Guild Wars 2

Since the early months of playing this game I’ve felt that the warrior, while distinct in feel, has an unfortunate flow to the way a lot of skills and abilities operate.

I thought I’d make a list of the things that feel clunky and I think could be refined and improved to make the warrior more fun to play.

Please note that this is not about balance. It is about the way the skills feel and flow

MH Axe
Eviscerate – Has a hugely exaggerated animation with a short range and a long aftercast. This skill feels so unsatisfying because it’s been so obviously cut down from what it once was. It would hugely benefit from a range increase and a reduction in the aftercast

Greatsword
Hundred Blades – While this skill was once considered the bread and butter for warrior in PvP(maybe still is in PvE), it remains a rather awkward skill to use mostly due to its rooting effect

Hammer
Fierce Blow + Backbreaker – Their activation times feel slightly longer than they should be
Staggering Blow – The rooting effect disrupts combat flow.
Earthshaker – Feels unreliable, maybe due to ease of avoidance. Just a little too slow.

Mace
Pulverize(#1 third swing) – Unusually slow activation
Counterblow – Feels as though something is missing. Maybe an early activation(double tap) effect. The effect for the skills full duration is rather weak as well

Rifle
Aimed Shot + Brutal Shot – Not necessarily clunky, but they are severely underwhelming
Kill Shot – long activation and root effect dont feel justified

MH Sword
Final Thrust – feels very slow. Maybe a slight increase in range or a small forward movement like kick has(with less startup and aftercast) would make this skill feel a little more powerful and justify the activation time

Flurry – The self rooting effect makes this skill almost painful to use the entirety of it. Though many use movement to cancel the skill and to utilize the immobilize, so this skill may be fine.
Though an alternate firm of this skill may be useful as well: remove the self root and change the immobilize from a single long immobilize to a short pulsed one like binding roots. This would make the skill more useful as a group utility cc skill but less useful as a self utility cc skill

OH Sword
Rip->Impale – Slow activation on both skills. The projectile speed on impale is also a bit slow, so it is very easy to avoid. Rip’s range in addition to it’s slow activation make it awkward to use. If it were long ranged, the activation time may be justified.

Riposte – Suffers from the same thing as Counterblow. Boring skill, boring effects, not really fun to use.

Utilities
Banners, nuff said

These are just the skills that I just don’t like using. I could almost write a book if I went into feel+functionality+balance.

There’s probably more I missed

Angriff.1935:

1. Eviscerate – Has a hugely exaggerated animation with a short range and a long aftercast. This skill feels so unsatisfying because it’s been so obviously cut down from what it once was. It would hugely benefit from a range increase and a reduction in the aftercast
2. Hundred Blades – While this skill was once considered the bread and butter for warrior in PvP(maybe still is in PvE), it remains a rather awkward skill to use mostly due to its rooting effect
3. Kill Shot – long activation and root effect dont feel justified
4. Final Thrust – feels very slow. Maybe a slight increase in range or a small forward movement like kick has(with less startup and aftercast) would make this skill feel a little more powerful and justify the activation time
5. Flurry – The self rooting effect makes this skill almost painful to use the entirety of it. Though many use movement to cancel the skill and to utilize the immobilize, so this skill may be fine.

1. The animation is one of the best parts of the skill, in my opinion. It’s got visual impact, something that things like Skull Crack or Final Thrust lack. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I keep playing Axe/Shield instead of Sword/Shield: the big damage of Final Thrust just doesn’t have the awesomeness of Eviscerate, even if the damage is identical.
2. 100 Blades was brought back to life recently with the buffing the stun duration on Skull Crack. The thing is, without the root, you would have to lower the damage significantly. And by significant I mean it would have to go below Eviscerate, because it makes zero sense for a non-burst skill to be superior to a burst skill.
3. The root and activation are justified by the fact that Kill Shot is one of the most damaging ranged skills in the game.
4. The thing is, Final Thrust only feels slow because the natural comparison is Eviscerate. But if you consider that it’s not a burst skill and that it still deals as much damage as Eviscerate, it’s justified. And it’s not like Sword lacks options to make your enemy take the hit. Think Tremor, Shield Bash, Flurry and Leg Specialist.
5. I think it’s fine. The rooting is usually countered by the fact that it comes with a lengthy immobilize.

You’re a warrior, not a ninja. It’s fitting to have slow animations with heavy, brute weapons… Not your playstyle? Roll a thief

JahRo.6432:

You’re a warrior, not a ninja. It’s fitting to have slow animations with heavy, brute weapons… Not your playstyle? Roll a thief

I will admit that one of the reasons I couldn’t stand playing my Thief was because Backstab has much less of a visual impact than pretty much anything the Warrior does. Final Thrust, Earthshaker, Backbreaker, Eviscerate, Shield Bash all look much cooler.

Then again it would be pretty cool if 100 blades was replaced with a similar damage shadowstep-to-target with a 3s stun with an animation that is basically a Finger Poke of Doom.

There’s a fine line between a skill “looking cool and lore friendly” and “so easily predictable and avoidable”. Unfortunately warrior’s skillset falls firmly into the latter. This is referring to PvP of course.

They should at least either speed up the animations or increase the range on the especially clunky skills so they’re easier to land like the other profession abilities.