Guild Wars 2

Title pretty much says it all. I’ve never been big on builds but people are saying zerker mesmers are going to be useless with the “10% decrease of total damage”. So are us mesmers going to be better off using staff and leaning toward more of a condition build? I’m really not sure what to do, this is all confusing to me.

I’m not sure how the decrease in damage, however big or low it eventually will be, makes zerker mesmer useless. I don’t think there will be much difference in the builds played especially if the way conditions work remains unchanged.

As for what to do, I will wait for the patch before I make a decision on what ascended armor I will craft, but I don’t think it will look much different than what I have in mind at the moment.

I’m failing to see how a 10% crit dmg nerf across all gear is going to make zerker mesmer useless.

The word that comes to mind is “Hyperbolic”

10% crit dmg reduction across the board is a 10% crit dmg reduction across the board. the numbers are smaller but everyone stays in the same relative position. The only possible change is shrinking the gap between power vs condition, but the main cause of that gap is how conditions are handled and not because of zerker gear

I believe what they’re saying is that 10% decrease in damage will mainly affect Berserkers and Assassins because of the nerf to crit damage but if say you were Solider or Knight, the crit damage nerf probably won’t affect you that much or any at all if you don’t have crit damage. But as they have also already said, Berserkers and Assassins (probably more so Berserkers than Assassins) will still remain the best DPS set to wear for what you’re trying to accomplish.

What this ultimately means is that other stats become to look a bit more appealing in comparison to crit damage if you’re willing to sacrifice some damage for say more defense or healing (I wouldn’t recommend healing for Mesmers though).

A nerf to power builds doesn’t make condition builds any less useless in PvE.

Condition applying skills also have direct damage, which can crit. So the nerf to critdamage will also nerf condition builds to a VERY SMALL degree. Likely, the degree to which you get random +critdmg from traits. If none, then you’re ‘completely unaffected’.

In no way does condition builds become better. Crit based builds become worse, not the other way around.