Before I start, I’d like to state this thread is intended to be a discussion of the issues with the signet build; what causes it to be popular with under-informed players, and why it’s so poor in end-game. There’s a brief tl;dr version at the end of the post.
As I’m sure most of you are aware, there exists a very simplistic setup for warriors that revolves around the trait “Deep Strikes” and having as many signets active as possible. This build is extremely effective at early levels, and then starts to get worse as the character levels up. Let’s take a look at it.
At the earliest possible point Deep Strikes can be unlocked, level 20, the player will have access to the following:
1) 100 precision from the trait line itself
2) 30 precision from Signet of Fury
3) 4 equipped signets, worth 40 precision each (total unlock cost is 14 SP minimum, which is lower than the SP awarded by level 20)
This leads to a total of 290 precision, which isn’t scaled down in level 20 zones.
At level 20, according to the wiki Precision is worth 1% crit per 3.16; this means that at level 20 the signet setup by itself is worth 91.77% crit rate, plus 4% base crit.
Obviously, that’s quite a ridiculous amount of crit – a new warrior comes across it by accident at level 20, and thinks to themself “Holy kitten, this build is amazing” – a single trait and 4 skill slots grants an overall DPS increase of nearly 50%
At this point, the build really is amazing. There’s no other minor trait that can give such a huge benefit – at level 20. Levelling up from here is where the build falters.
Firstly, the precision granted by the setup only increases by 1 point per level, and only when the player isn’t downscaled. The only exception is at level 30 when the player gets an elite signet. After level 30, the precision carries on increasing by 1 point per level, and possibly 100 additional points at level 40 and 60 when the player gets access to master and grandmaster traits.
However, with the precision increasing so slowly, the crit rate begins to fall – at level 30, the setup grants 340 precision. At level 30, 4.96 precision grants 1% crit rate – the setup’s crit rate has dropped to 68.55%, and from here on, it only gets worse.
So it’s fairly apparent that the build significantly gets worse a the character levels up. What’s less immediately obvious is that the build does not return to it’s prime when the character is scaled down – the additional precision from Deep Strikes and the trait points is treated as part of the character’s total stats and reduced upon returning to a level 20 zone.
As a result, we’re left with a build with somewhat of a paradox – it’s most effective at lower levels, and yet it’s only effective if your level is not reduced in any way.
We can also look at the signets in the same way. The dolyak signet, signet of fury and signet of might all drop off similarly as the character levels up, although these specifically downscale correctly. The issue here is that the stat increase granted by the signet increases linearly, while the stats themselves increase at an exponential rate as the character levels.
For example, again at level 20:
A character has 128 base power
Signet of Might adds 30 power
Therefore, Signet of Might increases power by (30/128=23.44%) of the base
At level 80:
A character has 916 base power
Signet of Might adds 90 power
Therefore, Signet of Might increases power by (90/916=9.825%) of the base
The same applies to all raw-stat signets; a precision signet grants around 10% crit at level 15 and 4% crit at level 80, and so on. The value significantly declines as the character gains levels.
This all adds up to what I think the core of the issue with the signet build is: Players new to the class are unaware of the build significantly decreasing in effectiveness as they level up, and by the time they reach level 80, they’ve gotten used to the build being “good”.
tl;dr: I believe that ANet need to have another look at stat-increasing signets and traits, decide on a base level of effectiveness for those signets and traits, and then apply scaling appropriately so that this base effectiveness is true at all levels, instead of changing over time. As things are, new players get a false impression of how effective these traits and signets are, and may end up with a build that’s subpar because they don’t know it’s become worse over time.