Guild Wars 2

The Current State of the Ranger Sword
Since Guild Wars 2 was released, the sword of the Ranger has been a source of much criticism in the community. Its auto-attack locks the player into place making it difficult to dodge on command. In addition, when attacking, movement from the enemy ( or the player ) can cause the player to jump forward unintentionally.

These issues cause frustration among many Ranger players. To others, the sword is seen as a weapon that must be “mastered” to be of full use. Indeed, there are ways to circumvent the above problems such as disabling auto-attacking. In addition, with practice one can utilize sword leaps to consciously.

While these ways to use the sword are present, it should be evident that they are only a band-aid covering up the broken nature of the weapon. In Guild Wars 2, a game with so much emphasis placed on dodging and active combat, why does there exist a weapon with and auto-attack chain which causes the player to be unable to do so? It can be assumed the answer to this was the byproduct of design and game mechanics not meshing.

A Call to Action
Whatever the reason may be, the fact that the Ranger sword has been ignored for so long is unsettling. The Ranger, a main profession in this game, has a weapon’s with an auto-attack that roots the player and can be the cause of unintended movement is ignored for more than 3 years the game has been out.

Shouldn’t fixing large problems which plague this games main professions be a main concern? I believe they should, and the Ranger sword is one such thing which should be of much higher priority than it currently is.

Fixing the Sword
In fixing the sword, I believe there are a number of approaches that could be taken. One possible approach, while drastic, could be the best for the Ranger as a whole and also appease the largest number of people. That would be a rework.

One of the main appeal points of the sword currently is the movement it provides from leaps in the auto-attack chain. I agree, these leaps can be very useful and when mastered, can allow for a great freedom of movement. However, the movement these leaps can provide to some are also chains that bind others.

The way Guild Wars 2 has programmed leaps does not allow dodges to occur during one. This means, having leaps in an auto-attack chain can inhibit a player from using dodges. As such, I believe leaps should be removed from the auto attack chain.

Now, I know this will cause those that enjoy the functionally the leaps currently provide to criticize this idea. However, I believe it is important to see the affect these leaps are having on the current state of the sword. They are what causes players to not be able to dodge and also at times jump to their deaths. For how Guild Wars 2 currently has leap skills programmed, it is best to remove this from the auto-attack chain.

However, I am not saying these should be removed from the sword. Rather, as I what I am suggesting here is a rework, I believe the leaps should be moved to a different skill number if they are to remain.

A Reworked Sword
For an auto-attack chain, it is important for it to be fluid and somewhat simple. I know this may sound bland, but from how Guild Wars 2 is designed, it is important. Thus, to replace the current auto-attack, a new one comparable to other professions should take its place.

As an example, here is a new sample skill 1.

Sample Skill 1:

• Slash – Deal damage.
• Poisoned Blade – Deal damage and poison your target.
• Called Strike – Unblockable.

If leaps are still desired in the Ranger’s sword skill set, they could be moved away from the current auto-attack into a new skill.

Here is a sample skill 2.

Sample Skill 2:

• Strike as One – Leap forward and cripple your target. Your pet’s next attack inflicts bleeding.

This skill could stay as a mid-range leap with a short cooldown. If the cooldown was an issue from people abusing it to move, it could have a longer cooldown but get reduced when a target is hit with it. This could allow a player to stick to their target as they can currently do with the sword.

The last skill could be something of a made from the current skill 2 and 3 or something new. For example, the current skill 2 has the player jumping away from their target, but the skill has an issue with having too long of a wind-up. This skill could be remade into a 3 skill.

Sample Skill 3:

• Hornet Strike – Jump backwards evading attacks and throw your sword at your target poisoning them.

• Serpent Strike – Jump at your foe evading attacks and poisoning them.

In Summary
Since release of the game, the Ranger sword’s auto-attack chain has had issues of locking the player in place and causing unintentional movement. These issues plaguing the sword are a large issue and should be addressed. There are many ways to fix this issue. One possible way would be a rework as suggested above.

I hope ANET can take a more urgent stance to fix problems like this that affect professions in the game. Also, I hope other players reading this can help think of ways to fix these problems.

To a brighter future for the Ranger~

Disagree. Sword is ok atm except maybe for the auto. But from a PVP point of view, even the auto is useful (as you should never auto as a ranger, except when your target is fleeing and does not retaliate. Which is why the sword rooting + in built leaps help ALOT).

I want ranger to get a buff as well but I think that would be too op. Trust me. I know the pain you’re going through wanting a ranger buff. but that would be too strong.

I like the sample skill 1 idea

Klonko.8341:

Disagree. Sword is ok atm except maybe for the auto. But from a PVP point of view, even the auto is useful (as you should never auto as a ranger, except when your target is fleeing and does not retaliate. Which is why the sword rooting + in built leaps help ALOT).

At least read his post. He is talking about skill #1. Nobody have a problem with #2 and #3. If someone talks about the sword it is about #1. Every time, no exception.

If they adjust sword in some minor way to stop people complaining, I’ll probably be ok. If they rework it, especially in a completely generic manner like OP suggested, I’ll throw my computer out the window in a childish temper tantrum. Sword is the major reason I’ve played ranger for 3 years.

Minardi.8276:

I want ranger to get a buff as well but I think that would be too op. Trust me. I know the pain you’re going through wanting a ranger buff. but that would be too strong.

I’m not looking for a buff ( while I do think Ranger could use some in other aspects ). I simply think that the way the Ranger sword is now is problematic.

Anything is better than the current sword auto. Too bad the vocal minority oddballs are rather loud about this :-)

Why not rework the GS how you like instead of messing with the sword? GS is arguably a better weapon in a lot of circumstances as it has a block, chasedown, and freedom of movement when auto.

If one is not spamming #1 on sword, then we are literally talking about fractions of a second where you are locked into the animation. I have personally never had an issue during those fractions of a second; I would love to see someone post an actual vid of why the sticky nature of the sword is a hindrance.

Sina.9208:

Anything is better than the current sword auto. Too bad the vocal minority oddballs are rather loud about this :-)

Anytime someone has a differing opinion doesn’t automatically put them in a vocal minority.

If they want to make it dodge-rollable, they probably have to bite the bullet and create new animations. Perhaps a shield bash style slide, although I would be very sad to see our old animations leave. They’re some of the best in the game.

I suspect it will never change though, a lot of people value it. The easiest solution is giving ranger a new 1-handed melee weapon.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Why not rework the GS how you like instead of messing with the sword? GS is arguably a better weapon in a lot of circumstances as it has a block, chasedown, and freedom of movement when auto.

If one is not spamming #1 on sword, then we are literally talking about fractions of a second where you are locked into the animation. I have personally never had an issue during those fractions of a second; I would love to see someone post an actual vid of why the sticky nature of the sword is a hindrance.

The answer: offhand weapons and DPS. Greatsword is not a replacement and never will be. And if you are spamming #1 too slowly on mainhand sword, you are losing DPS and may as well be using Greatsword—the damage difference between the two in optimal builds is around 17%. Considering that manual skill activation will always be slower than automatic, this is a workaround that actually reduces the effectiveness of mainhand sword.

There are suggestions for mainhand sword that would not limit its “sticky” nature. Adding the ability to dodge during movement skills (this is currently possible with weaponswap and therefore not impossible to code) is one solution. Adding evade frames to the segments of locked-in animations is another solution. This has precedence in Revenant, whose developer stated that being locked in animation is problematic for skills.

If you would like to see videos of mainhand sword being a hindrance in combat, there are plenty on YouTube. Many have been linked to in forum threads in the past, if you want to search the forums. If you would like to experience it for yourself, I would suggest playing against decent players whose classes have access to teleports. Or play around cliffs.

Fluffball.8307:

Sina.9208:

Anything is better than the current sword auto. Too bad the vocal minority oddballs are rather loud about this :-)

Anytime someone has a differing opinion doesn’t automatically put them in a vocal minority.

If they want to make it dodge-rollable, they probably have to bite the bullet and create new animations. Perhaps a shield bash style slide, although I would be very sad to see our old animations leave. They’re some of the best in the game.

I suspect it will never change though, a lot of people value it. The easiest solution is giving ranger a new 1-handed melee weapon.

The coding for cancelling movement skills is already implemented in weaponswapping. At the very least, it is not made impossible by the game engine. Adding evade frames would be a quick and dirty solution, but it worked for Revenant. Making sword #2 and #3 instant evades would also help tremendously.

Ya I thought about revenant as well. It might make GS completely obsolete. They’d have to buff GS autoattack, and add evade frames to sword. If they want to go with that solution I would be very happy.

Fluffball.8307:

Ya I thought about revenant as well. It might make GS completely obsolete. They’d have to buff GS autoattack, and add evade frames to sword. If they want to go with that solution I would be very happy.

Man, I would be thrilled if they did this, and I think a lot of other Rangers would be, too. Our melee options are so limited and this would really open up some new builds.

Ranger sword auto is the worst skill in this game. It only glues onto the enemy if you have quickness, otherwise you are just leaping around like an idiot. The worst part is that it literally has 0 cleave ability, especially when the downed body is stealthed. Anyone who defends sword auto attack has obviously never used the warrior, guardian, thief or revenant sword auto to see how much better life is on the other side.

Photinous.4628:

Anyone who defends sword auto attack has obviously never used the warrior, guardian, thief or revenant sword auto to see how much better life is on the other side.

I don’t understand where my warrior, guardian, thief, and revanant came from!!! I think someone must have hacked into my account.

Edit: Thinking about what you said I think you got it completely backwards. Maybe I love ranger sword so much because I have played those 3 professions extensively (got herald on revanant, obviously haven’t played it extensively.) Warrior and revenant swords are boring and generic. Thief and guardian have fairly unique swords, ranger has a unique sword.

Fluffball.8307:

ranger has a unique sword.

Yes, it’s unique in that it will get you killed if you don’t deactivate the auto attack cycle.

Other classes should be so lucky.

Fluffball.8307:

If they adjust sword in some minor way to stop people complaining, I’ll probably be ok.

My thoughts on a minor fix that would go a long way.

It’s not the leap that causes so much trouble with the AA chain, but the kick. The kick doesn’t travel any further than simply moving in that direction and it locks movement. It would be a lot easier to deal with just one restrictive skill in the chain than two is. Maybe increase the distance on pounce to 500 units or so to compensate. That way the chain still retains what people like (the pounce) while improving the flow and control.

Gotejjeken.1267:

If one is not spamming #1 on sword, then we are literally talking about fractions of a second where you are locked into the animation. I have personally never had an issue during those fractions of a second; I would love to see someone post an actual vid of why the sticky nature of the sword is a hindrance.

So if one isn’t using the auto-attack as intended then there’s no problem?

And frankly, if fractions of a second didn’t matter, then why are the sword 2 and 3 only a fraction of a second long evades? Surely that isn’t enough time to make a difference…

Substance E.4852:

Yes, it’s unique in that it will get you killed if you don’t deactivate the auto attack cycle.

Other classes should be so lucky.

We’ve had (I probably mean you and I specifically since you’re a regular poster) this conversation thousands of times. Sword has drawbacks. It also adds value.

There is no value in revenant sword, that thing is pure garbage design-wise. It has a powerful autoattack, UA chases while simultaneously evading for a stupid length, it even has a ranged chill. But where is the value-add in this? There are no advanced tactics possible with UA because you can’t control your character, and it’s actually a damage decrease from autoattack depending on how many targets are around. It also has such a long warm up you usually can’t even use it as an evade in PvE (say against those giant frog stompers in HoT). There just isn’t anything more to the sword “spam UA”.

Now compare to ranger sword, where FrouFrou was reported for cheating because she used it to evade a warrior and guardian to the point of them “taking action”.

Unrelenting assault looks sweet and is otherwise just dumb. Ranger sword is something skillful and an asset to the game.

Fluffball.8307:

Now compare to ranger sword, where FrouFrou was reported for cheating because she used it to evade a warrior and guardian to the point of them “taking action”.

And that’s my point. If you are using it to spam evades it’s great but it’s also because you aren’t using it to actually deal damage pressure.

It’s impossible to do both.

You’re either using some kind of BM build or a condition build.

The second you try to use it on a power build it becomes a massive liability because all the damage is on the auto attack. The only other hard hitting skills on the sword kit is Path of Scars which is a crapshoot unless you use it at max range to minimize the time between the throw hit and return hit.

I agree that it’s a great troll evasion weapon which obviously is perfect for our condition/BM builds.

The issue arises when you attempt to use it as the highest power dps weapon that it is and get punished for it. If we had a viable alternative then it wouldn’t be a problem but the GS is also a largely defensive weapon and any requests for it to become our melee DPS weapon get drowned out by people shouting on about how it’s for defense/utility.

It’s also a much better comparison to hold it up to the thief sword as both cripple on auto and both prioritize evasion/repositioning rather than hard damage.

Both FrouFrou and I use it primarily in power builds.

Edit: Maybe that was a short answer. I use it for damage, even to the point back when condi-survival was meta I used cele- survival to get sword damage. You just have to not use it stupidly, i.e. immob a necro and attack them from behind.

Completely disagree. When first using the sword, yeah i found it weird to dodge, but it didn’t take long to figure out how to use it. There’s plenty of ways to interrupt your auto-chain, such as using your skill 3, dodging out, or other moves. Your sample skill you offered really breaks the feeling of what the current sword is, which is a weapon that most rangers use because it’s so good. Also, the sample skill 2 you provided is kind of pointless; our skill 2 is already a dodge and then a leap, why would we want it to just become the leap part? Finally, your sample skill 3 hornet strike is fine because it’s basically hornet sting but buffed, but your sample skill 3 serpent’s strike is a terrible trade off for the current sword 3. The reason the current sword 3 is so good is because it doesn’t just leap, it flanks, synergizing with the flanking ranger trait.

Overall, the sword in its current state is far better than any of your suggestions, even if it takes some time to learn how to use, and allows for the sort of high-evasion and high-mobility gameplay that rangers need. I doubt most experienced rangers would want a rework of the sword at all, it’s one of our highest DPS weapons and is still very versatile.

Secretwep.2054:

There’s plenty of ways to interrupt your auto-chain, such as using your skill 3, dodging out, or other moves.

You can not interrupt a movement skill by any other means than weapon swapping. That is the issue.

You can not dodge, strafe, or perform another skill when in the process of using Pounce or Kick.

I think any advantage it has, could reasonably be achieved in a less irritating way.

Not to be adversarial, but, some of this insistence on keeping this exact precise particular design strikes me a bit silly.

The default expectation with any revision is that you’d still hit all the major points, the weapon would have a skill ceiling, and it would be exciting to play. That’s because having problematic execution on a couple skills doesn’t mean the logic behind the whole build direction is suddenly faulty, Nobody making a game would strive to make an intentionally boring weapon, and design-wise a good skill curve is how you avoid that.

So far my take-away here is “don’t change it, because things can go wrong!”.
Well, yeah, but isn’t that always the case?

I get having worries, but why should that stop us now?

I think that they should just throw rangers a main-hand dagger as a power weapon which doesn’t animation lock you.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

I think that they should just throw rangers a main-hand dagger as a power weapon which doesn’t animation lock you.

I think 100% of the community (including other professions) would be happy if they gave us daggers that had the exact same stats as swords, only daggers can’t follow your opponent and let you dodge. Then the player could choose which they prefer, and other professions wouldn’t be in an uproar over rangers getting a new weapon.

Sword is terrible in the new maps, with all of the cliffs and the mobs and their big orange circles. I’ve never loved it, but I’ve used it. However, since HoT dropped I’ve been using greatsword and axes because the rooting is still terrible and no amount of working around will ever make it not terrible.

I get why some people really like sword. I have an asura ranger and it looks really cool, but the amount of times I’ve raged because I died when I couldn’t avoid damage (even while spamming 2 or 3) make it worth not using anymore for me, at least not in any of the new content. And I highly doubt raids will change that.

I get dying from not dodging, I don’t know how you could throw yourself off a cliff with it though. It only does that if you don’t have a target, which means you’re button spamming on a stealthed or near-death enemy.

95% of people’s sword problems could be fixed by using rhythm instead of spamming 1.

Fluffball.8307:

Unholy Pillager.3791:

I think that they should just throw rangers a main-hand dagger as a power weapon which doesn’t animation lock you.

I think 100% of the community (including other professions) would be happy if they gave us daggers that had the exact same stats as swords, only daggers can’t follow your opponent and let you dodge. Then the player could choose which they prefer, and other professions wouldn’t be in an uproar over rangers getting a new weapon.

There is a problem in that daggers have a shorter range and only cleave 2 targets. I would much rather they fix current issues than add new components to the class. The more you add to the class, the thinner spread developer resources are and the harder it is to get older components fixed. And since there is no precedent for adding 2 statistically-identical weapons to the game that fill essentially an identical niche, I suspect there is not a good chance of this happening.

Scrimschaw.5784:

There is a problem in that daggers have a shorter range and only cleave 2 targets.

You’re thinking of thieves’ daggers. Weapons themselves have no range or cleave ability. Look at ele daggers or mesmer GS. You could make ranger daggers be 5100 range and cleave 15 targets.

I like how sword works currently (well, #2 should get rid of the delay when jumping backwards OR evade from the moment I press the key) and use it a lot.

That being said, I like your ideas, Aethersong, so +1 from me.

Fluffball.8307:

I get dying from not dodging, I don’t know how you could throw yourself off a cliff with it though. It only does that if you don’t have a target, which means you’re button spamming on a stealthed or near-death enemy.

95% of people’s sword problems could be fixed by using rhythm instead of spamming 1.

You can easily get thrown off a cliff without “spamming 1” if your target teleports/stealths/evades while you are in the middle of your leap. You can also get thrown off if you have a higher ping (greater than 200 milliseconds will do it on my end) or if you are tabbing between targets, since there is a significant retargeting delay. I often get “stuck” on my old target—even after I stop attacking for a significant period of time, and sometimes even when they are dead.

And remember, the slower you attack, the less damage you are doing with your sword. The mainhand sword’s DPS comes from its autoattack speed. Greatsword does 17% less damage than sword on max-Power DPS rotations; if you are attacking 20% slower due to manual skill activation on mainhand sword (there is always a delay with manual skill activation even when you are spamming the skill, and the delay is worse if you are attempting a strategic rhythm), you might as well be using Greatsword for the damage.

Fluffball.8307:

Scrimschaw.5784:

There is a problem in that daggers have a shorter range and only cleave 2 targets.

You’re thinking of thieves’ daggers. Weapons themselves have no range or cleave ability. Look at ele daggers or mesmer GS. You could make ranger daggers be 5100 range and cleave 15 targets.

Thief and Necromancer daggers both have this property, and they both use physical attacks, rather than “magical” like Elementalist’s daggers or Mesmer’s greatsword. Maxmum weapon range is also based off average weapon length, and you can bet there would be plenty of complaints if Ranger daggers were hitting at Sword range with no visual indicators. While ArenaNet could make Ranger daggers statistically identical to Ranger sword, there is no precedent for this, and this would remove daggers from the Ranger’s potential weapon pool without adding anything new to the class.

Scrimschaw.5784:

Fluffball.8307:

Scrimschaw.5784:

There is a problem in that daggers have a shorter range and only cleave 2 targets.

You’re thinking of thieves’ daggers. Weapons themselves have no range or cleave ability. Look at ele daggers or mesmer GS. You could make ranger daggers be 5100 range and cleave 15 targets.

Thief and Necromancer daggers both have this property, and they both use physical attacks, rather than “magical” like Elementalist’s daggers or Mesmer’s greatsword. Maxmum weapon range is also based off average weapon length, and you can bet there would be plenty of complaints if Ranger daggers were hitting at Sword range with no visual indicators. While ArenaNet could make Ranger daggers statistically identical to Ranger sword, there is no precedent for this, and this would remove daggers from the Ranger’s potential weapon pool without adding anything new to the class.

Daggers on the Necro and Thief have the standard 130 range of melee attacks and only cleaving on 2 targets rather than 3 is not that big of a deal considering Kick on the ranger sword doesn’t cleave at all.

Both the thief and necro daggers were also balanced with the idea that they only hit 1 target. Letting them hit 2 without a damage nerf was generous.
Considering a theoretical Ranger dagger would already hit for low damage, it’s not unreasonable for it to fully cleave.

If you mean sword range as in the 300 range on kick and pounce then good, the point is to not have an auto that hits at that range because that’s what causes the glue problem.

130 is the range required to hit a target at “arm’s length” for characters. Any more and you are locked into a movement script.

Substance E.4852:

Daggers on the Necro and Thief have the standard 130 range of melee attacks and only cleaving on 2 targets rather than 3 is not that big of a deal considering Kick on the ranger sword doesn’t cleave at all.

Both the thief and necro daggers were also balanced with the idea that they only hit 1 target. Letting them hit 2 without a damage nerf was generous.
Considering a theoretical Ranger dagger would already hit for low damage, it’s not unreasonable for it to fully cleave.

If you mean sword range as in the 300 range on kick and pounce then good, the point is to not have an auto that hits at that range because that’s what causes the glue problem.

130 is the range required to hit a target at “arm’s length” for characters. Any more and you are locked into a movement script.

Yeah, I was referring to the kick/pounce range, sorry for not being clear. There are ways of giving the range without animation-locking (throwing daggers, etc.), but I have a hard time seeing it happening.

I just don’t think ArenaNet is going to introduce Daggers as a replacement for Swords without adding…flavor. Plus, introducing daggers as a sword 2.0 limits the Ranger’s potential weapon pool. For example, Sword 2.0 Daggers could take the place of a fast, condition-focused mainhand melee weapon, leaving Rangers with… only the mace? as a potential mainhand melee condition weapon. This also leaves out daggers as an addition for a future elite specialization.

And honestly, I think the lack of cleave on Kick is pretty lame. I would prefer the cleave limit remain as 3 targets (possibly with a decreased cleave radius), even if it isn’t “logical” for a kick to hit 3 targets. IMO, mechanical consistency overrides realism in a game.

I don’t want to see the leap/pounce removed from the sword autoattack. I would like the ability to override movement skills (all of them, not just sword autoattack) with other skills and dodges. Since interrupting movement skills is possible, (weaponswapping, manual interruption like on Light Dash and Dragon’s Surge) the limiting factor is not the game engine but the particular coding of movement skills. Barring that, if the spaghetti code is too much of a hindrance, adding evade frames during animation-locked movement skills is a good temporary bandage. After all, it worked for Revenants.

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

If one is not spamming #1 on sword, then we are literally talking about fractions of a second where you are locked into the animation. I have personally never had an issue during those fractions of a second; I would love to see someone post an actual vid of why the sticky nature of the sword is a hindrance.

So if one isn’t using the auto-attack as intended then there’s no problem?

And frankly, if fractions of a second didn’t matter, then why are the sword 2 and 3 only a fraction of a second long evades? Surely that isn’t enough time to make a difference…

So ALL AA’s are just mindless spam? I don’t consider that fun.

I still want to see where the chain is actually causing an issue, as I have never personally had one, and use the sword a lot. I can’t tell you how many times the leap / chasedown functionality has helped though.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Substance E.4852:

Gotejjeken.1267:

If one is not spamming #1 on sword, then we are literally talking about fractions of a second where you are locked into the animation. I have personally never had an issue during those fractions of a second; I would love to see someone post an actual vid of why the sticky nature of the sword is a hindrance.

So if one isn’t using the auto-attack as intended then there’s no problem?

And frankly, if fractions of a second didn’t matter, then why are the sword 2 and 3 only a fraction of a second long evades? Surely that isn’t enough time to make a difference…

So ALL AA’s are just mindless spam? I don’t consider that fun.

I still want to see where the chain is actually causing an issue, as I have never personally had one, and use the sword a lot. I can’t tell you how many times the leap / chasedown functionality has helped though.

Yes, all auto’s are mindless spam. They are autos specifically because you aren’t supposed to have to think about them.

Whether or not you consider that “fun” is irrelevant.

I’m just going to assume you are being intentionally dishonest at this point because it’s a very easy thing to test by auto attacking the invuln golem while holding the strafe button and see that you will not be able to continuously move in a circle while attacking at the auto rate. “Using the sword a lot” would make this self evident to anyone.

Opinions on whether said glue is impeding aside, claiming it isn’t there at all is absurd.

I would rather see Anet spending their precious time getting shortbow fixed than sword, it’s a useless weapon while sword is not.

Vox Hollow.2736:

I think any advantage it has, could reasonably be achieved in a less irritating way.

Not to be adversarial, but, some of this insistence on keeping this exact precise particular design strikes me a bit silly.

The default expectation with any revision is that you’d still hit all the major points, the weapon would have a skill ceiling, and it would be exciting to play. That’s because having problematic execution on a couple skills doesn’t mean the logic behind the whole build direction is suddenly faulty, Nobody making a game would strive to make an intentionally boring weapon, and design-wise a good skill curve is how you avoid that.

So far my take-away here is “don’t change it, because things can go wrong!”.
Well, yeah, but isn’t that always the case?

I get having worries, but why should that stop us now?

Obviously the sword is perfect right now, which mean “Don’t **** with it!” If it wasn’t, then even the most hardcore sword fans would have enough sense to have the discussion about changing/improving the sword…you know, instead of having a discussion about why we shouldn’t be having the discussion about the sword.

FrouFrou.4958:

I would rather see Anet spending their precious time getting shortbow fixed than sword, it’s a useless weapon while sword is not.

Nah! Anet already fixed the shortbow’s animation bug, so its already good! What you need to do is stop complaining about a weapon that’s in a perfectly good spot right now and learn to play!

I honestly don’t think the sword is as bad as people make it out to be. When you turn off the auto attack on it, you can control it. You have two sources of evasion: one on an 8 second cool-down and the other on 15. With a dagger you get another evasion, the longest evasion in the game, on a 10 second cool-down and a reliable dagger throw. It’s been shown how efficient it is for a ranger to preform up to par, if not better than, the original S/D thief (before the trait patch). 1v1, with the pet, it’s a very powerful weapon.