Guild Wars 2

With the balance patch coming up soon, could we please consider changing the Sword and Axe main hand autoattacks to condition based attacks?

Currently the only true main condition weapon we have is the Shortbow, however since our main condition damage dealer is an offhand weapon (Torch, not counting traps for this) then it feels odd to have only power based weapons to pair with it.

Both Sword and Axe have conditions tied to their alternate attacks but the autoattack hits like a wet noodle with no power stats.

We currently have Greatsword, Longbow, and Staff as power based main weapons so it wouldn’t be too much of a loss to the power side to swap them.

As for the pairing for Warhorn, perhaps making the Sword a dual-damage weapon similar to the Warriors Sword autoattack would be a good compromise as it deals decent power damage whilst applying bleeds.

Sword is not a condition weapon and never meant to be. Ppl take it because it offers short cd evades and a leap, just because it has poison application does not mean it has to get overhauled to be a condition weapon (poison is good regardless of your stats because of it’s effect).

Ranger has 4 condition based weapons: mh axe, shortbow, dagger, torch and 5 power weapons: sword, greatsword, longbow, oh axe, warhorn (ok this is a utility weapon but i am counting it as power because of hunter’s call).
Making sword more akin to hybrid builds would probably mean it gets nerfed in the power department (and anyway mh axe is suppose to be the hybrid weapon as evident by the axe trait).

I understand the need for a better hybrid main hand, but if anything it should be axe that gets buffed along side shortbow, and maybe staff be the one to get a overhaul to a hybrid set.

foste.3098:

Sword is not a condition weapon and never meant to be. Ppl take it because it offers short cd evades and a leap, just because it has poison application does not mean it has to get overhauled to be a condition weapon (poison is good regardless of your stats because of it’s effect).

Ranger has 4 condition based weapons: mh axe, shortbow, dagger, torch and 5 power weapons: sword, greatsword, longbow, oh axe, warhorn (ok this is a utility weapon but i am counting it as power because of hunter’s call).
Making sword more akin to hybrid builds would probably mean it gets nerfed in the power department (and anyway mh axe is suppose to be the hybrid weapon as evident by the axe trait).

I understand the need for a better hybrid main hand, but if anything it should be axe that gets buffed along side shortbow, and maybe staff be the one to get a overhaul to a hybrid set.

Whilst it was never meant to be, having Sword as a hybrid would make it much more desirable, allowing it to be used with Warhorn or any of the condition based offhands without drastically nerfing many builds. (since Greatsword already offers adequate power based attacks and a gap closer)

Also, as you said, it is mainly used as an evade spam but swapping would give condi builds a viable main hand damage dealer. Right now, power users have 2.

Though Staff would be alright as a condition option, my main issue was the lack of melee-ranged condition main hand weapons and Axe only being 2/3rds of a condition weapon and is drastically missing the main 3rd component. For two-handers we do have the Shortbow so I didn’t think we’d particularly need a second when we’re missing a one hand main condition weapon.

Edit: Thinking about one of your points, poison is useful to both power and condition builds and since it now stacks intensity, having it be the addition to the Sword autoattack could be a nice compromise.

The issue with making sword a hybrid (and this is if we assume the power side of it then gets nerfd) will be that power builds will have no one handed main hand weapon to use and pair with oh axe or warhorn, basically it will put power players in the same position condition users are in now.

And although it has a power based aa, main hand axe is not a power weapon as it scales poorly with power on all skills and is meant as a hybrid set (burst bleeding and snaring). This is the reason i think mh axe should be the one out of the two main handed weapons pushed more towards condition builds, because it already sort of is that but it lacks umf.

That would only be the case it if gets nerfed drastically on the power side, if it gets a small decrease in power damage, I don’t think it would prevent power users from using it with their OH weapons.

You are right about the Axe being terrible to use with power based builds so at least swapping that to condition based should be a no brainer.

How about they just fix our ‘condition’ weapon of SB to be of use again?

psizone.8437:

foste.3098:

Sword is not a condition weapon and never meant to be. Ppl take it because it offers short cd evades and a leap, just because it has poison application does not mean it has to get overhauled to be a condition weapon (poison is good regardless of your stats because of it’s effect).

Ranger has 4 condition based weapons: mh axe, shortbow, dagger, torch and 5 power weapons: sword, greatsword, longbow, oh axe, warhorn (ok this is a utility weapon but i am counting it as power because of hunter’s call).
Making sword more akin to hybrid builds would probably mean it gets nerfed in the power department (and anyway mh axe is suppose to be the hybrid weapon as evident by the axe trait).

I understand the need for a better hybrid main hand, but if anything it should be axe that gets buffed along side shortbow, and maybe staff be the one to get a overhaul to a hybrid set.

Whilst it was never meant to be, having Sword as a hybrid would make it much more desirable, allowing it to be used with Warhorn or any of the condition based offhands without drastically nerfing many builds. (since Greatsword already offers adequate power based attacks and a gap closer)

Also, as you said, it is mainly used as an evade spam but swapping would give condi builds a viable main hand damage dealer. Right now, power users have 2.

Though Staff would be alright as a condition option, my main issue was the lack of melee-ranged condition main hand weapons and Axe only being 2/3rds of a condition weapon and is drastically missing the main 3rd component. For two-handers we do have the Shortbow so I didn’t think we’d particularly need a second when we’re missing a one hand main condition weapon.

Edit: Thinking about one of your points, poison is useful to both power and condition builds and since it now stacks intensity, having it be the addition to the Sword autoattack could be a nice compromise.

Greatsword is more of a defensive weapon with CC, blocks and evades. Its overall power dps output is far below sword

psizone.8437:

With the balance patch coming up soon, could we please consider changing the Sword […] autoattacks to condition based attacks?

No, not if the direct damage of sword gets nerfed in the process, which you seem to be fine with.

daniellepierce.9718:

Greatsword is more of a defensive weapon with CC, blocks and evades. Its overall power dps output is far below sword

I’d say it’s more of a control weapon as Sword has more lower cooldown evades which makes it easier to disengage with.

The autoattack of the Sword is definitely higher dps wise but Greatsword has more burst potential.

OGDeadHead.8326:

psizone.8437:

With the balance patch coming up soon, could we please consider changing the Sword […] autoattacks to condition based attacks?

No, not if the direct damage of sword gets nerfed in the process, which you seem to be fine with.

Not largely, a small nerf to compensate wouldn’t be awful as Sword autoattack definitely has damage to spare.

Ideally, in my mind, they wouldn’t change the power damage and just add the condi onto it. I’d probably want them to go with poison as the addition as it deals the lowest damage as a condition so damage-wise it’d only really benefit a condition build.