Guild Wars 2

So in light of some posts made by Chaplan on the sPvP forums, they got me thinking about how can the Greatsword be improved? CAN it be improved much more? Some do not like the rooting effect of Hundred Blades, and some have built their playstyle around the high risk/high reward of it. I’m a little biased in that my main go to weapon is the GS in every piece of content I play. Dungeons, WvW, PvP I use GS.

I can’t really think of anything that feels fundamentally wrong with the GS. I enjoy the high risk of rooting yourself at a level 48 fractal to get off HB then Whirlwind out at just the right time to avoid being 1 shot. The playstyle of it really appeals to me. For PvP I admit I rarely land the full HB chain without any other skills to set it up, but it’s also good to know that I can basically fish a dodge out of the person on the receiving end most times.

Lately with the Cleansing Ire trait I’ve been using my Arcing Slice more and more to cleanse off harsh condition stacks in WvW instead of always saving my burst for Longbow. The fury from Arcing Slice is certainly useful, maybe realized to me even more so now because of that new trait. So what effect would switching Hundred Blades and Arcing Slice have? Honestly the thought of this scared me at first. In reality though, You wouldn’t have to rely on another multi-hit weapon to spend adrenaline anymore If you’re blinded, assuming Hundred Blades stays multi-hit as a Burst skill. If the root effect was removed, more consistent hits could mean more potential damage than before. However removing the root would take away the high risk/high reward feeling which I personally enjoy. Moving Arcing Slice to Skill #2 would still keep the essence of having access to Fury within the GS, and you’d have it available even if you’re Burst isn’t up.

This also means that a big chunk of adrenaline will be missing as Hundred Blades feeds a LOT of adrenaline back for the Greatsword. Limiting HB to only how much adrenaline you can accumulate might have a big impact on damage as well.

I also have to admit that I feel Greatsword has fallen into the shadow of some other weapons that were updated recently for Warrior. Maybe that’s just them becoming more in line with the Greatsword though.

Would Hundred Blades work as a burst skill? Any thoughts about Arcing Slice?

Zagerus.8675:

Maybe that’s just them becoming more in line with the Greatsword though.

I think this is spot on. One of the possible causes of GS having a presence in most PvP builds is a lack of adequate balance against other weapons. GS is still a very strong weapon, but with the Hammer aftercast reductions and addition of Final Thrust, other weapons are beginning to see more use, which is a good thing.

As far as Arcing Slice moving to the #2 slot, keep in mind that you wouldn’t be getting up to 15 seconds of Fury from that skill. It could end up looking more like Dual Strike on the Axe; which as we all know, doesn’t get much love from the community. Also, 100b IS the strength of the GS. It doesn’t have great sustained damage. It has great mobility and great burst on a controlled target. By making 100b less accessible, you are reducing GS’s overall effectiveness.

GS burst: Has to be replaced or moved to somewhere else. Making GS burst like a HB damage is a great idea -with full adrenaline that is-. Or make the GS burst pull your target towards you, the more adrenaline, the further the distance of the pull up to 1200 range.

GS auto: I’d rather have the dps of axe auto than the current one. That or add chill,immob but not cripple.

100b: 3.5 seconds being stationary is unacceptable with other opponents near by. Anyone can respond during 3.5 seconds and thus ruin your 100b. Reduce channeling time while maintaining the damage OR reduce channeling time, reduce damage and provide evade like the mesmer Or make it instant burst but I’m afraid the damage then would be so weak it wouldn’t be worth it.

GS3 : good as is.

Sword 4 It should be an ability to pull your target towards you or pull you towards your target. Lots of professions can pull the target towards them when they aren’t melee yet warriors can’t do that and they are the main melee class.

Sword 5: it should be either a bull’s charge or like the charge of rampage.

bro, u said it the problem is adrenaline building.
if you use a ranged weapon as second, like rifle or sb, takes ages to build adrenaline, and i kinda like doing 20k dps with that short cooldown.
i really doubt you can build enough adrenaline to compensate the loss, the cooldown itself of the burst is long enough to make this choice undesireable by far.
also, i speak about pve mostly, never really been into wvw or pvp to judge, but idon’t think that there are additional benefits there we don’t see in pve.
with all the folks runnin a gs warr, i see a huge ++itstorm if they ever do this lol!

Arcing Slice is in need of a facelift however you look at it. Anet has already stated that they are looking at ways to change it, but that’s been going on for a while. Who knows how long its going to take….

I feel that 100b could be updated more simply to allow movement during the move, except inflicting 1/2 damage while on the run. Do you choose to remain still and get the extra DPS? Or to reposition and do half damage on the next hit or two?

Arcing slice is sort of an anomaly among burst skills. It does slightly less damage than auto attacking a single target, regardless of adrenaline level. It also has the downside of only hitting a single target, whereas auto can hit up to 3. The fury is alright, and syncs up well with forceful greatsword, but if you’re running SoR and FGJ though, the last thing you really need is more fury. Overall its not terrible, but it’s not worth using unless you’ve got nothing better to do with the adrenaline.

People have discussed moving 100b to the F1 button for ages now, but at this point I’d rather just see 100b allow movement at the cost of DPS, and have arcing slice updated to be a 1s knockdown (matching the overhead swing animation) or small launch (matching the uppercut skill description). That might be sorta OP however….

100b in fact..is a bad designed skill. I don’t think that gs should be about multi hitting skills. I actually stated there that hb should be removed and replaced with counterblow of ranger gs, and arcing slide buffed to be close in terms of damage to evi with kd and weakness. Its win=win.

As for kd – 1second.

The reason they reversed Arcing Slice changes was because they said many builds would be sacrificing damage to get damage (ie. losing Berserker’s Power/Heightened Focus to gain Fury and Might). However, that was when both traits were Adept tier. With them being moved to Grand Master, I think the conflict still exists but to a much lesser degree. Arcing Slice being changed to provide good duration on Fury and multiple Might stacks could be a valid option now. That change in addition to our increased mobility in Discipline and Arms trees would greatly reduce player reliance upon SoR and maybe open up some builds to work in the Battle Standard or Rampage. But this is a video game so the options are limitless. I never would have guessed they’d overhaul our heals the way they did, so I have no doubt there is some equally awesome idea coming down the pipe.

I’d rather increase Bull’s Charge knockdown duration, and have Rush function like that Risen Abomination (clocked at 3-4 knockbacks in PvE), with a chain skill enabling me to stop whenever I want. Them stunbreakers would be gone and I’ll probably let my 100b fly off with that.

I’m actually uncomfortable of removing 100b, since, well, it looks nice. I mean that’s why newbies rolled a GS warrior anyway.

But that’s just me.

proof me if i am wrng. but hasnt the greastword auto attack in 3.5 sec a bit less dmg then 100b ? tehre u have ur movment 100b and it gives your enemy invul as well. dont forget that most skills have the same dps then ur autoattacks unless teh yhave special abilties.. thats a way of anet troll what the most ppl dont realise

Before all, i don’t like GS because need external help to deal dmg.

Most of warriors chain 100b > whirlwind for max dmg, but this requires cc, imobilize and/or swap weapon. This spend time, resources and no grants 100% effectiviness.
I think 100b need be used just after whilrwind, because if the enemy are close, you just use 100b; and iff enemy are in range, we use #3 for quikly aproach and chain 100b. This way least half of hits can be land every 10 or 8 seconds without spend other resources.
Atention to range of #3, because more mov spd = more distance.

About Arcid Slice, i think this skill need have his animation ajusted to a true upercut, and as aditional effect Launch foes, and grants fury according adrenaline bars.

About Rush, the better thing to make with this skill are remove the final attack, turnig a gap closer to chain another skills. I think that attack are useless due to slowness.

Warrior needs so many changes that is more healthy to everyone just main another class and delete warrior from the classes.

JETWING.2759:

About Arcid Slice, i think this skill need have his animation ajusted to a true upercut, and as aditional effect Launch foes, and grants fury according adrenaline bars.

LOL GS with a launch

I actually really like the idea.

It gives defensive utility to GS without really improving the other aspects of GS that actually work well(strictly in terms of balance). A launch means you are hitting them away from you so HB can’t take (full)advantage of it.

It also opens up interesting build potential(launch lock warrior anyone?)

Though the idea of a launch on such short cooldown is frightening though, so it might need a longer CD than other burst skills.

Just change the F1 and improve autoattack and i’d be happy.

If 100blades becomes the burst skill you ruin the weapon. Don’t fix what isnt broken. Their are actual problems with our class and GS isnt one of them

personally Id like to see arcing slice replaced with a block similar to sword offhand

Block the next incoming attack. Riposte and bleed your foe if you block a melee attack. Gain adrenaline if you are not attacked.

change the bleed to a knockdown .5s/1s/2s based on adrenalin level

Warrior lost damage by beserker’s power and heightened focus going to GM well lost damage in alot of builds. If 100bs goes to a burst skill it needs a damage increase.

I like GS as it is speed up auto attack a little bit acring slice isn’t a bad skill it hits for about the same as Rush and you can move with it the problem is that it needs something good attached to it not fury.

the one thing GS does lack is that it is kind of exposed. I would like if the burst skill was defensive maybe put a block on it like the ranger gs. This would make the block traits a bit more attractive alot. It doesn’t step on shields toes right now many builds don’t have a reason to keep adrenaline topped off since HF and Beserkers Power moved to GM.

Make arcing slice give a prolonged weakness condition and I’ll use that bad boy all day! Overall the skill itself isn’t bad, but with fury not being a boon that’s hard to come by, it seems like fury overkill.

Derps.7421:

If 100blades becomes the burst skill you ruin the weapon. Don’t fix what isnt broken. Their are actual problems with our class and GS isnt one of them

I kinda agree with this guy, I am so used to GS and 100B now, having it to burst skill and some medicore skill replacing 100B isnt fun. Change burst skill by all means but dont move 100B from 2.

Can we please stop.

This thread is only here because a Dev made a kittening typo.

Greatsword is FINE the way it is.
Stop trying to fix what ain’t broke.

Red Raven.7824:

Can we please stop.

This thread is only here because a Dev made a kittening typo.

Greatsword is FINE the way it is.
Stop trying to fix what ain’t broke.

New here Raven? These “Change Arcing Slice” threads are not. They’ve been around since…well…since Arcing Slice ever sucked. Which is forever. So, yeah.

Greatsword isn’t “fine”, but it is very powerful. Don’t mistake powerful skills for things that aren’t broken.

Redscope.6215:

Red Raven.7824:

Can we please stop.

This thread is only here because a Dev made a kittening typo.

Greatsword is FINE the way it is.
Stop trying to fix what ain’t broke.

New here Raven? These “Change Arcing Slice” threads are not. They’ve been around since…well…since Arcing Slice ever sucked. Which is forever. So, yeah.

Greatsword isn’t “fine”, but it is very powerful. Don’t mistake powerful skills for things that aren’t broken.

No, I’m not. Thanks for asking.

This isn’t really a “Change Arcing Slice” thread, it’s a “Swap Arcing Slice with Hundred Blades” thread. Which is a terrible idea and would end up causing more trouble for the Warrior class than helping it.

When i read that comment of that “Developer” i make myself sure that clearly he has no clue about the warrior proffesion and im still mad about that comment cause its like throwing oil in fire because it was in a thread about the bad design of Rush skill and instead of making some clarifications about it he’s just throwing mindless ideas that shows off the inexpirience there is about the warrior proffesion.

Greatsword is a good weapon, Arching Slice is just a burst skill that has no use.
But why?

Because majority of builds wont utilize it and thats because the overall skills-utilitys-elite skills are not synerging with Arching Slice and by that i mean that the skills damage effectiveness and Fury boon gain it isnt something you will ever need in any build because you got that Fury from other sources like traits-For Great Justice-Signet of Rage or even Battle standard. You will always have something to keep fury up so you clearly dont want to use Arching Slice and you prefering to use the swap weapon burst or keep your adrenaline for extra dmg/crit chance if your build is in that direction. Arching Slice is not good enough overall, just that.

What can be done?

Change the boon, give it 1 sec Retaliation for each adrenaline stage or Protection or even it can gives you Might for some secs it would be of USE! It will make you use the skill because it gives you a plus and not a wasted boon.

But why Hundred Blades is in the discussion?
People saying you cant land Hundred Blades in pvp. Thats just bull***t.
There are plenty of builds that synerging with Hundred Blades and Greatsword overall.
Every playstyle ever was about the player playing and the player playing against and thats it.

As of Hundred Blades as a burst skill if you can not understand that this is a bad tradeoff for the overall changes that will affect the greatsword, the builds, the adrenaline gains and many many more aspects on the warrior, you must be blind or never played a warrior.

Arching Slice need to be reworked. Rush need to be fixed. Thats for the Greatsword.

Bebylos.5491:

When i read that comment of that “Developer” i make myself sure that clearly he has no clue about the warrior proffesion and im still mad about that comment cause its like throwing oil in fire because it was in a thread about the bad design of Rush skill and instead of making some clarifications about it he’s just throwing mindless ideas that shows off the inexpirience there is about the warrior proffesion.

Greatsword is a good weapon, Arching Slice is just a burst skill that has no use.
But why?

Because majority of builds wont utilize it and thats because the overall skills-utilitys-elite skills are not synerging with Arching Slice and by that i mean that the skills damage effectiveness and Fury boon gain it isnt something you will ever need in any build because you got that Fury from other sources like traits-For Great Justice-Signet of Rage or even Battle standard. You will always have something to keep fury up so you clearly dont want to use Arching Slice and you prefering to use the swap weapon burst or keep your adrenaline for extra dmg/crit chance if your build is in that direction. Arching Slice is not good enough overall, just that.

What can be done?

Change the boon, give it 1 sec Retaliation for each adrenaline stage or Protection or even it can gives you Might for some secs it would be of USE! It will make you use the skill because it gives you a plus and not a wasted boon.

But why Hundred Blades is in the discussion?
People saying you cant land Hundred Blades in pvp. Thats just bull***t.
There are plenty of builds that synerging with Hundred Blades and Greatsword overall.
Every playstyle ever was about the player playing and the player playing against and thats it.

As of Hundred Blades as a burst skill if you can not understand that this is a bad tradeoff for the overall changes that will affect the greatsword, the builds, the adrenaline gains and many many more aspects on the warrior, you must be blind or never played a warrior.

Arching Slice need to be reworked. Rush need to be fixed. Thats for the Greatsword.

Thank you for saying in great detail, what I’ve been trying to tell everyone since that Dev’s typo.

I could not thumbs-up this post enough.