Gear in wvw needs change

[LaFurion.3167]

Curently in wvw if you are power you will take full marauder (or even berserker, using abilities as survival tools instead, such as invulns, dodges, blocks, evades).

If you are condi, you generally take full dire (or viper's in some cases e.g burn DH bomber).

In my opinion gear in wvw should be more than just the standard "marauder if power or vipers or dire if condi...

How do we address this?? I think the best solution is to tone down damage numbers. They are power crept far beyond what wvw was designed for. A berserker can pump out 2 x 30,000 ard dividers in the space of 3 seconds. A daredevil can aoe pound for 20k crits over and over. Soulbeasts do 15-20k rapid fires from 1500 range. And condi bombs have made wvw about pirate shipping. Condi shouldn't be a huge red death circle that if you touch you die... hell, even cleanses are too much.

I think if damage numbers went down it would be good for the game. It would bring both roaming and zerging fights back down to where they are supposed to be.

Roaming currently is throw as much damage out onto your opponent faster than he can and you win. Zerging is red circle of death.... lower damage numbers would (in my huuuumble opinion) make fights more meaningful.

Currently, there is NO time to react. Of you touch red circle you instantly die. If you blink vs your opponent you will get hit with a 15k decapitating strike.

[Voltekka.2375]

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/87443/content-invalidated-by-power-creep#latest

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/88805/i-can-fix-wvw-stat-mod#latest

Plus many more complaining about classes being weak (thief among them). Why do you feel the need to post an identical thread so often, when devs themselves have said that a big balance patch is incoming around march?

[Len.1879]

On the one hand, you are opposed to taking full Dire/Marauder gear. On the other hand, you complain about dying to fast in zergs. Maybe weave in some pieces of gear with main Vitality and Toughness? That addresses both your concerns at once.

[subversiontwo.7501]

Let's look at your remarks one by one:

First I'm going to chime in with Voltekka. The "big thing" they are currently working on for PvP (WvW included) is a balance patch where they are working on damage numbers et. al. They have said that will drop after the current sPvP season so people are assuming that will be within a couple of weeks of it ending. So late february to early march, I guess. So if you point out that damage is too high at the moment you point out what everybody already knows.

Secondly, as there are fewer players who start their own groups these days the commentary on builds and subsequent builds being played is going to be alot more streamlined. WvW is no different from PvE in that regard. If you are looking to get into someone else's group you may need to adapt to their wishes. If you have your own group you are free to determine what works and what doesn't by yourself to a much higher degree.

There are still alot of people around who are the masters of their own groups and they do not necessarily play the typical meta gear on the typical meta builds. I myself for example are rarely using any of the stat-sets you mention. Where others play Mara I would be more inclined to play Berserker, Assassin or Diviner on most classes because if I play a build without a tank I find that extra bit of damage to have more practical use than an extra cushion of health, even if it is less stat-effective. Also, even if damage by far out-scales tank at the moment it doesn't mean that any form of tank is useless on every class and build. That means that I've also used quite alot of Cele recently as well as odd things like Crusader and Commander. I also frequently play certain classes that come with stat-deficiencies so I still run some mixed sets on certain builds to eg., bridge a healthpool gap on a build that otherwise focus on different stats.

The same goes for condi gear or condi-oriented hybrid gear where Dire, Blazer, Viper, Sinister, Grieving and Rabid all have their uses in different builds and situations. There's even the occassional uses for Doctor, Settler, Magi and Apothecary. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since WvW is still the game mode where gear is the most flexible as it allows for the most diverse types of situations. People often mistake the most common, the most allround, the easiest to get or use, the most stat-efficient or whatever with the most useful in a given situation. Only people who think for themselves will find out what the most useful (and fun) is for themselves and how they play. That is what makes WvW fun as far as I am concerned.

Other than that, sure, damage (and healing) is too high but that is mostly down to rampant stat-creep among traits and poor buff/debuff management which they are working on fixing.

[Svarty.8019]

@"LaFurion.3167" said:Curently in wvw if you are power you will take full marauder (or even berserker, using abilities as survival tools instead, such as invulns, dodges, blocks, evades).

If you are condi, you generally take full dire (or viper's in some cases e.g burn DH bomber).

In my opinion gear in wvw should be more than just the standard "marauder if power or vipers or dire if condi...

How do we address this??

Players are responding to developer-made situations. If those simple stat combinations are optimal, players will choose them. We are lightning finding the shortest route, we are water finding it's own level. We are Occam's Razor.

I think the way to increase players' desire for unpopular stats is to increase the effectiveness of those stats.If nobody wants, for example, concentration or expertise, quadruple it's effectiveness per stat. More if needed. Just keep going up until players start using it.Same with all the other stats. As soon as people begin using them, tone them down a fraction and then you're done.

Of course, this will create a period of uncertainty, but at least the developers will have an idea of what makes more sense to the players. At the moment we all have a tonne of gimped stats that nobody in their right mind would use and Arenanet keep churning out gear with crap stat combos on. it makes players LAUGH AT the developers' decisions, frankly!

[KrHome.1920]

The gear choices won't change after the patch.

The patch will increase the time to kill (less damage), but ensure that no bunker meta emerges (less healing as well).

People will still play marauder. The difference will be that you don't die in 2 hits anymore on marauder gear but in 3 or 4 hits.

Overall this will decrease the effectiveness of unlimited damage mitigations like blockes and evades and give toughness more value. But players want to continue to kill as fast as possible and that's the reason why they will still pick marauder (and esp. demolisher in pvp for the medium and high health pool classes).

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

everyone knows bringer gear is the only viable meta pick

[Junkpile.7439]

So spellbreaker will be unkillable. Nice. :anguished: