Original Post — Direct link

This has essentially bothered me since release, but now with the release of Elite Specs like the druid and the introduction of combat roles that aren't meant to damage the enemies a whole lot, it just really sucks when you are punished for playing that way by getting less loot and experience than everyone around you.

I especially noticed this when playing Druid in WvW and Dragon Stand, that while I was really helping people I was playing with and contributed a lot to making fights go by much quicker I still just didn't get the same as the people around me. And that's not saying I was playing a pure healing build (I actually wasn't using any healing gear), because my build was full support, offensive and defensive.

Offensive contributions include stacking Fury, some Might, Spotter (150% precision buff, always on your group, but can be on more players if you don't have one), Frost Spirit (7.5% damage buff, in large scale fights usually on 7-8 players), Glyph of Empowerment (10% damage buff on 5 players), Grace of the Land (15% damage buff that can be held up on a lot of players), when using all of those optimally it means that the best way for me to contribute offensively during burn phases of bosses or clutch situations with lots of enemy spawn is to heal as much as possible to increase the damage of players around me. This is of course also the playstyle that leads to me getting the least experience and loot possible, even though I was contributing offensively arguably more than most players engaged in the fight.

What I don't want is the introduction of some dumb trait like "Damage enemies around players you heal." The game needs to get away from considering only personally dealt damage as a factor for when it comes to tagging enemies so we don't need a bandaid but rather a systemic change. A system where we see more active participants in fights giving their all and be all rewarded the same for their contributions to a fight. A system that discourages selfish play (playing only to tag enemies) and encourages people to play in a way that their group has the best chances to win an encounter. In WvW Zerg fights you will see a lot of guardians camping stuff and doing not much more than auto attacking for this very reason, they care more about tagging as many enemies as possible than to do everything to ensure actually winning the fight.

There are of course multiple possible solutions to the problem, all having some of their own drawbacks. If you just let everyone in an area get the loot of all enemies there you encourage people to just afk in open world. What I think should happen is the introduction of a system where you get shared the tags of players that you give boons to or that you heal. I think it wouldn't only be an improvement in the viability for some playstyles, it would also lead to large open world groups of players ultimately being able to tackle even stronger challenges, because the players are playing less selfishly and more concerned with the people around them.

Tl;dr: There should be equal rewards for equal contributions.

External link →
over 8 years ago - /u/ArenaNetRyanD - Direct link

We agree that this is an issue and support players should get credit for their contribution.

We are discussing and experimenting with some ideas internally, but a global change like this will take a while to get the numbers, feel, and testing right. Be prepared for it “When It’s Ready!”