I don’t understand why we even have ANY passive skills in a game where we only have 10-15 abilities to work with in the first place.
Do we really need to make combat even simpler?
It would be cool if there was actually something you do do there as well. Aside from having all the PvP vendors and the PvP tutorial there is no reason to spend time in the mists.
So give us a place to duel and you might actually contribute to building a community.
I would personally like to see something that allows D/D to go toe to toe with more melees, like Black Powder currently does as well as providing some much needed AoE/Cleave damage.
First I was thinking – Anticipating Strike – Stand ready and should your enemy attack, you evade his strike him below his armor causing X damage and adding 5 stacks of Vulnerability. It also turns an active boon into a condition for 6 seconds.
So kind of like those Mesmer counter-moves. It would be a fairly new skill for the Thief skill-set but it lacks real AoE. So maybe a copy of Diablo 3’s “7-sided strike” would be cooler.
7-sided strike – lash out at your foe 7 times in a blurred frenzy. Each attack hits a target within 300 range for X. The thief is invulnerable during the 3 second animation.
Problem is, it would be very similar to Pistol Whip in a number of ways….but the same could be said about Death Blossom. The attack would also be quite potent against single targets, which might not be exactly what D/D needs.
Just buying it upfront is significantly more expensive than picking up the individual components.
If you’re a veteran player you probably already have well over 1 Mio. Karma you need for the Bloodstone shards. You probably have tons of T6 mats lying around too and maybe a number of badges from WvW and dungeons.
Take an inventory of what you have and the path to a Legendary isn’t that far off.
The Precursor is the only real stop-gap but they are significantly cheaper than the real thing.
I totally agree… Less conditions and less condition removal would be an amazing thing for the game from a tactical and positioning standpoint… Imagine if getting a cripple or chill on someone meant you could actually kite them. Imagine if you got torment stacked it would actually make your opponent want to stay still. Imagine if poison was an actual counter to healing and bunker builds. It would be nice.
Good post,
currently the way the game is designed you have to spam conditions at a rapid pace to keep them up and you have to cleanse conditions just as rapidly in order to not succumb to them instantly.
Boon removal is pointless when boons just get reapplied 2 seconds later. Oh, I just used a cooldown to steal Protection from a Ranger? Nevermind, it’s right back up again. Same applies to the game in general.
Even with a Thief spaming boon removals every 3 seconds you can still maintain a number of boons on you.
Conditions are in a similar place, just on the opposite side.
Conditions are only good if you can “bomb” them like Necros or Engineers. Then they are overpowered. But builds focusing on a single condition type are not, because condition cleanse is so abundant.
First off, unless I’m mistaken there weren’t really any significant balance changes except for the Sigil of Paralyzation fix. So why would the meta change?
Second off all, the weapon sets themselves are far too limiting to give players real choices.
It’s still a random CC, and random CC is bad. End of story.
And thanks for belittling me but I already run with two stun-breakers, that’s not the problem. I don’t really think they are massively overpowered per se but getting randomly feared isn’t fun, even if they do have a 90 second ICD.
GW2 has done a great job in weeding out random CC elements that used to convoluted previous generations of MMOs. It has been generally accepted that random CC effects are undesirable and unfun.
It seems though as if the Superior Runes of the Nightmare have been overlooked and I think this ought to be remedied. The 5% chance to fear someone when hit can…occasionally result in some really frustrating chain-fears that need not be. This is especially frustrating when combined with a Necromancers regular fears as it can mean being chain-feared 3+ times in rapid succession.
I’m sure we could find an alternative effect for this rune set that doesn’t include random applications of CC effects.
Thanks for listening.
My problem with Mesmer balance is that there is virtually no point in destroy their Illusions because of the rate at which they can spawn them.
The most popular Mesmer builds spawn an Illusion every time they dodge (which is a lot thanks to perma-Vigor) additionally to their standard abilities. So “clearing” their Illusions doesn’t really buy you more than 2 seconds of peace before all three are up again.
I agree but it seems like unless we make a dozen threads a week on the same issue it isn’t recognized as a problem.
A big problem that exasperates the Condition issue is that a Power build requires 3 offensive stats, Power, Critical Strike Damage and Precision.
Condition Damage only requires one stat, allowing the Condition user to stack a disproportionate amount of defensive stats for the offensive pressure he has. Hence I propose that Condition Duration becomes a stat on gear so there is a forced choice between offense and defense, just like with Power builds.
Yeah, it’s quite a joke.
We’re supposed to have a “choice” when it comes to our builds yet the ezy mode Condition spam and stun spam basically dictate that all 3 of our utilities must be used to counter both.
I do think it’s a little problematic, but not excessively.
First off, Guild buffs are available to everyone and any increase in offense should hopefully be counter-balanced by an equal amount of defense.
Same applies to Bloodlust Sigils. The stacking makes this also less of an issue since most people aren’t running around fully stacked at all time.
The Borderlands Bloodlust shouldn’t really provide any stat-boost at all. The buff is good enough without the stats and I’m not sure why ANet insists on maintaining it. On the other hand, this too is accessible to all.
Guard Leech and Applied Fortitude are the only real power-creeps and seem to reward those who are already pretty hardcore. Then again, maybe that’s the point.
I agree that there are too many stat-buffs involved in WvW but it’s only problematic when you compare the most extreme scenarios. In 95% of cases different players will have various different bonuses at any given time.
At least the player with the account Mammoth.1975 thinks so:
[…] peak power damage > peak condition damage, do you want to compare averages now? Because average power damage is also > average condition damage.
I’m actually very sure of the opposite and we had a very detailed discussion in another thread in which also the op addressed how to deal with the said problem (so read if further more interested):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Condition-analysis-and-a-few-options/first#post3056516But since I’m not without fail I just wanted to ask the rest of the community which didn’t bother to read the whole thread of their opinion. What do you think? What are your experiences? Does power dmg really more dmg than cond dmg under the premise that the conds are NOT CLEANSED???
Power dmg can do more damage in shorter timeframe. But power damage require constant contact with target – target can dodge, use LOS, break distance, etc.
Conditions can be used as “fire and forget”, you pull em out and now YOU can dodge, run, heal, whatever, while your target is melting.
Exactly, that’ the decisive difference between the two.
I can deal 10.000 Power damage every 3 seconds in PvE. You’d need to maintain 30 Bleed stacks by yourself (assuming they all tick for 120) to match that damage.
But they require a constant target up-time while often also putting the damage-dealer at great risk.
Conditions on the other hand deal damage regardless of your actions and often have other beneficial effects. It’s also much easier to spread them.
They also ignore dodges, Protection and other mitigating abilities and are mostly instant-cast and not telegraphed. That’s why Conditions are so much more powerful in PvP than PvE.
The biggest Weakness of Conditions is their low single-target cap, which too doesn’t factor in to PvP much. On the other hand they can be cleansed which makes single Conditions easy to deal with, but Condition bombs very dangerous.
I use all three Elite skills on my Thief…..in fact 4 if you count the Asura Assault Golem…on a regular basis.
So they all seem to serve a purpose.
I’ll admit though that a bug part of what makes Basilisk Venom good is the synergy with Lyssa runes. Without that synergy it isn’t all that great
What I find most unfair though is the lack of real group support. I’d gladly replace Basilisk Venom for something more interesting along the lines of Mesmer support skills.
Top performing classes
Necromancer
Warrior
Ranger
Engineer
Guardian
Thief
Mesmer
Elementalist
Skill requirement for performing well
Engineer
Elementalist
Mesmer
Thief
Guardian
Ranger
Necromancer
Warrior
Now compared to other MMOs, all classes in Guild Wars 2 are fairly simple. So being good isn’t all that difficult.
The only big offenders in my book are currently Warriors and Necromancers. Warriors are just so forgiving and easy to play that they are far too effective in the hands of an average player.
Necromancers are in a similar place. They might not be quite as simplistic but they too are essentially a class with training-wheels attached at all times thanks to a massive effective health pool and easy AoE conditions.
Queuing for the daily activity queues me into an sPvP skrimish.
Yeah, GW2 is by far the worst offender when it comes to visual clutter or visual “noise”.
Only GW2 gives you 2 enemies but 12 targets on your screen.
I’m sure this adds to skill-lag in WvW too as every minion is another viable target that needs to be calculated.
I’m sure GW2 would perform much better if Rangers, Necros…and to a lesser extent, Mesmers were more limited with the amount of AI they can spam.
Buff the minions, make their role more significant and meaningful, but reduce the total amount.
The problem with defense is that it’s practically futile once a zerg hits a critical mass.
Even a fully armed Tier 3 Keep cannot last more than a few minutes against a sizeable zerg. In fact given sufficient Golems they can punch through any defense in a matter of minutes.
Even if you do have spies to call the incoming, this gives commanders barely enough time to react, especially if there’s no waitpoint.
That, and the fact that any Keep can be easily ninja’d in a matter of minutes by a few committed players during late hours.
The entire balance of WvW heavily favors constant offense because defensive aspects are so underpowered. The only way to truly defeat an attacking zerg is by bringing one of your own.
I mean it takes a 40 man zerg….what?…30 seconds to punch through a normal tower door?
I don’t understand why they even went along with the Leagues if their servers clearly aren’t up to the task.
I mean skill lag was bad before, but WvW participation is now 200-300% of its standard and it’s much, much worse.
Well this is probably as bad as it is ever going to get.
WvW participation was through the roof across all servers afaik so the WvW servers were under max. pressure.
Still, obviously having lags like this is undesirable especially considering how small the maps are.
I mean DAoC could host 3000 players per side with the zone being 100 times larger. And that game is 15years old.
I’m pretty sure a disconnect would have the same effect as pressing Alt + F4.
Queues might be the cause, especially if everyone is queuing for all Borderlands….but it does seem rather odd timing.
And even then, the only thing that should allow you to leave mid-fight is a TPvP game.
I got to do my first season WvW this morning and observed an odd bug that I hadn’t previously seen.
A number of times throughout my 2 hour play-session I’d down an enemy (typically in a small scale skirmish) only to have them completely disappear from the game instantly.
Now I know what it looks like when someone Alt +F4s as you still get the WXP, regular XP and loot bag and you still see their body for a few seconds.
But it wasn’t happening in this case. Instead they’d just completely disappear with no WXP, loot or anything to indicate what had happened.
And no, stealth skills are out of the question as it happened with both a Necro and a Warrior underwater too.
Is this just a new bug (because I hadn’t seen this before today, despite a thousand hours in WvW) or is this some sort of new exploit to deny people their loot?
Yeah, back in my day we just called it “Flavor of the Month”.
Very cool although your team-mates deserve a lot of credit too.
Am I the only one though who gets annoyed that everyone in GW2 can rezz in combat. It makes fights drag on forever….
Yeah, something needs to happen asap.
Roughly 15% of my games are 4 vs.54 and it’s just not fun. Games with less than 10 active participants should not count and people need more severe punishment.
I understand people leaving the game if things go wrong in real life, but 90% are simply rage-quits or because they afk’d too long while queuing.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
Yes, bringing base HP closer together would allow ANet to create more nuanced encounters and also help better balance damage and healing.
Currently the base HP at level 80 are as follows:
Thief, Guardian and Elementalist: 10.805
Mesmer, Ranger and Engineer: 15.082
Warrior and Necromancer: 18.372
That is a HUGE discrepancy and makes damage and healing impossible to balance.
Elementalists for example heal something like 30% of their HP every time they switch to Water because they are pushed into extremely durable builds. These durable builds are partially due to the synergy between high mitigation, low HP and high heals as healing becomes a lot more effective with low HP. That’s a big part of what makes Guardians and Elementalists so tanky.
Both Elementalists and Guardians would be much better balanced with 20% less healing power and mitigation but 20% more HP.
It also makes designing boss abilities easier and fairer because a hit that could instantly gib a Thief would barely take 50% off of a Warrior.
Imo the base-HP values should be adjusted as follows, with respective balance changes in mind.
Thief, Elementalist and Guardian: Roughly 13.000 HP
Mesmer, Engineer and Ranger: Roughly 15.000 HP (same as now)
Warrior and Necro: Roughly 17.000 HP (slight nerf)
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
When you have classes with 12.000 effective HP doing the same content as classes with 50.000 effective HP you rely on one-shot mechanics or the Necros are just going to “yawn”.
And the difference between a glass-cannon Thief and one with well-rounded stats is only 3000-4000 HP. Significant yes, but not crucial and it doesn’t make a huge difference in most content.
If classes had more comparable survivability then you could create more nuanced encounters that didn’t either one-shot the glassy classes or bored the tanks.
PvE:
1. Condition Damage in Boss Events (and Crit Damage to a lesser extent). Any long term solutions to this issue?
2. Fractals and Agony Resistance – Why must I limit my prowess in other areas of the game just so I can get more AR that is only useful for Fractals? Will Fractals be expanded and what’s the general stance on more challenging group content?
3. Currency overkill – GW2 has lots of different currencies from various sources. It seems like once a new currency is introduced it adds a few items, but is then forgotten about completely. Any chance we might see new ways to spend existing currencies or some consolidation?
PvP
1.* Downed State and the impact it has on small and large scale PvP* – Most notably the “snowballing effect” of the downed-state is what I personally find most aggravating in that it gives an inherent advantage to the larger force. Any chance we might see changes to the downed-state mechanic that take into account how the game has evolved in the past year?
2. Resurrection in combat – The ability to resurrect everyone, anywhere has had some pretty undesirable side-effects from cheesing bosses over “lazily” waiting for rezzes rather than respawning. It also adds to the aforementioned snowballing in WvW. Any chance this might mechanic might be reviewed or limited to “out of combat”?
3. PvP reward system – sPvP is very unrewarding at this point and I believe the complete disconnect between PvP and the rest of the game is partially to blame. Any chance we might see this reconsidered and have rewards carry over into the main game?
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
I did the Shatterer this morning with only a few people around at the time and was actually quite surprised by the amount of adds that spawn.
I’m not sure if they just added them or if I’ve just never done him with so few people to notice the mechanic. I even armed the Mortars to DPS him (albeit I’m not sure they actually do more DPS than a Power-geared player).
Was actually quite fun considering what a pushover the Shatterer generally is.
I agree that we need a clear separation between Condition and Power weapon sets.
GW2 is already limited enough with its skill-selection we don’t need further reduction from poor synergy.
But it’s difficult to draw a clear line when there are so many weapon combinations.
It’s ok to wait and see how things evolve after a balance patch. Players adapt and try new builds and that’s fine.
But it should not take 2-3 months.
Conditions are overpowered and have been for a while. Playing without pulsing condition cleanse is nigh impossible for some classes let alone being bombed by 5+ Conditions in a second by a Necro.
If things haven’t changed within 4 weeks then it’s time to adjust balance again. A balance-patch very 4-6 weeks seems reasonable and helps keep sPvP interesting.
I don’t want to have to play another 3 months with overpowered conditions until the devs finally acknowledge that they are too strong.
Nightmare runes need to be changed/removed full stop
Yeah, random CC was terrible in other MMOs and weeded out for good.
GW2 has remained along the same path, mostly, but these runes are an exception and need to be changed.
We will have to wait and see what comes of this.
Body Shot was a pretty useless ability before and now it’s a little more worth-while. It gives Pistol builds something else to blow Initiative on rather than just Cloak and Dagger. But we have to wait and see if this really elevated Pistol Mainhand.
I’m skeptical…..but open-minded.
What this does highlight though is just how redundant Venoms currently are.
(edited by Dee Jay.2460)
FYI – Situational awareness will still be important with the changes coming to Skyhammer.
Situational Awareness is the only “skill” element in GW2.
It’s what all PvP maps are about.
Skyhammer is not part of the group-tournament rotation for a very specific reason.
And yet somehow that reason doesn’t expand to solo-queue?
Ridiculous hypocrisy.
Anyway, anything that limits the impact of downed-state is a welcome change in my book.
Naw, man. Downed state is probably the most impactful, creative, team oriented element of design in this game. It is FAR from perfect, but is absolutely necessary in a game the features one-shot kills (or very nearly one-shot) and stun locks that can 100-0 you.
I disagree, the interesting part of combat is over as soon as one person is downed. Then it’s just the same old dance over and over again (depending on which class). Stomping every Thief is the same, stomping every Mesmer is the same and so it is with every other class as well.
And additionally, downed-state is a huge snowballing mechanic.
You’re fighting 2v1? Here, have a mechanic that makes it virtually impossible for you to fail.
Your zerg is larger than the enemy’s? Here, have an additional crutch by being able to revive even faster and easier than your enemy.
Downed-state is terrible in every PvP situation.
Oh god please yes!
This was suggested countless times prior….no idea why this time it was recognized.
Maybe because the post was shorter than…say this one: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Reasonable-changes-to-downed-state/first#post2864247
Anyway, anything that limits the impact of downed-state is a welcome change in my book.
Most games allow for unlimited stealth outside of combat but limit your ability to stealth in combat.
GW2 went the other way with mixed results.
My problem with stealth is that it is so beneficial, not just because it hides the Thief, but because of all the additional benefits like Healing, Condition cleansing, Stealth Attacks etc.
This means that you want to stealth as much as possible in almost every situation rather than reserving stealth as a defensive utility.
The kicker is that I don’t even have the crafting skill for my primary weapon.
Yeah, Ascended Gear has been handled terribly there’s no doubt about it.
On one had we’re swimming in T7 mats and on the other hand everything else is bloody expensive. And we can’t even trade all this T7 stuff.
I thought it didn’t work because I was in the Mists (sPvP) but now I see it might be generally bugged.
I too would like to see a number of new skills or at least other classes having access to 25 skills like the Elementalist.
The problem is that there is no counter-play.
All builds are designed around a certain trick or skill and there is no variety. I play the same way against pretty much every class I come up against since my build is only really designed to do one thing well.
That’s why unfortunately combat feels very shallow as I’m always performing the same moves.
It also means that may class or build isn’t equipped to deal with all situations and that you end up with “hard-counters” at times, aka. fights you simply cannot win because of your build.
Personally I think you need at least 20 skills per character to really have deep and interesting counter-play.
I don’t really think it’s the support or damage that has turned people off Thieves.
It’s the fact that they are probably the most frequently downed class in game and players are sick of reviving them. I can see why. The combination of low survivability and melee results in a lot of instant-gibs.
Skilled play and experience can compensate for a lot of this but it doesn’t change the sour image most people have of Thieves.
GW2 is the only MMO I’ve played that allows every character to resurrect a dead fellow player.
It is also the only MMO that allows you to do so while in combat.
In my opinion this has led to some very undesirable side-effects:
1. Cheesing Bosses – In most games when you wipe on a Boss you get up and try again. But in GW2 players can often drag-out encounters for ages allowing their fellow player to resurrect the dead. This can make Boss fights last forever and is mostly not good for the game as it makes it hard to really fail.
It also resulted in plenty of cheese tactics for various bosses, especially in the Fractals that evolve around dying and then resurrecting dead players. The fact that most of these encounters were changed or mechanics altered to mitigate this kind of behavior shows that it is not in the devs intent for players to cheese-rezz their way through encounters.
Iirc it was only thanks to one of these tactics that people were even able to reach the very high fractal-levels early on, before this too was patched.
2. Laziness during Boss-encounters – While this has always been an issue, the recent Tequatl revamp highlighted this issue. Players have become so accustomed to constant and easy rezzes that they don’t bother to respawn in most encounters. This is problematic in Tequatl due to his strict DPS requirements.
I think this type of behavior does not need to be encouraged. It would also help make open-world bosses more imposing if there’s at least the chance you may have to waypoint.
3. Unkillable zergs – This is the biggest and most game-breaking side-effect for me personally. Every WvW players knows that situation where you have a massive blob kicking in your door and despite many Arrow Carts and solid defenses, the Zerg just continues to resurrect his dead comrades.
This makes, “taking a bite” out of a Zerg practically impossible, as a resurrection by 5 players is a matter of seconds. And this contributes to the futility of outmanned defense because the only way to wipe a zerg effectively is with one of your own.
These three reasons are why I think resurrections should only be possible out of combat. I think it would improve every aspect of the core game and discourage unintended behavior.
PS: Please note that I am talking about the resurrections of completely dead players here, not “downed” players.
I disagree that shadow’s embrace must be changed because it can be used to cheese condition builds with limited condition application. Shadow’s embrace is one of the few ways we can fight heavy condition build and stand a chance. Nerfing shadow’s embrace would improve the ability of nerco’s and engis to kill thieves while improving the chances of P thieves to fight stealth builds. how is that a sensible change? Shadow’s embrace could stand to be brought in line but given the current condition meta it makes sense. Conditions in general need to be tweaked to bring them in line with cleansing capacities across classes and then shadow’s embrace needs to be fixed. not the other way around.
Oh I agree,
given the current state of the game Shadows Embrace is one of the few traits that keeps us in the game.
But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s conceptually overpowered, even if it isn’t in the current meta-game.
I think the more fundamental problem with Stealth is that it is too beneficial to the Thief to the point that many builds evolve around “spaming” stealth.
Stealth heals, improves Initiative, blinds, removes conditions and sets powerful attacks (like Backstab and Sneak Attack)
Stealth isn’t a tactical choice or a defensive move, it’s something you want to use as much as possible.
I think it would be more interesting if Stealth actually consumed Initiative (with abilities being significantly cheaper) and so forced players to chose between offense and defense in any given moment.
I could get behind that. But “on dodge” traits don’t really need icd since the amount of dodges is already limited by your Stamina.
Mesmers don’t have a icd on creating illusions every time they dodge either.
Shadows Embrace – cleaning a Condition every 3 seconds while in stealth is kitten powerful, arguably overpowered. It makes Thieves virtually impervious to Condition builds unless they can spam them at an excessive rate. This largely stems from the fact though that Thieves want to stealth as much as possible.
Which literally every condition build in the current meta can do. Prior to the current meta, there might have been a discussion about this (realize that there are high costs associated with sitting in stealth), but currently shadows embrace is more of a band-aid then the condition immunity you’re calling it.
Infusion of Shadows is really the trait that enables all the “perma stealth builds”. Without it Initiative regeneration just couldn’t keep up. I’d rather see the trait reduced to 1 point of Initiative and real stealth abilities like Cloak and Dagger reduced by 1 point as well.
BP->HS is the “problem”, not infusion. Don’t mess up every single stealth builds initiative management to address the specific interaction of 1 skill and a smoke field. If you really feel this is OP, then suggest a small ICD (2s?) to Leaps through a smoke field or something.
I think Cloaked in Shadows is arguably overpowered as well since it makes Cloak and Dagger spam nearly untouchable in certain situations. Given the power of Condition spam though this trait has been somewhat neglected by most. But trying to kill a Thief with this trait using a melee weapon is very tough.
Now you’re just messing with us…right? Cloaked in shadows has it’s uses, but “arguably overpowered”? That’s a stretch any way you look at it, IMO.
Do I need to spell out the difference between cleansing a Condition every 3 seconds vs. every 10 seconds? That’s a world of a difference.
Now I could almost see your point if Thief builds didn’t stealth as much as possible (i.e. every 3 seconds). But almost every popular Thief build in WvW that utilizes stealth needs to use it as much as possible because it has so many beneficial side-effects (passive healing, condition removal, blind).
I’ve fought many Condition Thieves with this trait, P/D, D/D……and I have never died to a single one. I don’t think I even drop below 60% health because the trait (+_Black Powder_) counters them so hard. The only time Conditions are truly dangerous with this trait is if they are bombed on you as only Necros and Engineers can do.
Traits should give you and edge, a strength…but not be a total hard-counter to a whole array of builds.
And that’s why I consider Infusion of Shadows to be overpowered as well. Playing without it means that any borked Cloak and Dagger can put you in serious peril. Initiative becomes a serious issue, even when playing Pistol/Dagger.
But once you pick Infusion of Shadows Initiative Management becomes extremely easy and forgiving. You go from being above 8 Initiative 10% of the time (when playing D/D in PvE DPS situations) to being above 8 Initiative 50% of the time. It just makes such a huge difference regardless of the fact that it enables perma-stealth builds.
Cloaked in Shadows isn’t quite in the same league but its design is problematic. Our most common stealth-move Cloak and Dagger also Blinds people with this trait. This means that anyone fighting a P/D build for example (or even a D/D build) will have 3 seconds to hit the Thief…..while being blinded. This creates absurd situations especially if you consider that Thieves can still Dodge and Evade plenty.
If Cloaked in Shadows was combined with something else, like Shadowsteps or stuns it would be different. It is also different in sPvP where “Revealed” lasts 4 seconds. But in WvW…..I still think it’s problematic.
The only reason why we hear fairly little about it at the moment is because it is redundant in the Dagger/Pistol weaponset and the other competing traits are more valuable.
The hyperbole is strong in this one.
That said, yes, Warriors are absurdly overpowered at the moment.
Why we even have “passive” abilities like Healing Singet when we only have 10/15/20 abilities to manage is beyond me. No wonder combat feels so shallow.
I’m not going to claim I know what exactly is OP about the Warrior. Is it the insane mobility, the perma-stuns, the passive healing coupled with immunities or the resilience towards conditions ? Probably the combination of them all.
But honestly, I think Elementalists are mostly fine. It’s the other classes that need nerfs.
I think a lot of the “weak” traits in the Deadly Arts tree stem more from the fact that venoms are very unpopular rather than being “weak” per se.
The problem with Venoms is that they only apply Conditions, and Conditions are already so abundant in the game. Why bother having a Venom that adds Burning/Poison/Weakness/Agony etc. when your auto-attack or something else will do the same without consuming an ability slot?
Traps too are unpopular because they don’t suit the very mobile Thief play-style…..and are also just weak. Thief benefit from the enemy not knowing where they are, and kiting them into a trap just doesn’t make sense.
The fact that many players opt for a 5% damage increase for a single ability over actual utility just shows how bad some of the traits really are. Passive damage increases should be last-resort options, ideally.
The only overpowered traits in my book are
Shadows Embrace – cleaning a Condition every 3 seconds while in stealth is kitten powerful, arguably overpowered. It makes Thieves virtually impervious to Condition builds unless they can spam them at an excessive rate. This largely stems from the fact though that Thieves want to stealth as much as possible.
Infusion of Shadows is really the trait that enables all the “perma stealth builds”. Without it Initiative regeneration just couldn’t keep up. I’d rather see the trait reduced to 1 point of Initiative and real stealth abilities like Cloak and Dagger reduced by 1 point as well.
I think Cloaked in Shadows is arguably overpowered as well since it makes Cloak and Dagger spam nearly untouchable in certain situations. Given the power of Condition spam though this trait has been somewhat neglected by most. But trying to kill a Thief with this trait using a melee weapon is very tough.