A trinity system doesn’t make for much more exciting combat. It just creates a privileged minority out of tanks and healers. So now, instead of a dungeon group just falling apart because of rampant stupidity and failure, it can also fall apart because of primadonnas rage-quitting when you don’t bend to their will.
Yes, a balanced trinity system does all that crap you mentioned, which is why having friends and a good guild to play with made the experience much more enjoyable.
What you are wrong about is that having a balanced trinity does actually make combat more interesting, complex, strategic and rewarding. We can go on about this for hours, but it is pretty much a fact that cooperative play and meaningful encounters were much better in GW1 due to a balanced trinity than in GW2.
I still say Guild Wars 1 didn’t have a trinity. WoW has a trinity.
The reason Guild Wars 1 didn’t have a trinity is because there’s no aggro mechanic. There’s no taunt mechanic. Sure Guild Wars 1 players called certain people tanks, but tanks weren’t strictly necessary, at least in PVe.
I never used a tank in PVe. Not once. That means that in Guild Wars 1, the trinity didn’t exist. Not as it does in other games.
There is an aggro mechanic and, in effect, a passive taunt in GW2. I was watching a video of a very good dungeon group with 1 guardian, 3 berserker warriors, and a mesmer—the standard group. Through GW2’s aggro mechanic the guardian with his high toughness was boss bait and it was his job to run in, grab aggro, and position the mob for the warrior’s to destroy. There was no keybound taunt available, but the passive one worked just as well.
What you see in organized groups are combat roles forming, regardless of GW2’s lack of a formal trinity. I don’t argue in favor of the traditional trinity, but I do think the lack of meaningful roles in terms of how GW2 was conceived is a problem. Humans organize around roles whether it’s a scavenger hunt or brain surgery. Everyone just going for it doesn’t make for satisfying group activity. That’s why you see a lot of posts on the subject. What we have currently (formally) is not the way humans function best in groups. People are establishing roles, which is natural, but it really needs to be better supported by the game design. Again, I’m not arguing for the trinity, just for a more natural (human) and satisfying conception of combat.
And when we play with my guild, we have roles. The beauty of the trinity (and I’ll never use those words together again) is that it’s pug friendly. You don’t have to play with people to train. Everyone knows their role.
But in a game like Guild Wars 2, we still have roles, but we have to feel them out, by playing with the same people over and over and seeing what works and doesn’t. It’s not just a cut and paste card with an unchanging script I can read before I start. It’s far more emergent. It comes from playing and not researching. It happens gradually, naturally, until you’re a well-oiled machine (to use a cliche).
I don’t think the combat in this game is shallow, but I definitely think it’s hard on pugs to get the practice they need to work together as a team. And maybe that’s why I like this game so much.
You can get a lot better at group combat, but you need a group to do it. The same group helps a ton.