Many screeds have been written on these forums opining about the state of warrior, how it is losing its moniker of the weapon master with each batch of weapons added to the other professions, and how the need to fuel adrenaline or flow inhibits build diversity. I've been putting this to thought the past week or so and share an approach moving forward. For the devs, this would take some work, but would be worth it in the end for the warrior profession and the continued satisfaction and enjoyment of your warrior playerbase.
First off:
REMOVE ADRENALINE/FLOW FROM THE GAME
Second:
ADD MORE PROFESSION MECHANIC SKILLS
Why? Well, to restructure what it means to be a Weapons Master. If Anet is going to spread weapons about the professions, then warrior's identity as a master of so many weapons is diluted and gradually becomes nothing special, especially with SotO's main gimmick of letting you equip the weapons from each espec. So, to restructure the moniker of 'Weapon Master' it makes sense then for warrior to be able to usemoreskills per weapon manifested as more Bursts. Adrenaline itself is a mechanic that only holds warrior back at this point. It is a feast or famine mechanic that forces the player to take traits or utility skills to fuel adrenaline in order to use their mechanic when they want to. So, as part of this restructure adrenaline should be removed so as to not hold back the expansion of each weapon.
What does this mean in practice?
For Core, there should be an F2 added for each MH weapon, for each OH weapon a F3 and F4 should be added, and for each 2H weapon a new F2-F4 added, each with appropriate CDs, but the CDs for each slot should be consistent for each slot. F1's remain, at their T3 versions, at a 10s CD. The increased CD is to account for them now having no resource cost and permanent T3 version. F2-F4, should have higher CDs, but consistent irrespective of weapon equipped, i.e. all F2s have a 12s CD or all F3s have a 15s CD. Berserkers give up some of their weapon expertise to channel their rage and lose access to F3 and F4 in favor of Berserk on F3. In Berserk Mode they gain two primal bursts for their equipped MH or 2H weapon, with F3 as 'Exit Berserk' as default. Berserk becomes a mode to be toggled with no duration. Similarly, for Spellbreaker they eschew the expanded weapon expertise to focus on Defense gaining Full Counter on F3 but retaining the F1 and F2 of their equipped MH or 2H weapon. Bladesworn, gives up only partial expertise to focus on their gunsaber, F1-F3 of their equipped weapon set remains with F4 becoming Unsheathe Gunsaber. While Gunsaber is Unsheathed F1-F3 become Dragon Slash Force, Boost, and Reach, all with 10s CDs. Trigger Guard is rolled into Dragon Scale Defense, Bladesworn gains a third dodge and dodge becomes Flickerstep and flickers in the direction of motion. Pressing a Dragon Slash begins the self root and Dragon Scale Defense and charges bullets, pressing it again releases the Dragon Slash. Movement, escape cancelling, and stow cancelling halt the channel. Charged bullets are not lost until a Dragon Slash is released.
What about traits?
Traits like Berserker's Power or Burst Precision give 1 stack of their effects when any Burst is used and gaining a stack refreshes the durations of existing stacks. Cleansing Ire causes each burst to cleanse 1 condition. Burst Mastery's adrenaline refund is removed and instead it's damage increase on bursts should be increased.
What about adrenaline/flow gaining traits and utilities?
Removed obviously, but the traits and skills reworked or buffed. For instance, Furious could be changed to grant condition damage and expertise. Merciless Hammer could regain inflicting Confusion on interrupt like it had before. Berserker's Stance could instead pulse condition removal, 1 condition every second. There are too many to list and go through individually, but some would need buffs, others, like the rage skills, would be fine with the adrenaline simply removed.
Wouldn't Anet just reuse animations for the new Bursts?
They'd have to. But, each of the new bursts should focus on expanding on the weapons identity or shoring up glaring faults. The new Mace Bursts should include some damage abilities for instance. Axe should have some extra mobility, it also gives room to add in old GW1 skills like Axe Twist.
An example of one Burst I would add to Greatsword: I would use the animation from Symbol of Resolution where the player stabs the ground with their Greatsword coupled with the sigil of geomancy animation. The warrior plunges their Greatsword into the ground with such force the upheaval knocks down foes for 2s. For the Primal F2 on Greatsword I would return the 3 Spin Arc Divider, with a new name of course.
Decapitate needs a special mention, I would remove it's full CD recharge on hit and have it as a heavily reduced CD, like 1s, on hit.
The point being, Warrior gains an expansion of how it can use each weapon, with powerful extra skills per weapon as their profession mechanic, is freed from having to take adrenaline gaining traits or Berserk Mode increasing skills, or Flow increasing skill and gains room for build diversity.
I'm fully aware that this would be a lot of work for Anet, but this is how warrior should be at this point in the game.
