Boons in Gw2 and the slow removal of class specific purposes

[ZDragon.3046]

There is no easy way to go back from this without keeping some level of power creep sadly and people kinda need to realize that you cant give players power for 3 years let them get accustom to that level of power then think oh well "anet should just address and remove x and y" no no no it does not work that way. That is how you indirectly get people to play the classes that survive the culling and if no classes survive it people just stop playing. It is very difficult to address power creep without making players feel less powerful. In most games the players need to feel powerful to enjoy it even if its not big numbers appearing on screen the rate at which you attack or your animations flow keep a player feeling powerfu..... "but lets remove quickness" ok lets slow everyone down but why??? all this will do is make people feel like every fight is a slug fest. Sure they could adjust the content to be done without quickness but why would you want to do that? 

The only way anet can really start to address the boon issue imo at this point is to just make some of those boons base game things. Quickness mostly impacts. Your attacking speed thus increasing your dps... if anet wanted too they could just make the weapon traits allow you to 50% attack faster when you take them and have it only apply to weapon skills. The could possibly do the same for most utility skills (where taking the trait lets you activate them 50% faster) 

Alacrity is a bit different imo its not something that should ever be required but is a nice to have where as quickness always more or less feels required otherwise you feel weak. In terms of Alacrity fixing this could also be done via weapon skills combos and traits where doing certain actions cuts your cooldowns when done successfully. If you applied this logic to every class and elite in the right way you could then delete alacrity from the game as cooldown reduction would now be an interactive experience you get while doing what you already do.

These are just my thoughts honestly there are ways anet can remove these strong boons from the game without making people feel weak but just removing them and assuming people will be ok with it or will deal with it should not be expected. You should never aim to make players feel weak even if it is to address power creep or boon creep. You don't want to do things that discourage people from playing the game. IF anything you look at the outstanding things and bring everything else up to that level in some way or another.

Edited April 20, 2022 by ZDragon.3046

[Coldtart.4785]

Quickness and alacrity should never have become boons and alacrity should never have been aoe on chrono.

[Fan Didly Tastic.7169]

Maybe this is just a guess and I am no where close to anything, but I think the change to allow the offense and defensive buffing stations to operate between maps into the rest of open world was an enormous step in the right direction, as it allows build flexibility and soloing while maintaining our current power level.

Being able to stack 25+ seconds of maxed buffs after only killing a few enemies really makes you feel like a monster in open world, especially in core. I think it will give them the ability to balance out these issues while allowing for more granular control in instantanced content. It means they won't have to worry as much about a balance change crippling a class in solo play, as, regardless of what content you play, feeling flimsy in open world feels bad. Especially when that's what's in between literally all of the other content.

[NumNums.7935]

20 hours ago, Fan Didly Tastic.7169 said:

Maybe this is just a guess and I am no where close to anything, but I think the change to allow the offense and defensive buffing stations to operate between maps into the rest of open world was an enormous step in the right direction, as it allows build flexibility and soloing while maintaining our current power level.

Being able to stack 25+ seconds of maxed buffs after only killing a few enemies really makes you feel like a monster in open world, especially in core. I think it will give them the ability to balance out these issues while allowing for more granular control in instantanced content. It means they won't have to worry as much about a balance change crippling a class in solo play, as, regardless of what content you play, feeling flimsy in open world feels bad. Especially when that's what's in between literally all of the other content.

They cannot and shouldn't balance core to max boon dps/gameplay since a new player going from lv 1-80 most likely won't have this mastery expecially if they decide to play the game in order of story.

[Fan Didly Tastic.7169]

1 hour ago, NumNums.7935 said:

They cannot and shouldn't balance core to max boon dps/gameplay since a new player going from lv 1-80 most likely won't have this mastery expecially if they decide to play the game in order of story.

That is an extremely fair point, been so long since core was prevalent for me. I don't so much mean that they should balance to the tune of these overcharge boons, I mean that these boons give them away to balance instanced and open world pve without the former direly impacting the latter, depending upon where and how they maintain it's implementation(through core, lws, expacs). I too, am a little tepid over it, but overall I still see it as an opportunity for the devs.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Fan Didly Tastic.7169

[otto.5684]

We had this situation before, when a class has a unique buff that no one else offer. Did you forget chrono, druid and banner slave early in HoT? The result is a requirement to run that specific class with that specific build. This kills diversity. We should not repeat the same design mistakes.

[RabbitUp.8294]

Ok, but what's the power creep? Permanent quickness and alacrity were a staple of raids ever since their launch back in HoT. Are we talking dungeons? (For what's it's worth, dungeons had 100% quickness uptime, too, because the boss was dead by the time Time Warp expired).

All modern pve endgame content was designed for a post e-spec world, with boon spam in mind. What's being increased are the available sources of those boons.

Anyway, that aside, I also don't get the boon doom talk. MightyTeapot makes an argument in that video, like if all boons are permanent, then they should be provided by the console. That's like me saying, if the boss is getting killed, then maybe they should just give us the loot and skip the fight.

Boon support is a role, the boon uptime exists because that player is doing its job. Why is that less appreciable than doing damage? Other mmos have their trinity, and nobody questions why healers and tanks exist. Gw2 has their own version of the trinity with dps, heal, boon support.