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I never said, nobody uses it. I said, not many use it, and that’s my observations. If it would be op, almost everybody and especially the top teams in tournaments would use it, but that’s obviously not the case.
Most (viable) utility skills have shorter cd, so calling 60s “relatively low cd” is nonsense (SoS is actually the only used utility with longer cd) and pretty much all of them provide more than just 1 thing. Usually defensive skills, because defense is more valuable than offensive utility skills.
And of course, (meta) druid doesn’t need the unblockable signet. Because, you know, it’s not op and there are better options in most cases. As i mentioned already, i wasn’t using it.
It just sounds like some people got recked by a ranger with SotW and call it op without even knowing how the skill works.
Srsly, why aren’t you checking it ingame, instead of harping on the irrelevant wording of some old patchnotes?
Thief gets +25% dmg from minors for longer than just 8s every minute. More dmg from major traits is not neccessary, just possible. You give up nothing for those for minors, because you take those traitlines anyways. Giving up an utilityslot (of which you only have 3 – usually taken by important defensive skills) is a whole different story. SotW only gives you an advantage vs dh and maybe power warrior, but both aren’t a major issue for druid. You won’t do better vs other classes, but you will have a harder time at defending points and surviving in outnumbered situations/teamfights, which is crucial.
I don’t care, what metabattle says. Most druids i saw in ranked were not running SotW (i wasn’t using it either btw – for mentioned reasons) and in the tournament (where litterally anybody could take part) it was only used in a few of the weaker teams. Non of the druids in the top teams was using it. Guess why? If it is so op as you claim, everyone would use it, like SoS for example, which is kinda mandatory for ranger.
So what is more balanced? A skill that is sometimes used and sometimes not, or a skill, that is so bad it’s never used?
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Again, those patchnotes are just referring to the general stability stacking changes (duration -> intensity). There are notes like this for every stability skill. Just check it ingame, if you don’t believe me. And i’m talking about minor traits in traitlines that are taken anyways, not only for the dmg. And metabattle isn’t always accurate. That “metabuild” was never used at tournaments and even in ranked, most were playing s/d and SoS + SotR instead of lb + SotW. At least in higher divisions.
It does NOT grant stability at the beginn of the cast. Activating = when the signet is active, which requires 1s casttime. The patchnotes are just referring to the general stability changes.
And with bad burst i don’t neccessarily mean low burst. I know, ranger can achieve big numbers, but those combos are too easy to counter, with too high cd. And calling minor traits (with required conditions that will be met quite often without even thinking about it) a big investment, but a 60s cd utility not, must be a joke, right? And no, the signet isn’t meta. It can be used against certain comps (pure power or pure condi) and when using lb, but often it is not worth giving up defensive utilities and weapons for it. Without the bug it was crap, and it will be crap again. Removing the unblockability is a bugfix and as such justified, but it is not neccessary for balancing purposes.
Edit: Being independent from the rangers stats is pretty much the only positive thing, pets bring with them. And there has to be at least something positive to even out the disadvantages it has, to be reliant on stupid AI.
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Hmm let’s see 1 sec cast that provides Stability as soon as the skill is activated… which means non interruptible, let’s see the tell can be negated by Ranger using one of its multiple forms of stealth, and it’s a relatively low CD for what it does which is 5 stacks of Stability, 8 seconds of 25% damage, 8 seconds of 50% movement speed.
It doesn’t grant stability during the cast, so it is interruptible. And since you can see, if a ranger runs the signet or not, you can predict, that he might use it in stealth (or even see it when the pet is not stealthed) and react accordingly. Also +25% dmg sounds a lot, but when considering the low base dmg and overall bad access to dmg modifier of ranger, it is not even that much. For example, meta daredevil basically gets +25% dmg for free (minor traits) + potentially a lot more if you pick traits like executioner and bound. Burst ranger builds have always been some kind of “one-trick-pony” – even with the unblockable bug – but never really op.
@OriOri
A pet that can be killed easily is a dead pet. Dead pets are useless pets. And a ranger with a useless pet is useless himself. So zerk rangers would be completely useless. And pets that don’t deal any dmg (see bears) are bad too, so bunker rangers would be useless too. For pure support, tempest is better. Of course you could balance ranger arround useless pets, but why not just delete ranger (a pet class by design) and create a new class then?
Clarion Bond makes only the pet unblockable – which is what it is supposed to do.
I never said, druid is better in general. I was just wondering about some of the reasons people brough up (heals/cleanses/waterfields).
You didn’t say, tempest outheals druid, true, but Fay did. And tempest only outcleanses druid when it runs a subpar build, with significantly less healing than druid, and we assume, 2/3 of druids cleanses do nothing.
And tempest does not provide more or stronger aoe regen than druid. A single! tick from healing spring provides more regen than an aura. 2 seconds inside HS can already provide near perma regen – for more than just 5 players. And if we still assume, HS is useless, we can just take traited shouts instead – each providing more than 2x as much regen as an aura. And the regen can tick for 450+/s (Pretty funny that you think, 300/s is worth mentioning. Yes i know, more than 300/s is possible on tempest too. Druid got better/more access to outgoing healing modifier, so there will remain a small advantage).
I don’t really understand this discussion. There are obviously enough reasons to take tempest over druid, so why do you want to find even more?
I’m from EU and i see those stationary fights quite often. You can also watch pretty much any random GvG video on youtube to see those.
So you think, tempests wh5 (the only waterfield a d/w tempest provides) + blasts is better than druids RT? Lets see:
Water Globe provides 1 waterfield on 28 (35s cd) that heals for less than 4k (@~1400 hp) and which they can selfblast up to 3x (45s cd on aftershock!) for additional ~5k healing, if the field doesn’t travel straight into the enemy bomb or somewhere else where they don’t want to move. But let’s be generous and say, it provides ~ 10k*5 mobile aoe healing every 30s (=20k*5 per minute).
Druid can use Rejuvenating Tides 2x every 20-30s (lets say every 20s because we are generous again), for about 16k*5 healing without any blasts. That’s 48k*5 mobile healing per minute with only 1 skill and more than twice as much as tempest with wh5 + blasts.
You can’t tell me, WH 5 is better than RT or even one of druids other water fields.
I also don’t get, why staff tempest’s water fields are better than the druid’s. Ele has 1x 2s duration on 16s cd, 1x 6s duration on 36 cd. Druid has 1x 10s duration on 24s cd, 1x 5s duration on 20/25s cd (can be quickdraw’ed for 8s cd! if neccessary) and a mobile one with 8s cd (requires CA, so 2x every ~20-30s). With the right rotation, druid can keep up a water field permanently. Druid can also provide aoe vigor (~16s every 20s till pets die -but bears can actually survive for quite a while).
Tempest can maybe (too lazy to do the math) outcleanse druid, if it gives up aurashare and durability rune (which means less aoe auras, healing, protection, regen and vigor) and they obviously got the benefits from aoe auras and bigger radius on some heals, but it won’t outheal druid. With or without aurashare.
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I’m well aware of the boon spam meta that is dominating zerg play (i don’t know, how meta builds exactly look like, but i got a roughly knowledge about what is used). And those boons allow a lot of facetanking and favour stacking more than ever. There is usually very little movement in zerg/guild fights (less in GvG, more in Pug zergs). I don’t have to take part in those to see people just clump together till something eventually dies.
Healing spring is very very strong in such scenarios. And why is it even an argument that druid can can’t selfblast Rejuvenating Tides – which is even without blasting the strongest mobile aoe healing skill in the game – when d/f tempest provides zero water fields? Tempest has bigger radius on some of his heals, which makes it easier to “hit” spread out players, but it is not more mobile than druid.
As for boons – druid can provide all that tempest can provide, with the exception from protection (theoretically druid could bring blue moa or stone spirit, but both doesn’t work that well so i don’t count them). But for perma prot everybody (including druid, who doesn’t lose the majority of cleanses when doing so) can just run with durability rune, which is actually meta for pretty much everything.
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When it comes to water fields and blasts, druid is better than d/x tempest. So auras and protection (which you get almost perma from durability rune alone if everybody runs it) and easier to use (but weaker) heals is all a tempest provides, that druid can’t. Pretty much what i said.
@apharma
I might be wrong, because i’m usually not a zerg/GvG player, but from what i can see in WvW, warhorn and 5 shouts is not meta, because it will leave the ele way to vulnerable to focus/spike dmg (An issue that applies to druid to some extent). They usually run focus offhand and lightning flash, sometimes even armor of earth. For cleansing water you also have to give up powerful auras, and aurashare is imo the biggest advantage tempest has over druid.
Druids can bring healing spring, which doesn’t only cleanse conditions, but is overall a very strong (the best?) water field. They can easily selfblast it multiple times (d/f tempest has no water field, d/w only 1). Add Glyph of Alignment, Glyph of Equality and/or brownbear, soft cc remove with Vine Surge and you don’t have to rely on the delayed (but still potentially strong) cleanse from Seed of Life. Shouts with soldier rune would be an option too for druid (though not optimal imo).
I’m not saying, druid is better than tempest, but after messing arround a bit with support druid in pug zergs, i think, it is not as bad as many people claim. AOE stunbreaks, cleanses, blinds, projectile destruction, regen, fury, vigor, swiftness, stealth, superspeed, spotter, strong rezzing and of course tons of healing shouldn’t be underrated. It basically just lacks on demand stability/invuln and maybe a bigger radius on some skills.
Glancing blows (caused by weakness) don’t crit, so there won’t be lower “crit dmg” because of weakness, just lower crit rate + less dmg on some non critical hits.
It was more likely caused by different amounts of dmg reduction (toughness, protection, traits …). The axe/shield warrior was probably running high toughness + RR, maybe even dmg reduction food.
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Well, i don’t know, how meta zerg tempest exactly looks like, but does it even have that much cleanses? I guess it runs aurashare, so no cleansing water. It has water overload and eventually shouts (with soldier rune), what more?
Druid can bring a bunch of cleanses too.
Druids primarily are capable of much higher burst healing than other classes. However, they have lower sustained healing capabilities than a properly specced tempest. Druids, of course, also bring a very significant damage buff in the form of GotL. This is why you see druid healers in PvE raids but elementalist healers in WvW. In PvE, the damage from GotL and intermittent burst healing of a druid is enough to keep a party healthy and dealing damage. In WvW, the higher sustained healing output of an elementalist is a better way to keep your frontline parties alive and kicking.
But shouldn’t be burst healing much more valuable in WvW than healing over time? I mean, people aren’t under constant (low) pressure all the time in zergfights, it is more phases of high pressure – where you want tons of healing in a small time frame – and some sort of recovery/regroup phases.
If you meant total healing with “sustained healing” though, you are wrong. Druid should be able to heal for more than tempest.
What tempest brings over druid are the auras, eventually boons (?) and the (slightly) better survivability in the frontline (with d/f tempest – staff ele is a different story). And it might be easier to use in pug zergs, because tempest’s heals tend to have higher radius, which makes it easier to “hit” allies, that are not stacking perfectly.
Oh, i see now, what you meant.
But even if you don’t need the self healing from WHaO, water spirit is so bad, it is never worth taking over any other healing skill. The passive healing is so minor, it is worse than regen without healing power. Even when spirit ranger was meta, most of those where running a different heal skill, which tells a lot about how “good” water spirit is. For pure team support, healig spring is still the better option.
Top stats show nothing. Sure, sometimes they can show valuable contribution, but often they don’t. You can carry games without getting any top stats and you can play terrible and still get multiple top stats. If top stats would be factor in MMR calculation, it would just encourage players to focus more on getting those stats instead of actually winning games, which is bad.
And how can you know, that it’s always your team dragging you down? (Don’t tell me its becase of top stats). Maybe you just don’t see your own mistakes because you focus too much on your team’s mistakes? Always blaming the team for losses is a mindset that won’t help you climbing. You can’t change how your team plays. You can only change how you play so you should always question yourself “What could i have done better?”.
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In teamfights you should easily be able to enter CA on cd with traited WHaO, so that’s not really an argument for water spirit.
I used sun spirit on a core condi bunker build in season 1 and 2. It wasn’t a bad utility for this kind of build, but it only worked because a) people tend to ignore the spirit, when it is placed off point, even though they could destroy it with a few autoattacks, b) many builds where condi, so team mates would actually benefit from the burning. But now most play power builds, so there is little benefit from the spirit in teamfights. Aside from this, power ranger/druid is better than condi anyways and there is no valid reason for marauder or menders druid to replace any of its utilities with a spirit.
Edit: It is about 10s.
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Because winning IS all what matters. PvP is NOT about dealing the maximum amount of dmg or healing, it is not about ressing or killing the most, it is about winning the games. Top stats are pretty meaningless and therefore they shouldn’t contribute to the MMR.
If you are at about 50% win ratio, then it is most likely that you are where you belong. If you want to climb – learn how to win more games.
Yes, i have seen the “outnumbered buff” with quite a lot people on the map and sometimes i don’t see it with only very few people on the map againt a big blob – because the 3rd server has even less.
Also it is pretty hard to estimate the numbers of your server and the opposing servers on the whole map, since not everyone has to be in a squad/on tag. And enemy zergs generally look bigger than your own.
Afaik the outnumbered “buff” goes to the server which has the least amount of players on a map, regardless of actual numbers. It doesn’t have to be 1:3.
But if you got a queue, you won’t be outnumbered on the map, unless you got a lower map cap, which i doubt.
Not a stat, but cleanses and resistance can completely nullify any benefit from expertise. Dmg increase from precision and ferocity can be reduced by toughness and protection, but it won’t get completely nullified. Condi duration is also capped at + 100% while ferocity is not. (+150% dmg possible).
And i though, the issue with condis is the “burst” not the dmg over time, but expertise increases only the latter, so where’s the problem now?
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Healingpower already counters conditions indirectly. With 0 healing, regen will neutralize about 1 stack of bleeds. With lots of healingpower and regen it will need at least 3-4 stacks of bleeds, before the health starts actually dropping. The more healing (over time), the more condition dmg (over time) it needs to kill stuff.
On a full trailblazer reaper with antitoxin rune, 25 stacks of might and 25 corruption sigil stacks (= about 2750 condition dmg and 60% condition duration), staff 2 will hit for a maximum of ~ 5,3k dmg over the course of 14 seconds (<400 tick). Staff 3 will hit for a maximum of about 7,3k in 14 seconds (<800tick), staff 5 will hit for a maximum of ~ 2,6k over 14 seconds (<200 tick), so with all conditons from staff, condi reaper can barely get to 2k ticks, assuming no cleanses, no resistance and no duration reductions. Condition reaper can’t burst with staff. Meanwhile power reaper can autoattack for 4k+ per second. Now lets look at scepter (including lingering curse). With constant autoattacks you can get to about 5k ticks i guess, but it will take more than 10 seconds and it is only single target. Nothing that i would call burst. Scepter 2 about 15k dmg over 25 seconds (<600 ticks). Scepter 3 max 20k dmg over 10s (<2k ticks) on moving target. With everything together you can maybe get to 10k ticks, but it will take literally an eternity and an afk target to get there. No burst at all. Power reaper drops a few wells and can deal similar dmg in a fraction of this time. Corrupts can add some dmg, but no burst either, because they apply only low stacks. Condi reaper can only burst with transfers or with epidemic in coordination with other condi builds. But even those thing will require a ramp up time, coordination and timing (especially epi bombs) and they can be countered by equally coordinated power burst/cc/dodge/invuln/blind and last but not least – cleanses. Too bad those things require some thinking and active play instead of brainless skill spamming while getting carried hard by passive boons.
Oh, i didn’t know boon share works for precision, ferocity and dmg modifier. Are you sure, we are playing the same game?
Oh yea, there is nothing that increases power dmg, no precision and ferocity, no dmg modifiers, and boon duration is obviously way too weak, needs definitely some more buffs. You clearly have some great understanding about how the game works …
Why not implement -20% direct dmg foods and rune too, so nobody has to die ever?
Go and play a trap ranger without any (or at max 1) stunbreaks/stability/invuln and tell me again it is too forgiving. Go and play any other condi build that has to trade defensive skills and traits to do sufficient dmg (which applies to many) and tell me again it is too forgiving, compared to all those boon spamming power builds, builds full of passive crap and builds with spamable active defense and high dmg in one and all that stuff that is infecting the game.
If you want condi builds to take 3 offensive stats, buff crit procs and expertise so its actually worth investing into those, and add marauder/zerk gear equivalents for condi builds, then we can talk about balance.
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-20% from food (it already exists, just in case it wasn’t a troll suggestion) and -25% from rune already gives -45% condition duration with minimal stat investment, then you got cleanses and eventually resistance on top of it and you still want even more (passive) dmg reduction without trade-off? Are there not enough bunkers arround?
I don’t know what build the thief was running (i think he was core, not sure though, but probably da/cs/tr), i don’t know how many might stacks he had and how many vuln i had (as i mentioned – it wasn’t a 1vs1), maybe he was using assassin signet. Doesn’t matter, it was just meant as an anectodal reference, since you were talking about unload and it just happened that i got killed by it yesterday. Nothing else.
And yes, those remarks weren’t targeted specifically at you, but people that tend to complain about condis always make general statements without anything to back it up. And this includes you (“too forgiving since launch” etc). Why can’t people just talk about specific skills and builds and how to balance those? I mean, nobody says “nerf power”, it is always more like “nerf killshot/vault/rapid fire/CoR/traps/whatever”. But when it is about condition builds, it is always “nerf condis”, just with different suggestions on how the nerf should look like.
@beatthedown.2651
It is more Vans who is facetanking stuff and still staying at almost 100% hp constantly (resistance balanced …), the mesmer plays more defensively and barely pressures him (unless its 2vs1).
But it is not a secret, that certain condition mesmer builds are very strong in 1vs1 (not so much against power warrior though – so that’s actually a bad example). So what has this now to do with condi ranger, condi engi, condi ele, condi rev, condi war, condi thief, condi necro? Or even with different condi mesmer builds? Mistrust/bleed builds anyone? And what about hybrid builds?
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Funnily i met a p/p thief yesterday. I was fighting other players, was at half hp (~10k), suddenly my heath was gone. Checked combat log, unload hits (single hits, not the full channel) were critting me for 1,9-2k. I guess the thief had quickness, which explains, why i died so fast that i didn’t even had time to use my Signet of Stone. Sure, if i would have seen the thief coming, i could have reacted faster and avoided the dmg, but still – 10k dmg in about a second out of nowhere is nothing a condi build can do. Btw, i’m running with 2,8k armor, so not particulary glassy. And about the argument, that you can negate part of unloads dmg even when dodging late – it is a channeled skill, but thats not true for all power skills. Most power skills are single hit, so dodge in time or get hit applys here too. PP thief isn’t the only power build that can burst, it is not even very strong overall, so i don’t understand, why you fixate so much on the pp thief. It was just an example, that power builds doesn’t have to be full zerk to deal decent dmg, nothing else.
Usually it is more the “condi op” fraction, that shows lack of knowledge (“condis can’t be dodged/blocked”, “not enough cleanses to remove ALL condis” “retal only counters power builds”, “dire builds burst as hard as zerk builds” “condis need only 1 stat for max dmg” “condis are passive playstyle”, “all condis op” – nonsense like this) and if you ask them about some proof or what skills or traits are actually op, you get no answer, because they don’t know, how those condi builds work and how to play against them, so Nikkinella is not even close to truth (i would still like to see those videos he is talking about). Also not everyone who defends condis, plays condi himself – that’s just another wrong claim. I play almost exclusively power – because ranger is my main class and condi ranger sucks. I even play a build that’s weak vs condis – and still don’t die to condis more often than to power – i wonder why …
Knowing how to execute a build and actually pulling that off perfectly are two different things.
And spirits have 1k range, which won’t hinder anyone from killing them. If they don’t get killed, it is just because people ignore them, since their impact is not worth bothering with them. Just kill the ranger instead- who will lack defensive utilities to deal with the focus fire …
Not everyone who hasn’t got HoT is a F2P player. And if you want to ban non-HoT builds, why not just ban everything except from meta-builds? Srsly, bad idea …
The whole discussion looks only about theoretical numbers and ignores many other factors that determine whether something is op or not …
How strong a build is, depends mostly on traits and skills and situations, not on stats. Sure, certain stats can make a good build stronger, but it is never the deciding factor. If you put dire/tb gear on a strong condi build , the outcome might be op. But if you slap it on a bad condi build – the build will remain bad. Same goes for something like zerk or marauder gear. I mean, it’s not like there aren’t any op power builds …
That’s why balance should be based on traits and skills, not on stats. Stat changes are very unlikely to happen anyways, so why even waste time on proposals like this, instead of suggesting changes to traits and skills, that might be more realistic?
You doesn’t have much precision anyways, so definitely take trapper’s expertise in a trapper build (and maybe replace the rabid stuff with dire/trailblazer/apothecary – you don’t gain much from the precision). I would also take spike trap over frost trap and QD over “Light on your Feet”. Replacing one trap with a stunbreak and taking defensive weapons (sword and/or dagger) can also help with survivability.
But overall trap builds will always be weak to heavy burst and cc, because you lack important defensive utilities.
Why would you need mechanical skill to theorycraft stuff? Knowledge about the game/class/gamemode is more important in this regard.
And most people seem to know, that spirits die super fast, so even if they would pose a threat somehow, it would be way to easy to counter. And giving up important defensive utilities for something that can be rendered useless for so easy, will never be a good idea.
So for example, cast Warhorn 5 (Call of the Wild) on you and pet (no FB yet). That’s 3 Stacks of Might on both of you. WHaO copies the boons both ways and now you both have 6 stacks. Warhorn 5 with FB will give you 3 stacks and your pet 6 stacks (boon + copy of yours). WHaO and you now both have 9 stacks.
The pet will actually end up with 15 stacks after wh5 + FB + heal, because the 6 stacks you gain from the heal will get transferred back to the pet again by FB.
FB and WHaO basically multiply each other, which makes the combination of NM + BM so strong.
I indeed forgot about impairing daggers. Venom share requires the help from other players though or thieves guild + ambush for a max of (2*)4*6 stacks. So yes, it is possible to get to 40+ stacks once every 3 minutes, if you precast the venom at the right moment and the target does nothing for several seconds. Sounds as op as a full nomad bunker ranger, who oneshots players with drakes (Yes, it is possible – and yet the build sucks …)
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The initial attack of entangle is unblockable. It is just weak, because pretty much everybody runs plenty of counters – and if people wouldn’t do so, AC would be op.
This requires at least 40 stacks of poison, assuming 1 stack ticks with about 250.
I’m curious, how you want to get there. Steal – 2 stacks, 2x needle trap – 2 stacks, spider venom – 6 stacks (+12 with thieves guild), then you can apply some more with choking gas or dagger auto, but that’s not going to be 30 stacks, so where do you get the missing poison from? And even if it is somehow possible to apply that much poison (or bleeding), you basically have to blow all your cds and hope, the enemy does nothing for several seconds. Sounds really op, that condi “burst”.
Soft cc = “control” conditions. Hard cc = effect, that prevents players from skill usage (except stunbreaks and some instant skills). Daze is a hard cc.
Dependent on the build, ranger/druid has plenty of access to different kinds of hard and soft cc.
20k bleed ticks? Come on, you aren’t going to put 100 stacks of bleeds on a player. To “burst”, condi builds have to blow multiple (often long) cooldowns and hope, the enemy doesn’t cleanse, because they won’t have much left. Condi skills that deal 10k+ dmg usually take 10 or more seconds to deal that dmg. Meanwhile some power builds can deal 10k instantly every few seconds by pressing a single button. Sure, there is a lot of dmg reduction in the game, but there are lot’s of cleanses too. If people prefer to take toughness, protection and similar over cleanses or -condi duration, it is actually a sign, that direct dmg tends to be more dangerous without passive counters. You can’t compare power dmg vs target with lots of defense against power and condi dmg vs target with 0 condi defense. That’s obviously not a fair comparison.
Are some condi builds op? Sure. Are all condi builds op? No. Are some power builds op? Yes. So you can’t really nerf condis in general, let power builds untouched and call it balance.
Btw, i’m playing my ranger with about 3k armor and 20k hp and i can burst (<2 seconds) for 20k. And i’m playing a power build (not even an op one, because it is not all about pure numbers).
Imo boons are a way bigger issue in wvw than condis.
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Healing druid with magi’s gear is only recommended for raids and eventually high level fractals. For everything else it is better to use a more offensive oriented build, so either berserker or viper’s gear. Power builds are slightly better for open world PvE, especially in low level areas because of the better burst (but literally anything works there) and offer more utility/support in group content. Viper has better dps in longer fights. Just take what fits your personal preference the most.
1. Condi ignores thoughness and protection – power ignores cleanses and resistance. The first two things are more common/passive/easier to use, the latter two can be more powerful though, because they can negate up to 100% of the dmg. Everything else (blocks, evades, blinds, …) works against both.
2. The side effects from condis are the same for power and condi builds.
3. Soldier amulet was a thing in the past, so power can work with only 1 stat. Power dmg benefits a lot from precison and ferocity, which makes those stats so strong but not always mandatory. Condi builds benefit from condi dmg and expertise and sometimes also from precision. 3 stats again. The gain from those stats might be less compared to power builds, because additional duration can be 100% negated by cleanses while critical hits deal always more dmg than normal hits.
I use F1 a lot and would miss it, if its functionality gets lost. I keep my pets on “avoid combat” most of the time to prevent them from wasting their skills at the wrong moments and to have better control over them in general and therefore F1 is my main attack command, which makes sure, that the pet sticks to the target it should (and it actually does!), even if i target something else for whatever reason. (Interrupting a rezzing enemy while my pets keeps dmging the downed for example, or when i’m tabbing arround to check what/how my enemies are doing or because my actual target is stealthed, and i don’t want my pet to run back and forth between different targets).
Burn is still the only burst condition (and maybe confusion against stupid targets that keep spamming skills) and its still not much compared to what powerbuilds can pull off.
Also keep in mind that there is a lot more healing in the game now, so you need higher dmg to kill stuff. Put one stack of the old burn on current warrior and he would take zero dmg, because it would just get outhealed.
If you want to raid – the only content, where a healer is neccessary – get magi gear. Cleric (or anything else with toughness) is not recommend, to make sure you won’t have more armor than the tank. For everything else (open world, dungeons, fractals) berserker gear is perfectly fine.
As long the target has the condis/CC on it (even if it has no effect like vs enemies with breakbar or resistance), PO will work.
I don’t think they could increase attack speed and still keep the evade frames the same, you would end up evading everything by just using AA. i’d like a buff to GS damage but don’t see it happening. I use GS when i get a bad Pug group or in PVP for the evades and defensive skills. swoop, if timed properly, can be used to evade most attacks. couple that with a few AA evades and a block or daze and you’ve got yourself a kitten defensive weapon.
On paper GS has great defense, but in reality those defensive skills are quite unreliable (in a PvP setting). The evade on AA can’t be used to reactively avoid skills because it is not aviable on demand and due to the low dmg of the chain it is often not worth to use the autoattack at all. Swoop can be easily interrupted before the evade part of the skill. Counterattack is often useless or even detrimental against melee attacks from opponents with stab or against attacks that evade while dealing dmg or against multiple targets (which can include clones and pets) because you have no control over the self-rooting knockback.
I still like GS and use it a lot in WvW, but against good players with good builds it has too much counterplay (which wouldn’t be a problem, if other weapons/builds would allow the same amount of counters, but unfortunately this is not the case).
(edited by UmbraNoctis.1907)