GW2 Main balance issue : 80% of attacks are AoE

Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank, the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended , the devs are well aware, the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

You don't say.AOE with a hybrid system like GW2's means spam of attacks, conditions and boons.But they didn't do anything since the release, so they don't really care ( and the fact they decided not to split skills and mechanics among the 3 modalities says everything ).

• AA spam which deal 70% of total dmg or even more ( and confusion skill which works on AA too ).
• Condifeast with has no way to be mitigated ( no possibility to build -% dmg ) unless cleansed.
• Condition users which also deal a high amount of dmg throguh physical dmg because reasons.
• Boons AOE spam .
• Corrupt AOE spam.
• AOE spam also on AA.
• Persisten AOE skills ( want to shake hands with the genious who managed to create the Scourge elite ) which obviously can't be evaded even if you play good.
• Instant skills which can't be countered.
• Skills with the same animation which can't be distinguished from the others.

Let's be honest, the don't care about skills do relate between players.They only care about PvE overall balance.

But since GW2 hybrid system has born already broken, then it's not their fault at all if the SPvP and WvW are a mess. It could have probably been more balanced, but still the system would have been definitely not good.

Absolutely. It's almost brainless to "land" skills in this game. The worst one is landing AoE conditions.

Yes tbh. Everything is aoe and thats pretty meh.

@Arheundel.6451 said:Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank, the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended , the devs are well aware, the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

-Not just conditions are the problem; all toxicity which incorporates unhealthy, non-competitive environment-

That's where gw2 competitor's comes in.

The choice is in our hands, same as Anet choice to incorporate and to promote Toxicity in the game.

Choose

• A game company who takes serious action to discourages toxicity?
• A game company who promotes and incorporate toxicity at all costs?

Yeah, I've actually long felt this was a design flaw of the game but have never really posted about it before.

Cleaving attacks on melee weapons (especially the autos), for example, should do reduced damage the more targets they hit. Only certain attacks should be specialized for AoE, and those should be balanced carefully by doing significantly less damage than single target attacks and having longer cooldowns.

The second biggest problem is that they're just flat-out wrong-headed about conditions. They need to reduce damage across the board and leave the short durations in place while getting rid of most sources of cleanse and immunity. Conditions should be specialized for ignoring armor, not doing lots of damage over time. Power should always be better against low armor targets. Their attempts at balance between power and condi are done with a misguided paradigm, so it leads to ineffective results where damage is too high, armor is useless, and anti-condi is king which restricts build diversity.

For aoe damage the easier Fix would be to let the aoe deal full damage on the one you have in target, and a Lower percentage on the others ( and i mean Lower, like 20% or 10% ).

This could Bring a focus indeed, but also more possibilities.

While I agree there is way to much aoe, I don't think it's the "main balance issue" at least not at this point in time.

Currently I think the main issue is that a lot of the builds at the moment are at some form extreme in terms of sustain or damage. On one hand you have mirage, scourge, and deadeye that have crazy damage potential (sure deadeye is unviable compared to dp but it's not like it can't one shot).

In terms of sustainability you have firebrand which was already sturdy and got it's healing buffed recently. Spell breaker used to be like this but I believe it's been toned down to a balanced state.

Not necessarly AoE, more likely AoE conditions. When facing turrets or DH, i felt like i could tank traps/turrets if i ran the correct build.Point is it's impossible to survive facing 2 scourges together, except if you run meta setup, which is firebrand/sb/scourges itself. Temple down buff, skyhammer point, capricorn cannon point, these are unplayable against 2 scourges having no tank. If it were DPS staff eles, DH's,... it would be ok however

Im mostly annoyed that conditions are applied through aoes for 80% of the time. Id be much more content with singe target condition skills much like how power build generally have alot more focus on single target dmg or small scale aoes (yes there are outliers but thats like 1 or 2 builds, the condis builds are all mostly aoes that you end up killing ppl you arent even going for)

Meanwhile, the balance team...

Come on, this is another lost battle, as was the skins of the mounts.Does anyone remember when it was the last time they asked the community about the imbalance in the game? Did any member of the balance team ever answer some of these issues?

I sincerely believe that there is no balancing department, neither PvP nor WvW, there is only the department of LW and skins.Today I play PvP games and I see everything the same or worse than before.

PD: and remember, according to the "team" of PvP, the balance "team" does not read these forums.

@Arheundel.6451 said:Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank, the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended , the devs are well aware, the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

Why do simpletons like you keep popping up all the time?If they weren't aoe, people would literally never die because everyone would just cluster around the downed person and insta res him without losing any hp.

@Arheundel.6451 said:

Let's be frank, the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended , the devs are well aware, the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

You are probably one of the few people to really openly realize, admit and preach this to people. I've always said that GW2 just has too many skills, but people just scoff about it. Man, WILDSTAR had too much AoE in it, and it played more or less how much of GW2 plays yet it only had 8 skills to a hotbar. EIGHT SKILLS WAS TOO MUCH. GW2 has, like, what? Thirty on some classes? At the very least: sixteen. It's positively insane. Nobody seems to recognize that GW2 is just drowning in skill spam which, if just drastically culled could honestly yield a passable game.

@Burnfall.9573 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank,

the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended

, the devs are well aware,

the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible

at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....

the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

Monster Hunter World is the game that GW2 could have been. I know what I'll be doing until Amazon decides to drop whatever else they'd like about their project.

@Swagg.9236 said:

@Burnfall.9573 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank,

the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended

, the devs are well aware,

the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible

at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....

the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

How is mhw the game gw2 could be? Nvm that applied for bdo for for honor for eso etc

@zealex.9410 said:

@Swagg.9236 said:

@Burnfall.9573 said:

@"Arheundel.6451" said:Obviously the percentage is just an estimation but the idea it's there, we have way too much AoE dmg respect to single target dmg; it's extremely detrimental for overall quality of the game, such a simple fact which has been ignored for years.

AoE skills have many benefit respect to single target dmg skill:-They are less likely to encounter obscructions-They are less likely to miss the intended target (body block)-They require minimal planning and execution

Let's be frank,

the amount of AoE dmg in game is intended

, the devs are well aware,

the aim is to simplify the game as much as possible

at the cost of overall skill level of the playerbase. It's really a shame this game had so much potential but....

the lack of competition is what keeping it alive really

• Instances, team-based combat like GW1
• A few waypoint areas on each map
• Action RPG
• You fight dragons

Already on the right track, but wait:

• Classes (weapons) actually provide unique playstyles and roles which define how a party is going to attempt certain encounters
• Player numbers are fixed within instances so particle effects don't get too cluttered when everything shifts into overdrive
• You have to keep hitting something to kill it instead of letting passive tick DoTs do all the heavy lifting
• No invuln skills to let people cheat their way out of being in a bad position
• Fashion end-game

I've also said before how the next logical design step for GW1 combat would have been something resembling Demon/Dark Souls if anyone working on GW2 really wanted to progress the franchise from its core tenants. Not because "Dark Souls is such a gooood gaaaame," but seriously, the two games kind of play rather similarly if we speak strictly about how players perform offensive actions in melee and at range. Dark Souls is basically just a slightly more freed-up version of GW1 if we forgive GW1 for making all of its damage tick-based rather than latency-hotbox based. By the way, GW2 still does the tick-based nonsense which is why you can hit people from behind walls with ranged attacks that don't require projectiles. gud vidya gaem

AoE skills killed this game.

@"Swagg.9236" said:Monster Hunter World is the game that GW2 could have been. I know what I'll be doing until Amazon decides to drop whatever else they'd like about their project.As much as I'd like Monster Hunter to take inspiration from GW2 (it is one of the many, many offenders of "dodge rolls that don't actually avoid damage" in gaming, for starters. Something literally only GW2 seems to get right), it's a different genre entirely.

(also monster hunter has awkward, sluggish combat and is loaded down with archaic mechanics most games abandoned years ago, but that's not strictly relevant here)

@Hyper Cutter.9376 said:

@"Swagg.9236" said:Monster Hunter World is the game that GW2 could have been. I know what I'll be doing until Amazon decides to drop whatever else they'd like about their project.As much as I'd like Monster Hunter to take inspiration from GW2 (it is one of the many,

many

offenders of "dodge rolls that don't actually avoid damage" in gaming, for starters. Something literally only GW2 seems to get right), it's a different genre entirely.

I think we can all agree that GW2 has probably the best combat mechanics among most MMORPG. What truly is killing it is really bad class balance driven by xpac sales and as stated in this thread main focus on AoE. What is the point of great combat when everything is just sea of red circles, fire and forget style.

@"Kapax.3801" said:

PD: and remember, according to the "team" of PvP, the balance "team" does not read these forums.

Ooo, they do read these forums, but less than profession forums.

Is there like a general proffesionsubforum where the devs could prob read this? I believe it would just get more chances to be read there.

Anyone remember when d/d power sustain thief was viable in wvw? Video's like Yushis just showing how in depth the combat system was.

Back when aoe spam was still only done by a few classes, and it wasn't a problem because of the trade-off that class would have to make for so much aoe damage.

Yeah, I think this is something that needs attention and feedback from devs.