Guild Wars 2

There are two different types of gear in the game when it comes to PvE. Offensive gear for those that know how to play and defensive gear for those that don’t.

In an action game, especially one that allows you to fully dodge attacks by simply taking a step back, tuning for total defense is pointless. If defense stats were actually required, just imagine how many people who are barely able to play now would simply fail. If healing power actually turned you into a legit healer, your only purpose in the current state of the game would be to carry bad players and if they actually tuned content to make you useful, a healer would become a requirement and we would be that much closer to bringing back the trinity. The idea behind groups in GW2 was that you could pick any random person and bring them. Your group might not be optimal but any combination was meant to be viable.

There will never be a solution for offensive vs defensive gear. The closest thing they could do is hybridize everything, for example, instead of making offensive gear 100% offense, make it 60~70% offense and 40~30% defense, whereas defensive gear was the opposite. Everyone would now be somewhat similar and full defensive characters as well as poorly played offensive characters wouldn’t be as much of a wasted spot.

Healix.5819:

There are two different types of gear in the game when it comes to PvE. Offensive gear for those that know how to play and defensive gear for those that don’t.

And this is why it’s wrong, if you don’t play zerk you don’t “know how to play”.

That’s just sad to hear…

Because while professions are designed for SPVP, mobs are not.

Mobs, and PVE in general, violate every tenet SPVP is designed around.

In SPVP you have to trade defense for offense, and there are de-facto upper limits to both. Mobs get both in super-sized servings.

in SPVP a central mechanic are the capture points, and AOEs basically force you to choose between staying on point and die, or run and survive. No such mechanic in PVE.

Oh, and GW2 do not have CC. It has combo interrupts that mask as CC by having a short stun or similar for flavoring.

takes a drink

It’s all about that boss crit.

Skoigoth.9238:

@acidbubble: When it comes to stat balance, I think the game is in a pretty good spot right now, with the exception of condition damage still being marginalized in most areas of the game. I think it makes sense that taking the most risks (no defensive stats) yields the best results (optimal dps) if played correctly.
I mean, why should people not be rewarded for taking these risks, let alone be punished for it?

Also, it astonishes me that a lot of people still do not understand that support in GW2 is not just “healing and tanking” and that support is hardly tied to gear stats. It is almost completely irrelevant which stat set I am using when it comes to things like damage nullification (blinds, blocks, reflects), damage mitigation (i. a. protection, weakness), passive healing (i. a. regeneration), endurance regeneration (vigor), damage increasing via boons/conditions (might, fury, vulnerability) and other means (traits such as spotter, empower allies and skills such as warrior banners, frost spirit, time warp), CC (i. a. stuns, interrupts, immobilizes), condi removal, CC mitigation/immunity etc. etc..

So, why then should people not go for berserkers/assassins gear if they can handle it? They can still be supportive to their group and on top of that dish out a lot of damage, which will result in fights ending much more quickly (which could also be considered a form of support).

One problem there is rampager is just as offensively designed as berserker/assassin, but is not even close to the effectiveness, but the game wasn’t designed to really do large group content well.

Vayne.8563:

I just hope you’re not using zerker for your Tequatl runs.

Run tequatl? I can do all 3 CM paths, AC 1/2, SE 1/2, and maybe COF P1 in the time it takes someone to camp out in sparkfly for a good map and actually defeat him :P

Seriously though, this is why I don’t do tequatl. Not the battle itself, but because I can be so much more productive in the time you are expected to sit around AFK before the fight “preparing and organizing” for an event that everyone should be able to do in their sleep by now. Unless I can show up 2 mins beforehand, simply not worth my time.

Now if the reward for teq was a straight 10-12g plus all the other drops/karma

But anyways, I digress….