Guild Wars 2

Another question for Robert Gee! Looking at how the berserker is shaping up to be a powerful condition spec, are there any plans in motion to improve the condition output on warriors main hand sword? Since it currently only gets bleeding on the burst and auto attack, with a big power damage hit on the 3, has the development team thought about changing the 3 skill to be more condition oriented? Perhaps giving it some bleed or torment stacks? It just seems to me, from an outside perspective, that warrior might benefit from sword having a more dedicated role as a condi weapon, rather than it’s current position as a more hybrid damage weapon.

Personally, I’d like to see the opposite happen with sword as in making Sword an even more viable option for Power. I think Sword is already good enough as a condition weapon personally.

you may well be totally right! it just seems to me that, since warrior has such strong power options from axe, greatsword, hammer, and mace, it’s odd that the only condi weapon is a more of a hybrid.

Sword is not the only condi weapon: Traited LB does more condi damage then sword.
But you are righr: Sw #3 has to be reworked completely or at least add some Burning or Bleeding on it and reduce physical dmg.

Oh yeah I know it’s not the only condi weapon. Sorry, i should have specified it’s the only melee one

This is question thread and my reply can’t be actually considered an answer but I feel I need to say this…

Some people believe that Sword(MH) is purely a condition weapon and they are simply ignoring some stuff and are led into the wrong conclusions.

Sword is intended to be a hybrid weapon and this is something that can be easily proved if you take a careful look in its skills, skill coefficients and Arms traits.

The sword, uniquely, retains a mixture of power based skills (like Final Thrust or Rip) and skills that apply some long lasting Bleedings (which is the weakest condi of all) but still retain better skill coefficients, compared to pure condi weapons. If you look at other condi weapons (like Mesmer Scepter or even the Revenant Mace) you ’ll see that weapons intended to be used solely as condi not only they inflict more powerful conditions (like torment or burning) but they are have a lower skill coefficient value (which reduced the direct damage of such weapons).

Apart from this, checking Arms specialization, you ‘ll see that they include traits that apply bleeds on crits (crits are sword’s strong point) and increase bleed duration along with traits that increase direct damage on bleeding foes and crit chance solely on swords (whats a crit hit without power?). Wouldn’t it be really odd to boost direct damage by 5% on bleeding foes if they though that your main bleed-inflicting weapon shouldn’t be used along with power?

In other words devs “push” you to use both power and condi. Precision enhances both direct and condi dmage through crit hits and on-crit trait procs that inflict condis.

I really dunno why they should change this.

you make a lot of really good points! i think i understand the point of sword a lot better now, thanks!

Thomas.8130:

you make a lot of really good points! i think i understand the point of sword a lot better now, thanks!

That was my intention..! Glad to have helped.

Here’s an idea that would be easy to implement and still keep the same kind of mechanic sw#3 already has.

Cut the base damage by 1/3 and make it apply 3 stacks of bleeding normally but if the enemy is under 50% HP it applies 6 stacks instead.

So above 50% HP it would do 336 base damage and 3 stacks of bleeding for 8 seconds. (528 damage)

And below 50% HP it would do 672 base damage and 6 stacks of bleeding for 8 seconds. (1056 damage)

Maybe increase the cooldown from 15 seconds to 20 if it’s too unbalanced.

I disagree, I think sword is a good weapon for Condi, but I use it for a power build, and it is very good on a power build

oscuro.9720:

I disagree, I think sword is a good weapon for Condi, but I use it for a power build, and it is very good on a power build

Because you use it in a no common build dosnt mean its good, its good for your playstyle not gameplay wise

The problem is that hybrid-type weapons, as a general rule, don’t outkill either pure Power or pure Malice builds. In order to trait/gear for Power, you sacrifice Malice, and in order to trait/gear for Malice, you sacrifice Power. What you sacrifice in one, you don’t generally make up in the other. In PvP it gets you very dead, very quickly, though on the PvE side the hybrid character’s increased versatility actually comes into its own. Sometimes. Mostly in the Silverwastes/Maguuma.

The Warrior’s MH sword and the Arms traitline is actually hands-down the best hybrid set-up in the game, because it offers a number of options for easing the stat crunch a hybrid character’s always hit with. I would argue that WarSword w/Arms is the only hybrid set-up in the game which is reasonably effective, short group builds focusing on capping Might in every fight.

I’m honestly hesitant to sacrifice the big Power spike on Final Thrust. I could wish it fired a little faster, but honestly it feels about right. Sure, the AA and Flurry are the only Bleed options on the MH sword…but you know? That’s enough. Flurry is a perfectly acceptable condispike skill, and in the PvE side the super-long bleeds on the AA can oftentimes actually do their job. The Berserker’s going to have tons of options for supplementing those bleeds – Bloody Roar looks great, Blood Reaction and Heat the Soul are both excellent choices for supplementing the mixed stats a Hybrid build needs, and let’s face it – Smash Brawler w/Flaming Flurry is pretty much a nonstop fireball hose if you do it right.

Why sacrifice the Power on Final Thrust? The Berserker especially has all the Malice it needs already, let people keep the face-drilling on 3.

Sword and the Arms line are both well designed for hybrid builds. The problem lies in the fact that the best amulet for hybrid is Rampagers but that has no extra vitality like Marauder so it’s too glassy for anything outside of duels. Carrion and Celestial are decent substitutes but you end up getting or losing stats that you don’t really want. I can get a good Carrion/Rampager mix in WvW but not in PvP. Doesn’t help that you tend to be selfish as a Sword build…actually I may be as to modify Hambowanner to use Sword…

Hybrid weapons aren’t suppose to give the best power or malice. It’s supposed to give you good versatility. If you come across a foe with high toughness your conditions make up for the lost direct damage and your condi build doesn’t get completely shut down by builds with high cleanse and resistance.

Sword if fine the way it is.

@BurrTheKing Try Sinister for Hybrid damage in PvE. It has the same power as Rampager and you don’t really need all that precision.

DevilLordLaser.8619:

The problem is that hybrid-type weapons, as a general rule, don’t outkill either pure Power or pure Malice builds. …

…
I’m honestly hesitant to sacrifice the big Power spike on Final Thrust. I could wish it fired a little faster, but honestly it feels about right. Sure, the AA and Flurry are the only Bleed options on the MH sword…but you know? That’s enough. Flurry is a perfectly acceptable condispike skill, and in the PvE side the super-long bleeds on the AA can oftentimes actually do their job. The Berserker’s going to have tons of options for supplementing those bleeds – Bloody Roar looks great, Blood Reaction and Heat the Soul are both excellent choices for supplementing the mixed stats a Hybrid build needs, and let’s face it – Smash Brawler w/Flaming Flurry is pretty much a nonstop fireball hose if you do it right.

Why sacrifice the Power on Final Thrust? The Berserker especially has all the Malice it needs already, let people keep the face-drilling on 3.

I don’t think that Hybrids should be intended to out-kill pure Power or pure Malice builds outright. This is actually done in practice, where a pure Malice build is being shutdown completely or partially by condi cleanse builds (having hard time to maintain too many stacks on your target) or deal less damage compared to other Malice builds that utilizes more powerful condis. Pure Power builds, on the other hand, can’t reach the damage of an Axe and Final Thrust (which can deal decent damage) can be dodged easily while other attacks (sword #1 or Flurry) hits for too low damage. At least that is how I was led to adopt a hybrid a couple years ago.

The hard part of gearing a Hybrid warrior is to find the correct balance between power and malice. Don’t forget precision and survivability are vital as well and can’t be ignored. Sometimes, even after many months, I have doubts if my “balance” is right.