Ferocity: A Failed "Solution"

Ferocity: A Failed "Solution"

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Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

Don’t feel like reading? Here’s the summary:

FEROCITY INHIBITS BUILD DIVERSITY

Again, now that it is confirmed that obviously ANet refused to pay heed to this topic earlier, I’m re-raising it from the dead in hopes to spur more discussion before implementation or to note necessary reworks.

The bottom line is that this change reduces critical damage. Okay, working as intended, right? Absolutely not the case. This change is designed to affect berserker builds such that their overall effectiveness in PvE is toned down slightly. Okay, that’s fine. But the real problem is that precision builds are not compensated in any way for this, because 10% damage overall includes damage dealt by non-critical strikes, thus meaning the penalty on critical strike damage is going to increase by a significantly larger margin.

What does this mean? It means the value of precision even further decreases. Precision-oriented builds are established to get high critical chance to bolster DPS against low-toughness foes. That said, since crit damage is multiplicative on power, precision-based builds already deal less overall damage output than power/berserker based builds. When the modifier becomes reduced, all that happens is in order for players running high-crit chance builds to work as effectively as they are now, they need to build into more power at the expense of some precision. What does this mean? All precision-oriented builds must be forced into using berserker gear to retain their existing damage while losing their high crit chance.

And if celestial gear gets buffed out of this zone… does this not then encourage players running anything except berserker to run celestial because it offers the best returns? This is absolutely foolish.

Non-power based critical damage sets need to be re-evaluated. Ferocity needs to be implemented in significantly raised values in sets like Assassin’s and Valkyrie’s in order to retain their current set values (which are far out of the meta and already considered mediocre for both DPS and/or survivability) such that the only build choices beyond this point are not just berserker’s and celestial.

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Posted by: Nike.2631

Nike.2631

I think it might be more intended to hurt all power-based damage builds, while being pretty harmless to condition damage, support, control, and survivability oriented builds.

“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.

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Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

I understand that’s the intent. The problem is that it hurts berserker builds the least of all of them and forces precision-based ones into running berserker stats in order to just maintain viability that would still even be less than post-nerf berserker.

The change just makes absolutely no sense at all. If they really wanted to encourage support/control builds, they should have implemented a new stat/gear option which incorporates increased endurence regen or something, available only on the sets with more supportive/tanky stats.

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Posted by: Zoid.2568

Zoid.2568

Ferocity is THE solution. Crit damage now scale down better and Berserker is less effective which means you may not want a team full of zerkers.

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Posted by: DeceiverX.8361

DeceiverX.8361

Did you read my first post?

Berserker sets are less effective than before, yes, but Assassin’s/Valkyrie’s become even less effective relative to berserker than they are now. This means the only set you can run as a DPS build is berserker because everything else for DPS got nerfed even harder. All it does is nerf berserker a little but kills everything else to the point of uselessness.

So now what you’ll see are squishier, easier to kill parties from now on. DPS players will not play PVT/support. I know I never will, and I really don’t care about party composition because I don’t die in parties. DPS will still do more damage than condis and tanks, thus meaning faster clear times = more demand. Condi bunker is also the best in WvW, further making this change totally bonkers. All you’ll see is less damage from the other sets relative to berserker and more people thus running berserker to compensate for it.

This “solution” only makes the problem worse and doesn’t actually do anything about the real problem.

(edited by DeceiverX.8361)

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Posted by: Nike.2631

Nike.2631

If you were running Assassin or Valkyrie its because that made sense with the rest of your gear/traits/skills factored in. How does all crit damage gear being reduced change those other considerations?

“You keep saying ‘its unfair.’
I wonder what your basis for comparison is…”
- Jareth, King of Goblins.

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Posted by: Erick Alastor.3917

Erick Alastor.3917

IMO:
This nerf kills hybrid builds, not the berserker meta.
The new changes to the runes kills the build diversity as well.
Every time they introduce and/or remove something skill-related from this game all they say is “it’s for your own sake”, “it’s to help new players” and so on, but all they are doing is dumbing down the whole game.

(on a positive note, the new traits system and traits acquisition could be a good move)

“Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games.”
- Mike Obrien

(edited by Erick Alastor.3917)

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Posted by: haviz.1340

haviz.1340

Everything okay but in pvp condition spam and cc spam are too prevalent and there are no changes to facilitate that.

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

This “solution” only makes the problem worse and doesn’t actually do anything about the real problem.

You’re kinda overreacting to a very limited information posted. They mentioned that the Celestial set will get hit the hardest so they are increasing other stats in that set by 6%. Based on that, they may also have done something similar to other sets like Assassin/Valkyrie, but we have no information about that so it’s premature to jump on to any conclusion about those sets.

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: chronometria.3708

chronometria.3708

Considering that so many bosses and events are now a dps check, my concern is that this change is simply going to make us fail upcoming and current content.

Then they will have to nerf that content so we can complete it….and we end up back at the old situation.

“You can only attack tequatl with a spoon” – “we have nerfed tequatl so he may be killed with just a spoon” – “we are confused why spoon spec is in such demand”

(edited by chronometria.3708)

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Posted by: LordByron.8369

LordByron.8369

The change has sense if they plan to introduce new vertical progression..

Expect vertical progression infusions….

GW2 balance:
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.

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Posted by: Nightarch.2943

Nightarch.2943

ArenaNet should be merging stats, not creating more.

Guild Wars 2 is not a sequel to the original Guild Wars but merely an alternative story setting.

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Posted by: justjon.3189

justjon.3189

Being that ferocity is going to be a point base stat that translates to a percentage and also includes the base crit that is already there by standard. Figuring out what you want your ferocity to be at will be easier. Now also take in the changes to sigils and runes and their procs being more reliable and less random you effectively will be able to get your precision based build to be more stable and still have the power you want for your build. I would really take time to look at all the changes as a whole rather than just one certain area. The individual areas may not look align but you have to really consider everything in game that makes your overall stats.

Base Stats, Traits, Gear, Buffs

Until we see every tool tip, and number in game we can’t really say they messed up. I personally think it will add out just right.

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Posted by: Doggie.3184

Doggie.3184

I’m fine with the whole ferocity stat thing, but I really don’t understand how lowering crit damage promotes build diversity~ unless they just want more people running conditions in PvP. Certainly not worth using Condi in PvE though regardless of this change.

| Fort Aspenwood (NA): Sylvari Daredevil Thief Main: All Classes 80. |
Please Remove/Fix Thief Trait: “Last Refuge.”
“Hard to Catch” is a Horrible and Useless Trait. Fixed 6/23/15. Praise Dwayna.

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Posted by: Dean Calaway.9718

Dean Calaway.9718

Ferocity is THE solution. Crit damage now scale down better and Berserker is less effective which means you may not want a team full of zerkers.

Simple as this.

Right now players just roll over content because it’s the fastest way and they can easily get away with it.

Ever since the game came out if you asked how to build you’d hear “zerker” regardless.
For damage? Zerker.
For defence? Zerker, “best defence is a good offence, you kill them before they can do any damage to you”, and now everyone is raging trying to prove zerker wasn’t op all along? Please.
And before any “clever” remarks, I have 4 toons in full zerker.

Now, how often when I run dungeons with noobs (yes, because unlike the “pros” with their max gold earn per second I actually do something useful for the new player base) do we need a Cleric Guardian just so they don’t die? Very often.
CoF P3 for example sometimes fails till we get one in, then we pass it at 1st try.

Now that damage isn’t gonna be so over the top I’m guessing more groups are gonna need someone to keep them up since they can’t down enemies that fast anymore, because maintaining a fight was never in their grasp.

Victoria Cross [VC] – Desolation [EU]

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

This “solution” only makes the problem worse and doesn’t actually do anything about the real problem.

You’re kinda overreacting to a very limited information posted. They mentioned that the Celestial set will get hit the hardest so they are increasing other stats in that set by 6%. Based on that, they may also have done something similar to other sets like Assassin/Valkyrie, but we have no information about that so it’s premature to jump on to any conclusion about those sets.

They said quite specifically that the ferocity changes only impact critical damage. This means that Assassin’s stats are about to get hammered worse than their “10%” figure the assassin stat combo trades the power on berserker for precision, thus your overall hit-power is less to begin with, and where the compensation used to come from all the crit damage, that specifically is what is now being nerfed. Zerker stat gear and its power stat is not being changed, gear that uses causing critical damage for that crit damage multiplier in place of power is going to take it worse. This because they are listening to the forums that anyone who doesn’t have a bone to pick or a need to troll basically ignores anyway (I lost 7 sets….thats $70… of beautiful flamekissed pve/pvp armor because they listened to the forums instead of the people who opened their wallets, and wound up being given trash i would have paid that money to remove from the game totally, and having to spend my “refund” trying to find non-existant replacements…gg forums).

So their nerf is ignoring Assassin’s stats because not enough people are talking about them, or they are getting their posts flamed to deletion (like my flamekissed pleas) and they are nerfing “zerk” because thats what people write on the forums. And they are altering celestial because enough people took to the forums to ask “what about me” with that stat set. It’s why i get on these forums now…the stupidity that goes on here has already cost me $70, 2 months and trust in this company, and their ultra-bland and totally nonspecific responses to the assassin’s stat quandy is likely about to cost me 30 days of laurels, and 1 full set worth of ascended armor (thats 400-500 gold worth of mats… i coulda bought a nice precourser for that).

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Posted by: blakdoxa.7520

blakdoxa.7520

Yeah I see this as monster power creep.
Mobs still stay their gimmicky-selves with 1-shot kills and toons of health and they are taking away damage?
I don’t know how slowing the dps race down is going to change anything, as people are going to try even harder to squeeze damage out.
Conditions require a crazy amount of investment but still don’t kill as fast as direct damage.
Trying to make players use more control and support? Control is ruined by defiance/unstoppable mobs. The only support that’s wanted is might and fury, with everything else being weak or situational.

Where’s anet going with this???

Devona’s Rest

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Posted by: NoTrigger.8396

NoTrigger.8396

Ferocity is THE solution. Crit damage now scale down better and Berserker is less effective which means you may not want a team full of zerkers.

sorry.
but in pve there will be even more gearchecks now. there will be even more people who kick you if you are not wearing berserker. and there will be even more hate when all those “nerf berserker” people realize that this ferocity patch did actually nothing except changing the game to the worse.

[qT] Quantify

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Posted by: Ensign.2189

Ensign.2189

Am I the only one that finds it funny that splashing a couple pieces of Assassin’s gear into an otherwise full Berserker loadout is being held up as ‘build diversity’?

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Posted by: Im Mudbone.1437

Im Mudbone.1437

I’m wishing GW2 never existed and in its stead they just added to and improved GW1, the worlds best game released to date. PERIOD.

Blackgate Megaserver – [LaZy] Imperium of LaZy Nation
Mud Bone – Sylvari Ranger

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Posted by: Sir Vincent III.1286

Sir Vincent III.1286

They said quite specifically that the ferocity changes only impact critical damage. This means that Assassin’s stats are about to get hammered worse than their “10%” figure the assassin stat combo trades the power on berserker for precision, thus your overall hit-power is less to begin with, and where the compensation used to come from all the crit damage, that specifically is what is now being nerfed.

Assassin gears are not about damage from crit damage or power, rather damage from getting the highest possible chance to proc an “on crit” effect. Otherwise, it’s pointless to trade Power for Precision if that’s your goal with your gear set.

Other gears are made for specific play style, so comparing Assassin to Berseker and judge their damage output based on power is nonsensical because it’s obvious that Assassin gear is not about power.

Even if the crit damage from Assassin gears seem to have nerfed their damage output, you need to look at the changes on the Sigils and Runes to correctly kitten these changes.

http://sirvincentiii.com ~ In the beginning…there was Tarnished Coast…
Full set of 5 unique skills for both dual-wield weapon sets: P/P and D/D – Make it happen
PvE – DD/CS/AC – If that didn’t work, roll a Reaper or Revenant.

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Posted by: Caelus.7139

Caelus.7139

Remember when LA knights were unkillable/frustratingly hard to kill cause of time constraint and not enough dps, til they eventually had -25% HP on them? Well guess what, if ferocity does indeed end up lowering dps output this means longer downing of timed events=failing=more frustration.

GW2 has taught me that being a Mesmer is about..
..being a cynical forecaster.
..being a doom-monger….and being a hopeless jinxer.

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Posted by: agroovywalrus.3821

agroovywalrus.3821

I honestly do not give two kittens about PVE, this is not going to change anything there tbh. People will still run their zerker builds, this is doing nothing for build diversity.

However, in WvW, this is literally the opposite thing that should have happened. Condi bombs/spam are already EXTREMELY prevalent and pretty much required in small group play, so what does anet do? The logical thing, of course, which is reducing burst damage that can be done. In small organized fights, coordinating bursts (namely with mesmers and thieves) is a huge part of the game. Reducing damage (by 10%, hopefully this will not increase even more) makes coordinating huge bursts (especially with mesmer, getting 4k mind wracks is no easy feat, requires much setup in order to execute) much more difficult, and it seems that tanky condition builds will still reign supreme.

Groovywalrus
FA [BLNT]

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

I’m wishing GW2 never existed and in its stead they just added to and improved GW1, the worlds best game released to date. PERIOD.

If they carbon copied everything they had in gw1 to gw2’s engine with no other modifications, they would have a better game… To that end, I agree with you.

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Posted by: ZephyrKAS.7013

ZephyrKAS.7013

Just want to add my two cents in:

Making changes to encourage people to play with their builds is a jerk thing to do. Whether or not it will work as intended and help “diversify” builds, or not, that is a bs excuse for wanting to depower crit a little. I don’t want to play with my build. Every time I lvl a char to 80 I practically get panicky because I have to choose a build and I don’t find it fun at all to put together builds. For many, this is part of what they enjoy in the game and they already have the ability to play with builds to their hearts content!

But my dislike of dealing with it is just as legitimate. I shouldn’t have to adjust builds all the time because anet wants us to “diversify”. This isn’t a work environment where some diversification brings strength to the overall effectiveness of the company! I want to focus on just playing and I shouldn’t be punished for that every other update. Sheesh.

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Posted by: Belzebu.3912

Belzebu.3912

By my understanding, ferocity was never intended to be a “solution” but a “tool”.
With this change, crit. damage was normalized to be like any other stat and offer a door for future updates.

I wear asc zerker set, asc zerk+valk rinkets and zerker + sin asc weapons, and I’m not even mad

Charter Vanguard [CV] – HoD
Bardy Belzebuson – Ranger Sir Belzebu – Herald
(and the other 8 elite specs maxed too)

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

But the real problem is that precision builds are not compensated in any way for this, because 10% damage overall includes damage dealt by non-critical strikes, thus meaning the penalty on critical strike damage is going to increase by a significantly larger margin.

That very much depends on the assumptions they made when saying that “Top DPS builds would lose about 10% damage.” Were they assuming 60% critical chance — which is readily attainable on one’s own? 80% — including Fury? 90%, including banners, spotter and fury? Also, is Ferocity progression going to be linear or on a curve, with top DPS builds losing more than lesser DPS builds (those still slotting exotics, for instance?

You’re making assumptions without knowing the full story. Now, if you want to have a discussion based on a worst-case scenario, pick some figures. Otherwise you’re just wildly speculating.

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

But the real problem is that precision builds are not compensated in any way for this, because 10% damage overall includes damage dealt by non-critical strikes, thus meaning the penalty on critical strike damage is going to increase by a significantly larger margin.

That very much depends on the assumptions they made when saying that “Top DPS builds would lose about 10% damage.” Were they assuming 60% critical chance — which is readily attainable on one’s own? 80% — including Fury? 90%, including banners, spotter and fury? Also, is Ferocity progression going to be linear or on a curve, with top DPS builds losing more than lesser DPS builds (those still slotting exotics, for instance?

You’re making assumptions without knowing the full story. Now, if you want to have a discussion based on a worst-case scenario, pick some figures. Otherwise you’re just wildly speculating.

Which is where their language of silence thing keeps on making their players angry…they could give us a solid number and offer a select-a-stat option when it goes live and all these threads would lose all their momentum, all the venom and vitriol and frustration…but no, they keep quiet. Last time they hit something this kind of expensive it cost me $70 and i would have grabbed that refund RIGHT AWAY and wouldn’t have been left with such a mistrust of them if they had just SAID SOMETHING way sooner. And frankly from the best armor mesh in the game to the very worst after having 2 months to get attached to it (and i had even started to think they might leave it)…. Nope, they where shielded from real reprocussions by legal manuvering and they didn’t learn a thing from the flamekissed experience so now they are just going to do it again. All they would need to do is say what they are basing their numbers on, and maybe a blurb about things like Assassin’s gear which is 100% unnamed by them thus far (once again, my major investments are in on the chopping block here) and they could calm it all and let me plan contengencies now if they just SPOKE. THEY need to COMMUNICATE to keep these things from blowing up like this.

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Posted by: DeadlySynz.3471

DeadlySynz.3471

The solution “may” work in PvE but it isn’t needed in WvW (go figure it isn’t touched in PvP)

When you take 2 equal classes and place one in zerker gear and the other in PVT gear, the PVT gear out damages the zerker geared player. Can anyone not see the problem with this? Zerker doesn’t need a nerf, if anything it needs to be buffed (or at least buffed in how it reacts with other players).

Either that, players who run toughness/vitality builds should take a major dps hit once their toughness and vitality reach a certain threshold.

The problem is when trying to balance something like this, it actually makes the balance much worse somewhere else. The game in it’s current state is more balanced with crit damage sitting the way it is.

They also have to take into consideration that other classes take a bigger hit with this nerf. Take the Ranger for example, their pet also takes a hit, so in essence there are 2 entities taking a crit damage nerf.. not just 1.

If Anet’s claim is true that it’s a 10% damage nerf across the board for zerker.. what does that mean for the pet? Does the pet not also take a crit damage nerf as well? They are responsible for 40% of our dps, so now our 40% dps pet is going to deal even less? Please..

(edited by DeadlySynz.3471)

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Posted by: Harper.4173

Harper.4173

Ferocity is THE solution. Crit damage now scale down better and Berserker is less effective which means you may not want a team full of zerkers.

That’s just plain wrong.
You will ALWAYS want a team full of zerkers. Always.

If here they fall they shall live on when ever you cry “For Ascalon!”

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Posted by: cranos.5913

cranos.5913

Well top DPS builds got hurt by this and the fact that stacking sigils are most likely going to be next to useless now. Even more reason to be strict about gearchecks and meta builds now considering we’re losing enough DPS as it is.

Overall though, if we’re not counting the possible nerfs to banner of discipline, LH and maybe some foods, the nerf should bring us back to pre-ascended gear times when zerk gear was already the way to go.

So yeah, in the end it’s gonna take us a couple more seconds to kill bosses. This will not make us want to take a healer ele/guard with us for “support” (which they seem to want to push through our throats looking at the new traits/skills). In fact, it does the total opposite.

As for assassin’s gear and the like, it’s a kitten shame imo. The gear rly shines on a mesmer for example.

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

The solution “may” work in PvE but it isn’t needed in WvW (go figure it isn’t touched in PvP)

When you take 2 equal classes and place one in zerker gear and the other in PVT gear, the PVT gear out damages the zerker geared player. Can anyone not see the problem with this? Zerker doesn’t need a nerf, if anything it needs to be buffed (or at least buffed in how it reacts with other players).

Either that, players who run toughness/vitality builds should take a major dps hit once their toughness and vitality reach a certain threshold.

The problem is when trying to balance something like this, it actually makes the balance much worse somewhere else. The game in it’s current state is more balanced with crit damage sitting the way it is.

They also have to take into consideration that other classes take a bigger hit with this nerf. Take the Ranger for example, their pet also takes a hit, so in essence there are 2 entities taking a crit damage nerf.. not just 1.

If Anet’s claim is true that it’s a 10% damage nerf across the board for zerker.. what does that mean for the pet? Does the pet not also take a crit damage nerf as well? They are responsible for 40% of our dps, so now our 40% dps pet is going to deal even less? Please..

Again, they don’t say enough on the issue at hand and only make it worse for themselves in the long run.
They don’t say anything about making toughness viable against all the things that make it useless in pve… just need to say something on the matter…
All their armor stat woes and weirdness would vanish if they just stripped the stats away. Make it all like GW1/spvp. All problems solved, right there… They would just lose tons of money in the gem store on transmutation crystals every time they choose to abu ghraib their player base with changes like this…

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Posted by: cranked.3812

cranked.3812

Ferocity is THE solution. Crit damage now scale down better and Berserker is less effective which means you may not want a team full of zerkers.

Simple as this.

Right now players just roll over content because it’s the fastest way and they can easily get away with it.

Ever since the game came out if you asked how to build you’d hear “zerker” regardless.
For damage? Zerker.
For defence? Zerker, “best defence is a good offence, you kill them before they can do any damage to you”, and now everyone is raging trying to prove zerker wasn’t op all along? Please.
And before any “clever” remarks, I have 4 toons in full zerker.

Now, how often when I run dungeons with noobs (yes, because unlike the “pros” with their max gold earn per second I actually do something useful for the new player base) do we need a Cleric Guardian just so they don’t die? Very often.
CoF P3 for example sometimes fails till we get one in, then we pass it at 1st try.

Now that damage isn’t gonna be so over the top I’m guessing more groups are gonna need someone to keep them up since they can’t down enemies that fast anymore, because maintaining a fight was never in their grasp.

I think you fail to realize, even though this has been talked about 2 million times, that the reason zerk gear is the best is because mobs/bosses hit so hard that speccing even full toughness/vit doesn’t gain you anything. So, it becomes very clear, very fast that the games design is to kill quickly or exponentially increase your chances of wiping. It isn’t about zerk gear being OP, it’s about what works best for clearing the content the way it was designed. You can’t just call the most effective gear “OP” because it works the best. By that logic, the most effective gear will always be OP no matter what it is.

The only way to get rid of the DPS meta is to redesign the entire game. They create all their content with huge health pools and one (maybe two) shot mechanics (regardless of gear). Then they want to nerf DPS? Doesn’t make any sense. Someone already mentioned the knight’s encounter in the last LS. They had to nerf the health pool by 25% because people didn’t have enough DPS to complete it. Their solution?… Take away more DPS? That shows right there that they have not thought this out one bit.

PS: Not sure why you claim to run 4 toons with full zerk as if that proves anything about you, your skill or this topic. If you can’t clear a dungeon path (you mentioned CoF P3) without a cleric’s guardian, you should start to question your own skill set before giving your two cents on the zerk meta.

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Posted by: Saint.5647

Saint.5647

Hmm, I’m not in favor of a nearly 24% cut in total DPS. That is going to really drag out some times. That said, this change will really separate the wheat from the chaff.

One True God
Fashion Forward!
Guild Wars Dinosaur

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Posted by: Harper.4173

Harper.4173

So if I get this right – running high precision is actually going to hurt your build now if you’re a hybrid.

So – say someone was running Knight’s with zerker accesories – he would now be better off running Cavalier’s with the same accesories?

If here they fall they shall live on when ever you cry “For Ascalon!”

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

So if I get this right – running high precision is actually going to hurt your build now if you’re a hybrid.

So – say someone was running Knight’s with zerker accesories – he would now be better off running Cavalier’s with the same accesories?

It’s not precision itself that’s about to take the beating. It’s the crit damage itself. High precision builds are meant to be used to proc on-crit effects, where it’s going to sting is when the gear/builds can’t make up any of the loss to crit damage with POWER. This is why zerk is taking a damage hit, but is going to stay the meta, and why other gear, Assassins (precision, power, crit) is going to be hit the hardes, and Valk/cavalier (power/vitality/crit, and power/toughness/crit) are going to take quite a beating too. In the assassin’s gear case, the on crit procs were part of the magic, but you could easily push your crit bonus damage to be 2-2.5 time higher than a normal hit, so real high precision was meant to make up for the lack of power (which multiplies better than raw crit damage). So builds that don’t have power to make up for the crit damage nerf are going to be left hurting. Valkyrie/Cavalier sets don’t crit as often (no precision), and instead bring a defensive mod to the mix, so they are hit in an oblique but still painful way, they cause crits at the same rate, but now they will not have as much on-crit hit strength to make up for other loss of damage (as in, more crits from the precision they gave up for the other stats).

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

So – say someone was running Knight’s with zerker accesories – he would now be better off running Cavalier’s with the same accesories?

No, knight’s gear will be 100% unaffected by this change… as far as I know, they are only changing crit damage via gear (I have not heard them say the base crit damage bonus is being altered). Only armors who currently sport “+% critical damage” mods will be hit by this, so the guy is knight’s will fare better than the one who paid out the wazoo for those cavalier’s insignias

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Posted by: Calae.1738

Calae.1738

Reducing the power of gear people spent real time and money to build is something Blizzard understood very well to NEVER do again. Early through their first expansion they decided to “nerf” epic crafted sets that millions of people invested money and time to build. The community uproar was so massive, it prompted them to reverse their decision very quickly.

I’m curious to see how the Guild Wars 2 community will absorb this one.

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Posted by: Sekhmet.6153

Sekhmet.6153

Reducing the power of gear people spent real time and money to build is something Blizzard understood very well to NEVER do again. Early through their first expansion they decided to “nerf” epic crafted sets that millions of people invested money and time to build. The community uproar was so massive, it prompted them to reverse their decision very quickly.

I’m curious to see how the Guild Wars 2 community will absorb this one.

I think its a huge mistake and I hope that they rethink the changes.

For one, I always thought it was incredibly stupid to nerf something solely because there are too many people doing it. Who cares? If everyone used zerker armor, it wouldn’t effect me one bit in PvE. Make some changes to balance PvP or WvW if need be, but leave dungeons/PvE alone. Its the player base being needy and lazy that has caused problems.

Don’t like that everyone runs a zerker build? Play with people who don’t use one.

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Posted by: cranos.5913

cranos.5913

Reducing the power of gear people spent real time and money to build is something Blizzard understood very well to NEVER do again. Early through their first expansion they decided to “nerf” epic crafted sets that millions of people invested money and time to build. The community uproar was so massive, it prompted them to reverse their decision very quickly.

I’m curious to see how the Guild Wars 2 community will absorb this one.

The difference here is that only a small part of the community successfully run the glass cannon builds and are hated for it by the people who don’t have that skill level (aka the “casuals”). Since most of the GW2 gamers are casuals and they believe the whole zerker gear is an exploit in itself, the uproar won’t happen any time soon.

As for the other game modes such as WvW, they mostly rely on condition builds and while they certainly don’t like being pushed more towards that, it’s already the meta so the change is less huge.

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

Reducing the power of gear people spent real time and money to build is something Blizzard understood very well to NEVER do again. Early through their first expansion they decided to “nerf” epic crafted sets that millions of people invested money and time to build. The community uproar was so massive, it prompted them to reverse their decision very quickly.

I’m curious to see how the Guild Wars 2 community will absorb this one.

Same as they did with Flamekissed armor… give into the whiners, ignore all other repercussions because they are protected from being made to give any compensations beyond what they alone decide is worth giving, and they aren’t bound to give anything specific (beyond my $70 for the skins themselves, I lost several pieces of full t3 armor because they ignored my requests for transmutation splitters to get it back). And they lied to us who bought it and people like me were forced to spend our “refund” undoing that horrid mess they left us with… They handled the whole thing poorly, and now they are about to do it again, giving people like me plenty of fuel to bring that chapter of their history back up… something they could stop by making a few announcements of the specifics…but they don’t.

Indeed, with this they only appeared to make a consideration for celestial gear because enough people took to the forums about it, I’ve spent all day trying to drum up some support for my Assassin’s gear, and a handful of others want to hear something about their Valkyrie and Cavalier gear. I can’t speak for them, but this feels like Flamekissed scam redux material to me, and once again they are aiming at something that isn’t easy to get in the first place, and is only worse to have to get again. Ascended armors, if they never put that tier of anything into this game, this would be a non-issue, but since I now have 1000g worth of 2 full ascended sets and half of that being an investment that’s looking at being nerfed to obscurity…yup, one kittened customer right here. They didn’t learn, I doubt they will see it in time here either.

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Posted by: blakdoxa.7520

blakdoxa.7520

While berserker gear will get hit it will be nothing compared to what celestial/assassin gear will have to bear. Additionally, it reduces the effectiveness of valk/cava gear too….

Man this sucks…

Devona’s Rest

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Posted by: Lalangamena.3694

Lalangamena.3694

there are huge bunch of people on these forums who don’t even understand the reason for ferocity change…

you think it is about berzerkers? no it isnt, it is not about your precious autoattacks while stacking, hiding behind the zerg, you will still be able to do this.

it is about powercreep.
the powercreep that was introduced with the ascended gear, and made a raw percentage to scale much faster than other stats.
that is why they needed the change and it was inevitable.
the “berzerker” build nerf it just a bonus.

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

there are huge bunch of people on these forums who don’t even understand the reason for ferocity change…

you think it is about berzerkers? no it isnt, it is not about your precious autoattacks while stacking, hiding behind the zerg, you will still be able to do this.

it is about powercreep.
the powercreep that was introduced with the ascended gear, and made a raw percentage to scale much faster than other stats.
that is why they needed the change and it was inevitable.
the “berzerker” build nerf it just a bonus.

Funny, that ascended % creep you speak of is 1%, thus this 1% from ascended leggings (4% ascended versus 3% exotic) warrants the “10% dps reduction” anet has mentioned?

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Posted by: blakdoxa.7520

blakdoxa.7520

there are huge bunch of people on these forums who don’t even understand the reason for ferocity change…

you think it is about berzerkers? no it isnt, it is not about your precious autoattacks while stacking, hiding behind the zerg, you will still be able to do this.

it is about powercreep.
the powercreep that was introduced with the ascended gear, and made a raw percentage to scale much faster than other stats.
that is why they needed the change and it was inevitable.
the “berzerker” build nerf it just a bonus.

Yeah mob power creep. Mobs just became a lot more difficult to deal with, solely because our damage had been reduced. NOT due to better/smarter AI but because of the blob of HP that has to be fought though while dodging hits that either cleave 75% of your health, regardless of defense, or just plain 1-shot you.

Do you understand that poor monster design is the root cause here?

I’m sure you’ve noticed the defiance/unstoppable band-aid before, that killed control.

And now we’re losing damage. It doesn’t make a spit of sense, since conditions don’t kill fast at all in PvE!!

Everything all wrong with this…

Devona’s Rest

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Posted by: Inimicus.7162

Inimicus.7162

Everything all wrong with this…

All is vain.

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Posted by: IndigoSundown.5419

IndigoSundown.5419

there are huge bunch of people on these forums who don’t even understand the reason for ferocity change…

you think it is about berzerkers? no it isnt, it is not about your precious autoattacks while stacking, hiding behind the zerg, you will still be able to do this.

it is about powercreep.
the powercreep that was introduced with the ascended gear, and made a raw percentage to scale much faster than other stats.
that is why they needed the change and it was inevitable.
the “berzerker” build nerf it just a bonus.

Funny, that ascended % creep you speak of is 1%, thus this 1% from ascended leggings (4% ascended versus 3% exotic) warrants the “10% dps reduction” anet has mentioned?

Funny, I’ve heard estimates ranging from 5% to 15% damage gain for full Ascended berserker. I’ve never heard an estimate of one percent before. I don’t have the stats for trinkets in front of me right now but there is an increase of at least 1% critical damage percentage on each trinket and on the backpiece. In fact, one of the stated reasons for the change was to address the imbalance of critical percentage on Ascended trinkets versus Ascended armor and weapons. Even if you accept a 50% critical change, which is quite low, Ascended trinkets alone would add 3% to glass builds — and that’s not including the increase to weapon damage, the increase to power and the increase to critical chance.

In fact, the posted damage increase estimates where math was provided almost all involved a percentage increase of at least 10% for full Ascended, a number which is oddly similar to the coming decrease for top end glass builds.

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Posted by: haviz.1340

haviz.1340

Am I the only one that finds it funny that splashing a couple pieces of Assassin’s gear into an otherwise full Berserker loadout is being held up as ‘build diversity’?

Yes, you are, because right now full berserker’s gear is an answer.

When will I be able to properly heal my partymates? I want to select someone and cast infuse healing then heal myself back up.

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Posted by: Harper.4173

Harper.4173

Am I the only one that finds it funny that splashing a couple pieces of Assassin’s gear into an otherwise full Berserker loadout is being held up as ‘build diversity’?

Yes, you are, because right now full berserker’s gear is an answer.

When will I be able to properly heal my partymates? I want to select someone and cast infuse healing then heal myself back up.

This is not that game.

If here they fall they shall live on when ever you cry “For Ascalon!”

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Posted by: runeblade.7514

runeblade.7514

there are huge bunch of people on these forums who don’t even understand the reason for ferocity change…

you think it is about berzerkers? no it isnt, it is not about your precious autoattacks while stacking, hiding behind the zerg, you will still be able to do this.

it is about powercreep.
the powercreep that was introduced with the ascended gear, and made a raw percentage to scale much faster than other stats.
that is why they needed the change and it was inevitable.
the “berzerker” build nerf it just a bonus.

What powercreep? I can’t one-shot Veteran/dungeon mobs.

5x Warrior, 5x Ranger, 4x Elementalist, 4x Engineer,
4x Necromancer, 3x Mesmer, 4x Guardian, 4x Thief, 4 Revenant