Guild Wars 2

Where are they? I never see them in sPvP.

I thought sword got a decent buff recently – what’s wrong with it now?

It’s got a good immobilize on F1, a lot of CC, and decent dmg from Final Thrust and a trait that easily gets you the magic 100% critical chance.

So why aren’t they played?

I really enjoy Sword, purely for the animations. As much as I loathe condition damage and the immobilise on the f1 ability, it’s damage definitely needs a buff.

Actually I play 1h sword/mace as one of the weapon sets, and I’m sure there’s many other people that do so to…

Pretty much every war also runs Sword/Warhorn in WvW…

I run a Rampager Sword&Shield + Rifle in S/PvP, with distracting strike, and I love it. But you probably don’t see a lot of sword builds in PvP because of the new Cookie Cutter called Mace&Shield.

I am running one. Sword/shield and rifle for sPvP, longbow for WvWvW

Spec: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Post-Your-Build-Thread/page/3#post2590763

Today daily: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1trkK430zBY
It might take a while for Youtube to process the video since I have uploaded it just now and it’s in 1080p quality.

I have met some Sword/Sword warriors lately in sPvP

one of your sets is either gs or 1hs or you are a sitting duck.

Only exception is dueling melee or something where you know you can get away with mace/shield + hammer.

Lately I’ve been playing Sw/Sh-LB or Sw/Sh-A/M in WvW.

Tried fighting with 1h swords, but it just feels like im hitting stuff with a rubber duck. So i always end back with gs or hammer, or both. =)

I run LB/SS in tPvP ._.

Glog.4275:

Tried fighting with 1h swords, but it just feels like im hitting stuff with a rubber duck. So i always end back with gs or hammer, or both. =)

Yeah final thrust hitting for 10k+ is really not worth looking at huh…

Sword is good, especially if you run with mace in off-hand.

Zoid.2568:

Sword is good, especially if you run with mace in off-hand.

Sword is good by itself, off handed is usually being used for either another cc, which doesn’t have much to do with a sword, or more dps, depending on what you prefer.

Sword auto can receive a small buff, that I agree with, but it’s also great all around weapon. You have a leap, which is of huge importance for roaming, or gap closing in a fight. You’ve got quite high burst damage skill, which can crit anywhere from 4-7k with soldier amulet. Don’t forget that it’s burst skill can be insanely useful, as you can use it to easily cleanse conditions(coupled with Cleansing Ire of course), it’s a log immobilize, meaning you’ll be able to set up a kill for someone in your team, even when they have stability up.

You won’t be able to to as much damage as you would with greatsword, but it also offers nice utility, and you can always fill up your secondary weapon slot with something for dps, or more cc if you like it that way.

Caedmon.6798:

Glog.4275:

Tried fighting with 1h swords, but it just feels like im hitting stuff with a rubber duck. So i always end back with gs or hammer, or both. =)

Yeah final thrust hitting for 10k+ is really not worth looking at huh…

I didnt say it was crap.

Zoid.2568:

Sword is good, especially if you run with mace in off-hand.

Yep. That mace knockdown + Skullcrusher + shield slam + sword burst provides a lot of heavy CC.

It depends.

I liked it before with final thrust at the end of the auto because in WvW my gear set isn’t going to get me a decent number with final thrust.

But that was also before leg specialist had a 5 second cool down and I used #3 a lot because of leg specialist. Sword made a nice off CC mobility weapon for my purposes.

I’ve been looking at other options but have been still looking at sword. It has a slow animation and is easily dodged so trying to get some damage can be difficult when I need to drop some DPS instead of CC. It isn’t very good for skirmishing because of how easy it is to dodge. I get better mileage out of axe then.

Bud.5617:

Where are they? I never see them in sPvP.

I thought sword got a decent buff recently – what’s wrong with it now?

It’s got a good immobilize on F1, a lot of CC, and decent dmg from Final Thrust and a trait that easily gets you the magic 100% critical chance.

So why aren’t they played?

Because another classes have 1h sword skills much better than warrior?
Because another classes can deal huge dps and evade/block at same time with sword, and warrior can’t do it?
Because another classes sword skills sinergis with proffession mechanics in high level, and warrior doesn’t?

1h sword still needing improvemets in dps and sustain.
A good thing are:
- Increase raw damage in #1.
- Evade 1s, Cripple and Weakness with #2.
- Evade 1s with #3.
- No changes in #4, it’s Ok!
- Replace actual #5 (Risposte) with actual f1 (Flurry), and increase raw dmg of Flurry.
- Replace actual f1 (Flurry) with Torment Tornado.
Torment Tornado: Spin and attack nearby foes, leaving then tormented. Can move while spinning.
Level 1 Damage (5x): 350
Level 2 damage (10x): 700
Level 3 damage (15x): 1050
Each hit inflicts 1 stack of torment for 10s.

Obs¹: Lasts 3,75s to make all 15 attacks.
Obs²: I liked of this name https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Warrior-An-Evolution-of-Burst-Skills/first#post2591065.

I have a fun and affectice 1h sworsd build ill post when i can. I absolutly love it. Its all i play in spvp atm

on on the remark to the guy above me on sword skills.

1. damage is fine second hit need to cast faster to be able to stack bleeds.
2. is fine. doesn’t need weakness
3. wtf with all the evade lol. its fine as is maybe less cast time but idk I hit 5k Crits(light armor classes, 2.5k-3k on heavy) and im not even a power build.
4. yes its fine as is
5. . maby add a sec or two of weakness on foes
   f1 DO NOT!! make this skill give torment also. the bleeds on it are fine. I do so much damage off the bleeds with this one. and another spin attack…no… it would be nice if the immobile was longer but that might make it op.

I would rather do it otherwise
1# Sever Artery -> Gash -> Final Thrust : Reduce Final Thrust damage back to its former version but add 2 stacks of torment for 6sec when your target is bellow 50% health.
2# Savage Leap : Remove the Cripple but replace it with a 3/4sec evade.
3# Hamstring : Turn it back to its former version, 8sec Cripple (15sec CD) and add 2 stacks of torment for 8sec as a bonus.
4# Impale -> Rip : they are fine.
5# Riposte -> Adrenaline Rush : they are fine.
F1# Flurry -> it is fine.

By doing those change you get a couple of advantages :
+ Higher sustained damage.
+ Greater versatility/synergy with ranged weaponery.
+ Greater acces to torment.
- You loose the Burst capability of Final Thrust.
- No synergy anymore for Power users.

Sword needs to be a melee condition weapon, or at least good enough for hyrbid builds, if you realy want it for mobility and burst, just ask to improve Axe instead and give it more control option instead of 1#Damage, 2#Damage, 3#Cripple!, 4#Damage, 5#“Damage”…

PS : can’t remember, was Hamstring a 7sec or 8sec Cripple on 15sec CD?

Finals trust are a good burst, but is too slow… And all another classes have evade or defend in sword attacks.
- Ranger has Auto Attack (follow the foe), Hornet Sting (evade) and Serpent’s Strike (evade). Also can aditionally use Pets.
- Thieves has Tactical Strike (daze + blind), Infiltrator’s Strike (teleport), Shadow Retur (teleport and cleanse), Flanking Strike (evade), Larcenous Strike (boon rip) and Pistol Whip (evade). Also can steal (teleport), attack of stealth and without cooldown.
- Mesmer has Mind Spike (rip boon), Blurred Frenzy (invul), Swap (teleport + break stun) and Counter Blade (AoE daze). Also can use all clones, phantasm and shatter habilities.
- Guardians has Flashing Blade (teleport + AoE blind), Zealot’s Defense (block). All then with good sinergi with passive and actives virtues.

All these classes can trait for sword, deal insane raw dmg and conditions on foes, and all then have 2, 3 or more sustains (wielding sword and without skills #6 – #10).

Compare with Warrior.

Considering that warrior are one single target, without any kind of mobile summon to attacks, protects or cc.

Jetwing I disagree partialy with your statement, other professions in this game using swords are actualy defensive power based weapons while ours is a mobility and control hybrid power/condition weapon.

So they won’t deal more condition damage unless you fight a Phantasm Mesmer using his Phantasm and illusions to stack bleeds. And even then, it doesn’t even get close to what warriors are able to dish.

But yeah they get way better defensive maneuvres, like invulnerability, position switch, condition removal, ranged block. The Warrior on the other hand only gets the choice between a single block or a 3sec block depending if you use a shield or a sword in your offhand. And nothing else.

Thats why I think we should adapt the sword back with its former version, add more torment (sinds it didn’t exist back then) on his weapon skills and at least add some evade on one of his weapon skill (savage leap made the most sense to me) to make it on par with the other melee weapons. Axe could also get the same love, sind sinds it only deals damage and nothing else beside of a cripple and short fury generation (wich Warrior has plenty to start with). If Whirlwind could reflect projectiles it would already be a very good start for axe users.

alamore.1974:

I have a fun and affectice 1h sworsd build ill post when i can. I absolutly love it. Its all i play in spvp atm

on on the remark to the guy above me on sword skills.

1. damage is fine second hit need to cast faster to be able to stack bleeds.
2. is fine. doesn’t need weakness
3. wtf with all the evade lol. its fine as is maybe less cast time but idk I hit 5k Crits(light armor classes, 2.5k-3k on heavy) and im not even a power build.
4. yes its fine as is
5. . maby add a sec or two of weakness on foes
   f1 DO NOT!! make this skill give torment also. the bleeds on it are fine. I do so much damage off the bleeds with this one. and another spin attack…no… it would be nice if the immobile was longer but that might make it op.

Compare warrior’s sword #5 with Mesmer’s sword #5…
- Warrior need be hited by melee skill to inflict 4 bleed, or cansel to gain 5 stack adrenaline.
- Mesmer summon a phantasm that deal huge dmg (aditionaly to mesmer’s dmg), and unlock the 4 shatter skills.

What are the better?
:)

I’m running Sword/Shield + Rifle (knights armor, berserker trinkets) in WvW and really love the Sword revamp.

Sword 1 hits really fast now compared to before – great for adrenaline gain. Damage is ok for me (1.7k average crit + bleeds).
Sword 2 crits for up to 12k damage which is awesome. Its hard to land but at least it doesnt root you in place like 100b. Try this combo on a target <50% health: Savage Leap → Flurry → move backwards (cancels Flurry) → Final Thrust.

I run my own ‘unicorn’ build which has excellent survivability. I haven’t tried healing signet + mango pies with it yet, but with the amount of condition removal potential it has you should be good. I do prefer healing surge over healing signet any day though.

JETWING.2759:

alamore.1974:

I have a fun and affectice 1h sworsd build ill post when i can. I absolutly love it. Its all i play in spvp atm

on on the remark to the guy above me on sword skills.

1. damage is fine second hit need to cast faster to be able to stack bleeds.
2. is fine. doesn’t need weakness
3. wtf with all the evade lol. its fine as is maybe less cast time but idk I hit 5k Crits(light armor classes, 2.5k-3k on heavy) and im not even a power build.
4. yes its fine as is
5. . maby add a sec or two of weakness on foes
   f1 DO NOT!! make this skill give torment also. the bleeds on it are fine. I do so much damage off the bleeds with this one. and another spin attack…no… it would be nice if the immobile was longer but that might make it op.

Compare warrior’s sword #5 with Mesmer’s sword #5…
- Warrior need be hited by melee skill to inflict 4 bleed, or cansel to gain 5 stack adrenaline.
- Mesmer summon a phantasm that deal huge dmg (aditionaly to mesmer’s dmg), and unlock the 4 shatter skills.

What are the better?
:)

Yes but mesmers cannot negate damage with there skill can they?? On top if that a stealthed thiefs hits me when using this skill get hit with attack and bleeds. Time correctly this can counter skull crack or any other hard hitters

teg.1340:

I’m running Sword/Shield + Rifle (knights armor, berserker trinkets) in WvW and really love the Sword revamp.

Sword 1 hits really fast now compared to before – great for adrenaline gain. Damage is ok for me (1.7k average crit + bleeds).
Sword “3” crits for up to 12k damage which is awesome. Its hard to land but at least it doesnt root you in place like 100b. Try this combo on a target <50% health: Savage Leap -> Flurry -> move backwards (cancels Flurry) -> Final Thrust.

The only difference comes from the fact you use Hamstring instead of Final Thrust, Severe Artery and Gash still have the same animation time. But again, was adrenaline generation ever a problem with the sword? Its traits were in the Arms line and you could get Furious to fully regenerate your adrenaline with a single Flurry on 3 targets.

Also you speak about the burst capability of Final Thrust, yeah indeed it can deal some serious damage but you could already deal 3,4K damage with critical strikes in its former combo sequence, making it great for sustained damage. That skill is now mostly situational and completely useless 50% of the fight.

And realy canceling a Flurry for a Final Thrust, do you believe it is a good design? Should we be forced to cancel our BURST skill to land another skill instead that only works on a target with low health?

Well you like it, that is your oppinion and I respect you for that. But I realy don’t understand why people didn’t like its former version while it did almost everything else better.

alamore.1974:

Yes but mesmers cannot negate damage with there skill can they??

Actualy their sword can completely make them invulnerable on short cooldown and even be traited to reflect back projectiles. This is without considering the fact it also rip boons, can block, daze and even teleport your character while stuned while creating illusions and phantasms supporting him in combat.

Ambrecombe.4398:

The only difference comes from the fact you use Hamstring instead of Final Thrust, Severe Artery and Gash still have the same animation time. But again, was adrenaline generation ever a problem with the sword? Its traits were in the Arms line and you could get Furious to fully regenerate your adrenaline with a single Flurry on 3 targets.

I dont use Furious so yep, adrenaline gain indeed is a “problem”. I’ve played sword/horn/rifle warrior for months since headstart and Im pretty sure the Sword 1 chain is faster now, though I cant proof it.

Also you speak about the burst capability of Final Thrust, yeah indeed it can deal some serious damage but you could already deal 3,4K damage with critical strikes in its former combo sequence, making it great for sustained damage. That skill is now mostly situational and completely useless 50% of the fight.

You’re right that the old Final Thrust did some nice damage for being part of the anytimer chain. But speaking from a WvW perspective, having a massive spike skill is much more valuable than having some ok’ish sustained damage. The old final thrust critted for like 3.5k but was kitten slow. Now the last hit crits for 1.7k but its kitten fast.

Dont know about you but I find its quite easy to get your opponent from 100% – 50% hp, but its much harder to get him from 50% – 0%. I’ve killed many players at 40-50% hp just by using shield bash immidiately followed by a (lucky) final thrust crit. Doing massive spike damage in like no time often prevents the enemy to use his panic buttons.

And realy canceling a Flurry for a Final Thrust, do you believe it is a good design? Should we be forced to cancel our BURST skill to land another skill instead that only works on a target with low health?

You call 50% low health? Common… Flurry mainly is a condition skill, but Im running a power build. My bleeds doesnt tick for much damage. So yep, I dont have a problem using Flurry just for the 4s immobilize, followed by a final thrust or rifle volley which both hit like a truck.

Well you like it, that is your oppinion and I respect you for that. But I realy don’t understand why people didn’t like its former version while it did almost everything else better.

I’ve used the old version and the new version. The latter is much more effective to me.

And it is the opposite for me, I lost a lot with those changes both in PvE and PvP sinds I was running a Rampager build. I lost a solid cripple that alowed me to take range with savage leap and switch back to my rifle for some solid gunfire. Instead I got a small increase in adrenaline and bleed generation wich weren’t an issue before sinds I could already get 30 adrenaline under 6sec and generate 25 stacks of bleed easely.

Now i’m left with a burst that barely scratch my foe (around 4,4K dmg), because i’m not running berserker, and a laughable auto cripple that has such a low uptime you can just get out of it with a single dodge.

Sword/mh should never have been a Power weapon but instead should always have been around conditon and control for condi or hybrid builds. We don’t have real condition weapons as a Warrior anymore, everything is a sort of hybrid, sword was realy the only weapon that came close sinds it only had utilities and a high damage auto attack and the offhand realy made that build even more centering around that aspect.

With the current setup you end up with some of your skills beeing useless if you want to center your build a tad more around condition. You also get less options when you fight like I mention above, unless you sacrifice some of the available effects requiere for pressure. And if you play a power build, the damage dealt by your Severe Artery, Gash, Hamstring combo is still laughable compared to the damage capacity of an Axe or Greatsword. The only advantage you get is a burst every 15sec when your target is bellow 50% health, wich only works in a couple of PvP/WvW fights.

That is why I hate those changes.

Ambrecombe.4398:

And it is the opposite for me, I lost a lot with those changes both in PvE and PvP sinds I was running a Rampager build. I lost a solid cripple that alowed me to take range with savage leap and switch back to my rifle for some solid gunfire. Instead I got a small increase in adrenaline and bleed generation wich weren’t an issue before sinds I could already get 30 adrenaline under 6sec and generate 25 stacks of bleed easely.

Now i’m left with a burst that barely scratch my foe (around 4,4K dmg), because i’m not running berserker, and a laughable auto cripple that has such a low uptime you can just get out of it with a single dodge.

Sword/mh should never have been a Power weapon but instead should always have been around conditon and control for condi or hybrid builds. We don’t have real condition weapons as a Warrior anymore, everything is a sort of hybrid, sword was realy the only weapon that came close sinds it only had utilities and a high damage auto attack and the offhand realy made that build even more centering around that aspect.

With the current setup you end up with some of your skills beeing useless if you want to center your build a tad more around condition. You also get less options when you fight like I mention above, unless you sacrifice some of the available effects requiere for pressure. And if you play a power build, the damage dealt by your Severe Artery, Gash, Hamstring combo is still laughable compared to the damage capacity of an Axe or Greatsword. The only advantage you get is a burst every 15sec when your target is bellow 50% health, wich only works in a couple of PvP/WvW fights.

That is why I hate those changes.

The issue is you running rampager gear and expecting to hit big numbers when that gear is meant for stacking bleeds to deal condition damage rather than the direct damage of berserker gear. You shouldn’t be expecting big numbers with pure condition armor.

in spvp, i used to play a hard CC mace/shield and hammer, but recently i switched to sword/shield and hammer. i trade the 3sec stun for a 4sec root, but i gain a lot of mobility, a fast auto attack with a cc, and the stab 100% chance to crit after the shield stun, so it was definitly worse. It bring some fresh air to my warrior and made it my main again.

Viking Jorun.5413:

The issue is you running rampager gear and expecting to hit big numbers when that gear is meant for stacking bleeds to deal condition damage rather than the direct damage of berserker gear. You shouldn’t be expecting big numbers with pure condition armor.

Where did I ever wrote my expectations in the post you quoted? I never said I was expecting to get big numbers out of my Rampager gear, i’m just taking the numbers I do currently to put it in the following context : “Final Thrust >< Berserker Gear -> Final Thrust = Useless”.

Also you are completely wrong about Rampager beeing condition exclusive gear. In fact it is a hybrid dps gear. You get lower amounts of both power and condition damage to stack them additively and you get very high amounts of precision to increase the raw damage and the efficienty proc of sigil and traits on critical hits. Allowing you to build up quickly a very good Dps.

Berserker is more about burst, but it is overall more effective and popular because every extra of power, critical damage and precision increase the dps exponentialy while also not beeing tied to a limit of condition.

So both can dish out very important amounts of damage, one is just more focused around burst damage while the other around building gradualy high sustained damage.

I run sword/shield with Greatsword. I savage leap at a foe, switch to GS and 100 Blade him, Whirlwind through him, switch back to sword and Savage Leap and Flurry, back to GS for 100 Blades and Whirlwind, repeat ad infinum. with fast hands I never have to wait on a weapon swap, and the skills are on quick cooldowns.

Savage leap is cripple, and Flurry stops ’em dead. If they want to get tricky with dodging/teleporting/running away, I still have Rush as a closer, Shield Bash for a shorter closer and stun, and Bladetrail for another cripple.

When they drop under 50%, I throw in Final Thrust, sometimes using shield bash first. All in all it works great in PvE and WvW. I don’t think it would work so well in TPvP though….

Sword is ok, it could use fixes to the blademaster trait, both to fix the crit chance increase not showing up (hopefully or maybe it does not work) and to reduce sword cooldowns to make it worth taking.