Guild Wars 2

My question is strictly about balance

Before I begin let me give you a simple education of balance

There are 2 types of things that make up a build in this game. Those 2 things are active plays, and passive plays

A active play is when you activate a skill that will either shield you from damage. Or inflict damage. But take timing to use effectively (skill required)

A passive play is when for a example you build for a stat. Such as power, and condition damage (offense). Or toughness, and vitality(defense) Or having a skill or buff that you do no have to worry about timing in order to use effectively. (No skill required just good build design)
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about this. It is ok to build for passive defense or passive offense. BUT ONLY if it is a perfect equal tradeoff for passive offensive or defense respectively.
So for a example:
building a highly passive defensive build should not have a high passive offense(and vice versa with a passive offense build).

I would think balance of passive offense and defense in any game should be perfect.
As in the more you commit to defense you should lose more and more offense. The result of which is that every build will have a equal passive effectiveness.

Active play can be tricky to balance because of the sheer number of types and complexity among the class’s

However passive play should be balanced perfectly. There is no excuse for it not to be because of how simplistic it is.

If you have been unable to follow along. allow me to make this simplistic.
Let’s say for any build on any class you are given 10 passive effectiveness resources to use.
You can place that passive effectiveness in to offensive or defensive

So you can have 5 in offense, and 5 in defense for a total of 10 passive effectiveness.

The basic idea is that no matter how you distribute your passive effectiveness you will always reach a perfect total passive effectiveness level equal to everyone else.

However a issue occurs when you can reach a certain effectiveness level in offense or defense without having to commit a fair number of resources to reach it as every one else does.

THE Actual question/debate
Ok my question is about power builds vs condition damage builds.

They both do a equal amount of dps. However…..one takes less commitment in order to be effective dps wise.

Power builds need 3 things to be effective dps wise : Power, precision, and critical damage.

Condition builds need only 1 thing to be effective : condition damage

You see the problem?
Running a condition build is far more effective then running a power build because overall after calculation damage AND survivability its effectiveness is far higher.

As in because condition damage builds only need to commit 1/3 the amount of resources to be effective. they can then distribute the other 2/3rds resources in to defensive attributes.

I know that power builds are suppose to be burst, and condition builds are suppose to be sustain however the TOTAL dps is the same. So why then should condition builds be able to commit less for the same dps and also have the ability to increase their defense?

A simple solution would be nerf the base condition damage. Have condition damage crit. Thus making a condition build have to commit just as much as a power build in order to be effective. A odd idea I know.

What’s needed to be effective dps wise:
Power build : power, prec, crit. 3X the commitment as the condition build for the same dps

Condition build : condition damage 1/3 the commitment as a power build for the same dps.

What I want to make this more fair:
What’s needed to be effective dps wise :

Power build: power, prec, crit. Same commitment as the condition build for the same dps

Condition build: condition damage, prec, crit. Same commitment as the power build for the same dps

Thoughts?

Thoughts? Well this looks more like a rant than a question.
You only seem to have considered the solo situation.

i’ll assume you are writing about pvp only

power, prec, crit – multiplies, so max cond does not equal max zerker

my thoughts, about their counters:
cleanse and reduced condition duration vs condition build
protection, toughness vs power
vitality, movement, positioning, dodge, heal vs both

current meta is kiting opponent while damaging with conditions

but lets say, if you are somehow limited from kiting and/or imobilized, then power build would have advantage

I completely disagree with your assessment OP. Many condition builds utilize precision to proc traits, sigils, and runes, to add conditions. As well you neglect to mention condition duration. Those are both stats that strongly effect condition builds.

As well, power builds can have great burst damage, where condition builds are generally more of a steady damage. I feel your assessment was inaccurate and very limited based on what I have mentioned already.

In theory you are right but in reality a lot of things advantage the Power build over the condition build.

1) A group will never negate your DPS with a power build. With several condition damage build, you will eventually negate each other DPS because they will stack until they reach the maximum. Even power build will put some condition on the target, condition that will be negate by a condition player, dropping the overall dps even whith only 1 or 2 condition player.
2) Damage over-time is bad against low hp ennemies. You need some time to build up condition on your target in order to reach your max DPS. Power build will kill most mobs before a condition player will reach his max dps. This player will also lose of alot of dmg, since the mobs will still have a lot of condition at the moment of his death and these condition will be wasted.
3) Power and condition attack can be negate before you get hit : Block, invulnerability, blind, etc. But only condition attack can be negate after getting hit by hit with condition removal.

Its all nice that you can reach your max DPS with a condition build and still be able to have defensive stats. But in the end Power build is more powerful that a Condition build. Condition build need a lot of work to be on a equal ground with power build.

The OPs theory is not supported by the popularity of Zerker equipment used by players.

DoT will always be inferior to Spike DPS for the myriad of reasons listed above. That’s why Zerkers are the norm.

Check this topic: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Condition-vs-Power-crit-problem