Guild Wars 2

That can’t be right, it’s supposed to be moderated by different people.

I…don’t think so?
I kind of thought they usually made a fresh new thread.

Ah, my apologies.
I didn’t mean to yammer on too much about other classes.

“Jack of all Trades” is a cop-out term rangers have been using, because our purpose is so ill defined we don’t know what else to say.

Engineers and Elementalists also toss around the same term. And given the nature of attunement and kits I’m more than willing to give it to them. Their profession mechanics suits the concept of ‘changing’ better than ours does, and it allows them much greater access to numbers of skills during combat. They might actually get the variety to really make their respective mechanics sing, if there weren’t so many pseudo-Jacks around trying not to step on eachother’s feet.

We can’t all have the same place in combat, or it’s the same as nobody having one.
I think part of the Ranger discussion, should be focused on trying to find one that really fits our semi-unrestricted access to an NPC.

In the Ready Up stream they made it clear they didn’t intend for this to be the alpha and omega of changes.
http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/496005243 (8:50-9:53)

But, you’re right, of course. I kind of allowed myself to get taken reaaalllllyyy far off topic. And I am sorry for that.

You’re entitled to your skepticism.
However, not wanting to trust them doesn’t somehow magically erase the words from existence.

No, it doesn’t come back to any of that.
Who cares what the status quo is when the devs have stated they intend to change it?

There are two words, there.
I have no reason to just flat-out ignore one.

(especially given the context of the thread it was posted as a response to).

Yup, I can sauce my statement.

We are trying to take steps to address some of the dominance of Berserker/DPS players. More info next week, I think.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/PvE-Revising-the-DPS-Meta/first

You can’t view DPS dominance as something worth addressing, if it was the only thing you ever intended players to use.

@Nike
I can’t quite figure out what you mean.
I guess if you don’t have much experience with roles, you might not know ‘Healer’ and ‘Support’ are actually two role terms. They don’t mean they want to pretend they’re doctors or something, they’re referring to actual real gameplay mechanics.

Thank you for the clarification, ma’am.

1) Ranger
2) Engineer
3) Elementalist

Are we listing classes that need Balancing or Development Time?

Because I think the number tweaks between classes are largely okay. But there are definitely certain classes that have clunkier gameplay, lackluster utility choices, awkward traitlines, buggy or buggy-seeming performance, etc.

I’m not asking you to support anything.
How things operate now has been identified as a problem to which devs announce they’re seeking a solution. All that’s left to discuss at this stage is how, not if.

Nobody’s saying you have to be on-board with this, but you kinda’ don’t have much to contribute to the discussion if you’re not.

Just to clarify some terminology;
‘Roleplaying’ is about /emotes and being ‘in character’.
‘Playing a Game with Roles’ is about meaningful mechanical differences that impact your gameplay like Medic, Jungle or Tank.

I don’t know if maybe you GW1 folk might be using some strange variant of the slang, but if you come from any other game background you know these are two different things.

If you’re conflating these terms because they sound similar and you don’t know the difference because you’ve never had the pleasure of playing a game with roles; then allow to redouble my recommendation for playing LoL and TF2.

I fundamentally can’t agree with an argument that tries to write off having a discussion at all because ’that’s the way it is’. It’s a game, not a mountain. If something isn’t working, you fix it.

We already know the devs don’t share that fatalistic viewpoint, or they wouldn’t have told us they’re trying to fix the DPS meta.

Ahh, I see the hang-up.
I think you’re not quite understanding what people feel they’re missing out on when they complain about support and control.

They don’t just want to use these mechanics, they want to make interesting choices when they’re building their characters and re-contextualize the same combat experience from a different perspective by giving themselves a different goal.

Berserker gear and power trait-lines being able to handle all the defensive support and control the game requires doesn’t make for interesting character building choices. Being able to toss out a lazy Blind here and there is paying shallow lipservice to what having a role in combat actually means.

Given how much confusion people seem to have about this, I think you can only really understand what this game is missing and how tragic that is, if you’ve seen what this system is like when it’s working.

Play a game that has Soft Roles.
Where everybody is naturally part DPS and the win condition of the game is aggressive, but they still have different Roles. May I recommend League of Legends or Team Fortress 2? They’re both Free to Play, and they’re on record in PR statements as being Arenanet’s direct influences, so you know that’s what they’re trying to shoot for.

I Kind of don’t get where you keep trying to go with that?
It’s a horizontal progression game, it all needs to be working.

That is the one thing I love about Asia’s mmo combat is that it’s all stupidly over the top. Everyone moves crazy fast or has absurd attack animations and equipment. It makes it all a lot more fantastical and enjoyable. It’s one of the things GW2 lacks (unless you play thief) and it becomes dreadfully obvious when you use the same weapon sets for 1000+ hours.

Oh man, you want over the top?
I see Aridia’s BLESS Ranger, and raise you a Black Desert Ranger
http://youtu.be/TmhFBTHrt8E?t=2m11s

Darned Western Market and it’s love for crappy tab targeting. I can’t tell you how much I wanted Longbow to play more like this when I first heard about GW2.

No one here is going to spend hours logging lfg posts for your edification – you can do that yourself.

This.

Also, we’re all pretty unreliable narrators.
If stacking/skipping/exploiting drives you up the wall or unoptimized play drives you nuts, that’s what sticks out in your memory. So people on both sides of the fence tend to think they’re surrounded.

Sorry, but, yes.
They are absolutely beholden to AC just as much as Fractals

That’s kind of the downside of not having vertical progression come along and wipe the slate clean every few months. Their release content is technically always their current content, and the more they advance in encounter design without going back to revise the farther and farther behind it gets.

I don’t envy the position they’re in, but I’m not about to let them off the hook either.

@ Cri
Every other MMORPG in the world worth playing can manage to deliver a game experience without stacking/skipping just fine?

There’s nothing hopeless or futile about it.
It’s the way these sorts of games are normally played.

@ Mad Queen Malafide
/agree

Also, it can introduce movement as counter-play to conditions if the effects are capable of responding the victim’s proximity to other players over time and not wholly dependent on the initial cast.

Like; I think burning spreading like wildfire in a clump of people is compelling;, it does encourage people to do something other than clump up all the time, and it does encourage you to use aiming and timing to make sure you’re hitting the center of mass. It gives conditions purpose, and a skill ceiling.

But I also think it could be made more compelling if there was some kind of decision-making happening on the victim’s end as well. Like, every tick the burning reassessed how close the victim is to others and punished or rewarded them somehow.

So feel free to choose your own way and do not necessarily criticize who does not do it your way.

Let’s be realistic here;
If people were capable of out-thinking a rewards system all the time, we wouldn’t have words like ‘Grind’. A game can totally make you feel compelled to do something you hate doing, or compel you in the wrong direction.

Players shouldn’t have to choose between progressing their character aesthetically and statistically through financial gains, or progressing their knowledge-base of mechanics and their skillset as a player through genuine non-cheeseball gameplay. All of these forms of progression should be pointing down the exact same path. Like how more established franchises have been managing for years without issue.

We shouldn’t be trying to hand-wave this rock and a hardplace situation with some empty saccharine sentiment.

Well, just try not to corner yourself.

For example. Whatever the meta may actually be, I always keep a collection of weapons in my bag to swap around as needed. And I always end up swapping something at least once a dungeon, usually offhands.

Also consider how flexible your trait investments are.
My Ranger has to constantly swap Spotter in and out, to avoid overlapping with another ranger. But generally going into Marksmanship is pretty safe because there’s alot of great alternatives in there.

The direct damage difference between a Lashtail and Spiders in a 30 second span is roughly ~15% or so in Spider’s favor by my math. Spotter + Fury or Signet of the Wild are mechanics that favor Lashtail and shrinks the gap to around ~13%, but that’s about the best you can hope for.

Lashtails are pretty rewarding…for where they are on the skill curve and the neigh non-existent micromanagement level they require.

Personally, I use them both.
Double spiders has come back to bite me in the behind defensively, and honestly things like sic’ em and signet of the wild are beyond awkward with a spider. There’s always this sense of having to ‘get the AI out of the way’. It’s pretty aggravating gameplay.

This is soooooo not the playerbase you can make that kind of a plea with. I’ve never seen such a lazy lot.

Mmmm. I’ve been playing since Beta and I still much prefer to run a dungeon this way.

So, I want to support your effort….
…but, on the flipside, I am super happy with my current guild because they act like this normally, and it rare we’re wanting to pug a fifth. So I don’t really know how to support this effort exactly?

And, I’ll be honest, I think you might run into alot of that.

If you hate what the dungeon scene has become; you’ve either bunkered down with some comrades in arms, or frankly found a game that isn’t such a fascinating well-intentioned trainwreck of giving people enough rope to hang themselves with.

I hate to say it, but, it’s just a really bad time right now for newbie dungeoneers who are looking for exciting and memorable dungeon experiences.

Trivial nonsensical number juggling

I don’t know, going through and iterating Runes and Sigils seems like the kind of deeper structural work I’ve been wanting to see more of.

Currently the game features the ability to control the direction a player dodges in by simultaneously pressing either the forward/back/strafe left or strafe right keys. Would it be possible to open up this same functionality to leaps, evades, and other instances of automated player movement?

This would cause Closers and Retreats to become functionally the same thing. But, they kind of already are if you bind the AboutFace and LockAutoTarget hotkeys.

It just seems to unnecessarily make something that could feel pretty intuitive and fluid into a multibutton barrel o’ awkward.

It’s not that I’ve got an issue with a Defensive Weapon, it’s that people feel pigeonholed into taking the Defensive Weapon as an Offensive Weapon because there isn’t any other game in town when it comes to burst.

That right there, sucks.

I honestly don’t know if Greatsword needs tweaking, so much as the other power weapons need to get their act together so that Greatsword can be allowed to serve it’s niche without being burdened with the expectation of serving half of another.

Truthfully, I think altering the nature of Attack of Opportunity to apply it’s effect for an entire Skill Button as opposed to just One Painfully Literal Hit is a small resource change that could have a big impact.

This works doubly well to getting Rapid Fire in a good place in a power building spec; because not only does it fully synergize with Signet of the Hunt, but Point Blank Shot can trigger Moment of Clarity. Although it does nothing for Sword directly, it might become better indirectly by allow Attack of Opportunity to affect a damage pet’s entire F2 instead of small fraction of it, which amplifies the effect of Sword’s might-stacking gameplay.

Three AI companions that I Sodding Loved To Death
…and how I think they could make Pets better

Orianna’s Mulitasking from League of Legends;

• Has the mother of all ‘Go To’ Commands
  I’ve never more felt like I was in two places at once and effortlessly playing two characters at once than when using this champion. The ‘Go To’ Command had a lot of things going for it, but among them was the fact it functioned as movement control and as a general engagement attack simultaneously.
  • Add a Go To Function that allows you perform F2s where you want and not just near the enemy or yourself (which is a massive boon to multitasking all on it’s own). Play around with Hybridizing Attack and Go To Functions. Such as F1 is a targeting reticule that switches to standard enemy mouse selection if it hovers over an enemy. If you click when it’s a reticule, it executes as a ‘Go To’. If you click when it’s Mouse Selection, it executes as ‘Attack’.

Pokemon’s Affection as Deus Ex Machina;

• These games have been trying to include some form of Affection mechanically for some time. But I really think they managed something interesting with the ability of a highly affectionate Pokemon to randomly endure a hit that would otherwise knock it out, and have a higher chance of rarely occurring more powerful attacks.
  • I think keeping a pet out as opposed to frequent switching is an interesting alternative playstyle for our mechanic that has some hints of existing in our traits (master’s bond, natural healing) and could give new life to some utilities (signet of stone). But going that route needs to be more rewarding if it wants to compete. I think if they added some Deus Ex Machina effects like this as a feature to Empathy, it could lower the skill floor/increase the rewards of building this way.

Elizabeth’s Presentation from Bioshock Infinite;

• Can Take Care of Herself
  • We can’t have invulnerable pets or we’d have no profession resource. But, have pets take care of themselves on the silly stuff; Remove Environmental Damage. (Boulders, Fire, Steep Slopes, etc.)

• Associated with Good Things
  Elizabeth is a Regen Mechanic. But Bioshock didn’t just have your ammo tick up periodically with a little +1 floating UI element, they made sure to highlight who exactly the effect was coming from with exhausting devotion(“Booker Catch!”). Certain mechanics in Ranger also try to associate good things with the AI. They try to evoke a sense of the ‘the pet protecting you’ mechanically (Lick Wounds, Empathic Bond, Protect Me, Natural Healing). But there is no accompanying visual for interaction between Master and Pet. If you knew empathic bond was coming from the pet it was because you read the textbox, if you knew natural healing was coming from the pet it was because you read it on a forum, if you could distinguish Protect Me from Return it’s because you guessed.
  • A pet should Take Credit visually for the good things it does. I should be able to see when my pet gives something to me, and when I give something to my pet.

• Made me feel Grateful
  Elizabeth didn’t just toss you ammo every 5 seconds, you got ammo when you were low on ammo. As a Regen mechanic she could have functioned just fine tossing you little bits all the time, but she gives big bits when you really need them. One of these things makes me feel grateful and implies thought-process and heroism, and the other is cold clockwork.
  • Empathic Bond; big condition removal when you’re boned, not small condition removal all the time.
  • Natural Healing; big heal when you’re/it’s dying, not a small regen all the time.

I’ll start off by offering up a PvE perspective;

God Tier: ——-

Tier 1: Raven, Fern Hound, Krytan Drakehound, Jungle Stalker, Jaguar, Lynx, Lashtail Devourer, Salamander Drake, Marsh Drake, River Drake.

Tier 2: Owl, Eagle, Hawk, Snow Leopard, Red Moa, Wolf, Hyena, Jungle Spider, Brown Bear, Carrion Devourer, Reef Drake, Ice Drake.

Tier 3: Blue Moa, Warthog, Pig, Boar, Black Bear, Murrelow, Cave Spider, Whiptail Devourer.

Junk Tier: Pink Moa, White Moa, Siamoth, Arctodus, Polar Bear, Forest Spider, Alpine Wolf.

Hello forum, I have an odd topic of discussion for you.
How would you rank all of our terrestrial Pets in a Tier System?

Tier System, meaning;
God Tier: I feel forced to use this all the time
Tier 1: I use this often
Tier 2: I think it’s okay. Not as useful as T1 but not as hard to work with as T3.
Tier 3: It feels hard to be effective while using this.
Junk Tier: I never end up using this.

I always like seeing how these kinds of topics shake out. It gives interesting insight into what other people are doing, and as a silly thought exercise it can help us focus feedback as a community.

Ehhh. I want more Stealth.
I don’t know if I want it on Signet of the Hunt.

Part of why I kind of don’t like our Signets is that the whole active/passive system is really wasted as a meaningful combat choice.

I feel like I should be experiencing some kind of decision-making about when to sacrifice the passive to get the active. But I either straight-up don’t care about the passive and just use it like any other cooldown skill (Signet of Stone), the timing the of the active is so bloody obvious I don’t have to think about it (Signet of Renewal), or the active and passive have such different functions I’m only using it for one thing and don’t care about losing the other (Signet of the Wild, Signet of the Hunt).

Internal conflict is what makes things interesting in a game. And Runspeed vs. Stealth just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing that would cause any internal conflict. Between enemies? Use the Passive. Near enemies? Use the Active like any other cooldown skill. Blah.

It’s kind of just an extension of the same problem Signet of the Hunt already has; One function is so obviously about Travel, and the other is so obviously about Combat. Why would you ever sweat a choice that has no overlap?

Uhhhh. Not sure?
I can tell you since I last checked the RF tooltip has decreased from 3580 to 3400 when wearing my berserker set and going 30 marksmanship. Which is a 5% difference or so.

However, the last time I checked was right before the update where the mid/close range LRS values were buffed. So, for all I know that change may have happened months ago.

Bleed, Immobilize, Chilled, Crippled, Burned…
Mmmm. No problems here.

Is he running any traits that might be making a conflict?

Unfortunately, we can’t share everything we’re changing due to the nature of some of the changes.

I can respect that.
I’m kind of surprised ya’ll can even talk about this much so far in advance, honestly. It really makes me wonder what else you’re working on that’ll take up the next handful of weeks before the build is closed.

But at the same time, it’s also a bit hard to have an on-topic discussion when the change notes are so sketchy. I get the general sentiment behind pushing Rune effects to later set bonuses and generally bringing things in line with eachother, and I support those decisions on a high level. But it’s really hard to visualize what that actually amounts to exactly, much less hold a discussion about it.

Maybe you could get more focused discussion with a few examples?

Could you maybe toss out the details of a few revised Runes and Sigils that are at a more or less shippable quality?

I think they fixed that.
Sadly.

It could very well end up in a good place if conditions as a whole ever got their act together. But for right now, I only toss it on my bar in Open World PvE.

I will say this, though, it only really makes sense if you get into the habit of popping it enroute to widdle down the cooldown during travel and double-up your effective application during the fight.

I tend to like that, because the whole ‘preparation’ mechanic does actually pan out. Tons of ranger utilities are leaning just to the right or left of their apparent design gameplay; Spirits aren’t really getting used for their actives so they get stuffed into a corner which makes their healthbar mechanic largely superfluous, people ride the passives of Signets all day long creating precisely zero thoughtful tension about when to pop it, Sic’ Em cancels when you use it with the F2’s you’d logically want to use it with, etc, etc.

But this little rarely used utility somehow manages to actually deliver on it’s likely gameplay concept.

Honestly, it boggles my mind.

I can’t remember playing an Action RPG where the dungeon experience was so utterly bereft of actual combat. It doesn’t play like an Action RPG, it plays like a Bad Action RPG. Which is a shame for a game that otherwise seems to have it’s ducks in a row.

The only think I don’t like about conversion is that it’s basically turning Condition builds into Power ones, instead of trying to actually make an identity and a purpose for them.

Honestly, the more I think about it,
I kind of think Condition Damage needs to go.

Wait, wait, before you jump down my throat for that.
I think building your character to Specialize in Conditions should most definitely Be A Thing. I’m just not sure Potency was really the way to go about it.

In other games Conditions are the ‘thriftier’ resource choice, or the ‘secure’ choice that follows your enemies behind cover, or the ‘technical’ choice that puts threatening pressure on the enemy convincing them to concede territory. Conditions in GW2 are ‘the same thing as direct damage but slower’. They have no overarching reason to exist, and scaling up the damage of them doesn’t give them one.

What if they let people spec into the Contagiousness of a Condition?

This would dictate how many targets a Condition can ‘bounce’ to from a person that received the condition, and how much of a distance from the person it can transmit. Like bouncing attacks, it can bounce to the same person multiple times if they don’t have enough sense to GTFA from other people. This effect continues over the duration until the number of target hits is used up.

They’d probably have to scale back the AOE target cap limit to 3 like how they did Splash Damage both in order for this to truly have meaning. And they’d need to tone down some of the sillier cases of conditions stacking, acknowledging that positioning will account for the stacks now. They’d have to find some happy medium point of how much damage they want conditions to do.

But at the end of that, I think you’d have something nice.
You wanna’ hit one guy? Direct damage is still your best bet, caps being what they are. You wanna’ hit, like, ten guys? Highly contagious Fire. Each major category of damage would have it’s niche.

Pros

• Raises skill ceiling and floor of Conditions; you get more stacks with better positioning
• Encourages counterplay for Conditions beyond taking Yet More Flippin’ Condition Cleanse (by physically spreading out)
• Gives Conditions a niche in PvE
• Anti-clumping mechanic; Enemies using conditions on you is an Anti-stacking mechanic in PvE, and this would be a Anti-zerg mechanic in WvW.
• Without potency levels, there can be no such thing as ‘junk conditions’ cluttering up the stacks.
• With less stacks given out initially on skills, the stacks don’t get filled up as quickly on singular targets so multiple condition players can play well together.

Cons

• So very much rebalancing. Oh lord. The workload.
• The stacks don’t get filled up as quickly on singular targets. A bit of a double edged-sword in that you’re less useful on a boss that doesn’t feature any Adds.
• 1v1 battles would favor direct damage….but the game supposedly isn’t balanced for that anyway.

A trick I’ve seen used before is asking players to make a Tier List.

God Tier: You feel forced to take it
Tier 1: Works great.
Tier 2: Still pretty good. But you know it’s not as useful as Tier 1 and not as hard to work with as Tier 3.
Tier 3: Can still use, but it’s difficult to feel effective.
Junk Tier: You never use this. Maybe once, begrudgingly.

The problem with straight-up asking people what they think is Worthless is that they’ll give you a list of what they Want Fixed. Things that are very bad off in all formats and have noteworthy showstopping bugs or deeper conceptual problems (ex; Master’s Bond), kind of end up getting put in the same standing as things that have issues only in particular formats and still function well (ex; Flame Trap).

I think you might have an easier time if you have people make a Tier List, because;

• They’re automatically thinking of choosing it as it relates to their other choices, and not about making things they’re already using more or less powerful in a vacuum.
• It’s quick and easy to fill out, as people don’t have to explain why they feel the way they do. They’re not trying to write up a convincing argument to you and Arenanet as a third party observer, they’re casting a vote. Something easy like that tends to have a higher volume of respondents.
• You don’t have to go off of one’s guy’s word. One guy might be mistaken, shortsighted, or inexperienced. Something goes on the Junk List when it appears time and time again across multiple people.

I think you’ve got to be a bit more discerning with a list like this.
A think of a list of skills you’d never in any circumstance choose is better than a list of things people have general sort of grievances with in particular formats.

It’s hard to give much feedback without knowing the P’s and Q’s of what ‘bringing things in line’ amounts to.

But, while you’re taking a look at Runes, minor clarity suggestion?

Quite a few Runes reference skill mechanics from other classes which is a bit confusing as a new/mid player experience. (ex: ‘Radiation Field’ Rune of the Rata Sum, ‘Magnetic Aura’ Rune of Earth, ‘become mist’ Rune of Vampirism).

Suggestion: Could you get a popup of the related skill’s tooltip to show up along with the Rune’s popup?

@Nike

I think Viable and Competitive are the same thing.

We use Viable here as some kind of weird synonym for ‘functional’. But how I’ve seen it described is more like ‘one of the options in a meaningful choice’.

So, the stuff people have debates over? Probably Viable. The stuff you can kind of dismiss out of hand without a second thought? Not Viable, even if it can complete the content.

Not to whatever dps meta agenda argument you bring up.

/holds hands up in surrender
Hey, don’t look at me. OP clarified his position in a wall of text post on page 2.

But, yeah, I’ll butt out if you want me to.

Its a super outlier extreme case of killing Lupi. Yet you use it as a basis for change….

The DPS meta isn’t getting changed because of Record Lupi Speed Kills.
It’s because it genuinely needs looking into from a mid-level-play and even new-player-experience perspective.

Stunts like this are just spectacular and interesting examples of our overall balance problems, not the actual reason people think we have a DPS imbalance. They could patch the FGS tomorrow and they’d still have to look into the DPS Meta. So, who cares how frequently it occurs?

Screw how others have fun, let’s have fun the way you want us to have fun

I swear, you guys abuse that phrase like you’re getting royalties.
A game has to know what it’s doing in terms of encounter length and stick to it. Because encounter length, combat, and what it’s trying to achieve in terms of gameplay and fun are all interconnected.

Hack n’ slash Action titles like God of War have very fast paced combat and think mowing through enemies is fun. So they make standard encounters and the active combat phases of bosses very short.

Boss-killing Action games like Shadow of the Colossus have slower paced combat and think lengthy encounters with (let’s call it) environmental challenges is fun. So they don’t even have standard encounters, and their boss fights last longer to make the most of the (let’s call it) platforming elements.

Could you imagine Shadow of the Colossus if you could ignore gravity? Or God of War if you could get stuck on a single active combat phase for the entire fight and missed all the phase changes, quicktime events and cutscenes? And the developers were just like, “Oh, that one guy thought it was fun. Whatever, man. It’s all good.”?

I think you’re oversimplifying.

Nerfs shouldn’t happen because of what superstar players doing, Nerfs are happening because of what everyone else is doing. Those folks at the top will just end up getting swept into it.

Adjustments to specific individual fights should happen based on things like this. Because, yes, killing a boss before it has a chance to engage you is not exactly the pinnacle of encounter design.

Nobody’s nerfing critical damage because these guys took down Lupi in 7 seconds or other similar feats. That’s not what’s happened, here.

we have that dps mindset not because dps is too strong.
we have it because everything else is bad.

Ehhh.. sort of.

DPS is indeed King because nothing else is relevant. But, even if they went and made other things relevant, killing a boss before it has a chance to engage you is still Not Okay.

Critical Damage honestly really did need to come down.

They’re not pretending the PvE game is balanced.
They straight up identify the DPS meta as a problem they’re tackling in various stages.

It’s okay to feel frustrated.
PvE is in a pretty crappy place right now. But beating your head bloody on a wall isn’t going to make it any less crappy any faster. Months and months of skilled labor is. Take a deep breath, Take a break, and give the people behind the curtain some time to sort things out.

That’s a reasonable solution.
Unfortunately, I hate to say, I think the caps exist less for design reasons and more for technical reasons.

RE: Fractal control skills
Well, I don’t want to assume I know what you’re referring to.
But, very generally speaking, you’d want something to be similarly Relevant across all levels of play and all available playingfeilds, not snap like a whiplash from technically possible to required once you cross a certain threshold in one of them. If something needs very specific circumstances for it start to working, it isn’t really working.

RE: Boon Power
I kind of don’t like the idea of Boons getting the same problem Bleeds have now. Could you imagine people mucking up the players’ stack limits with ‘junk Fury’?