Guild Wars 2

I haven’t been playing long, but I know the topic of conditions is a frequently discussed topic.

I know they’re not seen as useful compared to direct damage. There are technical issues that hinder the effectiveness of multiple condition users in boss battles. From what I can tell in most cases in PvP, conditions aren’t useful either?

So I’d just like to know what a more educated person on the topic has to say about this question– “are conditions supposed to just be secondary damage?” And if so, should the discussion be to how can we legitimize conditions to be a primary source of damage instead of merely doing berserker damage builds (if even mechanically/technically possible)?

Should a Warrior that does his damage hit by hit be more powerful than a Necromancer that does his damage by slowly stacking damage until it becomes viable, then trying to maintain the stack until the foe is dead?

If they do legitimize Condition Damage as a viable as Direct Damage, won’t it just lead to people saying that it’s unfair?

A direct damage build that has to make sure all his attacks hit would complain that a condition build would just have to cast everything from a distance and let the stacks do the damage for him. (Though then of course the a condition build would say, instead of making sure your attacks hit and aren’t blinded/evaded/blocked/weakened/etc, I have to make sure my stacks stay high, and aren’t removed, there’s a level of skill in both.) So in my mind I think both builds are legitimate in their own separate way.

I’ve read the different ways to make conditions powerful enough to be viable, like including critical condition damage, and vulnerability increasing condition damage.

But wouldn’t the outcome of two powerful ways of playing be hard to defend against?

How would a person have a chance against a DPS build, and powerful condition damage, which you isn’t mitigated by toughness, and hits you no matter what? Sure you can remove it, but that skill probably has a recharge, and you’ll just get stacked again with bleed. Then again two people should be able to take down one person…

So maybe conditions aren’t supposed to be ultimately viable in a lot of situations, and are just supposed to be the Stick that breaks the camel’s back?
Most skills do a little weaker damage, but then have condition damage to make up for it, so maybe conditions aren’t really supposed to be the main form of damage? They’re just supposed to be a side damage you can build up along with direct damage? Like having extra fries?

Please respond and tell me what you think, I know there are more educated people that can respond and refute the thesis/question properly. This was just a passing thought/ devil’s advocate kind of question. This is just an abstract/vague (philosophical?) question that kind of ignores the pressing more detailed matters people bring up.

what are you even asking? it’s obvious that anet designed condi builds to work. which is why you have viable condi builds for basically every class except for guardian and ele.

they aren’t just secondary damage.

Conditions were traditionally secondary damage.
In gw2, it’s become a primary source of damage but it’s not implemented all that well…

- condition cap
- condition duration
- condition removal/immunity
- condition bunker builds
- high condition burst damage (wtf?)

For small-scale pvp and only such, conditions completely destroy and are far more efficient than direct damage. On a bigger scale like zerg wvw, where condition removal is flying everywhere, condition damage becomes less effective but crowd control conditions remain strong.

I really think anet created more issues for themselves in having to deal with two primary sources of damage…
I’d rather we go back to conditions being secondary and the main source of damage being direct.

I think the way to fix this, as I put in another thread, is to just make it so conditions can do critical damage. Say bleeding ticks twice on a target, both times would have a chance of doing critical damage, increasing the amount of damage that tick does. This also changes it so both Power and Condition Damage both require precision and ferocity for full power, and brings up condition builds to the level of power builds.

RyuDragnier.9476:

I think the way to fix this, as I put in another thread, is to just make it so conditions can do critical damage. Say bleeding ticks twice on a target, both times would have a chance of doing critical damage, increasing the amount of damage that tick does. This also changes it so both Power and Condition Damage both require precision and ferocity for full power, and brings up condition builds to the level of power builds.

And what would this fix? The dps would still be lower then zerker while still needing 4 stats (plus whatever defense you need due to DoT) which gear can’t offer. You would be as glassy as zerker, do lower dps in peak performance and lose even more dps due the damage over time nature. It would be a great buff to rabid gear users but it would fix nothing.

As explained and argued through all the threads about condition damage in the forum: Condition damage as a whole is fairly balanced in the game. Condition damage bypasses armor and most condition damage builds have a fairly high armor themselves. However, the DPS is inferior to power builds, even with the same defensive stats. Condition damage however works over time and therefor works best against any bunker build. While high DPS builds are fairly effective against condition damage builds.

Also, condition damage is the only form of damage, that can be completely negated in some cases. Condition damage may seem overpowered to the unprepared or unskilled player, however, it is a form of damage, that does not surpass effectiveness of power builds. It has it’s specialty and weaknesses and is over all in a good spot. One might argue about special cases or certain builds, and often those exceptions are argued as the rule, but the fact of the matter is, that those exceptions are exceptions and need to be discussed on a case by case bases.