Bladesworn - Defense Bladesworn

Part of the current metagame

Our curator decided this build is in the current metagame regardless of rating. The community gave this build a rating, making it top-tier: Great

Focused on: Strike damage and Sustain

Designed for: PvP Conquest

Difficulty:

Easy

This build was last updated on September 23, 2023 and is up to date for the October 8, 2024 patch.

Overview

A Power Bladesworn build that drops Tactics for the Defense specialization in order to gain some new tools such as Resistance on dodge or projectile-reflects on Aegis, even recovering some of the lost Stability access Bladesworn used to have.

Skill Bar

Axe/Pistol

Utility

Skill Variants

Weapons

• Warhorn over Pistol - while Pistol is seen as the sronger option, Warhorn can still be a good situational pick if you feel like more condition removal is needed, or if you plan on spending more time in teamfights and want some extra group utility. Warhorn's especially useful against classes such as Rangers or Necromancers who've got Immobilize and other movement-impairing conditions, but dropping Pistol's going to cost you a lot of damage and trait synergy.

Heal

• Mending - a tech option against condition builds, offers better cleansing in exchange for lower healing. Might want to consider taking Peak Performance on Strength if you want a damage boost. For the record Mending isn't always necessary against every condition build, sometimes your sheer amount of healing and barrier stacking coupled with the few cleases in the build is enough to stand your ground.

Utility

Balanced Stance can be replaced by:

• Dragonspike Mine - low CD stunbreak that also resets the CD on Dragon Trigger, which makes it work as a burst CD/mobility tool too.

• Banner of Defense - increases your sustain and group utility. One of your better options against condition specs too and you could even combo some Resolution with Break Step (Gunsaber #5).

• Endure Pain - better defense against strike damage, excellent panic button with a stun break.

• "On My Mark!" - a utility that can be used if you are confident that can you get by with only 1 stunbreak. Adds more value to Relic of the Trooper and the vuln + reveal can help you secure kills.

• Stomp - somewhat niche but very versatile utility skill that acts as stunbreak, CC and provides some Stability access. The CC part even works on downed targets, allowing you to remove downed enemies from capture points while bleeding them out.

Elite

While generally not recommended, the elite can sometimes be swapped out in niche cases like 2v2 and 3v3 offseason where you'd need better rez power or chase/kill potential, or if you're using Mending. Overall Tactical Reload provides alot of damage and sustain expecially when paired with Combat Stimulant.

• Battle Standard - could be useful when you expect to be mostly teamfighting.

• Rampage - the combination of CC, mobility and damage makes this good in just about any situation from securing kills to disengaging from fights.

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Specializations

Variants

• Restorative Strength works well with Combat Stimulant and has synergy with Might Makes Right, boosting your self-healing.

Variants

• Cleansing Ire trades Stability uptime and extra damage for better cleansing and flow generation.

Variants

• River's Flow increases your survivability but lowers your mobility. Becomes objectively better when playing with Warhorn, as Warhorn's Swiftness uptime makes the current trait unnecessary.

Equipment

Axe

Pistol

Sigil

Sigil

Rune

Amulet

Relic

Equipment Variants

Sigils

• Sigil of Energy over Sigil of Intelligence can be taken when playing as a side noder. Might Makes Right provides alot of endurance so this sigil is only recomended for beginers or using the lowest sustain variant of this build.

Relics

• Relic of the Defender - better healing thanks to the many Aegis sources in the build.

• Relic of the Daredevil - improves your consistency by ensuring that your important attacks crit. Might want to consider replacing the current rune as the Precision stat loses some value with this relic.

• Relic of Isgarren - higher burst potential.

Runes

• Rune of Fighter - more tanky option.

Usage

Elite specialization basics

• Warriors who spec Bladesworn lose access to weapon swapping in combat but gain access to the Gunsaber, which works a bit like an Engineer kit (F1 by default).

• Instead of Adrenaline you build Flow in combat. If you have enough Flow you gain access to Dragon Trigger (F2), which roots you in place and starts consuming Flow when used. Dragon Trigger empowers your Gunsaber skills. The more Flow you consume, the stronger the first 3 skills get. These 3 skills are the main source of your burst damage.

• While swapping in and out of Gunsaber has a 10s CD, this can sometimes be bypassed. Dragon Trigger is on a separate CD and using it puts you back into Gunsaber mode.

General

• Role: your primary purpose is to be a duelist and take 1v1s, but the build has plenty of AoE pressure and even some group utility too, making you useful in teamfights as well in case you'd need to be more flexible.

• Gunsaber isn't a very complicated weapon. 1-4 are damaging skills and 5 is for mobility/ Fury application. Skills 1-3 are ranged, 4 can be both melee and ranged. Spam them in whatever order you wish if they're not on CD.

• The 3 Dragon Trigger burst skills are:
  • Dragon Slash - Force: replaces the autoattack, melee cleave.
  • Dragon Slash - Boost: replaces skill 2, a gap closer/mobility skill with good damage. This is the most commonly used Dragon Trigger skill as it deals high damage and has the reach to hit enemies that are farther away.
  • Dragon Slash - Reach: replaces skill 3, ranged projectile attack.

• While Dragon Trigger is active, Gunsaber skill #5 turns into a ground targeted teleport. While the range is short, this could still allow you to reposition yourself in a way to hit targets who escaped to the highground or are hiding behind a pillar.
  • When playing with Brave Stride this could also act as an instant source of Stability that could help you avoid being interrupted.

• Unyielding Dragon makes it easier to land Dragon Trigger skills by giving you Blind immunity while also making it more threatening by adding a Stun.
  • Skill #4's Aegis application could also come in clutch if your timing is good, potentially blocking a CC skill that would otherwise interrupt the channeling.

• Axe/Pistol has plenty of burst damage and Throw Axe could act as a quick finishing move against low HP targets, but it's also an excellent set for barrier stacking (more on that later).

• "For Great Justice!" is both a defensive and offensive skill. You can either use it to heal/cleanse yourself and your team or boost your damage depending on the situation.

• Mobility skills give you Swiftness.

• Shield Master causes Aegis to reflect projectiles. This is way more impactful than it sounds because attacks you reflect don't consume the Aegis, allowing you to block way more than just 1 attack.
  • Skill #4 on both sets (Pistol and Gunsaber) are Aegis sources.

• Stalwart Strength gives you Stability whenever you CC a target. This is one of the reasons why building up 2 charges on Gunsaber #3 is a good idea - at 2 charges the skill has Daze, and you could us this trait synergy to follow up with a Dragon Trigger cast that's now protected.

• Dodge rolling grants Resistance which is especially useful against Blind and Weakness spamming specs. With this trait you can keep on pressuring targets by sacrificing a dodge, or end up getting it as a passive bonus anyway when dodging attacks.

Sustain

• Every source of Might application heals you thanks to Might Makes Right, turning otherwise damage focused skills like "For Great Justice!" into healing skills.

• Unshakable Mountain is a very important part of your survival kit, giving you barrier whenever you use the last charge of an ammo skill. This includes your shouts, Combat Stimulant, Gunsaber skills and even Throw Axe.

• Unshakable Mountain heavily encourages you to spam Gunsaber skills to make sure that you don't build up multiple charges. If every charge is your last one, this trait keeps the procs rolling.
  • Skill #3 on Gunsaber is an exception, you might want to consider building up ammo on that one because it makes the skill significantly stronger, even adding a Daze to it.

• Pistol has amazing synergy with Unshakable Mountain, as both of its skills are ammo skills and Dragon's Roar recovers charges very quickly which keeps the barrier rolling.

• Simply chaining Dragon's Roar ⇒ Gunstinger ⇒ Dragon's Roar on repeat as long as you can will give you lots of barrier. You can extend the combo with Tactical Reload, restoring ammo to both Pistol skills, allowing you to use Gunstinger once and Dragon's Roar twice.

• Relic of the Trooper turns every shout skill into a source of condition cleansing.

• Tactical Reload gives one charge to all Bladesworn ammo skills and makes your next Dragon Trigger charge faster. It's primarily a defensive skill best used to recharge your healing skill and Gunsaber #5 for extra mobility. To get full value out of it make sure that all of your Gunsaber skills are on CD and your heal doesn't have more than 1 charge. This is especially important because of the Unshakable Mountain synergy, as going from 0 ammo to 1 will proc the barrier on the next cast, but going from 1 ammo to 2 doesn't.

• Be careful with the timing of Combat Stimulant! The charges don't stack, if you use the second one before the first heal goes off the first one won't heal you.

• Your best source of condition cleansing is also one of your only stun breaks: "Shake It Off!" so plan your CD management accordingly.

• Balanced Stance is the best skill in the build for surviving Power based damage, even allowing you to tank some enemy burst while counter pressuring them. It's also a stun break, so if you're not under any condition pressure you might want to use this first before resorting to "Shake It Off!" later.
  • This skill could also be used offensively, using the Stability to protect your Dragon Trigger casts.

Related Builds

• Defense Bladesworn Roamer - WvW version of the build.