Guild Wars 2

I love the warrior, its one of my favorite classes… but some times I wish we had more control over our abilities… some times it feels like i’m watching a movie rather then playing my warrior and a lot of times it feels like the warrior is controlling me rather then me controlling the warrior.

A lot of abilities just feel like they control what I do, heres an example.

Greatsword – Love the Damage, nothing even compares to the amount of damage it can put it, but… heres the problem with it, almost every ability on the great sword is uncontrollable, so i’m using this as an example.

Hundred Blades – You do a ton of damage, but you are forced to stand still painfully watching as your blades swing around, even if you see something happen that might end your life, you have to mash dodge or roll to get out of the way, theres no fluid between this attack and other attacks, you either kill your opponent or you die, which forces you to use things like bull’s rush or frenzy to force it as fast as possible so you can do other things.

Whirlwind Attack – Once you use this ability, you cannot do anything, most of the time i’m disapointed because I cannot control where the damage goes, compared to guardians whirling wrath I think the ability is more lackluster, because you choose where to go, then your forced painfully to watch for a good 2 seconds as your character moves that way, unable to control where he goes, but as a guardian you do the same thing, except you can control where you want to go, you just spin in place.

Blade Trail – Honestly, I never liked the ability, and it never really fit with Warriors at all, it reminds me of a Jedi or mage type ability, throwing your weapon and having it come back to you really does not make sense for a warrior at all, especially for a great sword which is a very melee based things, at least you would think.

Rush – This is the worst ability for fluidity, this ability forces you to chase the target around, and misses quite alot, most of the times I over run the attack and miss all the damage, You are forced to watch painfully for a good 4-5 seconds as your character rushes to the target, it does not feel fluid at all, and if you hit a small crack in the ground it forces you to stop.

Do you feel like your playing your warrior, or is your warrior playing you?

Are you feeling like I am and feel like we should have more control over our abilities?

Would you sacrifice damage for that? Or Would you want the damage of the abilities spread around for more control?

I agree with Rush, though I feel like its aim has improved lately. Your argument for HB is kind of self-contradictory. You can’t do anything even if you see something that might kill you… except dodge? Um. Alright. In fact I’m pretty sure for me it cancels even if I start to walk, but either way that makes no sense, there’s obviously something you can do.

Whirlwind is a bit special sometimes though… I mean, don’t ever use it near a ledge, you know? It hurts.

I think you’re missing the point of a lot of these abilities.

Hundred Blade is working as intended. The long animation is the drawback to using it. You have to be situationally aware if it’s safe to use.

Whirlwind Attack is used for mitigation and movement. You control the direction. You can use it as an escape option to shoot away from enemies, or use it when close to an enemy to do damage while moving out of melee range. Melee Attacks are NOT hitting you while you do this, so take advantage. Follow up with Blade Trail while you’re moving back into melee range for optimal synergy. I often use it for shooting back behind my party when I’m in danger, all the while damaging my enemeis.

Blade Trail is your ranged option and great for hitting runners. Under ideal conditions it boomerangs back and hits the target twice.

Rush is known to be bugged. However, don’t neglect to use it AND Whirlwind when you’re not in combat to speed up your travel times.

Honestly, try some different weapon combos. Try them all. I personally think the Greatsword to be the most boring of all the weapon choices.

I know the point of the attacks, but why play a game when most of the attacks control what you do?

Let me give you an example…

Whirlwind Attack and death blossom.
They both let you dodge, they both do some damage.
HOWEVER – Thieves death blossom doesn’t let you choose where to go, but when you do the spin it allows you to move where you want to go after, this provides fluidity. – they both however have the problem of making you over jump off cliffs, but I feel that death blossom has more fluidity, it lets you atleast move to avoid them, even if its slightly, Whirlwind Attack however, its a big BIG risk…

Rush… It would be SO much better if it was a targeted ability… you click where you want to rush to, and you quickly rush to that location and do a slashing arc around it, same effect as rush, MORE control…

Warrior’s have an ability similar to Deathblossom. It’s called Whirling Axe. It’s the dual-wield #5 skill.

Whirlwind serves a different purpose entirely.

This is why I encourage you to try different weapon combos. You’ll likely find what you’re looking for outside the Greatsword.

No, Whirling Axe is nothing like Death Blossom, Whirling Axe does not have a dodge and you can control where you want to go, as soon as you use death blossom you do a dodging jump in the air, WHILE in mid-air you can control where you want to move, but your original 0.5 second jump you don’t, but its so fast it feels fluid and fun.

Whirling Axe is more like Dagger Storm, except Dagger Storm also has a lot of utility like reflection and stuff additionally added to it, replaced however with a long cooldown.

One of the problems I find with the other weapons, besides dual axe, is that they are slow and you do not have much control, or don’t do much damage.

I feel that some of our abilities need more fluidity, maybe changed to targeting ground, or allowed to move for less of an effect, abilities like rush changed to be targeted or leaps, the whirls changed to be a movement speed increase, but a spin… for example…

Whirlwind Attack – 33% Movement Speed increase (swiftness) + dodge + spin, you can move wherever you want to.

Rush – Rush to targeted Area and do an Arcing Slash. (you target an area you want to rush to.)

Hundred Blades – Your allowed to move while using this, but if you do move, the damage of the next attacks are cut by 25%, if you don’t move it changes nothing.

Sounds like you should reroll a Thief.

Sounds like the Thief class is more what you’re looking for then.

I do have an 80 thief.

I am just giving out my ideas for my warrior, who is level 70…

Erm, none of my ideas would make the class any more special or different, I just wished I felt like I was playing my warrior, not the warrior playing me…

I am not calling for nerfs, or buffs, I just wish the abilities were changed so we had more control over them.

I would like it if warriors felt more fluid.

Warrior’s have plenty of control over their abilities. The issue here is that you’re looking at the Warrior through the lens of a Thief. You need a perspective shift, not a change to the class.

Once again, I invite you to try the different weapon combos. The “control” you’re looking for can likely be found in other weapons.

Yup, that’s the general theme of the Warrior. Simple to use, hard to play. A lot of what makes a Warrior build good or bad is completely out of your hands once you’re out of the hero panel. Weapon skills don’t do a lot in terms of utility, most of the time. The downside of losing control of yourself is never a satisfying one, when making a game. It is what it is, though.

Simple to use, hard to play?

Its not really simple or hard to play, most of the abilities for warrior do everything for you, and most of the time either miss or put you in dangerous situations you should never be in, not many other classes have abilities like this, they were changed to add more control to the character.

I just wish the abilities be more “I can control them, if I miss its my fault”, currently its “I have barely little control, I am completely reliant on the RNG of my animations and weapons to keep me alive and deal damage.”

Daecollo.9578:

you choose where to go, then your forced painfully to watch for a good 2 seconds as your character moves that way, unable to control where he goes

You choose where to go, then your forced to move that way, unable to do anything else as you spin towards where you go…

I don’t understand what you are complaining about still. You choose where you go, so you should have an idea about your intended destination as the range of Whiling Blade doesn’t change. If you want to hit someone who is moving you should be able to predict where the person will move such that you will hit that person. The animation for Whiling Blade is really fast (definitely not 2 secs). You move much faster than Guardian’s Whirling Wrath which makes Whirling Blade more accurate and more difficult to dodge.

Would you rather you control this move, or the game?

I would rather it be where you spin in place/get a movement speed and roll buff and choose to where you want to move.

Same way with Rush, I would rather it be you choose a target and rush to it and slash, instead, the game MAKES you do it, once you choose the action your at the mercy of RNG.

I’m asking for more fluid gameplay.

Daecollo.9578

A lot of abilities just feel like they control what I do, heres an example.
Greatsword

Stopped reading there, the Greatsword is working as intended except for Rush, it does not need any improvements at all. It’s also the most boring and selfish weapon in our arsenal.

Varyag.3751:

Daecollo.9578

A lot of abilities just feel like they control what I do, heres an example.
Greatsword

Stopped reading there, the Greatsword is working as intended except for Rush, it does not need any improvements at all. It’s also the most boring and selfish weapon in our arsenal.

“Boring” Yes, its boring, you barely control it, I could probably make a video with the screen going “red” every time I lose control of my character, it almost feels like watching a movie instead of playing.

Ever considered, you know, using a different weapon, Daecollo?

Varyag.3751:

Ever considered, you know, using a different weapon, Daecollo?

I have, but I don’t think I can fathom the usefulness of another weapon until I reach level 80, and its really not fair to comment on anything else unless I play it to its fullest potential.

To be honest, I did great sword because its fairly easy to see its potential and still run everything else, as you said, its boring.

But with the other weapons? I will need gear to see there potential, otherwise commenting on it is not fair.

Daecollo.9578:

But with the other weapons? I will need gear to see there potential, otherwise commenting on it is not fair.

SPvP, it’s free.

There are also npcs and dummies (robots) you can practice against in heart of the mists

I don’t feel its fair to use Spvp as a crutch, I don’t want to comment until I’ve actually leveled and played with the traits.

Its kind of like a thief going into spvp and saying its overpowered because they are gods there or saying they are masters of it, the gear in spvp is pretty bossy (super set bonuses, super stats.), and people have alot more toughness in it then they do out of it.

I never call for nerf to a class or buffs until I level it all the way up to 80 and get gear for it, the great sword is just so obvious that you don’t even need level 80 to see its boring slowness.

Daecollo.9578:

I don’t feel its fair to use Spvp as a crutch, I don’t want to comment until I’ve actually leveled and played with the traits.

Then unless you spend a lot of gold on armour/weapons/runes and retraining skills you’ll never ever experience the various weapons and builds available to Warrior and the only person missing out due to this is you. Anybody who doesn’t take advantage of the free items and retraining in the Mists to experiment is really foolish, especially considering how fair it is – everybody can use it.

Greatsword is fine (except for Rush), it doesn’t need extra boosting in terms of damage or mobility. If you want super mobility play Sword/Warhorn with the correct traits, or go back to playing your Thief.

I didn’t ask for a boost in damage or mobility, I asked for more control of where moves go.

There is a HUGE difference.

(descriptions of both, so you know.)
Mobility:
1. The quality or state of being mobile.

Control:
1. To exercise authoritative or dominating influence over; direct. See Synonyms at conduct.

Great sword abilities lack player-control.

Most of the thief’s abilities have both control AND mobility. (except sword/pistol. [or sword/dagger, but nobody uses sword/dagger.])

Greatswrd just needs to be learned to use correctly.
90% of the Warriors I see can’t use a Greatsword.
Here is some advice.

Hundred Blades – This is a skill that needs to be setup in order to land fully, but what the common Warrior seems to ignore is that you are not forced nor need to land it fully.
Landing 4-6 swings is enough considering the damage it does and the very fast recharge.

Whirlwind Attack – This is an additional dodge as you Evade attacks while using it.
The best way to use this is when you are about 180 feet away from your target (just out of GS range) so you land all of its hit.
It can be also used as an escape, gap closer or mob tagger.

Bladetrail – This cripples and deal nice damage twice on targets in a line.
If aimed correctly it deals great damage and spreads conditions.
If you’re traited for Leg Specialist this helps landing HB.

Rush – A bit buggy right now but will still land most times.
The damage is quite high, if you don’t want to risk wasting it at least use it in melee range.
Can be used as gap closer/opener/speed boost once you learn how to avoid it autotargeting.

Arcing Slice – Nice damage, grants Fury to cover any Fury downtime you might have.
I feel this is UP tho, it’s much better to switch to Axe for Evis or Rifle for Killshot if you wish to use Adrenaline efficiently.

While GS needs a couple fixes (I’m looking at you Rush & Arcing), it’s an excellent weapon in the hands of a good Warrior.

^ Agree with everything above.

But I just wish the abilities had more player-control.

Daecollo.9578:

I didn’t ask for a boost in damage or mobility, I asked for more control of where moves go.

Daecollo.9578:

Whirlwind Attack – 33% Movement Speed increase (swiftness) + dodge + spin, you can move wherever you want to.

Daecollo.9578:

Hundred Blades – Your allowed to move while using this, but if you do move, the damage of the next attacks are cut by 25%, if you don’t move it changes nothing.

See bolded, those would fall under the category of “mobility” to me. I will make this as simple as possible for you: Greatsword. Does. Not. Need. It. The only Greatsword skills that need some work are Rush (which needs to work) and Arcing Slice, which is pointless given FGJ. Most of what you’re asking for are boosts to skills which are working well and as intended.

Daecollo.9578:

Most of the thief’s abilities have both control AND mobility.

To me it seems you wish to make the Warrior simply more like the Thief, it is not and should never be the Thief. If you want to play “control and mobility”, play your Thief. It’s pretty simple and far more useful than calling for boosts to a weapon that hardly needs it.

My Sword/warhorn warrior laughs at you.

It’s so refreshing to see all of the level-headed responses to this impossible thread. I’ve been using a greatsword since I found one because I love greatswords. I’ve never once used Rush because of its damage, instead treating it like a charge without damage (in fact, I’d cancel out of the swing more often than not if I could).

Two things:

1. You tell Whirlwind Attack precisely where you want to go. Not sure how much more control for a 1 second animation you expect.

2. You tell Rush precisely where you want to go. Want to charge a target? Click one, and it’ll compensate if the target turns. Want to rush to a point? De-select and point yourself in that direction. It might not swing at the end, but you can tell the move exactly where you want to go.

The risk for Rush is that you will run for X distance after you press the button. Did you point in the wrong directly? Still have a target selected behind you? Use it inappropriately? Your fault.

The risk for 100B is that it roots you. Don’t want to be rooted? Do you continue attacking once no one is being hit anymore? Your fault.

The risk for Whirlwind Attack is… well, there isn’t one. It does high damage, grants mobility, synergizes well with Mobile Strikes, has a short cooldown, and gives you evasion frames. If you ask for any more out of this ability because you sent yourself off a ledge a few times, I’m going to petition ANet to delete your Warrior and refuse your account the creation of another.

The abilities were designed as such for a reason, and you have full control over when and where you want to use them. Try adapting to the game instead of requesting that it adapt to you.

Well, you are using a GS. Try something different.

If I had full control of my abilities, I would be able to stop attacking and roll whenever I like, if I had full control of “rush” I would beable to stop rushing, but once you DO rush you cannot stop.

Whirlwind Attack? If I had full control I would beable to move while spinning in the direction where I want to go, I do not, i’m forced to move in the direction I chose.

Hundred Blades? by the time you try and stop to dodge, its usually to late, because it takes 0.5 of a second to STOP using the ability to move.

Play smarter. Anticipate better. Get better in general at the game.

I appreciate the risk/reward that these abilities impose.

Have you ever actually rushed someone, in the heat of a fight? Have you ever ran? Have you ever tried to STOP running when at full tilt? Have you ever tried doing it while weilding a 100lb sword twice as big as you?

Imo, If i were whirlwinding my way around with a buster sword, id be happy it drug me somewhere rather than landed me on my keister.

Use those delay’s to your advantage and string them together; use yoru whirly bird to evade and dodge when your end is low, throw your sword back in his face, charge in, kick ’em in the balls, and then 100b them again.

Be dynamic, use momentum, try not standing still. Believe it or not, you can tank by dodging!

Also, try turning on the option to cast in the direction of your pointer rather than a clickable ground location. And then start paying attention to ledges and falling.

:)

Guardians don’t seem to have these problems, and they also use a two handed sword, there abilities are all very fluid, although they don’t do as much damage as a warrior does, they don’t have problems with there animation delay on there two-handed weapons.

Of course the warriors sword weighs more apparently as explained above.

The problem with Rush is, have you ever stopped to do what you do with rush, it would be easier to SLASH your target from the side as an Arc, not push the blade into the ground and pull up.

This leads me to believe that there is a problem with the momentum of the warriors attacks, as explained above

The point which I was making that you over looked when you couldn’t understand the humour is that your class is not about standing still and swinging, it is about doding and mobility. Your lack of comprehensive explanations of skill dynamics suggests that you expect each ability to be an individual move, each with its own separate function.

this is not the case. your abilities are to be used in concert with one another while you move around the dynamic play field. You may have noticed that AoE in large fights is not restricted to certain spots on the ground, but rather hits anywhere. that is because this is not a game of checkers like other MMOs with “real melee” as you assert.

gw2 is more like marbles.

Warriors are all about bursts of movement, not fluidity. Leaps, runs, swirls, smashes, etc. It’s one of the few unique features of the class. It does not need to be more “fluid”, if anything ANet should look at expanding the burst movement of the Warrior, not toning them down into something more controllable.

The reason thiefs are so fluid is because they are so squishy and rely on their mobility to stay alive in a fight. Warriors use their mobility skills to get into and out of a fight – they are very rarely used actually control the flow of the fight once it starts (we do that via CC instead).

Honestly, we’re giving you valid suggestions here and you’re simply not listening. You want your way and don’t want to hear anything else.

You state that you can’t fathom the usefulness of another weapon until you hit 80? I shall quote Yoda: “Do or do not. There is no try.” You can’t fathom their usefulness because you are voluntarily ignoring your options. I had already tested out all the weapon combos by the time I hit level 60. Upgrade your weapons at least every 5 levels. You can buy some seriously good gear for CHEAP if you look on the TP.

You want frame canceling? Fighting games are —→ thataway. Otherwise, let’s let this thread die now please.

Hum, you can cancel HB. You can also dodge roll to cancel Rush.

Just sayin’.

There are also many moves you can cancel with others (e.g. HB → Whirlwind; I suspect you can cancel HB/WW with Blade Trail).

TIP: You can cancel the long animations at any time if you want (including the long Rush animation or HB animation) by weapon swapping.

@Artaz : that’s a high cost for cancelling animation, there should be another way.

@PanH: There should be a high cost for canceling a move you’ve committed to. It will encourage you to play smarter the next time if you’re looking to get better.

There’s already a cooldown when you interrupt something by dodging.
And a high cost will simply suppress the value of feint. Being able to feint is way smarter than just activating the skills at the good time, which is already not nothing. If you don’t have fully control of your character, you can’t play it smartly.

I’m throwing the challenge flag. You think Rush can be used to feint? How? You’re already closing distance. So you can cancel the ability at the end, before the swing, get a highly reduced cooldown and think “Lol totally feinted him, good thing I’m right next to him now and used the arguably most important part of the ability without incurring the full duration”.

I don’t get it. You don’t feint with Rush. You just use it. You feint with something like Backbreaker, or some other charge-up ability. That is feint-able, showing that you’re going to do one thing, provoking a dodge, and switching to something else. It adds yomi in that now the other player might not know if you’re going to use it, so they could either dodge, or not dodge, and you get more depth in the game.

But something like Rush, you’re gaining benefit right from the onset. Whirlwind attack does damage and has evade frames immediately. 100B does damage immediately. None of these abilities lend themselves to feinting, because you’re instantly gaining benefit.

Actually, you’re right, I wasn’t thinking much about Rush. That’s why I didn’t talking about it.
If I would say some skill to feint (e.g. for GS), I would say Whirlwind and 100B. Well, with 100B, it’s just that the full duration is completely useless because the other player is gone long before the end.

Just thinking about Rush. You could actually do that. Most people dodge when they see someone charging. I could then switch at mid range to ranged (longbow or rifle), eventually cripple, etc. Or just benefit from a low stamina.

The think is, feinting, or timing your skills is something very situational. And here (as I see), it’s mainly about GS skills, which I don’t use a lot.
My point wasn’t specifically about that, but more about cancelling shouldn’t be at high cost in general.

Whirlwind does damage within the first split seconds. At that point, it isn’t a feint, it’s an attack. It finishes in about 1 second. Where do you cancel it such that it’s a feint? When are you feigning a Whirlwind that can catch an enemy off-guard that doesn’t involve damaging the enemy with Whirlwind or evading damage with Whirlwind?

Similarly, when are you feigning a 100B when you’ve already done a few thousand damage in the first set of hits? It doesn’t matter that they all hit. They don’t have to. A few thousand damage on a 6 second cooldown is more than enough if you can pull it off.

Canceling the appropriate ability should not be at high cost. If you escape a Backbreaker, you incur a 4 second cooldown instead of 24. There are definitely abilities that can be canceled appropriately, and similarly, they should have appropriately diminished cooldowns. As it stands, I can’t see any of the Greatsword abilities as falling within that category.

I agree with you in GS skills. But I think that there shouldn’t be some skills that can’t be cancelled while other can be for a 4sec cd. I don’t see the point of putting a high cancel cd on a skill even if it’s not meant to be cancelled.