Guild Wars 2

the greatsword is a very powerful weapon when properly traited, but the weapon skills themselves lack a lot of utility and synergy between themselves.

i’m fine with a weapon that only does damage, but we already have the axe for that, and the axe arguably has better combat utility then the greatsword does.
1. fast potent auto attack chain
2. skill for quickly gaining a lot of adrenaline, plus vulnerability, plus whirl finisher
3. ranged cripple, projectile finisher.

the greatsword on the other hand is primarily used in WvW for either A. running from objective to objective or B. running away from fights.

i propose a change to improve the greatswords in-combat mobility, while at the same time reducing its out of combat mobility and making it as a weapon more desirable. so instead of being something you use if you want to troll other people and run away from engagements it becomes something you use for its strategic use in combat and because you want to defeat your opponents.

the big problem is the number 5 skill [rush]
remove it entirely. it’s a problem and there is no reason to fix it. its just not a good skill.
instead the new skill would look like this.
5. [shove] 1/2 second cast time, push your opponent back 200 units.

so now the number 5 skill becomes an interrupt skill, but more importantly it puts them withing optimal range for the number 3 skill [whirlwind attack]. so with this proposed change you can now interrupt an opponents telegraphed attack while setting up the greatswords trademark attack.

the second problem with the greatsword is the f1 burst skill. its boring, it has no combat utility, it doesn’t synergize with anything else the greatsword does. all it does is do a small amount of damage and grants you fury. basically it is an example of a bad burst skill, there is no good reason to use it at less then full adrenaline, and other then for the fury no good reason to use it at all. its slow, single target and it interrupts the flow of your attacks and defense.

my proposal is thus.
f1 [arching slice] 3/4 of a second cast time. 450 range leap finisher. gain fury when you strike your foe.

this will allow you to better stay on your target when they try to kite you, while at the same time improving the damage you do as a result. it adds the leap finisher to the utility of the greatsword and makes [arching slice] useful at any stage of adrenaline.

all in all i would summarize the pro’s and cons of my suggestion for the greatsword thus.
pros.
1. better in-combat mobility
2. added a leap finisher to the weapon kit
3. added an interrupt
4. better combat initiator
5. because burst skill is a movement skill, better use from the trait [x mobile strikes]

cons. 1. its a change, and people will always complain about any change
2. number 5 skill will no longer deal good damage
3. much more difficult to flee from any fight
4. weapon will feel slower out of combat

Revamping the greatsword has been suggested so many times its staggering, luckily for you, your futile effort can be excused by the miserable functionality of the forum search.

The gs needs burst changed and a rush fix, that’s all. The gs can be used for reasons other than running away and from objective to objective. I usually use hammer but have good success running gs to roam and sometimes zerg (rarely, for fun…). You just have to learn how to set up for hb’s that will just shredd hp. When I’m playing this it’s almost always gs + sw/wh, the sword burst immobilize is key in landing hb’s. What you do is leap, flurry, and swap to gs for hb’s. You get the full 4s immob right when you land flurry, so you want your swap off cd to switch right away. Bolas is good to run of not sword, I also like gs + hammer for dueling, chaining staggering blow, back breaker, earthshaker, and hb’s will burst someone down really fast.

greatswords f1 has no functionality..apart from gaining a large window of fury which increases your critical hit chance by 20%. It also has no synergy, apart from cleansing ire which allows you to remove up to 3 conditions in close quarter combat with minimal cast and small chance of interrupt.

The animation is under impressive, but the more grandiose the animation, the more it is telegraphed to dodge.

F1 is fine.

Good fix to consider IMO:
1)Fix rush to have a PBAOE effect at the end, fix it so it doesn’t overshoot .
2)Swap rush with the F1 (and make it always spend adrenaline on use), adrenaline now affects the speed and power of rush and arcing slice operates on a 20s cooldown with the same effect as the lvl 3 version.

This would also help aleviate the problem of those perma-run mobility specs without needing to give rush a Ride-the-Lightning cooldown adjustment.

GS is fine, just give it faster auto attack.

There should not be any excuse of y rush is not fixed yet. Bull’s charge is the same skill. With the added knockdown. And it never miss. Y can’t they do the same with rush. Or better still, make it the same like bull’s charge. :p

The Greatsword is a great weapon and rush should definatly just be fixed and not removed. If it hits it does some good damage as well and it hits way more often then it used to actually. I’m not sure why you depend so much on running away since rush should more often be used to chase enemies that run away from YOU. F1 is a bit useless and the auto attack is a bit slow but the rest is great. Hundred Blades has to be used situationally then it is powerful. 4 is a ranged cripple and 3 is just overwhelmingly good. Another dodge thats hits hard I mean come on who couldn’t love that?I wouldn’t mind a condition like bleed somewhere since it would have some synergy with the arms tree but I can definatly live without it.

join the club. i think some of the skills on gs are really great but number 2 and burst were designed with very poor insight into pvp

GS is Warriors answer to mobility, Rush allows you to escape or catch up with people, it also deals moderate dmg. With the strong regen warriors have, Rush can create a time gap in the fight allowing you to regain a lot of health before re-engaging. Sided with an immobilize or stun from a secondary weaponset, Hundred Blades can take away whole health pools.

With the right techniques GS is a worthwhile weapon.
What i find most questionable is the AA-chains and the burst skill Arcing Slice. Earthshaker, Skullcrack, Kill Shot, Eviscerate, Flurry and Combustive Shot just feel much greater than Arcing Slice, although AS can grant perma fury but with the other potential sources of fury it just doesn’t feel worthwhile since it doesn’t deal high dmg and there’s nothing extra to it.

I just wish they’d buff Arcing Slice. The animation is awesome! I’d love to see it in action more often. Maybe give it slightly more damage, or reduce the cast time. Anything.