Guild Wars 2

I have recently found a good build for my elementalist, the problem is that it reaches 18 stacks of bleed having it as main damage source, this is a severe problem when the stack limit is 25 for ALL players, 2 players with my build would already have their damage reduced considerably, why is this design flaw still in the game? Its like arenanet doesn’t want variety and is forcing everyone to use direct damage builds.

And the problem is not just bleeding stacks, burning and poison users are also crippled by this, every player should be able to apply his own conditions no matter how many players are attacking the boss, how could such obvious fact escape evaluation?

We need an answer, should we just switch builds? or a fix is comming soon? should we endure for now?

Who’s “we”?

Personally, I won’t profess to know more about game mechanics/balance than Anet, so I’ll assume and with reason that 25-stack limit is there for balance and variety. If we could stack 250 bleeds, there’s be little reason to use anything else. Additionally, you are aware that condition damage bypasses armour, yes?

Burning and poison stack in duration—which can only go until the target(s) is/are dead—so they aren’t “crippled by this”. It’s nice that bleeding doesn’t stack in duration like the other two.

Besides, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a build that is not viable in PvE; if your struggling, this isn’t the reason why.

Finally, you have a variety of abilities at your disposal; focusing on bleed damage means you aren’t exploiting those other capabilities—i.e. How many stacks of vulnerability are you keeping on the boss? That would increase DPS far more than more bleed stacks since it effectively gives everyone increased damage (including those bleed stacks).

When running around on my necro I use scepter/dagger. I have condition damage gear. in Pve the mobs fall fast. I can easily have 15 stack of bleed in a few seconds and a couple stacks of poison.

At 80 because each bleed is doing 105 and im not 100% exotic yet and I’m not total precision line either. Condition damage is very viable for PVE.

And in Well of Suffering and even veterans fall quickly.

A lot of the conditions have short durations so the number of them up always falls off. Having numerous people applying conditions, even if the same one still is beneficial. At least this is how I see it.

Wickedjinx.7810:

A lot of the conditions have short durations so the number of them up always falls off. Having numerous people applying conditions, even if the same one still is beneficial. At least this is how I see it.

That isn’t so with an Elementalist though. If you spec into the condition damage and duration then your bleeds just from your auto attack last over 8 seconds. They can literally keep an enemy at 12+ bleeds steadily, 20+ for like 11 seconds after their massive AOE bleed. Also if they use Glyph of Storms in Earth that also bleeds/blinds.

It is a problem that condition specialized builds are not going to be outputting the same amount of damage on mobs (especially bosses), because there are only 25 stacks spots available between everyone who’s applying a given condition. That means that a percentage of your damage is being outright ignored before it lands, meaning you aren’t getting credit for your full participation, the way other builds are. That also means it’s harder to reach gold participation consistently and a corresponding lower reward.

It’s easy to forget about this because these builds work perfectly well when soloing or when in a small group, where fewer people are vying for the same limited amount of stack space. In big events though, you’ll be lucky of even a few of your bleeds are registering. If you’ve got a bleed heavy build, there goes a massive chunk of your participation credit.

As to the OP, I don’t know the answer to your question. I’m only responding because some folks may not realize a problem even exists. Like I said, it’s not really noticeable when the dynamic nerfing actually kicks in.

EDIT: And just to touch on the short durations causing enough fall off so that the constant addition of new condition stacks is actually necessary — it’s not. Most players can easily maintain 12+ stacks on their opponents indefinitely. Some can burst that up to 20 to 25 stacks for brief periods. And that’s all by themselves. Now, say you have 20 people in a big event, all dumping their conditions on a boss. It only takes two of them to, with ease, reach the stack limit. Where is the condition damage being applied by the other 18 going? Nowhere. It’s getting dropped and only their raw Power/Precision output is counting. Short durations aren’t having any effect on this.

To the OP, I can see from your and Blacklight’s argument how multiple people using Bleed damage as their primary source of damage can feel limited by the stack limit, but I must disagree on the fact that it’s a “problem” or that Anet doesn’t want variety.

First off, bleed damage being your primary source of damage is well and all, but it shouldn’t be your sole source of damage. I’m pretty sure an Elementalist, with their four elements, have more spells and tricks up their sleeve. If there was no stack limit, what’s stopping people from all going Bleed builds? If anything, that stack limit promotes variety. Not just among players, but also in your play style. Don’t just stick to one build, learn to adapt.

Your “problem” only becomes such in a very big group of people or the off-chance of having two people with similar builds in a small group. In those cases, you can always tweak your play style so that that stack limit won’t be a “problem”.

Just my thoughts on this issue.

Not enough time to put in a full post, so apologies in advance for hte tl/dr verion:

Large events feature multiple targets. If you are a condition damage build, maybe you need to pick a non-boss target to focus on. I can’t tall you how many people fight tequatl the sunless and don’t realize there are hundreds of adds over the course of that fight hitting the back lines.

In a dungeon setting, multiple condition builds don’t stack well. Neither do 5 AE damage specced elementalists. Balance is the key, and the more specialized you are, the less likely your build as a whole stacks. Thats just life.

In other content, it doesn’t matter. 25 bleeds in regular PvE in’t a big deal. WvW easily falls into either regular PvE or large events.

A cap of 25 bleeds might not be the right answer. Perhaps every person with a bleed effect on the target raises the cap by 5. I’m not suggesting the exact implementation is perfect, but removal of the cap doesn’t necessarily improve the state of the game either.