At this point, remove armor damage entirely

starlinvf.1358 · July 26, 2018

@"sorudo.9054" said:ppl want a hard mode right without affecting other players, here is your chance.hard mode damages your armor 50% faster and stats are affecting much worse.....

That wouldn't really "hard" though.... just punishing. Which pretty much guaranties if a group wipes, they'll cheese it and restart the instance. That penalty would have to be there from the Onset, so they can't manipulate it for an easiest possible run.

Personally I'd like to see it reintroduced as an extension to the downed penalty, and triggering damage every time the player is downed. This reinforces the existing behaviors of players in open world to regularly make stops at safe areas to clean up. Major safe zones (like cities and major staging areas) auto repair armor, while various outputs include an anvil to use at your leisure. It doesn't really change anything, but it does add some awareness to make it look smarter then it currently is. Its also a throw back to GW1 use of death penalties in appearance, getting rid of some of the clunky feeling of its existence.

Second, it starts to matter more in both Raids and Fractals, as players can get downed pretty often without actually losing the fight. Hardcore players in both modes have been pushing for more challenge, and this a good way to add a punishment thats not over the top, and is a real concern during the encounter, rather then pushing for new types of "instant wipe" conditions.

This same effect also has a substantial impact on WvW, and is something that does directly target "rally bouncing" during large or protracted fights. If anything, this would be the one game mode where it makes the most sense. If your team wipes, you're back at spawn anyway and have access to repairs. If your team wins, the longer they stay out in the open, the more likely they'll get broken armor. In situations where one zerg sustains itself for long periods in some kind of bag farm, the opposition can whittle them down and eventually force the Driver and their entourage to reset. Again, not a huge change to the current norms, but does mess with certain outlier cases that turn crappy after too long.