I wanted to talk about the current state of balance based on my experiences from both WvW and sPvP. Some things I say will be based more on WvW, others on sPvP.
In my opinion the current major source of imbalance comes from Boon- and Condition spam.
Let me explain. I will list all the classes and builds I currently consider overpowered.
- Warrior – Healing Signet in general, Hambow + Strength Runes.
- Guardians – Bunker Guardians in general. Have been uncontested bunkers since lauch, add may too much group support and boon sharing. See massive amounts of Guardians in WvW (especially zergs) and win-ratio in sPvP for proof.
- Rangers – The perma-evade spam builds with constant Protection and Regeneration.
- Thieves – Excessive Blind spam with Pistol offhand makes them hard to counter in WvW. P/D sustain/pressure is pretty stupid too in WvW.
- Engineers – Poorly telegraphed condition burst and condi-spam in general Especially Burning deals insane damage all while being able to kite and CC.
- Mesmers – Prismatic Understanding…enough said.
- Elementalists – Insanely overpowered in WvW. Way too much damage and sustain in WvW thanks to Runes of Strength and constant Protection and Regeneration.
- Necromancer – Minion Masters are a bit op in sPvP, again due to constant Protection and Regeneration.
Now you can argue all day about specific imbalances but that’s not my point. My point is, that if you take a look at this list a lot of OPness from specific builds comes down to a high uptime and both Regeneration and especially Protection (and to a lesser extent Vigor).
The thing is, Protection is an incredibly powerful boon. And yet it is handed out like candy to a lot of build allowing them to achieve insane levels of survivability with very little trade-off. Having a high Protection uptime is like putting a cloth class in heavy armor. When combined with Regeneration, which too, while being a weaker boon is still very abundant, and Vigor it creates a very tanky meta that doesn’t trade offensive for defense in a fair way.
Conditions benefit from this because they circumvent Protection and are applied and spread very easily.
Guardians deserve special attention in this regard. While in themselves they may seem ok, once you add them into a group they add an insane level of sustain with very little trade-off and thus breaking the balance. This is evident in the ridiculous amounts of Guardians modern guilds stack into their WvW line up. This is the same reason they have been the uncontested bunkers in sPvP with no other class ever being able to fill that role. Is this good or fair design?
So what does this mean?
Well frankly I think ANet needs to take a good look and how easily and abundantly some builds and classes can stack Protection especially, and to a lesser extent Regeneration. PU Mesmers are probably the pinnacle here and a great example what sort of game-play ensures when these boons become too available on too short a cooldown.
Protection is a powerful boon and should be treated as such, not handed out like candy on a children’s party.
Guardians need their boon-sharing capabilities nerfed. I don’t think it’s ok for “defensive group support” to be an aspect almost entirely relegated to one class. Spread the love.