09/26/2023—September 26 Release Notes World Polish Reduced the amount of healing twisted mender enemies applied to their allies. It is now a flat value rather than a percentage of the target's maximum health. Fixed an issue that could cause a mismatch between the Priority Strike rotation and rela...
I think we can agree that the main balancing issue is the huge gap between "floor" and "ceiling".
I wasn't ignoring the ceiling by the way. My argument is that the ceiling equals a tiny fraction of the player base and is hence not as relevant as it appears to be on the forums, reddit, lemmy, youtube, … where it is overly represented.
And even, if I count in the "floor" of players doing end game content, we are still talking about a minority of the player base total.
What needs to be done is narrow the gap which means
help players to "git okay" (as you put it). But this shouldn't be mostly rely on external resources and the players investing time to prepare. The game can still do far better in this regard, Also, it takes way more than 10 or 15 minutes to get from "having no clue" to "know what you are doing". Copy/Pasting a build does not help very much. You need to learn why you make those choices and in this regard many external (build) resources are not very good either.
limit the DPS increase you can achieve by reaching perfection. I don't mean a hard cap, but a flattening curve that throttles individual DPS the higher you go. Which means that the best of the best can still compete against each other but are not as easily capable of carrying an entire squad.
Meanwhile the "over-performers" could run less OP builds, equip white gear or play naked, if they find the content too easy. Yes, I'm kidding. But just a little. 😎
Or maybe I have to wait until GW2 goes into maintenance mode like GW1 where overperforming professions/builds, e. g. Mesmers, are no longer nerfed. So I can run a meta hero team with 5 Ineptitude/Energy Surge Mesmers, a Blood is Power Necromancer/Ritualist and a Soul Twisting Ritualist or have it less OP but with more flavor and include a traditional front line. a Minionmancer and Monk healers.
Yeah that's a good goal to get to. But that's also hard to achieve, without making skills feel weak, because you basically have to make auto attacks very strong.
We can totally agree though on the teaching of mechanics. Gw2 has a lot of mechanics per encounter, that seriously reduce your dps output if you don't know how they work. We rarely have classic "punching bag" bosses like other older mmos. Anet did a good job with the two new strikes though. They are very easy to understand, so easy that you can beat them on the first try.
you basically have to make auto attacks very strong.
Why would this require auto-attacks to be stronger? I don't think that the average player (apart from the very lazy. Yes, I know those exist.) is only (supposed to be) using auto-attacks. I think that most players like to use their (impactful) skills. What makes it hard or rather makes a huge difference in DPS is that timing matters a lot, e. g. Blight stacks and their consumption on Harbinger.
I'd also assume or rather hope that less experienced players are making slightly more defensive gear and trait choices which allows them to make a few (minor) mistakes during the course of a boss fight without getting downed or being a constant burden for the healer, i. e. trade some (max) DPS for more survivability.
I think we can agree that the main balancing issue is the huge gap between "floor" and "ceiling".
I wasn't ignoring the ceiling by the way. My argument is that the ceiling equals a tiny fraction of the player base and is hence not as relevant as it appears to be on the forums, reddit, lemmy, youtube, … where it is overly represented.
And even, if I count in the "floor" of players doing end game content, we are still talking about a minority of the player base total.
What needs to be done is narrow the gap which means
Meanwhile the "over-performers" could run less OP builds, equip white gear or play naked, if they find the content too easy. Yes, I'm kidding. But just a little. 😎
Or maybe I have to wait until GW2 goes into maintenance mode like GW1 where overperforming professions/builds, e. g. Mesmers, are no longer nerfed. So I can run a meta hero team with 5 Ineptitude/Energy Surge Mesmers, a Blood is Power Necromancer/Ritualist and a Soul Twisting Ritualist or have it less OP but with more flavor and include a traditional front line. a Minionmancer and Monk healers.
Yeah that's a good goal to get to. But that's also hard to achieve, without making skills feel weak, because you basically have to make auto attacks very strong.
We can totally agree though on the teaching of mechanics. Gw2 has a lot of mechanics per encounter, that seriously reduce your dps output if you don't know how they work. We rarely have classic "punching bag" bosses like other older mmos. Anet did a good job with the two new strikes though. They are very easy to understand, so easy that you can beat them on the first try.
Why would this require auto-attacks to be stronger? I don't think that the average player (apart from the very lazy. Yes, I know those exist.) is only (supposed to be) using auto-attacks. I think that most players like to use their (impactful) skills. What makes it hard or rather makes a huge difference in DPS is that timing matters a lot, e. g. Blight stacks and their consumption on Harbinger.
I'd also assume or rather hope that less experienced players are making slightly more defensive gear and trait choices which allows them to make a few (minor) mistakes during the course of a boss fight without getting downed or being a constant burden for the healer, i. e. trade some (max) DPS for more survivability.