer if this is intended or not. Some people say it’s a bug, I say it’s the price you pay for having an auto-cripple with the kick part of the chain (although a heavy price at that).

JonPeters? Anyone? Bueller? Bueellleeerrrrrr?

Well, according to JonPeters, the sword is in a good position. According to people who play Rangers, however, this is a huge bug that makes the sword incredibly difficult to even use.If you do want to keep using it, though, turn off auto attack.

Jon peters said that the sword was fine so i assume it’s intended. And the sword is probably the best weapon we have. It deals insane damage with awesome evade skills and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.

mamourrir.9641:

and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.

..After you leap away first. Would be logical to leap to the target, then leap away.

The self-root is simply terrible… I can’t dodge properly most of the time because of this

Jubei.5923:

mamourrir.9641:

and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.

..After you leap away first. Would be logical to leap to the target, then leap away.

The 3rd part of the 1-chain leaps you to your target as well (or off a cliff if they died).

The root makes sense to me because it’s a kick, but it feels clunky,

Jubei.5923:

Some people say it’s a bug, I say it’s the price you pay for having an auto-cripple with the kick part of the chain (although a heavy price at that).

JonPeters? Anyone? Bueller? Bueellleeerrrrrr?

Quite a heavy price one pays, much like the one Thieves deal with in their own attack chain that can cripple!

… oh. Hmm, wait a second here, something doesn’t sound quite right. Oh that’s it! Thief doesn’t have to pay the same price to cripple foes.

I’ve never heard the other side’s point of view on this. Do people on the receiving end feel grateful or annoyed when a Ranger starts railing on them with a sword?

I don’t really know what you guys are going on about, the sword auto attack is amazing. It has quite a high skill cap, so I’ll just assume that’s why everyone keeps complaining. You can close gaps, with the third attack, you can cripple them forever… You guys might have missed the fact auto attacking can be turned off (or the fact you can use ESC to cancel an animation). That, and not targetting anything will allow you to use the third attack for both gapclosing and escaping. Combine all of these facts and – while it might take you some time to get used to it, let alone hit the ceiling – you will be able to dart around the field unlike any other class.

This is my #1 most anticipated bug fix by far. I really hope there’s a patch to address this soon…

Dahkeus.8243:

This is my #1 most anticipated bug fix by far. I really hope there’s a patch to address this soon…

What’s there to fix? The sword skill is working as intended. There is nothing to fix. The sword just requires you to have a more active playstyle.

Munrock.3092:

I’ve never heard the other side’s point of view on this. Do people on the receiving end feel grateful or annoyed when a Ranger starts railing on them with a sword?

When playing my Mesmer, the Ranger is the least threat of any class, no matter what weapon they use. The sword is especially good. It hits fast, so their hit points melt away quickly and it roots them in place so it makes it easier to dodge away from them.

HTech.8016:

Dahkeus.8243:

This is my #1 most anticipated bug fix by far. I really hope there’s a patch to address this soon…

What’s there to fix? The sword skill is working as intended. There is nothing to fix. The sword just requires you to have a more active playstyle.

With auto-attack off, I think the sword is working close to how it was envisioned, but I can’t see how the current auto-attack rooting the player is intended.

Well, the term auto attack was just slapped on the basic attacks. The most optimal playstyle might not involve using the auto-attack feature. Sure, it might be misleading, but at least you have the option to turn auto attacking off. I’m just happy you didn’t just go “lol sword sucks” but instead went ahead and gave what I said a go, so thanks for that!

HTech, the problem most people have isn’t that the sword doesn’t deal damage or that it plays slightly differently – that’s part of the reason why it’s one of if not the best weapon rangers have. It’s that the rooting prevents you from dodging. If you go in with a sword and you get red circled… or for some strange reason the ranger’s victim tries to fight back, you’re stuck and you die.

All they have to do is let dodge break the animation. Rangers aren’t asking for a buff, they’re asking for for their favourite toy back. (I wonder if the rooting has always been in place or if it was added the same time they changed the path of Serpent’s Strike).

The second attack lasts 1/4th of a second. If you are not using the auto attack thingy, then you can dodge after that particular skill. The kick also moves your character slightly, something to keep in mind. Allowing people to just dodge out of that animation would mean inconsistency with their other, larger leaps (I do not mean a combo finisher here, just a gap closer). Which brings me to the third skill, Pounce. 3/4th of a second, it’s a gap closer, allowing people to dodge out of this is once again inconsistent with all of the other gap closers. You can however use ESC to cancel several of the animations (this does not work for every animation, mind you!) to speed up the process, allowing you to move a bit more.

Jubei.5923:

mamourrir.9641:

and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.

..After you leap away first. Would be logical to leap to the target, then leap away.

Why on earth would that make more sense? There is way too much strategic value in a mid-battle evade to reverse the chain effect. It’s the difference between a free evade and having to use two skills to do the same thing. Rangers have plenty of snaring/gap closing ability as it is anyway. What they need to do is give us a much longer window in which to use the second part of the chain, to increase that strategic value and play more mindgames with your opponents. They also need to slightly buff its damage and increase sword’s synchronization with pets. Most weapons don’t really have linked pet effects, which really add to the flavor of weapons.

Aethersong.5189:

HTech.8016:

Dahkeus.8243:

This is my #1 most anticipated bug fix by far. I really hope there’s a patch to address this soon…

What’s there to fix? The sword skill is working as intended. There is nothing to fix. The sword just requires you to have a more active playstyle.

With auto-attack off, I think the sword is working close to how it was envisioned, but I can’t see how the current auto-attack rooting the player is intended.

ArenaNet has acknowledged the #1 skill as a bug, so yes, there is something to fix.

It’s a weapon where you have to turn off auto attack and use weapon skills to dodge since you can’t dodge during the animation of it’s main dps ability. Sure, it looks fancy to jump around a lot, but in the end, the short bow does more dps without forcing you into melee range and preventing you from using your main dodge.

Right now the sword is really a weapon to swap to for defense in sPvP. I’m still waiting for a reason to use this in PvE.

Leuca.5732:

Jubei.5923:

mamourrir.9641:

and you auto-leap to fleeing targets.

..After you leap away first. Would be logical to leap to the target, then leap away.

Why on earth would that make more sense? There is way too much strategic value in a mid-battle evade to reverse the chain effect. It’s the difference between a free evade and having to use two skills to do the same thing. Rangers have plenty of snaring/gap closing ability as it is anyway. What they need to do is give us a much longer window in which to use the second part of the chain, to increase that strategic value and play more mindgames with your opponents. They also need to slightly buff its damage and increase sword’s synchronization with pets. Most weapons don’t really have linked pet effects, which really add to the flavor of weapons.

Because to start off a fight you need to be in melee range. Right now the only gap closer abilities on the sword require you to already be in melee range since you either have to start a melee chain or jump away from your enemy.

Sure, the evasive abilities on the sword are great and in an ideal situation you can keep a cripple on a target dummy with the number 1 ability, but in PvP, you have to hope that your target doesn’t do a dodge or jump away from the range of your 1 chain (or hope that they do this when your next 1 chain ability is to leap) or else you have nothing to catch up to them.

Actually. you can use the 2 skill to leap towards people right away too, just deselect the target and turn 180 degrees. Easily allows you to catch up to your target. Or, if it’s on cooldown, you can even use your dagger 5-skill to cripple at range. Sword/dagger is great for sticking to targets as long as they don’t have too much of a head start.

And you are basing this on what? If it is experience, then clearly you were doing something wrong, as I have no issues whatsoever to stick to most targets. Of course there will be some people that get away, but that’s to be expected. All you need in order to pull this off is be willing to learn. But I suppose you like having things handed to you on a silver platter. That’s fine, just don’t expect the ranger class to be your kind of thing.

HTech.8016:

And you are basing this on what? If it is experience, then clearly you were doing something wrong, as I have no issues whatsoever to stick to most targets. Of course there will be some people that get away, but that’s to be expected. All you need in order to pull this off is be willing to learn. But I suppose you like having things handed to you on a silver platter. That’s fine, just don’t expect the ranger class to be your kind of thing.

Just because something is needlessly complicated doesn’t mean its good. Sword is not fine, in fact it’s pretty bad. I have used it, and i still keep it as a backup from time to time, but i would never use it as a main weapon again. Yeah sure turning off auto attack fixes the rooting (sort of. not really.) but it also drastically cuts into your DPS and makes your attacks needlessly hard to control. The sword is just an easy target for people that can kite. Hornets sting sometimes just doesn’t work and even when it does is still affected by cripple and immobilize. Serpent strike is good for dodging, but it doesn’t do good damage and certainly doesn’t help close the gap. There are no offhand skills that can close the gap. Against any decent long ranged class you would be slowly crawling around out of attack range.

The greatsword is better than the sword. At least all of its skills work. The 1200 range dash is not only much better for keeping close to an enemy, it’s also much better for running away. The block is much better for defense, lasting longer, giving a good knockback, and providing a long ranged cripple that can hit multiple enemies. It even provides more synergy with your pet because i can pull off some nice mini-bursts with hilt bash + blinding slash on my raven.

Even then i only use the greatsword because it’s fun. If i wanted to win i would switch to shortbow/traps because they’re far more effective than both melee weapons.

HTech.8016:

I don’t really know what you guys are going on about, the sword auto attack is amazing. It has quite a high skill cap, so I’ll just assume that’s why everyone keeps complaining. You can close gaps, with the third attack, you can cripple them forever… You guys might have missed the fact auto attacking can be turned off (or the fact you can use ESC to cancel an animation). That, and not targetting anything will allow you to use the third attack for both gapclosing and escaping. Combine all of these facts and – while it might take you some time to get used to it, let alone hit the ceiling – you will be able to dart around the field unlike any other class.

This.

The DEVs have stated their stance on Sword 1. Learn to use it, or don’t use it, but don’t complain about it anymore.

HTech.8016:

And you are basing this on what? If it is experience, then clearly you were doing something wrong, as I have no issues whatsoever to stick to most targets. Of course there will be some people that get away, but that’s to be expected. All you need in order to pull this off is be willing to learn. But I suppose you like having things handed to you on a silver platter. That’s fine, just don’t expect the ranger class to be your kind of thing.

This isn’t about having to learn something. The problem is that if you’re spinning your camera 180 degrees, aiming your character at the place you want to jump, using a backwards skill as a gap closer, then turning your camera back around to be able to melee again, then you’re just not going to be nearly as reliable at being able to take on a fleeing foe as either someone with a 1-button press gap closer or someone with a ranged weapon.

I don’t care who you are, you are going to be likely to miss when doing this and/or miss what’s going on around you because you’re putting so much focus into manually jumping backwards.

Look, you can make scrambled eggs with a lighter and a tin can, but that doesn’t make it any better than using a skillet and a stove.

In the end, all your over the top work arounds for broken mechanics won’t do anywhere near as much damage as a person with a short bow using auto attack because they also have a cripple and dodge weapon skill, but it doesn’t come at the expense of their normal movement and dodges.

Why would I want to autoattack? Because I love my keyboard and my fingers enough not to mash 1 (which, by the way, isn’t fun – Jon Peters said so).

And the developers never said that sword 1 is “working as intended.” Quite the opposite, its been acknowledged as needing to be fixed for the very reasons stated here.

With that said, I’ve begun using Sword again, but only as a secondary weapon. When I’m backed into a corner, Sword provides me with the means to defend myself until I can weasel my way back out and switch back to a bow.

Do I think its the most effective weapon to use? No, of course not! That rooting is annoying as anything and completely absurd. Am I forcing a bug to work in my favor? No, I only switch to the Sword when its necessary and swap back as early as possible. Would I be better off using another weapon? Absolutely, but a huge chunk of my soul just wants to use the sword (much like how my soul just wants to play the Ranger, despite the troubles).

Turning off auto-attack isn’t a feature, its a flaw. Quit trying to act like in denial, leet bro gamers.

The ranger sword. Its like the devs wanted to create the worst possible weapon, everything is backwards or just mediocre.

Sword auto attack roots you in place. It does look great, the cripple is good, but its like if a warrior couldn’t cancel hundred blades once the animation starts-suicide- except it does much less damage.

The leap back. Oh no this is just terribad. White knights love to praise its evasive leap back and ability to zip around the map if you master a convoluted keyboard/mouse movement pattern which other gap closers acheive with a simple button press. And the evasive leap back? So so slow! Its not an evade- first you stab forward (oh so slowly) and then jump back. You could be dead by the time you finally jump back-it doesn’t even blind on the stab or something useful like that. (pls compare with thief sword gap closer which is way way better and removes 2 conditions on return). PS to the poster who says Rangers already have lots of gap closers, I guess you are refering to the ONE gap closer on GS?

Serpants strike, this actually works like an evade and the animation looks good.

Sword summary:

Auto attack +quickness gives you a weak HB at the expense of being unable to dodge any big attack/stun etc

Leap back executes too slowly, can’t be used as reliable gap closer or evasive move

Serpant strike, is essentially an extra dodge.

Compare that with the sword abilities of other class and tell me if its good or not.

I just don’t think it makes much sense to keep the root. No other weapon really requires you to turn off AA to make it viable. You can say that it has a high skill cap all you want, but the fact remains that it’s really an outlier, and for a lot of people, nigh-unusable.

Jon Peters also said there were to be significant updates for Rangers leading into the Nov 15 patch .. we all know how that went…

So as far as him saying this weapon is ok, well ….. I’d just say find another weapon.

If it isn’t a bug, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need fixing, which is something that people should understand. Just because something is working as intended doesn’t immediately make it the best thing in the world that can’t ever fail.

Having to make special allowances to use the basic attack on a weapon that adds a high difficulty level to a weapon without tangible and significant benefits is, at a base level, simply bad balance. If using the weapon was extremely difficult, but it also had a large amount of potential damage/arbitrary bonus then it would be balanced. As it stands, though I find using the sword to be extremely fun, I also can’t justify using it when there are better options for damage with much less required on my part to actually get the damage.

Iggy.9482:

If it isn’t a bug, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need fixing, which is something that people should understand. Just because something is working as intended doesn’t immediately make it the best thing in the world that can’t ever fail.

Having to make special allowances to use the basic attack on a weapon that adds a high difficulty level to a weapon without tangible and significant benefits is, at a base level, simply bad balance. If using the weapon was extremely difficult, but it also had a large amount of potential damage/arbitrary bonus then it would be balanced. As it stands, though I find using the sword to be extremely fun, I also can’t justify using it when there are better options for damage with much less required on my part to actually get the damage.

This deserves a yay!

When a feature (ie “auto attack”) becomes a liability, it’s not enough to say “learn how to use it”. It’s like cutting off the sleeves of your parka when it tears. Get it fixed, or yes, use something else. If skills 2 and 3 can break the chain, let dodge break it. And for puppy sakes, what do you do when 2 and 3 are recharging? You can spam your dodge hotkey for 5+seconds before you actually move. Liability.

And btw, devs don’t play rangers, so their “stance” (punny) on whether sword 1 is bugged or not is moot. If you disagree, cycle back to the Iggy’s quote. Repeat.

The video in this thread does a really great job of explaining what the sword “root” is, how it works, and how to use the sword to your advantage.

It’ll help answer a lot of your questions.

I personally like the sword and use it for dungeons, sPvP, and any difficult DE encounters.

I have nothing against a higher difficulty weapon, but there’s really no big reward to justify the challenge. It’s a decent secondary swap weapon for defensive abilities at best, but since they’ve buffed the GS block, I’m not even sure if it’s still best for that.

You realize how difficult it is to turn off auto attack on #1? Not the atcual physical act of doing so, that is easy: You need a top notch PC and top notch connection 100% of the time. You may have that but I think many people do not, at least not 100% of the time.

If you have even the slightest lag or FPS drop in WvW or any place then #1 with auto attack off is made useless because the window is so small to press again!

You design a game with a hardware and connection target and then design one ability for one class that breaks that target, why?

Cempa.5619:

You realize how difficult it is to turn off auto attack on #1? Not the atcual physical act of doing so, that is easy: You need a top notch PC and top notch connection 100% of the time. You may have that but I think many people do not, at least not 100% of the time.

If you have even the slightest lag or FPS drop in WvW or any place then #1 with auto attack off is made useless because the window is so small to press again!

---

You design a game with a hardware and connection target and then design one ability for one class that breaks that target, why?

If you’re playing with 3 seconds per frame, chances are you will have trouble playing any of the classes right. That’s right, you have 3 seconds before the next skill in the chain will disappear. That’s a massive window for you to use that skill again. Having a good pc has nothing to do with this.

As far as most of the other people go: The devs have clearly stated the sword is working as intended. You can complain all you want, but I think the sword is in a fine position right now, as long as you turn the auto attack off.
“But HTech, doesn’t that mean they made a bad design?” No, it does not. I do not know why most of you here seems to think this way, but let me explain myself. There is no rule for basic attacks that states they are not allowed to root you, nor is there any rule that states they have to be good with auto attack turned on. What the devs made was a weapon that has a high skill ceiling and is very different from all of the other basic attacks. I like that, it shows they are willing to try out new stuff.
Now, you might not like this kind of skill, there is nothing wrong with that. Nor is there anything wrong with finding it difficult to adjust. But the sword is not bad, it has a clear purpose which is to stick to your target and cripple+poison him, allowing for your team to catch up.

I use a sword for pvp and greatsword for pve. Sword helps me stick to my target though I’m owned when I get rooted. But constant cripple and leap make things interesting. The root is annoying in PvE, and combat is a little too active when considering you can just pelt monsters with a short-bow to death. I think swords are fine where they are. It’s not really a bug, just a style of play.

HTech.8016:

Cempa.5619:

You realize how difficult it is to turn off auto attack on #1? Not the atcual physical act of doing so, that is easy: You need a top notch PC and top notch connection 100% of the time. You may have that but I think many people do not, at least not 100% of the time.

If you have even the slightest lag or FPS drop in WvW or any place then #1 with auto attack off is made useless because the window is so small to press again!

---

You design a game with a hardware and connection target and then design one ability for one class that breaks that target, why?

If you’re playing with 3 seconds per frame, chances are you will have trouble playing any of the classes right. That’s right, you have 3 seconds before the next skill in the chain will disappear. That’s a massive window for you to use that skill again. Having a good pc has nothing to do with this.

As far as most of the other people go: The devs have clearly stated the sword is working as intended. You can complain all you want, but I think the sword is in a fine position right now, as long as you turn the auto attack off.
“But HTech, doesn’t that mean they made a bad design?” No, it does not. I do not know why most of you here seems to think this way, but let me explain myself. There is no rule for basic attacks that states they are not allowed to root you, nor is there any rule that states they have to be good with auto attack turned on. What the devs made was a weapon that has a high skill ceiling and is very different from all of the other basic attacks. I like that, it shows they are willing to try out new stuff.
Now, you might not like this kind of skill, there is nothing wrong with that. Nor is there anything wrong with finding it difficult to adjust. But the sword is not bad, it has a clear purpose which is to stick to your target and cripple+poison him, allowing for your team to catch up.

That logic is flawed. There’s no rule that a sword can’t have a chance on proc that it falls out of your hand and cuts you, but that doesn’t make it a good idea.

Being unable to cancel an attack at a split second to dodge a potentially devastating attack is more crippling than the condition the weapon applies. Sure, you can dodge after the animation or even use the extra evade that the sword provides, but being unable to do so when you’re actually attacking means you lose a lot of dps on a weapon that still does less dps than the shortbow even in optimal conditions.

I mean, if you lost a leg, you could still get around to do most of what you’re clever and strong willed, but that doesn’t mean that it’s suddenly a good idea to cut off your leg.

Every
single
other
weapon
in
the
entire
game
has an auto attack that allows you to move and dodge normally. There is no good reason to make the sword the exception to this. Even if you could legitimately work around this, it leads to a very clunky disjointed feel to gameplay that downright sucks!

One of the biggest reason many of us chose to roll a ranger is because it’s generally a very mobile and agile profession, which makes being rooted with your basic attack even more frustrating.

You can argue ways to work around the root issue all day, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the mechanic flat out sucks and is not fun.

The sword is not about dps. The sword is about control and decision making. Clearly, you don’t appreciate this. However, this is your opinion, not a fact. Yes, not being able to dodge stinks. Deal with it. The weapon is strong enough as it is, as long as you know what you’re doing. But I guess I’ll leave this thread alone, as the OP’s questions have been answered by now.

HTech.8016:

The sword is not about dps. The sword is about control and decision making. Clearly, you don’t appreciate this. However, this is your opinion, not a fact. Yes, not being able to dodge stinks. Deal with it. The weapon is strong enough as it is, as long as you know what you’re doing. But I guess I’ll leave this thread alone, as the OP’s questions have been answered by now.

Oh come on, don’t give me that elitist “you can’t appreciate this” crap.

Just because you can use a hundred work arounds to get the sword to be somewhat useable doesn’t mean it’s a good option and it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t need to be fixed.

HTech.8016:

The sword is not about dps. The sword is about control and decision making. Clearly, you don’t appreciate this. However, this is your opinion, not a fact. Yes, not being able to dodge stinks. Deal with it. The weapon is strong enough as it is, as long as you know what you’re doing. But I guess I’ll leave this thread alone, as the OP’s questions have been answered by now.

And your statement is as much an opinion. As far as I know, the devs have not given any sort of explanation for why sword #1 is the way it is. All we’ve gotten is some cryptic comments about bugs to fix and something from Jon about sword and longbow being “fine” – but in no way actually explaining the thinking behind the chain.

I don’t understand why there’s any argument here. Why not just make a dodge command interrupt the sword 1 auto-attack chain? It seems to me that doing so would solve the frustration here, repair a glaring inconsistency in the game’s combat controls, and preserve the existing skill mechanics.

deepwinter.9015:

the developers never said that sword 1 is “working as intended.” Quite the opposite, its been acknowledged as needing to be fixed for the very reasons stated here.

Citation, please? I’d like to see this fixed.

Dahkeus.8243:

HTech.8016:

And you are basing this on what? If it is experience, then clearly you were doing something wrong, as I have no issues whatsoever to stick to most targets. Of course there will be some people that get away, but that’s to be expected. All you need in order to pull this off is be willing to learn. But I suppose you like having things handed to you on a silver platter. That’s fine, just don’t expect the ranger class to be your kind of thing.

This isn’t about having to learn something. The problem is that if you’re spinning your camera 180 degrees, aiming your character at the place you want to jump, using a backwards skill as a gap closer, then turning your camera back around to be able to melee again, then you’re just not going to be nearly as reliable at being able to take on a fleeing foe as either someone with a 1-button press gap closer or someone with a ranged weapon.

I don’t care who you are, you are going to be likely to miss when doing this and/or miss what’s going on around you because you’re putting so much focus into manually jumping backwards.

Look, you can make scrambled eggs with a lighter and a tin can, but that doesn’t make it any better than using a skillet and a stove.

In the end, all your over the top work arounds for broken mechanics won’t do anywhere near as much damage as a person with a short bow using auto attack because they also have a cripple and dodge weapon skill, but it doesn’t come at the expense of their normal movement and dodges.

“Spinning camera 180 degrees”…

If you bound “about face” to a key you wouldn’t have this issue. I love the sword. In fact, someday I will craft Bolt for the ranger. You have to use the right build for it. A lot of times I’m lazy so I leave sword auto on. Most bosses I’m familiar with I’m good enough to know the lag between finishing the sword gap chain and evading so this isn’t even an issue. But where it matters (dubs) you better turn auto off.

You’ll be sad the day you miss a target and go flying off the edge.

By the way, signet of rage, QZ, protect me, proper evades and proper build can allow the ranger to deliver nice burst on a boss at melee, following by evasion backwards into shortbow.

Smooth as butter! I’m not sure why you guys that complain are so mad. If you struggle with ranger and/or don’t get the profession, then why do you keep playing it? The one’s who love ranger love it for a reason. They have little to hate about the class.

Honestly, not to discourage people from playing ranger, but I think some of you guys would have more fun on warrior, thief, or guardian. When you start talking ranger, mesmer, necro, engineer, you start getting into higher skill cap classes and you need to recognize the learning curve.

Ever faced a great mesmer? No? Think mesmers suck too in dubs? Well, I hope you neer run across a good one.

Different professions require different playstyles.

I love the ranger sword, I’d go far enough to say that it’s pretty much the mainstay of my build and if it was changed simply because there are a number of rangers who simply cannot get their heads around the fact that you can’t play ranger like you play a warrior or thief, I’d be annoyed.

As Chopps just said, if you cannot get your head around the sword don’t use it, in fact if you can’t use ranger just stop. Honestly you would be much happier playing a longbow warrior.

Many of you are starting to show yourselves up as not knowing how to play ranger with comments like “spinning camera 180 degrees”, you show you simply don’t know how to play this class and it’s no wonder you all have so much trouble with it.

I love the sword rants i chuckle every time i see them, ranger was my first class and the one i play the most. I love the sword i used it for months and never had this so called rooting issue, untilll one day i decided to read the forums at work because i was bored. saw some thread about it and when i got home that night i tried it out dodging in the midle of the chain and was like ahh thats what they were talking about. not sure why i never noticed or it ever effecting my play. im guessing its because i never used auto attack with it. i read the tooltip and said thats an awsome chain probably dont want auto attack with that so i can have more control with it, like switching targets or deselecting the target to leap away. although this is from a spvp prespective its all i really do with this game pve is just to boring to me.

It’s not a fact of being able to ‘play’ them or not (sword), I think what most are trying to say is that it’s a problem in relation to the very nature of #1 skills. #1 skills should not limit/interrupt your ability to fire off any other skills, or to dodge. Sword skill #1 on auto-attack does both these things at the moment, no other #1 skill in the game does likewise. I think that’s what the problem is.

Use sword skill #1 on auto-attack and suddenly your control over your character becomes immensely more convoluted. Sure, there are some kinds of ‘work arounds’, but that in no way means the skill is fine, and shouldn’t be looked at and improved in it’s functionality.

Cempa.5619:

New to Ranger and just tried Sword and noticed using the #1 ability roots me in place, could some one please explain to me if I am doing something wrong?

I noticed in GW2 by simply strafing and moving around my target I mitigate much damage but when I try to do it with sword the animation breaks and I assume so dose my damage?

Well if that is what is happening to me too, I am totally mystified.

Can’t move again even “after” the time of any root should be “gone”.

Can’t move until:

1. Stun Breaker

2. Death

All ways some people who have to come into a thread and argue of issues which if change would make game better. And why do they argue? Not for anything other than try to boost their E-gos. Telling others they need to learn to play etc. If someone does not like how Sword attack chain works disagree with them but don’t resort to whole “silver platter” BS. Yea talking to Hi-tech. Stop using the GW2 forums as your own personal self esteem booster. If really need to tell others how good you are on a forum and that they need to learn to play better, you really need to take a look at your real life and wonder why this is and then fix it.

Moddo.7105:

All ways some people who have to come into a thread and argue of issues which if change would make game better. And why do they argue? Not for anything other than try to boost their E-gos. Telling others they need to learn to play etc.

In general I agree with you. In this case however, many of us like the way the the sword’s #1 skill chain works. We don’t want to see it changed.

It’s just a different type of weapon than the “hit autoattack once and sit back in your chair with your finger hovering over the dodge key” type of weapon. That doesn’t mean it’s broken and needs fixing; it just means it’s different. While some of those advocating its current functionality could be more polite, it really does boil down to just learning how to use this different weapon.

The “root” is easy to break. Just just hit esc dodge, instead dodge. Or (my preference) use the #2 skill to jump back out of harm’s way. Between #2’s evade (8 sec cooldown) and #3’s evade (15 sec cooldown, both of which can be reduced 20% with a trait), there really isn’t much need to dodge.

I hated the sword when I first tried it too. But I gave it a chance, and it grew on me. Now I prefer it for certain situations (e.g. clumps of archer-type mobs who like to try to run away when they get low on hp). Enough so that I say leave it as it is, don’t try to “fix” it.

Thanks for the tip on the “about face” keybind. I hadn’t thought of that and will have to try it tonight.