Powercreep, the rift between optimized and unoptimized DPS in PvE

[SlayerXX.7138]

Thanks to the multiplicative nature of the GW 2 stat, weapon and trait systems the rift between good and bad is ever increasing. Be it skill in executing a Rotation, weapon choice, trait choices or how optimized the gear is. The increasing Power creep widening this gap further. One good example for this is Power Daredevil with its high number of multiplier.
With a empty endurance bar, 10 conditions including weakness and vulnerability, 90%+ health, 100% crit chance and a sigil of force the amount of multiplier is staggering. Just looking at the damage and crit damager modifier, while ignoring the damage increasing effect ferocity or other stat traits like extra power, the damage modifier double the damage. On a target with less then 50% it becomes 243.64% damage on targets above 50 % it is "only" 223.34% damage. Combined with the 270% crit damage such a build can have, damage goes through a Multiplier of up to 6.58. Daredevil may be one of the more extreme cases, but a lot of top builds are full of multiplier too. That is one of the reason why even with the big power creep, the effect on casual player seems minimal. Every extra damage trait someone may not take is in practice a huge dps loss. A missing stack of might is not 30 power, but 180. Non-Meta weapons losing thousands of dps in contrast to their meta counter parts. Every Piece of marauder instead of berserker costing tons of damage. Simple food buffs doing more for dps, then one might think. Rotation reliant specs losing enormous amount of dps if not executed properly. In general every tiny deviation from the optimal dps setup comes with a huge loss in numbers. Boons increasing this effect further: Quickness is another multiplying factor and 25 stack of might is a hefty amount of stats that is send through these multipliers.

Not really a critic of the systems. Just something people should keep in mind, Devs included. If you ever wondered why the average OW player does less then 10k damage.

Edited July 18, 2023 by SlayerXX.7138

[JusticeRetroHunter.7684]

The multiplicative nature of mechanical relationship in the vacuum, is not the real problem. Unless you want the game to be nothing but a simple addition problem…the actual issue is solvability…which is not exclusive to the operation… players are presented options that can too easily solve problems…like putting X and Y together is gonna be better than A and B because both of them are defined by a decidable number,

Linear systems (rather than non-linear) is the boogie man…subtly covered up to appear innocuous… you will regret when gw2 becomes even more of  an addition and subtraction game.

Edited July 18, 2023 by JusticeRetroHunter.7684

[Polar.8634]

there is even no dps meter in game, unoptimized dps-er normally does not know his dps anyways

[Astralporing.1957]

14 hours ago, JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

The multiplicative nature of mechanical relationship in the vacuum, is not the real problem. Unless you want the game to be nothing but a simple addition problem…the actual issue is solvability…which is not exclusive to the operation… players are presented options that can too easily solve problems…like putting X and Y together is gonna be better than A and B because both of them are defined by a decidable number,

Linear systems (rather than non-linear) is the boogie man…subtly covered up to appear innocuous… you will regret when gw2 becomes even more of  an addition and subtraction game.

No. The players are not presented anything. The solutions do exist, but they are out there, in the wilds, and players are expected to look for and find them completely on their own, with no hints whatsoever. Not to mention the solutions are complex - you don't need to find just one, you need to find several and connect them in just the right way. And, first and foremost, most often than not players aren't even being told that a problem exist - they need to find that out on their own as well.

Some players (a very small minority) can get it. More can realize the issue exist, and, lacking capability to solve it, think to look for solutions from others. Most players however just either do not have a mindset to look for solutions for seemingly simple (but in reality quite complex) mechanical/build issues outside the game, or are even unaware that there is an issue. Or how big it is.

It is funny to see players claiming how the solutions are so easy to acquire when 99% of those players weren;t actually capable of arriving at those solutions themselves and are basing their knowledge on informations from others (mostly taken from out-of-game sources). And yes, it aplies not just for casual players but for hardcores as well - most of them know where to get their builds from, many can analize those builds and see why they are good, but only atiny minority would have been able to create such a build from scratch. Or even modify it to a bigger degree - most hardcores still need to wait for release of build updates after each major patch because they are not even able to adjust to those themselves.

If that's the situation with hardcores, expecting casuals to be able to understand the whole system is not even just naive - it's waiting for a literal miracle to happen.

[Matoro.9708]

3k dps gang 

I understand how to be a meta build. I just hate every choice that would take me there.