QuoteMy personal anecdote:
Reading the initial patch notes I was very excited. Bought 2h Sword, tested Warrior/Warlock alot in Itnal, kept rolling for good stat in weapon but needed 1-2 more days to try it myself in Orkham. I even sold my Katana since if I have a 2h Sword, I can Play Warrior/Scout with that and use Spear for Bleed if needed.
Now I read, that the skill has been disabled. Awesome, Crystals wasted, Katana sold and I cannot even try this class once myself to confirm your experience.
It's not like I tried it with Katana or another weapon, I had to make a new 2h sword too, roll until I got max roll stat then use tiers and get new runes to test it.
I tested in many runs yesterday with different raid setups vs Burst classes (champ, w/s,...) vs Dot classes (w/b, r/d ,r/w), with and without Dot rune and robot. The outcome was the same (R/D being op too could compete with my dots but that was it). I was also competing with players with full Orkham accessories and lower sets while I have none.
However, I do agree that removing 2h sword requirement + removing aoe dot will kill this class along with the investment some players made to play around with it.
My suggestion for w/wl is the following:
Keep "Spirit Wound" dot removed from Spirit Blade Storm. Make Spirit Cracking blow (498780) require 2h Sword and allow it to spread the dot to monsters that are getting hit by your Spirit Blade Storm. This would mean you can only apply your dot every 6s (on skill use) and you have to time both skills together if you want the aoe dot. The flat amount of the dot can remain the same.