Guild Wars 2

Hi Anet…first I’m a fan and a casual gamer…so no complex over the top statistical analysis of the skills here…so what I’d suggest is a method to achieve balancing…call it your daily activities for balancing:

1st) Access what roles should exist over all the professions (here are the ones I’ve found in my casual way of playing the game):
->Bunker ( Toughness/Vitality/Healing power )
->Condition Bunker ( Toughness/Vitality/Conditional damage )
->Dps ( Power/Precision/Critical damage )
->Roamer ( Power/Precision/Critical damage/Toughness ) plus mobility
->Support ( Healing power/Toughness/Vitality )

Bear with me…I’m casual but I think I’m on to something

2nd) To truly balance this new kind of system you created (where you as player can be any of this roles) you need to create each and every one of this roles with each and every one of the classes. In doing so you’ll notice several issues (and many more I’m missing for sure)

-If you place any dps build vs a bunker using two players with the same skill level the dps build is going to win, and why is that? Because in gw2 the single most important fact to survivability isn’t toughness/vitality or healing power it’s mobility, the ability to get out of harm so your precious healing isn’t mitigated by incoming damage. So a dps will have similar mobility than a bunker, leading to an unfair advantage in a fight.

-Conditional Bunkers will never be balanced by the current conditional removal skills, the cool down of that skills are just too big, the only way to effectively deal with conditions comes from foods and rune sets that decrease condition duration. This means that a Conditional Bunker will have a great advantage in a fight, it has mobility/toughness and vitality and the ability to apply a large amount of damage…even worse is the fact that conditional damage is harder to mitigate through movement that power based damage (most high power damage skills have really large tells)

-Not all classes are able to perform this roles with the same degree of success…I know this can be due to the flavour for the class, but for me and seeing the reactions of many others, we want the roles there, you can create flavour by making the roles feel different due to different skills of different professions.

Suggestions:

1) DPS needs to be taken down a knotch ( make healing power increase movement speed or vigor gain, players will start with -10% movement speed. or vigor gain. That way people heavily specked for dps will have less mobility and less survivabilty.

2) Conditional damage > Power damage

To be a effective DPS with power damage you need to balance three figures, power/precision and critical chance), to be a effective DPS with conditional damage you need to balance just one conditional damage…this is mitigated to an extension due to the stacks of conditions being limited and due to the fixed properties of equipment…but it’s still unbalanced. So why not introducing Conditional Tick Chance to the builds and equipment…this will surely make conditional bunkers less dominant.

3) Remember all professions should be able to do everything with the same degree of success, you made the system and you might be wanting to get rid of this degree of balancing but us the players won’t accept less…so please take into account the major benefits of the classes (stealth, clones, healing, mobility, passive buffs etc… etc… )

Ex:

How much survivability is perma stealth worth?
How much survivability are clones worth?
How much survivability is great sword 3 and 5?
How much survivability is mist form/stone armor/teleport worth?

etc…

Hope this turns out to be helpful, if you have further questions I’d be happy to answer them.

And keep on strong ANET thanks for this amazing game

>Access what roles should exist over all the professions<
In order to give all classes viable builds in every role you mentioned you would have to give all classes the same type of spells. Every class would need strong movement spells, strong heals, strong burst, etc. But why create 8 different professions when everybody is basically able to do the same – and also will do the same based on the current meta. Sounds rather boring.

A distinct role for each class is something that should exist in every mmo at some degree. Because it’s something that makes classes unique and makes every class viable because it’s the only one that can fit this specific role. If you want a roamer you pick a thief. If you want a defender you pick a guardian. That’s how it is and that’s how it should be. When every class can do everything there will always be one class that can do it best – and others will be tossed aside, just like it’s the case with eles, that stand out in no role.

>If you place any dps build vs a bunker using two players with the same skill level the dps build is going to win, and why is that?<
are you sure that you’re talking about gw2?

I kinda agree with the rest of your post though (survivability and condition-bunkers)

Every profession can to some degree do every type of playstyle but there are limitations put on all classes usually as that classes weakness.

Mesmers don’t have great OOC mobility on purpose
Necro’s don’t have good mobility on purpose
Engi’s aren’t as good at condi pressure as a necro but have mobility.
Guardians can be very hard to kill now give them warriors mobility?

That is why every class has weaknesses and strengths so they are wanted. If Necro’s had good mobility why would you bring a Engi for condi pressure?

I see mesmers asking for mobility buff’s and Anet might cave into that one day but they where designed to not have great OOC mobility as a design decision it is also why they are somewhat weak to condition compared to other classes.

I don’t really want to dig for that mesmer conditions quote from chap but the Engi vs Necro comparison I can post have that one bookmarked.

why do most players thinks there is only one condition damage boosting stat? There are 3 stats that boost condition damage : condition damage, condition duration and precision (this one is debatable but it is true for most classes).

To Gorni. : Ok, I can relate to the fact that all classes can´t never be as good at everything…so I concede on that point, but i keep stressing that at this point dps will win vs bunker builds…with one exception, conditional bunker. But normaly the damage output will smash through most builds defenses, due to the lower cooldowns of ofensive skills, and the fact that healing power scales poorly for so many skills.

To oZii: Ok, i can concede on the role part, but the other sugestions still apply…to decrease DPS with the introduction of a passive benefit of healing power to either vigor or movement speed. And that condition damage builds should have to increase another stat, like condition tick chance. This would allow to a decrease of the condition bunker dominance we’ve seen.

To Tim.: True those two other stats increase the damage output of a conditional bunker…but a conditional bunker without those stats can deal much more damage than a power based build without critical chance/damage. That’s the inbalance and the reason why conditional damage should be heavily impacted by another stat, this would avoid the conditional damage/toughness/vitality builds that are, im my opinion, inbalanced.