So Earth shaker will now be reduced in damage by a total of 27% (if we take those traits), and Staggering Blow is reduced by 23%.This almost forces us to adopt Hammer Mastery in order to do some kind of viable damage with hammer. I thought the point of this update was to encourage build diversity. It seems like you’re doing the opposite of that.
With around 100% critical damage from gear, a full combo of Backbreaker, Staggering blow, and Earth shaker will amount to around 7-12k damage in 3 attacks depending on the armor of the target and whether protection is on them or not. This combo is hardly enough to take on a skilled mesmer, or good elementalist, and will barley harm a good guard. Now take into consideration how obvious those 3 attacks are when used in a chain. Earth shaker can only be landed now if someone is imobilized, inexperienced, or lagging due to the vast numbers in a zerg. Almost everyone knows the animation of it by now. Not to mention that Earth Shaker is completely useless on a slope because you guys can’t figure out how to fix this 1 year after launch. Backbreaker’s windup takes literally forever and is also a very obvious animation. Staggering Blow is a useful setup skill that helps you chain Earth shaker or Backbreaker. Ideally, a good combo is considered 4,5, f1. Landing 3 abilities at fight start proves very difficult without the use of imobilize, or Line of sight mechanics (By this I mean stunning people through walls, where they can’t see your player model). A good player will often carry atleast 1 stunbreaker or CC immunity. Some classes such as Guard even have this built into their weapon skills and don’t have to waste a utility slot on it. These changes would then increase longevity of an opponent and therefore increase the fight duration. Shout heal builds aside, a good warrior will likely agree that unless facing another warrior, for sake of class knowledge and equally readable skills, a prolonged fight against almost any other class will equal a warrior’s loss. This is speaking in terms of a 1v1 situation, and on flat terrain. I suppose I could tackle the element of zerg play, but I feel that going the direction of army vs army simply dumbs down skillful and interesting combat that can be seen otherwise if maps were created bigger, with greater terrain diversity, and less simplistic over all. I feel that you seem to balance in this perspective primarily when you should be looking at class balances in terms of class vs class, instead of army vs army.
Instead of damage nerfs towards warrior, I honestly think you still need to consider Guild Wars 1 for useful traits and class mechanics. There were many intersting ideas behind stances in GW1 that I find greatly lacking in GW2. Please consider the use of stances, class knowledge, and the stability boon in general for counters towards a hammer warrior. In truth, a hammer is just as obvious and easy to read from telegraphed animations as a Greatsword warrior. The last thing we need is another damage nerf because less skilled players do not bother to inform themselves of class mechanics and builds.
