Guild Wars 2

Now, many people, including me, have been pushing for a rework of the sword. Many others have said that they are fine with the sword as it is. I’d like to ask why that is.
Which skill is most iconic for the sword, which skill defines it the most?
What is the most useful skill?
How often do you use the skills and why are you using them?

Here is an example:
1) The most iconic skill for me is the second one. Monarch’s Leap and Hornet Sting add the most maneuverability to the sword’s kit.
2) Again the second one. It can be used as gapcloser.
3) AA – to attack stuff
HS & ML – to close gaps
Serpent’s Strike – when trying to evade big hits (wont work most of the time)

1) Pounce is the most iconic by far. Also the best part about the sword, when you turn off the AA.
2) Serpent’s Strike – when evading big hits (it works when the AA is turned off)
3) Hornet’s/Monarchs for the manouverability.

Pros:

• Might for pet from AA
• Cripple on target from AA
• AA sticking to a target
• 2 extra evades
• 1 extra mobility maneuver
• Poison

Cons

• Can’t interrupt AA animation to dodge roll … sitting duck for PvP burst for ~0.5 seconds each during the 2nd and 3rd animation.
• Delay on the Hornet Sting … so a delay on both the evade and the movement … seems unnecessary and makes it feel a bit clunky … which is how the AA feels with being uninterruptible (by the Ranger suing it … others can interrupt it, lol).

The only two things I don’t like are the non-cancellable nature of the auto-attack and the fact that serpent’s strike is clunky during the attack portion (doesn’t hit as consistently as something like stalker’s strike).

Other than that I’m pretty much fine with it. Hornet’s sting→monarch’s leap is used more for mobility than actually fighting most of the time, but it can be nice to combo with fire or water fields.

I am using the sword mainly in PvE and I can’t really support the notion of being able to dodge reliably when using the AA. Either the AA transitions poorly into Serpents Strike, which lets my Ranger only evade if the aftercast of the AA was finished, or the boss was simply not visible due to particle effects to tell when to disrupt the AA (I can tell what attack the enemy is going to do, but too late to cancel the AA). Ofcourse you can get around that by using an offhandskill and immediately dodge, but I think that is rather a workaround than an intended mechanic.

As for PvP, I’ve watched some videos of Frou Frou kiting multiple players with the sword, what I noticed is that she almost never took advantage of the leaps on the AA, but rather using Hornet Sting to keep the enemies at bay.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Hornet’s sting->monarch’s leap is used more for mobility than actually fighting most of the time, but it can be nice to combo with fire or water fields.

One thing I’ve been screwing around with on my double melee build is using the fact that ML scoots you slight further forward than HS moves you back, as long as the target isn’t selected. You can drop target, HS, ML (hitting the target both times even though it’s not selected) and then weapon swap, hot key select the target, and press 5 which will automatically orient you and land a stun instead of daze with hilt bash. There aren’t a ton of scenarios where you can actually get a stun instead of daze in a 1v1.

The sword is could be an amazing weapon if it wasn’t for the auto root. I like how it leaps to follow a target, the leaps are cool, serpent’s strike is awesome.

The problem is really that you can’t easily break out of the animation once it starts which makes it a huge liability in dungeons and wvw. You’ll get caught in and leap of ledges, into enemies etc.. I don’t feel like turning off auto attack and spamming 1 to make it functional either.

if they allowed us to break out of the animation at will with simple WASD it would be great. But having to use 3 or dodge to break the animation chain is TERRIBLE.

You can see in the last clip here how ridiculous it is. I was trying to get out of the chain but didn’t manage it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmuHeVBIfg

I was confused about how your video was pertinent until the fight at the end … lmao.

Honestly, I wouldn’t mind the leap being removed if it meant we gained more control over our character. I can stick to my opponents pretty darn well with melee weapons with my other classes and they don’t have canines helping to keep the target locked down.

sword on ranger is horrible. cant dodge while autoattacking and the #2 skill has a long casting time, it should be instant (its a dodge after all, should be extremely responsive)

I am reminding myself of a suggestion that was made long time ago. It was along the lines of removing the jumps on the AA but giving the second one more jumps if you’ve hit a target. So you can still stick to a target if needed but without being rooted.

I’ll try to dig it up.

I love the part of the sword when your main target dies after 2nd hit and you select another target during the chain reaction.

-Your character will jump 400 units away and if it didn’t hit anyone – it will recast the 3rd hit on the target you selected.
It looks cool when you jump in such a rapid manner around, leaping to your target eventually.

It’s rare and not efficient but I love it when it happens.

Sublimatio.6981:

sword on ranger is horrible. cant dodge while autoattacking and the #2 skill has a long casting time, it should be instant (its a dodge after all, should be extremely responsive)

Why horrible? Use Skill 3 if you have not enough time for skill 2. Its casting time is short enough to dodge most Attacks of PvE Enemies. E.g. you can evade every attack of Alpha in CoE without using a single dodge.

vespers.1759:

The sword is could be an amazing weapon if it wasn’t for the auto root. I like how it leaps to follow a target, the leaps are cool, serpent’s strike is awesome.

The problem is really that you can’t easily break out of the animation once it starts which makes it a huge liability in dungeons and wvw. You’ll get caught in and leap of ledges, into enemies etc.. I don’t feel like turning off auto attack and spamming 1 to make it functional either.

if they allowed us to break out of the animation at will with simple WASD it would be great. But having to use 3 or dodge to break the animation chain is TERRIBLE.

You can see in the last clip here how ridiculous it is. I was trying to get out of the chain but didn’t manage it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjmuHeVBIfg

Hahaha, that kitten made my day xD

Tornupto.2304:

Sublimatio.6981:

sword on ranger is horrible. cant dodge while autoattacking and the #2 skill has a long casting time, it should be instant (its a dodge after all, should be extremely responsive)

Why horrible? Use Skill 3 if you have not enough time for skill 2. Its casting time is short enough to dodge most Attacks of PvE Enemies. E.g. you can evade every attack of Alpha in CoE without using a single dodge.

That’s the same as saying “Why use skill 3? You have dodge roll.”
… because sometimes #3 is on cooldown and you don’t have dodge rolls. In a good fight, you should be strapped for cooldowns and endurance … else your opponent isn’t giving you a good fight.

What do you expect of PvE enemies? I’m not talking about PvP.

I don’t care which you’re talking about … your argument was flawed.

“why use that evade as an evade?” was your question … well, the obvious answer is “because that’s what it is … an evade”.

1. Serpent strike – it evades and attacks so is the perfect counter to many attacks, like guardian weed whacker skill (2 on GS). You can also roll behind someone who hits you in the back.

2. Monarc’s Leap – Great to create distance or switch targets in group fight. Hit 2 change target, hit 2 again. Also to create distance when you need to get out of the fray. 2, throw torch, weapon swap.

You must disable auto attack, disable auto targeting, keybind change target and deselect target.

Fluffball.8307:

Yamsandjams.3267:

Hornet’s sting->monarch’s leap is used more for mobility than actually fighting most of the time, but it can be nice to combo with fire or water fields.

One thing I’ve been screwing around with on my double melee build is using the fact that ML scoots you slight further forward than HS moves you back, as long as the target isn’t selected. You can drop target, HS, ML (hitting the target both times even though it’s not selected) and then weapon swap, hot key select the target, and press 5 which will automatically orient you and land a stun instead of daze with hilt bash. There aren’t a ton of scenarios where you can actually get a stun instead of daze in a 1v1.

I’ve been using it untargeted as well, if for no other reason than to combo fields properly. But you can kind of get a sense for the spacing to be able to still hit your enemy on the leap in. I’ve hit enough random moas running around WvW with it to just have a bit of an intuitive sense for it.

Interesting idea with the GS combo though. I might have to try that out.

Tragic Positive.9356:

I love the part of the sword when your main target dies after 2nd hit and you select another target during the chain reaction.

-Your character will jump 400 units away and if it didn’t hit anyone – it will recast the 3rd hit on the target you selected.
It looks cool when you jump in such a rapid manner around, leaping to your target eventually.

It’s rare and not efficient but I love it when it happens.

With a dagger in OH, you can make the sword style look like a dance if there are enough mobs to jump around to. I usually select another target before the current one is dead and use the pounce or other skills to move to it while the pet finishes the last one. Sometimes it just looks so nice and fluid I have to stop and appreciate how good sword can be when you get it right for once.

So I’d like to update this thread with a first version of what I have in mind when thinking about updating the sword:

Auto attack:
The AA stays the same, exept that the leaps get removed. Maybe the cripple- and might duration can be buffed to make up for the loss of the leaps.

Hornet Sting, Monarch’s Leap
These skills will change quite drastically. To start of, both leaps will now go forward. In addition, a third leap will be added, that can only be used if you hit a foe while using the previous leaps. So if you chase a foe and you hit him once, you can then use the third leap. You could also hit an ambient creature to get the third leap. All leaps should cripple for a short while. The cooldown of this skill should be slightly longer, however, the cooldown should already start ticking when the first leap is used. Also, the uptime of the following leaps should be way longer, so you don’t feel forced to use the leap eventhough there is no reason to do so.
To top this of, if a leap is used in melee range (if you would move not one bit by using this skill), the leap will go through the target and put you on the other side of your target. Furthermore, if you used the first leap of the chain to position yourself on the other side of the target, the skill resets and you can use the first leap again. So you are able to hop around your target constantly.
Obviously, the leaps would still do (way) less damage than the AA’s.

Serpent’s Strike:
This skill should either be shortened or the evade frame should be lengthened to match each other.

I like everything of the sword.

#1: you can remove target and leap away, far far away. You can stick on someone for ever too. Also highest dps ability for ranger.
#2: mobility at his best
#3: evade big hits and apply poison.

Sword is one of the best weapon for spvp as it is for both power and condis rangers in term of survivability.

I like the fact I don’t have to use it.

Ranger Sword AA skills are a result of lazy design pure and simple. Don’t feel like changing the skill after removing an OP knockback? W/E who cares!
Lame and disappointing.

I’d really hate to see the leap gone from sword, it really is the best thing about it and unique to our sword. They could make the animation easier to break, that is all that is needed.

New movement changes , Sword 2’s leaps are going to be amazing for kiting now, only makes me love it more.

Pounce is by far the most iconic part of sword.
I totally feels you with swords auto attack when you have the AA enabled.

Few tips with sword 1 is you can dodge at any time by wep swapping, canceling the animation and allows to dodge. Personally I just turn AA off because you can use your kick and pounce for mobility if you drop target and its much more controlable for dodging.

I think the only thing that needs to be changed in the attack chain is the kick locking you. It’s already a single target skill and really doesnt bring much to the table. I’d rather kick have a smaller ranger and be able to dodge during that frame without having to cancel the attack.