Guild Wars 2

The attributes are a bit wonky. The naming conventions are asymmetrical, designation between primary and secondary at this point is very arbitrary, some “secondary” stats are independent while some are tied to “primary” stats and there’s one example of a “secondary” stat derived from a separate “secondary” stat. There are also a lot of arbitrary restrictions on what’s available for gear and what isn’t. It’s just all very unpolished and a little counter-intuitive.

Here’s my proposal for cleanup-

9 base attributes (left in the Hero Pane), each with a corresponding derived attribute (right in the Hero Pane). All 9 base attributes scale to 1000, with derived attributes being re-balanced around this paradigm (alternatively, re-balance around a lower number, like 100). All base attributes appear as possible prefixes on gear in a uniform way (same amount of points for each). Gear should be reforge-able through specialized vendors or crafters, and based on item level, you can choose each individual bonus instead of having to pick between one of the limited numbers of combinations currently available.

Power…………………..Physical Damage (calculated from power and equipped weapon)
Precision………………Critial Hit Rate (calculated from precision)
Ferocity……………….Critical Hit Damage (calculated from ferocity)
Malice…………………..Condition damage (convert to percentage like critical hit damage)
Concentration………Effect Duration (combine boon and condition durations)
Toughness…………….Defense (calculate from toughness + armor rating)
Vitality…………………..Health (calculate from class/level and vitality)
Spirit………………………Healing Power (convert to percentage increase)
Profession……………..Profession Mechanic (as percentage increase)

Then Agony Resistance and Magic Find would still appear below as special attributes. Although, you might consider reworking Agony Resistance into a more standard Resistance attribute that decreases the potency of conditions on you.

looks interesting.

1.Conditions and healing skills do not scale equally by the amount of Condition damage or Healing power (respectivly) therefore showing a percentage would be meaningless unless you show it for every possible healing skill or condition.
2. Not all profession stats can be converted to a meaningful percentage aswell.

How about:

Power
Precision
Ferocity
Condition Damage
Condition Duration
Boon Duration
Toughness
Condition Resistance (toughness equivalent for condition damage)
Vitality
Healing Power
Cooldown Reduction
Endurance Regen Rate
Profession Mechanic

1) I don’t quite see the problem with the current stats
2) I don’t understand what would a condition damage and healing power percentage means. Critical damage is a percentage of the base damage, condition damage is just another power attribute.
3) I do think boon and condition duration should be merged and should start to appear in armors in a more consistent way (meaning more than just 1 prefix!).

Altair.8402:

Condition Resistance (toughness equivalent for condition damage)
Vitality

Why have the same thing twice? Vitality is literally the defensive equivalent of toughness regarding condition damage. You dont reduce their damage, you outlast it. It’s also why you have -% duration foods and not -% damage foods.

Basandra Skye.4031:

Why have the same thing twice? Vitality is literally the defensive equivalent of toughness regarding condition damage.

No, it isn’t. You only think Vitality is equivalent to condition-toughness because there is currently no mechanism to actually reduce condition damage. You could say the same thing about Toughness if the situation were reversed.

You dont reduce their damage, you outlast it. It’s also why you have -% duration foods and not -% damage foods.

You have -duration foods because not every condition causes damage in the first place.

Varezenem.2813:

1.Conditions and healing skills do not scale equally by the amount of Condition damage or Healing power (respectivly) therefore showing a percentage would be meaningless unless you show it for every possible healing skill or condition.
2. Not all profession stats can be converted to a meaningful percentage aswell.

The assumption is that skills would be rebalanced around my proposal. In other words, all healing skills heal for a base amount (depending on the skill), and that base amount is increased as a percentage by stacking Spirit.

This actually would be way more meaningful and intuitive than the current system, where healing power is an arbitrary value that affects different skills in ways that aren’t readily apparent to the player. At least when represented as a percentage players will know exactly how much their various heal skills are being modified and what the relative value of various amounts of Spirit is.

In other words, the fact that healing power and condition damage affect different skills differently is precisely why they should be converted to a % increase.

Regardless of whether the OP’s specific suggestion is perfect, I agree with their criticism: the current system is a confusing mess. There is rhyme in it, there is reason in it and it would be better if it were overhauled to follow more consistent rhymes and reasons.

(I think this would improve the experience of more players, new and veteran, than even the NPE had hoped to do.)

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Regardless of whether the OP’s specific suggestion is perfect, I agree with their criticism: the current system is a confusing mess. There is rhyme in it, there is reason in it and it would be better if it were overhauled to follow more consistent rhymes and reasons.

(I think this would improve the experience of more players, new and veteran, than even the NPE had hoped to do.)

Yeah, I’m not pretending that my way is the only good way to do it, but, frankly, it makes way more sense than what we currently have and Anet really needs to do something to improve cohesion and symmetry.

I wanted to shamelessly bump this because it came up in another thread. Specifically, the need to convert condition/boon duration into a ferocity-style attribute and normalize it on gear. I think this is something most players would want and want to make sure it garners attention by Anet.

I disagree with the initial post, but I totally agree that condition duration and boon duration need to be standardize like ferocity.