Hey, what’s up!
I believe since launch of GW2 there have been players, who want the removal of the Downed State in sPvP, debating with players, who want to keep it.
As for me, I want to keep it – but that’s not the subject right here.
So I thought to myself: “Why not cater to both parties?”
Enabling the Downed Penalty from PvE in PvP (without damaging armor) might ensure this.
If you are a PvP-only player, you’re probably asking yourself: “How does this penalty work?”
In PvE when you rally from the Downed State, you receive a penalty which comes with three stages (yellow, orange, red). If you drop again within a certain period of time, you enter the next stage and so on. The difference is, that you will have less hp in Downed State each time you down within that time frame, eventually leading to the red stage. In this last stage you won’t enter Downed State though. If you are in the third stage and your health reaches zero, you will just straight up die.
But why should this be in PvP? The answer is short: Stopping the rally race.
In some big fights, players will down and rally, down and rally, down and rally, down and… well you get the point. The fight won’t be moving anywhere. The penalty would put an end to this without nerfing the rallies in small skirmishes. On top of this, it is a sort of encouragement for players to better their positioning in team fights.
Of course it should be altered to some extent and like in PvE, the penalty will fade away over time. Let’s say, one stage every 20 sec while being out of combat? Within one minute you would get rid of the whole penalty and be up and ready to down again in the next battle.
While enabling instant deaths at some point, the Downed State will still be there to counter the unpredictable 100 to 0 stealth bursts (still giving the pressuring party some sort of advantage).
Now it’s up to you. Would you like to see this penalty in PvP? I know this is just a quick draft but I’m sure it would lighten up some fights.
TL;DR
Enabling the Downed Penalty from PvE in sPvP to adjust the existing Downed State in its partially stale form.