Guild Wars 2

Please note, I use problem loosely, I might be seeing the bad, rather than the good.

I typically run LB/GS, so when I tried sword and got stuck attacking, I was frustrated. I see that the cause seems to be the kick/pounce part of the animation. All the skills like it (like savage leap) are not part of the auto attack chain, so as soon as they are done we have control again. I am at a loss as to how this can be fixed. I would think about a replacement, but the animations are cool and unique, and scrapping them would be a waste. So what are your guys’s (pretty sure I messed up there) thoughts?

I am hoping that HoT release my bring some changes/fixes to the original professions, but if they aren’t planning this they may give it to us at a later date.

Turn off auto-attack (CTRL + Mouse 2 IIRC).

kitten , turning off auto-attack is not the solution. you still self-root/lose control of your character during the 3rd skill in the chain.

The loss of control is even worse when playing with high network latency, eg: playing from Australia.

When playing from australia, using sword, with or without auto-attack enabled, my character is close to unplayable. The controls are so unresponsive I might as well be watching a youtube clip of someone else playing my character.

It’s totally kittened and it kittens me right off that this piece of kitten coding/design was allowed to pass QA, let along the fact that kitten all has been done to improve the situation in 2.5 years.

Yeah what were you thinking living in Australia?! Didn’t you know that you should completely base your life around a video game? Seriously why the hell haven’t you moved to the states yet?

I play ranger in Australia. Only have middling issues with latency. Sure, it has its problems but I somehow get by…in PVE only

Azrael.4960:

I play ranger in Australia. Only have middling issues with latency. Sure, it has its problems but I somehow get by…in PVE only

I couldn’t care less about PVE – it plays itself, and in PVP, sword just isn’t viable for me. Losing control of my character is #1 on the list of things i definitely want NOT to happen.

Just make the auto-attack chain skills interruptible by a dodge, and write “TODO: fix ranger animation bug when there’s really nothing else to fix” on a post-it note. And burn/lose/eat the note for all i care.

I play from australia as well, best way to deal with it is getting to know when you can and cannot dodge in the chain, getting the timing down on serpent’s strike and hornet’s sting to break out and evade. I don’t struggle with it much now days and my ping well.. it’s pretty bad XD

The auto may be very clunky but to be honest I consider it more of a condi weapon in PvP and therefor requires little 11111111111, not to mention that once you get used to the controls it can be extremely useful for its hornet/monarch especially against pesky thieves. All in all it’s still one of the best PvP weapons available to ranger.

While being annoying like crazy in PvE, the sword’s sticky AA is a godsent gift in PvP.
It takes some time to get used to it, but it’ll be awesome, if someone tries to run away from you – because he/she can’t.

Some truly skilled players loose the target during the AA chain to bounce all over the place, if they need some distance.
Pop a “Lightning Reflexes”, hornet’s sting/monarch’s leap and switch to the GS and swoop for good measure and you’ll be miles away from your opponent.

2 things, that instantly breaks the AA animations are switching to a different weapon set (Tip: Bind weapon-swap to the “Shift”-key) and the skill “Lightning Reflexes”.

As much as I agree with you, and despite ANet acknowledging it’s a PITA, it’s working as intended. Time to cease this crusade and take up a new one.

Perhaps asking for buffs to Greatsword so it’s a DPS alternative to 1h Sword.

Good luck crusader!

Practice? Maybe?

Many people, myself included, love the sword aa.

It can be frustrating at first but when you learn how to use your evades properly it is one of the most unique weapons in the game.

What sube dai said.

Plus adapt and overcome mate.

Ariete.6509:

What sube dai said.

Plus adapt and overcome mate.

That’s not a good argument for why it should stay the same. Just because you CAN adapt to the weapon doesn’t mean you should HAVE to.

Personally I think the best fix is to get rid of the root and make the chain interruptable to dodges. Problem instantly solved.

Or you can keep the root, but add and evade while you are rooted.

Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.

Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.

It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.

Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.

It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

Zenith.7301:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.

Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.

It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

pve is only 1/3 of the game.. sword works fine in 2/3. There is no need to change sword. PvE is so easy, you can use any weapon and do fine.

I <3 Sword. Please don’t change it.

(Well, maybe add something else to Monarch’s Leap.)

I’m in the middle myself. I’ve already adapted to using the sword and use it in both condition and power builds, but I understand the issue and would not be opposed to a solution.

IMO, the problem is that there are two roots. The leap on third chain would be easier to deal with for the greater majority if it wasn’t chained from another root. I think a fair middle ground would be changing the second AA to a slash that doesn’t root. Maybe compensate by dropping the first AA down to .25s cast time to make a more fluid slash > slash > pounce.

Why do people use the term root here? You aren’t rooted. Use it against someone running away from you and you will lock on to them. If you were rooted, you’d stay in place. Like..immobilize roots you. Like…trees have roots. You know, things that do not allow you to move at all.

What is being termed root here is actually a zero distance leap. You are locking on to your target, however if they are not moving then you will be locked in place.

This is precisely why the weapon cannot just be changed. You lose a LOT of chase down potential if you remove those chain skills.

Zenith.7301:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.

Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.

It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

Serpent strike does interrupt the animation.

Sube Dai.8496:

Zenith.7301:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Don’t spam 1 and disable auto attack. You don’t have to press 1111111111 repeatedly as fast as possible to succeed.

Press it once, stop. Repeat. When the situation is right, go for the full attack chain.

It’s not a broken weapon it’s just difficult to use. Thief sword isn’t much different. Have you ever tried teleporting with that thing? It looks a lot easier than it is.

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

Serpent strike does interrupt the animation.

Not during the midair leap, I’ve noticed the delay and it only gets worse in high load environments like WvW.

Playing the Caithe story mission on my alt reminds me what sword evades should feel like. They should be fluid without these input delays.

Siobhan.3582:

Zenith.7301:

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

pve is only 1/3 of the game.. sword works fine in 2/3. There is no need to change sword. PvE is so easy, you can use any weapon and do fine.

sword doesn’t work in WVW either, so that’s 2/3rds of the game the weapon in broken in. And since we’re talking about sPVP, that’s really only 1/10th of the game anyway, and a decent proportion of us don’t think it works well there either.

It’s the only weapon in the entire game where you lose control of your character for ~40% of the time while executing the #1 chain.

You lose control of your character whether you turn auto-attack off or not. It’s not arguable, it’s clearly broken.

The only reason sword sees any use at all in PVP is the evades, and some people have been willing to work around the brokenness. By not attacking. That’s not a solution.

Everyone stands to benefit from sword #1 not causing loss of character control during auto-attack, it’s just that some are afraid of change.

The argument from anet is that it’s strong in pvp.

It’s not strong in pvp.

scerevisiae.1972:

Siobhan.3582:

Zenith.7301:

Spoken like a true PvP guy who doesn’t have mobs’ attacks hitting him for 7k+ damage.

The sword needs to work so dodge and serpent strike/stalker strike can be activated mid animation.

pve is only 1/3 of the game.. sword works fine in 2/3. There is no need to change sword. PvE is so easy, you can use any weapon and do fine.

sword doesn’t work in WVW either, so that’s 2/3rds of the game the weapon in broken in. And since we’re talking about sPVP, that’s really only 1/10th of the game anyway, and a decent proportion of us don’t think it works well there either.

It’s the only weapon in the entire game where you lose control of your character for ~40% of the time while executing the #1 chain.

You lose control of your character whether you turn auto-attack off or not. It’s not arguable, it’s clearly broken.

The only reason sword sees any use at all in PVP is the evades, and some people have been willing to work around the brokenness. By not attacking. That’s not a solution.

Everyone stands to benefit from sword #1 not causing loss of character control during auto-attack, it’s just that some are afraid of change.

Do you know why you are locked in to the chain?

Look, I kill many, many people in WvW with the sword just fine. The ONLY issue I have is the startup delay on hornet sting. Reduce that and there is nothing wrong with the weapon IMO.

robertul.3679:

The argument from anet is that it’s strong in pvp.

It’s not strong in pvp.

Anet themselves have said they want to fix it, but this was back in October last year…

Gotejjeken.1267:

Do you know why you are locked in to the chain?

Look, I kill many, many people in WvW with the sword just fine. The ONLY issue I have is the startup delay on hornet sting. Reduce that and there is nothing wrong with the weapon IMO.

Isn’t the delay due to the stabbing animation? Maybe lose that and move the damage into Monarch’s Leap.

Sube Dai.8496:

Many people, myself included, love the sword aa.

It can be frustrating at first but when you learn how to use your evades properly it is one of the most unique weapons in the game.

Sooooo it’s unique. You people always want to be unique. I want something that is responsive and adaptable. Sue me, alright.
…
It reminds me of the kittenty answer some dev guy gave on the CDI thread. “We like the idea behind the sword, so it’s all good”. I wanted to scream No it isn’t, you dipkitten.

Anyway, the grandmaster mindbrain said it – as always – perfectly: you learn to deal with it. After all, you can dodge between 1-2 and 3-1, plus lightning reflexes and the other sword/d skills break you out of the aa chain – so it’s not too bad.
Orrr you can be a moron like me, try to swap to gs, forget that you have a lb instead and spam 1 in melee range for 10s like a bearbow.
#howtosuck

There’s no way to “fix” it other than changing the 2 leaps, really <.< I wish they’d just switch the weapons around. Greatsword as main damage and sword as mobile/evade/hybrid weapon.
Yay, more hybrid weapons! We need them badly! If I think that we’re getting a staff… a STAFF…
/gags

scerevisiae.1972:

…
Anet themselves have said they want to fix it, but this was back in October last year…

They have said? Do you have a quote or something?

I’d have to look at it, but what I remember was Peters went from stating it was fine and working as intended to “I’ll look into it” and finally “passing it on” after trying to mess with it himself and then there has been no word about it.

I can only guess that it take a bit of coaxing to get him to look/post on the ranger forums after the excitement of jellyfish color/skin change and the “big changes” aquaman patch (which demands a do over as they have given up on underwater combat)

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

scerevisiae.1972:

…
Anet themselves have said they want to fix it, but this was back in October last year…

They have said? Do you have a quote or something?

Why don’t you look it up? It was by Jon Peters why should he do the work on a quote a year ago just because you’re skeptical.

Zenith.7301:

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

scerevisiae.1972:

…
Anet themselves have said they want to fix it, but this was back in October last year…

They have said? Do you have a quote or something?

Why don’t you look it up? It was by Jon Peters why should he do the work on a quote a year ago just because you’re skeptical.

Calm down. I’ve just asked and there were no hints where we can find it.

Bran.7425:

I’d have to look at it, but what I remember was Peters went from stating it was fine and working as intended to “I’ll look into it” and finally “passing it on” after trying to mess with it himself and then there has been no word about it.

I can only guess that it take a bit of coaxing to get him to look/post on the ranger forums after the excitement of jellyfish color/skin change and the “big changes” aquaman patch (which demands a do over as they have given up on underwater combat)

But they fixed Hawk and Eagle icons back then too, we don’t need any more fixes because that was all we ever needed!

The rooting just sucks, I literally could watch how I went down during Tassa or what she’s called (SE1) used her AoE, I was trying to dodge out for two seconds and it never happened, even the kitten monarch’s leap or what it’s called didn’t work, that stupid animation kitten should stop. Yeah I know I can change weapon blabla, sorry, but that’s simply not well thought out game design.

FrouFrou.4958:

But they fixed Hawk and Eagle icons back then too, we don’t need any more fixes because that was all we ever needed!

Icon fixes, that’s some AA grade improvements there, how was ranger even playable before that.

If they’re going to make us lose control of our character, they could at least make it a leap finisher.

It’s time for it to change. It’s been a fun, unique weapon, but it’s just not as efficient or useful as other AA’s.

I’d rather see GS buffed tbh