Guild Wars 2

Theonord.6359:

I agree with Kolompi. I have never had any problems with the particle effects, and it’s not like it’s 50 man zerg raids, it’s 10. I find that to be a nice number, and as long as the bosses have telegraphs and clear signs of what attacks they’re going to do, I say bring it on.

Paticle effects for everyone!

It’s not about not seeing what boss will do, it’s about a mess, it’s about have cleaner vision, it’s about having some balance and sense in it all, it’s too much atm

erm nope , that raid boss in the preview needs to be damaged consistantly even when gliding around , the term they used Unleash all your damage is not a referance to Dps because of the short window If no Control is taken to stop break bars he will then again start charging a attack (which would make him do insane damage to those around him then sends a shock wave over the whole map)

you’ll need more than just Dps(beserker) you’ll need Burst damage control , CC control and Support to deal with the large down time of damage between phases , hence why its 10man .

this boss is not going to be the same as a Dungeon boss , he will have mechanics in place to prevent 100-0% hp burn phases which is the break bar.

its all about Balancing your Party comp to have enough Dps, Enough Support , Enough cc , the problem here is when Anet mention roles a lot of people still think Tank,healer,damage when it is not .

Gw2 roles are Damage,Control, Support and depending on how you built your charater it then fills the role because of your choice of gear although you still damage and CC just not as much as other party members but you’d heal more often/apply CC more often .

We have already seen in the silverwastes that a good consistant Regen and Good support is needed for success while Full Zerker Maps can easly fail because they have not covered all Anets roles only providing 80% damage 10% CC , 10% support .

in the Xpac they clearly stated the Trinity will not happen because this game does not force you into those roles but it is a choice of " how much Damage do you want to provide" , " how much support do you wish to provide" , “How much Control do you wish to provide”

there are creatures in HoT with thick hides(direct damage reductions husks ect) also some " i don’t know the name" Dino riders? they have Endure pains to stop direct damage fighting those in a large encounter means you won’t have the time to sit and wait for the skill to wear off so in turn making Pure Damage less effective than Shareing or splitting the roles of Damage,Control,Support Evenly through out the group though no one person is limited to only one of the above.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

erm nope , that raid boss in the preview needs to be damaged consistantly even when gliding around , the term they used Unleash all your damage is not a referance to Dps because of the short window If no Control is taken to stop break bars he will then again start charging a attack (which would make him do insane damage to those around him then sends a shock wave over the whole map)

you’ll need more than just Dps(beserker) you’ll need Burst damage control , CC control and Support to deal with the large down time of damage between phases , hence why its 10man .

None of the above depends on stat sets, or prevents players from going zerker (or sinister, if condi damage is neded).

Damage/Control/Support are not roles… They are combat mechanics that all classes must use to survive and kill their enemies around them.

You can decide how much damage, control or support you want to do but in the end you will still need to use all 3 mechanics to keep yourself alive and others while defeating your enemies.

You can make a Tanky character but you’re not a tank.
You can make a more damage oriented character but your not a damage dealer.

You must coordinate Control with your team while Supporting each other and contributing in dealing Damage while moving and dodging from incoming attacks.

I wrote a detailed guide on Combat and Build Making you can check out here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

I have a feeling once ppl start learning stuff itll be back to all zerk or condi since we have so many different ways of defending ourselves rather than only pure armor/healthpool tank n spank mechanic other mmos got. But itll be fun to see how it pans out!

Such big walls of text related to something you know nothing about yet.

Depends a lot on the difficulty and on mechanics needed to finish a raid. Maybe a raid makes you sit on a platform while stuff attacks you and your team mates need to do something else. If you are in zerker you won’t last long. Who knows.

If after some time ppl mastered a raid and decide to go full zerker, that could be considered a reward for their dedication and time wasted on learning everything about that raid. It’s also a testament to how well they can play their class if they can survive a raid using glasscanon builds imo.

Once a week sounds like account level, like guild missions.

Yet you didn’t mind – or didn’t notice – ALL of the game content being “locked behind a paywall” by dint of your needing to purchase the game, until very recently. Why shouldn’t Anet put content in their paid expansion… in their paid expansion? Not to do so seems like… a poor business decision, at best.

They give us a phenomenal amount of content and updates without our having to shuck out a dime other than the initial cost of purchase, and you’re complaining about Anet charging this one time for their major expansion and associated content? Such self-entitled waffle. Come on.

I think Keeper’s Gear would be perfect for Ele Support. Still a good deal of damage and solid heals. Guardian could go this route too. I’d really like to see a full set of Boon Duration Jewelry too.

You could always wait like 3 years and maybe the next expansion will see the core game and HOT going free.

With each new expack they did say everything previous would get compressed into what they consider “core” (at least my understanding), but that doesn’t necessarily mean not buying it now means getting it for free later.
As that could easily be rolled “up” into the next expack instead of down.
As in you can stay where you are for as long as you want, but if you want anything more you gotta buy the “current” expack, and when you do you get everything between where you are and there at the standard price.

ummm i don’t understand why i don’t get to play a game i didn’t pay for?

Testudo.4620:

ummm i don’t understand why i don’t get to play a game i didn’t pay for?

That’s weird. Does it mean the devs have been working really hard to bring such content? I thought it just popped out of thin air! /mindblown

The number one thing that would determine if raids necessitate zerker gear are the mechanics of the bosses. As we know nothing about the bosses, nothing can therefore be said about the gear requirements either.

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements. When the content can be completed by anything and there’s no sense of progression or performance, the only difference between Group A and Group B is that Group A killed the boss 20 seconds quicker. That’s the logical conclusion. If ArenaNet actually implements raiding and not ArenaNet brand raiding, a berserker exclusive metagame is unlikely. More simply, for dungeons and fractals the question isn’t if the content will be completed, it’s when. For proper raids, it’s an if. That’s why no one cares about encounter times on most bosses in other MMOs. Literally killing the boss before other people do is the achievement, and for some, it’s just literally killing the boss at all.

BIGHARSHNESS.3510:

Thieves aren’t good for PvE? Whaaaa? Thief will def have a place in raids. We don’t know what kind of chain events raids will have, but I bet SR will come in handy taking aggro off those trying to fill specific roles. In fact I’m sure SR and blast finishers on Smoke Screen will see a use for something different than mob skipping.

so… stealth then? which mesmers can do just as well (and engis can do passably)

that’s it?

Lyger.5429:

Zeliden.2014:

Lets be honest thieves are far from the best class when it comes to PVE . Yeah we can stealth a group to pass trash mobs, pump out blast finishers with short bow and provide OK dps but that’s not enough to legitimize us for raiding. I guess my point is why should I play my thief, which is in fact my favorite class, over my warrior or elementalist both of which can outplay my thief with little to no effort in the pve scene.

“Ok” dps? wasn’t thief highest single target dps post patch? Don’t know about now but we couldn’t have fallen that far.

DPS doesn’t matter. the DPS/Survivability ratio matters far more, and thief is near bottom-tier for this. take a look at PvP – thief can’t reliably 1v1 anyone.

It’s threads like this one that are an absolute cancer to this game’s forum and community.

phys.7689:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

SkiTz.4590:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

Coulter.2315:

Solomon Darkfury.3729:

I get how the mastery system would be beneficial… Especially one based upon progressing within the raid. My issue is Gliding and mushroom mastery can only be earned via HoT. Therefore excluding all core players from being able to progress past certain points within raids.

Core players will literally be unable to walk into the Raid – the door is in the expansion lands… Masteries aren’t their first hurdle xD

Then that creates an even MORE fundamental issue… I know just in my guild alone several people who won’t be getting HoT. Will there ever be Raids getting added to Core?

Are you serious?

The fundamental issue is your reading comphrension….

RAIDS are HoT only…. i’m sorry but you gotta buy the xpac if you want raids dude… its not free and it doesn’t have to be free. If you don’t like it, too bad.

You think raids are something that is easy to do for anet? doesn’t have a big cost of resources or anything? It’s a tall task for anet, so its coming in the xpac. I don’t see this as an issue.

Either get the xpac or you are not going to have the content… simple as that.. No point in whining.

ummmm perhaps you can’t read… I have HoT… I’m only playing devil’s advocate for those who choose not to get it. It makes it appear development, at least any substantial ones, have been abandoned for core players.

well you make a fine point, but yeah thats what it boils down to, core is done. they expect everyone who wants to do new stuff to buy the latest expansion.
They only leave in wvw and pvp because it will cripple either mode

It’s not really a valid point, it’s the norm for the industry, side from bug fixes and balancing, core games generally go on the back burner to bring new and exciting content. I haven’t purchased HoT yet because of lack of content, I’m happy to see something I might enjoy is being rolled into the xpac, I’m starting to find reasons why I should buy it now.

Almost certainly once a week per account.
They are generally of the opinion that more alts should not equal more profit, and that more effort should not be rewarded.
They also seem under the delusion that people will do content that gives no rewards.
But as much as people have claimed over the last 3 years they didn’t care about rewards they just wanted challenging content if raids were launched and not more rewarding than most other content those same people would snub it.
What I suspect they’re going to run into, depending on how they break up the weekly reset, is that it will be harder and harder to find groups the further from “reset day” you get. Seen it too many times.

Especially since they say “you” and not “your character” can earn the unique rewards once per week, I’d have to agree with everyone else above me that raid-reward lockouts will very likely be account-wide. I’d also assume rewards would be Account Bound.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

They also seem under the delusion that people will do content that gives no rewards.

They don’t mention achievements within the raid instance when discussing rewards, but I’d like to think that there will be some raid achievements that have to do with specific dynamic events within the raid. Since, I’m assuming by their wording, these dynamic events will be different for each of the first handful of times you do the raid, that could provide at least some incentive to maybe do the raid more often than the once-a-week raid-reward lockout.

Larynx.2453:

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements.

If they will be enforcing any requirements, it will be towards zerker, not away from it. They have said many times already that they don’t consider zerker meta a problem, quite the opposite, they think it’s a gear for more skilled players (you know, the “greater risk, greater reward” case). And you know what kind of players the raids are made for? Hint: not the unskilled ones.

Perhaps your new staff/specialization will solve some of your concerns.

Astralporing.1957:

Larynx.2453:

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements.

If they will be enforcing any requirements, it will be towards zerker, not away from it. They have said many times already that they don’t consider zerker meta a problem, quite the opposite, they think it’s a gear for more skilled players (you know, the “greater risk, greater reward” case). And you know what kind of players the raids are made for? Hint: not the unskilled ones.

That’s neat speculation.

:P Depending on how hard the raids are… and if people are dying a lot… Being a ninja-nurse might warrant you a spot.

Though, if your concern is getting in raids, roll something that’s more probable (war,ele,guard). Though, it might be flooded with war/ele/guards for the same reason (being the most probable to be needed) and finding X will take longer/have a higher need (specialized role, like that 1 tank or those 2 supports in other games vs the 8 dps that you can find in 3 seconds).

Astralporing.1957:

Larynx.2453:

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements.

If they will be enforcing any requirements, it will be towards zerker, not away from it. They have said many times already that they don’t consider zerker meta a problem, quite the opposite, they think it’s a gear for more skilled players (you know, the “greater risk, greater reward” case). And you know what kind of players the raids are made for? Hint: not the unskilled ones.

Going with Zerker is actually easy mode for dungeons and everything else related to PvE in this game, going in with something else other than Zerker actually takes skill and team work to accomplish because nothing dies really fast before it can cause to much damage, which means people need to use their skills to help each other out either through controlling or supporting.

With the raids, they are designing them so you actually need a group of people with a mix of control, support, and damage builds. They didn’t do that with previous PvE content in Guild Wars 2.

Coffietire.2783:

Basically, the devs vision on what they want to be optimal for raids, outside speed clearing, is surviving.

If that was true, they wouldn’t have added an enrage timer.

There is a lot more to Thief than just stealthing and ‘okay’ dps. You’re perfect for battle rezzing, burst CC, blind up-keep (probably the best at blind up-keep) and in general relieving pressure from the group. Assuming at least 80% of an encounter is dodgable, you’re great for tanking too.

I guarantee you’ll have a place in raids, if they don’t make use of the utility a thief brings, raids will be horribly boring if they only need the basic mechanics most other classes bring. Bad game design, something we’re deff trusting anet to avoid while building the most important PvE content in the history of their company.

eisberg.2379:

Astralporing.1957:

Larynx.2453:

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements.

If they will be enforcing any requirements, it will be towards zerker, not away from it. They have said many times already that they don’t consider zerker meta a problem, quite the opposite, they think it’s a gear for more skilled players (you know, the “greater risk, greater reward” case). And you know what kind of players the raids are made for? Hint: not the unskilled ones.

Going with Zerker is actually easy mode for dungeons and everything else related to PvE in this game

Not according to Anet. I mean, i know it and you know it that running zerkers is not really attached to any risks, but Anet devs that were commenting on the issue few times already always thought that it is the “high risk high reward” approach, that is possible only through high skill.

eisberg.2379:

With the raids, they are designing them so you actually need a group of people with a mix of control, support, and damage builds.

Yeah, you do realize, that zerkers can do all three? Control is completely independent on stats, and the only support that isn’t (healing) is healing power based (and hp scales terribly).

Yeah, I don’t really like an “enraged” mechanic either. It’s like the game is punishing you for not having enough DPS. Which, as others have pointed out, only encourages people to gear up specific builds.

So we all know that Anet want to include more build into raids. Will they achieve that? Probably. Will they achieve more gear diversity? A bit more doubtful, but they could. Hard enough content will make it very difficult for normal players to survive in zerker. But if getting gear a bit more tanky is easy, getting gear with a bit more healing power is another story.

We have a nice Power/Precision/Healing Power gear, which won’t sacrifice all your dps for some healing power, but it’s super expansive to craft your armor, and not really available for trinket.

Apostate have Condition/Toughness/Healing Power which isn’t too bad since condition damage will do most of the job, so you won’t be crucifying your damage too much on a condition build. But again, you can get ascended stuff with those stats.

Even better would be a Condition Damage/Precision/Healing power gear. Rabid only have a 5-10% dps drop compare to sinister. Making this gear the ultimate DPS/Healer hybrid.

A Healing Power/ Power /Precision or Healing Power/ Condition/ Precision would also be some good option if you want to emphasis a bit more on the healer side.

If anet want to bring a bit more healing into the game with raids. They should gave use some decent gear option for that. I don’t want to bring a clerics guardian that do as much damage as a wet noodle in a raid.

So as it currently stands when you send out buffs to nearby players you hit only 5 players. Currently this isn’t a problem because if you want to prioritize what players get that buff (in groups larger than 5) all you have to do is put them in your party. With raids we will have a 10 man group, theoretically a 10 man party. Will they increase the player buff cap to 10 so that you can feel safe knowing you are buffing everyone, or are we going to have to split up and stand apart from other members to ensure we are putting buffs on the people we want.

Would be unfortunate if a player was low on health and never got the healing from another player’s spell or blast finisher in a water field.

I would think this change would be nice in other areas as well if the other areas allow for 10 man groups.

Could also be possible that within you 10 man group you make two 5 man subgroups for this problem. Just speculating, throwing out ideas. Could see this as being frustrating if we get 10 man groups and stick with current style buffing.

Either way hyped for the expansion

eisberg.2379:

Astralporing.1957:

Larynx.2453:

The only reason zerker is meta is because ArenaNet is inclusive and not enforcing any requirements.

If they will be enforcing any requirements, it will be towards zerker, not away from it. They have said many times already that they don’t consider zerker meta a problem, quite the opposite, they think it’s a gear for more skilled players (you know, the “greater risk, greater reward” case). And you know what kind of players the raids are made for? Hint: not the unskilled ones.

Going with Zerker is actually easy mode for dungeons and everything else related to PvE in this game, going in with something else other than Zerker actually takes skill and team work to accomplish because nothing dies really fast before it can cause to much damage, which means people need to use their skills to help each other out either through controlling or supporting.

With the raids, they are designing them so you actually need a group of people with a mix of control, support, and damage builds. They didn’t do that with previous PvE content in Guild Wars 2.

When you talk many dungeons yes. When things are blowing up yes. But, that’s just simply untrue when you are doing longer fights. I have a feeling that convincing you will never happen, but I can tell you right now when I do fractal trios 3X zerker can be quite frustrating as with zerker some bosses kill you by looking at you. The setup that makes it nice smooth and easy is when i run with a clerics guard, they’re able to heal up any bit of stray damage I take (that doesn’t kill me on the spot that is). It’s certainly a more relaxed and enjoyable experience for me.

Blanket statements are quite silly, but hey it’s the forums and that’s what people do right?

I doubt Anet is trying to fully eliminate DPS builds. Some of the top guilds are probably going to still be able to run full zerker + whatever needs to be swapped in (like sinister) for specific cases. My guess however is that pugging zerker groups will be mostly disastrous, unlike dungeons where you can mostly be carried by 1 or 2 or so zerkers even if the rest are constantly downed.

Sorin.4310:

I doubt Anet is trying to fully eliminate DPS builds. Some of the top guilds are probably going to still be able to run full zerker + whatever needs to be swapped in (like sinister) for specific cases. My guess however is that pugging zerker groups will be mostly disastrous, unlike dungeons where you can mostly be carried by 1 or 2 or so zerkers even if the rest are constantly downed.

Probably this. The inclusion of enrage timers on bosses virtually guarantees that as many glass gear wearers as the raid can get away with is going to be considered the meta. Also, the raids may require carrying multiple sets of gear — glass and whatever other set is considered to be needed for a specific fight.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

in the Xpac they clearly stated the Trinity will not happen because this game does not force you into those roles but it is a choice of " how much Damage do you want to provide" , " how much support do you wish to provide" , “How much Control do you wish to provide”

The Trinity may not happen. But Raids will force players in other ways.

“if your squad is working on the last boss of a wing, and no one has a particular and clearly stated Mastery unlocked, you’re probably going to fail spectacularly.”

This is saying that it doesn’t matter how much DPS, Control, or Support the group has. It doesn’t matter how balanced or how skilled the group is. If people don’t have a specific Mastery, the raid is almost guaranteed to fail.

Rhomulos.2089:

…
Bad game design, something we’re deff trusting anet to avoid while building the most important PvE content in the history of their company.

Oh boy…

Prepare to be letdown hard…

The way it says “The encounters within Raids will contain tons of exclusive new items you’ll never be able to find anywhere else in the game,” makes it sound like we’re dealing with RNG drops.

Honestly, I’d rather we earned tokens that we can use to perchance what we want, just like from dungeons, rather than raid over and over and hope we get a drop we like.

Or, at the least, make the drops like the Carapace armors, where we get to chose a specific item of the type.

A fair point, there may be (almost certainly will be) achievements to do.
But my point still stands, once those are done with (and to be fair it may take a while) a lot of people are going to stop at once a week.

Silverstone.4539:

I see what you’re saying, but it won’t matter what they do, there will always be a “best way to do it” no matter what.

Sure, but there’s really no need for the game to mechanically enforce choocing that “best” way, don’t you think?

Honestly OP I don’t think anyone has had a problem with unique stuff dropping from raids, skins, titles, minis, decorations what ever, it’s the fact that what can arguably be considered the best armor in the game is ,as of right now, only being dropped in raids. People are asking if it will have an alternative means to acquiring the armor with a different skin or whatever.

Really the zerker meta is in place because the faster stuff dies the less you need to deal with it’s mechanics, most of them big one shot deals.

So active defense and burn it down is the name of the game since toughness doesn’t absorb enough damage to stop a one shot.

It would really need to be more but smaller hits and other mechanic changes to make other gear sets viable.

As for the soft trinity the reason it never really works is because you can bring support and control and still not give up much dps on most of the classes.

All anyone can do is hope that the raid devs see what happened in current pve and change mechanics to counter it.

Samhayn.2385:

Really the zerker meta is in place because the faster stuff dies the less you need to deal with it’s mechanics, most of them big one shot deals.

So active defense and burn it down is the name of the game since toughness doesn’t absorb enough damage to stop a one shot.

It would really need to be more but smaller hits and other mechanic changes to make other gear sets viable.

As for the soft trinity the reason it never really works is because you can bring support and control and still not give up much dps on most of the classes.

All anyone can do is hope that the raid devs see what happened in current pve and change mechanics to counter it.

Exactly, which is why I get the feeling that gameplay as a whole is going to be drastically changed, no more focus on active defenses, but instead mitigation and absorption. I guess some people may enjoy it, I can’t say I will.

They will do it by adding non-combat obstacles in the raids. Frustrating puzzles and such where we might have to spec towards healing/toughness builds or straight speed builds just to navigate. For the bosses, they will put that defiant buff on them like Bookworm has. I still think DPS will shine through though.

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

We have already seen in the silverwastes that a good consistant Regen and Good support is needed for success while Full Zerker Maps can easly fail because they have not covered all Anets roles only providing 80% damage 10% CC , 10% support .

I have never been to silverwastes (possible returning player). Can you go into more detail about why full zerker maps often fail at silverwastes? I’m keen to understand what anet have done to make it require diversity.

fadeaway.2807:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

We have already seen in the silverwastes that a good consistant Regen and Good support is needed for success while Full Zerker Maps can easly fail because they have not covered all Anets roles only providing 80% damage 10% CC , 10% support .

I have never been to silverwastes (possible returning player). Can you go into more detail about why full zerker maps often fail at silverwastes? I’m keen to understand what anet have done to make it require diversity.

The Mobs on that map stack conditions on you, along with events that put conditions on an entire area. the mobs hit hard and have alot of different abilities that can CC you. In Zerk gear if your not careful its easy to get outnumbered, run out of dodges and get so many conditions on you, that they melt your face.

xarallei.4279:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

ReiCH.6273:

I See No Tomorrow.7302:

Why wouldn’t you have exclusive rewards for specific content? Even Tequatl has exclusive rewards, and Fractals, and Dungeons, and Dry Top, and the Silverwastes… What would be the purpose of not having exclusive rewards?

Very correct, now all they have to do is implement legendary armour, skins, minis and titles for the top tier in pvp and wvw and the game will be able to offer something for everyone …

If you want the rewards for certain content, then you have to do that content. That’s what exclusivity means. What are you getting at?

He wants exclusive rewards for pvp and wvw. Not the same ones as the raid gives. Which I agree with. Those game modes need more love and while a legendary back piece is a step in the right direction, it’s not really enough.

Ah okay that makes sense, sorry for being obtuse ^^;

The more exclusive stuff per gamemode, the better imo

Zerk gear is boring and I’ve never used it tbh, if some people want to raid with zerk that’s their choice. I’ll avoid zerk groups with raids just like how I avoid zerk groups in dungeons and fractals and all other content.

Besides, Anet has commented on the requirement of toughness gear to get past certain parts which makes it sound like Raids aren’t just DPS DPS DPS 24/7 which honestly is a godsend.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Probably this. The inclusion of enrage timers on bosses virtually guarantees that as many glass gear wearers as the raid can get away with is going to be considered the meta. Also, the raids may require carrying multiple sets of gear — glass and whatever other set is considered to be needed for a specific fight.

Samhayn.2385:

Really the zerker meta is in place because the faster stuff dies the less you need to deal with it’s mechanics, most of them big one shot deals.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mechanics that require you to stop DPSing during certain periods only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers during periods when you can attack the boss. Mechanics that require some members of the party to sacrifice DPS steps only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers for the rest of the party.

Raid mechanics don’t break the zerker meta, they double down on it for classes that can’t tank or heal (most of them). They amplify the significance of existing DPS discrepancies between classes.

I see a lot of PHIW types going around chuffed to bits that the “zerker meta” is going to be “broken” by raids. But, in reality, they’re the ones due for a rude awakening when they find that they can’t just walk in to an encounter with their kittenty gimmick build and expect to get carried by the rest of their party. The meta players they hate so much don’t give a kitten and will happily equip whatever they need to equip in order to beat the content.

tobascodagama.2961:

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Mechanics that require you to stop DPSing during certain periods only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers during periods when you can attack the boss. Mechanics that require some members of the party to sacrifice DPS steps only increase the importance of hitting maximum DPS numbers for the rest of the party.

Raid mechanics don’t break the zerker meta, they double down on it for classes that can’t tank or heal (most of them). They amplify the significance of existing DPS discrepancies between classes.

I see a lot of PHIW types going around chuffed to bits that the “zerker meta” is going to be “broken” by raids. But, in reality, they’re the ones due for a rude awakening when they find that they can’t just walk in to an encounter with their kittenty gimmick build and expect to get carried by the rest of their party. The meta players they hate so much don’t give a kitten and will happily equip whatever they need to equip in order to beat the content.

This is true and the the fact that so many people want to actively avoid the mechanics to just get rewards disappoints me. But it’s their choice tbh

The only counter I can think of is the more damage you deal, the more damage your opponent deals in all forms. Thus higher DPS builds wouldn’t really be wanted since you’d just be killing everyone faster.

I’m sorry Expansion Content is locked behind the Expansion. That must be hard for you—I can’t think of a possible solution…

Can’t tell if I should appreciate OP’s satire, or if this is actually a real post.