Guild Wars 2

With a full ascended Sentinel’s armor/weapon set, PVT trinkets, 0/0/4/6/4 support build (with Force of Will), and 250 vitality from WvW mastery, you’d have 2904 vitality, and Runes of Exuberance would give you 203 power, 145 precision, and 87 healing power. The problem is making use of that precision and/or healing power and getting anywhere w/o quickly losing the vitality.

With Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup, Superior Sharpening Stone, Bloodlust stacks, and WvW mastery, a full power variant can get you 2626 power, 3282 armor, 30685 health, and 387 healing. You’d only have 17%/163% crit stats.

You could also go with some crit, using Master Maintenance Oil, Perception stacks, and using Cavaliers accessories/Berserker rings, you’d have 2078 power, 45%/180% crit stats, 3208 armor, 28125 health, and 379 healing.

Both are using 0/0/4/6/4 and accounting for Strength in Numbers. I’ve also been looking at how to use these runes effectively, especially considering the WvW bonus.

Personally, if I go for ascended Sentinel’s, I’ll probably build somewhere between the above. The one I have saved now has ~2400 power, 33%/180% crit, 1940 toughness (3200 armor), 2600 vit (27600 health), and the same ~380 healing (all buffs considered). With Accuracy on my greatsword, it’ll be at 40% crit chance.

J Eberle.9312:

If they are equal skill then they don’t need to run another gear set. If they are lesser skill then they do. Not seeing the problem.

Defensive stats as a buffer against bad play, used solely as training wheels on your way to pure damage, is not something I enjoy, but I realize many of you are fine with this. Personally, I enjoy combat employing RPG like roles, I find it to be more fun and long lasting, but seeing as they did away with the standard trinity, perhaps it was the right approach for this game.

At any rate, I’d like to see the effectiveness of berserker builds reduced, not by nerfing damage numbers, but by increasing what other builds bring to the table. This would likely involve a massive rewrite of the AI system, something that probably won’t happen. To all of you that like things the way they are, I’m glad you’re having fun at least. I’ll be sticking w/ WvW.

spoj.9672:

Why should a group with no dps be as fast as a group that focuses on dps and uses skill to survive? There is no logic in that.

Why should any other player of equal skill gain substantially less than the zerk player by building something else? Berserker builds should just be one of many play styles that are fun AND rewarding, not THE ONLY ONE. This game fails to reward other build types, and it’s lesser a game because of it.

Other builds shouldn’t do as much damage as zerk, of course not, but why is most of the PvE game broken down to “more/faster damage = win”? It’s shallow and repetitive combat, helped only slightly by active defenses. There needs to be more use and need of defensive/supportive stats, and thus more varied and interesting builds and group dynamics. That’s what I want from the game.

Iris Ng.9845:

They are just more efficient and have more gold per time spent in dungeons.

That’s what I meant, and I see it as a problem. In a properly balanced game (in my opinion), gear, traits, and play style would have little effect on how greatly or quickly you are rewarded – only to the extent that some builds would have better synergy. The disparity between zerk builds and anything else is far too large (in regards to being rewarded for your time). This is assuming that most players care about currency rewards, which I believe to be true. If you play for the combat and social experience alone, and don’t care about how your character looks, more power to you.

I said nothing about active defenses being unavailable or unused, I happen to like the skillful play that they promote. I simply meant to say that defensive stats, as they are now, add nothing skillful to combat, and in fact promote bad/passive play.

Edit: I also favor very difficult content, so as to the “play style would have little effect…”, I mean that in the RPG role sense, not as how skilled or intelligent a player you are.

The problem, as I see it, is that you are vastly more rewarded by speed clearing and running the “zerk meta,” and that is bad game design. In a game where aesthetics is the primary progression, achieved by earning more gold and rewards, it’s fair to say that players are forced (no, not physically, but reasonably) to run in berserker gear. There will always be less efficient builds, or traits that don’t synergize, but for the most part, PvE should reward any group of players fairly evenly, regardless of how they play. That’s not to say that defensive gear should do as much damage as dps gear; rather that encounters should be balanced around rewarding damage, control, support or other playstyles. Too extreme a change and we will end up with another trinity system where groups require different roles, so it’s not an easy problem to fix.

It’s also true that passive defensive stats support non-skilled play, perhaps ANET can tie in defensive stats to how active defenses work in an interesting way. I don’t know, just a thought.

I definitely support this, it’s beautiful. Eternity in its current form is not worth it.

This just happened to me as well, you see Crusader Thurkill talking, but you hear someone else (possibly Scholar Prott) and see entirely different text at the end of the Norn “Code Breaker” mission. This also happened in an earlier mission, either “Dredge Technology” or “Underground Scholar” (I forget), and it also involved the representatives of the 3 orders, if I remember correctly.

Edit: I just joined the Priory, and the conversation went without a hitch.

Too many people are missing the point of legendary’s…
They should not be obtainable by anyone but the absolutely most dedicated players. If you cannot or do not want to dedicate the insane amount of time and effort required to get them, then don’t. 99% of this game accessible to you all, why do you think you should have this too? The players with no responsibilities outside the game (read: “no life”) should have an avenue to excel beyond all other players, and seeing as these legendary’s are only skins and not an attribute advantage, I fully support their incredible difficulty in obtaining.