Let’s face it, right now in groups it’s very clear that the most efficient way to run kitten near anything is 4 warriors and 1 mesmer; 1 guardian, 3 warriors and 1 mesmer; or 2 guardians, 2 warriors and 1 mesmer. This is just due to the fact that these classes bring everything.
2 Guardians can stack Might to 24 stacks. Two Warriors can instantly give 20 stacks of Vulnerability to any boss. Mesmer can double the duration on Might and Fury, give time warp, has Focus pull, etc etc.
I’m all for classes being good at some things, but the amount of synergy warriors have with themselves is ridiculous. It’s so good that I regularly see “4 Warrior 1 mesmer group for CoF1” or “Lfm Fotm, WARRIOR GUARDIAN MESMER ONLY” etc. Now, I leveled my warrior just because it’s the most efficient way to run it and I’ve come to a few realizations on the issues.
Warriors bring some very odd things. With three warriors you have: Banner of Might, a Unique Power buff that you can’t receive from anywhere else, Banner of Discipline, a Unique Crit damage and Precision buff you cannot receive from anywhere else, 96% up time on Fury without any outside sources from “For Great Justice” alone; Battle Standard bringing Fury up time to nearly 100%; on top of 10 stacks of might with 100% up-time and 30 stacks of vulnerability(5 beyond cap) with a ~40% up-time.
I believe that Fury and Banners are the problem here. They simply add too much power to the group. 100% up time on Fury should really be impossible on Warrior. This change ALONE would do a lot to balance the class. Currently Warrior is simply better in melee than everyone else. They bring unique buffs, high levels of the traditional buffs and debuffs, along with incredibly high base damage. Every group is made better by having a warrior, and I think this is a problem in the current meta.
However, no one enjoys a nerf, so I put forth to you: Why not buff the clearly under powered classes?
Necromancer is either viewed as a “Support” or a really bad damage dealer, currently. It’s best damage is entirely based around bleed damage, which it appears Anet has no wish to fix, and continues to be capped. So, With the introduction of a new debuff, I believe something that could make Necromancers useful is a flat increased damage of group. This could be done by decreasing targets toughness, or giving an inverse Protection debuff, on top of vulnerability. Increasing the base damage of Dagger by a lot and axe by a little bit would be a nice change. Well of Suffering should have its vulnerability stacks duration increased by at least double, bringing it to 10 seconds.
Thief & Elementalist doesn’t currently fit in most groups, but honestly I think that’s because of the players – I really don’t think elementalist & thief have that many problems.
Ranger – Fix the pet AI, and increase the survivability of Spirits. There’s currently a bug on Frost Spirit, and it’s keeping rangers viable. If this is unintended, ranger will need a very large power increase. Reducing the CD on Sic’em to 25 seconds would bring Ranger on par with Warriors damage, while still not bringing as much utility. Why is quickening zephyr so painful, even after the quickness nerf?
Overall I think people overestimate warriors damage – but it’s their group utility that’s too good. It’d be nice if other classes could be brought up on par with them.
Also, A more blanket thing: I think Cleaving should deal reduced damage after the first target. This would do A LOT to bring power levels closer between classes who can cleave and those who cannot.