Q:
GW2 Attributes Enhanced Proposal
The idea behind is to enhance player build options in the game. Right now the most popular attribute spreads on armor and equipment Are Berserkers, Assassins, and Soldiers. With the occasional offshoot of Carrion for budding condition builds.
In the original Guild Wars: professions were restricted to their own armor. Characters were built using a Primary Attribute (something that increases the effectiveness of their core skills), and a series of Secondary Attributes.
In Guild Wars 2: You have Power, Precision, Toughness, and Vitality for the four primary Attributes, and a series of secondary attributes. Three of which show up on armor. Condition Damage, Healing Power, and Ferocity (Critical Damage).
Right now: Damage stats (Power, Precision, and Ferocity) are favored over the others outright. Even after Ferocity was nerfed, it was still favored over all others.
However: the system in place already converts the four attributes into other scores for your character. Which is why it should be possible to push this further for each class. Let’s see what this proposed system could potentially do:
Attributes enhance other utility skill types and aspects of your character’s profession.
Necromancer
- Power: Increases the effects of Signets (Save for attribute modifications).
- Condition Damage: Has a chance of adding “extra stacks” of outgoing conditions.
- Precision: Adds more stacks to damaging conditions from Corruptions.
- Vitality: Increases Well durations and size.
- Toughness: Increases number of Minions summoned per cast.
- Ferocity: Increases Life Force generation from Spectral Skills
- Healing Power: Siphoning Effects and life steal is increased, as well as life force degradation is reduced (?).
Guardian
- Power: Enhances the effectiveness of Spirit Weapon attributes.
- Condition Damage: Reduces the number of hits required to activate Virtue of Justice.
- Precision: Increases the effects of Signets (Save for attribute modifications).
- Vitality: Meditations gain additional “Charges”. These charges are accumulated over time equal to 150% of their recharge.
- Toughness: Increases duration of Consecrations.
- Ferocity: Reduces Virtue Recharge.
- Healing Power: Increases the effectiveness of Shouts.
Elementalist
- Power: Increases Charges on Conjured Weapons, and their duration. Fire attuned weapon skills recharge reduced.
- Condition Damage: Increase condition stacks or duration based on your elemental attunement. Fire: Burning, Water: Chilled, Air: Vulnerability, Earth: Bleeding.
- Precision: Glyphs effectiveness increased. Air attuned weapon skills recharge reduced.
- Vitality: Cantrips increase in power. Water attuned weapon skills recharge reduced.
- Toughness: Increases effectiveness of Signets (save for attribute increases). Earth attuned weapon skills recharge reduced.
- Ferocity: Arcane skills increase in effectiveness, such as increased duration or multiple charges.
- Healing Power: Increases Attunement Aura range.
This is just my thoughts on how to bring back some of the fun the original Guild Wars had into this game. Right now builds aren’t as varied as they CAN be. Yes Guild Wars 2 “dealt away” with the holy trinity by making it so that every class has offensive, defensive, and support options, but so far everything is being built towards doing as much damage as possible.
This attribute enhancement system ideally will provide different ways to do or enable damage as all berserker gear would.
I believe an often touted mantra I’ve heard was “bring the player, not the class.” The inverse is true with the still prevalent Berserker/Assassin problem.