Hello, this post is the reaction about the blog post about critical damage change. Originally I wanted to post my insight, but others did before me (killing WvW balance, not bringing any built diversity in PvE anyway). The thing is I spend literally all the time in game last months to get my first set of ascended armor on main character. I succeded literally today with earning the last laurel remaining for buying the recipe for ascended berserker shoes. The thing is I like playing against other players and like the concept of WvW a lot and I was doing the PvE content in the sole purpose to farm all mats and gold needed to craft my equipment and while I enjoyed it, I would hate to repeat it whole again because berserker gear is getting useless in WvW which is the only game mode I enjoy playing the most. I am thief and I knew that after all recent patches the condition build is the only meta and a D/P or D/D is a bit inferior. Still I liked daggers gameplay and didn’t mind a bit of challenge but it is not viable anymore by any mean and all my effort now turned to dust by reducing the overall damage output by at least 10%. Thus my question is, will there be a possibility after this huge imbalance impact to choose a different stats on one’s ascended berserker armors? Or did I flushed all the golds and laurels and TIME into the toilet and have to start all over?
The announcing of ferocity was a good move, and lowering the damage output is the only thing which is hurting the game in my opinion, everything else I really appreaciate and you are doing a great job, but I can’t help it but to feel this only thing was a huge mistake which will hurt a lot of players, especially the “new” one who just got their first gear.
PS: About the UI change it would be much more easier to understand if the display number would display only the sheer critical damage increase bonus (including the 50% base) so it on the example you mentiod (All critical hits have a base damage of 150% normal attack damage. So when you have 50% critical damage bonus, your critical hit damage is raised from 150% to 200%.) it would be 100% on the sheet instead of 200% or maybe it could be showns as the multipler which would be 2 (or 2,14 for 64% bonus crit dmg from gear). Or maybe it would be nice to let a player choose an option for this UI
Since they are changing not only Beserkers gear but traits to encourage support, they might give an option to switch stats. It’s what they did with the magic find gear when they changed that in the game.
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Since they are changing not only Beserkers gear but traits to encourage support, they might give an option to switch stats. It’s what they did with the magic find gear when they changed that in the game.
Magic find gear was given the option because the stat was removed and there was no direct replacement.
The critical damage change is simply a name change. With how varying critical damage is currently weighted in the game, I’m surprised they didn’t call the nerf a bug fix. It really makes no sense that 1% critical damage is weighted as 7 points on one piece of gear and 16 on another.
They plan on adding even more traits as the new form of progression. They’re not going to give you a gear swap every time something better comes out. The most you can hope for is stat swapping added to ascended instead of legendary or the removal of fixed stats altogether.
They should allow picking new stats, even if the change is not that radical. It would be the fair thing to do, with no real impact to them or the economy.
It was announced months ago that it would be a 10% decrease. I don’t see Anet allowing you to do any changes when you knew for a long time this was coming. Unfortunately WvW gets lumped together with PvE, so even though this change was aimed at rebalancing PvE WvW is going to get affected.
My question is does it really matter? It is my understanding thief doesn’t do that well with a condition build since it doesn’t apply bleeds that easily, and if a 10% reduction is still better than going condition damage then you’re going to be using berserker stats regardless.
Dramen Maidria
Knights of ARES, Dragonbrand
Good times, good memories
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Berserker gear was not viable in wvw at all even with out this update. In wvw its about being tankly before doing dmg lasting help your team out much more then being able to kill.
Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA
Many players, myself and OP included, built for high crit damage with their ascended armor, trinkets, and weapons. We sacrificed survivability in order to do more damage in a WvW scenario, and we spent a ton of gold to do so, because we see the damage we do as worth the survivability drop. However, now that burst damage, which is what really matters in PvP and WvW, is being significantly nerfed, we don’t see the drop in survivability to be worth it. Now we’re stuck with this gear that doesn’t give us the option to change. 800g dust collector in the bags, and that’s just for the armor (that’s how much I payed on day 3 of ascended armor).
Also, please please please stop talking about this in a PvE sense. We get it, berserker will still be the top DPS. The difference between exotic and ascended in PvE doesn’t make a difference. You’re still going to down that boss. It may just take a second or two more than if you had full ascended. What this change has the biggest impact on is PvP and WvW. Conditions were already the meta in WvW, and now they are just going to be more prevalent.
That has nothing to do with it, also you don’t even know the answer. Anet would have to Answer it. It’s possible they might allow a stat change.
What DOES have to do with it is the FACT that right there in the ANET ToS it states along the lines of ANET has the right to change ANYTHING they want to at their discretion without compensation to those displeased with said changes, so, as much as I also being one of those opposed to those changes as well the answer is NO.
Blackgate Megaserver – [LaZy] Imperium of LaZy Nation
Mud Bone – Sylvari Ranger
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Berserker gear was not viable in wvw at all even with out this update. In wvw its about being tankly before doing dmg lasting help your team out much more then being able to kill.
You could not be more wrong.
If your positioning is good, you can run kitten near full zerk. Hell, I run very high dps as a Guardian. You just need to be aware of your surroundings in a zerg fight.
That has nothing to do with it, also you don’t even know the answer. Anet would have to Answer it. It’s possible they might allow a stat change.
What DOES have to do with it is the FACT that right there in the ANET ToS it states along the lines of ANET has the right to change ANYTHING they want to at their discretion without compensation to those displeased with said changes, so, as much as I also being one of those opposed to those changes as well the answer is NO.
The point is that the right thing to do would to allow players to change the stats on their armor. I know you just want to sit here and troll the people that are upset that their hard earned ascended gear is becoming significantly weaker, but there seriously is an issue here, and we are looking for answers from Anet, not some troll under the bridge.
Please try to constructively add to the discussion.
That has nothing to do with it, also you don’t even know the answer. Anet would have to Answer it. It’s possible they might allow a stat change.
What DOES have to do with it is the FACT that right there in the ANET ToS it states along the lines of ANET has the right to change ANYTHING they want to at their discretion without compensation to those displeased with said changes, so, as much as I also being one of those opposed to those changes as well the answer is NO.
The point is that the right thing to do would to allow players to change the stats on their armor. I know you just want to sit here and troll the people that are upset that their hard earned ascended gear is becoming significantly weaker, but there seriously is an issue here, and we are looking for answers from Anet, not some troll under the bridge.
Please try to constructively add to the discussion.
Please explain how I am trolling by stating a fact that is CLEARLY outlined in the games ToS and as I stated I am also AGAINST what is being done, but, have NO GROUND to stand on when it comes to game changes.
Blackgate Megaserver – [LaZy] Imperium of LaZy Nation
Mud Bone – Sylvari Ranger
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Berserker gear was not viable in wvw at all even with out this update. In wvw its about being tankly before doing dmg lasting help your team out much more then being able to kill.
You could not be more wrong.
If your positioning is good, you can run kitten near full zerk. Hell, I run very high dps as a Guardian. You just need to be aware of your surroundings in a zerg fight.
/end off topic discussion
Vs ppl who do not know what they are doing ya sure but vs real players that not going to cut it at all. You can position your self as much as you want but its not going to stop that thf or mez from coming at you and only you. I think your talking about ele right if your talking about zerk war gurd etc.. you realy have no ideal.
But your missing a major point if this is about WvW then this should be posted in the wvw part of the forums or are you just complaining about it in a pve setting and trying to add to your argument by throwing in wvw?
Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA
While I do not think that they need to offer a stat reselection, I would think that it would be a good PR move to allow for ALL ascended armor/weapons to be restatted either exactly once after the implementation of these changes OR whenever not in combat for a period of time(A week or thereabouts) – The former allows for any and all sets to be changed as new traits/sigils/runes/ferocity might now be less than ideal for what they have. The latter allows for a trial period, so people can adjust.
Do I think they’ll do it? No. Do I think it would be a wise move? Yes. Do I think it would be a good move to foster goodwill towards the community? Yes.
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Berserker gear was not viable in wvw at all even with out this update. In wvw its about being tankly before doing dmg lasting help your team out much more then being able to kill.
You could not be more wrong.
If your positioning is good, you can run kitten near full zerk. Hell, I run very high dps as a Guardian. You just need to be aware of your surroundings in a zerg fight.
/end off topic discussion
Vs ppl who do not know what they are doing ya sure but vs real players that not going to cut it at all. You can position your self as much as you want but its not going to stop that thf or mez from coming at you and only you. I think your talking about ele right if your talking about zerk war gurd etc.. you realy have no ideal.
But your missing a major point if this is about WvW then this should be posted in the wvw part of the forums or are you just complaining about it in a pve setting and trying to add to your argument by throwing in wvw?
1. I’m not OP
2. You brought up WvW
If you say you can position yourself all you want, and can’t get thieves off of you, then you aren’t positioning yourself right. That’s the definition of positioning.
By the way, it is entirely possible to get away from thieves or mesmers as a glass ele. A good group will come to the defense of their eles. Not to mention, eles have the best escape skills in the game with staff. I have played every class in WvW, all pretty glassy, and all with great success.
Also, posting this in WvW forums would just be preaching to the choir. General Discussion has a much larger population with more diverse opinions, and is the most likely place to get a dev response, outside of a high ranking tpvp player ranting in the tpvp forums.
What did you expect, people, in a scenario where top tier armors cost a huge amount of materials and balance patches are programmed every two months?
The only real solution to this is to let us, players, to change ascended gear stats as we can change legendary weapons. This, or “enjoying” game as it is.
“Guild wars is for everybody, freedom is ascended, zerg is strength”
~ G. Orrwell, great shaman of the new flame legion, 1984 AE.
Everyone who bought berserker equipment did so becuase it offered the damage, it will still do so. Why would you want to use another equipment then?
Celestial equipment on the other hand will change roles completly since it will sink in a bottomless pit of low DPS.
I made a ascended Celestial set far prior to this announcement.
I also used the gem shop to make it as well as countless hours farming.
This set will no longer function the way it was originally designed.
My issue now is I have stopped completely supporting the gem shop until I hear what Anet plans to do for those of us who used rl money to craft the ascended versions of this gear.
At the very least a 1 time ability to change to a different gear set would suffice.
If not , I am pretty much done with ever buying anything from the gem shop.
That has nothing to do with it, also you don’t even know the answer. Anet would have to Answer it. It’s possible they might allow a stat change.
What DOES have to do with it is the FACT that right there in the ANET ToS it states along the lines of ANET has the right to change ANYTHING they want to at their discretion without compensation to those displeased with said changes, so, as much as I also being one of those opposed to those changes as well the answer is NO.
I finished my entire ascended armor set before they announced the crit changes, so his reason/argument is worthless.
| 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.
It’s not just the berserker gears are being affected. The entire armor/weapon combos of everyone will be affected by these changes even those without the ferocity stats. Why? Because runes and sigils are being changed. And if ONE of your armor/weapon/trinket piece had “critical damage” in it or if you have any rune or sigil at all, that means the you may no longer be optimal in your set up. You may have to change your entire set to switch to a more optimal set up.
No ArenaNet does not have to compensate anything as dictated by the ToS, true. But it’s just bad business. It’s best to just let all ascended gear change their stat on the flight (out of combat). Or even let all ascended equipment change their stat ONCE when the patch goes live. Just my thought.
I think Anet should allow all ascended gear to have switchable stats out of combat. It would make sense, with the changes to traits. If they want to encourage trying new builds, they should make it so that top tier of armor can change stats at will.
This change isn’t going to affect the meta at all. Berserker gear will still be the king of PvE. As long as GW2 focuses on active defenses like blocks, blinds, and dodge rolls, defensive stats will be more of a hindrance than help.
Those armadillos would be a lot cooler if they looked more like real armadillos. mmm armadillos
-BnooMaGoo.5690
Many players, myself and OP included, built for high crit damage with their ascended armor, trinkets, and weapons. We sacrificed survivability in order to do more damage in a WvW scenario, and we spent a ton of gold to do so, because we see the damage we do as worth the survivability drop. However, now that burst damage, which is what really matters in PvP and WvW, is being significantly nerfed, we don’t see the drop in survivability to be worth it. Now we’re stuck with this gear that doesn’t give us the option to change. 800g dust collector in the bags, and that’s just for the armor (that’s how much I payed on day 3 of ascended armor).
Also, please please please stop talking about this in a PvE sense. We get it, berserker will still be the top DPS. The difference between exotic and ascended in PvE doesn’t make a difference. You’re still going to down that boss. It may just take a second or two more than if you had full ascended. What this change has the biggest impact on is PvP and WvW. Conditions were already the meta in WvW, and now they are just going to be more prevalent.
Thank you for this explanation, this is exactly my point, as well as in your other posts in this thread.
For the rest I know that ANet has no due to refund via allowing one time stat change on ascended gear upon this major change which was for me officially announced on 21.3. and I honestly didn’t see it coming. I was asking this question, because altough they have no due to do so, it would be very polite from them as the impact is huge, especially on the ‘new’ players without resources who spent all of them in last months to do their first set of gear who they aim to help as stated many times.
As for wvw build/class disscuisson I was only posting my reasons and trail of thoughts behind the question and explaining that my gear is really getting worthless as PvE is not the thing I want to play and I would like to ask you to stop arguing which stat combination is stronger and who is doing position wrong in wvw, thank you.
I think Anet should allow all ascended gear to have switchable stats out of combat. It would make sense, with the changes to traits. If they want to encourage trying new builds, they should make it so that top tier of armor can change stats at will.
Maybe if/when “Legendary Armor” comes… which I most certainly hope it doesn’t, for you can imagine how difficult it would be to obtain. Another possible “problem” is our older skins on different armor sets wasted-I like to have different skins on armor with different stats (wouldn’t affect all those who only care about numbers, though.) It would be convenient to be sure, and I would like that myself in practice, but I doubt it’s that simple to implement.
Build/Trait templates should be worked on ASAP, though. It only makes sense now more than ever.
I think Anet should allow all ascended gear to have switchable stats out of combat. It would make sense, with the changes to traits. If they want to encourage trying new builds, they should make it so that top tier of armor can change stats at will.
Maybe if/when “Legendary Armor” comes… which I most certainly hope it doesn’t, for you can imagine how difficult it would be to obtain. Another possible “problem” is our older skins on different armor sets wasted-I like to have different skins on armor with different stats (wouldn’t affect all those who only care about numbers, though.) It would be convenient to be sure, and I would like that myself in practice, but I doubt it’s that simple to implement.
Build/Trait templates should be worked on ASAP, though. It only makes sense now more than ever.
Would you honestly worry about older skins having less value, if you had the convenience of switching out stats on armor at will?
I’d surely spend up to 5000-6000g to be able to switch stats out of combat on a legendary armor, without having to worry about this disgustingly expensive gear grind/vertical progression/time gated kitten anymore.
It’s revolting how this game gets closer and closer to other mmos as every patch strikes.
And yeah, don’t expect a refund.
Considering that their actions drastically and negatively affected the TP for months now using things like DR and a manipulated RNG (we’ve seen it time and time again in multiple titles and it’s actually the reason for D3 removing theirs because they lost so many players due to meddling with their RMTAH via the loot ratios for rares/legendaries/material drops, same model different game skin) it’s a good bet that they won’t refund gold most especially.
I think if you purchased a karma set tho there might be a chance of them returning karma enough for a new set to you.
I feel like this is the only community that is whining about a patch change affecting gear. How many times did i have to get new gear, resocket, re-enchant in wow after every patch change? Or for any mmo for that matter.
Hell, if this gets on peoples nerves, stay away from PoE. You mess up a character there and you might as well start over (i learned that the hard way).
Welcome to the nature of the beast in mmos. What about the next features patch? Will you want another swap then? Is this yoing to come up every time they decide to tweak something? Wha about a balance patch? Should a class get an armor refund if a spec becomes unuseable?
I feel like this is the only community that is whining about a patch change affecting gear. How many times did i have to get new gear, resocket, re-enchant in wow after every patch change? Or for any mmo for that matter.
Hell, if this gets on peoples nerves, stay away from PoE. You mess up a character there and you might as well start over (i learned that the hard way).
Welcome to the nature of the beast in mmos. What about the next features patch? Will you want another swap then? Is this yoing to come up every time they decide to tweak something? Wha about a balance patch? Should a class get an armor refund if a spec becomes unuseable?
It’s like this after every exploit or bug fix patched too…
To me this is really more of a case study in why stats shouldn’t be fixed for things as expensive as ascended armor is. The game changes from time to time, and if it changes and your gear doesn’t, you have to spend more months re-acquiring gear, with no guarantee that it won’t be obsolete before you’ve even finished collecting it. Either the price has to come down, or stats have to be swappable – otherwise it’s just not worth it, as many people may be about to find out the hard way.
I definitely don’t think any one-time exceptions should be made specifically for berserker gear though. Metas generally do change, because they usually end up getting nerfed sooner or later – if you refund people who bought gear for that they’ll probably use it to switch to the next meta until that’s nerfed, and the cycle will repeat ad infinitum. Really all it does is encourage people to overuse the meta even more than they already do, since they know they’ll get bailed out once it stops working.
You guys are gonna have to get over it. Anet is not likely to do anything with this stat change. Berserker is the top pure dps stats. and it will still be after the change. This is like asking to change your characters class because of a buff/nerf to them.
IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
Its also worth noting we don’t own anything in the game. we payed for the right to play it and use things but all those items, the characters, those gems you pay real money for. every last pixel and data is THEIR property. we simple have permission to use it. They could shut down the game right now erase everything and start fresh if they wanted. gems, gold all of it and we couldn’t do a thing.
Ur missing the point. A company is only as good as its customers are happy. The ability to change stats, even if once only will foster good will.
Oh, and no, its notlike asking after every buff or nerf that tweaks balance etc.. this change is to the core fundamentals that have existed since the game began… also its not only zerkers that are impacted. Many build will feel the changes andmore changes to runes and sigiles that compliment the stats in the first place… a one off change certainly isnt unwarranted or unprecedented.
why?
it is still the best DPS gear.
I am keeping mine.
Because as I stated I was doing the PvE content only for getting ascended gear and berserker gear was needed for the power crit build in WvW which is no longer viable and thus the gear is useless for me and I will have to get different to run different viable build for WvW.
Because these changes have made your armor not viable in WvW all of a sudden now, huh. I can only assume you are terrible in WvW.
