Guild Wars 2

Hi my question is simple will anet nerf zerk gear i personally do not want this to happen as i have 4 full asc zerk characters , but i keep hearing from players zerk will be nerfed so i wanted to ask here. Also i remember them saying at hot reveal that they will not force us to get new gear and our current max stats gear will remain the same so i personaly think anet nerfing zerk would be stupid and dishonest , and if the other gear stats do not perform as well instead off nerf maybe upgade it. On a side note stop nerfing eles .

Unless adding “dificult content” means nerfing zerk, i have seen any nerfs to zerk. The trait changes make it "less logical " to go full zerk, but it is more because the added choices are non zerk, so no nerfs.

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta.

They might, however, design encounters that are more difficult to deal with using Zerker gear, or simply more efficient to deal with through use of other gear. We can only speculate on this but it’s safe to assume that anything ANet throws out will probably be completely doable in Zerker gear still.

TheSwede.9512:

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta.

They might, however, design encounters that are more difficult to deal with using Zerker gear, or simply more efficient to deal with through use of other gear. We can only speculate on this but it’s safe to assume that anything ANet throws out will probably be completely doable in Zerker gear still.

yes but the way you put it in order for us to do it optimally we are forced to change gear.

TheSwede.9512:

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta..

Right. They aren’t going to do it because they want high risk (which is no matter how much the Risk Deniers say otherwise) to have high reward.

TheSwede.9512:

They might, however, design encounters that are more difficult to deal with using Zerker gear, or simply more efficient to deal with through use of other gear. We can only speculate on this but it’s safe to assume that anything ANet throws out will probably be completely doable in Zerker gear still.

MetaZerk will still be MetaZerk because MetaZerk really only refers to dungeons/fractals. So, unless they are going to redesign all the dungeons and fractals to require us not to use zerk, then MetaZerk will remain… Of course, if zerk is made just viable and not optimal, then another gear stat set will become optimal… THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!!!

What you’ll see are more sustained attacks like hte mordrem tetragryphs and trolls that make ‘perfect’ use of active defense effectively impossible.

And that, if they do it, will be more than enough.

There is going to be more difficult content , so now more 5 zerker rubbish , youll need a group of diffrent things

I think they won’t touch Zerk gear, instead they will improve the other stats.

They’ll probably add more mobs weaker to conditions than physical damage, so classes like Necro become useful.

Direct stat nerf probably will not happen. Maybe they will add content that will be hard with full berserker gear, but i guarantee that in few months people will learn how to do it in full glass-cannon.
I think that “meta” in new content will be tied to combat masteries rather than gear. Mordremoth’s Bane, Exalted Honing and Wyvern Defiance already kinda show that.
We probably will see a lot “zerker | X mastery points in Y lines” LFGs in HoT IF instanced dungeon-like content will be a thing. If no than there will be no pve meta in new locations at all and in old dungeons things will remain mostly the same.

Amineo.8951:

They’ll probably add more mobs weaker to conditions than physical damage, so classes like Necro become useful.

warriors and engis apply conditions better than necromancer

MarkoNS.3261:

yes but the way you put it in order for us to do it optimally we are forced to change gear.

Oh no! Build diversity! Sadly, I doubt it’ll happen like you say.

One thing pushing us away from Zerker is guaranteed crits, a Reaper with Decimate Defences and Death Perception for instance in a dungeon has (currently) 100% bonus crit chance when attacking foes with 25 vuln while in death shroud, more than enough to crit even Lupicus 100% of the time without anything else. Similarly, Rangers have spotter, absurd amounts of fury and Remorseless letting them get tons of crits without any precision investment.

Unfortunately, there’s no Power/Ferocity/[healing, condi damage, condi duration or boon duration] stat set that allows you to take advantage of this. Only Valkyrie and Cavalier increasing your personal defence (and taking cavalier comes at the cost of stopping power). If we need more personal defence then I suppose that’s the way things’ll go. But at the end of the day, we only have so many stat sets to work with and builds that don’t want maximum physical DPS often have to make do with imperfect choices. (While max physical damage builds can roll with Assassin/Zerker/Valkyrie mixes)

Amineo.8951:

They’ll probably add more mobs weaker to conditions than physical damage, so classes like Necro become useful.

But wouldn’t something like that FORCE roles which anet doesn’t want?

Neox.3497:

Amineo.8951:

They’ll probably add more mobs weaker to conditions than physical damage, so classes like Necro become useful.

But wouldn’t something like that FORCE roles which anet doesn’t want?

Not at all they are not removing those weak to direct damage and strong vs conditions nothing prevents you from playing zerk vs them it is not forced.

TheSwede.9512:

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta.

The way you nerf ’Zerker is reduce the base healing of self-healing skills about 15% (with a corresponding increase in Heal power scaling) and suddenly most players no longer have the skill to survive existing encounters and have to gear for more sustain (any of the Toughness/Vitality/heal power family).

Which has the added benefit of being able to legitimately say they didn’t touch the ’Zerker stats.

I doubt they’ll force passive defense on us and they won’t touch the old content. We’ve yet to see anything new instanced in HoT. Maybe we’ll see new encounters and maybe those will favour a different gearset, but since I highly doubt they’ll add 8 new dungeons, zerk will still be optimal in at least 90% of the content. Personally I sincerely doubt they’ll add anything in the first place so I wouldn’t worry too much.

Tim.6450:

Unless adding “dificult content” means nerfing zerk, i have seen any nerfs to zerk. The trait changes make it "less logical " to go full zerk, but it is more because the added choices are non zerk, so no nerfs.

I’d think the trait changes would only make serker gear more important for a team of 5 players, yes? No more stats from trait lines so all of your stats come from gear (which in turn are going to get a buff). Right?

Zerk is kinda useless against world bosses right? So maybe the new instances/dungeons will have more of these, because the Nightmare Tree in TA is the only one that is in all of the explorable paths of any dungeons.

Amineo.8951:

Zerk is kinda useless against world bosses right?

Kinda.
Most world bosses can’t be crit, so the precision and ferocity isn’t used, but still have the highest DPS possible.

Amineo.8951:

So maybe the new instances/dungeons will have more of these, because the Nightmare Tree in TA is the only one that is in all of the explorable paths of any dungeons.

Wait, what?
Anyway … I don’t think that ANet will just add tons of bosses/mobs that can’t be crit just for the sake of messing with zerk, and along with that all the sigils and traits that also proc with crit, no matter the build you have.

Zerk isn’t going off meta by any means, they might be able to make mobs apply more anti-zerk conditions like weakness/slow/chill, make them more vulnerable to conditions (like more active moving mobs, so torment may actually work in pve) or a combo of both.
I don’t expect a condi class become meta for anything, but it still could tweak its way out there.

If anything, I think they will just be making other sets more viable, or at least I hope anyway, with the introduction of new mechanics.

All it would take is a smattering of encounters that are effectively impossible without a couple good condi builds. We already have tough bark husks that melt under conditions but take a long time to whittle down directly. Just expanding on this (and if in dungeons preventing people from bypassing large portions of enemies – looking at you TA).

Well they arent going to nerf zerker gear, just with eliminating the stats from the traits is enough, so a guardian for example, using full zerker, will have 0 healing power, 0 defense or boon duration, because zerker gear only gives as we all know power, precision, and ferocity. And you know that a guardian needs at least 500 on healing power to be able to do something, and if he is going full dps, it will be the same, will be even more crystal canon. The same thing can aply for the other professions, those who rely on trait points to balance the lack of stats of the zerker gear.

At the moment full berserker guardian with GS Sword/Focus build aka “meta” has 0 healing power.

Palindrome.8904:

All it would take is a smattering of encounters that are effectively impossible without a couple good condi builds. We already have tough bark husks that melt under conditions but take a long time to whittle down directly. Just expanding on this (and if in dungeons preventing people from bypassing large portions of enemies – looking at you TA).

Ta is nothing look at Cm or Arah and the amount off mob skipping.

Palindrome.8904:

All it would take is a smattering of encounters that are effectively impossible without a couple good condi builds. We already have tough bark husks that melt under conditions but take a long time to whittle down directly. Just expanding on this (and if in dungeons preventing people from bypassing large portions of enemies – looking at you TA).

How do you expect that forcing people to kill more mobs is going to be a nerf to the best gear for killing mobs?

SoulTaker.2093:

Well they arent going to nerf zerker gear, just with eliminating the stats from the traits is enough, so a guardian for example, using full zerker, will have 0 healing power, 0 defense or boon duration, because zerker gear only gives as we all know power, precision, and ferocity. And you know that a guardian needs at least 500 on healing power to be able to do something, and if he is going full dps, it will be the same, will be even more crystal canon. The same thing can aply for the other professions, those who rely on trait points to balance the lack of stats of the zerker gear.

Very few if any of the Meta builds spec into the tree that gave Healing Power. They don’t even spec into the defensive trees either. Most are 6,6 then 2 points somewhere else with some exceptions. That means that all told most standard zerker builds will have more Healing Power, Toughness, and Vitality then they did previously.

There are a few exceptions, Phanlanx Strength warriors will have less vitality for example, but really anybody who thinks that the Trait change will kill Zerker is silly.

TheSwede.9512:

They’re not gonna directly Nerf Zerker gear in any way, I’d wager. The only way they could directly nerf it would be through nerfs to Power, Precision or Ferocity which will hurt more than just the PvE Dungeon meta.

They might, however, design encounters that are more difficult to deal with using Zerker gear, or simply more efficient to deal with through use of other gear. We can only speculate on this but it’s safe to assume that anything ANet throws out will probably be completely doable in Zerker gear still.

Just add more types of Husk-like enemies, but with lots of variety, then you’ll see condition build rises. In fact, they should create a few dungeons that most encounters have hard skin on most mobs, greatly punish zerker, and encourage condition play. The dungeon would still be doable with zerk, but with much greater difficulty.

In fact, many hardcore dungeon crawler uses this method to increase the difficulty.

ANET made the mistake of making Ascended armor cost a ludicrous amount of gold. In GW1 you could buy max stat armor from Kamadan/Kaineng for a very small sum of gold. This meant that any changes to the meta were not as damaging to the time spent acquiring armor, as it could easily be changed. In GW2 stats matter. A lot. Nomad’s vs Berserker’s armor is a massive difference in kill speed.

I am against any changes that would force me to craft another ascended LIGHT armor set. A better approach would be to add stat changing to ascended armor, or make Legendary armor with stat changing, BUT only if existing ascended armor is required to make it.

Juclesia Elcritian.8410:

I am against any changes that would force me to craft another ascended LIGHT armor set. A better approach would be to add stat changing to ascended armor, or make Legendary armor with stat changing, BUT only if existing ascended armor is required to make it.

I agree. Though thanks to fractals, I already possess 3 different stats of ascended light armor.

I believe there will be an overall reduction in Critical Damage due to the removal of Trait-line Attributes.

Ferocity is a secondary attribute with a base value of 0, but the Trait-line Attributes allow you to add up to 300.

Unless they plan to change how secondary attributes (Boon Duration, Condition Damage, Condition Duration, Ferocity, Healing Power) are calculated, I don’t see how you will be able to achieve “the same stats” without radically changing gear selection.

A 20% increase in stats (accounting for most of the missing points) from Ascended Berserker gear nets ~894 Ferocity, up from 745… but down from a possible 1045.

Purely hypothetical, but we need more information before we know for sure how the new gear and removal of Trait-line stats fully impacts builds.

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

Jerus.4350:

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

And zerker meta is more diverse?

It would be a refreshing change to build my guard and war for more condi damage unlike the full zerk gear that i have right now.

Would also be more interesting in WvW when fighting kiting classes.

Spartacus.3192:

Jerus.4350:

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

And zerker meta is more diverse?

It would be a refreshing change to build my guard and war for more condi damage unlike the full zerk gear that i have right now.

Would also be more interesting in WvW when fighting kiting classes.

“lfg 80 exp sinister or kick” so much diversity.

Long as the make condition builds more viable I’ll be happy. Love my conditionmancer.

You don’t even need high toughness mobs to make condition builds more viable. You just need mobs with lot’s of HP, making Vulnerability affect condis and faster condition application. If it takes you 15 seconds to hit your personal bleed cap condi will never be better even with high toughness mobs. If it takes you 5 seconds to stack your bleeds to your sustained cap condi becomes much more viable.

As many have mentioned. Small nudges to move players into a more diversified gear set is more so the case.

The removal of trait line stats will give a nudge too, no vit, no tough, no heal, from traits means zerk will be even squishier.

Quiznos.4296:

As many have mentioned. Small nudges to move players into a more diversified gear set is more so the case.

The removal of trait line stats will give a nudge too, no vit, no tough, no heal, from traits means zerk will be even squishier.

Not really, most zerk builds didn’t get vit/tough from traits, and now we’ll be getting some of it added base.

Jerus.4350:

Quiznos.4296:

As many have mentioned. Small nudges to move players into a more diversified gear set is more so the case.

The removal of trait line stats will give a nudge too, no vit, no tough, no heal, from traits means zerk will be even squishier.

Not really, most zerk builds didn’t get vit/tough from traits, and now we’ll be getting some of it added base.

Oh… Well I stand corrected. Even still, little changes/tweaks.

Spartacus.3192:

Jerus.4350:

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

And zerker meta is more diverse?

It would be a refreshing change to build my guard and war for more condi damage unlike the full zerk gear that i have right now.

Would also be more interesting in WvW when fighting kiting classes.

oh man, my gear has a different prefix

this is making my gameplay so much more interesting!

oh wait i’m just doing the same thing and can’t actually see the prefix while in combat

The only way the current meta will end is if Anet decided active gameplay shouldn’t be rewarded and changes AI to punish players who can dodge and actively avoid damage. If that happens we can all switch to loading up on passive defense and facetanking damage as we faceroll to victory. I’ll take the “zerker meta” over passive and unskilled gameplay any day.

maha.7902:

Spartacus.3192:

Jerus.4350:

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

And zerker meta is more diverse?

It would be a refreshing change to build my guard and war for more condi damage unlike the full zerk gear that i have right now.

Would also be more interesting in WvW when fighting kiting classes.

oh man, my gear has a different prefix

this is making my gameplay so much more interesting!

oh wait i’m just doing the same thing and can’t actually see the prefix while in combat

Swinging your greatsword in Celestial gear is way more fun than swinging your greatsword in Berserker gear because DIVERSITY. See? Just say the word DIVERSITY and the game is instantly 10x more fun even though the physical actions you preform are the exact same!

Well, i can’t remember the exact quote, but I do remember them discussing that they were adjusting stats outside of gear. The trait changes will be one big area, not sure if they are doing it in others. But overall, we will be getting less stats from passive boosts, so while the gear may not be tinkered with, the stats we get from them will be much more critical.

i.e. – if your used to getting a certain level of toughness and vitality from passive boosts, you will no longer have those, and if you want the extra Vit and Tough, you will need to get those stats from your gear…so to get those stats back, you would need to most likely sub out either your runes, or a few pieces of zerk gear to get those defensive stats.

This will also probably make some combat situations a bit tougher, as your used to having those passive stats back you up, and they will be gone now. not sure if they will counter-balance that stat loss through gear or the new skill system, but based on the direction of their conversations, this was one area where they were going go even the builds a bit.

funkyfuzz.9142:

Well, i can’t remember the exact quote, but I do remember them discussing that they were adjusting stats outside of gear. The trait changes will be one big area, not sure if they are doing it in others. But overall, we will be getting less stats from passive boosts, so while the gear may not be tinkered with, the stats we get from them will be much more critical.

i.e. – if your used to getting a certain level of toughness and vitality from passive boosts, you will no longer have those, and if you want the extra Vit and Tough, you will need to get those stats from your gear…so to get those stats back, you would need to most likely sub out either your runes, or a few pieces of zerk gear to get those defensive stats.

This will also probably make some combat situations a bit tougher, as your used to having those passive stats back you up, and they will be gone now. not sure if they will counter-balance that stat loss through gear or the new skill system, but based on the direction of their conversations, this was one area where they were going go even the builds a bit.

On the the other hand if a damage build went into a former healing/vit/toughness trait line they will get more damage stats and kill stuff even faster than before.

It probably won’t be a hard-nerf, as has been stated above. It will probably just be a reduction in the relative strength of the stat set when compared to other sets, resulting in a more diverse meta.

MattyP.6954:

It probably won’t be a hard-nerf, as has been stated above. It will probably just be a reduction in the relative strength of the stat set when compared to other sets, resulting in a more diverse meta.

The meta will still be Berserkers even if Berserker was only 1% better than the next best.

NikeEU.7690:

maha.7902:

Spartacus.3192:

Jerus.4350:

Spartacus.3192:

Add more mobs like in SW that have high toughness but susceptible to condis. Makes for more useful hybrid builds, less zerker.

Inc sinister meta… such diversity

And zerker meta is more diverse?

It would be a refreshing change to build my guard and war for more condi damage unlike the full zerk gear that i have right now.

Would also be more interesting in WvW when fighting kiting classes.

oh man, my gear has a different prefix

this is making my gameplay so much more interesting!

oh wait i’m just doing the same thing and can’t actually see the prefix while in combat

Swinging your greatsword in Celestial gear is way more fun than swinging your greatsword in Berserker gear because DIVERSITY. See? Just say the word DIVERSITY and the game is instantly 10x more fun even though the physical actions you preform are the exact same!

not too effective an argument. Technically, swinging at the monsters, no matter what skill you use, is simply tabulating numbers on a table, and when one of those numbers reaches 0, the mob drops to the ground and you get exp. Thus, even having more then one skill is superflous. Heck, having any skills is superflous. they should just start tabulating numbers once your in reach of the mobs!

Oh, but wait! are there actual people who enjoy having to press more then one button? amazing…to think that there are people out there who do different things and enjoy different aspects of the game…weird…
* sarcasm off *
Many people enjoy stats, and see them as a measure of capacity and growth on their toons. technically, they could do away with all stats…and different weapon types….and different classes, because when you boil it down these are all aspects of diversity. different approaches to similar goals. It’s one of the reasons people enjoy playing MMO’s instead of FPS.

So your little joke as actually a very big aspect of MMO games. different approaches to a similar goal. stats are important to many, even the OP. he doesn’t want to be forced to change his gear due to stat issues…

NikeEU.7690:

You don’t even need high toughness mobs to make condition builds more viable. You just need mobs with lot’s of HP, making Vulnerability affect condis and faster condition application. If it takes you 15 seconds to hit your personal bleed cap condi will never be better even with high toughness mobs. If it takes you 5 seconds to stack your bleeds to your sustained cap condi becomes much more viable.

Wut?? No to that and no the rest, this is strictly PvE issue don’t affect PvP and WvW when you simply need tough non HP sponges mobs, the issue with faster condition application is that condition can be created easier than burst either through fields,sigils or runes(more of them), etc.

Sagat.3285:

NikeEU.7690:

You don’t even need high toughness mobs to make condition builds more viable. You just need mobs with lot’s of HP, making Vulnerability affect condis and faster condition application. If it takes you 15 seconds to hit your personal bleed cap condi will never be better even with high toughness mobs. If it takes you 5 seconds to stack your bleeds to your sustained cap condi becomes much more viable.

Wut?? No to that and no the rest, this is strictly PvE issue don’t affect PvP and WvW when you simply need tough non HP sponges mobs, the issue with faster condition application is that condition can be created easier than burst either through fields,sigils or runes(more of them), etc.

In PvE if your condi build can’t sustain 20+ bleed stacks solo it’s a failure. The problem with that is it takes time to get to 20+. By then the boss is dead, or close to it. So even with high toughness bosses condition ramp up time is a big problem.

It’s fine to have a motor that is slow to accelerate so long as their is a high top end. the problem is the top end of condi builds are low too. So its slow and weak. Tough enemies wont change that.