Guild Wars 2

Coming from this thread, here are two suggestions supposed to make confusion a little less counterintuitive and less powerful while keeping it viable – the second option probably also makes it a lot more effective in PvE:

Simple solution:
- don’t trigger confusion on dodge
- change confusing enchantments so it doesn’t allow for area denial without a cap
- maybe also change pry bar so it’s not an instant five stacks of 5s confusion, this can be really powerful on a low recharge, especially when combined with might which engineers have good access to
- increase visibility of or completely change confusion indicator

Complete rework:
- change confusion so it doesn’t stack in intensity; increase base damage and maybe duration instead, but make it so that one stack wears off on each skill use; that way you can cleanse, dodge or whatever without taking an instant 10k+ damage with many stacks
- in turn, increase condition availability/reliability for mesmers so condition builds remain viable

As already said, the latter approach would probably also be very helpful in PvE.

As Gab correctly stated:

Gab Superstar.4059:

Perhaps double or triple its damage, then have someone take the full damage of one stack of confusion on ability use, which would then remove that one stack.

So for example, if you had 8 stacks of confusion on someone, that person would take ~1,500 damage per skill use for his / her next 8 abilities, making it ~12,000 damage total. It would still be powerful, but it would not have the same instagib power to it that got 100 ’nades nerfed.

That would also mean that one still has the choice to take the damage, remove the condition or wait until it’s gone, and it’s a real choice, unlike with really high stacks of confusion where it’s more of a live or die decision (25 stacks of confusion at 2500 condition damage deal 12,500 damage). This would also fix the problem of activating a skill the break of a second after several stacks of confusion have been applied. It still hurts, but not anywhere close to the devastating effect it has right now.

The idea of having 1 stack of confusion do more damage but also wear off once triggered is one I approve of wholeheartedly

In essence this changes confusions behaviour from being along the lines of empathy and backfire, to more like ineptitude and clumsiness from guild wars 1 – still acceptable and in context for mesmers and fills its function as making the attacker think twice before following through.

It solves the WvW problem where newbies mash their attack button over and over and kill themselves from 20 procs of confusion, worst case scenario is the newbies proc confusion once and the mistake is done and over.

It also makes it more viable for PvE usage where mobs rarely attack often enough to proc confusion more than once in it’s short lifespan if the base damage is increased but balanced around only proccing once

I support the idea of increasing damage but adding the mechanic of 1 stack removed per skill use. Would make the skill not OP at all but still viable!