Guild Wars 2

With the nerf to crit dmg (overall 30-40% crit dmg, and on zerk builds that crit 80%+ of the time, idk how the 10% nerf in “Overall” dmg anet had talked about makes sense) it would probably be more efficient to roll with knight gear in terms of efficiency of stats and dps. Since crit dmg was nerfed, no compensation to other stats on gear like valkyrie, cavalier, or zerkers was done, which leaves those gears on a very weak state compared to alternatives like knight or even PTV gear since increased survivability was not scaled down resulting in more dps over time. Although its too early to say, but i think the glass cannon zerk builds are going to die for melee warriors, and knight or might stacking builds will rise in huge numbers. This is mostly on WvW state, what are your opinions on the gear meta shift?

I don’t think anything is going to change in most PvE situations. If you don’t die in zerk before, you won’t die now. So why bother taking more toughness?

It might be different in Arah or FotM.

PvE no WvW, and PvP yes

Mathematically, trinkets got hit the hardest. Also trait lines got hit pretty hard. Actual armor and weapons didn’t get hit very hard and you should still have similar crit dmg values if those were what you were rolling with.

To compensate for that, a lot of warriors (or power builds for that matter) are going to run mostly Hoelbrak/Strength runes for might stacking. Or even run double swap sigils or Fire/Air. Mostly sigils that boost DPS output to make up for the ferocity nerf. Melandrus is still an option and even Lyssa would be OK because honestly I’ve noticed more condition roaming builds and we need to better equip ourselves to dealing with that.

Quite a few people I imagine would switch from Longbow if they used it because it got nerfed pretty heavily. Hammer is still a decent choice (only a 5% nerf on merciless) and the extra sigil makes up for it. Hammer however as always had the inherent weakness of being telegraphed and easy to dodge which is why I think it has lost a bit of steam as a roaming build, perhaps even more so with more condition roaming builds.

I honestly see Mace/Greatsword making a come back, the sigil of paralyzation is now a +30% stun duration, and using double swap/fire+air on greatsword makes for a deadly burst combination. Also traiting for Reflect Missiles would help against condition builds that like to apply conditions through projectiles (Engis, Rangers, Staff Mesmers, etc. Perhaps a build like 20/0/20/0/30, 0/25/25/0/20, 0/25/30/0/15, or some sort of variation like that. Forceful Greatsword would be a powerful trait if you are using Hoelbrak/Strength as it will ramp up your damage with all the might you get.

Thats my take on WvW.

30% stun duration was a joke tbh, it was always rounded up to the highest second, even with 15% stun duration, earthshaker at max adrenaline was 3 seconds. Shield bash was 2 sec even with 15% stun duration so no real buff their tbh, its just the spike dmg nerf hit my build alot, and i dont run zerks. Cavalier gear and crit chance from traits/food, let me get momentary spike dmg but still semi tanky, now i get half that dmg and still half as tanky… could go full PVT or PTP and still get more dps and the same if not more Tankiness =\

CoaxialMazer.9140:

30% stun duration was a joke tbh, it was always rounded up to the highest second, even with 15% stun duration, earthshaker at max adrenaline was 3 seconds. Shield bash was 2 sec even with 15% stun duration so no real buff their tbh, its just the spike dmg nerf hit my build alot, and i dont run zerks. Cavalier gear and crit chance from traits/food, let me get momentary spike dmg but still semi tanky, now i get half that dmg and still half as tanky... could go full PVT or PTP and still get more dps and the same if not more Tankiness =\

they changed the rounding up of values half a year ago i believe.

bleh, even worse. Still think they should change the ratios for ferocity into crit dmg, and if not atleast balance out the other gears that got kitten because of it. Its like losing stats, period. No way to make a comeback or keep same gears anymore =\