Guild Wars 2

So many of the foes we face in PvE tend to have low damage output and a high health/armour pool. Fights with these foes tends to be somewhat long and boring and also encourage people to run full damage builds (e.g. Berserker). Could we mix things up a bit have some foes that produce a very high damage output but with a lower health pool?

Arah trashmobs, essentially?
Be ready to face the qq about how ptvguards can’t facetank more than 3 illus aoes and berserker is the only viable spec, though.

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

Combatter.5123:

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

CC the mob>kill it.

Combatter.5123:

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

dodging? aegis? blind?

freeze them, make ’m weak….
dps is only 25-30% when you are out of blinds/dodges or aegis when done well.

Even if a boss would insta kill you on hit… with vigor and some 40% endurance regen food, you’d probably could kill him… as lonbg if you have a good party with blinds and aegis, well maybe just go 4 guards, 1 necro , make a new meta and all…

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

Nerf zerk?

Combatter.5123:

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

Dodging, CC, blinds, etc. A player who actually knows how to survive with zerker gear wouldn’t die any faster with those types of mobs.

Yeah, the point of using berserker gear is to have high dps, and using it effectively means that you’re using blinds/aegis/weakness/dodges/vigor/chickens/turtles/god etc. to mitigate the damage intake. Armor other than berserker is essentially just a crutch, if you don’t need that crutch then there’s no reason to have that crutch.

Also, there’s already a ton of bosses that can 1 shot my berserker thief/ele/guard if I’m dumb about it. Lupi, Subject Alpha (alpha can actually pretty much down any class instantly if they fail to dodge properly, regardless of gear used) Alphard, etc etc
Regular mob trash wouldn’t matter because unless it’s a boss, most people don’t bother with it, stealth past, or just leeroy jenkins past, whatever, you get the point.

edit: Forgot to mention that pretty much every boss in fotm 49 can insta-down my thief/ele/guard if I’m dumb about it, as well. Pretty sure a lot of those bosses can also 1-shot medium-hp pools too depending on whether or not the meta build uses traits that give +vit

Combatter.5123:

So many of the foes we face in PvE tend to have low damage output and a high health/armour pool. Fights with these foes tends to be somewhat long and boring and also encourage people to run full damage builds (e.g. Berserker). Could we mix things up a bit have some foes that produce a very high damage output but with a lower health pool?

THIS!
+1
Asking it for years!…

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

That’s one of the reasons I want this!
We NEED build variety, and the current content doesn’t support this!
I love how the Mordren dogs for example need to be blinded to be dealt with effectively (though I would like a better “tell” animation for their attack.
And the big mordrens have lots of difference an require actual conditions.
Other more obvious way to promote difference build is to make the enemies do more damage while at the same time being faster to fall, so you won’t miss the absence of dps.

The other is the obvious. Less HP bucket mobs and bosses.

Surprised no one mentioned the downed state. If a player who lacked defensive measures failed to dodge and gets downed by one of these mobs, that player isn’t dead and can still fight. And if that player happens to have high offense, it’d just be that much easier to rally.

I’m not opposed to highly skilled zerker players whom I have respect for and in no way would I wish to make their builds useless – I just don’t like the idea that everyone (esp. those in a mindless mob) should run zerker because all NPC mobs are low damage, high health, meaning zerker isn’t really risky because the mobs inflict low levels of damage and just take a long time to kill.

If you want to make other types of armor necessary then increasing the damage from each mob attack would do nothing, people still run zerk in upper level fractals, where trash mobs auto attack you for 10k.
What would make a difference would be increasing the rate of attack, so that one would run out of active defenses (blinds, aegis, evades, etc.) and be forced to rely on passive defenses.
Note: that the only way to make zerk not optimal is to make it non viable, or damage stats totally irrelevant. Pretty much all content can be completed with any gear choice (there are a few exceptions with hard dps checks, for example a zerg full of magi burn guardians wouldn’t be able to kill teq), therefore every gear choice is viable. However zerk will always be the fastest, which is why it is considered the best.
An important thing to note is that if there was content that absolutely required some basic level of passive defense, then zerk would not only be non optimal but it would actually be non viable.

Shorter fights would improve the effectiveness of active defenses and promote offensive builds. It’s actually when the fights take longer than usual and characters run out of CDs when things get harder (that’s the reason why berserker players perform better with other berserker players or why soloing some content is usually harder than doing it with a full group).

if you really want improved mobs then i rather see punishing mobs, the ones who can KB a whole group when a zerk is busy again.
they could block your heavy attacks, interrupt you and even parry from time to time.

they could even be updated so team play is needed, the other side if this is that conditions are more effective then normal and dodge throws them off their game.

just some ideas, you can add up the ideas.

Only good change would be faster attacks, if aplha attacked 5 times for every 4 now, people would have to think of something to cope with the extra dodge needed… if it would attack 6 times for every 4 now perma vigor would be needed (would be too much) or a evade skill..
guess increasing attacks from mobs by 25% would be a start,

Also halving the dmg but doubling the rate of fire would be nice. it really would make confusion that more usefull and reflects/shields as they were meant once could really be important….

But I really don’t mind the game as is.

some of this some of that, mostly ai should have ai

Combatter.5123:

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

If. But then, it can happen already, and OP’s scenario makes the chances of it happening go down. Lower mob hp means shorter fight. Who cares if the mob can oneshot everyone, if the same mob won’t be able to make more than 2-3 attacks (dodged/blocked) in the whole fight before dying?
Damage means nothing if it can’t hit, and lower hp pools will only make the fight easier for zerkers.

Combatter.5123:

Astralporing.1957:

Molch.2078:

This would make zerk even better than it already is.

This.

But zerkers lack health and defence so if they were to get hit with immense damage, they would be downed quickly. Unless you mean in a group event type situation in which case the scaling should serve to give the foes more health/armour anyway.

Tanky players will also have problems surviving without healers.

Increase the attack speed of mobs if lowering health!

If all mobs we faced were more like Mordrem that traveled in mixed packs, then zerk would fall out of favour.

Things that the AI should have but don’t
1. Mixed sets of skills
2. Automatic response against LOS tactics by throwing hard hitting AOE attacks against stacked players
3. Refusal to stack up and instead spreading themselves out or running out of AOE attacks.
4. Pressure attacks by melee units on light or medium characters while AI light mobs pressure the heavies with CC and conditions.

But not to the extent that players need to play with a party built along the holy trinity lines but players should not be able to just charge into the middle of a mob of AI and emerge out the far end easily.

Build diversity:

• True meta, as seen in speed clear videos and in groups with the theory crafters that push the meta: plenty of build diversity there (gear =/= build, that belief is an artifact of old-MMO think)
• Casual group content: plenty of build diversity there
• PuG runs that kind of ape what the meta used to be (all heavy groups included): not so much diversity due to people doing easy dungeon paths for the eleventy-fifth time.
• Condition builds suffering in the large group events that ANet loves so much because of stack limitations; other than that, plenty of build diversity there

Gee, I wonder what the real problems are, instead of the misdiagnosed problems stated by those who don’t understand the game.

Higher damage:

• 1-2 shot kills aren’t enough damage? I see plenty of posts from people trash-talking about “zerkers” being downed all the time in large events.

Lower health pools:

• One of the complaints about “zerker” is that it kills “too fast” in comparison to other gear. Lower health means everyone kills faster, but glass is still fastest. Not sure that the mobs need to die faster, though.
• Boosting toughness through the roof with low health pool means Condi can shine, but in persistent world, only 1-2 per event get to shine, so not sure that’s the best solution. In organized events like Wurm, that can be countered — but in herd events, not so much.

actually, all GW2 mobs need is the AI of GW1, they actually know how to respond on situations unlike GW2 mobs.

Already enough bosses that one shot no matter what you are wearing, which is another reason a lot of people run zerk- when it doesn’t matter what you are wearing when you’re hit, why bother wearing anything else?

Baldrick.8967:

Already enough bosses that one shot no matter what you are wearing, which is another reason a lot of people run zerk- when it doesn’t matter what you are wearing when you’re hit, why bother wearing anything else?

This on the other hand is not true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2VhmwLwvrM
(Video has no music, so If you want to watch it I recomend you get your own. Otherwise it could get boring^^)