Guild Wars 2

I’m curious what the relative damage difference between these two traits are now that Empower Allies has been more than doubled to +150 power?

Assuming Empowered will be with a reasonably achievable +6% (3 boons) damage increase. I know these two traits aren’t exactly comparable, but if you were to pick one at the 10pt tier now what would the tradeoffs be?

Full zerk Empowering Allies is slightly weaker than 4 buffs with Empower, it is better than 3 for sure.

Does empowering allies give the power to the warrior though? I selected it a couple of times and it doesn’t give any +power on my character sheet and I don’t see any buff that shows up on surrounding allies. Am I missing something? I’ve been just trying desperate power.

Azrayl.4936:

Does empowering allies give the power to the warrior though? I selected it a couple of times and it doesn’t give any +power on my character sheet and I don’t see any buff that shows up on surrounding allies. Am I missing something? I’ve been just trying desperate power.

You need to be in combat for the trait to activate.

As for the tradeoffs:

Empower Allies: Doesn’t stack with other party members using it; effective additional damage decreases as power increases (7.5% damage increase at 2000 power; 5% damage increase at 3000 power)

Empowered: Doesn’t increase party member’s damage, relies on boon maintenance, stacks multiplicatively with the extra power from Empower Allies (if Empowered is giving 4% damage it’s increasing the effective power from Empower Allies to 156. Not much, but still)

In general a group should have the first warrior with Empower Allies to buff everyone, but any further warriors should be running Empowered. At 25 might stacks with power food, Empower Allies is only going to give around a 4% damage increase, which is roughly similar to Empowered with 2 boons. As a warrior, it’s likely you’ll have at least 3 boons (might/fury/swiftness), so fully buffed up, Empower Allies is probably weaker than Empowered for solo play. How often you can reach 25 might stacks alone, though, might change that.