Guild Wars 2

Not sure if this may work (perhaps Anet could clarify), but removing all actual AoE attacks and replacing them with a single target attack that either splashes or fragments to hit neighboring targets.

The splash or fragmented hit could just ignore defense and hit for 50% of the initial hit. Then maybe increase the amount of targets it can hit to say 10 (or have traits that increase both the target amount and % of damage is inflicted).

I play a ranger so I’ll use Barrage as an example – Remove barrage and replace with a fragmented arrow:

Fragmented Arrow: Fire an arrow that does “x” amount of damage then splits to hit 5 additional targets for 50% damage crippling the targets. The cool down would have to be lower to be on par with the potential damage barrage provided.

Initial hit say crits for 4500 damage; 5 neighboring targets take 2250 damage, simple as that. Perhaps these “new” AoE attacks can be traited to increase the amount of targets hit (up to 10), as well as traited for higher splash damage.

Change the rest of the classes AoE to react the same way. To me, this would seem less calculation heavy, while still (hopefully) maintaining a steady stream of damage, with the possibility of hitting more targets like many would like.

Now, could this work..

And how would that work with PBAoE, cleaves, and piercing?

Khalic.3561:

And how would that work with PBAoE, cleaves, and piercing?

Your sword will split into more swords splitting into more swords splitting into more swords…

Vena.8436:

Khalic.3561:

And how would that work with PBAoE, cleaves, and piercing?

Your sword will split into more swords splitting into more swords splitting into more swords…

… and then stack overflow.

Master of Timespace.2548:

… and then stack overflow.

If there was skill lag present, where all these get deferred, at some later time a player could find himself suddenly impaled by a million stack overflow swords!

Its like those hilarious “walking, suddenly drop dead” events that occur occasionally during or after a skill lag clusterkitten in Garrison or SMC, but with a million more swords!

I havn’t leveled all classes yet, so I’ll just give examples on how it can be done with the ones i’m familiar with:

Ranger: As I mentioned above.

The subsequent piercing arrow does not trigger splash damage, just the initial hit which triggers damage to 5 neighboring targets perhaps in a radius of 300 (up from barrage’s 240)

Elementalist:

Convert meteor shower into a single target direct hit that say explodes and causes splash damage to neighboring targets in a 400 radius (up from the meteors 360)

Warrior: Auto attack and HB

1 target takes the brunt of the damage while neighboring targets take a percentage. Because their melee, make the base % higher (like 75%). Then can be traited to hit 10 targets and perhaps even exceed 100% of the initial hit.

Same thing with PbAoe, 1 target takes the brunt, while neighboring takes a %. Then if traited, can hit more targets with a higher %.

The key to all this is the cooldowns. Reduce the cooldowns on those particular skills so their damage remains similar to what we have now. I cant remember offhand what the Rangers barrage is, but I believe it’s 30s with no traits. Maybe the new fragmented arrow would have to be reduced to 10s to keep the damage in check. This is where Anet would have to play with the numbers to find the sweet spot.

The question is, turning these attacks into a direct % of the initial hit.. would it be less “calculation heavy”