Guild Wars 2

I tend to use LB and some kind of melee and I found that swapping just doesn’t seem to flow. Not nearly as well as it does on my DD/AF necro.

First is LB (or even SB) and the 1H sword. Swapping weapon sets in combat puts an eight second CD on swapping. With the 1H sword, Hornet Sting causes you to evade as you jump back from the target and this is an opportune time to swap to range and fire off some skills there. The problem is that after using Hornet Sting, you have just 2.5 seconds to use Monarch’s Leap but the swap CD is 8 seconds. It would be nice if Monarch’s Leap was available by the time you swapped back.

The other is with the LB barrage. This is a pretty good skill to use if within melee range. Unless you trait for it and the enemy is lined up in a row, the other skills are just not AoE. With sword and torch, you can put out some really good AoE on a group of enemies. The problem is that you will want to start with the bow because you want to end on your sword and torch. It would be nice if you could start out with the sword and torch, switch to the LB to cast Barrage then switch back as soon as you are done casting.

But how can you do this without throwing the other balances out?

I think that they should consider “If/Then” situations.

Eg.

If I swap weapon sets after casting Hornet Sting, then the 2.5 second availability is paused until I swap back. The exceptions would be;

Being put in the downed state or dying, and
Exiting combat.

If Barrage is the first skill you use after swapping weapon sets, then the swap CD is instantly reset. Same exceptions apply.

These “If/Then” situations can apply to all the professions in various ways as I’m sure they all have similar situations where the mechanics just don’t seem to flow as naturally as it should.

I wouldn’t mind if Monarch Leap’s available time was longer … almost as long as the skill’s actually cooldown … as this would open the doors for more variability in play.

However, ArenaNet would have to be careful as I could then:
[Hornet Sting] → [Wait almost 8 (or 6.75) seconds] → [Monarch Leap] → [Immediately Repeat]

I don’t think that would be too powerful as that is quite a gap in which no damage is being done (unless you have some ranged damage from your off-hand) besides from your pet and maybe some conditions. Also, the cooldown could kick in from when Monarch Leap is used.

That all being said, I’m currently happy with the current incarnation of this skill.

Additionally, weapon swap is 10 seconds, not 8. The ways to reduce it are via Runes (reduce by 1s) or Warrior’s Fast Hands trait (reduce by 5s) … I really which Ranger had Fast Hands as it is such an awesome trait to have.