Guild Wars 2

As long as I’ve been playing ranger I’ve always wanted sword to work, it does to some stretch but the sword skill 2 and 3 have always bugged me.

I’m going to start with skill 3 – This skill has never worked and never will work. If something moves a slight distance it doesn’t connect. If something doesnt move a slight distance it still might not connect. Aside from an extra dodge there is no reason to hit this button and half the time it just puts you some where you don’t want to be.
This skill has been useless for 5 years and is going to still be useless.

Can we please for the love of god just get it made the same as the last hit on the great sword chain? or something. Even if it became an aoe evade swipe that throws poison on I highly doubt that would break balance but it would make the button some what worth pressing.

Sword 2 almost works but it just seems a little whack to jump back then forwards – its worse that the forward jump suffers the same problems as sword 3 because it hardly ever connects.

Ive got 2 fixes to this, the first is reverse the skill so it’s a gap closer (you know like every other sword has) or reduce the dodge from the first part of the strike.
Pretty sure you could add some kind of pet buff with this skill too and not break a power budget.

Make the darn sword more usable and not just an auto chain spamming weak old power weapon!

well to be honest sword and axe off hand is the main source of dps for power builds .
sword got remvap so you might check it out if you did not play along time ago

I think the issue here is you are assuming that sword 2+3 are meant to be DPS oriented abilities and they are not. Both of these abilities were clearly designed with defensive utility in mind more than DPS…and in that regard they serve their purpose very well. I do agree that DPSing with a sword is very boring because it is auto spam, but in situations where you actually need the evades, like PvP…these abilities are great.

I always viewed Ranger Sword as a nimble style for alternating between dodging away from an opponent to knock him off balance, then dive in and smash his face with reckless abandon until he gets himself together and you have to dodge again. It’s how I’ve always used it, and it’s worked well for me.

I’ve played sword for most my career as a ranger, I was pretty happy when they took away the animation lock that would some times get me killed.

If you’ve played sword as much as I have then you would have to agree sword 3 fails to connect way too often and sword 2 whilst it might be a good disengage really isn’t helpful for anything

I’ve played countless hours using sword and I so rarely end up pushing those buttons because using a dodge roll is more effective and you lose way too much damage.

Lets be real here, if you’ve used the sword a lot all you know its good for is doing raw damage and it even fails at that to a degree. 2 + 3 are really good for hardly anything.

If I want to evade the great sword really does outshine it due to the auto attack chain, even if you can’t fully control it the up time just beats out the sword.

Being nimble and quick might be fun but it really serves no purpose in a game with dodge rolls unless you need to evade 4 times in a row which seems a little over the top.

I’m not crying for a damage boost, I’m crying for sword 3 to do something more than be a glorified dodge roll charge and for sword 2 to be more than…..a glorified dodge roll

I’m still not sure why they can’t up the second auto attack in the chain to hit up to 3 targets and a reduced activation time for Hornet’s Sting. ½s to ¼s can make a difference between evading an attack and being struck by it.

I think there should be no “reset” time between Hornet Sting and Monarch’s Leap, so that you can setup to have either available whenever you want, eg you can use Hornet Sting so that Monarch’s Leap is available as a gap closer whenever you want, when you use ML, then HS becomes available one more.

Then, add a knockdown to ML.

There was a post I wrote on the current S/W meta build explaining why it’s used in PvP.

I do remember how bad Sword was in 2012 though, that lock on the Kick got me killed more than once.

Warhorn 5 interacts with Staff water field (Area Healing), and gives an unblockable buff to pet, which you can use with Electric Wyvern to interrupt blocks (press F1 before F2 to re-align the charge), or just swap to Smokescale for a burst. [Traited Warhorn 5 also gives Regen to earn Celestial Avatar’s Astral Force.]

Warhorn 4 allows you to apply Poison at range in this set, when you pick the trait Refined Toxins in Wilderness Survival. Great trait, and as Frosty mentions, the poison is a lot of your pressure.

Sword 3 is a free dodge you can use while immoblized, the Poison is a bonus.

Sword 2 can be combined with Staff #3 Ancestral Grace for burst mobility. Bind “About Face”, and press that before Sword 2 to let the backward evade go forward; then manually turn your camera around/press About Face again to face forward and complete the 2nd leap. [You can also click your LMB to clear target and lock camera before About Face so that it turns your character but not the camera. Press Sword 2, then hold RMB to turn the character forward again to complete the 2nd leap.]

Sword auto can be combined with Warhorn 4 to chip away at people. You have a lot of Fury and your pet does too. You passively proc Poison and make people waste CDs trying to clear it for heals (or they don’t). Pay attention and dodge with Sword 3 or roll when enemy uses important skills, you are great at stalling 1v1s and 1v2s.

Smokescale F2 interacts with Sword 2 leap finish and Warhorn 5 blast finish, so you can stealth, heal up, re-position and keep trolling. Have an eye on your lizard dog so you know where to leap to after you pop F2.

While LB can just plain decap someone by rooting them off-point, S/W is better at keeping a node capped and surviving on point; and Druid can now do that easily with how good Wilderness Survival has become (WS/NM synergy).

Not saying it can’t be better but Sword is extremely useful if you’re playing Mender bunker (Jroh build). Just now in ranked (at 1468 rating, nothing special) I was playing with a Warrior (he’s being whittled down; why Warrior tho) on mid point, out of dodges and a DH was charging up LB #2. A quick glance at the skill bar tells me I have Sword #3 ready. I evaded LB #2 + JI + Test of Faith with it, switched to staff and evaded his LB #3, and I was in position to stomp the Warrior (Staff #5) when a teammate came to +1 me. Great day, didn’t screw up my dodges (not like I’m in danger with how much sustain this build has).

none of this solves the issue of sword 3 missing over half the time, it’s just another dodge roll – why can’t it just be like the great sword chain end swing?

nimble my kitten
It’s awkward and clunky. I use sword in spvp and it works alright. But I think it sword 2 gets interupted too easily due to the cast time. That little stutter step with the first press of 2 and then again with the 2nd leap (hate it). More time to use the 2nd leap, yes please.

I’d be much more comfortable with it if it worked as well as staff 3, a guards teleport, a thiefs steal or infilitrator strike

Sw 3 is awkward to use as well if you’re on a point you don’t want to step off of.

That would be the dream, if you can use #3 as an on-demand evade that poisons and allows you to move while swinging. Do note that it’s a “better” (debatable term if you have Wilderness Survival’s super-powered Protection-on-dodge-with-healing) dodge roll since you can use it while immobilized.

For #2 it would also be nice to have evade frames towards the front portion or just tighten up the animation (the stabbing), more time to leap (adjust positioning so you can leap into fields).

Kerivek.5740:

I think the issue here is you are assuming that sword 2+3 are meant to be DPS oriented abilities and they are not. Both of these abilities were clearly designed with defensive utility in mind more than DPS…and in that regard they serve their purpose very well. I do agree that DPSing with a sword is very boring because it is auto spam, but in situations where you actually need the evades, like PvP…these abilities are great.

My dream would be Sword 2 becomes a forward forward leap skill -3-. (1st leap gives brief evade)

Backward leap really is awkward, especially with such slow animation before the backward roll. If it’s as fast as thief’s backroll I may not be to annoyed by it, but it’s like it takes half second before it starts backrolling, which is very clunky..

For sword 3 I would rather it be like dagger’s evade, just a quick stab with evasive frame instead of this slow animation..

Ranger’s sword really need to be upgraded to like Thief’s staff.
Every evasive frame and animation are responsive and fast with all the staff’s evasive frame. Both staff 3 and staff 5 are awesome on demand evade and position control unlike our clunky sword.

I have to admit, I had been pondering playing around with sword and axe as the switch from my greatsword. Reading this is making me strongly second guess this. The main thing that gives me pause is that stupid evade movement. I hate my character moving without my having initiated and run it. I end up facing weird directions and in places I didn’t always intend.

Regarding skill 3…

One thing I’d note here is that thief sword/dagger 3 has a similar theme (roll around the target and attack from a new angle), but I’ve never had the problem landing that skill that I’ve had landing ranger sword 3. Which suggests to me that ranger sword 3 can be fixed by giving it the behaviour of thief sword/dagger 3. It might still be something that is more useful for the evade than for the strike, but at least there’s a good chance that strike will actually hit.

For skill 2… I do like the idea of the flipover being permanent until you use the new skill. Heck, with that mechanic, they could just make ML the initial skill and HS the flipover (it’d probably be how most people will use it anyway) – but because the flipover is permanent until the new skill is used, it would be easy to keep HS up for the disengage when you want it.

Billy.1879:

As long as I’ve been playing ranger I’ve always wanted sword to work, it does to some stretch but the sword skill 2 and 3 have always bugged me.

I’m going to start with skill 3 – This skill has never worked and never will work. If something moves a slight distance it doesn’t connect. If something doesnt move a slight distance it still might not connect. Aside from an extra dodge there is no reason to hit this button and half the time it just puts you some where you don’t want to be.
This skill has been useless for 5 years and is going to still be useless.

Can we please for the love of god just get it made the same as the last hit on the great sword chain? or something. Even if it became an aoe evade swipe that throws poison on I highly doubt that would break balance but it would make the button some what worth pressing.

Sword 2 almost works but it just seems a little whack to jump back then forwards – its worse that the forward jump suffers the same problems as sword 3 because it hardly ever connects.

Ive got 2 fixes to this, the first is reverse the skill so it’s a gap closer (you know like every other sword has) or reduce the dodge from the first part of the strike.
Pretty sure you could add some kind of pet buff with this skill too and not break a power budget.

Make the darn sword more usable and not just an auto chain spamming weak old power weapon!

Have a better suggestion. Make hornet sting a standalone. So you can use it as an evade whenever you want. Monarchs leap is the first of the second chain. Sword would have a gap closer and a disengage plus some built in evade.
I like the abimation change on serpent strike you suggested, would help with the targeting a lot.

Or alter Hornet’s Sting to an evading dash that strikes foes it passes through with an ammo count of 2, ammo count recharge of 8s, and cooldown use of 1s.

Streamlines both moves into 1 move, still provides the ability to use it twice for escapes/travel, and enhances it to hit multiple targets.

Preferable to use Monarch Leap’s damage, coefficient, cripple effect, and leap finisher combined with Hornet Sting’s sound and hornet effects upon activation (for thematics).