Addressing the Warrior's "Hundred Blades" immobility issue: a proposal
in Warrior
Posted by: Thanatos.5102
Hello guys, this is my first attempt to collaborate to the forum’s discussions. Let me fisrt take the time and congratulate everybody for a vibrant community, I am a 10-years veteran in MMOs, having played almost anything that has come out all these years. This is the first time that I find such a mature and welcoming community where people discuss their concerns aroung their game and there’s actually a chance that the developers will take all these suggestions under concideration for future updates (at least that’s the word on the street about AN’s dev team, I hope they live up to their reputation).
Coming to my point, after leveling my Warrior I will briefly describe my conserns aroung the known issue with GS lack of mobility. Given the usual GS build the main damage skill when using a GS is the 100B skill. GS 1 is a very nice opener, especially with the vulnerability it applies, GS 3 is also nice for some mobility + dmg but not to a single target since you’ll only land a couple of hits as the skill is mobile, GS 4 is perfect for some crippling when chasing and GS 5 is also very nice as a gap closer (even if the hit doesn’t always land but that’s another thing). On the same time the Adrenaline skill is a medium damage skill that however is not worth executing when you take into concideration the usage of Adrenaline for +12% damage (Berserker’s Power) and extra heal amount (Healing Surge) etc etc. and only gives you +20% crit chance which we usually get from “Great Justice” or “Signet of Rage”.
So we come to the conclusion that GS 2 aka 100B is the main source of damage when using a GS BUT is requires a Warrior to stand still (!!) while his target remains mobile – 100B can be avoided by simply stepping back 2 steps, not even dodging is required. This cannot be acceptable for a mellee fighter. Take into concideration here that the various Traits (Slashing Power & Forceful Greatsword) make the GS the no.1 weapon choice for a Warrior.
Now to address that our Warriors are improvising using:
a) Bolas and then a gap closer and then 100B (takes too much time to execute from the small amount of time that Bolas lasts, Time on Target is minimal)
b) Bull’s Charge and then 100B (too much time again is wasted with the animation of BC and the knock down lasts even less than the Bolas so again the Time on Target is minimal)
c) Flurry from a secondary set with a Sword and a weapon change, which is actually a very interesting choice but requires the secondary set to be a Sword/something (not bad as a choice however since it provides interesting mobility and defence capabilites along with a shield or a mace).
From all these 3 choices I personally prefer the 3rd choice for an obvious reason: more Time on Target from Flurry’s immobilize, more channeled damage from 100B which – I say again – is the main damage skill of the GS.
So problem solved right? No, since you need to take a lot of steps to make 1 simple thing to happen: keep a target at bay for the amount of time is takes to apply 1 skill’s full damage. One proposed change? Make 100B a mobile skill, for some reason AN felt that it should not be as such. A second proposal? Read below.
My proposal, and I hope that someone from AN even takes a look at it is very simple: exchange the Adrenaline skills between GS and Sword. I propose that the Flurry skill is added to the GS weapon skills, call it whatever you want, the animation/logic could be an uppercut hit with the GS’s hand grip that will stun/immobilize the target for 4 secs as Flurry does (bleeds are not required here thus should be ommited). By using it you give up the so much wanted Adrenaline thus lowering the damage you deliver BUT you gain a very much needed condition for a successful 100B: a stationary target !
On the same time giving the Sword’s build the Arcing Slice Adrenaline skill you gain a much appreciated higher critical chance while using a weapon that does less damage than the 2-handed ones thus would need a higher critical landing chance to compensate. Should you feel that it is fair, you could even add a Bleed condition too, AN would have to decide whether this is needed or not as to better balance the damage output.
I am sorry for the long post, I know many of you might not read it but I feel there are some intesting points in there that you would like to discuss. Let me know what you think and again I hope that AN would cherish the time and effort we take into debating this game and take these suggestions at least under consideration. After all we are using our energy to enhance their product, which will mean more success to them (and to be fair, a better game experience to us of course).