TLDR: Some weapon abilities do too much damage when boosted by skills and traits. Nerf the problematic skills and traits, not the weapons themselves since the weapons affect everyone while the burst skill and traits do not.
I’ll admit that some professions probably have a bit more burst than they should. In tournaments and serious PvP between good players, burst is not an issue, but the majority of the playerbase are casual PvPers just trying to have fun in sPvP and WvW. There should be some risk for using a full or mostly dps build, but people probably shouldn’t be getting downed in under a second (instantly on their screen with lag)
That being said, I think ArenaNet is going about fixing the problems in PvP the worst way possible. Not everyone is glass cannon spec, especially in PvE. Nerfing weapon abilities hurts EVERYONE, not just the high burst glass cannon players in sPvP. In fact it hurts the burst specs less than everyone else since they’re usually overkilling by more than 20% (100 blades hitting someone with 18k HP for 22k, backstab hitting someone at 8k HP remaining for 12k, mesmers doing a combined 22k damage to someone with 18k HP, etc.). Nerf 100 blades by 10-15% and the glass cannon warriors will still be killing the same type of players no problem. However, the poor balanced dungeon warrior is now doing less dps because of one spec in a completely different part of the game.
Rather than nerfing weapons, I think they should CHANGE the skills and traits that make them OP. I’ve tried every profession in PvP and on target dummies to make sure there wasn’t some hidden OP ability. However, let’s use thieves as an example since I’m most familiar with their burst.
Cloak and dagger then backstab are not overpowered by themselves. A balanced spec only hits for 3.8-4.5k on a CRIT. Even glass cannons hit the average player for 5-6k on a crit with no cooldowns. Considering it has a built in ~5 second cooldown, requires stealth, melee range, AND you have to be behind your target, there’s definitely a degree of skill required to make use of it. When you factor in steal+mug, basilisk venom, assassin’s signet, signets of power, and executioner, it’s a whole different story. A 6k crit suddenly becomes a 10-12K monster of a hit before average players can respond. Yes, nerfing backstab is the easy way out development wise, but it’s not the right way.
Skills like assassin’s signet should be changed, not nerfed, to balance the problems they cause on use. Rather than increasing backstab’s damage by 50% on use, it should do something like removing conditions, refilling initiative, granting stability, a long condition dot, or even something cool like giving you “predator stealth” for 10 seconds (the transparent but shiny effect). Rather than having signets of power grant 5 stacks of might for 5 seconds, make it give 2 stacks of might for 20 seconds (not exact numbers that I suggest, just an example). For pistol whip thieves, changing haste should have been the fix to the burst problem, not nerfing pistol whip. Now every balanced pistol whip thief in PvP and dungeons is doing 15% less damage because of the effect haste has on the attack.
Don’t punish EVERYONE because of one spec in one aspect of the game. Find the actual problem and fix it.