Guild Wars 2

with testing and calculations i have come to the conclusion that sword/sword does MUCH more damage than greatsword when the battle is drawn out (i have calculations based on 18 seconds and roughly based on a battle that is 6 minutes(all these calculations are made roughly by a level 45 warrior and my weapons were level 5 and crafted to minimize difference in gear, but the estimations will stay accurate in terms of comparing weapons(my calculations may be off because i had trouble with calculating the bleeds)))

my calculation with sword/sword over 18 seconds is roughly 8,000 damage
my calculation with greatsword over 18 seconds is roughly 4,000 damage

my calculation with sword/sword over 6 minutes is roughly 220,000 damage
my calculation with greatsword over 6 minutes is roughly 80,000

keep in mind that the damage is low due to gear and level

this calculation would make greatsword basically useless in fights longer than 5-10 seconds

keep in mind that i hakitten ot too good with calculating bleeds so it may be off, please give me your results and we will find out once and for all the use of greatsword, and see if it is overrated, and find out if sword/.sword is underrated but insanely powerful

Idk if its a troll post or not , your name is lol !

1st off not a troll post
2nd off i suck at names so this is the best i could come up with, it’s ironic because i don’t even have a guardian character
i forgot to mention that the s/s damage of 6 minutes is not 20x the damage of 18 seconds because bleeds last longer and can complete their intended effect instead of being cut short by death or the time frame of 18 seconds being completed

It’s either a troll or traited and geared totally in favor of the sword and bleeds.

again it’s not a troll, and my traits are geared more towards power than conditions,
don’t knock it till you try it, sword/sword may well be the warriors ticket back to the top
you underestimate the power of bleeds

I don’t understand where all the hostility is coming from in this thread.

Must be greatsword users…. LOL

Anyways, it’s common knowledge that GS burst is amazing but as far as sustained damage it will lack dps compared to sword/X. It is a burst weapon, plain and simple and effective at it. Sword does need a bit of time to get the bleeds rolling, but especially now that it has an aspd buff it is much better than before.
I’m no good with numbers at all, so I cannot vouch for those statistics, but I do know that over a long period of time sword should do comparable damage, or even more than the greatsword. There is no such thing as a weapon end-all-be-all. I play pure sword/shield and longbow but I am a former greatsword user and I do know of its burst potential. It’s about comparing two playstyles as the OP stated, burst vs sustained damage.

i just found something else out by going to different areas of the game, the difference gets MUCH clearer the higher level you are
or rather it fluxuates at different points, in a level 5 zone GS was better in a level 10 zone sword was better, in a level 20 zone GS was better and so on

Pureguardian.4562:

(all these calculations are made roughly by a level 45 warrior and my weapons were level 5 and crafted to minimize difference in gear, but the estimations will stay accurate in terms of comparing weapons(my calculations may be off because i had trouble with calculating the bleeds))

This is likely where the skewing starts.

Direct damage is derived from your power, precision, +% damage and weapon damage. Bleed damage is derived from your condition damage (and partially condition duration).

If you have both sword and greatsword as steady weapons so the hits don’t vary as much and will ultimately be low, you’re basically capping direct damage. If you’re counting bleeds as damage, the damage will be drawn independently from your weapon damage so it doesn’t matter that you equipped low level 5 weapons or steady weapons, the bleeds will be the same.

So basically, the test is wrongly skewed.

That said, I think swords are underrated. They’re actually pretty good, even moreso now with some of the changes made. They won’t outdo Greatsword’s direct damage but I don’t think it falls hugely behind. Swords is more of a flexible weapon, able to deal direct or condition damage, it has mobility as well as freedom to equip a different off hand or main hand depending on your needs. Also, 2 sigils.

Personally, I prefer the greatsword instead of s/s, I just like to have more direct damage then damage that comes only later, and the build that I tried with my s/s turned out to be too much of a glass-cannon to have any lasting effects with the bleeds >.< (the bleeds were the main way of damage, not from the swords themselves).

However, I’m talking PvP here, so in PvE, I think it might be better to have more bleeding damage against enemies in PvE, such as the enemies and bosses in dungeons, where fights can last long enough for the bleeds to have their effects.

In the end though, it is more of a matter of personal taste then effectiveness in PvE, atleast in my mind.

S/S skills 2—>5 are all single target skills with questionable usefulness.
Skill #2 won’t hit a moving target but it can get you forward faster or quite the opposite: autotarget a stupid castle/tower wall >.>
Skill #3 tooooooo sloooooooooow
Skill #4 will miss a moving target and should have a much lower cooldown
Skill #5 may or may not block 1 single attack while forcing you to stand still (unless they changed it since I last tried OH sword)

The only positive thing about MH sword I can say is: with #2 you can gain on your target or escape. I used to like the skills a lot more before the patch.

dukefx.9730:

Skill #4 will miss a moving target and should have a much lower cooldown
Skill #5 may or may not block 1 single attack while forcing you to stand still (unless they changed it since I last tried OH sword)

I can agree that Impale should probably be on a shorter cooldown, and Rip is rather annoying to land on a moving target, but Riposte never required you to stand still. The only block skills I can think of that do that are Guardian’s shield skill and Elementalist’s earth shield conjure.

Leo G.4501:

Pureguardian.4562:

(all these calculations are made roughly by a level 45 warrior and my weapons were level 5 and crafted to minimize difference in gear, but the estimations will stay accurate in terms of comparing weapons(my calculations may be off because i had trouble with calculating the bleeds))

This is likely where the skewing starts.

Direct damage is derived from your power, precision, +% damage and weapon damage. Bleed damage is derived from your condition damage (and partially condition duration).

If you have both sword and greatsword as steady weapons so the hits don’t vary as much and will ultimately be low, you’re basically capping direct damage. If you’re counting bleeds as damage, the damage will be drawn independently from your weapon damage so it doesn’t matter that you equipped low level 5 weapons or steady weapons, the bleeds will be the same.

So basically, the test is wrongly skewed.

That said, I think swords are underrated. They’re actually pretty good, even moreso now with some of the changes made. They won’t outdo Greatsword’s direct damage but I don’t think it falls hugely behind. Swords is more of a flexible weapon, able to deal direct or condition damage, it has mobility as well as freedom to equip a different off hand or main hand depending on your needs. Also, 2 sigils.

…CRAP…

sorry but with hundred blade every 6 sec and 3 4 5 all been high burst skills, you can’t top that.

next up BB gun beats out m16!

Didn’t compare GS dps to sword after the patch, but I wouldn’t be surprised if sword is higher. Axe already had higher dps than GS, and sword is only a little behind axe atm.
People just don’t realize how bad GS auto attack is.

If you really want to maximize your dps, use A/M+GS or S/M+GS.

At least in pvp, GS gives you the chance of taking the lead of a fight thanks to #3 and #5: they are gap closers vs ranged and let you get in and out of melee vs thieves. Preventing them from sticking to your back is a good thing.

The main issue in PvP and WvW fights, and honestly that’s all I care about, is the lack of sustain a warrior has. This creates a more skilled player to pull off wins when you lack the potential burst. Really if I was to go with sword / x I’d have to pick up a secondary burst weapon and resort to bursting down to under 50% to land final thrust and keep them crippled.

I think the OP brings up a good point. I would really like to see some more precise testing and see the results.

I remember hearing about HBs before I made my warrior and how much damage it does. I wasn’t really impressed when I used it. The AOE part is very nice though as well as the movement.

Repro steps:
1)Take a level 80 warrior
2)Equip level 1 weapons
3)?
4)PROFIT!

Really, I just don’t see any other way to reach such clear damage disparities. Greatsword Autoattack is still a beast while also stacking vuln and 100b hits like a truck.
The only way, the bleeds from sword can hurt for so much more is, when either:
-the warrior is geared and traited towards conditions(duration runes and food, full carrion) or
-the baseline physical damage is ridiculously low(aka level 1 weapons) and one tick of bleed already deals about that much damage.

naphack.9346:

Greatsword Autoattack is still a beast

Greatsword autoattack is one of the weakest warriors have. It is slow and does low damage.