Overwhelming Degen

As it stands right now, having degen in excess of -10 does nothing at all, aside from making it harder to get back to positive regen. However, degen builds are not countered by regen- they're countered by super efficient heals like heal party.

So how about this- for every two points of degen beyond -10, healing efficiency is reduced by 10% on that character, and goes as far as the default cap. By reducing heal efficiency in this way, degen builds become more viable, without reducing the effectiveness of those efficiency heals (word of healing, etc) outside of this situation.

Not a bad idea but Degen is bad enough if you Migraine {E} and/or shutdown... Whoa, wait. I came up with a build idea.... >=D

Its so easy to stack on degen right now, even in random arenas you're looking at 12 degen usually on a focused target - poison, bleeding, some damn necro or mesmer hex. It would make pressure builds WAY overpowered since hex removal sucks and its so easy to cover hexes.

Hex degens are so much better because of the lack of easy skills that can get rid of hexes.

Condition degens are... alright.

I don't think degen was designed to deal spike damage anyway. Degen deal "pure" damage when unresisted which is great against heavy armor warriors and casters with enchantments/evades. Degen forces the monk to heal big and in the end, I think they'll run out of energy. Heal Party costs 15E.

Thing is, this is barely going to be noticed outside of dedicated degen builds. Ok, so it's common to be at -12 from a few conditions and a hex on top in RA- well, even so, that's only going to take that 80 pt Orison down to 72. As long as you don't stay at overwhelming degen levels, it's nothing in the long run.

However, a degen team wins by disrupting and overwhelming the energy-to-healing machine of their enemy, forcing them into triage. As I've already said, certain hyper-efficient heals make this almost impossible, unless those skills are specifically countered. Changing this mechanic would offer a non-specific counter, a gentle nudge that lets these starpower skills keep all their strengths, while letting degen play too.

QFT
which is one of the reasons why hex removal is considerably less than that of condition removal (yes, I inculde the Factions skills in that assessment). Pressure builds, as they stand, are already capable of doing serious damage to a group with little chance to block them. Not the spike of other groups, but thats because they aren't built for spike. They wear down groups slowly, steadily. Consistently. fighting degen with regen often results in your heal target still having -10 degen.

Does the OP realise he just asked Anet to buff some of the most powerful builds in the game, increasing the damage they can consolidate while they knock out healers with interupts and Edenial?

/no way Jose

Errr, no didn't realize that. I've been away from the game for a bit, haven't been watching observer- I thought degen builds were the underused, underappreciated dark horse of Guild Wars.

/unsigned =/

Have to disagree with the OP. The degen cap at -10 should not reduce the effects of healing. The system now as it balances the effects of regen/degen works fine.

/not signed