Guild Wars 2

So, I’ve been absent for the game for a long time, and it appears the awkward condition cap has still not been adressed at all. Is there any change on the horizon or is it just going to stay that way forever?

Good question. Furthermore, will defiant be removed too?

Nothing will change about conditions. They made a poor decision in development in their implementation and it would be far too much work to overhaul that system. It is unfortunate but it is what it is.

marnick.4305:

Good question. Furthermore, will defiant be removed too?

Removing defiant results in getting bosses like Bjarl the Rampager who are repeatedly knocked down so they can’t do anything. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than completely trivialising encounters.

condition damage will be allways inferior to power in current mechanics
Here’s why
Lets say I strike with my sword once per second then
+1 power = +0.5dps
+1 condition damage Burning = +0.25dps
+1 condition damage Bleeding = +0.05dps (one stack)

I’d say that while the stack issue is a major thing there’s also a second issue that seems to get discussed little that screws up condition risk vs reward.

That is the fact that as it stands if you use power you front load your damage and the only way to get rid of it is to heal yourself. However if you use conditions not only can your damage be healed but entire stacks can be cleansed with one condition removal.

Now this is not a rant about condition removal, but the fact that in return for the removal mechanic conditions ignore armour, which seems good until you realise there aren’t any super armoured foes in the game. The devs need to add enemies to each faction that have lowered hp but super high armour to the point where direct damage takes ages to kill them but conditions kill much quicker. All pve areas should have a mix of high health/low armour, high armour/low health and mid armour/mid health.

Something I learned WAY back in the day when I was a wee lad playing Final Fantasy VI on my SNES: conditions will always be second fiddle to direct damage. Why should I cast Blind or Poison on my enemy when I can cast Fire or Bolt instead?

Now obviously this isn’t a unviersal truth, and condtion builds can certainly shine in group/dungeon environments where the enemies don’t blow over like a house of straw in a category 5 hurricane. But in open-world PvE, where enemies offer little resistance, direct damage is the way to go. On the whole, the removal of condition stack caps won’t do much to change this.

colesy.8490:

marnick.4305:

Good question. Furthermore, will defiant be removed too?

Removing defiant results in getting bosses like Bjarl the Rampager who are repeatedly knocked down so they can’t do anything. It’s not the best solution, but it’s better than completely trivialising encounters.

There’s other ways to accomplish what defiant does. One could make bosses immune to selected forms of crown control, which forces players to adapt, knockdown and knockback could have duration/distance tweaked … As it stands, defiant merely makes all CC worthless.

I wish ANet would address the issue of condition caps and conditions damage builds against objects and fix them, but I’m not expecting any change soon.