Some PvP and WvW-centric balance changes to consider

[Swagger.1459]

There are a ton of profession and combat designs that work just great for pve, but there are certain elements that don’t translate well into competitive modes. Here are some of the big ones that could use some adjusting so pvp and WvW play is more balanced, fun and approachable... (And some of these would enhance pve builds and play too)

• Increasing health so players aren’t getting killed in 1-3s.

• Stealth as an opener only, not usable while the character is flagged for combat. Any stealth abilities used during combat become a buff, similar to Protection, that reduced damage by 20% or something... Gameplay wise is could be “Using stealth while in combat makes your character translucent and out-of-sink with reality. Direct and Condition Damage is reduced while in this state. Stealth defense benefits are not removed when a character is revealed, they only become translucent to enemies and still keep the damage mitigation buffs ”... So Stealth is still useful, but now more balanced.

• “Soft” Condition skills are changed to DoT damage, that can’t be cleansed, and toughness plays a role in damage mitigation. Ferocity becomes the “precision” modifier for Condi DoT skills, and not related to Direct Damage improvements anymore.

• Players not getting “Hard” CCed over and over and over.

• Equal access to optional mobility and positioning skills.

• Buffs the weapons and skills nobody wants to use, because there are more viable options, so we can have more build diversity.

• Improve heal and non-heal support weapons, skills and builds to help counter the power-creep that’s been plaguing the game.

[aymnad.9023]

Hi! Here is my opinion on the points you brought up. I think you need to be more precise in some of the things you ask.

@"Swagger.1459" said:

• Increasing health so players aren’t getting killed in 1-3s.No. Player can already do that by changing stats, runes, traits. If you increase the base health you increase the value of builds that have a lot of passive regen. (spellbreaker, boonbeast). Even active (firebrand) are stronger because suddenly you are missing the Xk hp dmg you needed and they have time to cast a defensive skill.

• Stealth as an opener only, not usable while the character is flagged for combat.Hum no I do not think that is a good idea. Some classes (ranger / thief) will need buffs/rework to be decent then. The "only" option I see close to what you ask is making stealth like a transformation where you do not have access to any utilities (or using them breaks you out of stealth). I think stealth can be a mechanic like in any other game. Maybe just make someone using a utility visible less than a second. Like the npc or an ally using stealth. You see them and they are transparent but not targetable. (edit : those are suggestions but I am ok with the current stealth)

• “Soft” Condition skills are changed to DoT damage, that can’t be cleansed, and toughness plays a role in damage mitigation. Ferocity becomes the “precision” modifier for Condi DoT skills, and not related to Direct Damage improvements anymore.Not sure I get it. You might want to add some examples. Toughness already has a role. Do you want to increase it or like in some other games have a stat that means "I am less vulnerable to cc" (some runes do it)? Ferocity for you means Condi can crit and there is no more stat to increase critical strikes?

• Players not getting “Hard” CCed over and over and overI would look more at how much a single player can apply chain cc to an other one. It seems fair to me that a team chaining cc gets some value.

• Equal access to optional mobility and positioning skills.Not sure what it means. All classes should have blink or rush skills? How do we implement it without favoring range classes? Scourge/necro is always brought up for a good reason. If they were as slippery as a mesmer the game would not make any sense.

• Buffs the weapons and skills nobody wants to use, because there are more viable options, so we can have more build diversity.Seems obvious. I have to say as long as a weapon is viable in a at least one mode (either PvP or PvE) I am happy. I do not think it is needed to have everything in every game mode (but I understand if someone wants the opposite).

• Improve heal and non-heal support weapons, skills and builds to help counter the power-creep that’s been plaguing the game.Do you want to improve support or healer builds in sPvP? If so yes. Do you want to improve the passive/personal healing ? If so no.I am in favor of improving some outgoing healing/support options but not the personal ones (and not nerfing them too much, I think they also participate in build diversity if you can become a selfish bruiser).

[Stand The Wall.6987]

@Swagger.1459 said:

• Stealth as an opener only, not usable while the character is flagged for combat.

ok so its now a useless mechanic. thief and mes unviable.

• “Soft” Condition skills are changed to DoT damage, that can’t be cleansed, and toughness plays a role in damage mitigation. Ferocity becomes the “precision” modifier for Condi DoT skills, and not related to Direct Damage improvements anymore.

sweet I can't keep melee classes at bay on necro and will get wiped automatically. already strong condi classes with good mobility made even stronger. power builds now useless without ferocity... wow lol.

• Equal access to optional mobility and positioning skills.

since everyone has equal access, necro will still be an automatic wipe.

• Improve heal and non-heal support weapons, skills and builds to help counter the power-creep that’s been plaguing the game.

or could nerf the power creep. countering power creep with power creep makes no sense.

seriously lol, did you even think about what these changes would do?

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Yeah all having access to same mobility and positioning skills would be a disaster for classes who's identity falls on those two things lol why not make all skills available to all classes then just call the class whatever u choose to name it cuz they'd all be potentially the same. Sounds fun!

[Swagger.1459]

@aymnad.9023 I’ll make more comments later.

The power creep is well known, and also the low time to kill design. Long while back my full ascended trailblazer reaper got hit for 22,999 damage in the matter of seconds, from a Mesmer coming out of stealth. You should think about that.

[Swagger.1459]

@Psycoprophet.8107 said:Yeah all having access to same mobility and positioning skills would be a disaster for classes who's identity falls on those two things lol why not make all skills available to all classes then just call the class whatever u choose to name it cuz they'd all be potentially the same. Sounds fun!

I played a game where all characters had equal access to the same movement skills (and ummm stealth and invisibility too), but each was still unique. That game also offered a ton more playable roles than GW2, so go figure.