Guild Wars 2

In addition, weakness/protection only affects power damage, but on the other hand cond damage ticks cannot critical hit.

Also, +/- 40% power damage food would be perfectly fine, as long as conditions cannot be removed, so max damage output occurs in both ways

ZenVenom.7214:

In addition, weakness/protection only affects power damage, but on the other hand cond damage ticks cannot critical hit.

Also, +/- 40% power damage food would be perfectly fine, as long as conditions cannot be removed, so max damage output occurs in both ways

Actually no they wouldn’t be fine since the effect would be so powerful that they override any semblance of rational choice in whether or not to use them. You’d be gibbing people before they could react or do anything about you.

Which is the problem with the 40% global condition duration +/- foods. If they did not exist at that power level we’d likely not hear near as many complaints about condition builds splattering people unless they were built a very specific way. Granted; we’d still hear some from the section that think they should not have to carry a single condition management tool in their build, but whatever, haters gonna hate.

Look, I like my condition builds. But I can recognize just how obscenely powerful +40% duration makes them if for no other reason than it enables me to keep cover conditions up with little effort or sacrifice, which means I’m clubbing people like they were baby seals if they don’t run a -40% food/Melandru/completely dedicated anti-condition build.

But if I don’t run that food and I run up against someone who is doing that counter as a condition build, I’m reduced to ineffectual flailing.

That’s not exactly a healthy balance. Both of them need to be brought in to a more sane level.

if they remove +40% duration they will need to remove all -% duration food/runes or make the +/- % duration specific for 1-2 conditions.

I’m not arguing with the + condition duration foods being OP because I can completely understand the reasoning for them being considered so. However, even if you spec completely in to a tree which gives extra duration, you end up with only a maximum of 30%. With specific runes, maybe a maximum of 50%? So, I think what the food is trying to balance out is that you can’t reach 100% duration without it. Where as with power or critical chance builds (eg. berserker) you can reach 100%.
Again, not disagreeing, because without specing in to a tree which gives extra condition duration, I can immediately have +40% duration just by consuming a food.

Either way, as many have said here on the forums time and again, you can’t blame the people who decide to use these things. Just like you can’t blame a Thief for having stealth. It’s the developer’s who designed this system not the players, instead of suggesting nerfs to one specific thing, you could suggest balances to multiple things. Knocking something down slightly, and pushing something up slightly, makes for better balancing than pushing something way down while leaving another thing untouched.

My preferred version is that all global +/- 40% foods would get adjusted downward to 10% to stay in line with the trait-line ratio of 10 power = 1% condition duration.

Then also at the same time review the specific condition duration foods (if I recall correctly there is only + duration for Poison/Burning/Chill) and put them on a comparable schedule to -40% Stun duration foods like Bowl of Roasted Lotus Root. That way you can still cap duration bonuses for a specific condition your build relies on but not all of them. This also leaves room for other condition duration foods to be added and have them actually get used.

[Insert rant here about game design and having actual valid choices in game-play versus merely the illusion of valid choices.]

For foods like Saffron Bread I would recommend changing their secondary global -20% condition duration bonus to something like – Stun/Fear/Daze duration to cement them as anti CC food, and prevent them from becoming the de facto most powerful anti-condition food remaining.

Overkillengine.6084:

Which is the problem with the 40% global condition duration +/- foods. If they did not exist at that power level we’d likely not hear near as many complaints about condition builds splattering people unless they were built a very specific way. Granted; we’d still hear some from the section that think they should not have to carry a single condition management tool in their build, but whatever, haters gonna hate.

So, how do you figure in the sPvP complaints, which are all done in a no-food setting?

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Overkillengine.6084:

Which is the problem with the 40% global condition duration +/- foods. If they did not exist at that power level we’d likely not hear near as many complaints about condition builds splattering people unless they were built a very specific way. Granted; we’d still hear some from the section that think they should not have to carry a single condition management tool in their build, but whatever, haters gonna hate.

So, how do you figure in the sPvP complaints, which are all done in a no-food setting?

“Granted; we’d still hear some from the section that think they should not have to carry a single condition management tool in their build, but whatever, haters gonna hate.”

There seems to be a portion of the population that does not want to grasp that they cannot build to withstand all forms of attack without sacrificing offense/support; or the inverse that they cannot build to kill everything without leaving holes in their defenses.

For some reason they hate having to choose; and want to have a build that covers everything that matters, which is the very definition of OP. So they clamor to have at least some of the valid options removed to effectively make those non choices which means they don’t have to defend against what is not getting used.

Edit: That doesn’t mean there aren’t individual abilities that need adjusting; but when I see someone ranting that all conditions are a problem and that they all need nerfed regardless of the mode, it rings my “this person is a whiny entitled kitten” alarm.

Good answer.

Honestly, I feel like pretty much all of the OP condition skills and traits are getting addressed in this patch (now, the anti-condition traits on the other hand…). Only odd one out in my mind is Incindiary Powder which could also use a change to be more predictable. I’d hate to have it tied to particular skills like Dhuumfire, though. That doesn’t work for engineers.

I don’t understand any of these arguments. Anyone who dies to a necro in WvW simply deserves it regardless of their argument. A necro will NEVER be able to chase you down and kill you if you simply disengage and run off. (Most return with friends and beat the crap of the necro and the necro can’t run away.) The day a necro receives abilities to keep others from disengaging from a fight or abilities for the necro to disengage is the day any complaints on conditions gain validity.

Rhizo.5089:

I don’t understand any of these arguments. Anyone who dies to a necro in WvW simply deserves it regardless of their argument. A necro will NEVER be able to chase you down and kill you if you simply disengage and run off. (Most return with friends and beat the crap of the necro and the necro can’t run away.) The day a necro receives abilities to keep others from disengaging from a fight or abilities for the necro to disengage is the day any complaints on conditions gain validity.

Try Staff with a Focus off-hand in your other set. Get Spiteful Talismans for good measure. Keep targets basically permachilled.

The Necro has abilities to keep others from disengaging. If someone saves their cleanses just to escape, then they’re at a disadvantage while fighting. If they use their cleanses while fighting, then they have a much more difficult time escaping.

It really isn’t as bad as people make it out to be.

Just wanting to point out, that critical damage food will prolly receive a nerf in the upcoming patch(down from +10% crit to +70 ferocity, which equals slightly less than 5% crit) while the +40% condi food will still stay the same.
That would have been the perfect opportunity to finally achieve equity amongst food.

While I agree that +40% condi duration puts a necro in super sayan mode, the comparison to power food is not as easy as some people here make it look.
A 100 power/10% crit dmg food (or ~5% in the future) or Seaweed Salad (10% dmg while moving) gives any power build an instant damage increase to all their attacks.
40% duration on the other hand depends on the skills you’re using. Fear will most likely give you an additional tick, probably Barbed Precision as well… and of course lame-fire but that’ll be nerfed anyway.
But any other long duration condi might not even get the benefits of the food at all. Therefore, if the food was nerfed down to 10% duration + 70 cond dmg it would not only be far inferior to the instant damage increase of power food but actually close to useless. Not to mention that the utility nourishment, Toxic Tuning Crystals, would actually be stronger than regular food.