Guild Wars 2

One additional comment about “buff” vs. “debuff”:
When simply putting it damage wise, the best effect you can have is the boon “Might”. It exceeds the condition “Vulnerability” by far (per stack). The break-even if you like is somewhere way beyond 3000 Power (for physical damage) so Might is superior in nearly every situation.

Hi,

i think the crafting interface in GW2 somehow sucks. Therefore, i recommend the following changes:
1. “Linked recipes”:
There are many recipes in the game which requires crafted products (“sub-product”) made by the same profession (e.g. chef). Currently, if you don’t have that sub-product pre-crafted, you have to search for the recipe, craft the sub-product, return to the original recipe and craft that.
Please modify that process to be similar to what Rift provides since ages: I click on the sub-product and if available, i jump directly to the recipe for it. I can craft it. A “Back” button is provided which enables me, even after the craft process of the sub-product, to easily return to the recipe of the main product.
2. “Permanent Setup”:
Currently, the list of know products has a rather flat structure. While that is OK (even appreciated), it is really annoying that the complete list is expanded when opening the “Production” tab. Even more disturbing: On a regular basis, the order within the flat structure changes randomly (e.g. Alphabetical order: Bag, Boots, .. vs. Refinement, Insignias, …).
I propose that the configuration of order/expansion setting is saved an re-used any time when switching to “Production”.

just my 5 cents,
Nordstern

Comparing physical to condition damage:
While condition damage usually displays high amounts of damage in the tooltips, you have to keep in mind that this is a damage over time (dot) effect. So comparing these two damage types is very much depending on the type of enemy, primarily on his armor (physical reduction) and hitpoints.
Also, each character builds up Power (physical damage) with levels (916 at lvl 80), while Condition Damage stays at 0. There is always an offset in favor of physical damage, but that advantage is possibly nullified by the enemies defense. Note: Ascendend plate armor gives a defense value of 920 (without shield).
I did a small benchmark comparing different attacks (the benchmark was not too precise), but it seems that high-damage physical builds will ALWAYS outperform high-damage condition builds.

So why would (focusing on) conditions make sense at all:

• Conditions deal damage even if you don’t actually ‘interact’ with the enemy
• Conditions are too sever to NOT handle them. You make players use condition removal skills instead of adding additional damage dealing utility skills. Also you influence the choice of traits (this refers to WvW/PvP mainly)
• Esp. long duration conditions prevent characters to early “fall out of combat” which postpones regeneration

Conclussion:
Mainly due to the fact that conditions stack (stacks or queue) which is very limited, focusing on conditions makes close to no sense if you play in groups. In rather static groups (e.g. dungeon raider) you should make sure that stacking of DOTs does not prevent high-damage dot-er from dealing damage because someone else applies a blocking stack. So when in doubt: DON’T PLAY CONDITION FOCUSSED SPECS IN GROUPS (which include WvW, Boss Raids, …).
For Single/really small Groups, condition focussed builds may have their place, but it seems to me that most classes provide a physical damage build which outperformes the condition dealer.

So far, so good….
Nordstern

Condition Damage:
Conditions are applied by either effects in weapon skills, slot skills (utility and elite) or equipment (sigil, runes). The skill has to hit, so it just behaves like physical damage for “apply”!

Not all conditions deal damage, and there are two types of conditions:

• Stacking: Stacking conditions (Bleeding, Vulnerability, Torment, Confusion) add a new stack when applied up to 25 stacks overall. Each stack has an individual duration time defined by the character who applied it. Same is true for a damage value if present. When 25 stacks are applied, applying a new one will remove the oldest (applied wise, not duration wise!). Note: Wiki is not clear on this. It is possible that new effects are ignored just as wiki clearly states that for queuing conditions!
• Queuing: Queuing conditions (Poison, Burning, Chill, Cripple, Immobilize, Blind, Fear, Weakness) are present or not. Applying queuing conditions (if already present) extend the duration; it will build a queue. The queue length is limited, for e.g. Poison it is NINE. Further appliance of poison is ignored until the oldest effect wears off. Each element has a duration and (if present) value defined by the applying character.

In any case, each condition is ONE condition when it comes to condition removal. So regardless of the amount of stacks, removing the condition will remove ALL stacks at once!
Duration of conditions are defined by the condition source. Duration can be extended by Condition Duration which is influenced by equipment (runes, not displayed in Condition Duration!) and traits.

Damaging conditions each have a formula for the damage per second:
effect-specific multiplier * Condition Damage + effect-specific damage offset * Level + effect-specific level offset
For Bleeding for instance it is:
0.05 * Condition Damage + 0.5 * Level + 2.5
Each stack/queue element is calculated ONCE per second. So a duration of x.5 seconds will discard the .5-duration. This can btw. be seen in the tooltips as well when extending/shorten duration by e.g. changing gear.

Damage from conditions are (un)modified by:

• Conditions can never critically hit
• Conditions cannot glance
• Conditions profit from Might (as it adds Condition Damage) and presumably Vulnerability Note: Wiki is not clear on this
• Protection does not reduce condition damage

Disclaimer: I label this as a “guide” as it contains the knowledge i gathered in the last couple of weeks. Mainly, it is based on the GW2 Wiki and personal observations (mainly a Warrior) in the game, so it might be wrong. So please correct me if i state incorrect things.

Preamble: It is an old discussion for all games providing different “types” of damage: Which one is the best? Is it good to mix them?
To get an answer, you have to look for “how is damage delievered and what is involved in the calculation of it?”

Physical Damage:
The main source for physical damage are of course weapon skills. This damage is represented with the “star” symbol in the context help of the skill. But also other skills do deliever physical damage (e.g. Bull’s Charge). So always look for the star symbol.

Physical damage has the following features:

• If the skill hits, the damage is supplied immediatly
• The damage is reduced by the enemy’s armor value (the sum of toughness and defense)
• Physical damage can hit critically
• Physical damage can glance
  The value displayed in the skill’s tooltip is explained in the wiki linked above:
  Tooltip damage = (average weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (level-based Armor value)
  For level 80, the armor value is 2600. This value is the sum of thoughness and defense.

But there are also other effects which will make the skill miss:

• The blind condition affecting you
• The target blocks, dodges or evades by other means
• The target is out of range of the actual attack (some attacks have greater reach than their skill tooltip indicates, e.g. projectiles with high arc)
• The target is obstructed by terrain, structures or objects

A critical hit is worth mentioning:
The chance for critical hits is displayed in the character sheet and is based on the Precision of the character as well as traits. Precision is influenced by level, equipment, traits and buffs. Traits granting specific boni to critical hit chance is most often NOT displayed correctly!
When the character hits critically, the damage is increased by the Critical Damage modifier. By default, it is 150%, but is increased by the character’s Feriocity. Feriocity can be increased just like Precision.

The actual supplied physical damage value is also influenced by the following:

• Vulnerability (Condition: 1% increase per stack)
• Protection (Boon: 33% decrease)
• Glance (due to level difference or “Weakness” Condition, 50% reduce)
• Might (Boon, grants Power and Condition Damage per stack)

So overall, physical damage is rather “simple” in understanding as well in “projecting on how much damage i will provide”.

Ok, i’m really surprised on this one.
During my current investigations, i’ve seen that gw2-wiki does state times for “the whole sequence” when looking at the first skill of a chain.
For Axe, it states 2.9s.
For Sword, it states 2.5s.
For Greatsword, 2.4s.
For Hammer, 2.75s.
…

As the difference between the numbers of Axe and Sword (to be in line with the intial post) is 0.4s, there seems to be a different CD between skills in addition to “Activation Time”. Obviously, that CD is depending on the weapon, maybe even the skill. At least, gw2-wiki doesn’t seem to display that information, so maybe someone can comment on it….

Thanks,
Nordstern

EDIT: I just have seen that gw2-wiki changed the activation times for sword. It is now 0.5, 0.5 and 0.25, which would add up to 1.25s pure activation time for the chain. That would, in regard to “whole sequence take 2.5s” mean that there is a global CD on the chain of another 1.25s. As this does not devide evenly between three chain skills nicely, i assume that the CD is not evenly distributed between the skills…..

Hi,

activation time for warrior weapon skills mean how long it will take until the attack is performed.
As the warrior has chainskills, i would expect a time delay between each “stage”. But the skills do not always display an activation time in my client.
For example:
Axe:
Chop – 0.25
Double Chop – (empty)
Tripple Chop – 1.5
Sword:
Sever Artery – (empty)
Gash – 0.5
Hamstring – 0.25

So i would expect, from that numbers, the complete Axe chain to take 1.75 s and the Sword chain only 0.75 s.
Or is there any “hidden” delay like a global cooldown on skills which adds up in here?

Thanks,
Nordstern