It's time to improve Broadsword

Thoughts:

Brutes: Increased Fury generation from attacks.

Scrappers: Increased *damage* from criticals, as opposed to increased critical chance.

Tanks: Bruising effect increased.

Personally I'd rather simply change the damage type from all lethal (which is heavily resisted) to a combination of lethal and smashing (that is less so). From a concept perspective it works due to the heavy weight/impact of the weapon compared to Katana which is very quick, light and slicey.
The addition of the smashing damage should allow BS to excel against a greater number of mob types.

How about adding the concept that because the broadsword is such a massive weapon that the sheer force of the blow "weakens" the enemy until they have a chance to recover?

You can add an illusionary damage component on top of the existing damage to all of broadswords attacks to simulate this effect.

What I'd like to see is a build-up that would max the damage of the next attack, or drastically increase it if maxing is too much. Would make the set by far the best burst damage, but with a long enough recharge it wouldn't DPS considerably. I'm thinking a 2k non-critical Headsplitter.

I was thinking about the topic of revamping Broadsword recently, but I was thinking of just giving it the Katana treatment, i.e., entirely unique animations. With Titan Weapons coming out (possibly) sometime this year, Broadsword needs something to make it stand out other than just mechanics.

I had a idea.. Maybe change Build up to Break Armour recharge 2 mins last 30 secs all Broadsword attacks cause -res like 7.5% for most and Hack, Disembowl and Headsplitter 10%
or replace Parry with it so Katana is a defence sword set and Broadsword a damage dealing sword set.
Or replace Parry with Shatter Armour attack but more like 20% -res for 10 secs like Clobber rech 16 secs base damage 182.

I bugs me that so many people are into proposing set buffs that come with some sort of downside while active. That's either not a buff (aiming for some sort of zero-sum change) or it's a very small one.

The whole point of the OP was to suggest the set needs improvement. Obviously, asking for radically overpowered changes is not going to get anywhere, but I don't want the set's character changed for some 3% DPS increase. Adding things like a self-debuff on Build Up is going to change how my characters play and how I would want them built, and frankly, I'm not very interested in having to deal with that for tiny improvements.

I would either like a simple, no-cost improvement or the set left alone. Anything else is annoying. The goal in the OP is supposed to be to make the set perform better compared to its peers, not be new, different, or more interesting for its own sake than people think it is now.

While I can't argue with a revision to Broadsword, I think we'd have to consider Katana, Mace and Axe in the spectrum to ensure we didn't wind up with two sets with vaguely different animations yet the same effects.

I'd be super thrilled if Broadsword got some slightly different animations and maybe more emphasis on the defense debuff. As it is, it feels like the middle-child to Axe and Katana.

Just because a power set don't match what you want, Doesn't mean people think the same thing. I Have a Broadsword toon and they play just well, So yeah they don't need to be change.

I think Broadsword is perfectly functional, but as something I play among many other melee sets, I do think it has fallen behind in performance. Its closest functional peer, Katana, does pretty much everything Broadsword does but with better DPS. At this point, I'm pretty sure all other powersets can out DPS Broadsword. So when deciding what to play if you come down to wanting the things Katana and Broadsword do, the only reasons (in PvE) to pick Broadsword over Katana are concept and burst damage.

I think that Broadsword is in this position because, over the years, other original powersets with which it was a peer were buffed. Katana, Dark Melee and Martial Arts have all undergone some significant changes. Katana hasn't changed significantly in a long time, but back when it was changed, its animation changes made it's DPA (and thus DPS) much improved. Broadsword, though, has stood still.

I think that means its at least worth asking if there's something that could improve it, to help keep it on par. I just want it to be something basic, not a complicated reworking of the core powers of the set.