The professions the devs favor is hilarious

[draxynnic.3719]

A bit of a shame they've never really made boonrip on mesmer actually practical. It's technically there, it was a big part of mesmer in GW1, but GW2 mesmer has just never been the thing you take when you want to strip boons. 

Partly, I think, because the skills it has to do so are either low-impact (stripping one boon at a time doesn't really help much) or have enough recharge that sure, you might dent a boon stack, but it'll be back up again long before your removal is available again.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

On 6/7/2022 at 3:04 PM, captrowdy.9561 said:

Welp I’m back on my warrior for pvp/roaming. Something about the way it plays against other players keeps me coming back. Please anet just some small things to bring it up to everyone else. 

Warrior is life. 

[Lazze.9870]

On 6/5/2022 at 8:29 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Core guardian has barely been touched since HoT...because it hasn't needed it.

Not in functionality, but Virtues and Radiance have been buffed considerably since HoT, and that is partially why Willy is so strong in PvP. The synergy is ridiculous.

Same with the current condi harbringer build in PvP. The Death Magic rework they did favor Harb more than any spec before it, and it was already considered a good traitline before EoD.

But that's the thing. They have simple mechanics. Traits translates welll across multiple elite specs, especially when you stack them to a ridiculous level like they have done with the Virtues traitline.

[Lazze.9870]

On 6/6/2022 at 2:01 AM, Zenith.7301 said:

By far the worst WvW class is mesmer. Clones are rendered useless, and virtuoso cannot exist in an environment where reflect walls are pretty much permanent.

I take it you completely ignore the fact that support chrono makes mesmer one of the five classes with a mainstay meta build for large scale WvW. The actual "by far the worst"  for large scale WvW (which I assume is what you're talking about considering the clone issues and reflect spam) are thief and ranger.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[Dadnir.5038]

11 hours ago, Lazze.9870 said:

The Death Magic rework they did favor Harb more than any spec before it, and it was already considered a good traitline before EoD.

Do you realize that DM allowed more damage reduction prior to it's rework than it does now? Harbinger would have been worse with the pre rework DM traitline (and it wouldn't have been 'harder' to get it). People just weren't using the traitline because of 2 factors:

- The necromancer had around 30% less damage output than other professions so people felt there was a need to build for burst despite the lack of options.

- Damage in competitive was a lot higher which meant that you could get more benefit from effects that nullify damage than effects that reduce damage.

The players' approach of the game was very different prior to DM rework and especially prior to the infamous feb2020 patch.

[apharma.3741]

On 6/6/2022 at 8:34 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Be careful what you wish for. Stability is important enough in WvW that if you nerf stability application, commanders will just respond by asking for a higher ratio of stability suppliers in the squad.

We saw this back in the chrono monopoly days when nerfing the quickness and alacrity application just led to teamcomps bringing MORE chronos to make up the difference.

What they should actually do is provide more viable alternatives. I was quite disappointed that while the EoD specs bring more quickness and alacrity options, they haven't done much for stability.

I said this er...I can't even remember how long ago but I remember saying we need better sources of group stab that can compete with guardians. I think the example I used was inspiring reinforcement, yes, it is a little clunky but imagine if it gave 3-4 stacks of stab at base 5-7s duration? It's an alternative to guard but due to guardian and firebrands innate ability to be great at everything it not only provides this but AoE heals, cleanses, and stunbreaks in a fairly easy to use package with a ton of other useful boons like prot and aegis spam.

 

As for the OP, it really depends on the game mode.
PvE just about every class has a cheese it build that will "let me solo her", usually trailblazer. Additionally "top dps" is irrelevant unless you are the top 0.01%, you only need 5 of your dps to be hitting a reasonable mark to clear all group content easily which isn't even hard.
PvP is swings and roundabouts, some classes have been shafted since launch into 1 role like thief and due to their inherent design cannot leave that role without destroying it's mobility. Other classes as others have mentioned have great trait synergy and a lot of this comes down to nerfing the numbers down instead of outright removing traits and dodges like what has happened to mesmer for years. You will hear mains whining endlessly about how X skill does nothing (fb heal) but the reality is they have 2+ great options instead, the ones in trouble are the classes using the same 5-6 skills on most builds even when nerfed because there's nothing else to use.

WvW (large scale) has been Guardian and Necro dominated since day 1, if anybody talks about balance and isn't saying these 2 classes should be nuked from orbit they're not worth listening to. They also now have great "roaming" specs which doesn't even matter now because mounts mean there's no trade off for speed of engage. Yes we do need replacements for the roles they play but you can clearly see the favouritism displayed here.

 

So why does this happen? Devs listen to certain individuals who are incredibly biased, one particular...person...is the sole reason necro became so dominant, they tempered necro nerfs and kept asking for nerfs to necro counters. Some classes have no representation in this either like mesmer and I believe thief.

[Lazze.9870]

4 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Do you realize that DM allowed more damage reduction prior to it's rework than it does now? Harbinger would have been worse with the pre rework DM traitline (and it wouldn't have been 'harder' to get it). People just weren't using the traitline because of 2 factors:

Can you at least try and understand what you're replying to before hitting me with the "do you realize"?

I never specifically mentioned damage reduction. The overall synergy DM has with Harbringer is stronger than any other necro spec, and DM wasn't an awful traitline before Harb.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[Lazze.9870]

1 hour ago, apharma.3741 said:

.I can't even remember how long ago but I remember saying we need better sources of group stab that can compete with guardians

It's not happening. Not in combination with the aegis, protection and other defensive boons/mechanics guardian can offer.

The true ridiculousness of guardian is that it ALSO is one of the best damage dealers for WvW zergs, to the point where a subparty in a squad can consist of one Firebrand for boons, a core guard/and or a dragonhunter x2 for damage, plus a scourge and a scrapper.

The balance team in this game is a joke. Not because I expect the game to be perfectly balanced, but there is balance and then there is having one out of nine classes filling three out of five subparty slots in a group and it is considered meta. To top of it off, the two remaining classes aren't going anywhere either. Necros are a permanent staple in WvW and scrapper support is completely busted: best healer/cleanser, and of course they have the best source of group stealth and aoe superspeed as well.

Prime comedy is the fact that if you were to replace a scrapper with anything other than a tempest, a guardian focused on shout cleansing would probably be the next best thing. After that? At that point we could possibly talk about druid. You know, the poster boy elite spec of the first expansion and, in the words of the dev that presented it all those years back, "a dedicated healer able to support your party in pve, pvp and even wvw".

Class favoritism? I wanna say yes, but either way it is a shitshow.

Edited June 11, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[draxynnic.3719]

2 hours ago, apharma.3741 said:

I said this er...I can't even remember how long ago but I remember saying we need better sources of group stab that can compete with guardians. I think the example I used was inspiring reinforcement, yes, it is a little clunky but imagine if it gave 3-4 stacks of stab at base 5-7s duration? It's an alternative to guard but due to guardian and firebrands innate ability to be great at everything it not only provides this but AoE heals, cleanses, and stunbreaks in a fairly easy to use package with a ton of other useful boons like prot and aegis spam.

In the WvW-specific circumstance, I think we really need to get those additional sources of group stability. They've done a good job of removing the PvE-significant oligopolies on quickness and alacrity, but they completely missed the critical WvW oligopoly on stability (and even nerfed scrapper a bit).

2 hours ago, apharma.3741 said:

PvP is swings and roundabouts, some classes have been shafted since launch into 1 role like thief and due to their inherent design cannot leave that role without destroying it's mobility. Other classes as others have mentioned have great trait synergy and a lot of this comes down to nerfing the numbers down instead of outright removing traits and dodges like what has happened to mesmer for years. You will hear mains whining endlessly about how X skill does nothing (fb heal) but the reality is they have 2+ great options instead, the ones in trouble are the classes using the same 5-6 skills on most builds even when nerfed because there's nothing else to use.

WvW (large scale) has been Guardian and Necro dominated since day 1, if anybody talks about balance and isn't saying these 2 classes should be nuked from orbit they're not worth listening to. They also now have great "roaming" specs which doesn't even matter now because mounts mean there's no trade off for speed of engage. Yes we do need replacements for the roles they play but you can clearly see the favouritism displayed here.

I'd say that something similar applies to anyone who uses "nuke it from orbit" unironically and without grossly overexaggerating with respect to balance. Nuke-it-from-orbit balancing, and its more insidious cousin of balance perception inertia (where for various reasons people don't recognise that something is no longer OP until it's nerfed so hard that it's clearly UP, and vice versa) is a large part of how we got to where we are now. The professions that are being accused of benefiting from favouritism? By and large, that's not because of buffs (they've had a few reworks aimed at improving specific aspects, but so has everything else), but because they've avoided the nukes.

ArenaNet has a nasty track record of overnerfing something, saying they'll keep an eye on it to see how it's performing afterwards, and... just not following through. Mesmer mantras are just the most recent case with respect to mesmer... there's a track record of mesmer stuff being nerfed to death or simply removed that goes back to clone death traits. Warrior got nuked with the Feb 2020 competitive changes - it was more reliant on skills that did both damage and CC than other professions (and still is, look at bladesworn...), so it got hit far harder with that than most. I think we need less nuking, not more.

 

1 hour ago, Lazze.9870 said:

The true ridiculousness of guardian is that it ALSO is one of the best damage dealers for WvW zergs, to the point where a subparty in a squad can consist of one Firebrand for boons, a core guard/and or a dragonhunter x2 for damage, plus a scourge and a scrapper.

So, are guardians just not allowed to be DPS because they can also support, even if we're talking about completely different builds?

The manifesto - which ArenaNet has reaffirmed lately - is that the roles someone can fill shouldn't be determined by their profession. So being able to have three guardians in a subsquad, with different builds and different roles, is not in itself a problem, however much people sensationalise it as being one.

The real question is: can you substitute out those guardians for something else and still be reasonably effective, or even construct the subsquad in an different way that still covers similar bases? Probably not the firebrand, because of how important stability is in WvW and we're already assuming a scrapper in the mix. That's a problem, WvW needs more practical stability appliers. The other two? There are a lot of ways to do good DPS in the game. In the meantime, we should also be looking at whether there are other ways to do what the scourge and scrapper are doing.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Group stability? *Volunteers as tribute in warrior*

[apharma.3741]

2 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I'd say that something similar applies to anyone who uses "nuke it from orbit" unironically and without grossly overexaggerating with respect to balance. Nuke-it-from-orbit balancing, and its more insidious cousin of balance perception inertia (where for various reasons people don't recognise that something is no longer OP until it's nerfed so hard that it's clearly UP, and vice versa) is a large part of how we got to where we are now. The professions that are being accused of benefiting from favouritism? By and large, that's not because of buffs (they've had a few reworks aimed at improving specific aspects, but so has everything else), but because they've avoided the nukes.

ArenaNet has a nasty track record of overnerfing something, saying they'll keep an eye on it to see how it's performing afterwards, and... just not following through. Mesmer mantras are just the most recent case with respect to mesmer... there's a track record of mesmer stuff being nerfed to death or simply removed that goes back to clone death traits. Warrior got nuked with the Feb 2020 competitive changes - it was more reliant on skills that did both damage and CC than other professions (and still is, look at bladesworn...), so it got hit far harder with that than most. I think we need less nuking, not more.

 

 

I'd say you don't have a firm grasp of the magnitude at which Guardian is ahead of everything else in WvW, it quite literally would need nuking from orbit for any other spec (other than scrapper) to be close to taking it's place. The same with Necromancer but it might just need a tactical nuke, to put it in perspective no other class in the entire game can corrupt and even brushing that aside they don't have the boon removal that necro has.

 

Mesmer mantra nerfs weren't recent FYI, they go back a looooong time, by 2017 most traits and aspects had been removed with the final nail being last year removing the channel but by then mantras weren't used at all.
Warrior wasn't nuked in as much as it offers nothing that guard, engineer and necro don't already cover while getting screwed over by the state of the current meta. You could throw all the damage back onto warrior CC and it would be no more viable in zergs than it is now because AoE corrupt and aegis spam makes playing warrior a pain and it's warhorn shout build of days gone just doesn't work even if we had water fields again.

[draxynnic.3719]

35 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Group stability? *Volunteers as tribute in warrior*

In all seriousness, if boons are being added to banners, it would be a logical approach to take. Banner of Discipline could become Banner of Having the Discipline To Not Be Feared, Taunted, Stunned, And All That Rubbish.

If it's suitably mobile, of course.

I'm kinda thinking ArenaNet might have missed a trick in not adding stability to the turtle on Catalyst, too. 

Buff Mantra of Concentration so it's actually worth something, make Inspiring Reinforcement a bit more practical to use, possibly expand the radius of Leader of the Pack and/or create a stability spirit, and you'd have a lot of professions out of nine that could at least contribute to stability, and maybe you could replace some firebrands with "everyone in the subsquad can provide a bit of stability and that adds up to a firebrand". 

 

23 minutes ago, apharma.3741 said:

I'd say you don't have a firm grasp of the magnitude at which Guardian is ahead of everything else in WvW, it quite literally would need nuking from orbit for any other spec (other than scrapper) to be close to taking it's place. The same with Necromancer but it might just need a tactical nuke, to put it in perspective no other class in the entire game can corrupt and even brushing that aside they don't have the boon removal that necro has.

Which is the core problem: lack of competition. No other profession (other than scrapper) is close to being competition with respect to stability. Nerf guardian from orbit, as you say, and commanders will just want more scrappers to make up the difference. Nerf them from orbit too, and commanders will desperately reach for whatever ends up best at stability after that, and stack as many of them as they can possibly get their hands on to the exclusion of virtually everything else.

Similar observation with necromancer: it's dominant because no other profession can compete with its boon removal, and boons (especially stability) are important in WvW.

23 minutes ago, apharma.3741 said:

 

Mesmer mantra nerfs weren't recent FYI, they go back a looooong time, by 2017 most traits and aspects had been removed with the final nail being last year removing the channel but by then mantras weren't used at all.

Oh, I know, but the May 2021 mantra change was both a recent example, and a particularly egregious case of a skill group that got overnerfed because the skills team just didn't consider the consequences of what they did.

Mesmer has had it really rough.

23 minutes ago, apharma.3741 said:

Warrior wasn't nuked in as much as it offers nothing that guard, engineer and necro don't already cover while getting screwed over by the state of the current meta. You could throw all the damage back onto warrior CC and it would be no more viable in zergs than it is now because AoE corrupt and aegis spam makes playing warrior a pain and it's warhorn shout build of days gone just doesn't work even if we had water fields again.

You know, I'm not just considering WvW zergs here? Warrior is suffering in all game modes at the moment, what I cited just happened to be a harsh blow in all forms of competitive, where it wasn't exactly dominating previously.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

The problem with having, say, a Rev, Soulbeast, Mesmer, Engineer and Warrior in a party (essentially stacking more stability than Firebrand could ever), is the role compression Guard offers. You can't reliably share the role of stability in a party with the amount of CC that exists in largescale. A firebrand knows what they have used and what they can use, anyone else in the party using their own stab is just covering the FB. Unless there is a class that can reliably cover all the stability that FB can share rn with another role (healing, cleansing or whatever, which Firebrand excels at too), then it will never be picked over FB.

 

It will simply be a not-so-worthless addition to the squad. Like Banner of Defense Warrior being reworked into becoming a mobile pulsing Prot and Stab aoe around the warrior. Unispired and with no identity, but mechanically functional and reliable. Throw in another banner, or some form of maintaining a few of the current stats (like extra vit and toughness in defense) and you got a pretty tanky spec that can be played instead of a Firebrand (if the rest of the kit is reworked to cover up for some more key issues like burst cleansing, regen granting/heal/barrier).

 

 

[Lazze.9870]

On 6/11/2022 at 4:58 PM, draxynnic.3719 said:

So, are guardians just not allowed to be DPS because they can also support, even if we're talking about completely different builds?

Seriously? That's your take?

I'm not saying guardian shouldn't be allowed to have different roles, we're talking about that fact they are best in slot. They HAVE to start bringing other classes up to par for wvw.  

Replacing FB as the stab bot should not be the priority. Dethroning it as THE go-to damage dealer should be. 

Second priority needs to be making support builds more equal. It should be acceptable to replace a scrapper with a tempest, druid or any other support spec without being at a major disadvantage. How? I don't know, because Anet went big brain and gave scrapper group stealth and superspeed, then made it even better by making superspeed also grant quickness. It isn't a simple healer/cleanser anymore, it has other tools that make it vital to the squad.

That still leaves FB as mandatory and necro near mandatory (you don't need a scourge in every party as of now, you just need a decent amount of them). Not perfect, but better than the current situation.

Edited June 12, 2022 by Lazze.9870

[draxynnic.3719]

On 6/12/2022 at 4:33 AM, Grand Marshal.4098 said:

The problem with having, say, a Rev, Soulbeast, Mesmer, Engineer and Warrior in a party (essentially stacking more stability than Firebrand could ever), is the role compression Guard offers. You can't reliably share the role of stability in a party with the amount of CC that exists in largescale. A firebrand knows what they have used and what they can use, anyone else in the party using their own stab is just covering the FB. Unless there is a class that can reliably cover all the stability that FB can share rn with another role (healing, cleansing or whatever, which Firebrand excels at too), then it will never be picked over FB.

And there's the real problem. WvW (and now Kaineng Overlook) needs more practical stability appliers.

 

On 6/13/2022 at 2:42 AM, Lazze.9870 said:

Seriously? That's your take?

I'm not saying guardian shouldn't be allowed to have different roles, we're talking about that fact they are best in slot. They HAVE to start bringing other classes up to par for wvw.  

Replacing FB as the stab bot should not be the priority. Dethroning it as THE go-to damage dealer should be. 

Second priority needs to be making support builds more equal. It should be acceptable to replace a scrapper with a tempest, druid or any other support spec without being at a major disadvantage. How? I don't know, because Anet went big brain and gave scrapper group stealth and superspeed, then made it even better by making superspeed also grant quickness. It isn't a simple healer/cleanser anymore, it has other tools that make it vital to the squad.

That still leaves FB as mandatory and necro near mandatory (you don't need a scourge in every party as of now, you just need a decent amount of them). Not perfect, but better than the current situation.

Your example was complaining about guardians in general being "one of the best damage dealers", and you specifically cited DH and core guardian as the DPS roles. That came across as you saying that you objected to any guardian being able to fit into a DPS slot. Other professions should also be able to fit in, though.

Broadly speaking, the ability of other professions to fill critical roles like group stability, or rather the lack therof, is the real problem. ArenaNet's manifesto is 'bring the player, not the profession". Some professions are close to being able to do anything, albeit with the need for build switches. Some are far from it. This naturally breeds resentment. But I think the solution that fits the declared philosophy is to bring up the have-nots than slam down the haves.

[Angesombre.4630]

I'm not for a nerf, why not buff the other classes instead. There were nerfs in some classes that had no interest. If Anet is going to make adjustments he should do it a little at a time not nerf drastically and destroy everything like he has been doing lately.

[anbujackson.9564]

3 hours ago, Angesombre.4630 said:

I'm not for a nerf, why not buff the other classes instead. There were nerfs in some classes that had no interest. If Anet is going to make adjustments he should do it a little at a time not nerf drastically and destroy everything like he has been doing lately.

You cant just keep buffing endlessly because players dont want their favorite broken toys destroyed.

There is no point in releasing new endgame content if balance adjustments are so slow and unmeaningful that the op builds keep dominating the content, making it a joke (just look at the firebrand, scourge and mech adjustments). Old strike and raid content is already laughably undertuned.

Edited June 18, 2022 by anbujackson.9564

[draxynnic.3719]

29 minutes ago, anbujackson.9564 said:

You cant just keep buffing endlessly because players dont want their favorite broken toys destroyed.

There is no point in releasing new endgame content if balance adjustments are so slow and unmeaningful that the op builds keep dominating the content, making it a joke. Old strike and raid content is already laughably undertuned.

But when the issue is that one or two professions have a near-monopoly on a particular feature, and that feature is something that you want in order to have a reasonable chance, the proper approach is to break the monopoly.

There's also a tendency for people to demand for something to be pretty much destroyed when a bit of trimming combined with a boost to the underperformers would probably do.

[anbujackson.9564]

1 minute ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

But when the issue is that one or two professions have a near-monopoly on a particular feature, and that feature is something that you want in order to have a reasonable chance, the proper approach is to break the monopoly.

There's also a tendency for people to demand for something to be pretty much destroyed when a bit of trimming combined with a boost to the underperformers would probably do.

I would rather prefer if they delete the monopoly alltogether instead of giving it to everyone else to be honest. Imagine if everyone spams aegis and stability for breakfast. Yeah no thanks. Just my two cents though.

Well you cant just trim the op stuff "a bit". Thats how we ended up in this mess in the first place. Again what exactly did that trimming do so far? Still firebrands, scourges and mechs everywhere. Other specs get more damage and more boons (except stab and aegis besides mech). Great. Should Anet release more instant death mechanics in futher strikes instead so they bypass the powercreep in the easiest possible way while all the content which they spent months and years on is just obsolete?

On a sidenote: People get used way too much on this obscene easy support/dps situation. Just imagine an overall damage reduction of 30% and the removal of a lot of boon access. Heads would keep rolling because they cant play anymore like how they are used to.

[Puck.3697]

9 hours ago, Angesombre.4630 said:

I'm not for a nerf, why not buff the other classes instead. There were nerfs in some classes that had no interest. If Anet is going to make adjustments he should do it a little at a time not nerf drastically and destroy everything like he has been doing lately.

Eeeeh because that's not a easy fix. 

The reason guardian has such a high demand is because of role compression. Not because it has the boons itself. 

It can do multiple roles in a singular build, mechanist has now also joined the list. 

Mechanist can do alacrity / stab / healing in a singular build. 

You put role compression everywhere and your going to create a weird dynamic. Role compression needs reducing and simply we need to see builds filling less roles then some of them currently 

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

9 hours ago, Angesombre.4630 said:

I'm not for a nerf, why not buff the other classes instead. There were nerfs in some classes that had no interest. If Anet is going to make adjustments he should do it a little at a time not nerf drastically and destroy everything like he has been doing lately.

Because it doesn't work.  Look at what they did with mechanist.  Now it's as OP as guardian, able to do practically everything so other classes are even less favored.  Wouldn't it be better to actually force these OP classes to choose what they bring to a group instead of just bringing everything? 

That way groups would pick and choose which classes they bring.  Want this or that boon?  Several classes can do that.  But why bring several classes when you can just bring firebrand and mechanist to fill almost every role in every group?

[Puck.3697]

47 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

That way groups would pick and choose which classes they bring.  Want this or that boon?  Several classes can do that.  But why bring several classes when you can just bring firebrand and mechanist to fill almost every role in every group?

Agreed. 

It's a prime reason I hate how boons have been developed in this game. 

While I conceptually like buffs such as banners and spotter / spirits. 

I like unique buffs / additions bringing a proffession offers, not this idea of a pool of boons that are optimal and just given to everyone to drive this "correct or incorrect choice"

Ironically I think it was something WoW did pretty well at this point. 

Things like monk bringing a buff to % of power abilities. And DH bringing 5% to magical abilities.

This idea of giving everyone everything is making role compression options the meta, and that's a really sad way to play. Because effectively its stack boons into the smallest amount of spots avaliable and just stack dps. Not only is it driving a issue where you only need to do like 20% of your proffessions able dps to pass all content in the game, but it's also taking options away not creating them. 

It's as if anet are driving the illusion of choice instead of actual choice. 

A big failing point of this games pve content is the fact its less about how well you play your proffession and more about if your comps correct and people almost passively pulse the right boons. 

Edited June 18, 2022 by Daddy.8125

[Angesombre.4630]

The problem is that there are maybe too many buffs in the game, I don't know what he's trying to do but on the class level there is too much difference the guardian in general brings a lot of buffs, the druid has almost always been preferred because of his heal and buffs, the timer as well. Others don't make enough buffs, so we end up with a monopoly of some classes while others are completely left out because they don't bring anything special or much less than others. On some classes the buffs should be reviewed or at least some specialization.

If everyone prefers to break some classes or specializations rather than review the others and put them on the same level.

The breaking of class causes more nervousness than the fact of increasing them.

Edited June 18, 2022 by Angesombre.4630

[Puck.3697]

51 minutes ago, Angesombre.4630 said:

The problem is that there are maybe too many buffs in the game, I don't know what he's trying to do but on the class level there is too much difference the guardian in general brings a lot of buffs, the druid has almost always been preferred because of his heal and buffs, the timer as well. Others don't make enough buffs, so we end up with a monopoly of some classes while others are completely left out because they don't bring anything special or much less than others. On some classes the buffs should be reviewed or at least some specialization.

If everyone prefers to break some classes or specializations rather than review the others and put them on the same level.

The breaking of class causes more nervousness than the fact of increasing them.

Spreading buffs just doubles down on the problem. 

Role compression will not get better if you further the ability to role compression, role compressing needs to be removed. 

A firebrand shouldn't be able to heal provide quickness and stability. 

A mechanist shouldn't be able to heal provide alacrity and stability. 

Nothing should be filling more then 2 roles realistically. 

Alike spectre dps + alacrity. 

Alike catalyst dps + quickness. Or healing + quickness. 

Nothing to do with breaking classes firebrand not being able to provide both quickness and stab simultaneously will not kill firebrand. 

 

[Dadnir.5038]

12 minutes ago, Daddy.8125 said:

Spreading buffs just doubles down on the problem. 

Role compression will not get better if you further the ability to role compression, role compressing needs to be removed. 

A firebrand shouldn't be able to heal provide quickness and stability. 

A mechanist shouldn't be able to heal provide alacrity and stability. 

Nothing should be filling more then 2 roles realistically. 

Alike spectre dps + alacrity. 

Alike catalyst dps + quickness. Or healing + quickness. 

Nothing to do with breaking classes firebrand not being able to provide both quickness and stab simultaneously will not kill firebrand.

The issue of this logic is that there exist roles that can have little to no value based on the gamemode (condition cleanse, boon hate, stability... etc.). If you make the professions only fill 2 roles, you'll see some profession fall out of flavor in some part of the game simply because the role they fullfil have no "reason d'être" in a gamemode. For example, you hardly need condi cleanse in PvE nor will you give much value to a profession that fill the "CC" role when you know that the boss will only really take CC for a fraction of the whole fight. If there is no boon to hate, boon hate have no value either. Who care about stability when you don't expect any CC?... etc.

Mobs and players character aren't really following the same rules and this impact greatly the concept of roles as the game isn't balanced only for a single gamemode but for all 3 gamemodes.

If you got a profession whose role is cleansing and CC then you won't see this profession into a large part of the game. This will make the one that want to play this profession conplain that they are useless and ask for buff which ultimately won't improve the situation since the devs will buff the 2 roles.

If you got a profession that's good have 1 valued role and 1 role deemed useless then this profession won't be competitive against professions that have 2 roles deemed as "valuable".

All this without forgeting that discrimination against roles exist. For example, the sPvP community have a hard time accepting "tanks" or "condition based roles".