Guild Wars 2

Confusion

Along with the change to might, we are also looking at the confusion condition in PvE. Confused creatures generally don’t swing as often, and the effects of the condition can feel a bit lackluster when they hit. To this end, we’ll improve the damage of confusion in PvE only.

Confusion: The effect of condition damage on confusion has been increased by 33% in PvE only. This change does not affect PvP or WvW.

If this also applies to foes doing Confusion dmg, it will be dreadfull, imo.
Nearly all times when i was wondering why suddenly my health was dropping very fast, i discovered i had Confusion on me.
The last thing i want is foes doing more Confusion dmg.

Yep, it is one of those dichotomies of PVE.

Those pesky reef drakes are perhaps the most dangerous creatures in Southsun Cove, thanks to how much confusion they spam…

I can’t really figure out why ANet designed mobs the way they did. Rather attack like characters, rapid but individually weak basic attacks, they do fewer but harder hitting attacks. This ends up breaking the mechanical usefulness of both confusion and retaliation, as they depend on the attack rate of the enemy.

Only way i find it makes sense is to think about ANet’s insistence on “active combat”. And with the mobs being slower but harder hitting, the defensive emphasis moves from armor to avoidance (dodge, block, aegis, blind etc etc etc).

Basically, the only way to fix both is to either increase mob attack rate to be on par with the players (more pulses on npcs), or make retal/conf work significantly stronger on npcs (so, less pulses on npcs, but each damages more than on pcs).
Adjusting confusion equally for both mobs and players alike does not remove the core problem.
And until it happens, i suggest toning down all confusion-applying mobs.

I think the might nerf and the confusion buff is going to be the two single most hilarious changes to come simultaneously.

With the might nerf we’ll now see a significant move to the zerker meta (less tanks and hybrids).

Not only that but we’ll also see a significant increase of damage to the only op condition (besides poison), leading to zerker metas dropping like flies in pve.

Imagine that. ANet basically tells us: “Here now, glass cannons are going to be much more viable now if you don’t want three hour dungeon runs. Still being glass a glass cannon shouldn’t be fun, guess we’ll just increase confusion dmg. so you’ll have a harder time being one.”

I think we’ll see a lot of condi removal zerkers from now on in pve.

If you cant watch animations for confusion applying skills ( or at least keep an eye on the effect bar) in pve ( when most of the time you should know to expect confusion) then you have a problem with the zerker meta in so much as, you’re not using active skills (be it aegis, condi clear etc correctly.

Lesson here: zerker meta has to know how to condi cleanse – or have a party member who can ( and knows how to) group cleanse. You could also simply dodge the confusion applying attack. PvE incoming confusion is a L2P issue.

Artemis Thuras.8795:

If you cant watch animations for confusion applying skills ( or at least keep an eye on the effect bar) in pve ( when most of the time you should know to expect confusion) then you have a problem with the zerker meta in so much as, you’re not using active skills (be it aegis, condi clear etc correctly.

Lesson here: zerker meta has to know how to condi cleanse – or have a party member who can ( and knows how to) group cleanse. You could also simply dodge the confusion applying attack. PvE incoming confusion is a L2P issue.

Most zerker metas nowadays, however, do not have condition cleanse. Usually only mes, thief or guards have them. So that would require some change to the builds.

While it is easier said than done. Yes it is possible to avoid many confusion attacks.
That said many players live far away from the servers, and believe it or not, dodging hardly helps due to a 0.5 second latency (most attacks have a ~1 second telegraph, and by the time you have registered that and dodged it’s already too late server-side). It’s not an excuse by which to increase or nerf anything, but the handicap is there, nonetheless.

It’s a weird change. In addition to the above-mentioned complications, I highly doubt it’s going to make Confusion any good in PvE. Many mobs that can’t swing even once before they die and those that do are often capped at 25 stacks already. It could be ok in dungeons… maybe, but ok at most.

Chobiko.9182:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

If you cant watch animations for confusion applying skills ( or at least keep an eye on the effect bar) in pve ( when most of the time you should know to expect confusion) then you have a problem with the zerker meta in so much as, you’re not using active skills (be it aegis, condi clear etc correctly.

Lesson here: zerker meta has to know how to condi cleanse – or have a party member who can ( and knows how to) group cleanse. You could also simply dodge the confusion applying attack. PvE incoming confusion is a L2P issue.

Most zerker metas nowadays, however, do not have condition cleanse. Usually only mes, thief or guards have them. So that would require some change to the builds.

While it is easier said than done. Yes it is possible to avoid many confusion attacks.
That said many players live far away from the servers, and believe it or not, dodging hardly helps due to a 0.5 second latency (most attacks have a ~1 second telegraph, and by the time you have registered that and dodged it’s already too late server-side). It’s not an excuse by which to increase or nerf anything, but the handicap is there, nonetheless.

how the hell does confusion application require you to change build? you literally just stick a condition removal utility on and remove a DPS one.

Chobiko.9182:

Most zerker metas nowadays, however, do not have condition cleanse. Usually only mes, thief or guards have them. So that would require some change to the builds.

While it is easier said than done. Yes it is possible to avoid many confusion attacks.
That said many players live far away from the servers, and believe it or not, dodging hardly helps due to a 0.5 second latency (most attacks have a ~1 second telegraph, and by the time you have registered that and dodged it’s already too late server-side). It’s not an excuse by which to increase or nerf anything, but the handicap is there, nonetheless.

Bolded statement is incorrect.

In group context, guards and staff eles can group condi clear very easily.
In solo circumstances – you can probably just dodge. Or bring your own condi removal. Its not that hard..

One thing we players have that most NPCs don’t have is condition removal. So even if NPC confusion (especially those pesky drakes!) is increased, we still have the upper hand against the heathens of Tyria!

Chobiko.9182:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

-snip-

how the hell does confusion application require you to change build? you literally just stick a condition removal utility on and remove a DPS one.

Isn’t that, by definition, changing the build though? Sure it’s easy, but I never said it would require big changes either. Just that it would require that change.

@other person. Yes, I forgot Ele condi cleanse. Still most metabuilds 6/10 does not have partywide condi cleanse.

penelopehannibal.8947:

One thing we players have that most NPCs don’t have is condition removal. So even if NPC confusion (especially those pesky drakes!) is increased, we still have the upper hand against the heathens of Tyria!

Problem is that most mobs, especially if you have to deal with a horde of mobs,
apply new conditons much faster than most characters can remove them.

Just try to do one of those toxic events in the low level zones alone .. and have fun.

digiowl.9620:

Rather attack like characters, rapid but individually weak basic attacks, they do fewer but harder hitting attacks.

Not only are you right….. but this can be applied to lots of other topics as well.

General PvE Difficulty and meta builds for example.

There are some players (whom I disagree with) that want to see the zerker meta die…. and in my honest opinion all the mobs in pve attack too slowly to the point where you can evade all the attacks. If enemy attack speed was doubled, but their damage was halved, we would see many more diverse builds out there. Enemy AI would feel more responsive and less clunky.

The problem is that PvE mobs attack way too slowly….. and altering confusion is like putting a bandaid on a broken arm.

It’s because people use zerker builds they find online and have no idea what other traits and utilities they have.

Chobiko.9182:

Chobiko.9182:

Artemis Thuras.8795:

-snip-

how the hell does confusion application require you to change build? you literally just stick a condition removal utility on and remove a DPS one.

Isn’t that, by definition, changing the build though? Sure it’s easy, but I never said it would require big changes either. Just that it would require that change.

@other person. Yes, I forgot Ele condi cleanse. Still most metabuilds 6/10 does not have partywide condi cleanse.

Not really.

The build is the traits, weapons, sigils, runes and stat combinations used.

The utilities are simply either how comfortable you are in mitigating damage (so a more confident player will run more damage-centric utilities while someone who feels their chance of error is too high might go for more safer utilities) or to fit the needs of the people you are around (so for example, a solo warrior will go fgj, banner, fury sig, a group warrior will go disc banner, str banner and fgj or something).

If enemy attack speed was doubled, but their damage was halved, we would see many more diverse builds out there. Enemy AI would feel more responsive and less clunky.

No we wouldn’t. Dredge fractal is and was full of mobs with fast attacks but you can just roll in to it with your standard glass cannon builds.