Guild Wars 2

im full berzerker and im finding near impossible to kill FUll bunkers..

yet bunkers seem to beneift from low condi dmg.. and too much defenese.

this isnt balanced Surely…

The nerf will only effect pve and wvw. Spvp will have the same numbers as before.

And in pve or wvw full bunkers seems a bit pointless…

Zardul.3952:

im full berzerker and im finding near impossible to kill FUll bunkers..

yet bunkers seem to beneift from low condi dmg.. and too much defenese.

this isnt balanced Surely…

you cant kill a full bunker, but a full bunker can’t kill you either, this is like what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, zerker damage goes crazy sometimes though and having such spiky damage makes PvP less interesting, I remember a previous MMO I played, there was this class that had a 1-shot skill, surely for that guy who kills you instantly is fun, but it gets anoying for the rest and it gets old quite fast anyways

Just making a thread to aware concern that there are more and more people playing condition bunkers now because of the synergy with defence + condi

not at all balanced

Zardul.3952:

im full berzerker and im finding near impossible to kill FUll bunkers..

yet bunkers seem to beneift from low condi dmg.. and too much defenese.

this isnt balanced Surely…

If you have problems with your ranger in full berserker (lb/gs) is pretty much obvious, but you shouldn’t have problems with your mesmer.

some full bunkers do nice Condition damage though. and eventually the bunker always wins.
the damage that the berzerker outputs is outhealed or absorbed to nothing.
when you take into account the following

Block
Regen
Heals
Toughness
Vitality
Evade
Edurance regen

and the countless amounts of Reflect and Negate Damage skills

if it carry’s on the way its going EVERYONE will roll full bunker and no1 will die.
we will all walk around laughing and having endless fights.

its quite hilarious tbh

id like to add because of this, ive took advantage by rerolling a Condition bunker Engineer.
and its so easy to play with little to no Disadvantage. you would think with such high DPS from conditions there would be a Catch somewhere but look at Rabid, carrion, apothecary, dire etc etc.

they are all defensive and dealing alot of dmg.

WIN WIN

Zardul.3952:

id like to add because of this, ive took advantage by rerolling a Condition bunker Engineer.
and its so easy to play with little to no Disadvantage. you would think with such high DPS from conditions there would be a Catch somewhere but look at Rabid, carrion, apothecary, dire etc etc.

they are all defensive and dealing alot of dmg.

WIN WIN

true, Dire seems a bit unfair, since condition damage doesn’t need an extra stat (precision) to do good damage, that makes a bunker character with a full stack of the offensive stat

And here i was hoping someone actually did the math, and showed us some actual proof to go along with their wild claims.
Nope. Just someone giving an unsubstantiated opinion, without any factual evidence to support it.

I’d like to take this oppertunity to raise awareness about the overpowerd direct-damage builds. They are everywhere and dominate atleast 2 gamemodes.

Not at all balanced…

Devs asked a time ago if we want some new amulets for spvp to have the option power+defense. But it is too much work for them to create an amulet with power + toughness for spvp only.

exactly my point, not to mention the whole roll of conditions is that you can literally walk away go and go AFK and still be doing Damage on the target you have " Debuffed"

Zardul.3952:

exactly my point, not to mention the whole roll of conditions is that you can literally walk away go and go AFK and still be doing Damage on the target you have " Debuffed"

those condi will be cleansed if you go afk though

Lupanic.6502:

Devs asked a time ago if we want some new amulets for spvp to have the option power+defense. But it is too much work for them to create an amulet with power + toughness for spvp only.

lol, too much work? It already exists, it’s called a soldiers amulet. The problem is most people refuse to sacrifice precision and crit damage in their power builds to get toughness vitality and good condi cleanse.

The only problem i have with most condition builds is that they are all the same it is pretty much just spam as many conditions as you can and keep spamming them. Until that is fixed then Condition builds will continue to control everything as they have more access to conditions on either low cool downs or on auto attacks than anyone has access to removals.

Sure you can make a build PURELY to counter conditions but you won’t beat them and in the end you will still likely die, it will just take longer. Then what happens when you come up against other types of build? That ONE build you have JUST to counter conditions is simply useless against the new one and you will get killed rather easily.

Engineers: Remove Confusion. They do not need it. Tweak Grenades and bombs so its not AoE condition spamming.

Necromancer: Remove Conditions on auto attacks. Tweak other skills with a lot of condition access (Smite for example)

Warrior: Remove that stupid Confusion trait. They should NOT have it. If that is not acceptable. Give it a 20-30second cool down. nerf the trait that increases bleeding by 50%

Thief: Dunno about this one thanks to Initiative it would be kinda hard to adjust, maybe just decrease the duration and/or stacks of some of the conditions they have? Venom builds need to be tweaked as well.

Ranger: Another hard class to fix when it comes to condition spamming. Sure something could be done though.

The problem with condition damage is the same problem that warriors have which is why they need nerfed so badly.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with condition damage per se.
It is the combined ability to have the best damage of a type (condition) with extremely high defense (the condition bunker) and not have to trade a bit of one for the other.

In short, condition damage is too high when a condition caster has greater ability to take damage than if they used a different damage source. It isn’t the offense but the defense which is the problem!

If all high condition damage builds were a bit more glass cannonish (like berserker) I doubt we would have this conversation. You just take out the condition spammer first.

The issue is there is only one stat to acquire for all condition damage. That leaves A LOT of points left for almost pure defense.

Solution: Reduce the normal duration of conditions dramatically (33%). Now -increase- the impact of putting points into condition duration. Instead of giving you 30% for 30 pts it should be 60%. You need 15 pts in the secondary line just to “break even”. At 30 pts, you have half the benefit of a food buff (but are going to be very glass cannon).

Issues: That would require a LOT of tweaking of the trait lines but isn’t that what ANET is doing next?

“Boo hoo hoo, nerf every class but mine.”

Seriously, condition damage has alot less viable builds than direct and if you didn’t have a counter to the condition builds – QQ moar rock paper scissors you lose.

Stack some vit or add condition removal or be prepared to lose to a condition build.

It is like how people who complain about zerker are always told to “dodge moar” or add toughness/evades. Guess what? You make a choice when you make a build.

As long as there are multiple sources of damage, it will be fair to need specific counters to each.

Edit: This post was made in the nerf condition damage thread… now it is in the nerf zerk thread. I understand topic merging needs to happen but zerker and condition damage aren’t the same thing, lol. Anyway, I was replying to the people whining about condition damage…..

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The only problem i have with most condition builds is that they are all the same it is pretty much just spam as many conditions as you can and keep spamming them. Until that is fixed then Condition builds will continue to control everything as they have more access to conditions on either low cool downs or on auto attacks than anyone has access to removals.

Conditions are just an other form of damage they “spam” as much as direct damage would do! They try to hit you and apply a condition instead of pure direct damage, that’s all. Every time a condition build would have hit you an equivalent direct damage build would have also hit you and dealt its damage. The difference is to reduce direct damage you need to get toughness and protection before you got hit and to prevent condi damage you have to cleanse afterwards (for both you can dodge/block/get invul before).

If you want to be able to cleanse every single condition on you would be the same as the ability to reduce every direct damage attack by (let’s say) 90%. Would that be fair for a direct damage build?

So far the arguments have been about the damage output (which is fine). The real issues with conditions are:

1. In small fights, the ability to add so much defense in your spec (because you have one damage trait) makes conditions OP.

On the other hand. . . .

2. In large fights, or in PvE fights where there is a finite amount of conditions that can be on a person/mob and (in wvw zergs) a much greater number of players who can remove them, conditions are very underpowered.

In short, conditions are Pappa and Momma bear (too hard, too soft) without ever having a Baby Bear moment (just right).

Maybe that is a form of balance. But it seems if you want to lower condition damage on small fights, there needs to be some significant improvement on condition damage in large fights or PvE fights.

1. The offensive stats are condi damage, duration and precision (that’s 3 i would say). And those traits are within 2 trait lines (with special traits there are even more: Master of Terror, …) But I think you meant stat and not trait.

Btw. the “huge” amount of damage a condi bunker is dealing can be easily out damaged by most power tanks.

Upon reflection, I think you may be right unleashed.

The issue is small fights vs large fights.
Condition damage is excellent at an attrition based small fight.
It is subpar as the fight gets large or in PvE.

It is like that for every damage type.

In small scale fights a glass cannon has the chance to be more effective then in a large fight. In large fights glass cannons have to pick off out of place people which is essentially making a little small scale fight next to a large scale one. If the large group see’s 2-3 people fight 2-3 of their stragglers goes to protect them and the 2-3 glass cannons large group sees that then you have a large fight again.

It sounds easy if programming was magic like “hey do this” cause it sounds good kind of thing snap fingers and it’s done but it doesn’t work like that and would probably cause more problems.

Direct damage can kill you in a large fight like it can in a small scale fight both can be slow or quick in both scenarios. In a large scale fight you can stay up longer many times because of the support skills going off around but you can also get more damage because of things like spotter, and might stacks etc etc.

There is no difference conditions and direct damage are both effected by large and small scale fights. Condition damage isn’t as effective in large scale but neither is direct damage shout heals going off, aegis procs, combo fields, strength in numbers.

Also how do you determine what is large and small scale that satisfies the entire population of guild wars 2. Low tier servers example of large scale is probably different then tier 1’s.

That is my point oZii. The OP suggests essentially that condition damage needs nerfed.
My point is that this is a far more nuanced issue. There are definitely times that condition damage can be taken to an extreme and other times it just is subpar. If anything, you would rebalance.

Condition damage itself is fine. The methods of application, however, are not. No auto attacks should apply conditions.

Since there are really only three builds in this game: full zerk DPS, condition, and 0 dps support, if you nerf condition damage, there is only one build left: full zerk. You will be getting one-shot even more often if condition damage is nerfed at all.

I feel like condition damage wouldn’t be so bad if control effects weren’t so prevalent. Like, yeah, you’re getting dominated by cheesefire necros with fear, thief/engi perplex cheese, PU mesmer, etc, but it’s also worsened by the fact that you’re being constantly cc’d. thief steal, basilisk venom on 32/45 second cd, mesmer chaos storm/power lock, engi supply crate, shield 4/5, tool kit 2, and so on. There is also immobilize. You can get immobilized, feared, dazed, and stunned all at the same time. 2 sec defiant for players on cc pls.

They did imply that the crit damage changes are being made now as part of a set of changes that are coming in the future. They needed to make the particular change to crit damage for some reason, although they didn’t exactly state what it was. However, it’s possible that the changes to crit damage may make a lot more sense when we see what else is coming along in the future.

Also, my understand is that the nerf to crit damage is effectively due to the fact that accessories currently offer a disproportionately high amount of crit damage when the relative stat comparisons are made between items. This means accessories with crit damage are inherently more valuable since they offer a larger quantity of stats. As such, the nerf to crit damage is largely due to the result of them bringing this in line with what the numbers should be (via the ferocity implementation) rather than simply deciding to lower the damage because they felt it was too high.

I don’t predict it will have as significant an impact as people think it will, but we will have to see. For instance, a 10k fire grab will essentially be a 9k firegrab, which may not actually mean much overall. Overkill by 1 HP is effectively the same as overkill by 1001 HP.

Zardul.3952:

im full berzerker and im finding near impossible to kill FUll bunkers..

What do you find to be the difficult part in this situation? Do you find your damage output to simply be too low, or is that they are able to damage you too quickly and thus you are put on the defense before you can even really apply pressure? Posting your build might help as well if you are looking for some suggestions.

Spicyhash.7605:

Condition damage itself is fine. The methods of application, however, are not. No auto attacks should apply conditions.

Since there are really only three builds in this game: full zerk DPS, condition, and 0 dps support, if you nerf condition damage, there is only one build left: full zerk. You will be getting one-shot even more often if condition damage is nerfed at all.

I feel like condition damage wouldn’t be so bad if control effects weren’t so prevalent. Like, yeah, you’re getting dominated by cheesefire necros with fear, thief/engi perplex cheese, PU mesmer, etc, but it’s also worsened by the fact that you’re being constantly cc’d. thief steal, basilisk venom on 32/45 second cd, mesmer chaos storm/power lock, engi supply crate, shield 4/5, tool kit 2, and so on. There is also immobilize. You can get immobilized, feared, dazed, and stunned all at the same time. 2 sec defiant for players on cc pls.

If you take condition damage off autos you should also take any significant direct damage off autos or it won’t be balanced at all. Your asking them to make this game even more reliant on power for damage. That is something it certainly doesn’t need considering all power builds, and half the condition builds already rely on power. There needs to be less focus on that stat not more.

Pve atm: zerk or gtfo!

oZii.2864:

There is no difference conditions and direct damage

u wot m8

how i zrek tace-fank hambone and won ?? many stronk

much wow so kitten (=^o_o^=) (=^-_-^=)

They arent just nerfing berserker gear, they are fundamentally redesigning how crit-damage works.
And i strongly suspect they are doing this because they want to push on with te gear threadmil and vertical progression.

Right now, imagine higher gear tiers. With critdmg being a % modifier the numbers would get absolutely crazy real fast.
So they are changing it to a flat damage addition to crits. This doesnt scale up as insanely as a % modifier.

Next up, they are only hitting pve and wvw, where there is an actual grind for gear. They arent changing spvp, why? Because they really thing its so balanced? No, because there is no point as there is no gear progression. These scaling issues wont happen without a gear progression, so spvp wont have this problem.

They are also nerfing zerker a bit, wether intented or as an added bonus, it makes sense. Because it was scaling to far out of reach in pve damage. And it would then become the only gear to be used in a few tiers because of how far ahead it would be.

Thats what i suspect is going on here.

Terrahero.9358:

They are also nerfing zerker a bit, wether intented or as an added bonus, it makes sense. Because it was scaling to far out of reach in pve damage.

PvE zerker-meta is due to how terribly designed many of the mechanics of this game are. Zerker gear is intended to do the most damage (as stated by ArenaNet), and people using the right organization and tactics can better take advantage of ArenaNet’s poor game mechanics with it. Nerfing Critical Damage while introducing Ferocity is just a blanket to cover up ArenaNet’s refusal to distribute resources to fix its game mechanics.

If being able to kills bosses and trash-mobs faster makes PvE content easier, then zerker will always be the PvE meta. Why would anyone run a full or partial support build if it isn’t necessary? Why would anyone run a condi spec if a power build can better sustain DPS on more targets or even a single target? The problem isn’t zerker; it’s the way this game works. What did people expect with no trinity?

Velimere.7685:

What did people expect with no trinity?

Encounter design where glass cannon was the high-risk/high-reward playstyle it should be instead of low-risk/high-reward?

I have no issues with highly skilled zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. I do have issues with mediocre zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. Right now, the NPC design is such that active defense on players is greater than the offense from the mobs and bosses. It’s a simple change that’s needed.

However, to quote Jim Butcher “Lifting an engine block is simple, it just takes a lot of effort.”

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Velimere.7685:

What did people expect with no trinity?

Encounter design where glass cannon was the high-risk/high-reward playstyle it should be instead of low-risk/high-reward?

I have no issues with highly skilled zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. I do have issues with mediocre zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. Right now, the NPC design is such that active defense on players is greater than the offense from the mobs and bosses. It’s a simple change that’s needed.

However, to quote Jim Butcher “Lifting an engine block is simple, it just takes a lot of effort.”

There’s something wrong here. You’re saying there’s no skill required for PvE content right?
Maybe that’s the issue skill isn’t a factor in regards to PvE content. Especially when this game is all about damage.

Control? Unstoppable/Defiance
Support? Might, vigor, and fury are the only good support… Since protection, aegis and everything else doesn’t protect against one-hit kills.

Aegis does protect against the one-shots. Most of them, anyway.

And I was not saying there is “no skill required in PvE”, I was saying “low skill is required to run glass cannon with ease in PvE”

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I have no issues with highly skilled zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. I do have issues with mediocre zerk parties blasting through content without much trouble. Right now, the NPC design is such that active defense on players is greater than the offense from the mobs and bosses. It’s a simple change that’s needed.

That’s a pretty terrible justification made by a pretty terrible generalization. Mediocre parties can certainly blast through easy PvE content without much trouble, but in Fractals of the Mists (and Arah to some extent), it’s a completely different story. Just because regular dungeons are a part of the PvE meta doesn’t make it alright to ignore the fact that they are easy even without Berserker gear. You can just as easily get together a full Cleric’s group and take twice the time to stack and kill a boss in the same way and still have an easy kill without anyone going down or getting defeated. If you group together easy meta PvE with the only meta PvE that actually requires some amount of skill, then you flaw your entire argument.

That said, the fact remains that furthering upon active defenses can still enable players to survive endlessly against dungeon bosses. If two dodge rolls isn’t enough to keep zerk parties alive through a speed-kill after losing 8% DPS, Superior Sigils of Energy giving them that third dodge roll is. If that gets nerfed, players will just look to their survival utility skills to replace DPS ones.

ArenaNet can break this game as much as they want trying to cover up the real issue, but it won’t take long until the majority of the player-base catches on and they start to catch the bad widespread PR they’ve been suspiciously able to avoid so far.

With a background of years of playing the original Guild Wars, I love this game. It is currently the only game that I play… but my eyes are wide open when it comes to all of the problems it has and how ArenaNet has thus far decided to deal with them. The Living Story was the worst thing to happen to the fruition and growth of Guild Wars 2, and the game desperately needs its dungeon team back.

Full Zerker teams are actually the safest way to do the harder dungeons (CoE and Arah) because you kill the bosses so fast the mechanics that make them difficult for everyone else never come into play (for example, that 7.7 second Lupicus kill. There was no risk involved there. Yes, I am aware of the coordination and planning needed to pull it off). That is one of the biggest issues right now. Zerker parties finish the fights so fast that they simply aren’t subject to as much risk.

Yes, most PvE content is easy, but when what should be “high-risk/high reward” gear turns into “negligable risk/high reward” gear, there is a definite problem. The problem is, of course, in the enemy design. Bosses are too reliant on infrequent attacks that one-shot or nearly one-shot you regardless of your stats.

This is clearly the case since in WvW and PvP, there is no “zerker meta”. Why? Because players have higher offense than active defense. The risk inherent in the stat set becomes very relevant then.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Full Zerker teams are actually the safest way to do the harder dungeons (CoE and Arah) because you kill the bosses so fast the mechanics that make them difficult for everyone else never come into play (for example, that 7.7 second Lupicus kill. There was no risk involved there. Yes, I am aware of the coordination and planning needed to pull it off).

I fail to see the connection here with “mediocre zerk parties” – but this is certainly an interesting display of a 180 on your prior claim stating “I have no issues with highly skilled zerk parties blasting through content”.

No risk? There’s a difference between no risk and no mistake. If you make a mistake, you introduce risk. If you don’t, of course there isn’t going to be a risk. Perfection is without flaw; expecting it to be otherwise and trying to use that as justification for an argument is utterly nonsensical.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

That is one of the biggest issues right now. Zerker parties finish the fights so fast that they simply aren’t subject to as much risk.

Of course skill is going to supersede risk. That’s the way it works. I don’t understand the reasoning in arguing against logic itself, but maybe you can enlighten me here…

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Yes, most PvE content is easy, but when what should be “high-risk/high reward” gear turns into “negligable risk/high reward” gear, there is a definite problem. The problem is, of course, in the enemy design. Bosses are too reliant on infrequent attacks that one-shot or nearly one-shot you regardless of your stats.

…Thanks for reiterating and furthering my point? I don’t see how that helps your argument (whatever it may be now).

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

This is clearly the case since in WvW and PvP, there is no “zerker meta”. Why? Because players have higher offense than active defense. The risk inherent in the stat set becomes very relevant then.

I’m not touching that subject. Those game modes have a whole other set of issues that don’t even involve Berserker gear, so I’m not gonna stray off-topic by forgoing relevance.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Full Zerker teams are actually the safest way to do the harder dungeons (CoE and Arah) because you kill the bosses so fast the mechanics that make them difficult for everyone else never come into play (for example, that 7.7 second Lupicus kill. There was no risk involved there. Yes, I am aware of the coordination and planning needed to pull it off). That is one of the biggest issues right now. Zerker parties finish the fights so fast that they simply aren’t subject to as much risk.

I wouldn’t bring the biggest outliers to this discussion, you even said you are aware of the coordination and planning needed to pull it off. It also required few hours of trying to get good enough rng which you omitted. Also, it was 7.1s.

Yes, most PvE content is easy, but when what should be “high-risk/high reward” gear turns into “negligable risk/high reward” gear, there is a definite problem. The problem is, of course, in the enemy design. Bosses are too reliant on infrequent attacks that one-shot or nearly one-shot you regardless of your stats.

In open world there’s virtually no risk but there’s not a problem with a gear but with how open content works. Zergs plus aoe cap equals immunity for the most players participating in the boss event or farming champions.

In dungeons, the risk is there, I would say higher than with soldier’s and other defensive gear. I recall how everyone at the launch were saying that berserker’s is a suicide. That’s not because they haven’t found out that you can kill bosses fast, that was because they had no idea what they were doing. Moreover, you can complete dungeons like Arah with dodging disabled with defensive setups.

In fractals, your statement is completely false. Bosses don’t die in seconds but in minutes so the risk is there. Especially when a lot of bosses (at least those harder ones) use rather fast autoattacks with almost no tells that one shot glass cannons (except warriors).

This is clearly the case since in WvW and PvP, there is no “zerker meta”. Why? Because players have higher offense than active defense. The risk inherent in the stat set becomes very relevant then.

In pvp there is actually either zerker gear (thief, hambow, mesmer, ele) or defensive gear, whether it is condition (necro, kinda engi, ranger) or bunker (guardian). There is no zerker meta also because the game objective is different, how would you imagine defending an objective (standing on the node) with a glass cannon? I cannot. But what is the meta in 1v1 duels arenas?

With zerk you need to focus for 10 seconds and everything melt down. Withot berzerker or meta team builds you fight for 10 minutes and one shots still kill you with one shot.
A little zerk nerf wont help. We also need a little buff on other sets. Sometimes you dont have enough damage to overcome the healing mechanism of the enemy.

i’m just pointing out the obvious, condition bunkers will be the new meta.
we will have SO MUCH FUN having 2 hour dueling battles in spvp and wvw..
./sarcasm

its too readily available to apply conditions with no “trade off” i could go full bunker and still do damage equal to a power build over time. whilst permanent healing myself and taking 70% less damage from zerkers.

25 stacks of bleeds = 2k-3k dmg?
Burning = 500-800 damage?
poison = 200-500 damage?
Torment = 2k-14k Damage? ( depending on class)

and whilst they might be hard to get a full stack ( bleeds) you still run around healing and bunkering…. whilst doing damage that is equal to power build who have no defense.

Condition removal is a good defense.. yes. but it only ever removes 1-3 which can be instantly applied through auto attacks ( Sigil of earth, 33% – 66% chance to apply bleeds, pets, passive buffs, combo fields, transferring conditions)

and what for power builds we get a permanent reduce in damage through toughness and vitality along with Skills such as Block, evade, reflect.

one of my spvp tornaments today cosisted of 2 conditions necros and 3 Condition bunker warriors, we stood no chance.

Condition removal comes at a cooldown… yet Toughness is ALWAYS active.

Zardul.3952:

Condition removal comes at a cooldown… yet Toughness is ALWAYS active.

Please tell me how the “always on” effect in and of itself makes something a better defense.

If i had to choose between

“Always reduce incomming damage by 1%”
or
“Evade all damage, completely, for 1second every 5seconds”

I know i wont be going for the “always on”-effect. So you’re going to have to do a little more then just point at 1 single effect without any context whatsoever.

Zardul.3952:

Just making a thread to aware concern that there are more and more people playing condition bunkers now because of the synergy with defence + condi

not at all balanced

Great, so you figured you’ll make a complaint thread about something entirely unrelated.

Terrahero.9358:

Zardul.3952:

Condition removal comes at a cooldown… yet Toughness is ALWAYS active.

Please tell me how the “always on” effect in and of itself makes something a better defense.

If i had to choose between

“Always reduce incomming damage by 1%”
or
“Evade all damage, completely, for 1second every 5seconds”

I know i wont be going for the “always on”-effect. So you’re going to have to do a little more then just point at 1 single effect without any context whatsoever.

Are you assuming that the toughnes only migates 1% damage? because you are coming across that toughness isnt as strong as it is.
again like i said Condition bunkers have better synergy than power builds.

Zardul.3952:

Terrahero.9358:

Zardul.3952:

Condition removal comes at a cooldown… yet Toughness is ALWAYS active.

Please tell me how the “always on” effect in and of itself makes something a better defense.

If i had to choose between

“Always reduce incomming damage by 1%”
or
“Evade all damage, completely, for 1second every 5seconds”

I know i wont be going for the “always on”-effect. So you’re going to have to do a little more then just point at 1 single effect without any context whatsoever.

Are you assuming that the toughnes only migates 1% damage? because you are coming across that toughness isnt as strong as it is.
again like i said Condition bunkers have better synergy than power builds.

No, i am giving an example of a defense thats “always on” vs a defense thats cooldown based.

In this situation the cooldown based defense is far and beyond superior. So pointing at toughness vs condition duration and only commenting “toughness is always on” is utterly meaningless.

And as your next claim you see condition bunkers have better synergy. What do you base this on? Please say “because conditions deal more damage!”, because that would end this little discussion right fast.
Also im pretty sure these magic words summon Coglin.

7 .1 second Lupicus kill: example of great planning and coordination -> high skill level
Typical all zerker run: mediocre skill level, but still completes the content with less risk due to everything the boss does essentially being 1-shots regardless of stats.

I am not completely convinced zerker gear needs a nerf, but encounter design does need to change. Fractals has a couple of good examples (like shaman and especially) as to how this can be done. Living story has even more (including those parts that have since joined fractals).

As for the dueling arenas in WvW, you see all sorts of builds. Some professions may be more likely to go Zerker than others (such as thief and warrior), but you still see large variety in dueling specs, even in those professions. The reason? Because you can’t completely negate everything a player does to you (barring broken things like bunker warriors and DS eles vs condition necros, but none of those specs run zerker gear)