Guild Wars 2

Hannelore.8153:

As far as I know, condition damage is only limited because that is the way it was coded in the server design and the network protocol – the 25 stack limit. It has very, very little to do with game balance and I even remember a developer saying this. They can’t just fix it because it is a hard coded problem that requires an overhaul to solve.

Indeed, that’s my current state of knowledge as well. I am fully aware that any changes of a primal element such as condition damage causes many balance problems. This is also the reason I would like to get an update. The feedback of the community on the possible changes for the December update was really constructive (in my opinion). Since condition damage is relevant for all professions, it might be worth to share an update with the community for discussion.

Hannelore.8153:

That said, the stack limit is just fine on players and single mobs. The issue comes from tough trash and bosses (veterans, elites, champions and legendary).

I completely agree.

Hannelore.8153:

If they ever did manage to fix it so that you could add more than 25 stacks, the amount of stacks the mob could handle should be based upon its rank. I see no problem with up to 125+ stacks on a legendary given that people with power builds can be doing anywhere from 20-40k of direct damage to it per second in a mere party of five.

Mob rank based stack limits are an interesting idea. It has to be handled carefully, though. I don’t want to a group of 5 tanky condition necros to be the new warrior-only group.

My main concerned was directed towards groups of 5 people for dungeons. You lose a lot of dmg during fights against one single champion, if you have two mainly condition dmg dealers in your group. As I expect more difficult dungeon content to be released, I consider this a problem. In the lfg-tool no one wants two condition dmg dealers, but everyone loves groups with two or even more warriors. The thing is that condition dmg builds are possible for pretty much every profession. But you hardly need more than one of them in a dungeon group. This really puts condition dmg dealers in an unfair position to direct dmg dealers (for the process of finding a group). Let me stress this: I don’t want an individual condition dmg dealer to do more dmg than they currently do. I simply want them not to be forced to switch to a direct dmg build, if they want to play in a group which already has another condition dmg dealer.

As for your argument that 5 people with 25 stacks of bleeding melts down anything: Have you ever seen a warrior crit down an enemy? A group of those melt down everything extremely fast. That’s why there are a lot of warrior-only groups in the lfg-tool. However this was not the point of this argument.

Like the OP stated, the developers have mentioned changes to condition dmg months ago. An update on the current thoughts concerning condition dmg would be nice!

As a matter of fact, I would like to know more about the current state of a possible update on condition damage, as well. I play a condition dmg necro. In PvE, I have no problem to uphold 25 stacks of bleeding on a champion by myself. Thus any additional condition based group member hardly adds to the groups damage output. This is not a problem, if you face an easy dungeon. But it certainly is if you are trying to find a group for more difficult content.