Just a couple sudjestions:
Invert defiance.
Rather than only the n’th disable procing, have the n’th disable cause stability or some variant.
That way, people who focus more on CC (which they then would be able to) would need to use them sparingly (ie saving the ones that are going to work for the right moments)
or even a stack for x seconds and non rippable stability if it got to y stacks.
As for blinding being only 10% effective just makes it useless in Boss fights.
Going dagger pistol instead of dual daggers as a thief agianst a dungeon boss pretty much just means that you ’re less initiative efficient and do less damage over all.
If it even just stacked in intensity against bosses where if multiple people blinded it simultaneously each stack being a 10% miss chance that would be fine too. The duration wouldnt be increased so careful timing is a factor.
Usually the blind condition will time out before the blind’s “miss” actually procs unless other people are blinding too or for some reason you’re fighting a Boss with a blind based build (which are so much fun where they actually work).
It means that, while we are free to come up with our own playstyles, many of the options just aren’t worth taking in PvE.
As for the zerker trumps all argument, it is sadly true. My engineer is a condition spec and I do not PvE with him. If ever you want to feel entirely useless, take a condition damage toon to a well attended world boss. The burning and poison duration will be in the minutes longer than the dragons remaining life, and they tend to be at 25 stacks of bleeding for the whole fight. It’s a sad realization that 2 or 3 purpose built caracters could effectively reproduce all the condition damage being done by every condition damage spec character in the zerg attacking the boss.
It means that in all three of gear, traits and skills, people will be rail roaded because several options are either not worth taking or synergise better with something not worth taking in PvE.
The thing I really like about GW2 is that the combat is active. Like any action game the play style should mean more than the stats behind it and some of the boss fights really encourage this.
I love the Howling King (AC p1 Boss) fight where you have to kite hoards of minions into burning circles. It means that the boss becomes an interesting fight since there is a trick or knack to defeating him.
Mobility becomes golden in that fight. You have to think on your feet, it’s unique and different to other bosses, there are many aproaches to it (which one you pick will most likely depend on your party composition) and it is very rewarding when it goes well.
As oposed to the fight against Leurent in TA where it is pretty much just a case of how long can I DPS this guy untill I miss a dodge and get one shotted and there is really little i could do to specialise my build or playstyle to that fight.
I’m all up for defiance getting tuned down and I think you mentioned some fight secnerio’s that could be really fun to play.
It’ll be funny to see LFG post where people demand full cleric/soldier stat characters for a dungeon or event like you get people asking for only full zerker warriors to join their party.
I’m interested to see what happens with the ideas on this thread.
Creegan