Guild Wars 2

Is there any chance that you could do something about rangers normal attack with sword?

I really hope this means making classes that use COND, HEALING, or TANK stats more viable. Slowing down the best dungeon dps 18 months after release is pointless. All the hardcore players have their money and gear, and have no reason to replay old dungeons for the 10,000th time if the only difference is they’re slower for those with REAL SKILL (ie: can dodge and wear zerk gear) I am not impressed. Create roles for the other classes, or have you never tried running a pistol+pistol engineer? You shouldn’t resent your party mates for chosing something they like, and when you only do a good job of making zerk dps, it hardly seems like it needs a nerf. The OTHERS need a BOOST!

It takes 300 gold more or less to get an Ascended armor set. I’ve just made mine yesterday.

I think that if the critical damage issue is not handled properly there will be a lot of angry players. Thankfully I didn’t invest in Zerker ascended, as I realized something like this might happen ( with all the nerf zerker qq posts going around).

Still – I would like to know what sort of change will be made. How they expect to push this so soon after launching ascended gear – and why this was not presented before said gear was launched.

all though I’m looking forward to it, ppl shouldn’t be so hyped about it, A-net always lets us down ALWAYS. so don’t have your expectations to high or you will ruin your weekend.

just saying…

purgatoryz.6038:

I sincerely hope they don’t have some kind of knee jerk reaction here. Since zerk is the meta (not really a meta, because it’s been unchanged) in PvE it’s probably safe to say that a very high percentage of all armor created or worn has a critical damage modifier.

If they make changes they need to take into consideration the thousands (millions?) of collective hours of farming/crafting/grinding that’s gone into people acquiring their current gearset.

This honestly wouldn’t be a problem if Ascended was never a thing.

Can you please try to devote a reasonable amount of time discussing classes? Especially with how you feel the class is right now, whether or not you feel they’re overpowered or underpowered, and, if they’re underpowered, WHY you think they’re underpowered?

And can you please try to make this a little more balanced when it comes to discussing classes? Warriors, Thieves, and Elementalists always get 10minutes or more each and Rangers for some reason get a half-hearted 30 second blurb of no-one-really-cares.

Rangers are fail from the ground up. Their pets don’t work (and aren’t on the radar for fixing), their traits make next to no sense, they don’t have the tools (burst/ae) to make a power build ever work, they have an entirely too passive/boring playstyle regardless of weapon chosen, etc etc.

I’d like to leave this SotG/Ready-Up with the impression someone actually plays the class, recognizes the problems it has, and actually cares enough to fix it.

Please?

Behold fellow players, this is how PvE content is made with minimal effort. All it takes is one tiny change and players will have hundreds of hours of grind to enjoy. Just like the last few patches when ascended weapons and after that armor came out!

I honestly hope I am wrong. I honestly do want to believe, that whatever they came up with, is reasonable and will make the game better. I have been hoping for the past few days, but the blog post is still nowhere to be seen.

Nerfing crit damage, yeah that’s really going to remove the pve dps meta and promote diversity….

It still won’t stop me from making a zerk spec

fadeaway.2807:

If the critical strike damage change renders the gear I’ve been grinding towards (in a game advertised as non grindy) pointless and means I need to redo all the grinding, I will quit.

Same here.

And not only this. Berserkers gear is not too strong. Other builds are useless because the content is so easy that even not so good players can play Zerk.

If the content would be rly hard, and frost/weakness/prot needed to survive…other builds would come. Even if they were still Berserkergear using, but not max dps (beacuse traited for support, warrior warhorn just as an example).

Just nerfing critical dmg will change nothing, it will still be the best gear if u do the most dps. And if it´s only 5% more then PVT (which won´t happen) it would be the best….

On the other hand, whats with defensive gear? I traited my guard supporty and picked up full clerics gear. I facetanked HotW P1 Endboss the only attack i walked out (no dogde, just walking back) was his whirl….
I could tank all others without dogding/aegis whatever. And i was the only cleric…if u stack prot and other clerics i think we could facetank even high lvl fractals.

Whats with ramagers gear? Possibel we can hope for a statchange to make power or conditiondmg the mainstat?

Runes/Sigil rework sounds nice. Was waiting long for this.

Fenrir.3609:

Nerfing crit damage, yeah that’s really going to remove the pve dps meta and promote diversity….

They didn’t say nerfing, though that’s likely the outcome. Ideally they’d make crits 100% base instead of 50% and remove the stat so power and condition were a bit more even. But who knows.

Josh Davis.6015:

• Critical damage changes

http://youtu.be/Pw2sex1mJNI?t=5s

Viking Jorun.5413:

Will there be movement to make no-stealth thieves a viable option in adding build diversity to the class?

No….
But! There might be a Crit damage nerf … aren’t you excited… I can’t wait to find out which part of the thief gets nerfed this patch.
Let’s hope the nerf wish list comes true

If this critical damage change reduces Berserker gear to uselessness. I will probably quit unless I get a free stat change on every single piece of gear I own.

Which is saying alot because I’ve always been very supportive of Anet and Guild Wars since I started playing the first one 3-4 years ago I think it was

The only thing sure about Critical Damage changes is that some new Hitler / Crazy German Kid videos are to be released.

Atherakhia.4086:

Fenrir.3609:

Nerfing crit damage, yeah that’s really going to remove the pve dps meta and promote diversity….

They didn’t say nerfing, though that’s likely the outcome. Ideally they’d make crits 100% base instead of 50% and remove the stat so power and condition were a bit more even. But who knows.

It’s safe to say they are going to try and nerf it, it’s what they do. It’s sadly also getting increasingly safe to say that they don’t know what they are doing.

Question: Will this change destroy currently established Berserker builds, or simply make it harder to use them?

(Hint Hint: Should we hesitate before buying Ascended Zerker gear?)

Who knows? Maybe the changes to critical damage will mean that it will work on condis and healing too.

Vincent Highwind.3054:

Both Ele’s themselves and other professions have raised concerns about the state of the Ele in the Meta. Certainly good Ele’s are out there, but overall the class is outpaced by other classes and the viable builds available are few in number. More and more often players groan whenever an Ele enters a dungeon or PvP match; the class is very quickly becoming dead weight or free kills for the other team. What are your plans for dealing with the challenges that the Ele faces, and how quickly can Ele players expect changes to their profession?

Don’t really have much advice on fixing Ele since to me the entire Ele mechanic needs remodeled, I’d support anyone who would though~ XD
I have a character of every class and I love all of them… except Ele. It’s the only class that I find boring and not worth the time/effort. >.< I loved them a lot in GW1, what happened? .-.

Fenrir.3609:

It’s safe to say they are going to try and nerf it, it’s what they do. It’s sadly also getting increasingly safe to say that they don’t know what they are doing.

No, what they do is try and nerf something but do a crappy job and over nerf it….THAT is what they do.

From the same guys who brought you their number one hit for thirty-seven weeks in a row, We’re Nerfing Shortbow Twice to Make Longbow Look Better by Comparison, Rather Than Just Fixing Longbow! comes their new single—and it’s bound to be a smash. Here’s Time to Nerf ’Zerker, Instead of Reworking Encounter Design and Buffing Other Playstyles!

I, for one, cannot wait. Good job, whiners.

My apologies for dragging the spirit of Casey Kasem into this.

Do the devs have any opinion on the downed-state/revive/rally mechanics or do they share any of the concerns voiced by the community?

I think everyone knows Zerker needs tweaks, the problem is – Anet. Everyone is worried and rightly so based on experience that Anet FAILS at anything to do with Balance. The most likely scenario we will see – is a HUGE over nerf that pretty much makes all Zerker builds useless…

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I think everyone knows Zerker needs tweaks, the problem is – Anet. Everyone is worried and rightly so based on experience that Anet FAILS at anything to do with Balance. The most likely scenario we will see – is a HUGE over nerf that pretty much makes all Zerker builds useless…

The problem is everyone knew that to move away from a dps meta in pve in terms of speed runs/top players, that it required a mechanics overhaul and not a nerf.

Actually no, the problem is that everyone knew that ANet was never going to alter the mechanics and was going to simply nerf the crap out of zerker in order to appease a few whingers.

Anet is well aware they will lose some degree of players by simply nerfing crit damage (and not building up the scaling of other stats). quickest potential “fix” to zerk/assassin being the best pve gear in all situations. have my doubts that just lowering crit damage would be enough, but whatever (as likely as that is to be their solution, we still don’t know that yet).

but hopefully they realize how much worse the rage-quit will be if there is no compensation (free stat change at the very least). please don’t repeat the error of your fractal ratings reset………i enjoy the game an would like to see it survive another year.

Fenrir.3609:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I think everyone knows Zerker needs tweaks, the problem is – Anet. Everyone is worried and rightly so based on experience that Anet FAILS at anything to do with Balance. The most likely scenario we will see – is a HUGE over nerf that pretty much makes all Zerker builds useless…

The problem is everyone knew that to move away from a dps meta in pve in terms of speed runs/top players, that it required a mechanics overhaul and not a nerf.

Actually no, the problem is that everyone knew that ANet was never going to alter the mechanics and was going to simply nerf the crap out of zerker in order to appease a few whingers.

In spvp crit damage from gear is capped out at 20% I believe. Maybe 30% if you get divinity runes. My guess is pve could see a similar hit.

PvE doesn’t bother me, i dont think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. WvW is the BIGGEST issue i think.

Ok Grouch, topics which need to be brought up:

0) Warrior sustain.
- Healing signet + adrenal health HPS is too high for a passive that cannot be interrupted and poison has less effect on than other heals (requires perma poison rather than carefully timed poison burst)
- Zerker stance too long for perfect immunity, either reduce length or lower immunity to %. (Jonathan we discussed this ages ago…)

1) Warrior mobility. Mainly for wvw, warriors can escape anything with little risk in some weaponsets due to how their gap closers can be used to bridge distance without a target. Bring these in line with other gap closers and lower the movement spam. Having warriors in heavy armor outpace thieves is just wrong.

2) Condi burst is too high, ie can apply too many condi’s too quickly. Necro dumbfire/signet of spite, mesmer clone death traits etc

3) WVW revealed – why is this only 3s? PvE doesn’t matter, but wvw should use pvp balance for this, being a pvp mode. Stealth is far more exploitable in wvw than pvp (more targets to cnd, mobs to distract opponent with, more port spots, more z axis advantage).

4) Stealth is still too strong as it little counterplay and no disadvantage for being used. Thieves and mesmers can chain stealth for a long time and there is no disadvantage in doing so. Blocking attacks in stealth does not reveal. Shadow refuge stealth is too long.

5) Immunity traits - automated response and diamond skin, both hard counters to a particular build type. There have been hundreds of posts on this with your usual silence. Is it so hard to change them to -80% duration (does not stack with mel/food etc). Also, why don’t these have a buff to show it’s up? You expect a new player to guess why their opponent is immune to their attacks? Anet being so logical as usual.

6) Something needs to be done about ele base health/survivability. The ratio and dependency on having to build defensively when other classes don’t require it is just too far off atm.

7) Many thieves want to be less stealth dependent and more interesting, many non thieves want less stealth spam. Win win situation.

8) Can you like give rangers a bone or something so they don’t spam how bad they are in every thread? Maybe a tsun cat pet or something to distract them?

9) Particle effects? Why hasn’t this been fixed yet, I spoke with a dev ages ago about this who agreed it needed to be dealt with. Engine nades/bombs, d/d ele, guardians fire like skills, petting zoo’s, sigil of hydromancy/fire/geomancy etc they are all far too flashy and make it hard to focus on the fight with all the particle spam. Worse trying to spectate.

10) WVW guard stacks too strong - well mainly the guard defense ones. Getting +250 vit (2500 health) is a huge boost to many builds, especally for glass classes. This needs to be toned down – what about splitting it like the offense stacks to 25 vit, 25 toughness per stack? (Even then it should be less but this is a start)

11) Perplexity runes 6th skill having 8s cd is far too short for how strong an effect it is. This should be 15s or something, being able to acheive constant 10 stacks of confusion simply by timing two interupts properly is just wrong. Also these runes are messed up – the confusion duaration doesn’t work at all. If you wear the runes and a thief uses basi on you and interupts you, the runes proc on you and give you confusion for some reason? Fix it, this was reported 6 months ago.

Please stop avoiding the actual issues and address the problems. We don’t need to see your devs spend half an hour trying to locate a ranger skill, we need to know how you plan to address the issues that affect the player base.

Will the upcoming changes to berserker gear only effect PvE or will it impact WvW as well?

Judging how past updates that were supposed to fix inconsistencies worked out I expect the whole sigil/rune/critical damage change to be a huge letdown for both sides:
Full zerker groups will just take 10-15% longer
Support builds will still be unwanted in many groups.
Cheers

Aza.2105:

Fenrir.3609:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I think everyone knows Zerker needs tweaks, the problem is – Anet. Everyone is worried and rightly so based on experience that Anet FAILS at anything to do with Balance. The most likely scenario we will see – is a HUGE over nerf that pretty much makes all Zerker builds useless…

The problem is everyone knew that to move away from a dps meta in pve in terms of speed runs/top players, that it required a mechanics overhaul and not a nerf.

Actually no, the problem is that everyone knew that ANet was never going to alter the mechanics and was going to simply nerf the crap out of zerker in order to appease a few whingers.

In spvp crit damage from gear is capped out at 20% I believe. Maybe 30% if you get divinity runes. My guess is pve could see a similar hit.

Fantastic, so instead of having a PVT/zerk meta split between WvW and pve, we will get a PVT/PVT meta. Now there is a massive improvement in diversity if I ever saw one.

The crit damage changes may be to accomidate the balence differences in pvp/wvw. All balence is based around the glourious esports yet crit damage can be so much higher in wvw – meaning burst skills become far more powerful than their pvp components when comparing the ratio of offense to defense stats other than crit damage.

Anet may be trying to tone down the burst so people complain less about 15k killshots, 8k backstabs etc (while burst is nice, we have to be realistic about how much shere burst can be achieved in wvw and how this affects the game as a whole, not just for people who want to ‘one shot all the noobs like a master assassin’). Ascended gear has made this even worse.

With critical damage change will we see changes to classes who already do lower direct damage even when they have full zerker and max +crit. Just wondering since universal damage nerfs tend to just keep the status quo just with slightly smaller numbers.

Atherakhia.4086:

Can you please try to devote a reasonable amount of time discussing classes? Especially with how you feel the class is right now, whether or not you feel they’re overpowered or underpowered, and, if they’re underpowered, WHY you think they’re underpowered?

And can you please try to make this a little more balanced when it comes to discussing classes? Warriors, Thieves, and Elementalists always get 10minutes or more each and Rangers for some reason get a half-hearted 30 second blurb of no-one-really-cares.

Can you guys please do this! I really want to see an equal amount of discussion be made about each profession, and where you guys feel they are. I always remember a live stream in the past where you guys were showing off a an update to each class, and only spent an uninterested five seconds talking about guardian traits, and you didn’t even know where the changes were made. I really want to see what you guys think of the class, in comparison to the other classes, and the same to be done to each one.

Now I think everyone could agree that PvE wise there is the issue with Zerker being so far out in front. Meaning what is the point of other stats / armours. How critical damage works is part of that (Only mattering for dmg).

• Yes one large problem with nerfing critical damage is the affect on crit stat armour which in turn effects us the players (time taken to collect crit items). But as Paponzi mentioned could crits affect conditions and heals. How would that change gameplay?
• Regarding the armour & time what if a stat swapping ability was added like legendary (Ascended; all unlocked or collect one at a time till have all).

Ok must say very interested in runes & sigils rework. Could sigils be getting individual cooldowns or tier / group cooldowns (eg. chance on crit group cooldown, weapons swap group cooldown). Just thinking of being able to combine two sigils with cooldowns has me excited.

Liking new amulets but wondering with tying PvP back into the game is there any thought on normalising stat build constuction across all three game types WvW & PvE use the same but sPvP feels like a different system.

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

The crit damage changes may be to accomidate the balence differences in pvp/wvw. All balence is based around the glourious esports yet crit damage can be so much higher in wvw – meaning burst skills become far more powerful than their pvp components when comparing the ratio of offense to defense stats other than crit damage.

Anet may be trying to tone down the burst so people complain less about 15k killshots, 8k backstabs etc (while burst is nice, we have to be realistic about how much shere burst can be achieved in wvw and how this affects the game as a whole, not just for people who want to ‘one shot all the noobs like a master assassin’. Ascended gear has made this even worse.

This sounds about right.

When you look at the max stats achievable in spvp, they are almost identical as they are on a pve character in exotics. The only difference is the crit damage achievable in pve is nearly doubled the amount. I always found this disparity very odd.

Yes the result of crit damage being so high is 8-14k back stabs and kill shots. While those skills do good damage in a spvp setting, they are no where near that high.

Dear sirs and/or madams of Anet,

My name is Skeletot and for the last few years I’ve been trying my best to obtain the power of Grey Skull. However, much to my demise He Tot is way overpowered and makes it impossible for me to take over Eternia…….I mean Tyria. So my proposition is that you make me more powerful than ever, preferably invincible, and I will invite you to all the summer parties at Castle Grey Skull.

Thank you in advance for your assumed cooperation,

Skeletot

mexay.3902:

Oh BOY! I can’t wait for the complete halving of crit damage on zerk gear!!

You know it’s coming. They’re going to nerf it into the ground, not because it needs to be nerfed, but because the other specs are so disgustingly useless.

I know this is speculation, but let’s be honest, we all know it’s coming. This kind of fix wont boost other specs, only enforce zerk further.

This won’t fundamentally change anything. zerk gear will still out damage other gear, which this game’s main emphasis is based on(damage dealing). Unless there is a fundamental change to the game mechanics, no nerfing will change the outcome.

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

The crit damage changes may be to accomidate the balence differences in pvp/wvw. All balence is based around the glourious esports yet crit damage can be so much higher in wvw – meaning burst skills become far more powerful than their pvp components when comparing the ratio of offense to defense stats other than crit damage.

Anet may be trying to tone down the burst so people complain less about 15k killshots, 8k backstabs etc (while burst is nice, we have to be realistic about how much shere burst can be achieved in wvw and how this affects the game as a whole, not just for people who want to ‘one shot all the noobs like a master assassin’. Ascended gear has made this even worse.

That’s true., critical damage numbers are way higher in WvW than in sPvP. They are not, however, the only big difference between both modes.

• 40% condition duration food is a monster. It can be countered with another food, that’s true, but that gives only a situational advantage (when facing a condi spec), while a condition build will always get the benefit of those pizzas.
• Runes of perplexity are insane.
• Dire stats are ridiculous for any form of PvP

Berserker amulet isn’t the most favored choice in sPvP either.
Condi bunkers tend to work better for 1v1 and PVT usually offers a quite even battle.

idk, I think condi bunkerish specs (some of them really trollish, like pistol thief or PU mesmer, that can’t be competitive in sPvP because of conquest) clearly outperform berserker in WvW roaming.
Against PVT there might be some advantage, but they fit zerging just too good to also deserve a roaming advantage.

This announcement will be a deciding factor for me, and a telling indicator of the dev team’s understanding of balance and willingness to do things right rather than taking the easy out.

The issue at hand is the game mechanics system. We can wear high DPS/zero defense gear in dungeons because NPC AI allows us to stack them up and press “dodge” when the one scary attack comes up.

Is the problem with that system the gear? Does it even sound like it’s the gear? That’s the reality of PvE gameplay in GW2 regardless of what gear you wear. That defense and conditions aren’t needed in PvE reflects on nothing more than the simplicity and predictability of NPC AI. Do it right – fix the AI, don’t break the gear.

Proof: In WvW you fight players, not AI. So what gear do people run? Berserker gear is far from the dominant mainstay. Rather, players run defensive gear (Soldiers, Dire, etc.) as the overarching norm because they’re not fighting bad AI that attacks once a year and stacks to line-of-sighting. They’re fighting unpredictable opponents who constantly bombard them with damage and conditions, which lends real value to defensive stats and conditions.

Running zerker gear in WvW is basically limited to skilled small-scale fights players who are highly experienced and familiar enough with other classes to use timing and positioning to leverage their damage gear. It’s not like zerker gear nets free wins here – if you mess up, you’re dead really fast.

In short, if my gear gets nerfed because PvE content is too predictable, I will take my time and money elsewhere.

dont forget ranger this time pls.

whats with trapper ranger (ranger 3 traps (skills) and engi one bomb kit (1 skill)
and the bomb kit feels so much more powerful than 3 trapps.
trapper ranger trait rework/more traits?

whats with a dps ranger (longbow/greatsword)
longbow rework finaly?
longsword rework finaly?
dps traits rework finaly?

whats with ranger pets (much are useless)

state of spirit ranger

whats with offhand axe, its to weak (maybe give the skill 5 a blast finisher and knock like engie shiled when press it 2 times?)

whats with shouts, nearly all are totaly crap and useless…

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

PvE doesn’t bother me, i dont think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. WvW is the BIGGEST issue i think.

I don’t give 2 kittens about WvW, I don’t think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. PvE is the BIGGEST issue I think.

Mirror Owl.7204:

This announcement will be a deciding factor for me, and a telling indicator of the dev team’s understanding of balance and willingness to do things right rather than taking the easy out.

The issue at hand is the game mechanics system. We can wear high DPS/zero defense gear in dungeons because NPC AI allows us to stack them up and press “dodge” when the one scary attack comes up.

Is the problem with that system the gear? Does it even sound like it’s the gear? No matter what gear you’re wearing, that is the reality of PvE gameplay in GW2. The fact that defense and conditions aren’t needed in PvE reflects on nothing more than the simplicity and predictability of NPC AI. I will literally beg ANet to fix that instead of tweaking my armor.

Proof: In WvW you fight players, not AI. So what gear to people run? Berserker gear is far from the dominant mainstay. Rather, players run defensive gear (Soldiers, Dire, etc.) gear as the overarching norm because they’re not fighting mindless AI that attacks once a year and stacks to line-of-sighting. They’re fighting unpredictable (sometimes even skilled) opponents who constantly bombard them with damage and conditions which render defensive stats and conditions much more valuable.

Running zerker gear in WvW is basically limited to skilled small-scale fights players who are highly experienced and familiar enough with other classes to use timing and positioning to leverage their damage gear. It’s not like zerker gear is free wins here – if you mess up, you’re dead really fast.

In short, if my gear gets nerfed because PvE content is too predictable, I will take my time and money elsewhere.

They can overhaul the mechanics (which is what is needed if they really want to shift the speed run pve meta (for god knows what reason)), which takes time, effort and ability.

Or they can nerf some stats and achieve sweet diddly adams aside from appeasing a few whinging players, that is until those whinging realise the meta has just shifted a bit and they start crying again.

Which did you honestly think ANet was going to do?

Well they haven’t made the announcement yet, but yeah, I’m pretty terrified. I would absolutely hate to have to quit this game on such short notice and under such bitterly illogical terms.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I don’t give 2 kittens about WvW, I don’t think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. PvE is the BIGGEST issue I think.

Yeah a mode that is faceroll easy, yeah THAT is the real problem. Most of the content is SO easy its boring as hell, this change would actually make it a BETTER mode.

Indeed having Crit Damage not be able to do 12-16k damage would be a VERY welcome change to WvW, the question is – will it drive everyone to conditions…

Lunar Sunset.8742:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

PvE doesn’t bother me, i dont think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. WvW is the BIGGEST issue i think.

I don’t give 2 kittens about WvW, I don’t think THAT many people would quit over such changes in such a mode. PvE is the BIGGEST issue I think.

yeah you don’t like wvw, ok but its easy enough to blanket reduce mobs hit points to match lower dps numbers thus keeping speed runs about the same. Its much harder to balance risk vs reward in a pvp setting. This is done by adding vitality to zerker gear in spvp. We will need to wait and see what happens to it in pve/wvw.

Mirror Owl.7204:

Well they haven’t made the announcement yet, but yeah, I’m pretty terrified. I would absolutely hate to have to quit this game on such short notice and under such bitterly illogical terms.

Are people REALLY going to quit for them FIXING Crit Damage? I mean it is out of control, Now i understand if you were to crit for the VERY likely result of them over nerfing it but if its a BALANCED nerf and allows us to change our stats to something else – would you still quit?

I’m also worried. It’s very late in the game, especially with ascended armor the way it is, to be making enormous changes with how various stats work. If this coincides with ascended armor being able to assign stats like how legendaries work, that’s one thing. But ascended armor is a huge investment to have a full suit invalidated in a single patch.

Vargamonth.2047:

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

The crit damage changes may be to accomidate the balence differences in pvp/wvw. All balence is based around the glourious esports yet crit damage can be so much higher in wvw – meaning burst skills become far more powerful than their pvp components when comparing the ratio of offense to defense stats other than crit damage.

Anet may be trying to tone down the burst so people complain less about 15k killshots, 8k backstabs etc (while burst is nice, we have to be realistic about how much shere burst can be achieved in wvw and how this affects the game as a whole, not just for people who want to ‘one shot all the noobs like a master assassin’. Ascended gear has made this even worse.

That’s true., critical damage numbers are way higher in WvW than in sPvP. They are not, however, the only big difference between both modes.

• 40% condition duration food is a monster. It can be countered with another food, that’s true, but that gives only a situational advantage (when facing a condi spec), while a condition build will always get the benefit of those pizzas.
• Runes of perplexity are insane.
• Dire stats are ridiculous for any form of PvP

Berserker amulet isn’t the most favored choice in sPvP either.
Condi bunkers tend to work better for 1v1 and PVT usually offers a quite even battle.

idk, I think condi bunkerish specs (some of them really trollish, like pistol thief or PU mesmer, that can’t be competitive in sPvP because of conquest) clearly outperform berserker in WvW roaming.
Against PVT there might be some advantage, but they fit zerging just too good to also deserve a roaming advantage.

That’s true and a very good point. I can imagine the rage if + 40% got into pvp. At the same time, -40% food/+100 precision +10crit/life steal food is also deadly in the right build.

Condi bunkers are especially troublesome, especially Apothecary warrior… this is often due to imbalance in some defense mechanics (stealth, warrior passive regen) and condi application being harder to counter (mes clone death, necro marks, warrior pin down etc).

I have seen some very good players running in full zerk, I avoid it due to lag on Aus connection. The risk is how much of a target you become in larger fights. Soldiers (or knights) is still capable of putting out a lot of damage in pvp/wvw, people may want those big numbers in pve but with power as a main stat and building correctly you can still put out decent damage and survive any unexpected surprises.

If they’re nerfing zerker in pve because its the “meta”, will they also nerf PVT gear in wvw due to the hammer train meta?