Hard Mode Mob's Armor: Why some classes are favored.

[:1]HM mobs have increased armor and hp. Of the two, the biggest problem lies in their armor buff. This puts some classes in clear advantage, and others in clear disadvantage.

Here is a list of how each class deals damage:

100% armor ignoring.

Necro

Mesmer

Monk (although mostly used for healing, this class can be ignored in this discussion)

Ritualist (SoS, which makes up 99.99% of all offensive ritualist)

75% armor ignoring.

Assassins (very high +damage)

Warrior (with bleeding + deep wound, armor penetration)

50% armor ignoring

Ranger (with poison, attack from range, interrupt, Penetrating Attack)

Dervish (Kind of makes up for it with AoE melee attack)

Paragon (horrible damage to begin with. Worst damage dealing class in the game for HM. Having Barbed Spear for bleeding isn't good enough.)

25% armor ignoring

Elementalists (only though Air Magic. Else 0%).



So there you have it. It is no wonder why Elementalists are not popular. As HM goes harder (reaching level 40 nowadays) their skills deals less and less damage.

Paragon is even worst because its damage was horrible to begin with. With the ever increasing armor on HM mobs, the paragon became outright to worst damage dealing class in the game. At least Elementalists nukes starts off at a very high number. Paragons doesn't even have that.

Assassins can deal a ton of damage. However they are make of sand paper and hence not popular in HM.

Dervish benefits from their scythe when they can hit multiple foes. And with the recent buffs they are ok now. Their lack of popularity is more a result of a lack of new players creating new dervishes.

Ranger would be the next weakest link. However they got poison and deal their damage from range. So they are some what popular in HM.



So that leaves us with the obviously popular classes in HM:

Warrior, Ritualist, Necromancer and Mesmer.

Monks are popular regardless of this issue.



Suggestion:

-Decrease mob armor rating back down to human levels. (60-80 armor depending on class, plus the class' armor buff, insignia and weapon mods. )

-Further increase mob levels and health and balance things out.

This way the mobs are just as hard to kill as before. But now elementalist nukes can hurt them more. This would balance the game much better.|||You're forgetting cracked armor, which the derv, ele, rit, and I forget what else (necro, mesmer, and paragon?) get. Probably easiest to inflict with the derv imo.

Also, attack skills +dmg modifiers ignore armor so paragons do get some, but the thing about the paragons is they do more than just damage the enemies in different ways. They increase the defense of the team, have teamwide ims, and have multiple buffs that are just really really nice. You may not like them, but I always do my best to keep at least one on the team, two would be ideal but alas it is hard to find spots for everyone with monks hogging up two slots.

Btw, I really actually don't like warriors in hm. Although most of my experience with such is with heroes. The other three classes I agree with though, I like having two rits on my team, and so many people like necros on their team (but not for reasons stated above, their main attribute is just great for most secondaries). Mesmers... yeah they work great in hm now. Although things die so fast that it's hard to tell sometimes.

I wouldn't mind extra health on mobs in hard mode, though increased levels would be lame imo. I don't think the armor of mobs needs to be lowered however. Actually makes cracked armor worthwhile :P|||Monks are great at dealing damage just as much as other classes and they do more than just heal.Smiting is armour ignoring.

Rangers have armour penetration as well.|||Elementalists in HM don't have damage as their main role anymore. They do some damage, apply burn, and what not, but their primary role is more of utility.

That said practically no one cares about utility in PvE.


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I really actually don't like warriors in hm. Although most of my experience with such is with heroes.




Warriors are great in HM. Hero warriors always suck though.|||Quote:








Warrior, Ritualist, Necromancer and Mesmer.




Hm yes. My favourite team setup consists of:

2 necros

2-3 monks (3rd is a smiter)

2-3 mesmers (3rd is an extra interrupter)

1 rit

Smiter and interrupter are swapped according to the needs in the mission/area ahead. Under normal circumstances, I bring the smiter, because he has Fall Back.

This works both in HM and in NM. If I have to drag Zhed along for a mission, he's using Water (freezing and maelstrom), and that works quite nicely too.



I agree that the "rawrrrr me deal xtreme dmg with mah flares!!!"-type elementalists are next to useless in HM, but they've got wards, enough energy to place a shelter here and there, they can prot and heal with Ether Renewal, and they have water magic. Air is also fun with all that blinding. For instance, I really liked to have a Sousuke with wards and shelter along for Foundry of Failed ****ups.

If the elementalists insist on limiting themselves to just one out of 5 of your attribute lines (plus attribute lines from the secondary), then they're the one to blame.|||Quote:








I agree that the "rawrrrr me deal xtreme dmg with mah flares!!!"-type elementalists are next to useless in HM, but they've got wards, enough energy to place a shelter here and there, they can prot and heal with Ether Renewal, and they have water magic. Air is also fun with all that blinding. For instance, I really liked to have a Sousuke with wards and shelter along for Foundry of Failed ****ups.

If the elementalists insist on limiting themselves to just one out of 5 of your attribute lines (plus attribute lines from the secondary), then they're the one to blame.




These are all support roles in what people traditionally consider to be a high damage class in PVE. The effect of higher armor has rendered ele damage in HM to be pretty low. I run SoS on my ele most of the time (though honestly, SoS is pretty overpowered for the effort/skill regardless of what class plays it) because I like to know I'm doing decent damage compared to my heroes.

I do bring an ele hero in my group but it's more for an easy party wide anti-knock down skill + attribute point room to support fallback/anthem of disruption + a hard rez.|||Maybe Anet could buff up the elementalist with some sort of bonus to energy storage IE: For every level of energy storage, your spells ignore 2% enemy armor (max 20% enemy armor, enemy armor can not be reduced below 60 in this way).|||Quote:








Maybe Anet could buff up the elementalist with some sort of bonus to energy storage IE: For every level of energy storage, your spells ignore 2% enemy armor (max 20% enemy armor, enemy armor can not be reduced below 60 in this way).




Maybe they shouldn't be boosted at all? These bosses are already perfectly capable of wiping the herocluster with a Liquid Flame or similar. Giving them additional armor penetration would turn these abominations into even worse.|||Quote:








Maybe they shouldn't be boosted at all? These bosses are already perfectly capable of wiping the herocluster with a Liquid Flame or similar. Giving them additional armor penetration would turn these abominations into even worse.




Oh yeah, I forgot buffs go both ways . Why not just reduce boss stats then? If not buffs then what is supposed to be done about the elementalists?|||I'm not so sure the new level 40s have extra armor. My para was autoattacking unbuffed (which physicals never are) for 20 on the level 40 warrior titans. That sounds pretty reasonable to me, especially considering my ele was hitting for 14(!) with her elite on non-WiK White Mantle in HM.

I'm not sure why you listed dervs rangers and paras the way you did since aside from condition-only or interrupt attack skills, every other attack skill has bonus damage. Dervs in particular have a lot of armor ignoring AoE, much more so than a warrior.