Guild Wars 2

Warhorn axe is getting fairly boring and i want to try out the sword. Whats your guys take on the 1h sword. I feel like it could be give some kind of stun. And the way the roll venom attack works causes it to miss 90% of the time.

I don’t end up caring what it does, because I just can’t get over the fact I’m CCing myself.

I like 1h sword, its fast and at times i’m doing more dmg with it than my bow. Situational and fun to use! great for dodging attacks. mix with warhorn and/or torch

The sword would be great, and I would be using it even as a main weapon, if it didn’t immobilize me and prevent me from moving and dodging. Fighting a ranger that is using a sword is like getting a free immobilize condition on your target. Using a sword right now is suicide, even against npcs, since you can’t avoid their heavy attacks.

They should remove the cripple from the chain and allow us to move and dodge freely, I think it roots you because for some reason they thought it would balance the free cripple.

I’m fairly confident anet will remove the rooting mechanic, as I don’t think they would want a weapon to be useless, question is just when.. hopefully not months.

The sword is great and my favorite weapons. If you can predict and react you will be right at home and it’s some of the most satisfying gameplay ive had out of GW. i’m level 67 atm

I like the sword as well, but it’s not useful for pvp until it stops rooting you in place. Once it starts attacking you’re just helpless and you either wait for the monster to die or for you to die, permanent immobilize isn’t good.

Zsymon.8457:

I like the sword as well, but it’s not useful for pvp until it stops rooting you in place. Once it starts attacking you’re just helpless and you either wait for the monster to die or for you to die, permanent immobilize isn’t good.

it also sticks to your target, so it is still valuable in one of your wep slots. It also has very mobile abilities

I keep dying whenever I use it against tougher mobs, simply because I don’t get to avoid any damage at all, even tanky guardians and warriors need to move around to avoid heavy hits.. and in pvp being immobilized means you die, simple as that. So no, I don’t consider it valuable at all.. an axe is far more valuable. It also completely contradicts the game philosophy of reacting, dodging, moving and tactical play, since it prevents you from doing all that.

There’s a difference between one skill rooting you for a bit, like 100 blades, and being totally locked down in your auto attack chain, without even being able to end the chain to stop and move, once it starts it just roots you until either you or your target dies.

You can’t expect people to turn off auto attack and mash their “1” key until it breaks, and even if you turn off auto attack then your movement is still severely limited, since each seperate attack still roots you for its duration. Turning off auto attack just results in slightly more movement and a lot less damage, it is by no means a solution, it is horribly clunky and counter-intuitive. All I can do is hope they fix it, because I really want to use the sword.

I run with Sword / Torch (Longbow for range) exclusively and I really enjoy it even though it is kind of annoying and buggy. It proved to have worked very well for me and other weapons I feel are more limiting.

I turned off auto attack… lol and it works well! I mash that button HAHA but its not that bad. I’d rather have the option to evade and stuff. Without auto attack on, it does immediately stop after whatever step in the chain you stop at.

I’m more annoyed at the lack of gap closers that alot of classes seem to have. Even guardian has a teleport sword skill, even though that is kind of thief-ish/mesmer-ish? The greatsword has a swoop but I like off hand weapons. Right now I’m getting by with this weird makeshift technique – as the Hornet Sting rolls back first before the actual Monarch Leap which has incredible range and distance – without anything selected, i about face turn away from target and roll back, before spinning around to Monarch Leap lock on LOL. It covers great distances. And it has fast enough cooldown to use it again soon in combat. Still it’s dumb.

The skills are buggy, whereas we need the responsive evasion skills, hornet sting roll back is slow to execute, Serpent’s Strike misses half the time, even attack 1, with the whole leaping forward to your target if it moves or switching to the next nearest target, sometimes causes you to over jump…. It’s more buggy than horrible skills I guess.

However I still prefer the sword, it’s just something that suits me. I love the damage I can do, the crippling effects of the attack 1 chain. Clears out swarms (tougher mobs too in my case) in PvE very well. It’s a fun weapon if you can live with the inconsistencies and some dumb things about it and really try double as hard to dodge and evade when you need to.

1 Handed Swords are great.

Here’s how to use it for the CC yourself QQers.
Step one – Turn off Auto Attack
Step two – Learn not to button mash
Step three – See step two
Step four Profit.

The evasions and conditions it applies make it great for a condition build, plus the 3rd auto attack actually increases condition damage. It’s not your layman button mashers weapon. If you think you can resist the urge to button Mash, it may be the weapon for you.. if not, May I introduce you to the axe.

the sword doesn’t really self root you. Once you move to the 2nd chain, you are rooted for the duration of the animation (which is small and quick) then your ‘pounce’ to your opponent (should the move away). If you need to ‘move away’ you can always use the 2* skill and leap back (but don’t hit two again) and then switch to a ranged weapon, or another weapon set.

The longsword is, by far, the burstiest weapon in our arsenal. Combined with quickening Zephyr, it does more damage for the 1* skill than axes, short bows, or long bow (rapid fire). However, its use is severely limited, because you must 1) be in range 2) self sacrifice your ability to heal, and 3) your limited to 1 target.

Axes are ranged and can hit up to 3 targets, applying bleeds. Their 2* ability (richochet) applies 5 bleeds, more with sharpening stones, and even more on crit.
The three skill chills them, which is nifty when timed correctly. You can move while hitting people with it, but again, your damage is weaker than long sword. But you can alos get combo fields off axes as well, not so much with long swords.

I really shouldn’t have to turn off auto-attack to make a weapon viable.

I dunno. I want to like mh-sword on the Ranger, but it always feels so…awkward to use that I just end up keeping with my greatsword. For whatever flaws that weapon has, gs manages to feel far more responsive and less annoying to use.

Grakor.3450:

I really shouldn’t have to turn off auto-attack to make a weapon viable.

I dunno. I want to like mh-sword on the Ranger, but it always feels so…awkward to use that I just end up keeping with my greatsword. For whatever flaws that weapon has, gs manages to feel far more responsive and less annoying to use.

I use it with auto attack and do just fine. if you know your enemy patterns, you have more than enough evade frames

About AoE damage, the sword in its fundamental basic attack, actually applies damage to more than one enemy at one time. Especially if you have them clustered together, it slashes everything within range and the sweep of the strike. I really dig that, helps clear out swarms with my torch very well and along with dropping a trap or two, you become this big storm of AoE damage (albeit kind of self-sacrificing indeed), then you can always dodge out to switch to ranged when you need

Has Arenanet said anything about whether the locked in place thing is a bug or on purpose?

I remember seeing some guy say that they said it was a bug they are looking into but I can’t remember where and he didn’t provide any links.

just bought a sword off the ah earlier and im having a great time with it. I dont have auto attack off and the leap away if you know how to use it well is amazing for wvw fights as you can create huge distance by using the 2 skill then untargeting and using the skill again in the direction you want to move. Then you can switch to your bow again rinse and repeat. People that say it roots you turning off autoattack is key. you can stop yourself from doing certain aniumations and it will allow you to adjust to situations better. Just takes more practice to do well.

If there ever was a 100% idiot proof way of dying in a dungeon, 1h sword would be it. It’s just hands down the dumbest weapon to ever use where you might need to dodge.

I use sword/torch as my secondary weapon set and I love it. I mainly use longbow, but switch to the sword whenever enemies come into melee range.

I think the main thing that stops it being frustrating for me is that I rarely use the autoattack except against very weak enemies. What I normally do is use my longbow unless/until they close in, then switch and use Bonfire, Serpents Strike, Throw Torch then Hornets Sting, then having put myself back at range (and given my longbow skills time to recharge) I switch back and carry on with the bow.

Although having recently discovered that you can disable auto-attack for just 1 weapon set I’m going to try that too.

Sword and axe is my main melee combo as a ranger.

People complain about it “rooting” you in place, although it doesn’t. just makes you stick pretty hard to the target. Turning off auto attack makes that much easier to avoid. Personally I use auto-attack and have no problem, since the two other skills on the sword are evasive attacks. I use Hornet’s Sting to jump away from big slow attacks and give myself some time to heal or switch weapons, and Serpet’s Strike to do more standard dodges. In PvP I use the sword to just roll and dodge all over the place to keep people looking for me.

You can also combine the sword with a dagger and have 3 evasive attacks at a time, which is what I use when I’m going to be fighting in dungeons, makes me a pretty dodgy tank when needed. Combine that with a shortbow and you have 4 dodges plus your two rolls.

We’re all hoping they fix the self-CC from it’s autoattack. If you take #1 off auto, you will avoid the self-root. That aside, Sword is a lot of fun. I pait it with Torch and a porcine pet for some nice aoe damage and fire auras. Plus the evasion is great. Just be aware of your surroundings…don’t evade off of a cliff. I still haven’t yet but I’ve heard horror stories.

I agree with most here (80 ranger): the animation needs to be looked at. I’d also add that I have in fact evaded off of cliffs and bridges in the heat of the moment. It’s… disheartening.

It’s one thing to be situationally aware. It’s an entirely different matter to have a restricted camera, a skill that changes the length of the push based on the terrain, and many, many not-so-obvious pieces of geometry that make a difference to have to calculate, all in the middle of a battle. It’s just too much to expect out of most people and I think it needs either some more details added or some safeguards built in.

If it was “channeled” so that you held down the key to determine how far away you leaped maybe? But that makes diminishes how quickly if functions, which for an evade skill doesn’t make as much sense as an instant skill.

Anyway, I still use it since I got an exotic 1hs and it’s my highest damage option for main hand melee at the moment, but it definitely needs some love by the devs.

i’ve been running a high toughness-condition build focusing on surviving instead of dps.

i switch between shortbow and sword/warhorn. i usually have a fern hound, healing salve, and traps (last utilities are for signets, speed and toughness)

if you know how to use it properly you can dodge 5 seconds worth of dps and get away clean with maybe 1-3 hits on you.

my guild mate plays warrior, does a run at you combo (Which stuns) and pulls out greatsword for hundred blades (usually kills what ever target he attempts to hit). i can essentially dodge the entirety of that combo then lay a spike trap (to slow him down). switch to bow stun, then slow and keep circling him. if he catches up to me again i simply pull out my sword again, hawk him, dodge and repeat.