The only truly balanced game mechanics in this game are Vitality and Toughness attributes

[Mikali.9651]

Everything here is a personal opinion, my thoughts which have been with me for a long period of time. This will contain a lot of critiques and some will maybe think that I have big issues with a game. I do have, that is a truth, but I do love Guild Wars universe with all my heart for it was the first online experience I had back in 2005. The Original version made me an individual with huge needs when it comes to clarity and fairness of game mechanics.

When I write my thoughts I expect civilized discussion. We can't agree on everything, maybe not even on a single one, and that is fine, but do not forget that we are all humans with desires and a need for our expectations to be met. Of course, we will defend what we want, but care about others feelings!

 

Let's start.

 

**Stat/Attributes system**

 

**1. Toughness and Vitality**

 

Toughness. An attribute which reduces damage taken. It is a strange one, for if you do not receive a really big dmg number or you only receive few number of hits, Vitality of the same number is a better choice in terms of tankiness. If you do receive multiple hits, every hit will be reduced and then Toughness will become a better tank stat, or if you take a really big burst damage that would be 1 or 2-hits k.o.

In my opinion, Toughness could get some better base numbers across every armor/weapon/trinket piece. On its own it is actually a bit underpowered, where it shines and becomes stronger is when protection boon and other % damage reductions are stacked, and constant healing is included.

Which basically means, if you have a good source of % damage reductions toughness becomes a very strong choice.

If you do not have damage reductions, you can actually be burst down much easier than having Vitality of the same number if we are talking about 1-5 big number hits!

Toughness does not protect you against big burst on its own!

 

If on another hand you have evades/dodges where you can invade multiple incoming numbers of hits, Vitality becomes a stronger defensive option for you, for it is much stronger defensive stat if you are hit rarely or if you are being burst. 1000 base Toughness is very, very strong.

 

The next difference is in the incoming Condition damage. Years ago players realized the power of Toughness combined with other damage reductions and constant healing and thus bunker meta was born. Not even spike damage could kill them anymore with all the %dmg reductions on top of the constant healing and aegis/block spam. Condition damage and boon convertions were the only way of dealing with bunker meta, for condition damage is armor ignoring damage source which bypasses damage reductions and aegis/block spam combined with dodges.

But the condition damage was too underpowered and couldn't really counter the bunker meta. It was horrible. There was also a problem in PvE for it had great diminishing returns for a number of stacks on bosses was too low and your own conditions sometimes wouldn't apply at all.

 

Then the condition damage overhaul came, the cap was raised in PvE, calculation changed.

Bunker meta could actually be countered now for condition damage is armor ignoring damage.

 

If you are against condition damage, Vitality is a much stronger choice, Toughness can't do anything against it.

 

These two attributes keep each other in check, they have very cool interaction and on their own, they are fairly balanced.

 

 

[Mikali.9651]

**2. Power/Precision/Ferocity**

 

Power is probably one of the worst attributes in the game. It is underpowered and horrible on its own. Damage number is too low and to be a viable source of the damage it needs even more, power (stacked might boon), % dmg increases and most important – critical damage, called Ferocity (which basically is the % dmg increase).

Ferocity is a useless attribute if there is no critical hit. And the only way to do a critical hit is through Precision or sigils and traits.

Precision is a great attribute but probably one of the most overpowered in the game. Having 100% crit chance so easily is beyond madness, it shouldn't ever be reachable. It basically makes the game unbalanced. We had Zerker meta which clearly demonstrated the Opness of the Precision.

Condition damage didn't have a chance to compete against Zerker builds. It needed an overhaul and it had to become overpowered itself to be viable. Which made it all even worse.

Precision coming from traits should be nerfed to a minor number if any at all! Having +10, 15, 50, 100% chance to critical hit just for having a trait is a terrible game design and makes the game very hard to balance, and furthermore, the game becomes a power creep mess.

 

High % critical chance should be hard to achieve, Power should be stronger on its own, Ferocity should just have base % critical damage and even be removed from the game as the attribute.

These 3 attributes are the Holy Trinity for Power builds, and each one of them is broken. Underpowered or overpowered.

 

**3. Healing Power**

 

I am actually angry at this one. It gets the number one spot for the worst attribute in the game. The clarity of this attribute is non-existent. You can have the highest possible Healing power number and your skills will heal you for a 5% increase. It needs a complete overhaul, I do not like when the attribute is or completely useless, or kinda okay/strong depending on a profession and a skill used.

I am actually voting on removing it from the game the way it is now. It has no clarity and when it actually is good, it becomes very hard to balance and counter. Bunker meta proved it many times.

 

[Mikali.9651]

**4. Expertise and Concentration**

 

I like % increase duration attributes. Having more attributes in the game can be a great thing when done right, it gives more options for armor sets and unique builds.

What I do not like is when it is overshadowed by the % increase in the traits. Remove those traits, it is unhealthy. What it basically did, it made Condition oriented builds too strong. Instead of a need for 2 attributes to do viable condition damage, those builds only need 1, making power builds weak against them. I will talk about the condition damage in another paragraph. Again, nerf the hell out of the % duration increase from the traits, nerf base condition duration across skills, and make Expertise needed attribute if you want to do viable Condition damage.

 

If power builds need Holy Trinity to be viable, conditions should have Holy Duality. It is fair.

 

 

**5. Condition damage and conditions**

 

In its current form, condition damage system is broken. This will be the topic where I will do the most rumbling, where a lot of you will not agree with me, for I will change everything.

In one hand, condition damage is a great counter against bunker meta, or better, meta where toughness and % incoming damage reduction is used but on the other hand, it destroyed the game.

Basically, condition damage is so strong and badly made, that it wants to compete with the power damage. In my opinion, it never should have happened. Conditions should be debuffs and the DoT which does not compete with DPS and burst damage. It needs to have its role in the game, but the huge xXx damage number shouldn't be the one.

It all comes down to two things: base condition number, and a number of stacks.

In my opinion, conditions should have a need for a 2nd attribute to even be viable as a damage option. Power is nothing without Precision and Ferocity. Condition damage is everything. It is terrible when Condition damage builds can use tank attributes and still deal a great amount of the damage against builds which are investing 3 attributes to be even a remotely viable damage source.

Power builds have huge diminishing returns when compared to Condition builds.

 

Conditions do armor-ignoring damage, they do damage even if you have aegis, or even when you dodge, there is no way to escape it. UNLESS you use condition removal or resistance.

Did you know there was no resistance boon before? It exists only to have some counter to conditions. It only furthers power creep in the game, the unbalanced state the game is in, and now, you even have one more boon to keep a check on. Resistance can also make condition damage a totally useless attribute if it goes unchecked. To counter that, you give even more boon corruptions, boon removal, more condition spam, more stacks, longer condition duration to bypass the resistance duration. A big mess which happened!

If you lower the condition damage number, and actually do a need for it to have longer duration to do viable damage, then condition clearing becomes too strong against them.

Condition damage is so unbalanced that it became a hell to balance and it only promotes power creep in the game. It needs a complete overhaul!

 

One more big element for my huge dislike towards condition system is the clarity. There is no telling how much damage you will receive when you see 10 stacks of bleeding on yourself. It could be a minor damage or huge burst! All because you cannot tell does the condition stack comes from all-condition based builds, or is it just a random condition stack from the auto-attack from a build which has 0 condition damage. A terrible game design.

 

In my perfect world, I would remove damage dealing condition applied by auto attack skills in the game, even go a step further and remove it from some other skills too. Damage conditions should be applied if you invest in a trait.

example: Trait – your auto attacks deal bleeding on hit.

 

No more random damage condition stacks, thank you very much, I do not like when there is no clarity, it is unhealthy!

 

Of course, I would go a step further. I would completely remove Condition damage attribute in the game. Conditions should do a set base damage, without any variety of the damage inflicted. It should be clear to expect how much damage you will take, no more guessing. Stacks should be a % dmg increase in the condition damage. Lets say 5% increase for every stack. If you manage to do 20 stacks on a target, a target will take 100% more damage. The best thing about it? A target would know exactly what that damage means the moment it sees how many stacks of the condition is applied to it.

Condition damage shouldn't be a burst damage, it has to be damage over time, it should be a ticking bomb, it should be an armor-ignoring pressure.

 

Condition clearing skills should be nerfed, they should be rare, on a longer cooldown and not a single one as a part of the trait system. No more, if you get regeneration remove a condition, if you swap weapons, if you smash your head on a keyboard remove the condition. This power creep is just silly.

 

My dream would be if condition system actually further rewards you when you apply a condition to a target. „If the target has a bleeding condition, do X, if it has 10 stacks of a unique condition, do Y“. It would be a far more interesting concept.

 

 

[Mikali.9651]

**Bleeding, Burning, Torment**

 

These 3 should be the only DoT conditions. That's about it.

 

 

**Poison**

This one should just lower % healing potency, with a base of 20%. Every stack should add towards lowering the % healing potency.

 

**Confusion**

 

This is true cancer in its current form. It shouldn't be DoT. I like the part where it punishes for using a skill but I would do one huge change. It wouldn't apply to using auto-attacks! You shouldn't automatically counter everything, there should be a way for a target to have an option to fight against you without killing itself. Autoattacks should be resistant to Confusion, but using other skills should be even more punishable! Of course, it would work for mobs in PvE.

 

**Weakness**

 

The most overpowered game mechanic in the game by far! It completely shutdowns power builds while doing nothing at all against condition damage build (we can argue it does for it also reduces endurance regeneration). Throw this condition in a bin in its current form! It is terrible, overpowered, and single-handedly destroys the balance in the game!

I know that Necroes do not really have defensive options and weakness is their form of defense, but come on, do not pretend it is a fine option!

Give necroes protection boon for all I care! More blind spam!

Just throw this condition away, or change it completely.

 

example: Target deals 33% less damage to you (both power and condition), and has 50% reduced skill activation (Autoattacks not included).

Yes, remove the Slow condition in the game and combine it with Weakness.

 

**Stealth, Evades, Invulnerability**

 

Come on now, nerf this. Make it rare, not spammable, on a huge cooldown, with a need for some conditions to be met (ex. If the target is attacked from behind, Stealth). Make it skillful!

If you really care about having more defensive options, then buff Endurance regeneration, or Vigor boon itself.

If you dodge you do not do damage! Unless you trait it. That seems far fairer than having spammable evades while doing a damage, Endure pain (and pls remove Defy Pain, it is a nonsense, same like every similar skill which is procced in traits when < 75/50% health) and all similar skills which Thieves and Mesmers are abusing.

Guardian has the fairest skill in the game, Renewed Focus, every similar skill should follow the same game design – you do not receive damage, but you don't deal damage and it is on a higher cooldown.

 

 

 

 

That's about it, for now, my rumbling is done! Kudos to everyone who read this. If you do not agree with me, feel free to point it out, but in a constructive way if possible.

[Dawdler.8521]

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **3. Healing Power**

>

> I am actually angry at this one. It gets the number one spot for the worst attribute in the game. The clarity of this attribute is non-existent. You can have the highest possible Healing power number and your skills will heal you for a 5% increase. It needs a complete overhaul, I do not like when the attribute is or completely useless, or kinda okay/strong depending on a profession and a skill used.

> I am actually voting on removing it from the game the way it is now. It has no clarity and when it actually is good, it becomes very hard to balance and counter. Bunker meta proved it many times.

>

This isnt technically the fault of healing power as a stat though - each skill has individual modifiers for how it uses healing. Some see good use, many not so much. It is rather diffuse, yes.

[Zacchary.6183]

Then thief will be needing plenty of passive defense and defensive mechanics if you want evasion and stealth nerfed because thief has **zero.**

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"Dawdler.8521" said:

> > @"Mikali.9651" said:

> > **3. Healing Power**

> >

> > I am actually angry at this one. It gets the number one spot for the worst attribute in the game. The clarity of this attribute is non-existent. You can have the highest possible Healing power number and your skills will heal you for a 5% increase. It needs a complete overhaul, I do not like when the attribute is or completely useless, or kinda okay/strong depending on a profession and a skill used.

> > I am actually voting on removing it from the game the way it is now. It has no clarity and when it actually is good, it becomes very hard to balance and counter. Bunker meta proved it many times.

> >

> This isnt technically the fault of healing power as a stat though - each skill has individual modifiers for how it uses healing. Some see good use, many not so much. It is rather diffuse, yes.

But that's exactly the stat design failure here. It works completely differently to any other stats. Look how each skill uses Power and Condi Damage (and, consequently, Precision, Ferocity, Concentration and Expertise). Only Healing power has such wild inconsistency between statless and statted use from skill to skill.

 

[FlyingK.9720]

At this point, there's everything wrong with the current combat system. Viper's is too good with no solid alternatives as expertise is too mandatory and not available enough. With the whole "limited active defense" combat in the game, defensive stats are effectively worthless in PvE; even in PvP they're losing their value as the aim is to now one shot or be one shot. There's no build variety not because non-meta is slightly worse, but that it's considerably worse, picking up any kind of support means severely gimping your dps. Even the non-meta builds posted on Reddit read like the Meta Builds just with less rotation or cheaper gear.

 

Frankly I'd love to see Anet have a good conference call with NCSoft's other no-role MMO balance team, Blade and Soul. BnS has a solid esport scene in Asia due to it's fantastic counterplay driven pvp, it's pve is also top notch using a system where there are tanks and classes that can share heals, but neither are mandatory as I've been through plenty of dungeons and raids without either. What BnS doesn't do for me was things to do outside of dungeons/raids, ended up dropping the game after burning out on running the same dungeons everyday for gold to buy the next upgrade.

 

GW2 easily has the best event driven world with almost too much variety in activities, but the combat design decisions just keep me shaking my head.

[Arzurag.7506]

I couldn´t agree more in literally every aspect, though I don´t expect nothing to change in this game yet.

Perhaps GW3 or even GW4 will include the changes or moreover, is the game what we really want.

[Orion Templar.4589]

You've raised a lot of good points. I especially concur with the points about healing power. When GW2 first came out I remember thinking healing power sounded valuable and I invested in that stat. Then over time I realized how little it really did - I remember testing with some stats and after investing a chunk in healing power seeing my heal skill healing only going up by 5 points. Like you said, there needs to be clarity of mechanics. I should be able to know ahead of time if I put points into a stat, how will that translate into what a skill can do? With every skill having these hidden coefficients, it's really tough to know what a stat like healing power is really going to do.

[Asum.4960]

It seems you are forgetting PvE exists, as this post seems very PvP focused, in it's complaints and even more so in it's solutions.

 

While Power builds need Power, Precision and Ferocity do deal good damage, Condition builds pretty much need Condition Damage, Expertise, Power and Precision for PvE. The two stat sets providing these stats are absolute meta respectively and the top Condition and Power builds reach very similar damage numbers with them.

 

The argument that things like dodging and Aegis don't counter condis but power is nonsense. If you dodge or block the attack applying conditions you avoid the condition damage, just like you would with power damage, it just feels psychologically worse to know you are going to die to condis and not having invested enough into the additional counters condis have (cleanses and resistance), than it is to dying to a burst and thinking you just needed to dodge/block that, while you could have done the same with the condi applying attacks.

 

The only reason why Conditions are out of whack in PvP is precisely Vitality.

Players have WAY to little health compared to the damage numbers floating around in the current state of the game.

While power builds still want Power, Precision and Ferocity to burst you down as close to instantly as possible, Condition players realised Condition Duration simply being wasted on 11k-25k HP targets, allowing them to do the same damage short term, but building more defensively.

 

Had players more health and the PvP being less bursty, condition builds would have to invest into more stats than power to do comparative damage just like they have to in PvE.

 

Condi's aren't broken. Player health just hasn't scaled at all with increasing damage numbers, and Condi is in a special spot to exploit that.

 

Your proposed changed would not only require a complete redesign of almost every skill and combat system in the game, it would also leave conditions broken, just in the other direction and in PvE.

Increasing player health while nerfing known bunkers and adjusting damage in PvE from mobs accordingly would resolve alot of these issues.

 

**TL:DR**

11k Base HP is broken, not conditions, in a world where players do over 30k damage per second. Allowing players to ignore stats like condition duration in PvP.

[Edelweiss.4261]

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> Basically, condition damage is so strong and badly made, that it wants to compete with the power damage. In my opinion, it never should have happened. Conditions should be debuffs and the DoT which does not compete with DPS and burst damage. It needs to have its role in the game, but the huge xXx damage number shouldn't be the one.

This interests me. When I used to play dungeons and dragons(4e), I was all about controllers. Increasing the rarity/strength of buffs/debuffs would make condition builds way more appealing to me. The only downside would be solo play, but the oft requested templates could solve this.

[ThomasC.1056]

Hello,

 

Thanks for nice written thread and interesting thoughts.

 

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **1. Toughness and Vitality**

> _(snip)_

 

I'm not really sure about what you're writing for a simple reason : the damage reduction is calculated from armor, and not from toughness. So 1000 toughness hasn't the same effect for an ele or a warrior.

That said, the most interesting part in this is that defensive effect comes from stats **and boons** and my opinion on this is lots of builds (and players) rely far too much on boons. It may be because stats are undertuned by themselves, but things aren't that easy (see below).

 

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **2. Power/Precision/Ferocity**

>_(snip)_

I agree, power is probably one of the worst attribute, because power for itself (say, soldier stats) leads nowhere. I roughly agree on the broad accessibility of crits that's discutable : since crits significantly comes from traits, it makes investing in precision less relevant, thus players can focus and power+ferocity, and leads to insane spikes. A guess is : as condi only uses 2 stats, that may be an attemps to align, but I'm not so sure about it.

 

Now, I'd like to go a bit farther. Suppose for one moment that precision and ferocity didn't exist. Would that change much things ? My guess is : it'd only drag fights longer. That to say : power isn't an underpowered stat *by itself* it's underpowered *because of precision+ferocity*. When you've got an option that makes you hit twice as hard, you take it. Especially when it's fairly cheap, and effective, but more important : *especially when the game punishes you if the fight drags too long*. Why does it punish you ? PvE-wise : because mobs are insanely powerful (compared to PC), with hundreads of thousands HP, so you can't really afford to let them live too long. PvP-wise : because defensive system isn't enough against a glass-cannon with skills designed to fight PvE mobs (hundreads of thousands HP etc.) under steroids because zerk/marauder gear. PvP amulets may damper this, but in WvW there's no buffer...

 

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **3. Healing Power**

> _(snip)_

> I am actually angry at this one. It gets the number one spot for the worst attribute in the game. The clarity of this attribute is non-existent. You can have the highest possible Healing power number and your skills will heal you for a 5% increase. It needs a complete overhaul, I do not like when the attribute is or completely useless, or kinda okay/strong depending on a profession and a skill used.

> I am actually voting on removing it from the game the way it is now. It has no clarity and when it actually is good, it becomes very hard to balance and counter. Bunker meta proved it many times.

I fondly agree with that. Healing stat is a pure waste because scaling is horrible. It needs a huge investment, at the expense of other stats, for a gain that is ridiculous, and often useless in the generic context (fights getting punishing when they last too long). Then, I agree it can have a role in organized parties. To make it viable, I'd :

1. Buff the scaling so that it becomes significant

2. Add an effect that'd reduce damage and duration of incoming conditions.

 

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **4. Expertise and Concentration**

> _(snip)_

The core thing to remember here is : traits also have a significant effect on those, comparable to stats.

 

> @"Mikali.9651" said:

> **5. Condition damage and conditions**

Be careful on your rumbling. There're many things broken about conditions, but remember they only do damage once applied, which means that any way you can prevent application will negate the damage. So, in a sense, aegis or dodge can negate condition damage.

To me, it alls boils down to the fact fights don't last. ANet states that conditions are ramping damage. Let's take random numbers. Suppose that a condi build deals 100% of its damage in 10s (huge, but easier calculations), and that it ramps linearely. Now, let's take a full glass-canon : it'll deal 100% of its damage in 2s. In these 2s, the condi build will only deal 20% of its damage. Now, if the power build can down the condi one with a single burst, while only eating 20% of the damage potential from condis, then condis are no use. The natural consequence of it should be : increase defensive stats so that condi users last longer. Hence dire+TB. _But_, players also are provided with the ability to increase the ramping rate (with stacks and condi variety), so the 20% condi dealt in 2s become enough to down a glass-cannon. The natural consequence of this should be : switch from glass cannon to more bunker, but as said : defensive stats aren't that good.

Second issue here is : condi damage can be negated _even after its application_ : resistance and cleanses. It's a pity the only answer found to that is more condi spamming, but the actual only logical answer to that is an apparent paradox : in order to nerf conditions, you need first to nerf condi-denying skills. Because players won't pick condi builds if it's not a reliable source of damage.

 

Now, about the clarity part, I agree with you. It's not easy to tell if you can ignore the conditions or if you need to cleanse them asap. I used to know a game when there were actually two things : the DoT effects were shown as degen pips (each pip was worth a given health loss a tick) and other effectfs, generic debuffs or punishing effects (trigger on condition) had specific icons. It was the same for what's called boons. The only issue was there were many types of skills (hexes, enchantements, chants, shouts etc.) so it was a pain to read punishing effects, and to keep uptodate with all the possibilities. The name of this game ? Guild Wars...

That said, the boons/conditions is too poor and scarce. We've got "only" 5 damaging conditions amongst them 2 punishing and 1 debuff. It's really few and impairs build diversity. If you look carefully, even the devs are aware of that insufficience : they're creating new effects that aren't boons or conditions. Like paragon's shouts. It's only sad they create them for mobs.

 

**My conclusion :**

 

When I read between the lines, there's one big flaw that you're reaching, but you don't word it : **Stats are competing with other mechanics (traits, mostly)**. Traits could work as stats buffs, but numbers would only be broken (and I'm not even telling about transfers), but for a build-maker, it provides amazing synergies, both on the offensive side, and the bunker side. Which leaves no space for middle ground, because that middle ground would be ineffective against bunker, and simply ganked by a glass-cannon.

 

Second big issue is, roughly, the duration of fights. With the current value, fights are too short, which favors bursty builds. It's an intricate issue, because it involves defensive stats tweaks, as well as PvE encounters big revamp.

 

Third big issue, especially for build diversity and conditions, is the overall really poor DoT/debuff possibilities. You can create as many names for skills as you want, if they boil down to 5 damaging condis and 9 debuff, then there only are 14 possibilities, which is dramatically low, and insufficient to create a healthy build diversity for DoT/debuff roles.

[Aedil.1296]

Hello, I just wanted to say I agree completly with the op. At the sate gw2 is now it's very messy and unclear.

[Astralporing.1957]

> @"ThomasC.1056" said:

> > @"Mikali.9651" said:

> > **3. Healing Power**

> > _(snip)_

> > I am actually angry at this one. It gets the number one spot for the worst attribute in the game. The clarity of this attribute is non-existent. You can have the highest possible Healing power number and your skills will heal you for a 5% increase. It needs a complete overhaul, I do not like when the attribute is or completely useless, or kinda okay/strong depending on a profession and a skill used.

> > I am actually voting on removing it from the game the way it is now. It has no clarity and when it actually is good, it becomes very hard to balance and counter. Bunker meta proved it many times.

> I fondly agree with that. Healing stat is a pure waste because scaling is horrible. It needs a huge investment, at the expense of other stats, for a gain that is ridiculous, and often useless in the generic context (fights getting punishing when they last too long). Then, I agree it can have a role in organized parties. To make it viable, I'd :

> 1. Buff the scaling so that it becomes significant

> 2. Add an effect that'd reduce damage and duration of incoming conditions.

I'd say that the first step should be to uncouple HP scaling from skills and move it to some general effect (the same way other stats work). Skills should only give a base healing value, and HP bonus should be calculated using some general formula.

As it is now it's just way too complicated and inconsistent.

[Svarty.8019]

Astute observation regarding core aspects of the game that have been forever broken, but... don't expect anything to be fixed.

[PaxTheGreatOne.9472]

My opinion about **#3 Healing**

 

In PvE healing shouldn't be about huge numbers too much as most enemies attack only once per 3-5 seconds, and your job is to avoid most of it. As such having huge healing numbers would make healing OP and make all PvE content instantly trivial. In the 2 area's where it does make a difference (,Fractals t3+ and raids,) it does impact signifiantly allowing healers to spike heal most allies in 3-10 seconds from ressed or nearly down to max health. This clearly shows most heals are adequate. Heals seem to lack in area's with abundant condi applications (e.g. Sloth?) where condipressure is used for the mechanic. Also in WvW heals are limited in effect as dmg mitigating modifiers tend to outweigh trying to keep filling the healthpool(s). The biggest weakness of healing is the fact it heals fixed numbers, uninfluenced by the healthpool. If you make a full vitality based character you'll notice in the use you will end up on the lower % of your healthpool if you get hit now and then even when healed. Mostly due to the fact the absolute numbers are limited and cannot (easily) saturate a large healthpool.

 

In all cases where healing is needed _mitigation proves mandatory_, making the few below the best options to consider and have available to maximize the effectiveness of healing:

* **cleansing** (cleaning skills , condi duration reduction)

* **mitigation** (protection, toughness, other dmg reducing modifiers),

_and most importantly_

* **not getting hit in the 1st place** (reflects, blocks, dodging/evades or aegis/blinds)

 

If healing would be more potent all these mentioned mitigation systems could and should be removed, else noone would die, unless multiganked (or afk).

 

--------------

 

Good healers: (sustainable healing, aoe)

* The ranger , especially the druid, while an okay healer is not suited to healing very well due to its limited mechanics (ray healing) and it's burst option being timegated. with healing spring it can have acces to a water field allowing blasts if not druid. range is good though. Scales ok with healing

* The elementalist, especially the auramancer tempest, can be a powerfull healer. It can sustain and provide 2 water fields and will provide aoe heals though soothing mist. Scales good with healing

range is ok, and it will provide healing with 1200 range and splash on target, on self and more... Geyser can be used to speed up resses

* The revenant has a small effective range both on itself as on it's tablet but as healer ventari revs can be capable. I rarely play revenant so my knowledge is limited, however I find the system relatively easy. (I've no real knowledge of healing's impact on rev)

 

Okay healers (bursty heals with some regen)

* The guardian while bad as burst healer can sustain people a long time with mitigation and asmall amount of aoe heal via virtue of resolve. mace however is capabel as a healing option and staff as well, unfortunately since the staff auto attack nerf it's lost a lot of its other capability, just being a weapon. although it can res using a signet it's slow and cumbersome. Guards tend to work best in melee though. Guard can buff a lot and potentially have acces to good cleansing through shouts and

light fields. (Scales mediocre with healing)

* The warrior can heal okay using it's old shout heal system, with a regen banner providing 10% boon duration and 180 healing for groups. it also comes with a good res mechanic in warbanner. Focussing a lot on shouts and providing acces to a rune of the trooper this way of healing can provide good cleansing as well. (Scales mediocre with healing)

* The necro can heal with a suprising burst using transfusion and be a medivac as well. It will heal through it's AOE heal lifesteal which seems NOT coupled to healing anymore. It can heal cleanse and fight conditons. Scales bad with healing since lifesteal was removed from healing.

* The engineer can blast its healing turret water field allowing for surprise AOE heals it also has it gyro to activate water fields if needed and can use a gyro to res...

With acces to all fields engineer stays very versatile. (I've no real knowledge of healing's impact on engineer)

 

Not so capable healers (at least in my opinion) Both have acces to invisibility... an excellent escape. this requires an offset. maybe that's why both seem to lack support opions in direct healing

* The mesmer seems limited in aoe healing solutions. except maybe regen phantasms... surprisingly I found necromancer a more capable healer then mesmer.

seems to scale okay with healing (minstrel mesmer)

* The thief.... poison to heal?

[Manakel Angel.1047]

In my opinion, the probleme is not just the stats but also the association on an item. Currently, the best way to kill a monster is to use berzerker stat (Power, precision, ferocity) or the equivalent for condition damage (don't remember the name) wich leave defensive stat nowhere to be seen and indered build diversity.

 

Now, changing the stats themselves will change the range of damages, healing, etc. But changing the stat association will change build diversity, for exemple :

- only one offensive stat by item (power, precision or condition damage, ferocity by itself doing nothing should be include in precision)

- only one defensive stat by item (vitality, toughness, or guerison)

- only one utility stat by item (expertise or concentration)

 

This way, one can build for the damage he wants to do (hit hard with really low critical chance or doing duration damage or very precisely). And there should be no disparity between the three damage possibility in the long run (doing roughtly the same amount of damage fot let's say 5 or10 min of fight for balance purpose)

There would be also no invincible build because only one defensive stat is on the item.

This way there are 18 balanced builds available, much more than actually in my opinion.