The Problem of the Mighty Warrior

[CalmTheStorm.2364]

Note: the following discussion pertains primarily to PvP and WvW.

 

Warrior's power damage (base values and coefficients) seems largely balanced with the assumption that you will have large amounts of might.  For instance, when running a Shoutsworn or Core Tactics warrior with high stacks of might, you routinely hit for juicy 4-7k crits (sometimes 8-10k Dragon Slashes); this level of power damage is highly competitive with other fearsome power classes like herald, holo, soulbeast/untamed, etc.  However, without 10+ might stacks, your damage is very pedestrian.

 

OK, so what? 

 

Well, the problem is that, if Warrior wants to compete with other power builds, Warrior needs to run a might-focused build.  This forces you into lines like Strength and utilities/traits like For Great Justice and Magebane tether.  That's not a bad thing in itself; that's what those things are for, after all.  But it does mean that it becomes harder for trait lines like Arms and Defense to be viable because they represent a DPS loss since they don't generate much might.  That's especially problematic for Arms, which is obviously an offensive line and has no sustain or defensive mechanics to give it compensatory value.   

 

Possible Solutions:

1.) Reduce reliance on might.  This would probably look like nerfing Warrior's might generating traits/utilities/etc but raising coefficients and introducing damage modifiers to compensate.  Note: I don't support this option, but I include it because it technically would address the underlying issue.

 

2.)  Accept that Warrior depends on might for its DPS.  This would look like giving might to traits and utilities.  A few possibilities:

Change Deep Strikes (minor in Arms) to "Gain 3 might (8s) whenever you gain Fury."

Change Opportunist to "Gain Fury (10s) and 5 Might (10s) when you immobilize a foe."

Buff Shield Master so the might generated by blocking lasts 6s (instead of 1s currently)

Change Cull the Weak to "Inflict weakness (3s) when you land a burst skill.  Gain 5 Might (6s) when you weaken a foe."

 

What are your thoughts? How else could this issue be addressed? 

[JTGuevara.9018]

So right off the bat, I would advocate for immediate weapon reworks along with associated power damage buffs. The combat and skill system in gw2, unlike in gw1, is tied to the weapon. Every profession is subject to this system where the first 5 skills are for weapons and 6-10 for utilities. Reworking and buffing weapons and their skills would go a long way and provide an immediate benefit to warrior as a whole.

Number two, I would change a bit of the Strength line (imo, Strength the spec that is in the best shape...) to not depend so much on might, but instead focus on creating more traits like Peak Performance, where it is just a straight up damage percentage increase. Also, might is a boon. Boons can, of course, be stripped! That leads me to this next unfortunate point...

Anet seems determined to let boons become even more prominent in the game. They seem to want to do away with stat percentages and straight percentage increases. Look at what they did to warhorn. (Removed +25% damage increase on skill 4)

Number three, I would also suggest for traits that minimize the weakness condition. I think that's fitting for a spec line called STRENGTH.

But you've brought up interesting observations, OP. It got me thinking for a bit. Warrior does depend on might a lot of the time for damage. Of course, warrior has no issue generating it but it is very telling.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

I'll echo JTG here, the weapons need coefficient increases first and foremost, some need a lot more than that in the form of wholesale reworks.

To your three options:
 

8 hours ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

Possible Solutions:

1.) Reduce reliance on might.  This would probably look like nerfing Warrior's might generating traits/utilities/etc but raising coefficients and introducing damage modifiers to compensate.  Note: I don't support this option, but I include it because it technically would address the underlying issue.

I would contend that this can be done without nerfing might generation, and should be done without nerfing might generation because our sustain is tied to generating might. If Defense ever gets reworked and provides sufficient sustain on it's own that is not tied to might generation, then sure Anet would have room to look at MMR and MM, then possible the might generation itself.

8 hours ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

2.)  Accept that Warrior depends on might for its DPS.  This would look like giving might to traits and utilities.  A few possibilities:

Change Deep Strikes (minor in Arms) to "Gain 3 might (8s) whenever you gain Fury."

Change Opportunist to "Gain Fury (10s) and 5 Might (10s) when you immobilize a foe."

Buff Shield Master so the might generated by blocking lasts 6s (instead of 1s currently)

Change Cull the Weak to "Inflict weakness (3s) when you land a burst skill.  Gain 5 Might (6s) when you weaken a foe."

 

What are your thoughts? How else could this issue be addressed? 

You can already get 5 might when weakening a foe on a 1s CD with a rune, unfortunately it's a condi rune, but it still works pretty well. Because that runes exists though you won't see any class gaining might upon weakening a foe within their traitline.

Signet Mastery also generates 10 might for you when you strike a foe under 50% HP, which happens more often than you would think when fighting multiple foes. What Arms needs is more might generation in the Master and Grandmaster Tiers.

Sundering Bursts: Gain 5 might for 6s and make your foe vulnerable (5 stacks, 6s) when you hit them with a burst attack, these stacks are doubled if you critically hit.

Dual Wielding: Critical hits with an OH weapon generate 1 stack of might for 5s. When you gain 15 stacks of might gain quickness for 3s. 10s icd on the quickness gain. (Yes I removed the base increase attack speed).

This gives an option in each tier for generating might. This also gives an alternative to FGS, but only for offhand weapons. It also creates a nice offense dynamic of gaining quickness at a certain might threshold. I set it to 15 so that you can't just pop FGJ and gain the quickness, but you can pop Signet of Rage and get it, and at a usable quickness duration that can't be perma maintained on its own.