Guild Wars 2

We know there will always be a meta. We want a Balanced meta, where multiple roles or gears are equally viable. This is not the case in current GW2 PvE.

petyr baelish.9675:

Or you can accept the current system because it’s fine? Your gear decides what kind of damage you will deal (condition, direct or none because nomads) and the difficulty setting. Besides, everybody know half of the gear types were deliberately added to troll us when we get an ascended chest/ring drop.

Quite funny everybody calls the pve metagame ‘zerk meta’ while weapons, runes, sigils, traits and utilities are far more important choices than the stats on your gear, unless you wear nomads. Also, asassins is most optimal for some classes, sinister gear with givers weapons can be most optimal for some classes in solo situations and there are niche uses for knights gear.

I’ve tried three times to respond to this post while still being constructive, it’s really difficult.

1) Joking aside, it’s not fine when “Half the gear types are deliberately added to troll us”
2) Gear doesn’t affect difficulty setting because toughness/vit don’t really make for easier encounters (since they all last longer and because if you dodge you die anyway). +Heal and +Tough don’t make you survive if you keep making the same mistakes and taking damage in the first place.
3) We’re talking about zerk meta because sigils/runes/traits/utilities are much more appropriately balanced (Read: There is choice). With Zerk gear there is no choice, you run it or you’re behind.
4) I know there are situations where you don’t run zerks. 3/25 gear choices viable is a minuscule improvement on 1/25 gear choices viable. That those non-zerker gears make up 10% of PvE with the other 90% being zerk is still not okay.

Astralporing.1957:

Dawnbreaker.6215:

Maybe we are just coming to the conclusion that going no-trinity was a mistake all along.

Nope. The problem lies not in the no-trinity approach (which actually didn’t originally mean neither “all dps” nor “whatever is okay”, by the way). It lies with the active combat system not being a good fit for the gear stat system designed. Both things are meant for different games – they just don’t work too well together.

This is is completely the case. (The last bit, about combat system and gear stat system. Trinity or no trinity is up for debate.)

To quickly summarise:

GW2 Combat does have role diversity. You have Straight-DPS, Offensive Support, Defensive Support, and Control. Each class has ways to contribute like this. Each role requires active input. Combat is about active play.

Of the above roles, there is ONE link where your role scales from your gear. Zerkers increases DPS. No gear increases your active offensive support, defensive support, or control. There is 0 point to putting points into Toughness because your defensive needs are filled by active defenses anyway. And this needs to stay like this or some levels of tankiness become mandatory. Which has already been marked as something to stay away from, for good reason.

Those who argue that off-zerker gearsets is “Not Optimal” but is “Still Viable” – this is a load of crock. The difference between a 6 min clear and a 56 min clear in a goal/reward-driven game is severe enough to classify the 56 min clear build as “not viable”. The difference between optimal and not optimal should be more in the ballpark of 6 mins vs 8~10 mins.

The answer is, I believe, this: Non-DPS related stats need to be associated with active abilities. You can buff toughness as much as you like but it still won’t have any merit if you can just dodge everything. Instead;

1) Link Healing Power with Boon Duration. Rename the stat “Compassion”.
- Party “Support” comes in more cases than not through the form of boons. Might, Fury, Swiftness can add significant clear times on
- As HP is Linked to Boon Duration, drastically nerf the duration of most boons. I mean like 0 Boon Duration = 8 seconds of might from blasting fire fields, Phal strength = 3s of might.
- Aim is for a situation where players can choose between maximising their personal DPS, or can aim for maximising party DPS by maintaining might/fury stacks. There needs to be a forced choice in this.

2) Link Toughness with CC effect
- Scale duration/effect of crowd control skills with the player’s investment in toughness. Pulls have longer range, knockdowns/daze apply for longer, and maybe immobilize and chill last longer too. I’m undecided on the control-based conditions atm but I think would be worth it.
- Alternatively have toughness reduce cooldown timers of CC skills.
- Higher toughness investment means you burn multiple stacks of defiance off per CC skill
- Higher toughness means you do more damage to the HoT “Defiance Bars”.
- Give bosses Defiance bars which require heavy CC investment to break through, and reward teams that break through these bars with longer duration Burn Phases.
- You could conceivably have multiple “tiers” of defiance bars, so there is one present during the burn phase with a higher requirement. If destroyed, it elongates the burn phase.
- Fastest clear speed should be through a “balanced” mix of control vs flat DPS. Parties could load up on CC skills/traits (Daze Mesmers), or run very toughness-heavy characters to achieve the same effect. Or both and one person is all your CC needs.

3) Vitality
- Don’t know what to do with Vitality lel.
- Option 1: Vitality is a counterbalance to Toughness and reduces CC duration on you. This means you need to bring less stunbreak/stability in your utilities and can focus more on other things. It also means toughness doesn’t break PvP because you can spec against it.

- Option 2: Vitality increases duration/effectiveness of active defensive support (Wall of Reflection). I think this is messy.

- Option 3: Any other ideas people have.

Thoughts on this;

1) Reasons for zerker-only PvE
- Ease of use
- Lack of need to vary gear
- It’s not actually the only thing since PvP has different gear types
- Varying playstyles already existing in the game, separate from gear-driven ones
- Other gear is still viable, just not as efficient

2) Reasons against zerker-only Pve
- Anet have stated they don’t like it
- It’s a waste of a system (Gear)
- Confusing for new players (Of the 25 types of gear, only one is worth buying?)
- Making other gears more relevant does not necessarily mean:
a) Creating a “minimum threshhold” of tankiness (Gear Check)
b) You need to stop using zerker.
c) More viable Gear Types increases build diversity at the cost of nothing.

I guess to me this idea of “Zerker only” being fine is a bit weird. If that’s the case, why not just remove the whole gear system, and everyone gets the same gear and all that changes is your level?

What reasons did I miss for zerker only being fine?