User:Reason.decrystallized/Why the New VoS is Bad

VoS = Crap

There seems to be a bit of a misperception that just because a skill is different than it was before and ANet called the change a buff, the new version must be good. This is, unfortunately, not the case.

The old VoS sucked. It sucked ass. Multiplying the weapon's auto-attack damage is far less useful than the armor-ignoring bonus damage from attack skills, to say nothing of the secondary effects of attack skills--interrupts, faster attack times, conditions, knockdowns, and various other beneficial effects. Additionally, because you had to spec heavily into earth prayers to get even a moderate effect, and since you had to keep scythe mastery high or else the damage that you were multiplying dropped, it gimped your attribute spread, making it more difficult to carry things like IAS.

The new VoS still has that last problem, but now you can use attack skills! Great, right? Wrong. Why? Because the extra damage is conditional on the target not having any conditions. What's the problem there, you ask? The problem is that you're not alone on a team, and that 99% of all teams carry conditions. Think about it: PvE teams have seven other guys. If just one of them carries conditions, your elite is useless. That means: no Jagged Horrors. No Death Nova. No Burning. No Plague Sending. No to melee's most effect tool, Deep Wound. None of that and so much more on any of your eight guys or your elite is useless. That's a fail.

In unorganized PvP, like RA and AB, you can't control your teammates. One guy brings conditions, and your elite is useless. That's a fail.

In organized PvP, who among you would give up Blind, Burning, Crippled, Poison spam from rangers, Tainted Flesh, or, most importantly of all Deep Wound, just so the melee does a tad more damage--damage that, because of lack of Crippled is harder to apply, because of lack of poison spread is less pressure, and because of lack of deep wound is easier to heal? That's a fail.

The only time VoS isn't an automatic fail is when: A) it's a solo-farming build that does not cause conditions; or B) it's in a pve (because a pvp team with no conditions is 0-0 anyway) team build with no conditions, and it would have to be a damn good team to make up for it.

In any other situation, your elite will be useless in 99.99% of all teams you wind up in, and that's an epic fail.