Source
r/Guildwars2•
Halae

Bladesworn and cooldown reduction

[VoD]

So, Bladesworn appears to be somewhat polarizing - those who dislike it find it to be clunky and unfun, or have some other thing they hate about it, while those who love it, love it; I'm personally in the camp of it being fun and enjoyable, as it fits my class fantasy for a skilled warrior. What nobody can contest is that it's rather powerful in the right hands, pulling roughly 25% more DPS than current meta builds.

Why is this? I've been looking at it for a little while, and I've come to the conclusion that Bladesworn just straight up has too much cooldown reduction. It's able to refresh its skills too quickly, which allows it to throw down more flow, which allows it to use Dragon Trigger more often. It turns what's meant to be a burst damage specialization into sustained damage through the use of a high number of burst skills, as it can just keep slamming out cooldown reduction into its flow builders. This, more than anything, is the problem as I see it and I feel that if Bladesworn wasn't so awash in cooldown reduction it'd be significantly less OP without losing what makes it fun and interesting for all of us who love it; high burst with the need for setup and planning out how you want to handle your attacks.

Posted Sep 22, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

811
[deleted]•

[deleted]

10
HalaeOP:Human::Engineer: •

I agree with you there; the gunsaber ammunition charges are built around the fact that Bladesworn has a ton of cooldown reduction, being MUCH longer than any other weapon skill cooldowns. But that's more a symptom of the problem than anything else.

The actual damage of the skills is fine, I think. The only one that feels weak is the #5 skill, which is admittedly more about mobility than it is about damage.

5
Jeffhzak:Raptor:•

I agree with your conclusion but for slightly different reasons - I think the ammo spam gameplay is brutally unintended (even burning the defensive cds in dragon trigger, and precasting wasting gunsaber ammo) and the existence of the trait and elite combined cripple the base cds of the class into being unusable without them.

6
PrincessKatarina•

I do worry that as fun as lush forest ammo spam is its too powerful and would pigeonhole bladesworn into only that playstyle

6
HalaeOP:Human::Engineer: •

Yeah, that's my biggest concern with the spec. I love it, but constantly needing to belt out all ammo charges I have available isn't a good thing, for a variety of reasons.

0
Aetheldrake•

So, Bladesworn appears to be somewhat polarizing - those who dislike it find it to be clunky and unfun, or have some other thing they hate about it, while those who love it, love it;

That's pretty much summing up all gamers. Some will probably say it's not true but they're just in denial. That's how the gaming community has become.

Love it or hate it. There's little in between and most people who calls themselves the "in between" usually are just hate it but they want to like it

2
Zegreedy•

Felt very clunky in the transitions when i tried it out. Made it even worse that i logged to my holo afterwards and everything was fluent.

Well i guess it's in beta and can be improved upon.

1
midgetherpes•

This spec would be incredible if I could walk and dodge in dragon trigger, and any ability I used throws me out of dragon trigger,instead of the sitting duck. I get the risk reward intention, but it's also so boring standing still.

-4
Arcalas_RD•

well if you could move the damage would be lower.

2
Snoo_63163•

Lol in pvp it's 4k on avg, after a 5 sec charge that roots u. The damage may be great in pve but in competitive modes it embarrassing for the drawbacks it currently has.

6
BabaBadass_•

man these guys who are not even gold in PVP are delusional. Any experienced player can make an absolute work of your Dragon Trigger that does measly 6k damage at most.

1
Snoo_63163•

Yeah it's aperant most people when discussing blades great damage etc thst it's in the context of pve lol. A true shot, maul and many more can out dps dt in pvp and don't require a 5 sec root or a waste of ur burst for a quick stun lol. I couldn't imagine letting myself get hit by a dt in almost any scenario and if I did I'd deserve to be insta deleted cuz I obviously messed up hard. So easy to interrupt, cc or dodge lol. I mean I can match dt burst in pvp with pistol 3 on thief and its a insta tele and blind. Espec is fun in pve but woul get utterly destroyed in plat by everyone.

2