Guild Wars 2

I sacrifice defense for offense. I still don’t die.
This is either because I am very good at active defense or the content is poorly designed.
Zerker doing high damage and having low effective hp means the gear is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. There’s nothing wrong with zerker gear, it’s the environment which allows it to flourish.

My point about the swap allowance is that ascended weapons and armor cost people several hundred gold. That is a lot in a game described as non grindy. A lot of people were unhappy at being told to grind the first time, and now they’re being told to do it again? A lot of people will give up.

i hope they do nerf it, maybe then i will stop seeing “zerker” everywhere.

it’s Berserker.

it means “bear-shirt” and losing the “ber” means everyone is banging on about being “Full Shirt”.

it’s just nonsense.

well, i hope they nerf your Shirts.

maybe then the Bear (Ber) can return.

Its okay, I’m used to it. Every time they had to nerf rangers in pvp, I had to regear my ranger for wvw. I’ve spent around 300g total regearing since launch…

fadeaway.2807:

My point about the swap allowance is that ascended weapons and armor cost people several hundred gold. That is a lot in a game described as non grindy. A lot of people were unhappy at being told to grind the first time, and now they’re being told to do it again? A lot of people will give up.

thousands….
Hundred is you are from the pet professions known as heavies…
They don t only should be the best in every single part of the game but their armor should cost half and require half time with the time gating….

All this is only if they nerf berserker gear to the point where it’s no longer useful. As many people have already pointed out, this is probably unlikely unless many other bigger changes happen in the game. Berserker will still very likely remain the go-to build for most people. So, no need to change your gear, so no need to offer you the option. The option for MF gear wasn’t really an option because they simply removed the stat entirely. Berserker people will not be left without armour.

I am really hoping Anet doesn’t make the wrong choice with crit damage changes. I can’t think of anything off-hand that would retain statistical balance of different gear on the same set.

Look at history of anet “balancing” also look at my signature, then look at silk……
You are aive if you expect anet to do anything by whak a mole…..

….they are possibly totally involved in eastern market….and they are ready to sacrifice part of the western that already bought the game.

fadeaway.2807:

I sacrifice defense for offense. I still don’t die.
This is either because I am very good at active defense or the content is poorly designed.
Zerker doing high damage and having low effective hp means the gear is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. There’s nothing wrong with zerker gear, it’s the environment which allows it to flourish.

This.

Sacrificing one aspect of your character (defense) in order to boost another aspect (offense) is a valid approach to character and play style customization that has worked in games for as long as RPGs have existed.

What is broken here is that the sacrifice has little to no impact in much of the game. Zerker is not broken the game environment just ensures that there isn’t enough glass in the glass cannon.

I’d much rather see some way to unlock stats on ascended gear permanently, so one can switch between them as needed. Ascended gear just takes too long to make if you want to run different builds – maybe even multiple characters.
But it’s probably best to just wait for the change to come and see what impact it really has.

Full disclosure, i run pure zerkers and only zerkers. i do it because i find risk/reward gameplay fun. people often assume that zerker gear is the only option cause it is the fastest way to clear content, increasing its time/reward ratio.

anyone that’s played any content with pugs will know that while zerkers is popular, a bad player is a bad player and they end up hurting themselves and their allies in following the trend to run glass cannon builds. this is not faster, this is slower. downing 8 times a fight is far slower than not downing at all and losing out on 50% of your damage output.

now that that’s out of the way i’d just like to point out an error quite a few posters have been making.

a lot of people are saying that a change to mobs, elites and champs needs to happen and an overhaul to the way people engage content needs to change. they also talk about this change never happening and that this makes zerkers the obvious pro choice for every encounter as active defense is enough to carry you through any battle unscathed making it the superior choice every time.

there have been a lot of dev cdi posts talking about an ai overhaul that plans to be implemented in order to address this issue. I think a lot of zerkers are scared of the change to their gear because they assume it will be nerfed to the current content meaning that they no longer get as fast a reward for the time they put in. this leads to a lot of assumptions on how horrific the change will be and a lot of fear that the time they have invested in their gear will be for naught.

Anet would have to be incredibly dumb to nerf it to the current content with a big change to how the games ai interacts with players incoming lest they go through all of this again rebalancing each class to fit the new content just a couple of months later . if anything, zerker gear will be nerfed to fit the new content and that nerf will more than likely be minor, only enough to put it on equal footing with other strats and gear.

Also you may find that they are gracious enough to allow a stat switch for all classes when the new ai releases for any ascended gear as its going to change the meta of every class. they don’t have to do it, they could say a big kitten you but they probably wont.

I’m at work and rush wrote this, there may be some errors/flaws. happy to clarify or enter discussion if anyone has any issues with what ive said. trolls will be ignored

~Peace ^.~

Umut.5471:

Fenrir.3609:

Einlanzer.1627:

Zerker needs to be nerfed, badly. I’m not necessarily opposed to a free respec on zerker gear like what they did with MF, but I don’t really think anyone is entitled to it either.

It’s odd how the people who say “zerker needs teh nerfbat!!”, never come up with a valid reason as to why that should be the case.

because elitism and classism make it go wrong. not every class is good at being zerker.
“play zerker warrior or quit” this sentence sums the pve aspect of the game.

Hyperbole isn’t a valid reason.

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

Amiron.1067:

They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta.

God forbid a more risky playstyle is also more rewarding, eh?

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

joined by Game Designers Jon Peters, Jon Sharp, Karl McLain, and Roy Cronacher.

In this episode we’ll be talking about a few of the things the Skills and Balance team is working on for the next balance update, including:
•Runes and sigil rework
•Critical damage changes
•New stat combinations for PvP (amulets)
•High-level overview of planned balance changes

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

•Critical damage changes

Im sorry, Ive been away for a week or two. What is happening to zerker gear? Link please?

I hope they don t nerf it, but since they crashed my FotM-lvl into the ground, i don t trust ANET anymore.

I will not grind for a complete new set (ascended) for 3 chars for another 6 months.

I play Zerker furthermore. When it s getting too weak, i m out of the game.

Fenrir.3609:

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

•Critical damage changes

I didn’t know the word “change” equated to nerf.

Flissy.4093:

God forbid a more risky playstyle is also more rewarding, eh?

Right?

Lol at people who think ascended is elite. Just lol

Just because they are ‘changing’ something does not mean it is getting the nerf bat. Keep in mind that if they destroy crit dmg as you are all freaking out about, that it is going to affect more than just zerker gear. It will also affect Valk, Assassin, and Cav.

As their goal is to try to bring zerk more in line with other gear types, if they ‘destroy’ that stat, it will not accomplish their goal as it will also have adverse affects on the other gears that they are trying to being zerker into line with.

Most likely they will look at how the crit dmg triggers with crit chance, and how it scales with chance and power. If they can adjust these coefficients properly, zerker will still be plenty viable but not the out and out dps winner by such a stretch.

Edit: Or you can all keep freaking out and assuming they are just going to smiter’s boon it. (We <3 you Izzy ^.^)

chuckle

shimmerless.4560:

Amiron.1067:

Fenrir.3609:

Amiron.1067:

For the fifteenth millionth time, they’re not destroying berserker gear. They merely stated they’ll be looking to address the current dominance of berserker gear in the current PvE meta. This does not mean it is getting nerfed.

Please, mods, close this shenanigan of a thread.

•Critical damage changes

I didn’t know the word “change” equated to nerf.

Flissy.4093:

God forbid a more risky playstyle is also more rewarding, eh?

Right?

“Change” is a euphemism for nerf.

Why people want to bring down the only risk/reward set in the game is beyond me.

For you, maybe. I’m willing to wait and see what ANet comes up with before proclaiming the world is ending and I want refunds for every gem purchase ever.

And, mind you, I’m not for nerfing berserker gear at all. All of my 80’s are decked out in the gear. I’m looking forward to seeing if they’ll provide buffs to the other stats and make other builds more viable.

We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose. I may very well end up eating my own words.

Fenrir.3609:

Einlanzer.1627:

Zerker needs to be nerfed, badly. I’m not necessarily opposed to a free respec on zerker gear like what they did with MF, but I don’t really think anyone is entitled to it either.

It’s odd how the people who say “zerker needs teh nerfbat!!”, never come up with a valid reason as to why that should be the case.

Yeah, the reasons are self-explanatory. If you can’t see them then it’s because you’re choosing not to, not because people aren’t presenting good arguments. It’s like creationists.

At any rate, as to whether it’s actually zerker stats or encounter design that’s the real problem – to me it seems to be some combination of both, but probably more the latter.

The stat problem is fairly obvious – Zerker represents the perfect triad where all 3 stats have high synergy and functionally no cap, leading to hyperbolic scaling in efficacy, which is pretty much unique to that combination. When you add in the general sentiment that offense>defense, it makes it no contest. The easiest way to address this is to either cap crit or adjust the scaling on it, especially since the crit scaling is the leading culprit behind all scaling issues in the game, including why condition damage is so good while leveling and so lackluster at 80.

The encounter problem is also obvious – most mobs hit too slowly, too predictably, and too hard. This basically requires you to improve your dodging skills and specifically not to rely on your natural defense. There are several potential ways to address this. Mobs should be less predictable and hit more often for less damage. They could also add additional benefits for Toughness and/or Vitality that benefit the active game, such as improving your Endurance regeneration or a chance to ‘shrug off’ conditions.

I disagree Einlanzer, as do many others.
Sacrificing defense for offense is a perfectly acceptable choice. The fact that a large amount of people are good enough to use dodges and active abilities to avoid enough damage to make the tradeoff irrelevant is a fault of the content and not the gear. The gear is doing exactly what it says on the tin.

What we’re seeing here is a lot of bad players cheering because with their bad builds and tanky gear which allows them to make plenty of mistakes, they will be on a level footing again with the better players. This will not be the case – people will still use whatever gives the highest dps while retaining the ability to stay alive.

They nerf builds all the time. This causes players to have to regear all the time.

This time will be no different.

Past players were not compensated or allowed to re-stat their gear when their builds were nerfed. Neither should zerkers.

And a zerker nerf is not the same scenario as the MF removal. A whole stat was removed which necessitated the one time stat change.

Zerker gear isn’t the problem either. It really is the content and other issues with the game that make zerker gear so desirable.

People run full dps because condition damage is, has and always will be kitten AND there’s absolutely no reason to rock any other type stats (maybe a lil health and some toughness) because they completely neutered (with a rusty shank I might add) any kind of other game play. The only area you’ll see much difference in builds is WvW and PVP.

THIS is wtf people have been talking about with why there should have been some sort of soft trinity. But NO this is a dps game. No “heals” no positional CC. Nada. DPS only. Therefore people max out damage and look for shortcuts to get around bad dungeon design and stack.

I had a nice condition build engineer (out of ignorance) when I first started playing. Then I learned how kittenty it was so I spent my time, and my gold to slowly transfer to power + crit damage on my toon (all while keeping him looking awesome). Now they’re gonna nerf crit damage?

I’ve just about had it with ArenaNet… AGAIN.

Flissy.4093:

+1 if the change goes as expected.

They let MF users when they changed they, they sure as kitten it better let Zerkers else there will be a right kittenstorm – especially since we have just sunk 300g into Ascended.

Um….not if you built Celestial Armor, you had no options for shifting your gear around. You just lost your magic find without ANY compensation. I had finished the set (which was a 30 day stretch since it took 30 charged crystals and those were account bound to one created per day) and had my gear maybe a month before they killed the magic find properties.

Glass cannons will always exist, are they actually considering removing the Berserker family of items? Does anyone have a reference of this change I could read? Thanks in advance.

fadeaway.2807:

I disagree Einlanzer, as do many others.
Sacrificing defense for offense is a perfectly acceptable choice. The fact that a large amount of people are good enough to use dodges and active abilities to avoid enough damage to make the tradeoff irrelevant is a fault of the content and not the gear. The gear is doing exactly what it says on the tin.

What we’re seeing here is a lot of bad players cheering because with their bad builds and tanky gear which allows them to make plenty of mistakes, they will be on a level footing again with the better players. This will not be the case – people will still use whatever gives the highest dps while retaining the ability to stay alive.

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

There have been a half dozen requests for someone to link the page where they state they are changing up zerker. Was this an off the cuff comment on a livestream or something? Or do any of you have an article to share? Ive been away from the game for about two weeks so I missed it and cannot find the article on the website here.

How about we wait and see exactly what will change, and to what extent the change will mean before making baseless assumptions and guesses, hmm?

All will be explained during Ready Up! on Friday.

i don’t need any armor to farm the tp. start doing so, it’s much profitable than dungeons.

Fenrir.3609:

People have ascended. So it is an issue.

I have never owned zerker gear but I still can’t help but agree with this (once again, a balanced build saves me from stress). I think exotics could also be expensive for those who don’t know how to play the gold game (or farmed the wrong dungeons #cough# CoF #cough# for tokens).

shimmerless.4560:

Why people want to bring down the only risk/reward set in the game is beyond me.

Keep in mind that a sympathize with the zerker crowd – however in some cases zerker is ridiculously low risk compared to other builds. If you want a really good example look no further than The Howling King.

Someone said the problem is PvE, not zerker, and I think I might agree with them. There are far too many mechanics that are viable for being broken by pure DPS – most of the time it’s the bad/cheap/dirty mechanics that get broken/fixed. This is why dungeon meta is zerker – it’s a way to avoid the bullkitten cheese with nearly all of the bosses.

Einlanzer.1627:

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

Sorry, I think you’re wrong.

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

Sorry, I think you’re wrong.

Yeah, well math says I’m not.

Einlanzer.1627:

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

Sorry, I think you’re wrong.

Yeah, well math says I’m not.

Your math is wrong.

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

Sorry, I think you’re wrong.

Yeah, well math says I’m not.

Your math is wrong.

Yeah, no. Like everyone defending the current status quo for Zerker, you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Zerker stats are objectively, demonstrably superior in terms of raw effectiveness, and issue which is compounded by bad encounter design. It needs to be addressed on both fronts.

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Umut.5471:

because elitism and classism make it go wrong. not every class is good at being zerker.
“play zerker warrior or quit” this sentence sums the pve aspect of the game.

Again for u.

Fact1
People cry for warriors only because they have no idea about dps.

Fact2
Warriors DPS is only selfbuffed rly strong, goupbuffed the warrior will do much less then.
Ele
Thief
Guard
Slithly less then
Necro
Probably more then
Engi
Mesmer
ranger
Engi/Ranger can do nearly the same dps, but the need a proper rotation (which nearly no engi is using most of them just play bad). Or the ranger needs his sword (can sometimes be tricky and a living cat which can be a problem).

But both have alot of support and can be rly good for your party. If played well, not a class blance problem.

Fact3
If i had to choice between a rampager using hybrid warrior or necromancer. I would choice the warrior, this class balance issue is not a zerkers issue.

Fact4
Berserkers gear is the fastest way to finish dungeons, not the easiest one as many people still think

Fact5
The easiest way is to wear PVT/Clecirs mix with supporty traits and join an tanky/supporty meleegruop.
It will be exactly the sam,e LoS, stacking. But much much easier. For most bosses u have to do nothing then pushing 1.

Only a few bosses require frostamorstacking or the use of some grouphealskills.

Fact6
Even if they nerf berserker it will stay the best (except rampager probably)

Fact7
If they try to chance a part of the critical dmg to vitality (like in pvp) the meta will get even stronger. Because it will stay as the fastest, but it will get easier to use for everyone.

Fact8
CC/Healing and so on is not unviable because of DPS is so OP, it´s weak because they´re is no need for it. Content is to easy. Teamplay is usually not needed.
It makes it faster/smoother.
But in GW2 i feel like a sologamer found 4 other sologamers to speed it up. Not being part of a team which solve problems one alone could never do.

Fact9
There will be alot of balance issues. For example engineer. At the moment max dps is a rotation with or without grenades. If they nerf the critical dmg for example only 15%. Rampager nades will top everything.
Bombkit (AA) Flamethrower (2) Elixirgun (4), Toolkit (3), Rifle (3/5) will get much worse then now. U can choice your style of gaming an engineer. There are a few nearly equal possibility. Nerfing zerkers will ruin them.

cesmode.4257:

There have been a half dozen requests for someone to link the page where they state they are changing up zerker. Was this an off the cuff comment on a livestream or something? Or do any of you have an article to share? Ive been away from the game for about two weeks so I missed it and cannot find the article on the website here.

No, it’s a post in the balance forum. It says that they will be discussing “changes to critical damage” as part of the livestream tomorrow. Nothing more than that. Nothing definitive, nothing set in stone, nothing specific on how it will be changing.

Einlanzer.1627:

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

fadeaway.2807:

Einlanzer.1627:

Sorry, you’re just objectively wrong. See my edited post above.

Sorry, I think you’re wrong.

Yeah, well math says I’m not.

Your math is wrong.

Yeah, no. Like everyone defending the current status quo for Zerker, you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Zerker stats are objectively, demonstrably superior in terms of raw effectiveness, and issue which is compounded by bad encounter design. It needs to be addressed on both fronts.

Here are some numbers I created for various guardian builds with various gear setups.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guardian-dps-numbers-for-various-builds/first

Here are the effective hp and dps numbers.
http://s27.postimg.org/nf571pco3/guarddps.jpg

If you take each row’s dps as a proportion of the top row, and each row’s effective hp as a proportion of the bottom row, and add them together you get an idea of the tradeoff you gave away in order to get that dps or ehp.

eg 20/25/0/0/25 zerk 10830dps vs 0/0/30/30/10 soldier 5017 dps, row 1 having 1, bottom row having 0.46 for relative dps. Do the same for effective hp, 20/25/0/0/25 zerk having 12518 and 0/0/30/30/10 solvier having 38458.. top row having a relative ehp of 0.32 compared to the bottom row having 1. Add these numbers up for each row and you’ll find that no matter the combination of dps or tank gear or spec, anet have pretty much nailed it. The combined ehp and dps is always roughly equal.

Trading dps for survivability eg zerker/soldier is a fair tradeoff statistically. The problem is the content. In fact, as you add more healing, mitigation starts to outshine zerker in terms of survivability gained for the dps tradeoff.

Wethospu.6437:

People run full DPS because of faster clear time. That’s all. Also exaggerating usually hurts your credibility (people just assume you have no idea what you are talking about).

At the moment I don’t really gearcheck people because I know my damage can carry and the run goes pretty fast. But if my damage gets nerfed I have to gearcheck to ensure we get decent DPS.

And that my friend will be the world of tomorrow. Never again will I go in a run without hosting it and checking all people if zerker is nerfed.
#Gearcheck 2014!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

If you want this game to be reworked in order to be more in line with the trinity I think you’re playing the wrong game.
GW2 is a ONE player game- all roles in to one – no trinity.
I think you’ve got things mixed up.

This is just another case of people getting all upset when a change affects them, but thinking that your whining when the change affects someone else.

When ANet nerfed the only condition spec (at the time) for Mesmers into the ground, many people complained that they had spent a lot of time getting Rabid ascended trinkets that were now worthless. The community was not supportive.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Yes, this is precisely very clearly the direction that needs to be taken.

DPS only game + downed state mechanics + unbalanced classes who have more survivability than others + zerg only content with no real mechanics besides dodge and move + 1 shot kill bosses = Why would you do anything other than full zerker gear

It’s not the gear that’s the problem, its game play. The risk vs. reward for full zerk gear isn’t the same for every class. So if you’re the type who optimizes you’re going to play a certain class, with a certain gear. No point in beating that dead horse into glue.

Instead of nerfing crit damage why not buff how condition damage works… oh I forgot code limitations. GGs.

Instead of nerfing crit damage why not making healing… nevermind. Forgot this is GW2. GGs

Instead of nerfing crit damage why not make toughness do something tough?

Einlanzer.1627:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Yes, this is precisely very clearly the direction that needs to be taken.

I absolutely don’t think the trinity is the right way to go. First, is ridiculous. It assumes your enemy would rather attack the bunker rather than the cannon.

I would be in favor of trying out a different kind of role based combat: definitely having more roles in combat that actually made some logical sense. Damage, control, and healing come to mind.

TooBz.3065:

Einlanzer.1627:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Yes, this is precisely very clearly the direction that needs to be taken.

I absolutely don’t think the trinity is the right way to go. First, is ridiculous. It assumes your enemy would rather attack the bunker rather than the cannon.

I would be in favor of trying out a different kind of role based combat: definitely having more roles in combat that actually made some logical sense. Damage, control, and healing come to mind.

I don’t think he means implementing a hard trinity. I think he means enhancing the soft role system so that you actually can specialize in distinctive roles and have them be effective (with overlap and flexibility), which is sorely missing in the current design paradigms.

Defiant.

Conditions with limitations and caps.

Healing that doesn’t heal for much.

One shot mechanics that render toughness useless.

There is so much in this game contributing to the reason beserker gear is favored over all others. And it really isn’t the gear’s fault.

Yup, but they are too lazy to work on all that.
It’s just so much easier to just nerf everything, bring everything down again and again.

TooBz.3065:

Einlanzer.1627:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It’s about time. Zerker gears 3x as fast as any other gear set in the game. It was kind of absurd how much more powerful ascended zerker made you over the other ascended upgrades.

Additionally due to the lack of a trinity combat is entirely centered on max dps. This means that zerker offered all the benefits with no real drawbacks.

The most obvious solution is to impose a cap on crit damage. Conditions have a cap on duration. Boons have a cap on duration. Everything seems to have a cap except crit damage which can just be stacked until you are getting one shot.

First cap crit damage, then start reworking fights to be more in line with the trinity. Anything else is just a band-aid on a gunshot wound.

Yes, this is precisely very clearly the direction that needs to be taken.

I absolutely don’t think the trinity is the right way to go. First, is ridiculous. It assumes your enemy would rather attack the bunker rather than the cannon.

I would be in favor of trying out a different kind of role based combat: definitely having more roles in combat that actually made some logical sense. Damage, control, and healing come to mind.

I should have clarified. When I said trinity I meant a soft trinity of DPS/Support/Control(debuff).

You could still run 5 dps characters or 5 control characters but they should play differently. Boons should be only given to support characters and should always be party wide. Conditions should only be given to control characters and direct damage bonuses should be given to dps characters.

In this system dps characters would pretty much remain the same, but crit damage would be capped and gear scaling would be adjusted. Condition dps would also exist. They would have sole access to bleed, burn, poison and torment, with possibly a new damaging condition as well. All conditions would stack in intensity and the cap would be removed, duration cap would remain.

Support characters would be the only ones who had access to boons. They would all be made party wide and each class should have a slightly different build that gives most boons to the party. You could keep certain boons more focused to certain classes i.e they could have higher uptimes on certain boons. (guard = aegis, warrior=prot, etc)

Control characters would have the majority of access to conditions. Condition cap would be removed, duration cap would remain. Weakness, poison, chill, confusion, fear, stun, interrupt would be the major conditions of a control build.

This would give roles to combat, make gear more dependent on your build, and make certain gear sets much more effective for certain roles.