Guild Wars 2

We all know condition builds do poorly in dungeons and most PvE. For leveling they work fine, but some major factors make the damage lackluster in groups. As I see it, the two major problems are these:

• Condition stacks are limited to 25 per type, so multiple condition characters interfere with one another.
• Condition damage takes a relatively long time to resolve, so its effectiveness over short periods is limited.

My suggestion to fix these problems:

• Sigil of Detonation – gain X% chance on hit to detonate active conditions on the target, removing those conditions and dealing Y% of the damage remaining.

This might only work on conditions of a certain type. So there could be a Sigil of Bloody Detonation, Sigil of Poisonous Detonation, etc.

Benefits to this solution:

• The current condition limit does not need to change.
• Condition characters do not interfere with each other, since more characters using this sigil means more detonations.
• Condition characters get to see big numbers every now and then, and everyone likes big numbers.

I think this would really open up PvE and dungeons to a wider variety of builds and, ultimately, make these aspects of the game more fun. I’m a PvE player myself, and would very much like to try a condition build if they were a bit more viable.

PvE only then. Cause sword warriors would dominate. Although wvw would go to kitten. 25 stacks of 25s bleeds at 1400 condition damage would be instagib rng.

Judge Banks.9018:

PvE only then. Cause sword warriors would dominate. Although wvw would go to kitten. 25 stacks of 25s bleeds at 1400 condition damage would be instagib rng.

I don’t think it would be too much of a PvP problem since players have plenty of access to condition removal. If anything, players might need to swap out a single skill if they know they’ll be facing a condition toon. Plus, if it only detonates for a percentage of the total damage, say 50% for example, then it would not be as scary.

Lee.6712:

Judge Banks.9018:

PvE only then. Cause sword warriors would dominate. Although wvw would go to kitten. 25 stacks of 25s bleeds at 1400 condition damage would be instagib rng.

I don’t think it would be too much of a PvP problem since players have plenty of access to condition removal. If anything, players might need to swap out a single skill if they know they’ll be facing a condition toon. Plus, if it only detonates for a percentage of the total damage, say 50% for example, then it would not be as scary.

Conditions are dominant in pvp, conditions can be covered for days. It would take all of a shout Guardian’s tricks to reach the bleed stacks. Bleed is already the top damage dealer across all arena. No need to further that.

Judge Banks.9018:

Lee.6712:

Judge Banks.9018:

PvE only then. Cause sword warriors would dominate. Although wvw would go to kitten. 25 stacks of 25s bleeds at 1400 condition damage would be instagib rng.

I don’t think it would be too much of a PvP problem since players have plenty of access to condition removal. If anything, players might need to swap out a single skill if they know they’ll be facing a condition toon. Plus, if it only detonates for a percentage of the total damage, say 50% for example, then it would not be as scary.

Conditions are dominant in pvp, conditions can be covered for days. It would take all of a shout Guardian’s tricks to reach the bleed stacks. Bleed is already the top damage dealer across all arena. No need to further that.

Well I don’t know what to say, then. Having condition detonation in player vs player would potentially make conditions more powerful, even if it was only half damage, so I don’t know. Making it PvE only would be inelegant, but something should be done about conditions for dungeons since they’re really not cutting it right now.

I think the answer lies in not tackling one problem at a time (and I’m sad to see that they are trying to do just that with ferocity change). The issue is not just that beserker is too OP, or that conditions are too limited. The problem is deeper.

This game is the first afaik in this genre that destroyed the trinity. In itself it is a noble and good thing and a very refreshing situation. however, it also means we are all equal (yes I know we have different classes, but without the roles, all classes need to be their own tank and their own dps and their own healer, so in that we are equal, even if there are some classes more succesfull then others.).

In trinity games it did happen that e.g. healers where sub par compared to tanks and dps, but you needed each other cause you all brought something unique to the fight that was needed.

So in this game, they should bring back the desire for bringing different roles to the fight and different specialisations, not like the trinity, roles all classes can forefill. but make it so that we need eachother again instead of being all the same.

I think this is a good idea actually. I think also that they could easily prevent people from using this sigil in PVP so that wouldn’t be an issue.

mercury ranique.2170:

I think the answer lies in not tackling one problem at a time (and I’m sad to see that they are trying to do just that with ferocity change). The issue is not just that beserker is too OP, or that conditions are too limited. The problem is deeper.

This game is the first afaik in this genre that destroyed the trinity. In itself it is a noble and good thing and a very refreshing situation. however, it also means we are all equal (yes I know we have different classes, but without the roles, all classes need to be their own tank and their own dps and their own healer, so in that we are equal, even if there are some classes more succesfull then others.).

In trinity games it did happen that e.g. healers where sub par compared to tanks and dps, but you needed each other cause you all brought something unique to the fight that was needed.

So in this game, they should bring back the desire for bringing different roles to the fight and different specialisations, not like the trinity, roles all classes can forefill. but make it so that we need eachother again instead of being all the same.

I agree. In most other multiplayer games, the classes have built-in strengths and weaknesses that make them dependent on one another. In MOBAs, for example, some heroes make better supports, gankers, carries, etc. Even some FPS games have classes, such as Team Fortress and Killing Floor.

Guild wars got rid of the trinity, but it seems that they made every class fill the same role in the process. It doesn’t matter what class your teammates are, as long as the player knows what he/she is doing. While that sounds nice in theory, it practice it makes things so that one or a few classes will always be the overall best, and there’s suddenly no good reason besides preference to play anything else.

Most other MMOs have the holy trinity, but it’s not as widespread as most think. After all, EverQuest, one of the first ever, had at least four members of its “holy trinity”, with the fourth slot filled by a dedicated crowd control character or experience puller. Guild Wars need to differentiate the classes enough that their roles are unique and valuable.

I’m not sure how ArenaNet could accomplish this so late in the game. Some ideas I just came up with:

• New boons or debuffs unique to specific classes. For example, having a thief in the party might give you access to a crit buff or something. A little bit forced, but a proven method (feral druids in WoW with their crit buff, shamans for bloodlust, etc).
• Making each class excel in some area, such as making elementalists the best AoE class.
• More powerful combo field abilities that can only be accomplished with multiple classes. For example, laying down multiple combo fields could create a more powerful combo field, which you would need several unique classes (or at least builds) to make.
• Actually differentiate the classes in some way so we aren’t all straight DPS. I had to specialize venoms on my thief just so I can contribute to events in a unique way (everybody notices when your whole party starts turning mobs to stone). Not all classes have options like that, and it’s difficult to feel unique or interesting in GW2.

Bottom line is that I agree. The problem runs deeper than conditions, and it’s going to take more than just a few simple changes to fix.

Damaging conditions should detonate automatically when at max stacks. That is, if your target has 25 stacks of bleeding and you try to apply an additional bleed, instead of being lost that new bleed deals its entire payload of damage instantly (and your target keeps full stacks).

Ensign.2189:

Damaging conditions should detonate automatically when at max stacks. That is, if your target has 25 stacks of bleeding and you try to apply an additional bleed, instead of being lost that new bleed deals its entire payload of damage instantly (and your target keeps full stacks).

That would work, too.