Guild Wars 2

OP is absolutely right – and I never played a thief.
But wanna hear something good? The devs already announced that they’re the same opinion and that they’re planing on nerfing AoE. The only question is when this nerf is coming (as always)…

Tradeoffs dude, remember that word.

Rieselle’s post explains it quite simple for slowpokes like you, op. If there was a class that was identical to the other one, the only difference being that A class does aoe damage on their spells and B class has the exact same spells, but they’re single target damage.

Of course A class would be better.

But you can’t really compare 2 classes equally in this game while ignoring their advantages, specific setting viability, tradeoffs, weaknesses, etc.

It’s easy to say: “amg my class X build does less aoe while theirs do aoe in every single ability!!” It’s like saying that warriors are stronger than my ele because their base stats are much higher. It’s a ridiculously stupid comparison. You can’t simply ignore entire kits to arbitrarily compare one aspect of the professions.

The devs also stated that they don’t want to play whack-a-mole with balancing… When the nerf to AOE happens (and they still aren’t specific on what AOE they are nerfing ground targeting, splash dmg, cleaves, etc,etc) they need to make sure that it isn’t so obscene as to ruin classes. But AOE is currently the only viable option for damage in some professions/builds (shatter mes, 100nades engi, any ele, well necros) is this nerf going to make these specs completely worthless? Where will other changes happen in compensation? These are all things that people here have not really considered when it comes to AOE damage. Also it is the only hard counter to a thief. If it is nerfed that badly what options will we have for countering this class?

There are a few different knobs we can turn in regards to AoE some of the bigger ones being:
Radius of the AoE
Frequency of the AoE Damage
Damage of the AoE
Max Targets of the AoE

Currently, some players causing the AoE are able to do more damage to one person while also controlling a portion of the field, compared to a player with single target damage.

In our balance discussions we always look at what these changes could do to PvE as well as PvP. Any changes we make will undergo a lot of testing, both internal and by our trusted alpha team. It is important to understand that we are not doing a blanket nerf to all AE’s or a dramatic adjustment of the damage AoE’s can do. There may be some cases where players can build for AoE damage, but are just not viable or other cases where AoE is clearly the dominate way to build, and as such the other builds get left on the side lines. Its these classes/builds that we are concerned about.

-Jonhatan Sharp

Ironically the aoe nerf will eventually hit much harder shortbow thieves than any other build that can switch between single and multiple targets.
Mesmers/eles/necros/engis got no possible way to use single target builds on the contrary of the thief/warrior, I believe the OP and others will be left very disappointed by the upcoming changes

Arheundel.6451:

There are a few different knobs we can turn in regards to AoE some of the bigger ones being:
Radius of the AoE
Frequency of the AoE Damage
Damage of the AoE
Max Targets of the AoE

Currently, some players causing the AoE are able to do more damage to one person while also controlling a portion of the field, compared to a player with single target damage.

In our balance discussions we always look at what these changes could do to PvE as well as PvP. Any changes we make will undergo a lot of testing, both internal and by our trusted alpha team. It is important to understand that we are not doing a blanket nerf to all AE’s or a dramatic adjustment of the damage AoE’s can do. There may be some cases where players can build for AoE damage, but are just not viable or other cases where AoE is clearly the dominate way to build, and as such the other builds get left on the side lines. Its these classes/builds that we are concerned about.

-Jonhatan Sharp

Ironically the aoe nerf will eventually hit much harder shortbow thieves than any other build that can switch between single and multiple targets.
Mesmers/eles/necros/engis got no possible way to use single target builds on the contrary of the thief/warrior, I believe the OP and others will be left very disappointed by the upcoming changes

So for the classes where AOE is clearly dominate…. Are they going to up the single target options to more viable? With ele… there is no weapon set that doesn’t have some AOE… or most AOE… So some form of compensation should happen right?

I lol’d, AOE from Shatter-Mesmer. Shatters do AOE if you you’re almost TOUCHING the shatter target, and if you’re so bad to ball up that hard you shouldnt be allowed to post here… I mean not mentioned that it is a little obvious if there are running 3 illusion to you and the guy by your side is imobilized and not mentioned that thiefs got they’re “kitten you, I’ll double evade on my RANGED weapon and after that just port my kitten outha here.” The problem with AOE is that they often fill a whole node, which sucks in capture mode and that doding at the end of AOE-cast (which means evading the whole DMG on single dmg) doesnt work properly because there are alot of non target requiring AOE’s…

jokitten390:

I lol’d, AOE from Shatter-Mesmer. Shatters do AOE if you you’re almost TOUCHING the shatter target, and if you’re so bad to ball up that hard you shouldnt be allowed to post here… I mean not mentioned that it is a little obvious if there are running 3 illusion to you and the guy by your side is imobilized and not mentioned that thiefs got they’re “kitten you, I’ll double evade on my RANGED weapon and after that just port my kitten outha here.” The problem with AOE is that they often fill a whole node, which sucks in capture mode and that doding at the end of AOE-cast (which means evading the whole DMG on single dmg) doesnt work properly because there are alot of non target requiring AOE’s…

Glad you mentioned the AOE radius on shatters. Maybe they won’t be touched because the radius is that small. (FINGERS CROSSED!)

Since the shatter AoE radius is so terrible, nobody would complain, if they made it single target then, I suppose?

Then why not make every melee-attack single targeted as 100b for example? I’ll tell you why, because then every1 with under 15k hp would get a free-ress… The AOE or lets say Splash of various skills as MW, 100blades, I guess Pistolwhip too (y its dead but its an exapmle anyway), most sword auoattacks is only effective on downed-targets.. It’s like “oh there’s a braindead resser w/o protection/block/invul/invi, lets just spike the downed one again so he doesnt get ressed and the resser gets probably killed.” It’s a punishment for stupid actions and I swear you, if they remove this splash mesm will be even better because you wont be able to kill 2 illus with 1hit…

jokitten390:

Then why not make every melee-attack single targeted as 100b for example? I’ll tell you why, because then every1 with under 15k hp would get a free-ress…

Which role do the max HP of player play in getting rezzed?
Rezzing is percentaged from downed players max HP just for your information…

splash damage of abilities especially melee is a great thing imo.It makes sence and adds a positioning requirement..
For gods shake Anet dont give in to players playing 1 class and 1 build that are hard countered to aoes!
lol imagine nerfing 100 blades doing half damage to every none tabbed or second hit char etc..
At a point reading the op post im starting to believe we want to make this as close to wow as possible

Med.6150:

Since the shatter AoE radius is so terrible, nobody would complain, if they made it single target then, I suppose?

The AOE damage is still good in PvE. If it got adjusted in PvP only I am sure people wouldn’t mind… But if the change is not split (like with any other mesmer nerf/damage changes) we would be livid… But it is splash damage and still centered the target. And only half our shatters are AOE to begin with. And the splash damage is small.. If they change it to single target lets up the damage. :P