ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Miscellaneous/Critical hits

Nerfing overpowered scythe criticals
Scythes do 9-41 damage. But the low minimum doesn't matter due to critical hits(This is the reason why axes are better for damage than swords even though swords have a higher base average damage).

This change is specifically made for nerfing scythe criticals. Instead of a critical using the maximum damage only, I suggest changing criticals to use the average damage.

So a scythe's base critical damage would be 25 and an axe's base critical damage would be 17. This would be multiplied by 1.75(the previous multiplier was 1.4). This evens out critical hits in general.

I know I'm going to get a lot of flames for this, so flame away.

EDIT: This nerf should be accompanied by a buff to daggers' base damage and associated attack skills.

Basing Criticals on average damage instead of max
...will help even the playing field for weapons. Since critical hits are so common, few people take a sword (better average damage) over axes (better max damage) when it comes to dealing damage. Therefore, my suggestion would be te following:

Critical hit: your base damage * 1.4

instead of what it does now: max damage * 1.4

Basically, this would mean that when making a critical, the game would first determine a random number between max and minimum damage, and then multiply it by 1.4. You *could* still get a high critical with scythes and axes, but they wouldn't outclass the other weapons as much as they do now. It makes people choose between high critical and high average damage, instead of having both in 1 weapon and making the other weapons suck. The fact that physicals deal less damage...well, they deal enough free damage as it is, so they can take the hit. 145.94.74.23 08:10, 4 November 2008 (UTC)