Guild Wars 2

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

To avoid it. Although you won’t be able to comply so.
Sword is the best DPS weapon for ranger IMO. But the leap and the lock animation is simply really annoying.
Most of the times you will realise that you can’t even MOVE AROUND your target when you are in sword AA. I’m not saying even roll just MOVING. Welcome to the static fight where the only thing you can do is watch the monitor.

And the LEAP is the most annoying thing. If for any mysterious reason you are in the leap stage of the AA and your auto target system choose another target than intended, and that happens a lot because the double click most of the times is unresponsive in this situations, you are going to have a hard time traveling fast and far away from your target.
LEAP is a great skill as long as you have control of it. I would change SW#3 for LEAP anytime. The same leap don’t need even to change the skill.

The LOCK animation with the SW AA is just an insult. Anet stated a lot of times that the combat should be dynamic where the players should be able to dodge and move around to be victorious. SW AA just breach that game policy becoming an static and boring combat.

But because is the best melee weapon the ranger has you will be bound to use it. So welcome to our broken class.

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

Turn auto attack off from the game options. Learn how to use your #2 and #3 skills. One is almost instant, the other has 1 second delay. Learn boss animations to know when they’ll hit.

anduriell.6280:

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

To avoid it. Although you won’t be able to comply so.
Sword is the best DPS weapon for ranger IMO. But the leap and the lock animation is simply really annoying.
Most of the times you will realise that you can’t even MOVE AROUND your target when you are in sword AA. I’m not saying even roll just MOVING. Welcome to the static fight where the only thing you can do is watch the monitor.

And the LEAP is the most annoying thing. If for any mysterious reason you are in the leap stage of the AA and your auto target system choose another target than intended, and that happens a lot because the double click most of the times is unresponsive in this situations, you are going to have a hard time traveling fast and far away from your target.
LEAP is a great skill as long as you have control of it. I would change SW#3 for LEAP anytime. The same leap don’t need even to change the skill.

The LOCK animation with the SW AA is just an insult. Anet stated a lot of times that the combat should be dynamic where the players should be able to dodge and move around to be victorious. SW AA just breach that game policy becoming an static and boring combat.

But because is the best melee weapon the ranger has you will be bound to use it. So welcome to our broken class.

Your inability to play with the sword or move around with it, does not make the weapon or the class broken. If there are people who are doing fine with it, maybe that should tell you to learn how to deal with it. Sword has evade attacks in 2 out of three skills. Coupled with 2 dodge rolls are more than enough to evade any boss attacks. Throw a dagger for the extra #4 evade, and it becomes easymode/thief-like evade spammer.

Also, you CAN move around with it. You can use #3 to move behind the boss, or #2 take a step forward, and #2 again, which will also move you behind the boss. (Not that there are any PvE encounters where you need to run in circles around bosses anyways…..)

All of those methods to circumvent a problem that shouldn’t exist results in a DPS loss. At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

ps. I’ve done all PvE content this game has to offer except the new fractals with a Ranger on a 1h sword. I know how to use it. So please don’t persist with the whole ‘l2p’ argument.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

Turn auto attack off from the game options. Learn how to use your #2 and #3 skills. One is almost instant, the other has 1 second delay. Learn boss animations to know when they’ll hit.

anduriell.6280:

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

To avoid it. Although you won’t be able to comply so.
Sword is the best DPS weapon for ranger IMO. But the leap and the lock animation is simply really annoying.
Most of the times you will realise that you can’t even MOVE AROUND your target when you are in sword AA. I’m not saying even roll just MOVING. Welcome to the static fight where the only thing you can do is watch the monitor.

And the LEAP is the most annoying thing. If for any mysterious reason you are in the leap stage of the AA and your auto target system choose another target than intended, and that happens a lot because the double click most of the times is unresponsive in this situations, you are going to have a hard time traveling fast and far away from your target.
LEAP is a great skill as long as you have control of it. I would change SW#3 for LEAP anytime. The same leap don’t need even to change the skill.

The LOCK animation with the SW AA is just an insult. Anet stated a lot of times that the combat should be dynamic where the players should be able to dodge and move around to be victorious. SW AA just breach that game policy becoming an static and boring combat.

But because is the best melee weapon the ranger has you will be bound to use it. So welcome to our broken class.

Your inability to play with the sword or move around with it, does not make the weapon or the class broken. If there are people who are doing fine with it, maybe that should tell you to learn how to deal with it. Sword has evade attacks in 2 out of three skills. Coupled with 2 dodge rolls are more than enough to evade any boss attacks. Throw a dagger for the extra #4 evade, and it becomes easymode/thief-like evade spammer.

Also, you CAN move around with it. You can use #3 to move behind the boss, or #2 take a step forward, and #2 again, which will also move you behind the boss. (Not that there are any PvE encounters where you need to run in circles around bosses anyways…..)

Maybe i’m not an expert but probably i have a couple of hundred of hours with the sword. So yes, those “tricks” you are sharing with me are apreciated but already known.
The problem with the lock animation is you character is unresponsive when you hit SW#2 or #3 when in AA. You ahve the same responsivness with your ranger in those moments as you have with the F2-F3 for our pets.

If you disable AA you will have to wait until the 2 chained skill goes away what makes you loose DPS and that with the ranger is a death sentece. Once you get in the animation chain there is nothing to do but watch.

This make moving around, dodge or executing any other skill unresponsible having you to wait up to 1 second to be able to execute the command, making you hit the skiil button like mad if you don’t want to miss the oportunity window.
You can watch your animations to know when to hit the skill button but that works 65% of the time.

As i said this class has most of the skills broken beyond usability, making to play the ranger even more difficult that actually should be.

Playing with a guard for example is an easy mode game comparing with the ranger.

Atherakhia.4086:

At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

So what you’re saying is that you just want easymode. Too lazy to work around a unique class mechanic, with the argument, that some other classes have it easier… Nice…

anduriell.6280:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

Turn auto attack off from the game options. Learn how to use your #2 and #3 skills. One is almost instant, the other has 1 second delay. Learn boss animations to know when they’ll hit.

anduriell.6280:

Onizuka.6938:

Im new to the game, what do I need to do to learn to play with the sword?

To avoid it. Although you won’t be able to comply so.
Sword is the best DPS weapon for ranger IMO. But the leap and the lock animation is simply really annoying.
Most of the times you will realise that you can’t even MOVE AROUND your target when you are in sword AA. I’m not saying even roll just MOVING. Welcome to the static fight where the only thing you can do is watch the monitor.

And the LEAP is the most annoying thing. If for any mysterious reason you are in the leap stage of the AA and your auto target system choose another target than intended, and that happens a lot because the double click most of the times is unresponsive in this situations, you are going to have a hard time traveling fast and far away from your target.
LEAP is a great skill as long as you have control of it. I would change SW#3 for LEAP anytime. The same leap don’t need even to change the skill.

The LOCK animation with the SW AA is just an insult. Anet stated a lot of times that the combat should be dynamic where the players should be able to dodge and move around to be victorious. SW AA just breach that game policy becoming an static and boring combat.

But because is the best melee weapon the ranger has you will be bound to use it. So welcome to our broken class.

Your inability to play with the sword or move around with it, does not make the weapon or the class broken. If there are people who are doing fine with it, maybe that should tell you to learn how to deal with it. Sword has evade attacks in 2 out of three skills. Coupled with 2 dodge rolls are more than enough to evade any boss attacks. Throw a dagger for the extra #4 evade, and it becomes easymode/thief-like evade spammer.

Also, you CAN move around with it. You can use #3 to move behind the boss, or #2 take a step forward, and #2 again, which will also move you behind the boss. (Not that there are any PvE encounters where you need to run in circles around bosses anyways…..)

Maybe i’m not an expert but probably i have a couple of hundred of hours with the sword. So yes, those “tricks” you are sharing with me are apreciated but already known.
The problem with the lock animation is you character is unresponsive when you hit SW#2 or #3 when in AA. You ahve the same responsivness with your ranger in those moments as you have with the F2-F3 for our pets.

If you disable AA you will have to wait until the 2 chained skill goes away what makes you loose DPS and that with the ranger is a death sentece. Once you get in the animation chain there is nothing to do but watch.

This make moving around, dodge or executing any other skill unresponsible having you to wait up to 1 second to be able to execute the command, making you hit the skiil button like mad if you don’t want to miss the oportunity window.
You can watch your animations to know when to hit the skill button but that works 65% of the time.

As i said this class has most of the skills broken beyond usability, making to play the ranger even more difficult that actually should be.

Playing with a guard for example is an easy mode game comparing with the ranger.

Every class that has evades on skills, need to “wait” for the animation to finish before doing something else. Except when “immediate” skills are involved, and the only one that comes to mind at the moment is Eles Arcane Wave.

Also, no having to evade a couple of boss skills is not a dps loss. If you do not evade it you will either die or get hit and get low health. You will use a healing skill afterwards, which WILL be a dps loss.

And last but not least, the 1.5 seconds that it might take you to re-position yourself (to get the damage bonus from flanking tactics, or you won’t need repositioning at all) are not going to make any difference. Even if this game had some sort of dps race encounter (where you need to kill a boss within specific amount of time or it becomes berserk and starts 1 shotting people), those 1.5 secs would not make any difference.

The only situation where 1.5 secs may play a difference is on record runs. Record runs that are only being played by less than 1% of the whole GW2 population, and the rangers that are part of them are way too experienced to “waste” those 1.5 secs on sword#2 for example.

ilr.9675:

Soilder.3607:

Yes, it is deliberate and anet has stated so before.

You have to realize that the swords ability to stay on target is insane. And in my opinion it outweighs its minor effect on evading.

#1, I don’t believe you. Sauce, nao
#2, insane WHERE??? … Structured PvP only? most of the people who rolled rangers, never wanted to PvP in the first place. Why do they have to suffer for an advantage that only exists in one tiny little niche mode of the game?

Nice data, pulled out of thin air.

I made My Ranger just with WvW and PvP in mind.

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Atherakhia.4086:

At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

So what you’re saying is that you just want easymode. Too lazy to work around a unique class mechanic, with the argument, that some other classes have it easier… Nice…

Again, why should I have to work around something? Working around it implies it has a negative, unintended effect.

Atherakhia.4086:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Atherakhia.4086:

At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

So what you’re saying is that you just want easymode. Too lazy to work around a unique class mechanic, with the argument, that some other classes have it easier… Nice…

Again, why should I have to work around something? Working around it implies it has a negative, unintended effect.

I only used the term “work around” assuming someone is new to the ranger but not new to the game. meaning he is used to the typical auto attack from other weapons from other classes.

This is how the ranger class is. The effect is neither negative, nor unintended (there have been more than 2 years now… if it was un-intended they would have patched it long ago) since it would be a serious issue.

So if you do not want to “work around” sword’s AA, because you feel like you should not have to, feel free to use another weapon or simply leave the class alone. But do not QQ in the forums about how broken it is. Rangers are far from being broken.

The end.

You give ANet far too much credit. They’ve even said it’s not working as intended in the CDI thread I believe?

I wonder which side of the debate has more supporters.

Atherakhia.4086:

Yelloweyedemon.2860:

Atherakhia.4086:

At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

So what you’re saying is that you just want easymode. Too lazy to work around a unique class mechanic, with the argument, that some other classes have it easier… Nice…

Again, why should I have to work around something? Working around it implies it has a negative, unintended effect.

The only problem with Sword AA is when you start the chain against an invisible opponent, the rest is just L2P issues.

Atherakhia.4086:

You give ANet far too much credit. They’ve even said it’s not working as intended in the CDI thread I believe?

I wonder which side of the debate has more supporters.

If it wasn’t working as intended they would have changed it, but please feel free to quote me the dev reply, otherwise your statement has no purpose other than instigate a false believing.

If you are unable to use a skill as simple as AA you have some serious L2P issues.

I’d rather they just buffed GS some more instead of changing sword. Let those who enjoy sword’s unique play style keep it while giving those of us who don’t like it a viable alternative.

Atherakhia.4086:

All of those methods to circumvent a problem that shouldn’t exist results in a DPS loss.

So please don’t persist with the whole ‘l2p’ argument.

A dead player can’t do damage, so unless you’re planning to do dps sprints a golem dummy, those “methods to circumvent the problem”, as you put it, are nothing more than simply playing the game.

I also play a guardian occasionally and since the account bound fractal and ascended gear, at high level fractal and some dungeons.

Many times i’ve seen my energy bar low, while wielding a sword and thought "where’s my ranger’s #2 #3 skill when I need it? And that’s probably a l2play issue on my end too, because if I’m out of dodges, I probably blew one that I should’ve saved.

On a ranger if I time the animations right I have two dodges plus two get out of jail cards (I almost never weapon swap to break the chain).

Question is, are you humble to admit you can get better at handling a sword?

What more do you want? You’ve come to the forums presenting a problem you’re having. Many testimonials and tips have been given, but you keep the “I don’t like it, change the rules of the game to my liking” attitude…

Honestly why bother, sword thief, warrior, guardian, Mesmer are there for the taking, these are the Ranger Sword rules of engagement: want to permanently snare your target with two on demand evades? Then here’s two leaps for you to manage, deal with it and come on top.

My opinion of the sword, even when ignoring the leap, is it’s a PvE weapon or a condi weapon. I’m not a fan of the weapon for WvW or PvP on my power build and I don’t run condi Ranger.

I can have a negative opinion of a thing and not have a problem using it. There isn’t a L2P issue for me. The argument I’m making is there shouldn’t be a L2P issue for anyone.

But anyway, since I was mistaken… here are your quotes:

Main-hand sword
I just want to clarify for good that main hand sword is currently working as intended. All movement skills cannot be interrupted by dodging and this is currently intentional. It has a very specific play style, and I would like it to remain. I understand that rangers want a one handed melee option that is more mobile, but that will have to wait, as I know there are a mix of players who also like how this weapon plays and I do not want to take away one of the more unique playstyles that we have and replace it with something that is fairly common.

JonPeters.5630:

I just had a wacky idea that might make some aspects of MH sword less frustrating. I’ll test it out when I get in to work and report back.

Jon

So is the weapon working as intended? Clearly. Is it counter intuitive and frustrating? Clearly. Do I care? Apparently more than I should.

Totbot.4583:

I’d rather they just buffed GS some more instead of changing sword. Let those who enjoy sword’s unique play style keep it while giving those of us who don’t like it a viable alternative.

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

EDIT: Also, don’t get me wrong…I see why the thread exists. Most of the game is ‘easy mode’, and when players try MH Sword, it seems utterly broken. It fits ranger perfectly though. Everything is an uphill battle, and if you win…you can say with almost certainty you were better than what you just beat.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

That’s just not true. It’s a revised history put forth by those who refused to see anything positive in the changes Anet implemented. Repeating it doesn’t make it true. The June 25, 2013 release notes are as clear as day:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-25th-2013

• Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Rapid Fire: Reduced the initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Point Blank Shot: Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Barrage: Increased the cripple duration by 50%.
• Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.
• Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.
• Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.

Coincident with SB’s reduction to 900 range, they basically gave Longbow a 20% DPS buff. The autoattack’s rate of fire was reduced from 1.25 sec/shot to 1.00 sec/shot. RF and Barrage were improved as well.

Solandri.9640:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

That’s just not true. It’s a revised history put forth by those who refused to see anything positive in the changes Anet implemented. Repeating it doesn’t make it true. The June 25, 2013 release notes are as clear as day:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-25th-2013

• Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Rapid Fire: Reduced the initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Point Blank Shot: Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Barrage: Increased the cripple duration by 50%.
• Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.
• Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.
• Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.

Coincident with SB’s reduction to 900 range, they basically gave Longbow a 20% DPS buff. The autoattack’s rate of fire was reduced from 1.25 sec/shot to 1.00 sec/shot. RF and Barrage were improved as well.

Oh man, I remember that update. They nerfed bm’s and then shortbow, what a rough day.

This also marked the start of the spirit ranger meta and hambow meta. Can’t believe it was so long ago.

There was the Aquaman patch, but that kind of was invalidated by the whole removal of underwater combat from spvp. I wouldn’t be surprised of the new areas in HoT lack it as well.

Soilder.3607:

This also marked the start of the spirit ranger meta and hambow meta. Can’t believe it was so long ago.

I can with the snails pace of balance patches.

Soilder.3607:

Solandri.9640:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

That’s just not true. It’s a revised history put forth by those who refused to see anything positive in the changes Anet implemented. Repeating it doesn’t make it true. The June 25, 2013 release notes are as clear as day:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-25th-2013

• Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Rapid Fire: Reduced the initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Point Blank Shot: Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Barrage: Increased the cripple duration by 50%.
• Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.
• Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.
• Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.

Coincident with SB’s reduction to 900 range, they basically gave Longbow a 20% DPS buff. The autoattack’s rate of fire was reduced from 1.25 sec/shot to 1.00 sec/shot. RF and Barrage were improved as well.

Oh man, I remember that update. They nerfed bm’s and then shortbow, what a rough day.

This also marked the start of the spirit ranger meta and hambow meta. Can’t believe it was so long ago.

Yeah. That was probably one of the lowest points, together with:

“Pet Leash range increased to 2000.”

I’ve run a Ranger main Longbow/Sword+Torch since Pre and I gotta tell ya… Sword Auto Attack works fine as it is. Try thinking of all 3 skills as part of a set that work together. Yeah, I had to mess around a bit until it dawned on me that sword #2 starts with a jump back (Dodges) for a reason. Likewise, #3 is a “Closer”.

Nowadays I can switch between Longbow and Sword+Torch with ease.

Please don’t change it… the combo is totally Killer.

An autoattack that makes you lose control of your character is a bug, simple as that. Playing from Australia with high latency makes it feel like my character is out of control most of the time.

its not a bug , it does hit>jump cleave>leap the reason it roots you is A Game Animation/combat machanic you cant just turn it off to spam you have to control it properly unlike other AA melee attack most of them really are just spam 111

changing the skills will make it just like everyother weapon that does “cleave” loosing it special mobility and uniqueness.

if you don’t have a target on the 3rd part of the aa chain it will defult to the leap machanic and it don’t chase or leap to a target but leaps in the direction your charater is pointing so make sure the Face/frontal arch on your charater is not facing a cliff and you’ll be fine , turn your camara during the leap retarget and leap back right away or use that range gap widen to gain a ground and Range them , the sword is not a Dps weapon in its overall use .

it is only a dps weapon for PVE content where targets dont move.
for pvp its main focus is for mobility use and dps second.

it is not bugged its simply using game machanics doing their job.

Solandri.9640:

Gotejjeken.1267:

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

That’s just not true. It’s a revised history put forth by those who refused to see anything positive in the changes Anet implemented. Repeating it doesn’t make it true. The June 25, 2013 release notes are as clear as day:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-June-25th-2013

• Long Range Shot: Reduced the aftercast from .5 seconds to .25 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Rapid Fire: Reduced the initial cast time by .4 seconds. Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Point Blank Shot: Increased the arrow speed by 15%.
• Barrage: Increased the cripple duration by 50%.
• Crossfire: Decreased the range to 900.
• Poison Volley: Decreased the range to 900.
• Quick Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Crippling Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%.
• Concussion Shot: Decreased the range to 900. Increased the damage by 14%. Reduced the aftercast by .25 seconds.

Coincident with SB’s reduction to 900 range, they basically gave Longbow a 20% DPS buff. The autoattack’s rate of fire was reduced from 1.25 sec/shot to 1.00 sec/shot. RF and Barrage were improved as well.

No, there is a reply somewhere here by a dev (and its on one of the streams I believe) that literally says they nerfed SB range to make LB more appealing .

You just reinforced the point. The patch notes are part of making the LB more appealing. If you were indeed around back then you would remember the dev reply about the SB, and also would remember the dev reasoning on why they couldn’t make the LB go farther than it does now or the entire game would break (I’m serious).

Well one of the earlier shortbow nerf was an ‘animation fix’ as well as to stating that just using crossfire is not a ‘fun’ playstyle. The exact quote is:

“Took a couple of days to get debugging in on this. It is in fact a 40ms difference which equates to about 7% less damage when spamming 1. We made this change because it was creating some animation bugs to leave it where it was. It was also encouraging just spamming 1 which isn’t the most fun gameplay. If our data shows shortly that shortbow is now not effective we can certainly address that, but would do so by improving other skills on that weapon rather than by reintroducing the spam on 1 and the bugs that it was creating.”

So I can honestly call foul here as they designed the shortbow with situationally useful skills and are surprised that people use the auto attack?

Yeah, they nerfed it because there are two bows and one was the redheaded stepchild since inception. LB was something you saw bearbow hackers use to farm kessex endlessly.

Then we got the ‘animation fix’ and the range nerf, and zero positive updates for the weapon. They have literally ignored it. Is it still useable? Yeah. Is it fair? No.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

its not a bug , it does hit>jump cleave>leap the reason it roots you is A Game Animation/combat machanic you cant just turn it off to spam you have to control it properly unlike other AA melee attack most of them really are just spam 111

Anet have acknowledged it’s something they want to fix.

Atherakhia.4086:

All of those methods to circumvent a problem that shouldn’t exist results in a DPS loss. At what point do we acknowledge that we shouldn’t have to work around a problem?

ps. I’ve done all PvE content this game has to offer except the new fractals with a Ranger on a 1h sword. I know how to use it. So please don’t persist with the whole ‘l2p’ argument.

I find it comical how people read this and completely blazed right over the end there and persisted to tell you to l2p. As if anyone who has spent a decent amount of time in the game and ranger forums doesnt know you’ve been here a while, and likely know HOW to use the sword, and are just trying to make the point that an auto attack requires 10 times the work of any other class to use lol.

I’m with you btw. I know how to use it, but I would love it if they would just smooth out the animations and make it not a full time job.

scerevisiae.1972:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

its not a bug , it does hit>jump cleave>leap the reason it roots you is A Game Animation/combat machanic you cant just turn it off to spam you have to control it properly unlike other AA melee attack most of them really are just spam 111

Anet have acknowledged it’s something they want to fix.

erm no they said it was working as intended but we need to fix some issues with the Leap, rooting animations caused by the game machanics , the skill its self isn’t bugged but the way it communicates with the server for Jumps/leap combinations hence it roots while you are using a jump/leap you can’t move or dodge because its coded into the games machanics.

so this will be a hard issue to fix, that i hope it will Smooth out when the newer HoT gw2 client comes out.

Sword AA is not broken or bugged, it is just, as a max DPS weapon, incredibly poorly designed and directly conflicts with ArenaNet’s stated design goals.

They should nerf Sword damage (it has too much utility for a high damage weapon) and buff Greatsword damage (perhaps at the cost of losing the auto-evade).

Rangers have god-awful focus in their weapon designs, and the few weapons we do have that have a clear purpose aren’t terribly good at it.

Gotejjeken.1267:

Please no. I say that because this is what they did with LB and SB. They ‘buffed’ the LB by nerfing the SB range. So knowing ANet they will ‘buff’ the GS by doing something irresponsible to the MH Sword.

mtpelion.4562:

They should nerf Sword damage (it has too much utility for a high damage weapon) and buff Greatsword damage (perhaps at the cost of losing the auto-evade).

For those who think I am crazy with my ‘nerfed SB to buff LB’…maybe now my point is more clear. At least in this case people actually currently use the GS, so such a situation is less likely to happen. And for that I am thankful.

pls fix sword auto attack anet, no other auto attack roots you in place constantly, this is stupid.

Honestly, now-a-days I’m just indifferent about the lock in place leap. For fights I’m still learning or if I’ve had a bit too much of the Turkey, I just use GS. Although, I wouldn’t mind evade frames for the leap portion of the sword auto attack.

mtpelion.4562:

…They should nerf Sword damage (it has too much utility for a high damage weapon) and buff Greatsword damage (perhaps at the cost of losing the auto-evade).

Rangers have god-awful focus in their weapon designs, and the few weapons we do have that have a clear purpose aren’t terribly good at it.

This is easily the worst suggestion I have seen on the forum, ever. Easily. The auto evade on GS is so good that I would take a damage nerf to it rather than see it go. If you want to damage with your GS, play a warrior. Ranger GS is utility and evasion. Same goes for 1h Sword, but it is damage and evasion. Evasion being the focus of ranger melee weapons, and they do it very very well.

Oh, one thing I would like to see, is the AA chain reversed, so you get a leap gap closer as an opener. Just make the skill not leap unless you are in range.

+1 for the " get good side "

Video games run by frames, in every game there are attacks with slower recovery frames than others. In this game the sword atuo is one of them. And tbh its only the third chain aswell, so you only need to delay or stop the chain.

If it makes you guys feel better, I do fractals often, lvl50 and so on and play sword/dager ~ axe mostly

Ps: Heimskarl Ashfiend, I find your suggestion interesting, and I like it. It doesn’t change the sword atuo atack and makes sense

Sarah

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Oh, one thing I would like to see, is the AA chain reversed, so you get a leap gap closer as an opener. Just make the skill not leap unless you are in range.

How would that work practically though? You get the leap from actually hitting, so there are no gaps to close at that point.

The benefit to the leap at the end is to chase your opponent, as that thing goes really far. It’s sad when our melee weapons have the best chasedown potential.

No what’s sad is that few of us use it.

Soilder.3607:

Silvos.8653:

I dont think this is something they will fix, since it is not broken. The auto attack roots you deliberatly. (I think I read that somewhere, forgot where) You can still get out of the lock by switching weapons.

Yes, it is deliberate and anet has stated so before.

You have to realize that the swords ability to stay on target is insane. And in my opinion it outweighs its minor effect on evading.

With a more tanky build, I’ve never seen this as a problem. Its proven very handy when I’m trying to take away aggro. I don’t have to worry about the boss being kited away by the person I’m trying to take pressure off of.

There are many players in MMOs who, upon getting aggro, run in a panic and lose all sense of what they’re doing. This kind of thing is so common, its just absurd. The ‘OMG get it off me!’ panic kiting run…

This leap on auto-attack is wonderful for that, because you can get onto that thing they’re kiting away, and if lucky or skilled in stealing aggro, take it back to where it belongs.

It also means that when I do dodge… autoattack often puts me back in place.
- Less downtime on DPS from having used dodge.

Kichwas.7152:

Soilder.3607:

Silvos.8653:

I dont think this is something they will fix, since it is not broken. The auto attack roots you deliberatly. (I think I read that somewhere, forgot where) You can still get out of the lock by switching weapons.

Yes, it is deliberate and anet has stated so before.

You have to realize that the swords ability to stay on target is insane. And in my opinion it outweighs its minor effect on evading.

With a more tanky build, I’ve never seen this as a problem. Its proven very handy when I’m trying to take away aggro. I don’t have to worry about the boss being kited away by the person I’m trying to take pressure off of.

There are many players in MMOs who, upon getting aggro, run in a panic and lose all sense of what they’re doing. This kind of thing is so common, its just absurd. The ‘OMG get it off me!’ panic kiting run…

This leap on auto-attack is wonderful for that, because you can get onto that thing they’re kiting away, and if lucky or skilled in stealing aggro, take it back to where it belongs.

It also means that when I do dodge… autoattack often puts me back in place.
- Less downtime on DPS from having used dodge.

ahahaha it’s funny how ppl try to make out for a bugged weapon attack.

• Roots you in place. No command can be given at any time, you can not dodge, you can not use any other skill until the animation ends that’s about 1 second (kick+leap) . Same effect as immobilize and that’s idiotic 1 second immobilized every second and half.
• Leap is not reliable. some times decide to jump any other direction except the one where you enemy is actively tagged. Another times it does not work at all, and instead close the gap decides to stop the chain right there.

So yeah, sword#1 AA need fixing ASAP. We use it because there is not other option for DPS, being an spike damage class our only chance to get out alive from a fight is to do as much damage as possible as soon as we can with the hope to kill it quickly. GS is really slow and the DPS is not good as the SW even with the maul. I have yet to see the evade from the GS working in a real combat.

Gotejjeken.1267:

How would that work practically though? You get the leap from actually hitting, so there are no gaps to close at that point.

The benefit to the leap at the end is to chase your opponent, as that thing goes really far. It’s sad when our melee weapons have the best chasedown potential.

It would work in the exact same way, you would just get the leap at the beginning of the chain instead of the end. It goes, Slash, Kick, Pounce, repeat. Reversed it becomes Pounce, Kick, Slash, repeat. The kick gives the cripple to let you hit the next attack. Even if you miss because they dodge and the chain restarts (which it could) then you would still just have to press 1 again to have the gap closer to start it again.

It would essentially be exactly the same, except I think it would be easier to break the chain to dodge or use other skills, but you still retain the leap for chasing and also gain an initial gap closer.

What would also be cool is if when you used Hornet’s Sting, it becomes Monarch’s Leap until you use it and not swap back after a couple of seconds, that could then be an additional (leap finisher) you can use to gap close or enter battle.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

mtpelion.4562:

…They should nerf Sword damage (it has too much utility for a high damage weapon) and buff Greatsword damage (perhaps at the cost of losing the auto-evade).

Rangers have god-awful focus in their weapon designs, and the few weapons we do have that have a clear purpose aren’t terribly good at it.

This is easily the worst suggestion I have seen on the forum, ever. Easily. The auto evade on GS is so good that I would take a damage nerf to it rather than see it go. If you want to damage with your GS, play a warrior. Ranger GS is utility and evasion. Same goes for 1h Sword, but it is damage and evasion. Evasion being the focus of ranger melee weapons, and they do it very very well.

Oh, one thing I would like to see, is the AA chain reversed, so you get a leap gap closer as an opener. Just make the skill not leap unless you are in range.

I get it, you like feeling like you are superior to the newer players who haven’t figured out how to bypass the incredibly bad implementation of the sword’s attack chain yet and you don’t want your faux superiority removed by them fixing something that is clearly wrong.

You’re a human, so it is perfectly natural for you to want to preserve your ego’s fragile status. It’s basic psychology which allows us to operate in groups, so I don’t fault you for it. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to expose you for it though, because making the game better is more important than protecting the egos of a few players who want to feel superior to the others.

mtpelion.4562:

I get it, you like feeling like you are superior to the newer players who haven’t figured out how to bypass the incredibly bad implementation of the sword’s attack chain yet and you don’t want your faux superiority removed by them fixing something that is clearly wrong.

You’re a human, so it is perfectly natural for you to want to preserve your ego’s fragile status. It’s basic psychology which allows us to operate in groups, so I don’t fault you for it. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to expose you for it though, because making the game better is more important than protecting the egos of a few players who want to feel superior to the others.

Haha, you just read the 1st sentence didn’t you? I wasn’t even talking about the Sword AA… I was talking about your suggestion to remove the evade from the GS for more damage… And also that you said ranger melee weapons have god-awful focus. The evasion is the focus. Its a bad suggestion because removing the 1s evade from the 1.75s AA chain on GS would be the worst nerf to Ranger ever.

mtpelion, Heimskarl is right. The GS has lower damage and a very defensive autoattack. The sword has high damage and a very aggressive autoattack. The devs have confirmed that the sword is not bugged. This is an intentionally aggressive weapon.

It sounds like you’re trying to force the two weapons autoattacks in to roles they don’t belong in and are getting angry at the wrong thing. You’re trying to fix a leaky faucet with a chainsaw.

Again, I see enough of both of your posts to know that you both want to protect your “leet feelings” here, so I’m not going to engage you in your attempts to distract.

With staff being added, we have a new route to potentially go for melee PvE, which could be good. Staff can absorb the defensive role, greatsword can become the DPS weapon and sword can maintain its PvP/WvW utility.

Turn down the hostility, buddy. I’m trying to help you see how the devs created two distinct weapons here.

Try taking a double melee build. PvE, WvW, whatever you’re comfy with. Use the sword when you’re not in danger and want to punish and pressure your opponent (especially if they’re trying to flee in WvW). If you get yourself in to danger, immediately swap to the GS.

That experiment will highlight the two weapons’ best attributes. Yes, you can use the sword extremely defensively, but I’m talking basic autoattack and learning the core intention of the weapon. I think you’ll very quickly see why the devs have said the sword is working as intended. If you try this experiment, I think you’ll grow to like the pressure the sword applies, and you’ll very quickly see how the GS is meant to be defensive.

And just to reiterate, I’m talking about autoattacks here. You can play the GS very aggressively once you start delving into the other 4 skills, and sword can be extremely defensive as well.

mtpelion.4562:

Again, I see enough of both of your posts to know that you both want to protect your “leet feelings” here, so I’m not going to engage you in your attempts to distract.

With staff being added, we have a new route to potentially go for melee PvE, which could be good. Staff can absorb the defensive role, greatsword can become the DPS weapon and sword can maintain its PvP/WvW utility.

I’m not “leet” at all.

Sword AA gives me lots of trouble, believe me it is hard to control, no doubt, but if you turn off the AA it becomes much more manageable.

Proof of my inability to use Sword AA well, but look how much damage I avoid by having the evade on GS AA.

To change the GS to DPS would ruin it, it already has bursty DPS in the form of Maul, then it has defense in the form of Counterattack, then CC from Hilt Bash, mobility and evasion from Swoop and the AA is medium damage with evasion too, and the evasion is amazingly awesome that to lose that would kill the weapon.

I feel I should apologise for saying your post was the worst suggestion ever, I should have worded it differently so as to not be a kitten about it.

I’d rather they remove the evade on auto and buff the Swoop evade one way or the other, either increasing the duration or reduce the skill CD.

Why on earth would you want evade on AA removed? It’s the only weapon in the game with it and it is fantastic!

Actually the spear for ranger and mesmer (they use the exact same auto chain) third attack evades as well, but Anet want to forget they ever put underwater combat in the game.