An alternative to the amulet-system

When it comes to GW2-PvP, buildcrafting is one of my favorite things to do and I'm sure there are lots of others out there, who are similar in that regard.Unfortunately, even if you create a build with good trait-synergies and whatnot, I often find it hard to find a stat-combo to support said build in an optimal manner.Too often I have felt like "If only i had more ferocity to support this high percision" or "X amount of vitality is enough, id rather have more healing or toughness".The current Amulet-system simply is too limiting imo and pigeonholes people into building around those available stat-combos instead of vice-versa.

Now to my proposed alternative (please read towards the end):

The current 4-stat-amulets grant a total of 3220 stat points.Break that stat total down to 32 "stat-points" (each worth a 100 stats) to distribute as people see fit between all the available stats.

Every Stat (Power, Precision, Vitality ..etc.etc.) can have a maximum of 10 points allocated.Expertise and Concentration have a cap of only 5 (to prevent potentially problematic distributions like: 10-condidmg and 10-expertise).

Additionally, since "Toughness + HealingPower"-combinations have been a problem in the past (like Settler or Cleric), once you allocate 5 points into either of those stats, you also can't put more than 5 into the other stat respectively....this means, that even even if you put 5 points into each of those stats, you would still only get about the same "value" as if you ran the current celestial amulet.

/end of suggestion

The "tankiest" option I could think of here, would be a 10-Vit, 5-Toughness, 5-HealingPower, 5-Concentration, 7-X split.Which, granted, could be a problematic combination, but also (at least imo) would only be viable as a sidenode-bunker, since 500 healingPower isn't enough to keep people alive in a teamfight scenario.

Maybe im just talking out of my kitten tho, since that combination might as well just end up breaking the game on some specs.

As and alternative, to this alternative, maybe just some more "stat-slots" than just the 1 amulet slot would already be nice. Where you can choose different (or the same) select-able prefixes.Like one slot each for Amulet, Armor and Weapons, where the amulet slot gives like 50% of the 3220 stat total and the other 2 give like 20% and 30% respectively.

10 power 10 precision +-7 ferocity +-5 toughness would be meta, just like demolisher.

The problem to buildcrafting is that there aren't many "viable traits". If a trait is played, either:1) It's OP2) Its competitors are bad

Agree that we need more customization, but I don't think your approach is ideal.

Comments/Suggestions:

• Start with 3000 stats instead (3 stat amulets). It helps reduce some power creep.
• You don't currently support celestial well. Celestial gets a slight boost in total stats because it spreads out.
• the special rules to avoid being too tanky can get confusing.
• 32 points over 9 categories is a bit overwhelming.

Something I've suggested in the past is a simpler split of the amulets into 3 items at 50%/25%/25% of the current stats. Even using 3-stat combos only, the customization is sufficient. And it mimics PvE a bit more where you have some limitations.

@Exedore.6320 said:

• You don't currently support celestial well. Celestial gets a slight boost in total stats because it spreads out.

I guess you are talking about the PvE version.Cause the PvP version of celestial brings a total of 3220 stats, which is the same as any other 4-stat amulet.

But ye, I think additional stat stlots with a 50% + 30% +20% split would be way easier to implement.

Edit: All i want is more customization options, so i would be totally fine with something like that as well.

Personally never understood what was wrong with the old system of amulets+jewels.

But what you're not considering, is that the restriction on amulets, as well as the way that traits have been bundled together, is clearly with the intention of forcing 1 or 2 viable builds per profession, and limiting potential variation, for the purpose of making it easier to balance. If, across all classes, there are only 20 viable builds, then you can at least have a sensible conversation about what's over/under performing. If there are 2000 viable combinations, it becomes almost impossible to balance in a directed, focused way. Right now, 80% of traits, weapons, utilities, amulets are just fluff to give the illusion of choice. The reality is that each class has 1 or 2 ways you are supposed to play it.

I think the current system is too limiting both in terms of stat combos available and stat allocation.

I would like to see a 5 stat system where the player gets to make their own combos. 1 stat at 1000, the other 4 at 500.

Examples:1000 power 500 toughness/ vitality/ precision/ ferocity1000 healing 500 toughness/ vitality/ concentration/ condi damage1000 condi damage 500 toughness/ vitality/ expertise/ healing

Those 3 would likely be the most used, but other off meta builds can shine with more control over stats. The first one would be strong but a 30% crit rate would limit it.

I would like to see mono stat possibilities such as all condi damage, or all toughness. On a serious note, while this is an interesting idea in theory, allowing for fully customizable stats would likely only further increase power creep. You could put arbitrary restrictions on certain combinations, but it just adds another layer of balance to be poorly implemented.

@Exedore.6320 said:

• You don't currently support celestial well. Celestial gets a slight boost in total stats because it spreads out.

This was changed a while back. If you add up all the stats from celestial, it would be the same total number of stats as any other amulet. In fact, celestial is missing expertise and concentration. Back in the day celestial did have higher overall total stats, but then D/D ele happened, cele was removed (about 4 years ago, which was the death of eles in PvP), only to be re-added in the current gutted iteration.

There is a good reason many Amulets were removed. It's not just Cleric and other bunker amulets, also condi builds would be absolutely disgusting with statspreads like on Dire or Trailblazer. The problem is that power damage is based on 3 stats while condi is only based on 1. So basically condi builds have to be forced to take one relatively useless stat (Prec or Power) to be balanced.

I can see why you suggest that as Weaver main, as it means you could pick Condi Dmg + several defensive stats and basically be immortal with still higher dps than now, but I am fairly sure it would be extremely unhealthy for the overall balance, with the condi builds that are already viable now (Chaos Mirage, Condi DD, Weaver) running rampant and possibly bunker meta returning too.

@"Falan.1839" said:There is a good reason many Amulets were removed. It's not just Cleric and other bunker amulets, also condi builds would be absolutely disgusting with statspreads like on Dire or Trailblazer.

Tbh, I genuinely didnt think about those stat combinations.

Personally I had more power/condi memes in mind, but now that you say it, I can see how full customization could be more problematic for condi builds, than I initially assumed. Like a 8-Vit, 9-Toughness, 5-Expertise, 10-Condi split is basically a dire/trailblazer spec on steroids.

Alright then, scratch the first suggestion.How do you guys feel about additional stat slots?Like in addition to having an amulet slot, also adding 2 more slots (like "Weapons" and "Armor"), where all of those can be set to the same or different prefix from the pool of prefixes we currently have. The maximum Stat-total would still be 3220, but each slot provides a different percentage of that stat total.Like amulet bringing 50%, while Armor gets 30% and Weapons another 20%.

@Ragnar.4257 said:Personally never understood what was wrong with the old system of amulets+jewels.

To paraphrase the ANet dev response at the time: amulet + jewel was too confusing for players. Which is hilarious considering PvE had to choose stats on over 12 pieces of gear.

But what you're not considering, is that the restriction on amulets, as well as the way that traits have been bundled together, is clearly with the intention of forcing 1 or 2 viable builds per profession, and limiting potential variation, for the purpose of making it easier to balance.This has never been true. ANet just makes any 3 and 4 stat combos. They only remove them when a build is broken because of rampant power creep.

We had a good “alternative” to the amulet system. I was there, 8000 years ago.