Guild Wars 2

It seems a little strange to me that a spec with such a slow ramp up loses all its stacked DPS on down – If i spend a considerable amount of my resources stacking bleeds and a poison on you, watching those vanish on down is kind of insulting – I -did- that damage, they didn’t use a condition cleanse, why is it being wiped out?

It’s particularly frustrating in group play – when my targets drop, they’re the most easily revived because I don’t do any considerable additional damage (like say a warrior who HB’s you and half the shots hit you once downed), and as a conditions build, my options for pulling the reviver off are slim. My build unfortunately doesn’t have an easily accessed stun/kd/pull/push etc (which is an issue with my build, not the game), but there are a number of other specs in the same boat – they do direct damage though, and can generally force the reviver off by doing enough damage to force a retreat, or hit both targets and make the revival itself a losing proposition. A condition spec could do that too… if only all our conditions weren’t wiped on down.

Perhaps its a balance issue – I didn’t playtest the game, so maybe poison lasting through down would make revivals almost impossible, I don’t know. I don’t see the same issue with burning or bleed though. Downed healthpools are huge, continuing a burn or a bleed would simply be a handy tool to keep your target from being easily revived just long enough to get a stomp off, much like direct damage does right now. It’s not as if that damage wasn’t already applied, so it’s not special treatment of any sort.

There’s also the issue of instant revivals, and highly coordinated teams. Taking a down is free complete condition wipe if one of your teammates happens to be running an instant res ability – why struggle to cleanse conditions and heal when you can drop, be instantly revived, and use your heal then? Though what i just described isn’t commonplace by any means now, once we move into paid tournaments with practiced, well honed teams, I foresee that being an issue.

I’d agree. I think they either need to either completely remove Downed state in PvP, or make a lot of changes to it. Some classes have 2 ways to avoid finishers, whereas some will have none, making them easy targets.

I don’t think we should turn this into a conversation about the down state entirely. It certainly has a place in PvP (it prevents burst from being king in group fights, and gives this game a genuinely distinct flavor from other MMO’s tbh). Whether or not specific classes need downstate adjustement’s is beyond me at the moment. I’d just like to see condition specs treated the same as direct damage specs when it comes to down state.

I think evilapprentice has the right idea. I’m amazed that a lot of the same people that complain about burst also complain about the downed state. The downed state is a great way to keep teams from taking advantage of the power of glass.

Direct damage seems to have upper hand in most areas – PvE boss mobs with hard stack cap, structures ignoring crits and conditions entirely…