Guild Wars 2

The formula for retaliation seems solid as of right now at first glance to most, until you see one thing in open combat. As of right now the formula for it is the following, with the power based on whatever gave the person retaliation.
198.45 + (0.075 * Power)
While the flaw isn’t immediate, the following should tell you where the flaw lies. Last night I wakittenting a guardian who had retaliation on. I was taking 394 damage with each hit when the hits I were dishing to said guardian with a longbow were only 280 damage.
Anybody else see the problem here? It’s that the retaliation damage can OUTDO the damage you’re inflicting to the opponent, and stays at that amount regardless of whether or not you burst them down or not. This is the main problem with retaliation, that it’s not a set percentage of damage YOU do, making it somewhat overpowered against players who have low attack, and underpowered against those with high attack.
I say make it so that you’re taking anywhere from 25% to 50% of the damage you dealt to them back at you (I’m leaning towards 33%). This can be considered a nerf and a buff to it at the same time. Condition users like myself need not worry about shooting ourselves down by getting hit with more than we’re hitting for, while at the same time making it a worry for somebody who is a glass cannon, like a thief, who pulls off a 8-9K damage burst.

-Original poster RyuDragnier.9476
I read ryu’s post in hunter forum and felt it should be here as well.

I run a guardian and find it funny how many of those low hitting people die from my 100% uptime retaliation. I literally hit like a little girl when I swing my sword but my healing power/toughness keep my well above 75% health against most players. I simply just run in circles and dodge heal while watching people kill themselves. This skill is so strong and there are so few classes that can strip boons.

• Thief(which i’ve never ran into one who uses it).. which if he does strip it who cares? Not like I’m hitting him anyway lol.
• Mesmer Null field & Arcane thievery which are on kitten CD(null rarely used since confusion nerf and arcane is to long of a CD to be useful), Mindstab which is difficult to land and requires GS or mind spike 3rd attack with sword.. which if you are in melee range with a mesmer you aren’t auto attacking but more hitting frenzy or blinking away.
• Necro although i don’t see many x/focus well builds but still not hard to avoid the big circle on ground and focus skill on 20s cd.
  Infact most boon stripping is on a long cooldown vs my ability to reapply retaliation

Bread n butter skills

• 16s CD on 11s retaliation – (SoW+ LoF combo)
• 24s CD on 9 1/4s(aoe) retaliation – Stand your ground
• 48s CD on 18 1/2s retaliation – save yourselves shout

Situational in slim chance the above isn’t cutting it.

• 30s CD on 9 1/2s retaliation – Zealot speed(SoW + LoF combo)
• ~CD on 9 1/2s retaliation Staff SoF/LoW -> swap to greatsword -> LoF
• Forgot about Virtue of retribution which applies retaliation when you use a virtue
  20% boon duration from food wasn’t added to these times.
  Not to mention the aoe combo’s you get from blast finishers from anyone around. It’s just such an easy to apply buff with incredible duration times.

Hopefully Anet can balance this boon in the future by changing damage to be based off % of incoming dmg and/or retouching on the duration of the boon.